Letters to the Editor
jk rowling
Published Letters: 31 Editor's Choice: 1
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Mind-O-Meter predicts Victory for Hillary in NH!!
[Read the article: Clinton rocks the vote in the Granite State]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hillary was set up... by the media, by the Dem party and by her very own staff - they all expected her to lose to Obama. Isn't it great to know that voters reject "reality" in favor of their own emotional desires?
My friend's Mind-O-Meter has consistently picked winners in the primary races for some time now. Here's how it works: A local poll is entered into the device (which appears like a parking meter, only with a huge slot for paper) and a number pops up on the display - from 0 to 100 for honesty and truth. Then a tracking ray emanates from strategically placed cells that determine the emotional conviction of each voter. In the case of NH, here's how the breakdown was reported by MOM:
1. 4,867 voters changed their commitment after lunch from Obama to Hillary after seeing Bill Clinton on TV calling Obama "a fairy-tale"
2. 2,101 voters changed from Edwards, etc. to Hillary the day before after seeing her with tears in her eyes on TV the night before.
3. 56 polling staffers changed their mind after observing that women were glaring at them with Hillary buttons - no kidding!
4. Barack Obama went with the after-dinner concession speech instead of the victory speech at lunchtime, which could have theoretically thrown him over the top - hypothetically and metaphorically speaking.
So there you have it... tears, technology and TV changed our minds once again. The people have chosen an excellent person to lead the democratic charge to change America. Anyone got a quarter I can put into the damned parking meter? My Rover is getting another ticket.
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Kids - even heroes - die too young
[Read the article: Remembering Heath Ledger]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, the parallel to James Dean does come to mind.
If this obit is any measure of his success, then young Ledger has stood his ground and made his name. How many other young actors in movies achieved the versatility and attraction often assigned to "stars" - promotable, well-trained, uninspiring professionals with whom nobody would agree met his standard? In an age of media/movie whoring, Heath Ledger was no tramp.
It surprises me that non-Brit-empire commentators find so few words to shower upon his talent and discography now.
Perhaps, like Dean, a national fervor will arise... pushing him to heights that Hollywood never could. He shall appear over beds in posters and as screensaver Heath L. - the true portrait of our concern about icons - that they cannot shield us from the fate we all share.
The end may not be near for our society and our intimates, but it is never far away either, is it, movie-eaters? This was a real person, and he was every bit as great as an actor can be.
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Wire Cutter
[Read the article: Hot off "The Wire"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It's Homocide. It's HBO, hardcore fantasy, everyday horrible Baltimore reality."
So says a friend of mine from Baltimore - from Greenmt. Ave & 34th Street, Stadium Lounge bar, old Memorial stadium and near The School of Arts attended by Tupac, who's dead, even on HBO.
Simon's characters reflect America's obsession with Gawking At The Poor and Depraved. The show intends to deconstruct those who exist in the margins of The Great American Freedom Lie: we in Europe accept poverty as REAL, not a fictionalized version with the power of major bourgeois cable marketing & branding - to elevate its Sensational Stigmatized Wasteland milieu.
Ken Burns' father graduated from City College High in '43 with my friend's father... before going to war in Europe to save the world (and Us Brits!). He says, "Everybody was poor back then - now it's only allowed on TV and movies - in real life, poverty is the Big Taboo, and HomeLessNess is simply code for the stigmatizing and marginalizing of peeps." Yes.
Is he correct?
All we all just Voyeur$ - seeking a thrill-ride on the backs and pain of real victims in an oppressive society? Is it all just a reduced volume - of the songs that are Darfur or Iraq or the Palestinians - that we can handle and somehow deny?
Yes, yes - oh, The WRITING!! Isn't it great?! Yeah, the way these characters interact in a storyline that bends all those Toyota ads into one long expressway pileup! We want cheapened death, and by (someone's) God, we're gonna' get it now, aren't we? Show me the smiling poor Hindu or the radical, fanatical Muslim - don't show me destroyed American kids in the ghetto.
Do you think George Bush knows where he truly resides - in the great White Bubble - down the street from Nowhere? This isn't a TV landmark - this is THE SHOW about America's true colors.
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Ongoing Massacre
[Read the article: Hot off "The Wire"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My friend says, "What do you expect from middle-class people who watch TV shows about real tragedy? As long as they waitin' on the next big shopping spree or cultural celebration, nothin' is gonna' affect them."
Because I think a show about the white suburban school shootings wouldn't fly - especially dissecting the kids, the community and their family dysfunctions. I asked my friend what he thought would happen in America as a result of this show...
"Not a whole lot. Mebbe more gangsta' movies will fly on DVD, but poor folks will just keep bein' killed from dope and murder, and that's because richer people don't live there, don't risk losing a child there, can't imagine the shit people have to deal with all the time."
All The Time. My emphasis, in Capitals, because the show can explore all this tragedy without changing, moving or enlightening one fucking person who discusses it with lab-rat condescension.