The Arts, love them or hate them they are a part of our lives. Silvertongedevil steps out to sift through old books, ballet dancers tights and mouldy greasepaint to find out if they're arts, or the rats arse.

Discuss the full article - The Arts or is it the Rats? by silvertongedevil below...

A fairly spot on assessment in my view. Especially agree with your view of the Turner prize. Why, I created the perfect entry in my toilet bowl only yesterday when I was violently ill!

As for local councils - it's true, very rarely in a high-up position will you find someone who's actually got a background in the job they're in.

Things like Education executive, Engineering head and so on have to have qualified people at the top (at least in the Council I work for ), but Arts is one of those grey areas where you can just say something like "I wondered lonely as a cloud..." and get the job, so long as you lay off the drugs.

That's right kids, Wordsworth was almost certainly high as a kite when he penned that one.

Good stuff, I was actually in the Louvre over the weekend and saw the Mona Lisa for the 1st time and I didnt believe for a second it was the real thing. Why on gods earth would you show the original when you can show a nice safe copy and no-one will know the difference. You would obviously prefer to have the real thing locked up quite safely!!

(especially in case George Clooney and Brad Pitt try to steal it)

Only been to Paris once, and I could have spent the entire week in the Louvre. Top shit.

The room with the Mona Lisa had several notices saying no flash photography (like most of the rest of the building), but no one took any notice.

A friend of mine (who is an armourer of all things) was asked to help the Tower Armouries when they moved to Leeds. He told me about all the treasures they have that no one ever sees, the fact that all the stuff on show is the rubbish of the collection and that the Black Princes helm is a Victorian copy. I expect to be ripped off by Tesco but not a museum.