Letters to the Editor
cstrother
Published Letters: 33 Editor's Choice: 4
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pretty windy
[Read the article: Art movies: R.I.P.]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wow, that was a windy piece that nevertheless sure left many assertions unexplained and unsupported.
I'll skip most of the presidential campaign comments. Sure political doings are inane, but they always are around this time. And we are stuck with another year of Bush, partly because the Pubs had the wisdom to have Cheney as VP. Nixon would have stayed in office had Agnew remained VP.
Interesting thought re we will be back in Iraq in a decade with our allies and with our “lightning bolts a glowing.” Makes sense. Something rarely discussed now, is if it is so important for us to stay in Iraq, why are our allies not stepping up to help out? Not certain we will ever be back. Stability may emerge from chaos in the meantime. Truth is that US presence is not helping stability emerge.
Film: There were awful “art” movies made in the late 40s through 60s, and Bergman and Antonioni made their share. And there were awful movies made since then of all stripes.
“[A]rguably of equal philosophical weight or virtuosity of execution to Bergman[]” In my view there have been lots and lots of movies made with equal virtuosity of execution to Bergman since his golden age. Philosophical weight, I am not sure I would want. Even his work seems dated, if you have viewed his films lately.
Frankly, I think film as a good as it has ever been in recent years, partly because modern directors stand on the shoulders of giants. “Today, anything goes, and nothing lasts.” In every year, that is so, and always has been so.
Music: “ultra-virtuoso Keith Richards”? I love Keith’s work as much as anyone, but ultra-virtuoso is a stretch. He is hardly a fantastic musician. His talent, which is immense, is his ability to translate and channel traditional black music, with some original twists. The Stones best creative days seem long behind them. It is hard to say that there recent new material is very profound, important, or good, but they still but on a great live show, probably better than they ever did.
Keith still mainlines “African-American rhythm and blues.” Don’t we all? And not just “R&B,“ but real blues. Lots of folks listen to Robert Johnson and Albert King all the time, and it is still deep stuff.
“I was thrilled to discover a home video of a young British acoustic guitarist” “Rock will be spectacularly reborn by a faithful return to roots.” I doubt it. There are massive amounts of great roots oriented workout there. Naomi Mather is pretty good, but probably not even a really good of an example of the tremendous quality. But it has always has been there and has always been crucial to good rock music. Roots have never gone away, and there is no reason to think that a “return to roots” is more likely to happen now than in any given year.
I guess I would be more impressed if American musicians did blues as well as the Brits. As to fantastic roots music, check out another Brit, Little George Sueref. If a return to roots was going to cause rock to spectacularly be reborn, I would have thought his music would have done it. But it has not happened.
Kelly Clarkson is wonderful. But that should not be news. With her second album she left behind insipid American Idol pop, and has been doing authentic, quality rock. She was tarnished by the pop image, but she has clearly risen above. A real talent on the right track.
Sorry to be windy myself!