the ron athey incident was a very highly inflammatory incident. ron athey was an h.i.v.-positive man who was carving with a scalpel little teeny nicks in the back of a man who was not h.i.v. positive. he would blot them with paper towels, and then he'd put the paper towels-- and the patterns were made with the blood of the man-- it was pretty far-out stuff-- hung on paper clips and strung out on a paper line that went-- i mean on a line that went out a few feet over the apron of the stage. i didn't see the performance. this is what i was told. the walker arts center had been given a grant of over $100,000 for 100 performing arts events that the museum put on in that year in that season. so the amount of money the n.e.a. had given to this performance, if you parceled it out, was about $150. but we were really excoriated for that one. now, ron athey himself had never applied to the n.e.a. directly. the panel had never had to consider him. so this was blown way out of proportion. the poor walker arts center said, "listen, this is in the bill of fare. "it's very, very far ou