If my title is not cynical, what can I possibly mean when funds are being cut to non-profits, when people look twice at the cost of theater tickets and stay home to watch broadcast television, when even masterpieces fail to bring in money for Christies? All luxury or nonessential purchases like books and art will be scaled back. Strapped corporations and executives are dumping their vanity collections onto the prestige auction houses who are seeing prices and attendance fall precipitously. Many small art-related businesses will fail, including bookstores, small theater companies, galleries, even museums. Surely this is a time for a great wailing to arise in the land of the creatives, who have already pinned their last hopes on a new W.P.A program that will surely be announced soon.

So why in Picasso’s name would this be a good time to be an artist or writer? Letâ??s start with Bush or should I say Bush-hating. Artists and writers have been a disproportionate amount of effort â??fighting the man.â? The stance, however justified, made it easy to structure plots and feel good about poorly realized efforts because the artist was focused on the urgent need to topple the evil regime. How much subtlety was required?

With a new dynamic Democratic administration firmly gripping power in Washington, there is no longer a need to waste any more effort haranguing the public about the war in Iraq, and his other unpopular positions. Soon â??hisâ? mistakes will be â??ourâ? mistakes as Democrats innovate and/or borrow from the previous administration and we will only have our own to blame. Only the farthest left of us (like the ones already unhappy with Obamaâ??s practicality) will continue to use artistic outrage as their main source for inspiration.

 I am hoping the whole concept of â??artist as politicianâ? phase will come to an end. Sure, we can still support our causes of global warming, corporatism, land mines, and nuclear disarmament if we like, but adults in Washington will be doing their best to represent the constituencies that have promoted these causes. We no longer will have to shout at them, though there is no guarantee that we will like their solutions or pace. Nevertheless, artists will find the protest stance somewhat emptier, somewhat less compelling and, hopefully will be moving on to new, less knee-jerk, less repetitive, less strident content.

Back to the issue of business failures in the art community. Itâ??s not that I think the art world is too fat and will benefit from a crash diet, but itâ??s worth thinking about who the market for art has been and who it might become. Art has been, in a sense, also feeding at the trough of the high finance world. How many people can afford a painting over say $10,000 (and Iâ??m stretching here). Clearly the middle class doesnâ??t buy much original art. Why not? Because the content (often incomprehensible but supported by museums and academics) is largely non-compelling to average people.

In the literary world, where the readership is shrinking, agents and publishers are running scared. They want another J. K. Rowling phenomenon but arenâ??t sure where and how to find it. Meanwhile a tsunami of self publishers and bloggers are going around the publishing world for their reading. Both the sellers and makers of art need to accept this challenge. If they have something to say, how should they say it and where? New forms, hybrids and experiments are springing up and the world of criticism (e.g. The New York Times Book Review) are holding up their noses in hopes that the riff-raff will all go away soon and everyone will return to network television, Broadway shows and industry-picked â??geniusesâ? in the print world. Thatâ??s not going to happen. People are entertaining themselves in new ways, from YouTube, to bloggers, to game designers, to â??low-browâ? art that embraces illustrators, graffiti artists and tattooists as â??realâ? artists. Some see this as a devastating collapse of â??highâ? culture, I see it as evidence that in many ways the arts have not been doing their job.

 Music might be an exception as well as an example. While mainstream media continues to site declining CD sales something weâ??re supposed to fret about, an explosion of interest in music is happening all over the world. The internet is allowing us to create our own custom radio stations (e.g. Pandora), iTunes is making it easier to buy exactly what we want, and portable music devices have freed us from Big Radio and Big Music companies. This is partly because, unlike say painting or the literary novel (the bad ones not the good ones), the general public has never given up its love of music and never will. So music will lead the way. Will there be fewer superstar groups but more people creating the music they love? I hope so. Will it be difficult to find the new geniuses if they are not picked out of the crowd and promoted by Big Music? Maybe, maybe not. Most likely the internet will evolve forms of self criticism which will allow more diverse music to survive as the cost of getting that music to the public continues to decline. Overall will less money go to music because people are used to getting it free? Maybe. Inevitably good stuff costs money, think organic produce. People pay more everyday for both the label and the confidence in its quality and taste, even if they canâ??t prove it or taste it.

People will pay to be entertained. Collecting original art on a small scale could conceivably be something people do again once their more confident of their taste. How many people worry about their taste in music needing outside experts to tell them whether or not itâ??s good? I know what I like is the rule. In fact, for millions, if its popular itâ??s already time to dig deeper and find the creatives (the new new) that have already been there and done that and are now doing something altogether new.

 So we might be on the edge of a burst in creativity. Iâ??ll make my final point be referencing an economically difficult but extremely creative period another country experienced: The Weimar Republic. This from Wikipedia:

â??The 1920s saw a massive cultural revival in Germany. It was, arguably, the most innovative period of cultural change in Germany. Innovative street theatre brought plays to the public, the cabaret scene became very popular. Women were americanised, wearing makeup, short hair, smoking and breaking out of tradition. Music was created with a practical purpose, such as Schoenberg’s ‘atonality’ and there was a new type of architecture taught at ‘Bauhaus’ schools. Art reflected the new ideas of the time with artists such as Grosz being fined for defaming the military and for blasphemy.â?

Thereâ??s plenty of opportunity out there, folks, stop whining and get busy!

Young people today have so many ways to spend their free time, it can be overwhelming. When I was a teenager I devoted most of my time with my friends, and I was always making time to watch music videos. In fact, a lot of my time spent with friends was dedicated to MTV. When we weren’t viewing the station we were talking about what we saw or what we would like to watch next. Looking back now I can not believe I lost so much time, but I remember it made me happy so I guess there is something to be said for that. In any case, at that time in my life I could not envisage not watching MTV all the time, and now I could not tell you where it is on my cable lineup.

My friends and I could watch music videos so often that we could tell you every little thing that happened in the video. This was the time of the eighties hair groups, and there was always one guy in each band that we were so much in love with, though it was rarely the same guy for each of us. We would watch music videos far into the night, and would eagerly wait for a new release. Thinking back, I recognize there are worse things I could have done with my time.

Although I do not watch music videos on MTV any more, my husband turns on some videos once in a while. We might view some new materiel, and we could also watch music videos from good old time. It’s almost embarrassing to watch them today, as it reminds me of how crazy I was about it. I look at the guys that I found so adorable back then, and I do not understand what I saw in them. I don’t watch music videos any more, but if they are on and something good comes on I don’t mind going down memory lane.

For the teenagers of today, there are a lot of methods to watch music videos. MTV is still there, although I believe it is a joke any more. It’s become almost a parody of itself. If you are sick of the MTV programming like I am, you may find a different fine place to watch music videos. Many singers now put their videos up online so that you can watch them there. They do it for promotional reasons, much like the reasons they are played on TV music stations. So it seems there is a time for everything in life. Enjoy the present.

Most people at some point in their lives encounter a great entertainer, unless of course they live under a rock. And, most of those people if they’re lucky enough get to see more than one. Most everyone instinctively knows a great entertainer when they see one however, do they really know what goes into making one?

Based on my experience it’s not an accident that some entertainers stand out from the crowd. It’s based on a carefully laid out plan that includes; stage presence, humility, confidence, mental preparation, natural talent, experience and one secret ingredient.

Did you know that the number one fear in North America is public speaking? The only way to alleviate that fear is with practice. Public speaking or any type of performance in front of an audience takes practice. It’s not just about what to say or do, it’s about how to say or do it. Most great entertainers know that it’s far less important what you say or do, it’s how you say or do it.

So, how do you learn how to give a great performance? Well, the first thing you need is the right information. It always amazes me how few people know how to interact with an audience. It’s not just about being confident it’s about where to stand, how to stand, when to speak, how to speak, body language, how to move and how to address the audience. This type of information starts with a template. There actually is a template for giving any type of presentation. Most great entertainers know this. They do not wing it.

For example, there is a template just for the introduction which includes things like; how to take the stage, what to say first, asking enrolling questions, earning the right and strategically letting the audience what the presentation is all about and what’s in store for me. While this may seem like a simple thing, it’s not. An entertainer needs to know exactly how to perform each one of these steps. It’s not enough just to know the steps, you need to know how to deliver them.

Then, once you have the template down the hardest part comes next; how to put your personality into the template. This is the part that takes the most practice. I remember when I first put the template into practice it was nothing short of a disaster. Why? Because, I tried to be someone that I’m not. An audience can see right through that. I needed to find myself within the template and learn how to be me while still covering all of the things I need to do to connect with the audience.

Ok, so let’s say you’ve mastered the template and can deliver it in your own style and personality. What else do you need to know? Just this; the audience is the star! That’s the secret ingredient. Without it, you can never hope to be a great entertainer. And, that’s the biggest mistake that most upcoming performers do not understand. It’s all about the audience. In fact, the more you make it about the audience the more success as a great entertainer you’ll have.

The last thing an audience wants to see is some ego maniac artist take the stage and make it all about them. For example; if the artists performs what they want and say what they want with little regard for what the audience wants. That’s so wrong on so many levels. How to do you make it about the audience? Use the template. The template teaches you how to interact with them instead of performing down to them. If the audience sees you at their level the more success you’ll have.

A combination of the perfect performance template, experience and making the audience the star will propel any career beyond normal expectation. Just remember to get the right information from the right people. How? Go to someone who’s already doing it and ask them. It’s as simple as that.