The Clash Blog
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Lisa's Blog
Unions to Talk Outside ‘Quiet Rooms’
c Lisa A. Miles 1/26/12
”This is only halftime,” said Jeff Harris, spokesman for the Indiana State AFL-CIO, days before last Wednesday night’s working-class bashing– the passage of legislation barring unions from requiring nonunion members to pay fees for workplace bargaining in the state.
He was actually referring to the fact that America’s unions will not take this lying down, but he may as well have been referring to the upcoming Super Bowl’s festivities, which are set up and run by the back-breaking, round-the-clock labor of professional stagehands, electricians, painters and carpenters. Not to mention hotel workers, costumers and designers, other building trades workers, and certainly the mass delivery of goods by Teamsters.
The first group of four mentioned have no-strike clauses in their contracts; the others, not. But contracts will not hush the fury of the skilled working class in this country. Not now. No more….
Pittsburgh Magazine Review of “Nalada”
See the latest review below….
Note Jan says “don’t discount all that safety-pin nonsense, though!”
Upcoming Gig: Thursday, April 5th @ Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH– Speaking in English Dept., afternoon and evening performance with selections from “Nalada” and more. Details to come….
Talking Outside ‘Quiet Rooms’
Stagehands & Skilled Working Class To Talk Outside ‘Quiet Rooms’
c Lisa A. Miles 1/21/12
Toward 2011’s end, the article entitled “Stagehands Circumvented for First Night” was published, including on Occupy With Art nationally . It was picked up locally in shortened form by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and linked to online by the Pgh City Paper. Raising public awareness of the plight of these stagehands, who are part of our city’s working class, is critical.
What IATSE Local 3 members decided to do, on Dec. 31, was hand out informational pamphlets early in the day downtown, so as not to appear to be ruining the family festivities of First Night. But they had every right to appear in the evening, had they chosen, to bring their cause to the forefront– something the Pgh. Cultural Trust, the City and others, apparently, think they shouldn’t be doing.
Pittsburgh Stagehands Circumvented for “First Night”
Lisa A. Miles c2011 SEE POSTSCRIPT AT BOTTOM!
Pittsburgh Stagehands don’t work Pittsburgh’s First Night. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust hires other workers to man the stages.
You’d think a city with vibrant cultural district would have plenty of work for arts professionals. So much entertainment– little use of Stagehands.
The story gets stranger.
The Trust has employees who do that very work. On payroll. Pittsburgh’s Stagehands– IATSE Local 3 members (International Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employees). They build scenery for A Christmas Carol and make sure U2 sounds cool in a football stadium, with everyone safe under state-of-the-art equipment perched precipitously above. They run sound and lights for the Symphony and seamlessly work together to unload semis with half-ton show equipment in dark of night. You can’t get any more talent and working class, both, than a seasoned stagehand.
J. Kevin McMahon, President of the Trust, said of the stagehands, “Obviously, we respect them. They’re skilled members of the Trust family.” (Post-Gazette, 12-17-11) But they’re circumvented for other labor.
They are under-employed, and should be working First Night, Three RIvers Arts Festival (also Trust-managed), the Regatta, Dollar Bank Jamboree…. All public tax-dollar funded.
Creative Folly
Creative Folly: The Illusory Support of Artists by American Arts Organizations & Funders
Lisa A. Miles c 2011~~
A decade ago, I published a book about a woman artist and her work, and the role of that work in both larger American society and the art world. Another one formally begins here, to expose the lunacy that underlies American arts organizations and funders’ support for the individual artist, and to propose alternatives far more sane, just, creative and in fact do-able.
All the latest reviews…
…including from New Classics UK and Mark Estren of Washington Post, INFODAD can be found on my Original Music Page.
Airplay on WOMR, Cape Cod & WRIU, Rhode Island
Continued airplay for “Nalada”….
itunes customer review of NALADA
Amazing! –Michael Kastelic, lead singer of “The Cynics,” internationally-acclaimed garage-punk from Pgh PA
5 stars–Like traveling through an Aural Movie! I’m getting visions and stories through the sounds!!
“Creative Folly”–latest on my Writing (words)
O.K. I’m committed– title for the book-length work I have been incubating for some time (ever since “Fantastic Struggle,” really) ~~ Creative Folly: The Illusory Support of Artists by American Arts Organizations & Funders c 2011~~