A friend, the other day, was trying to argue with me that rap isn't all that since Aerosmith (Steven Taylor) was "rapping" on some of his songs, way back when. I guess I see differently from the "art/music as [mere] technique" view, because my friend's argument made me smile at the thought of Steven Taylor singing the below (which I have quoted on this list -- I am sure Jordan will hunt up the reference) from Ice T I think:
Not a chitlin' eating n-word down South
But a n-word who will smack that taste from your mouth
Saving Jordan the trouble, I found the link in the archives:
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2001/2001-August/016332.html
Reading the thread (and the previous unrelated one that Jordan pointed to) I was struck by a few things:
* Ian mentions something (in that thread) about the danger of cynicism. And when I read my posts from then and compare them to my posts today (6-7 years later), I am disheartened by how much more logical, straight-forward (and perhaps naive) my posts were in comparison to my current often cynical and sarcastic content. Clearly I have taken a turn for the worse.
* How much LBO alumnus Yoshie is instinctively on [what I consider] the fairer side of issues that matter. (which might be a tautological point given my support for her views and person in recent threads). I think I am going to have to petition Rakesh to switch me over from a Julio lackey to a Yoshie lackey ;-).
Anyway, I am very depressed by it all.
--ravi