Thanks
Heartfelt thanks to the readers of ACE for the choice of WRVG as their favorite FM radio station. Having survived the white-knuckle nature of the "startup," it came as a great pleasure to all of us to see that the challenges of presenting an eclectic musical menu are, afterall, worth the effort.
WRVG is committed to building a culturally active community in Lexington and Central Kentucky. By sharing with our listeners the music of both familiar and emerging artists, hosting live on-air performances and supporting live music in the community, we hope to educate, entertain and..indeed..inspire.
A vote of confidence from the readers of ACE is a clear message that we're on the right track.
Thank you,
Tom Martin
Program Director, WRVG-FM
Friends of Bill W
Greetings. I very nearly wet myself after reading Bill Widner's latest cartoon, "George Has Two Daddies [Aug3]. The image of Dubya in that silly little hat is classic and very aptly distills the cronyism which got him where he is today. I've been a Bill W fan since the Lexington Lost days and I am happy that he's found a forum in ACE. Move over Joel Pett, it's time for some real political commentary.
Cheers,
Jeremy Whipple
via email
From day one, the Hookers belittled other bands and picked fights from the stage [cover, Aug3]. Early on in Taildragger, we had a "no Hookers gig" policy because of their behavior. I realize their success makes them a story, but it really sucks to see them on your cover. Their "fuck you" schtick is about as worn out as the music they play.
"Rockabilly" Rob Hulsman
ps: Widener is gawd
Beloved
I wish you, the Herald-Leader, and the other local communication organizations would stop treating Gatewood lightly [winner, most beloved local personality, Best of Lexington READERS' Poll, July 27]. Every time I hear that he wins a "character" award or is a "perennial candidate" I am saddened to the point of hopelessness for this sorry town and the people who make it up, who don't seem to understand that they have here, in Gatewood, the best social and political thinker in the state and one of the best in the country. He is about the only legislator worthy of the name that has appeared in any political race in as long as I can remember, the only candidate for anything whatsoever who thinks rather than plots, and who has viable answers for the problems that believe me are very close to hurting us terribly as a state, and as a country. He is belittled because he is humorous, personable and kind, and that is a travesty, and ignored by the people who he works to help because he spends his energy trying to find and promulgate solutions for their problems instead of his (and our) money trying to smear his political opponents. What a statement this is on the state of the polity here, and on the state of its representatives in the various media. Do you want change and solutions to these problems, I wonder, or do you just want to be cute and comfortable. Please give this man his due. He is one of the true heroes of our times, and a much greater person than most of you seem to be able to fathom.
Sincerely,
Bernard Bever
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Do You Kiss Your Mother with that Mouth?
Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. -Rochefoucauld
My great grandmothers would substitute the phrase "I swan," for "I swear." Even the word "swear" was an offense to their delicate Christian sensibilities.
My maternal grandmother would exclaim, "shhhhttttt." Apparently, the removal of the vowel effectively neutered the expletive in some way.
Everyone's comfort zone is different.
I was thinking of this as I read an article this past weekend, "Lewd Awakenings," in the mainstream Entertainment Weekly.
In it, they probe how far our standards for decency have plummeted, citing everything from Eminem, to Tom Green's testicles, to the Klumps ad suggesting geriatric fellatio - along with the usual suspects: the Farrelly brothers and South Park and Howard Stern.
It's a shame they chose to lump the scatological obsessive adolescence of the Farrellys and American Pie into what otherwise could have been a salient piece on first amendment issues. Because they're really two separate discussions: "why has childish vulgarity risen to such blockbusting heights (to the point that genuine grownup fare is almost impossible to find)?" and "what do we make of the hatemongering misogyny and homophobia of an Eminem?"
Of course, the article is substantially impaired by the usual coy practice of substituting dashes for selected language - and as usual, I'm always interested to see where they draw the line of acceptability. (Especially given that they printed the headline "Where's Pussy?" on their Sopranos cover back in January.)
They reproduce an Eminem lyric as, "New Kids on the Block sucked a lot of d---/Boy-girl groups make me sick/And I can't wait 'til I catch all you faggots in public..."
As an editor, printing the word "faggot" would give me far more pause than the word "dick." But I recognize that "offensive" is in the eye of the beholder.
Ultimately, we'd print both. If we wanted to provide any meaningful criticism of his work, we'd be obliged to faithfully reproduce his lyrics.
But at the end of the day, different forms of media have different jobs to do. No one picks up Pet Fancy and then complains about their paltry coverage of Trans Ams.
We aren't coy about quoting salty language, and if we review an exhibit of nude art, we don't photoshop black bars over the "naughty bits."
We figure you can take it. By and large, we're a newspaper written by and for grown-ups, and we don't consider that "exclusionary." We are what we are, and we're delighted to have you. But either way, we're not adding Trans Ams.
I suspect Entertainment Weekly self-censors their content because they assume Chrysler or Honeycomb Cereal wouldn't cough up the ad dough if they printed "dick" as opposed to "d---." The dashes are their Maginot Line, erecting a forcefield that even Jerry Falwell can't penetrate. Maybe they're underestimating Chrysler (and their readers).
Here, we trust our readers. And we still get the occasional complaint. It might be easier to go to bat for a cover story than say, the 976-PUMP ads, but the principle is the same.
I have no special editorial affinity for the "triple-X slutty girl" -type ads. But their copy isn't my call, and it shouldn't be. (The dailies take their money too, exiling them to the sports section.) All advertisers pay for their space and we don't censor that space. They return the favor by not attempting to dictate ours - trusting that we will deliver exactly what we promise, which former Washington City Paper editor David Carr described as "a tribe of young, active, well-educated people with money in their pockets." That's the deal. We don't tell them how to braise a duck or build a lawn tractor - and likewise, they don't tell us how to review a CD, cover a labor dispute, critique a controversial art exhibit, or investigate a corrupt politician.
Daily newspapers and other mainstream outlets do an admirable job of meeting the news needs of the CBS/Murder She Wrote/get-off-my-lawn demographic. But just because CBS exists, that doesn't mean HBO shouldn't provide Oz and the Sopranos and Sex & the City.
There's both room-and a need-for all of us.