KATHLEEN WILSON: Thank you, Kathleen Wilson, for motivating me not to go see new bands, but to write a letter and call you on your bullshit ["See Something Different," Excellent, Dec 9]. Other than seeing ONE new band due only to a "scheduling foul-up," when was the last time you actually sought out something new? Perhaps I'm being harsh, and speaking out of turn. Maybe you go out every Tuesday and Wednesday night, just to see something different -- watching bands you've never heard of, who aren't friends of yours or friends of friends. But, how would I know -- since you never write about any of them?
Why do you expect the rest of Seattle to see something different, when the average reader of your paper would never know there's anything out there outside of Death Cab for Cutie and the Murder City Devils? Put your money where your mouth is, and actually write about new bands.
Philip Glass, via e-mail
KATHLEEN WILSON: In "See Something Different" [Excellent, Dec 9], you ask why people have gotten lazy in producing and seeking out music for music's sake. You say the responsibility to alert the public as to what is hip and new is that of musicians themselves.
Kathleen, your job as I see it, is to go band-hopping night after night, getting shitty drunk with your work pals, and then reporting the facts -- hopefully referencing those bands in your writing. You are in a position to send out citywide alerts as to what's hip and new. We, the people, rely on the press to tell us the best places to spend our money and our free time. You and your partner in crime Erin Franzman, with her music snobbery article ["Hey Snob!" Excellent, Dec 9] (this from a woman who called Ben Harper "the poor man's Lenny Kravitz") are supposed to be setting the standard here. You are [the ones] getting lazy.
As for your blowjob article ["You Don't Own Me," Excellent, Dec 9]: I don't know why you get accused of being an alcoholic starfucker. Oh, wait -- aren't you the one who once devoted an entire article on how moist your panties get at Rocket From the Crypt shows? I'd sign this [letter] for the glory of burning bridges, but it would just be so many more wasted words to an opinionated woman with no opinions, and my own kiss of death.
Anonymous, Seattle
EDITORS: Nice piece of revisionist history in the Kathleen Wilson piece "You Don't Own Me" [Excellent, Dec 9]. Seems like only yesterday Kathleen wore the "Alcoholic Starfucker" byline as a badge of honor over a period of months on end, when she was still pallin' with Everett True. Maybe the highly successful examples of disinformation campaigns in the mainstream press have inspired Kathleen.
Will Van Spronsen, Seattle
HEY, SNOB (OH, THE IRONY): Re: "Hey Snob," Excellent, Erin Franzman, Dec 9. For once I would like to read something by Erin Franzman that is actually about music. Music is beautiful, inspiring, creative, sacred -- not a fucking soapbox platform. The irony of it all is that people who read these articles and take them seriously are the very same people Erin puts down in her article.
Who cares if a band "sells out," or if people don't come to see them because their drummer was in an '80s cover band? It's the MUSIC that matters. If YOU think a band is truly talented and are putting out great songs, go see them. It's that simple. If anything is hurting the Seattle music scene, it's the stupid politics and labeling that Erin adds to it. If "Seattle is full of folks who believe their taste defines right and wrong," then Erin Franzman is their fearless leader.
"jwar," via e-mail
HELLO STEVE WIECKING!: My friend just showed me your review of my film Out of Season ["Small-Town Romance," Dec 9]. THANK YOU. What a thoughtful, lovely, and positive review. It means a lot to me when someone "gets" the film.
Jeanette Buck, director of Out of Season
HEY STRANGER: Thanks for Matthew Stadler's article on the WTO ["Love and Death," Dec 9]. After [participating] in the protests, I frantically searched the media for anything that made any kind of sense about the whole thing. All I found were a bunch of bullshit "explanations" and finger-pointing. Stadler's article is the only thing I've read or seen to date that captures my experience of being there.
Zach Miller, Seattle
EDITORS: "The Battle of Seattle was the most encouraging display of outrage Americans have managed in a generation." [From "A Twitch in the Body Politic," Steve Perry, Dec 9.]
"The Battle of Seattle"? Thanks for playing into the media hysteria about the WTO circus with that lead [sentence]. I'm sure the folks at Fox News are feeling both vindicated that their phrase has caught on with allegedly bright people, yet bummed that no one (fortunately) was actually killed in the demonstrations so they could further dwell upon Seattle's collective black eye. Mr. Perry, stop trying to impress your old, dried-up '60s collegiate professors by encouraging the blocking of streets that I have to use too.
"...The most encouraging display of outrage Americans have managed in a generation"? Please; like no one got upset about the Gulf War or the Operation Desert Shield buildup. Also, as far as displays of outrage go, perhaps you forgot about the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Now there was outrage: real, immediate, justified, and oh yeah... not white. Hmm, perhaps that's why you forgot about mentioning them. The folks in Los Angeles in 1992 had real gripes and real axes to grind, about real injustices that happened to them. Grow up.
Tommy Hough, Queen Anne
EDITORS: A hearty "hear, hear" goes out to Josh Feit ["Boarding Up Boomtown," Dec 9] for reminding us all that social and political change comes only through the melding of myriad forms of protest. Indeed, in any climate of societal change, there is a time for marches, outraged discourse, and yes, even violence.
Let us not forget that singularly critical moment of historical protest in our nation's history: the Boston Tea Party. Undoubtedly, by today's standards, such actions on the part of individual protesters would be considered violent property destruction. Yet does history treat the architects of that event as anti-mercantile rabble-rousers? No. They are considered patriots, and lie at the heart of American self-determination. I don't believe by any stretch that the Ruckus Society is comprised of patriots. I do believe that the establishment will only be shaken when it realizes that the opposition is ready to crack a few eggs for it's proverbial omelet, and [judging] from the events of the past few weeks, I would say folks are getting a little hungry.
Don Schwartz, via e-mail
DEAR EDITOR: I thank David Schmader for his enlightened Last Days ["National Bible Week," Dec 2]. It helped me understand the truly perverse undercurrent of Christianity in our society today. It seems fairly obvious that Thomas Briggs was forced to kill his entire family by reading the Bible's account of Abraham attempting to sacrifice his son Isaac. As Schmader pointed out, the [crime scene] investigators found "notebooks filled with biblical references"! I'm sure Mr. Schmader also believes that the eco-rantings of Unibomber Ted Kaczynski have opened our eyes to the evil nature of the environmental movement.
But let's not stop there. Weren't Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson both vegetarians? It seems rather obvious that all vegetarians are mass murderers. Schmader also mentions that the Bible sprang "fully formed from God's butt." Such impartial reporting from a journalist is something we don't often see nowadays.
When Hitler said he would wring the neck of England like a chicken, Churchill replied, "some chicken... some neck." Let me paraphrase Churchill for Schmader by simply saying, "some butt... some book."
Allen Peterson, Bellingham
DAVID SCHMADER RESPONDS:
Not only are all vegetarians mass murderers, a recent study has proven that all chickens cross the road to get to the other side. Sorry you didn't get the joke, but thank you for complimenting my butt.
