The Gay Right The Gay Right MIKE SIGNORILE: ...

The Gay Right

MIKE SIGNORILE: Good column. Dead on. ("The Gist," 6/11) What I can't understand is why Northeastern Republicans don't realize what has happened to their party. Why aren't they all rallying round Jim Jeffords? Especially gay Northeastern Republicans. Patrick Guerriero, former mayor of Melrose, MA, is now head of the Log Cabin Republicans. Why aren't the Log Cabin Republicans now Log Cabin Independents?if not Democrats? A friend of mine lives in Melrose and knows Guerriero and people who've worked with him tells me that many Massachusetts Republicans think they can take back the party. John Ashcroft is not having his picture taken with them either, though.

Dave Reilly, Syracuse, NY

Wang Hung

Has the floor fallen out completely on your journalistic standards? The

article by Andy Wang ("Music," 6/11) on the departure of Mishka as booker at Luxx was pure dreck. The real victims of the music scene are not the bookers, bartenders and doormen, but the musicians themselves. A more appropriate and engaging article would be an expose on how local clubs abuse local talent, creating a situation of virtual extortion to which musicians are married should they wish to perform locally. Maybe Mishka can send you letters from the tour van. And make sure he lets you know if they offer him drink tickets on the nights he brings no people.

Dan Shuman, Brooklyn

Blairing it

MUGGER: I haven't written in a while, but you're still the best damn writer on contemporary issues. I just love stealing your lines?NY Times style.

Dave Macy, Ft. Wayne, IN

Mike Rules!

MIKE SIGNORILE: Great article again, Mike?I wish there were more journos like yourself in the US.

Bruce Bishop, Toronto

 

And Rules Some More!

MIKE SIGNORILE: Let me thank you for stating the obvious ("Gist," 5/28). I'm not much of a writer, but after reading your article I feel compelled to congratulate you on a pointed article.

What upset me the most about our community is how some of our brothers and sisters feel their voice doesn't count and they decide to run scared when people with a biased agenda attack our very existence that the so-called 'Constitution' is suppose to protect. If Mr. Foley can't be proud of who he is or stand up for what he is, why should the community support him? I agree that a person's private life should be private, but if you can so vigorously attack others for what they do in their private lives, you should be held to the same level of scrutiny you put upon others.

Maybe if more journalists, editors and activists challenge the politicians maybe then we wouldn't feel the need to run when the time for their voices to be heard are call upon. I'll again commend you on an article that is direct and to the point.

Ken Drew, Washington DC

 

He Sent a Lovely Thank-You Note

SIGNORILE: Good letter you sent Ashcroft about the trailers! ("The Gist," 6/4)What a crew we have in office. What a mess they have America in. All these outright lies, I would love to see them arrested and brought up on charges. It is amazing how many people buy it.

Robert Kress, Reno, NV

White On

A big Thank You to Armond White for his impassioned review of Jacques Demy's Model Shop ("FILM," 6/11) and his critique of the limited emotional range of contemporary film. Above all else, it's a worthy piece of advocacy on behalf of the well-regarded but still under-appreciated Demy.

As a regular reader of his work, I put up with a lot, like your utter inability to concede that just because some people don't respond to Spielberg's or De Palma's recent work does not make them jaded, soul-dead monsters. Your inflated, confused, and often ad hominem attacks on worthy failures (Far From Heaven), as well as truly good films (Lilya 4-Ever). (The statement that Lilya 4-Ever is "as fatuous as a Christina Aguilera record" is a total load of mean-spirited horseshit.)

For all the incidental disagreements, you are just about the only movie critic writing today who consistently calls on your readership to demand more from the industry, and your writing often re-sensitizes me to the blatant emotional poverty of so much of what passes for good film? these days. It's well worth the occasional?okay, frequent?browbeating.

Robert Berens, Brooklyn

 

Indie Rock: The New Jazz?

Tim Marchman: First, I want to compliment you on one of the best and most necessary music articles I've read in recent memory. Your piece brought out a lot of things that need to be said and haven't been, and brought up some excellent points that probably hadn't been articulated before. On the important question of what Jazz needs to do to have a future, I agree that it hardly needs to try to attract more dilettante listeners. May I suggest, however, that there is an overlooked group that Jazz should be reaching out to that might significantly increase the ranks of impassioned, knowledgeable listeners?alternative rock fans (alternative in the broadest sense). For a while now, truly good and challenging rock music has become the new jazz in its own way: patronized by a relatively small group of educated/intelligent listeners who are passionate about live music and the interplay of real musicians in real-time and contemptuous of mainstream music. That's not to say that serious fans of every type of cutting-edge pop music out there are a potential audience. I'm thinking specifically of a number of sub-genres that have some basic elements in common with Jazz, such as instrumental bands on the Sub Pop label, math rock like June of 44/Don Caballero, etc. In my own experience, anyone who takes their rock seriously and prefers music played in real-time to studio noodling, has a more than good chance of coming around to Jazz, if exposed. There's already some genre-bending players that demonstrate the potential, like Big Lazy, The Bad Plus, Bill Frisell, and John Zorn. Jazz needs to find a way to get in front of more of these audiences, and I think it would pay dividends.

Mike Strassman, Brooklyn

H.G. Menken

OK. So two weeks ago, Matt Taibbi is abducted by aliens ("CAGE MATCH," 6/4). In his most recent column ("CAGE MATCH," 6/11), we, the readers, are shuttled forward in time for the story to unfold. What's next? Maureen Dowd Robots? A Boys of Brazil "they saved Rumsfield's brain" story? I wonder why Taibbi fancies himself a science fiction writer? His body of work clearly sets him up as the next H.L. Menken. Why does he want to be H.G. Wells?

Bob Dale, Brooklyn, NY

It's Almost Sweet

MUGGER: I have relished your column for past three years, when I first found it via a link at OpinionJournal, and hope you continue to write for the New York Press (or some other entity) after your move to Baltimore. ("MUGGER," 6/11) Good luck to you and your family.

We're about the same age (I'm 45), but we probably would have hated each other in high school (I was dazed confused for genetic reasons, not mind-altering substances). Now, however, our politics as adults are pretty darn close. It's poetic justice that Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd were run out of New York before you left.

I've particularly enjoyed your family stories, especially those about your boys. My own kids are soon to be of school age (twins are soon to be 5, and a 2 year old), and we're looking for a good school for the twins. It's been hard to find any school, public or private, in the Pittsburgh area that hasn't succumbed to political correctness. The Browning School looks like a good fit, so I found their Website and have emailed the headmaster to see if there are any schools nearby that follow their model.

This is simply a long-winded way to say thank you for the laughs, the insights, and the lead for a better education for my kids.

Alan Breedlove, Sewickley, PA