Andrew W. K. in Austin on March 20.
(Gary Miller – FilmMagic)
It seemed like a pretty neat idea when rocker Andrew W. K. posted on his Web site last week that the State Department was sending him as a cultural ambassador to Bahrain to help folks in that deeply unsettled country party their troubles away.
The government used tear gas just Monday to disperse thousands of demonstrators and street battles flared, the Associated Press reported.
So how about sending a rocker whose hits include “Party Hard” and “Party Til You Puke” to get warring Sunni and Shia to start dancing instead of fighting?
Apparently not.
“We had a Bahraini entity approach the embassy about co-sponsoring a visit by this guy, who I take is pretty popular there in Bahrain,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Monday, our colleague Anne Gearan reports.
Maybe someone at first thought the lyrics to “Party Til You Puke” — “You can never kill us. We choke, We gun, We kill, We stab, We rob, We steal” — would have a calming effect?
In any event, the co-sponsorship request was “initially approved” — WHAT?? — Nuland said, “and then when more senior management at the embassy took a look at this, the conclusion was that this was not an appropriate use of U.S. government funds.”
Seemed someone “looked at the body of his work,” Nuland explained, and the conclusion was “we didn’t need to be part of his invitation.”
Bottom line: “He is not going to Bahrain on the U.S. government’s dime,” she said.
“The body of his work?” His ouevre?