Letters to the Editor
mz sookie
Published Letters: 37 Editor's Choice: 5
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you, me and ellen?
[Read the article: Dancing as fast as she can]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dear Ms. P
Although I once longed for the death of disco, your treatise generated new appreciation of this form. I remain - essentially - a funkaholic. When disco got funky (i.e. Summer's Bad Girls, Sylvester,King's Shame. etc.) I was there. I danced, not tranced.
Nonetheless, what struck me- more than nuances of taste- was the fact that you have 40 YEARS of 'pop music' taste!
Has this ever been the case before ? Didn't previous generations get stuck in their (nostalgic) attachment to adolescent forms (Vallee, Sinatra, Garland,Elvis, Steisand...), detaching from the ever unfolding musical traditions of susequent decades?
One of the quirky discoveries of the ELLEN show is that audiences from many generations seem joyous to hear music from the '60s-now. I have thousands of songs in my iTunes library. Do we all harbor such complex musical passions because of access? arrested development (a perpetual adolescent thrill)? or has music become the wave form of cyber-culture ?
That we all have a list of 200 songs we cherish is an astonishment - no ?
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The New World
[Read the article: "The New World"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I felt a visceral horror after watching this film -- saturated with the power of self-deluding violence, the ruthless disregard, foolish justification and inexorable momentum that continues unfolding... uninterrupted in our present political life.
Very little else stayed with me after seeing this film. Kilcher's performance was remarkable, but I never felt the extreme lolling visual poetry. (Perhaps this was due to the 15 minutes shorter version that reached Ca.)
As SZ noted, it tumbled along with plenty of plot and action.
But why does she seem so cynical about the dreadful reality evoked by this account of our beginnings ? It isn't just a little resonant with the present; it is indistinguishable- in tone, in focusing on hapless individuals with sincerity & tunnel vision, brutal means to a shallow end. It created a sense of utter hopelessness.
I was literally queasy leaving the theater- and not because of Pocahontas' death. Is everyone else numb to meaning ?
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abu ghraib photos: a different critique
[Read the article: Abu Ghraib and Salon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I do not believe Ms. Walsh has answered this objection.
Whereas I appreciate the journalistic principle that motivated Salon to publish the newly released Abu Ghraib photos, I worry that doing so does not provide information that is actually useful to American voters. Alas- an insidious effect of the Bush administration's derangements is the notion that what is needed is stronger evidence to awaken outrage. But assuming the public needs sensational activation is somewhat like thinking torture generates intel. It is a perverse formulation that blurs elucidation, indignation and lurid fascination.
Moreover, those who justify abusive interrogation and torture see public horror as naive and ineffectual. Their paternalistic condescension further justifies secrecy. This ends up as a political impasse for the opposition. The best objection to their posturing is that these brutal tactics do not yield crucial intel. Real tough guys should be pragmatic, competent and effective. (As noted elsewhere, only weaklings imitate macho fantasies, like Jack Bauer on '24.')
Americans have been so inundated by scandals and travesties that sustaining their attention and evoking a reasoned response has become nearly impossible. We don't need more grisly evidence. Salon would do better continuing to emphasize the meaning of these policy disasters - the degradation of democratic ideals in the war of values, the promotion of anti-American violence and retaliatory treatment of US soldiers, the horror of mirroring the enemy, and the failure to produce results that enhance our safety.
I suspect more photos of naked men won't energize political analysis or clarity; rather, they'll just be experienced as more toxic chaotic stimuli. A principle of journalism should be to generate something useful. Tabloids expect only to stir sensations.
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the poisoning of reason
[Read the article: When facts fail]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Editor:
Danner is grimly lucid in analogizing the present paralysis of just consequence to the futility within an Eastern European totalitarian regime. He worries that the Bush administration has found a way to generate sufficient public futility that reasonable folks have retreated from engagement into small private comforts.
Others, he believes, smoldering in impotent rage, plunge into retaliatory excess, mirroring Rove's perversion of language and obliterating rational discourse.
In some ways it is fear used again to decimate democracy. But in the past, the stakes were different. The Big Lie would be used to smear a candidate and achieve power. This could be reversed by a change of power. Now - the lies create such inexorable momentum (i.e.the Iraq War, the budget deficit, torn safety nets, etc.) that the damage becomes irreparable.
The destructive consequences of Bush policies have overwhelmed the mechanisms of reasoning. It's said that rationalization is like watering a plant with toxic fluid. It feels like our capacity to exercise reason has- thus - been poisoned.
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keep it simple
[Read the article: Impeach Bush]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The most efficacious strategy is not to impeach; that requires proof of deceptions, misdemeanors and corruption that leads to legal quicksand.
Better to allow that this administration had a Plan - to invade Iraq for the reasons they give now, to privatize federal functions, mix church and state and create prosperity with tax cuts.
This can be countered with a common sense challenge:
DID THEIR POLICIES WORK, WERE THEY RIGHT OR WRONG ?
The proof is in the pudding. Accountability.
Democrats should enter the November elections with down-to-earth realism. Nothing shrill or complicated.
Palpable unease (if not dread) saturates the work force, the middle-class, the Gulf Coast, MediCare beneficiaries, soldiers, teachers, doctors, nurses, retirees, and environmentalists.
Massive discontent needs only be crystallized.
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All plot Sopranos
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ms HH intuited something, remarking tartly on Bracco's comment that this seaon would be "sadder. Past seasons would never have inspired a mood ring description.
In fact - the much buzzed first episode was oddly disappointing; all plot, no presence. Highlights were the dream appearance of Drea/Adrianna and the silent glower of Karen Young's FBI agent.
A grisly hanging and an ironic shooting do not match the textured characters of David Chase at his best. Surprise events don't make for great drama. That's for clam dip like '24.'
Hopefully, it will get great again before it's over.