Sorta unjust, don'tcha think?
Howdy!
On first blush this bit about Wilfrid Laurier University purchasing Maureen Forrester's collection of music, is touching and sad. Touching, because they are doing a good deed. Sad, because dementia ain't fun, and Canada's health care system shouldn't require someone to sell stuff in order to receive care.
However, it makes me fighting mad and spitting angry when you compare the price Wilfred Laurier University paid to that which the University of Toronto valued for Blue Rodeo's archives. Granted, the fake cowboys' stuff was a donation, and there was no "real" money changing hands, but...
An $800,000 charitable tax receipt gets you "unreleased live recordings and video footage from concerts, as well as 3,500 photographs" that were stored in boxes in a basement.
$50,000 in cold hard cash gets you "4,000 pieces of sheet music; musical scores written especially for Forrester and dedicated to her by famous composers; and working copies of her music, with Forrester's own markings on them. There are also personal photos, documents and concert memorabilia."
Do you think anyone is going to go back and question the appraiser of the Blue Rodeo archives? Or are Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor really 16 times more valuable than Maureen Forrester? Or would than be each of them is 8 times more valuable? Or as Ms. Forrester's career was more than twice as long as Mr. Cuddy's and Mr. Keelor's does everything get doubled again? I get confused when I am this angry.
On first blush this bit about Wilfrid Laurier University purchasing Maureen Forrester's collection of music, is touching and sad. Touching, because they are doing a good deed. Sad, because dementia ain't fun, and Canada's health care system shouldn't require someone to sell stuff in order to receive care.
However, it makes me fighting mad and spitting angry when you compare the price Wilfred Laurier University paid to that which the University of Toronto valued for Blue Rodeo's archives. Granted, the fake cowboys' stuff was a donation, and there was no "real" money changing hands, but...
An $800,000 charitable tax receipt gets you "unreleased live recordings and video footage from concerts, as well as 3,500 photographs" that were stored in boxes in a basement.
$50,000 in cold hard cash gets you "4,000 pieces of sheet music; musical scores written especially for Forrester and dedicated to her by famous composers; and working copies of her music, with Forrester's own markings on them. There are also personal photos, documents and concert memorabilia."
Do you think anyone is going to go back and question the appraiser of the Blue Rodeo archives? Or are Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor really 16 times more valuable than Maureen Forrester? Or would than be each of them is 8 times more valuable? Or as Ms. Forrester's career was more than twice as long as Mr. Cuddy's and Mr. Keelor's does everything get doubled again? I get confused when I am this angry.
posted by Zeke's, the Montreal Art Gallery on 6.1.06
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