RTP-area local music and culture

["rick sawyer" <rickbang AT gmail.com>]

finally, this whole side discussion has obscured something important:

declaring that "black music," whatever that means, holds no interest
for you, as merritt did, and that your music could be listened to by
the KKK, as merritt did, are legitimately dodgy acts.  they are acts
worthy of interrogation.  frere-jones never called merritt, "racist,"
and he never made any claim  in an edited publication.  he was writing
in a semi-public forum, like this one, where people say all sorts of
irresponsible things.  that's why editors exist.

it's unlikely that, had he had an editor, morman would have made his
point the way he did.  it was rhetorical bullying.  likewise, an
editor would not have allowed me to interject all the kinds of bile i
feel when i listen to stephin merritt's hackneyed, repetitive, and
limited music.  that's beside my point.

let's all take the internets less seriously, unless we are willing to
curb our own excesses, which we plainly are not.

rick.

On 5/14/06, rick sawyer <rickbang AT gmail.com> wrote:
> perhaps it is you who needs a lesson in the meaning of irony.
>
> irony:
>
> #
>
>    1. The use of words to express something different from and often
> opposite to their literal meaning.
>    2. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast
> between apparent and intended meaning.
>    3. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or
> rhetorical effect. See Synonyms at wit1.
>
>
> so, you write the sentence, "yeah, it means you're a homophobic
> prick," and you're not being ironic?
>
> and any offense i took was from the obviousness of your point.
>
> rick.
>
> On 5/14/06, Todd Morman <tmorman AT nc.rr.com> wrote:
> >  > i got the point in the first place.
> >
> > No, you don't get it. I wasn't levelling any sort of charge at all, and
> > certainly wasn't being "ironic." It's stupid to level that sort of charge.
> > Period. There was nothing essential lost in my boiling down. Period.
> > Frere-Jones attacked Merritt as racist *without offering any evidence
> > whatsoever,* has offered only a half-assed apology for using the word
> > "cracker" and continues to minimize the seriousness of what he did, playing
> > it as a light-hearted "gafuffle" when in fact it's much, much worse.
> >
> > If instead of saying "Yeah, it means you're a homophobic prick." I'd have
> > written "Well, according to Sasha's argument, it means you're a homophobic
> > prick," we wouldn't be having this argument. Since your emotional reaction
> > to that first sentence seems to have made you incapable of understanding the
> > "That *is* how this kind of smear works, right?" that immediately followed,
> > I'm going to drop this.
> >
> > But not before noting that someone who starts a thread by "despising"
> > someone and their art is in no position to call out someone else for being a
> > hater.
> >
> > todd and you calling me a sarcastic jerk is truly hilarious morman
> >
> > -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> >