Just a bit of news for presenters if you have missed it. A few news items Association of Performing Arts Presenters has been involved in.

The first is the testimony that Yo-Yo Ma and APAP President Sandra Gibson have given to the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee about the deleterious effect visa restrictions have had on the efforts of U.S. presenters to bring international performers to the country.

The APAP site has copies of both speakers’ testimony as well as a Powerpoint presentation Gibson made and 14 pages of media coverage of their testimony.

There is some good news/bad news about visa processing on the APAP site as well. The good news is that as of April 1 all O and P visas for performers will be processed at the Vermont Citizenship and Immigration office. This is good news because Vermont has the reputation of being the quickest processing office–or did before all the applications got dumped on them.

It is important that you send your applications directly there because sending them to any of the other three offices means they will have to be forwarded on to Vermont which will only delay your processing. The Vermont station address is on the APAP site.

The bad news is that Vermont has been instructed to send part of their load to the California office which has the reputation of being the slowest office. Because you must send your application to Vermont, if you live in Los Angeles, there is a good chance your paperwork will be coming back for a visit quite soon.

It only add insult to injury if you lived in L.A. and mailed it to the California office only to have them mail it to Vermont who then turn around and send it back to California for processing.

The entire visa situation is a real big deal for APAP. (And for full disclosure, I had to cancel a show myself because of visa complications. So I am making a big deal about it, too.) They are actively soliciting feedback about any problems people have with visa processing asking people to email Jim Doumas, Government Affairs Director at jdoumas@artspresenters.org

As a counterpoint to my entry yesterday, I offer this article from the Gotham Gazette.It was suggested to the editor Artsjournal.com by a reader. While the article is about being an artist in NYC, it obviously has lessons for any place in the country.

What really caught my eye was #7

7. Be Perfect
A composer who teaches on the faculty of the Juilliard School observed in a television documentary marking its centennial celebration that an average graduate of law school or medical school can still have a decent career. But it is not possible, he said, for a successful artist to be only average.

Here I am saying you shouldn’t be afraid to be flawed and I come across this article which I have to agree with that says only the perfect and sublime can ever expect to make enough to eat.

Going back to the Power of Flaws entry I cited yesterday, I wonder if it is the fault of the people who promote visual and performing arts (movies included). As Andrew Taylor says-

…read through most arts marketing materials or grant applications and what will you find? Perfection, triumph, success, and positive spin. Their performances are always exceptional. Their audiences are always ecstatic. Their reviews are always resounding (or mysteriously missing from the packet). Their communities are always connected and enthralled. In short, they are superhuman, disconnected, and insincere.

Is it any wonder then that people expect perfection from artists?

It is a viscious circle. You have to say you are wonderful because people expect you to be wonderful because you have been telling them how uniquely wonderful everything you do is.

The last two days I have been reading some of the most inspiring works of genius I have ever seen outside of my own website. You should really take a look.

Monday I read this and was astounded.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, today brought even more delight.

I hear the writer is single. With a mind like that, I can’t imagine how that could be.

Regular readers of this blog will understand what I mean immediately.

I apologize to everyone else.

Edit: Drew McManus points out this comment on MyAuditions.com. Apparently, as good as I am, he is brilliant. Damn Him!