Peter Wisse:

>Couldn't it be, that Cage is just poking fun at us, and is laughing
>his head off, because all those connoisseurs of the arts are taking it
>seriously, are explaining to each other in their argot of the arts the
>profound meaning of 4 minutes of nothing!

Cage has said many times that it's not 4 minutes of nothing, although he
had a wonderful sense of humor.  And he had a serious point.

>One encounters the same in the visual arts, consider a painting consisting
>only of a totally blue canvas, the incrowd call it Thrilling, and think
>that they told us anything useful,

Is this a real painting?  Have you seen it?

>instead of conceding that it is all rubbish, but you can't concede such a
>thing if you are an Art Critic.

Of course you can, and critics do it all the time.

Steve Schwartz