They are both known for their vibrant personalities and strong presence in the community, but what do a local rock star and a city mayor have in common? Well, for one thing, they are both dynamic, passionate people who are fiercely in love with Portland; for another, they are both working hard to repair the damaged arts education programs in our schools and to make the city an energetic place for artists (and art lovers) to not only grow, but thrive.
HM: So Sam, you had a chance to see
Storm’s show. What did you think?
SA: I thought it was fantastic. I thought it was a roller coaster ride…equal parts raw vulnerability combined with huge talent, incredibly compelling entertainment.
SL: (blushing) Thank you.
SA: It’s gutsy, you know. As someone else in the public eye, [I know] it’s gutsy to get up there and say a) “Look at me,” and b) “Look at my nasty, dark, difficult days.” For you to be so up front about it, but to do it in a way that is so genuine, while never asking for redemption nor trying to glamorize it. You were really good about talking about it and sharing what you learned from it in the least preachy way I’ve seen in my life. Whatever the opposite of preachy is, that’s what Storm did.
HM: Do you think it’s important for her to build a show like that here in Portland? How does it play into the fabric of the arts community?
SA: Well, I think that it’s important in terms of inspiring other artists to do authentic work that stretches the bounds of what is commercial. If you bring a Broadway show to Portland, on the road you are going to sell out. If you create a show here and you do it on your own terms; that’s harder. It’s hard anywhere, but I think it is harder here. To do it with the production values available and to exceed what people will see anywhere else in the United States is hard. You know, Storm doesn’t like to talk about it, but Storm works her ass off to make a living at it, in a city where it’s difficult for an artist to make a full time wage.
HM: That’s a good point. Storm, why do you choose to make your life and your living here?
SL: Because I used to live in San Francisco when I started my music career and I toured the country many times, and every time I came to Portland, I felt like I could breathe a little better. Something about it just called to me. I loved it. I loved the people I would encounter here. And unlike California, which is known for its famous artists and its glamor and glitz…and San Francisco is a physically stunning city, but it wasn’t very supportive of its artists. And that’s kind of where I started to get involved with politics because [Willie] Brown was mayor and Gavin Newsom was councilman when the building commissioners changed the zoning–¬unbeknownst to the voters¬¬–in this corridor on South of Market which housed a lot of rock clubs…changed it from light industrial to mixed use. So all of a sudden there are these million dollar lofts springing up on top of nightclubs and they are calling the police every time I would play or whenever any band would turn up the volume past a certain decibel. So, the clubs were getting closed down, even though they had been there and established forever. So, I went to city hall with Gavin Newsom and a bunch of other artists, bartenders and bar backs and said, “What are you doing? You are destroying what makes San Francisco kind of cool.” But they were making so much money on real estate–this was during the dot com boom–that they wouldn’t even listen to us. Joe Donahue screamed in my face that what I was doing was not work. He said, “That’s not work that you do. You’re just partying.” And I said, “Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to be a musician and to try and make a living at it?” He said, “You’re trying to take food out of my kids’ mouths!” And I said, “I have no idea what you are talking about, but you look like you are doing okay. I had to walk here.”
So San Francisco kind of turned its back on its artists. I don’t know if it’s any different now because I have been living in Portland for seven years. But one thing that struck me about Portland was First Thursdays. A huge, city-wide celebration of its creative population just staggered me. I couldn’t believe it. I said, “This must be some kind of ‘Art Day’” Oh, no they do that every month. Every month?!?
When I started playing here, people from other bands would come and they would tell me they thought I was great, and I was like, “Are you kidding?” It was such a competitive scene in San Francisco. Here it just seemed like DJs, rappers, cover bands, fire eaters, strippers, we all support eachother’s business and get inspired by eachother’s business. I mean, there is healthy competition here, but there is room for everybody and Portland understands as an entity what makes it so wonderful to live here: Its natural beauty, its emphasis on small business, independent thinking and creative culture. I can’t imagine living anywhere else in the United States. I have been all over this country and most of the parts of the world and, seriously, I have never felt more at home anywhere. I’m a big, bad freak-a-zoid and I belong here.
SA: Amen.
HM: It seems like we seem to get it within the community as far as the theatre people tend to understand that “theatre begets theatre.” I assume it is the same in the music industry and in visual arts. We understand that art begets art, but do you feel the general citizenry sees and understands what’s going on?
SA: Well, over the last three years, we’ve done a lot of public opinion research about these issues. What the research shows is that folks in the Portland region prioritize arts and culture as a key attribute to the reasons that they live here. But they are really unaware of how it works financially. You know, they go to events, the ticket sales are great, so things seem good, despite the fact that ticket sales are but a small percentage for any arts and culture organization here in Portland as far as their financial sustainability. So, they embrace it and they especially value arts education which we have cut the heart out of–
SL: It’s awful.
SA: It is. And we have been working on the creative capacity for art, which we will roll out this week. We’ll have a town hall meeting here on Monday [April 13]. So, we have done our homework to figure out how we can manifest that big, overwhelming support for arts and culture into more public funding for arts and culture. We have per capita–we fund about half as much as Seattle? In Seattle it’s about $7.52 per person that they contribute to the arts every year and here it is $2.47 and if you go back and forth between the venues that are based out of Seattle and based out of Portland, you know, we rock! We’re just not providing enough funding to sustain it.
HM: So, Storm, how could it be different for you as an artist trying to create new work? What would you need? Financial support? More programs?
SL: For me, I am in a very fortunate position because I have established myself fairly well. So, for a show like this [Crazy Enough], the amount of money it takes to put a show on is a large percentage of what anyone is going to end up making. However, I live very simply. I am not rich at all. I do all right. I live well. I sell records. I do shows and I can make enough money to survive. So, it’s not so much for me, but I think it’s really important for music education, definitely. I don’t think I could name the statistics…of what a difference it makes in kids’ lives in terms of learning and emphasizing their creative selves instead of just being a freaking number.
SA: And if I could interject, empirical analysis shows that for elementary students, when as part of the curriculum they have culture, music, visual arts, performing arts, they do better in all other subjects as well. It is one of the best ways…I mean, it gets the creative, critical thinking parts of them–
SL: Both sides of the brain start juicing up…in their sweet, young, curly, delicious brains. [laughs] So, I think for arts education, it’s dire, because our schools have suffered so, so much over the last few years. And I think it’s important for developing venues and other artists who have a lot to say but can’t make ends meet. But I think it is also important to educate people who are not artists, those who appreciate and patronage the arts. It’s good to educate them. You know people might come to see the show and think, “Oh she’s a rock star. She must have tons of money and live in a mansion with lines of cocaine on the table.” I think it would be interesting to have people understand what it takes financially to put on a show that costs 20 bucks to get into. It’s a lot of work on behalf of a lot of people and those people need to get paid.
HM: Do you think the city understands the costs?
SL: No, I don’t think so. I’m not saying that it’s ignorance or that people don’t care. People may not be interested, but they may be interested to know that it isn’t just a situation where these creative show up and then people pay money to see them. There is a whole network and community of people behind the scenes. There are jobs–tons and tons of jobs–that we are losing because of the current financial situation. All these jobs that it takes to put on these shows that give the city so much juice. Those people, the techs, the electricians, the light people, the sound people, ticket sales…the box office people are the liaison between the theatre and the community. Those are very valuable jobs that we are losing and that’s all arts funding as well.
SA: And in this day and age, a city has to be highly innovative to compete and grow and its people have to be the most innovative to succeed in this new global reality. You know, Portland, we don’t want to be the biggest; we just want to be the best. Portland cannot be an innovative city if it does not have a robust creative capacity. We can’t have a robust creative capacity if the public funding for the arts is a third of what it is in Seattle. We will decline. It’s as simple as that.
HM: Do you think that Portland has a distinctive flavor when it comes to the arts scene here?
SL: I kind of do. I think we’re more DIY than anywhere that I have ever been. We’re scrappier. We are more resourceful. We’re scrappier, more resourceful, more innovative and there’s just more of it. There are more creative people here…in the food industry, in the writing community, in the print industry, in painting and dance and theatre and music. All walks of life here seem to be touched by a creative hand. And, God, it’s awesome!
HM: Well, we’ve been getting a lot of attention in the national media, the New York Times, etc. They seem to love us–
SL: Yeah, but they called us sad, didn’t they? Didn’t they say were the saddest little city? And recently said that we were evocative of what was wrong with the economy, and yet our median house prices compared to New York’s have stayed fairly regular and New York’s have gone [blows raspberry]. You know, we’re just as touched by the economic crisis as anyone else.
HM: Is there some merit to drawing attention to the kind of art we have here as far as getting national attention? Is there hope in that?
SA: I agree, well my view of the arts community here in Portland is similar to Storm’s in that Portland seems to be a place where it’s not only do-it-yourself, it’s also “be yourself.” We’re not a movement of any particular theme, but we are an open artistic community in terms of bringing your own ideas. There’s a pretty open field in which to make a go of it. From a marketing point of view, in terms of the output, that’s kind of hard, other than the fact that Portland is a place where you can get interesting, fresh take on things from a creative perspective. Another thing that I would add as far as what we need to do with our public funding is because we are a relatively small city in a relatively small region, for our artists to succeed, we need to promote them worldwide. There are cities in the world, like Melbourne, that do a really good job, not only with their visual artists, but with their performing artists as well. Their arts and culture community is a traded sector, meaning that they know that they are a relatively small community as well, so they make sure that their artists have the opportunity to go to some kind of performance gathering, they make sure that they are there to help the performers get out there–
SL: That’s why Sam’s going to drive me to New York.
SA: Got the car gassed up right now.
SL: I’ve got snacks!
SA: Ooh, Cheetos!
HM: Is that something we see a lot, where artists will build something here, create something and have a tremendous amount of success in this community and then feel the need to move on?
SA: I’ll let her answer that from the artistic point of view, but in my opinion, I want to help them export that and keep them here, keep them based here. But just like we underwrite the cost and provide subsidies to a lot of other economic endeavors within this city and state, we need to do the same thing for artists. Because if Storm takes her show on the road, she is still based here. Eventually, the money flows back here. Hopefully, she will get a chance to take her show on the road and it will promote Portland as well. People will think, “Wow! This really cool show was conceived of in Portland.”
SL: And that’s the hope. You know, when I went to L.A. to do the TV show [Rockstar: Supernova], I was living there for about a year and I had an apartment there, but I never had any intentions to relocate. You know, I am a touring musician. I have been touring for almost 20 years and travel is part of your economic reality, but I don’t have any plans to relocate permanently. I would take this show to New York or to Chicago, because you go where the money is, but then you always come home. You always come home. That’s why I live here. I can travel, but there’s no place like home.
HM: Well, Sam, what can we as a community be doing to help people like Storm continue to grow artistically?
SA: It isn’t all about money, but it’s a lot about money. Folks like to get together in the creative community and say, “Oh, if we only had more affordable performance space and if we only had more affordable places to live where we could practice our craft…if I only had health insurance–
SL: Oh, yeah, that’s a big one!
SA: These are all good, basic things and they all lead back to money. So, it isn’t all about money, but it’s my job as a lover of the arts and as mayor of this city who thinks that we need to be a very innovative place to succeed. It’s a very good investment. [If we have] more public investment in culture, we will get dividends back from it that far exceed whatever increased investments we make. It will come back to us in terms of creating a better place to live, in terms of being a smarter, more innovative community. It will come back to us in terms of more prosperity.
HM: What can the typical “starving artist” do to contribute to that?
SA: Well, asking a starving artist to contribute money is tough, but asking them to contribute their time…there is no excuse. Everyone can carve out one day a year, two days a year, maybe four hours twice a year to do the kind of advocacy that is necessary.
The Arts Can is an advocacy network that we have started. It’s initial focus was to make sure that the city council does not cut back on the funding that we have been able to achieve over the last few years. It holds the line, no cuts. It’s not a lot of money and any cuts would be devastating. So that network is getting involved for the first time ever–and Storm was there and Jennifer Yocum, our Director of Arts and Culture for the city of Portland–and we are working together to organize the community. Part of the responsibility locally, part of the reason that funding for the arts is so anemic is that the arts and culture community has been really poorly organized and has not delivered the kind of advocacy that other causes in the community have. We can’t afford that kind of advocacy. Over the next few years, we are going to be going to the ballot to get funding for the arts and we are going to try to break the top ten per capita. Not for the privilege to pound our chests and say, “this is good” but because that’s what we need to be a successful city.
SL: Are we allowed to talk about the tax thing?
SA: …Yeah, you can talk about that. Oh, this is bullshit. The thing she’s about to talk about...the problem is bullshit.
SL: Well, I am very fortunate because I make a decent living doing what I love to do here in Portland. So, I have no problem volunteering my time as a singer, as an entity, as a celebrity, as a host, or whatever. I did the math and I probably donated about 100 hours last year and raised $80,000 for a bunch of different charities. I probably grossed about $17,000 for myself. Now, my taxes are going to be fine, but I cannot write off my volunteerism as an artist. You know, I tried to write off my breast implants, but that didn’t go so well either.
SA: You mean they’re not real?
SL: They are now!
SA: Now I’m blushing.
SL: No, but I think volunteering, advocacy and artists feeling like their time is worth something other than what they get for a painting or what they get for singing a song, I think it would improve the city’s creative self-esteem, because coming up as an artist, I felt that in America, unless you were a rock star or super famous, you were kind of a bum. “Oh, you’re a singer? Great, but what’s your job? What do you do, really?” It’s like saying that art isn’t important. So, I think that if there were some kind of tax incentive, you could write off your time, call it eight dollars an hour even, just the minimum, you know, minimum wage. There would be a larger number of people advocating themselves as artists and having a little more pride in being a creative person as a career, as a valuable member of this community.
SA: So, it’s like, Exxon gets to write off a donation to the Guggenheim on their taxes, but Storm Large–I was at an event where she donated a painting for a worthy cause–
SL: The Children’s Cancer Network.
SA: So she donates this painting to a nonprofit organization trying to fight cancer in children and she can’t write that off. Why would a big oil company get to write that off when Storm Large can’t? We are advocating on a federal level for a change in the tax code to allow artists to write off the donations they make.
SL: That painting took three or four days, and it’s awesome!
SA: It is awesome.
SL: Are you going to buy it.
SA: Um, yes. It it’s the right price. It’s a live auction and I usually get priced out of after the third bid.
SL: Because he’s cheap!
SA: No, no, it’s because Storm Large is expensive!
HM: Do you think Portland is in a place to be a leader nationally when it comes to advocating for the arts?
SA: Yes. That’s the venue, the platform, the pulpit that I had with the U.S. conference of mayors within the national league of cities where we have already begun to promote these issues on the federal level, I got on the agenda that we needed to change the federal tax code and that is a relatively simple and inexpensive thing that the federal government can do to help artists.
SL: And it would result in increased revenue for the city. If people had better incentive, you know, if they are saving more, they will spend more. It builds revenue.
HM: Do you both see Portland as becoming a destination spot for the arts?
SL: It already is. Well, it already is for creative people and if we can back that up with the financial realities that we are talking about it’s just going to kick some ass.
Back in 1994, while working on a show at Albany Civic Theatre, I met a couple of part-time pirates who would frequently slip into a swaggering piratey vernacular (basically saying “Arrr” a lot and calling each other “bilge rats.”) Years later, while flipping through Maxim magazine, whom should I see but those two scallywags staring back at me. Turns out, they’re still talking like pirates; only now, they have everyone else doing it too. 
Posts
