Overrated Not Over
Editor's Note: E-mail responses to "Overrated," our cover story of Nov. 22 continued to pour in. As with last week's letters, much of the anger was reserved for our opinions of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Sgt. Pepper. But there were protests (and yes, some words of praise) for the symbolic slaughter of other sacred cows, too. We even heard from Peter Pan.
Hey dude, telling me that Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin and Dylan are overrated drops you into a literary attempt at keyboard masturbation. Oh yeah, Wayne Garcia adds that Sgt. Pepper's was "lifeless and dated." Problem with these kids nowadays is they forgot the cultural effect all these "mediocre flops" had on your grandparents. I'm guessing you're about 15 years old. Some advice, talk to someone about how some of these mediocre artists changed the culture to a counterculture and gave you a shot at writing for a watered-down version of Screw Magazine.
Dick Mullen
Given your opinions and the words you used to express them, I would suggest that you change the name of your mag to Narcissistic Dissing. Or maybe it's just your youth. I realize that though you don't know very much, you think you know it all, and that's just normal for your developmental stage (and believe me, I've been there).
Gym Rat in Surfside, S.C.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: This album is everything that is bad about Rock Music —— It is pretentious, pompous and plastic … For the last 30 years, Eric Clapton has been morphing into Barry Manilow and living on his reputation. (I'm supposed to buy that dreck "Tears In Heaven" because I feel sorry about your kid falling out a window?)
David Lucas
Well, I was relieved you didn't include ME in your list of overrated sacred cows, but I was mortified that you actually dissed my girlfriend Dorothy! Come now! Was this really necessary? We already have the TB-Trash paper for our fix of snobby and adolescent writers poo pooh-ing the talented and creative among us.
Peter Pan (aka Randy Constan)
Where did you get that great picture of the late President Richard Nixon in Johnny Cash clothes-and-wig? I mean, why kick the guy around even more? Nixon's been dead for years. Why add the final insult by using computer imaging to try and make him look like Cash?
David
Most Overrated Style of CL Articles: Hypocritical. Gee … you noticed the absence of diversity in your article, too? … Because Marxists dictate it's "evolved" to be white and hate yourself for it? Gotta love those open-minded *cough* BULLSHIT *cough* white liberals who preach tolerance yet won't extend that rosy reception to their own. Grow A Fuckin' Pair.
Dana
P.S.: Every other article is awesome. See? People aren't cut-and-dry. And Mons sucks ass; go to Bare Assets and support my friends, hippies.
Plastic Beaded Necklaces: I have to completely disagree. Every straight man knows the value of these pretty baubles. Overrated? No my friend, vastly underrated. Blogosphere: Holy crap, can people give a s**t more about themselves than they already do? I totally agree.
J. Newby
Kudos to Max re: FAKE BREASTS. We of the small-normal breast size applaud you mightily! But Joe Bardi, you are WAY, WAY, WAAAAAY off, in my humble opinion. Fruits and veggies DO rock and many folks really DO love the veggie part of the salad; we really, really, really do. I'm imagining you were abused at the dinner table, perhaps with canned fruits and veggies, and now you are forever scarred. Rest assured, there IS hope for you.
Patrice Roarty
Given Hunter S. Thompson's legacy of genre-defying books and mountains of maverick prose, Eric Snider's dismissal is unconscionable. More deeply troubling dribble came from the Political Whore. If said Whore cannot understand Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon's sprawling World War II opus, then he lacks the analytic chops necessary to opine about politics. Note to Whore: it's Vineland that's unreadable.
A Literature Professor
The "Overrated" piece is hilarious. So many Tampa Bay sacred cows to skewer, it must've been hard to limit it to just those few.
Elizabeth McCann
These types of lists disappoint me. Seems like cheap filler for a paper that sometimes actually has something to say. The most overrated thing in your list is the self-importance with which you treat your own opinions. But I must admit — I do agree on your assessment of Clearwater Beach. At least it touches Caladesi Island, right?
Andy Huse
Democrats'Dilemma
As a subversively-opinioned outrider in North Pinellas Democratic leadership circles, I found your "Bringing A Knife To A Gunfight" column (Political Whore, Nov. 29-Dec. 5) to be remarkably insightful and informative. The dilemma it highlights is one that, it seems to me, progressive Democrats need to resolve if they want to be elected to office. That dilemma is this: Can a local candidate whose basic stump speech trashes the "special interests" and vows to oppose them if they get to Tallahassee get enough money from small contributors to offset the loss of the "special interest" money that will realistically flow to their opponent, or do they need to temper their "people vs. the powerful" rhetoric in order to make themselves more palatable to the power brokers who control campaign funds? Locally, the Democrats that did — most notably, Rick Kriseman and Bill Heller — won, despite opposition from both conservative Republicans and progressive Ed Helm Democrats. Democrats who didn't, like Candi Jovan, lost. In my view, the point that Candi and many other self-described Progressives miss is: If you want to raise money and win elections, you've got to stand for something. Simply saying "Yes We Can" is not enough.
Hal Alterman
Crying Wolf
After reading the article on Josh Wolf ("Why Is This Kid In Prison?" by Derek Olson, Nov. 29-Dec. 5), I'm still undecided as to whether I think he should be in jail or not. … But I am leaning toward agreeing with the other side because of two conflicting statements attributed to him in the article. First Josh insists he won't give up the tape because there's no evidence of a crime on it. I guess if a reporter says there was no crime, then we can just trust him. Later in the article Josh is quoted saying that the (real?) reason is "Because I don't do surveillance for the government." So which is it? Is he convinced that there's no evidence on the video and that no legal authority should be given an opportunity to prove him wrong? Or does he just not care if there's evidence of crimes on the video because he's not getting paid to collect evidence? Seeing how Josh doesn't do surveillance for the government, I wonder how intent he'd be on not giving up the video if it showed a street gang beating up his girlfriend or mother. Surely he'd want those criminals convicted, but then he doesn't do surveillance for the government, so I guess he'd just have to let them go free — or more likely save the video for a civil suit where he might get a payoff.
Bob Klase
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2006.
