Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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Wynton Marsalis
[Read the article: Francis Davis takes on Wynton Marsalis]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am a bit of a jazz fan and have a couple hundred Jazz CDs lying around, but I have never taken much to the music of Wynton Marsalis, which has always seemed over academic and unswinging to me, but I do have an interesting story about him (never published.)
In the early eighties I saw Marsalis and his band play at the Bermuda Festival (when I lived there). I found the performance rather boring. The next night, a friend of mine, a black Bermudian who played trumpet in the Bermuda Regiment band went to the show.
Afterwards my friend went backstage and introduced himself to Marsalis and said he had really enjoyed the performance, especially as he was a trumpeter himself. "Where is your horn? asked the jazzman. "In my car", replied my friend. "Well go get it then".
My friend ran out to his car to get his horn,and when he returned Marsalis gave him a free 45-minute individual trumpet lesson--which he was tremendously excited about.
My friend died young a few years later from a heart attack, but that lesson from Marsalis was a memory that he always treasured.
I wonder how many rappers give their fans doggerel lessons.
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Media ownership
[Read the article: The Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch frauds]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is hardly surprising that when reporters for major news organizations allow themselves to be "embedded" with military units that they will be used for propaganda purposes.
One can certainly understand that reporters would prefer to be overseas with military protection than operating independently with a much greater risk of kidnapping and/or death, but inevitably they will end up reporting more favorably to their own side and give the benefit of the doubt to the home team.
Hence the Tillman and Lynch stories are probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of untrue or exaggerated news stories.
Reporting from the mid east in general is pathetically lacking in accurate information. For example there is very little detailed reporting of social conditions in either Iraq or Afghanistan, and I actually know a great deal more about the latter by virtue of second hand communications from my niece who is serving in the military there than anything that can be gleaned from media reports.
Come to think of it, how come Salon does not have reporters in place in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am sure there are many underemployed bilingual locals with e-mail access who would probably send dispatches for a pittance and provide a lot more information that the mainstream reporters.
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Praying pedophiles
[Read the article: Churches slam doors on sex offenders]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Seeing that such a high proportion of churchgoers report being sexually abused as children, one must conclude that a proportionally large segment of the adult male population constitutes sex abusers.
I had the good fortune to be a very unattractive adolescent, so no one wanted to sexually abuse me, though I probably would have been willing enough, (especially if the abusers bore any resemblance to the young Raquel Welch). So having had no experience of this, it is very unpleasant to think about and hard to believe, though my rational side tells me that it must be true, being based on so much reliable, churchgoing testimony.
But, correct me if I am wrong, isn't American-style religion all about sinners being redeemed through a supernatural encounter with the Almighty--a spiritual rebirth in which the old sinful self is cast off and a new self taken on? Or does that only apply on TV?
Does the fact that these former pedophiles want to practice a religion mean that they now believe in the various doctrines (dare I call them superstitions?) of the denomination in question, or does it mean that like James Joyce's Jesuit priests, they believe in catching 'em young.
And does belonging to a religion really mean that you subscribe to the doctrines of that religion, or that you are just looking for a convenient social milieu where families can socialize in a hip-hop-free, smoke-and-alcohol-free atmosphere where extramarital hanky-panky is frowned upon, and where the kids can learn musical performance skills that may one day make them the Britney's of the next generation?
Hell, even I would join a church for the networking benefits if you didn't have to believe stuff!
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Come on!
[Read the article: "Idol" succeeds as a fundraiser but fails as entertainment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh. come on, buddy. They raised some money for a good cause and also may have taught some people some things they did not know about poverty in Africa.
Of course the presentation was sappy. I take it this was the first time in Marchese's life that he has seen American commercial TV. Well, he had better get used to it. Just wait for the Olympic games when the plucky one-legged HIV positive US skiers whose entire families were wiped out the previous week in auto accidents go up against the evil drug-fuelled Russkis. Then he can really go to town.
This TV show did more good than 99% of the witless TV shows that people watch every day while they are having their oil changed.
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Got what he deserved.
[Read the article: At her majesty's pleasure]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So? He got what he deserved, and it sounds like he fitted right in with the rest of the prison population.