Letters to the Editor
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Fighting a Real War
If Ms. Paglia prefers a strategic withdrawl from Iraq now so we can better fight a "real war" later, then those who support that course of action need to understand the "real war" we will get to fight.
First and foremost it will involve the use of nuclear weapons. Expect nuclear detonations to not just be limited to the Gulf Region. Israel and Europe will certainly absorb nuclear strikes. US facilities in the region will be be struck, but if we are lucky the distance provided by the oceans may spare our country. Expect, for example, to lose at least one Nitmiz Class aircraft carrier and it's crew of 6,000. Prepare yourself to witness thousands of civilians enduring what the people of Hiroshima did and hundreds of square miles contaminated for years like Chernobyl. If that is preferred to Americans dying four at a time by IED, I would love to understand the logic.
Don't worry about Iranian nukes. They will come from a jihadist Pakistan, which resulted from our withdrawl from Iraq.
All war is ugly. Deferred wars throughout history have always been exponentially costlier and bloodier than those that were taken care of early. Show me one that was not.
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Paglia
Another piece of crap from Camille. When she writes, it is as if the entire history of the world gets sucked into the void of her un-consciousness, so she can make ridiculous statements, which to her may seem insightful.
No great films in the last 35 years?
We should pull out of Iraq, only to plan on returning to carpet bomb the place into oblivion at a later date?
I won't bother to list the others, or the many great films of the last 35 years, or explaining why her views on Iraq are more twisted than just about anyone else's except this administration.
What a brilliant idiot you are Miss (not hit) Paglia.
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erp...."cold douche"?
My god, your..."work" is such a patchwork of random strangeness.
So much talent in the world...and yet space seems to always get made for folks like you, instead.
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i know what i like
I’m a tail-end baby boomer who doesn’t' know as much about movies as the author (Jarmusch, the Cohen Bros. and old screwball comedies take care of me), however, I do know a few things about music and wish to disagree with Ms. Paglia's statement that "hip-hop and disco-derived dance music enjoy far greater prestige everywhere." This might be true for those who get their music delivered by radio or media celebrities such a Drudge, however, if you were to actually go outside of you house you might find other forms of music, including rock, doing just fine. It's also laughable to say that rock has "exhausted it's formula" and then use hip-hop as the example of a fresh thriving genre. Also, the statement, "African-American rhythm and blues" misses the larger understanding of what American music is; find an example of melody or narrative device in traditional African music and I will give all the credit for American music to African-Americans and disregard any European or Latin influence at all. What makes American music so special is its ability to blend any and every influence seamlessly, and without pretension (which is what excites the Europeans as they are unable to do so). Here in New Orleans the brass bands have added some Latin flavor as a result of their post-Katrina time in Texas. This is why American music, including rock, has not ""exhausted its formula." It's just a suggestion, but, possibly you should listen to Eliza Gilkyson or several hundred other brilliant artists before giving Kelly Clarkson more print. Go out on the town, see, listen, ask. Just don’t rely on Drudge for anything.
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Cold douche
I spit hot coffee out my nose when I read that one. This is the first paglia column i've taken time to read and i'm now both richer and poorer.
Poorer because I expected to take 4 minutes to read a single page.
Richer because I had to read the whole thing and follow many links. The naomi mather vidi is great. I like it better than the holwlin' wolf version because I really really like raw guitar played well.
I never magined I'd like anything from clarkson, but have been now proved wrong.
I think I'll read the next column too.
Thnx
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Geico Caveman Responds to Camille Paglia
"Uh...What!?"
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Rock Isn't Dead, You Just Need to Know Where to Listen
True, in the mainstream, rock is not as popular a hip-hop or dance music (house and techno being the most popular. But mainstream hip-hop and dance music are already pretty tired and formulaic. Underground hip-hop (El-P, Mr Lif) and dance music (Berlin clubs) are progressive and new by comparison.
Likewise, rock is alive and well and popular in America outside the mainstream. Bands like North Mississippi Allstars and Widespread Panic, who have also been known to play "Smokestack Lightning" in their varied live sets (as much a nod to Howlin' Wolf as their venerable predecessors, the Grateful Dead), are well-known and acclaimed for their original yet traditional music.
NMA mixes Mississippi Hill Country blues (not the more familiar Delta blues) with everything from jugs and washboards (with wah-wah pedals) to fife and drum traditions derived from slave music. Imagine Robert Johnson meets Black Sabbath with one of the meanest blues guitar players today, Luther Dickinson (who is only in his early 30s). As Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones introduced the world and Americans to the great Delta blues artists, so too do NMA hope to introduce the dying breed of Hill Country artists like RL Burnside, Otha Turner and Junior Kimbrough.
Meanwhile Widespread Panic have a hard-earned reputation as one the premier live acts in the country, playing a different set each and every night, approximately 150 nights a year since 1985. They once played for free to a crowd of 100,000 people in their hometown of Athens, GA (yes, a band you may have never heard of did this). Their influences range from Van Morrison to Vic Chesnutt, from JJ Cale, author of, among others, "Cocaine" -- no it wasn't Clapton, "After Midnight", "Call Me the Breeze", to James Brown (got funk?), from Led Zeppelin (got rock?) to Motown (got soul?).
I know plenty of people, young and old, who have been introduced to so many of these different sources and influences through these bands and others like them. I took my cousin (21) to see Widespread Panic and my parents (60+) to see North Mississippi Allstars and they all "got it", they were excited by what they were seeing and hearing. Because they probably thought that rock was boring and dead too -- and it has been...in the mainstream.
But rock is never dead when it taps into its roots with reverence. You just need to know where to look and listen these days. And go see it live!