New Orleans is so overly dependent on tourism, and so eager to whore itself out to the highest bidder that our Mayor held a news conference to brag about luring-get ready-Wrestlemania to our fair city in 2014. That’s right, the WWE is getting the keys to the city. Now that Carnival parade season is over, it’s time for the tourism freak parade to resume,alas.
My friend Jeffrey summed up my disgust with this state of affairs quite nicely at his blog, Library Chronicles, so here’s some quotemania in response to wrestlemania:
This morning Mayor Landrieuhosted a press conference
celebrating the coming of Wrestlemania 30 to New Orleans in 2014. This
event is owned and presented by Vince and Linda McMahon. Linda is a
recently failed ultra-conservative Senate candidate from Connecticut who
opposes raising the minimum wage andeven suggested we consider lowering it.
Someone should ask Mayor Landrieu if it’s in our best interest as a
city to expend our time, money, and energy hosting these kinds of
people. No one will ask that, though.
Actually, you just did, Jeffrey. Not that he’d answer, he’s too busy pretending that we benefit from bringing a series of freak shows to town. I, for one, prefer our home grown freak shows to imported ones such as Wrestlefuckingmania.That’s something to brag about? Really?
I’ll give Todd Rundgren the last word since the Mayor’s bringing another Freak Parade to town:
Consider yourself lucky. A lot of small towns desperate to survive tend to jump at the latest fad of what will bring in money to the town (think of The Music Man and I note that it was based in Iowa which is the state I’m about to use as a for-instance).
A nearby small town (claim to fame is that it is the hometown of Tom Arnold) actually went through with building a convention center with the cry that it would bring all sorts of cultural tourist events to town. This would serve as an anchor for extensive development of the riverfront with high class art galleries, etc.
So far, convention center has been through multiple management companies and still not solvent. Events brought into town are wrestling and other events of similar cultural appeal (Well it is culture. Just culture of a specific demographic.) Convention center stays isolated – I’d be afraid to be there in the dark due to the lack of anything nearby.
Oh, in an act that seems so approriate to the cultural activity – when they got wrestling to come to town, someone stole the belt. (that is they had the champion belt on display and it disappeared. Literally stolen. )
Whoring is so sad. The sadness is sometimes revealed by the quality of the clientele.