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KILLED THE RADIO
STAR
Some thoughts on your Randall
Bramblett interview and your “failed"
Randall Bramblett interview [August 12]:
The notion that the move away from
Southern Rock in late ‘70s/early ‘80s
American Pop was somehow indigenous and
peculiar to Athens and thus helped define its
“sound" is mistaken. As is the case with all
consumer-based trend cycles, new styles are
perpetually presented as the latest and best
products to which allegiance is urgea of
each new generation.
As cycles of fashion and catalog reformat
ting sales have dictated, this has in recent
years brought about an increasing resur
gence of .i.jsics (Southern Rock /
Improvisatory) previously discarded as out
dated and archaic. This belies statements
made by many cf Athens’ elder rock states
men chat their music is not properly accept
ed/consumed by the Athens “scene” solely
because of its young audience’s preemptive
fashion-based rejection.
Clearly their complaints are better con
sidered as economic ones. As music delivery
systems continue to evolve and change from
the functions and contexts of the past, more
musicians will find themselves having to
change as well. A major contribution to the
golden glow of many musicians’ memories of
the early ‘70s days of yore was neither the
audience’s inherent hipness noi the per
formers’ sophistication, but rather the era’s
lower drinking age and laxer enforcement of
D.U.I. laws. When these conditions changed,
so did the audience, and so did the thick
ness of the band members’ wallets.
Just as in the days before TV the movies
had maximum cultural import, in the days
before VCRs and home computers live rock
music had its moment.
Its prominence in people’s lives is less
today regardless of their hipness quotients
or genre affiliation declarations. As many in
pop music in find out of Athens have found,
if one remains oneself, sooner or later one
finds oneself back in fashion. The audience
bestowing newfound hipness to the per
former will, however, almost certainly not be
of the size and shape he or she remembers
from the good old days.
Dan Smith
via the Internet
ANNOYED & INSULTED
Regarding your story on James Brown the
sausage vendor [Restaurant Dope, August
26]: Why is it, when journalists quote black
folks, they have to keep intact the old Uncle
Remis mentality of reducing what they say
to a phonetic riddle, such as adding on all
the extra s’s, dropping the last letters of
THIS MMIM W«lk»
THE SUMMED Of '*8 DRAWS To
a. close -and mot a moment
too SOON FOR SOME OF US...
I'M SICK OF
EVERYTHING!
I'M SICK OF TRENT LOTT! XM SICK
OF ALLY M<BEAL! I’M SICK Of
TiME, NEWSWEEK. THE FOX NEWS
CHANNEL AND BRILL'S CONTENT!
I'M SICK OF DICK MORRIS. GIN
GER 5PICE, JOKES ABOUT VIAGRA,
AND THE Top-tOO LIST OF ANY
THING!
I'M SICK OF STEPHEN GLASS,
SARIN GAS, THE Y2K GLiTcH.
AND THE DOW JONES AVERAGE'
I'M S»CK CF MAUREEN DOWD,
I'M SICK OF BILL GATES, AND
I'M SICK OF FAWNING ARTI
CLES ABOUT THE TRUE MEAN
ING OF SAYING PfhVATE RYAN!
by TOM TOMORROW
I'M SICK OF KEN STARR'S PuDGT
LITTLE FACE AND I'M SICK OF
THE PRESIDENT AND MIS PENIS *
I'M SICK OF LINDA TRIPP'S
HAIR, LUCIANNE GOLDBERG'S
RASP. AND MATT DRUDGE’S
SMIRK —
. ..' z=] i
-AND I'M REALLY SICK oF THE
SEMEN-STAINEt PRESS /
BUT MOST OF ALL, I AM SICK,
SICK. SICK Of THE MOST FRE
QUENTLY INVOKED SIX SYLLA
BLE NAME IN HUMAN HISTORY-
wEF.ThER'S
GOT YOU A
little
CRANKY, X
SEE.
I'm Not cut
out For THIS!
I M A PENGUIN
For. God'S
SAKE.'
MON-I-CA
LEW-IN- SKY!
words and replacing them with apostrophes,
not correcting the grammar and so on. It’s
not that I’m against this practice, except that
when white folks are quoted, their language
is always deemed up and made presentable.
There are no ‘you know’s’, ‘uhhhhs’ or ‘like's.
There are no run-ons or incomplete sen
tences, and everyone speaks so wonderfully
correct. I don’t speak perfectly, and most
people I talk to don’t speak properly. If they
did, I’d think they were putting on airs. Most
white folks don’t speak correctly and in com
plete sentences, but you wouldn’t know it
from the papers.
Now I’m not suggesting you and the other
journalists do this to make it look like black
folks are ignorant. On the other hand, I know
you aren’t linguists intent on preserving
their vernacular. 1 don’t know why you do it.
But it’s annoying and insulting. Either do the
Uncle Remis job on whites, or do the
Elizabethian treatment on blacks. But at
least be consistent in how you scribe all
quotes, regardless of race or social status.
Anthony Santosha
via the Internet
Sorry you feel insulted — especially when
you don't quite have the facts straight. In the
story you mention, we quote a county health
inspector, Bill Dukes, as saying, "It was kinda
like chasin' a wild dog around." Note the
dropped "g” and the col'oquial "kinda. ” Note
that Dukes is white. We also included a gram
matically imperfect but nonetheless coherent
sentence from Athens attorney David Crowe,
who is also white. See also the previous
week s feature on white ailist Jom Mabe
We strive to reflect the many fascinating
ways people around here speak, regardless of
their race or social standing. —ed
I’m a small town girl from Michigan and
last November I decided it was time to bolt
from my small town and hit the road. Being a
big R.E.M. fan and yearning to see the woJd,
1 decided why the hell not, I’ll go to Athens.
This was a big venture for me, having never
been further south than Ohio’s Cedar Point
and I went alone.
I absolutely loved Athens, and can’t wait
to visit again. I stopped at the Visitors
Center and was delighted to find your maga
zine at their door. Having never read it, I
picked one up. Absolutely Wonderful. 1 was
happy to see everything one could possible
want to know about what was going on in
town. Where I’m from we have nothing. A
good concert around here consists of a tick
et priced between $8 and $75 and a 15-
minute to an hour-and-a-half drive.
In Athens, it was minutes away from hotel
room and ci leap and great bands to boot. So
last night, while I was finally getting around
to putting a scrapbook together about my
trip, 1 once again ran across your magazine
in my box and reread it and all the happiness
I felt while l was there came flooding back —
despite the fact that out of seven days I was
sick in bed for four. Your magazine gave me a
smile while I lay in bed yearning to be out
sight-seeing. The day before I left, 1 felt well
enough to take a look in town. Thanks to
your magazine I was able to find some great
shopping and great vegetarian food.
So blah, blah, blah... 1 just wanted to say
thanks for being accessible online — though
I may not be in Athens I can still read the
Flagpole!
Jen
via the Internet
SANCODEVI RESPONDS
m
Re: David Fair bairn's and Steve Fitzpatrick's letters f August J2 and August JfiJ:
1) Before responding to an article, try reading it first. This will he a novel idea for both
Fair bairn and Fitzpatrick, who took such liberties in misrepresenting my review of Slut’s
show. * < *
2) The single reference to fashion and the “cool" was meant as a reference to my
theme and to the fiuratic quality of C zech art lit music — not to Slut’s appearance, as
both slow-witted respondents claimed.
3) Fairbairn: “So what if [Slut] are 'heavy alternarock?' She shouldn't really •give a
damn But that was the whole point. I think "heavy alternarock" is crap And-Slut's music
fell squarely within that category
■1) Fairbairn bitched that I didn’t mention Jlfat his hand headlined Maybe I should
have included: “Headliners Michael were also a load of crap "
5) And I’m not "negative " etc. about music, hoys. I lust take it too seriously to he
impressed by the lame bullshit that comprises most of what s out there
Funke Sangodeyi
CONTACT FLAGPOLE
Write to FLAGPOLE at LETTERS, P. 0. Box 1027, Athens, 6A 30603; or via the Internet at
mail@flagpole.com. Letters may be edited for style, clarity and space considerations.
.# * ^
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H FLAGPOLE SEPTEMBER 2, 1998
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