it is amazing how so much tech gets unremittingly worse year on year at whatever you once used it for and less pleasant to use and more bound up with creepy politics as well as personal and environmental harms and yet also still less productive of actual goods and these are somehow great visionaries

Wow. Ok, I was thinking along these lines but really had no idea. Thanks.

"but we'll probably just give it to so and so again cuz brand recognition is something artists need to understand"

It hasn't helped that the council has a very strict agenda that doesn't benefit a huge amount of artists. Plus the grants may seem larger now but they are given out to less people. I could go on. None of it transparent. So, yes austerity, also really badly run.

True!! Also, the newly formed Canada Council for the Arts gave out money to anyone - you just had to show need. The idea was not to promote the arts per say but to create a strong infrastructure for the arts. Those days, distinctly over.

I know. Even in the little leagues the moms are laughingly referred to as WAGS. They all think it's a hoot. I don't get it either.

I don't think you are supposed to call "wives and girlfriends" to their face LOL

I was just there in Madrid, that city is THRIVING!!!! And thought I was told October is not touristy, it was crowded with them. Enjoyed every minute.