I'm responding to Eric's query about why visual art seems more prone to controversy than music. (Sorry, but my primitive e-mail system does not allow me to cut and paste.) I think the answer lies precisely in the fact that it is visual. Visual symbols such as the American flag (or the flag of any country, for that matter), the Christian cross, and the swastika, only to name a few, evoke very powerful emotions and ideas. The ways in which they are "abused", "glorified", or "desecrated" in art determines the level of controversy that arises. I can't think of any instance in music that carries the same emotional charge. The only example I can think of is when Jimi Hendrix used to play the national anthem. But that hardly raised the same kind of uproar that controversial art exhibits have engendered. Perhaps because music is more fleeting; when it's over, it's gone. Amy A. Douglass Tempe Historical Museum [log in to unmask]