Letters to the Editor
The Brad
Published Letters: 140 Editor's Choice: 16
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"I want to be entertained, and watching some well-meaning schnooks deliver songs with the panache of a piece of wonder bread doesn't cut it."
[Read the article: "American Idol" hits its dog days]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And to think, if you'd realized this a couple days earlier, we might not have read the Avril interview!
[insert smiley face]
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I just like that you'll be able to see non-subscribers' posting history
[Read the article: Salon's new letters registration policy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Now when I have something profound to say about Eric Shaeffer or American Idol, you all can appreciate my wisdom in the context of my oeuvre! Fantastic.
(Seriously, if this had been the letters policy at the beginning, it would've made sense to me. Good luck with it.)
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Don Imus!
[Read the article: The joys of home fries and wine]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Good lord, that's topical! Someone's been watching his or her "Daily Show"! Gold star!
It's a good thing you didn't say "Don Imus and Michael Richards," duuuuude, or I might've soiled myself.
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When's the last time Mr. Ruben was accused of phoning it in?!
[Read the article: Tom the Dancing Bug]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sure, ragging on Mr. Dan is like Presidents' Day around here (a lot of people celebrate it, e'en if they don't know why), but come on! Credit where credit is due here, people! Satire with spark!
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"Joseph Goebbels, you were only ever an amateur to Karl Rove."
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]God, that's ignorant. I hope that was facetious. Hey, maybe we can compare Rove to Putin... once Media Matters employees turn up dead. Everything Rove has gained he has not taken from us by force; it has been ceded to him. God help us if anyone ever surpasses Goebbels... until then, Rove is just a powermongering corporate board member.
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"...many male hip-hop fans find 'more masculine' female rappers a challenge to their 'personal ideals of masculinity,'"
[Read the article: "Bitches-and-hos" lesbian subculture]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I remember when I first heard Menajahtwa on Eazy-E's "Gangsta Beat 4 Tha Street"... she fucking killed that track. I still get goosebumps when she kicks into her high-pitched, staccato flow. I have no idea about her sexual identity... all I know is the radio would be a lot more fun with at least some AG spirit.
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Where are all these folkies coming from?
[Read the article: New music]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs, Sibylle Baier, Gary Higgins... is a Davey Graham revival too obvious to ask for? These days, I don't know why I'd bother listening to anything released after 1983.
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Mr. Marsalis: "Get off my lawn, you damn kids".
[Read the article: Francis Davis takes on Wynton Marsalis]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wynton Marsalis is a hide-bound trad bopper. He is to jazz what... well, what Ken Burns' "Jazz" was to jazz: a veneer of respectability that the form really doesn't require, a codification of narrow values to emulate and rarely transcend. Like "Jazz," he ain't nowhere near the whole picture, and he ain't the towering authority.
Furthermore, I'm not sure he's had an original musical thought in ages; the same cannot be said, however, for hip-hop (and the irony of his usurping the form to remain relevant is too perfect... at least Mos Def and Chuck D dabbled in hard rock like my man Sonny Sharrock). Just because he's black doesn't mean he's an acceptable Trojan Horse for people's musical biases.
If you'll excuse me, I've got a Rahsaan Roland Kirk CD in the car. Oh, and "Throw Some D's" on a mix CD.
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OK, I read the whole review
[Read the article: Francis Davis takes on Wynton Marsalis]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And I see Mr. Marsalis given a fairly fair shake. David, you didn't really do justice to the unease Davis feels at a wealthy, PBS-friendly jazz traditionalist clucking about rampant capitalism and that damn jungle beat. Check these quotes: "This is a protest album staunch Republicans could get behind"? "I'm not saying go back to blaming Whitey, but don't let him wiggle off the hook, either"? C'mon, Dave, that's a starting point for some fun!
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Hey Dipayan
[Read the article: Francis Davis takes on Wynton Marsalis]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nah, I haven't heard it yet. I should, though: I'm at least morbidly curious... I have fond memories of Miles Davis' hip-hop crossover attempt Doo-Bop, which probably says more about me than I'm comfortable with. Who knows? The idiom may suit him.
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far as I know, it was just harder to push him over the top
[Read the article: Sanjaya sent packing!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]With fewer candidates splitting (let's assume) the same number of votes, it was an incrementally harder task to keep Sanjaya in the running each week. Looks like his built-in network of VFTW/Stern/that sobby girl with the tee shirt finally met their match. They'll only get to install their candidate once Idol's popularity dims, but at that point, it'll be an even emptier gesture.
So can we stop talking about the show now?
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I hate to ask...
[Read the article: Three questions for Ronin Ro]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But is this biography written in crayon? How many variations on the phrase "fuck it" can one biographer drop in three paragraphs? Dre's had a hell of a career - it's deathly hard to stay on top in the game, either as a producer or a rapper, and the Doc's been doing it, as you said, for nearly three decades.
I hope the book's worth a damn more than these responses, cos I could get better insights into Dre by spinning "Let Me Ride". What respected rapper hasn't fought through major adversity? His legacy is going to be as the guy who released 50 Cent's records? Really? So it won't be his production work, the laid-back crispness that put So. Cal on the map? It won't be forcibly swapping hip-hop's harmless fun for hood-paranoia, so that 20 years after NWA, even the pop rappers are desperate to show some grit, some street cred? Isn't Dre's biggest legacy that Lil Wayne smiling is a huge deal? Get someone from Ego Trip on this shit, rest its soul.