I've never 'got'

My girlfriend is from North Yorkshire and good luck telling her when tea is.

It’s when you make it, what did your last slave did of?

Old people, (40's) still banging on about trainers.

Fucking melts.

He's been banned. Find a new idol.

Shakespeare. Or rather, all the fuss about Shakespeare. You'd think nobody's bothered to write a play in the 400 years since.

Plays.

Clearly they have, but I can’t think of anyone who has written as many quality plays as Shakespeare.

Mamet.

I only know two.

Edit: mybproblem with Shakespeare is that I'm lazy and can't be arsed with thinking hard.

That’s utter bollocks. Shakespeare is accessible to all.

I'd go somewhere in the middle, accessibility-wise, but that Billy Shaftshaker sure had a way with words.

shit like that

Art? Culture?

If you're trying to read it, maybe. All the Shakespeare I've seen performed competently has been completely enjoyable even when I haven't understood half the words being spoken.

I get what you mean but a few things have made Shakespeare click for me... Mainly Shitfaced Shakespeare which is either closer to the original spirit (with heckling and a generally irreverent atmosphere) or total hipster bollocks.
I’ve also found that your brain tunes itself into the language when you see it performed, whereas it remains incomprehensible on paper.

This on the other hand is mostly bollocks.
The whole point of subsidy is that things are accessible.

Yeah, with the caveat that it probably does mostly benefit middle-class people that were going to go anyway. Still, I only started to get Opera once I'd been to a couple of productions on cheap student tickets at ENO and Covent Garden; even as a non-student you can find cheap tickets. For theatre more generally the NT's cheap tickets are great. And London's free museums and galleries are one of the things I miss the most about no longer being there.

The thing is..Shakespeare is usually done wrong.
He was from Stratford, his accent would have been closer to Brummie than to the strangulation of Larry Olivier or Brannagh’s plummy grunting.
Pickk a Shakespeare quote, any quote and say it out loud with a Birmingham accent.

Suddenly it makes sense

I saw a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream where Bottom and cohorts were played with Brummie accents - for the lols no doubt.

and I was expected to pay for and eat an over priced mini tub of ice cream in the interval.

opera and ballet and shit like that

Be open minded as this can be very life affirming and you do not need wealth to appreciate it.

Be open minded

Totally the wrong thread for that sort of attitude ;-)

Wow.

And yet you support a Premier League football team?

I find the concept of rejecting culture based on other people’s opinions to be very silly. No reason why you can’t go to a grime gig and an opera on consecutive evenings. Arguably you would be noticed at either wearing the ‘wrong’ outfit but most classical concerts are pretty relaxed these days.

Edit: re Shakespeare, I’ve never enjoyed it on screen but live with extra swearing and general bants it seems to work very well.

Pretty sure the current Tories would happily lose all art (see education focus and slashing of both local government budgets and direct subsidies).
Jumping from racism through sexism and ending at ‘I don’t like this because those people do like it’ seems a bit of a stretch to me.
I really don’t think you can write off all ‘high’ art as synonymous with the establishment, especially combined with the idea that excellence might be putting people off participation. Would you say the same about elite sport?

It's a shame you can't get past that - the reason a lot of the stuff you hate is subsidised is because it's genuinely good and people have dedicated their lives to interpreting it, rather than some Tory conspiracy to fuck the poor.
I totally agree that their should be more funding for arts spaces and accessibility, but it shouldn't have to be to the detriment of what you call 'high' art. It's a hugely rich vein of history that continues to inspire all kinds of artists.

Also there is shitloads of hiphop out there that doesn't deal in rampant materialism and objectification of women. Search harder, it's worth it.

You’re not wrong that there should be more help on a local level but I don’t see how the two can’t coexist. For me classical music was about playing music with my friends (of varying ability, with a clear progression - no intimidation) and creating something (eventually) that was pretty impressive and unacheivable on your own. Having famous venues to occasionally play in was inspirational and generally a bit of a laugh.
The same council that subsidised this also set up a rock school and urban music project thing. I was in the rock school, which was fun, although it catered for much less students than the orchestras.
Which was ‘better’ artistically? Apples and oranges really.

Didn't this almost exact same conversation play out a year or so back?

Can we just link it and move on?