I want to start off by saying that Garbage's third album, Beautiful Garbage, is the best the band has put out so far. Rob Harvilla, if you are going to write an article on a band [Nightwatch, April 18], please bother to do your research. Saying that Shirley Manson of Garbage is from Britain, when she's really from Scotland, is like saying someone from New York City is really from West Virginia. I don't know where Rob gets the notion that Garbage's new album sounds like Britney Spears, but he is way off base.
Beautiful Garbage combines innovative and thought-provoking songs like "Androgyny" with more personal songs. It's the first album where Shirley Manson totally bares her soul for the world to see. This album also reaffirms Garbage's role in the self-stylized "Glamorous Gothic Pop" genre by returning with the haunting lyrics and entrancing music.
Gerald D. Biggerstaff
Cleveland
Kotz is after Fulwood's job:
When one columnist insults another ["What to Do About Sam?", April 25], it shows jealousy. Perhaps Pete Kotz is looking for a job at The Plain Dealer, not Scene. I'm sure Sam Fulwood wouldn't switch jobs with him. I wonder if Kotz and Fulwood have met face to face since Kotz's column was printed.
Ruby Fox
University Heights
An in-joke for journalists:
Hey, this feature writer at one of the Detroit dailies very much enjoyed your piece on Sam Fulwood -- especially the crack about reporters, when criticizing colleagues, acting like cannibals at an airplane crash. Cheerz.
Michael Hodges
Ann Arbor, MI
Invoking the Scruggs offensive:
Great piece on Fulwood, whose job seems to be to prove that a black man can be more boring than Feagler. Even Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs, with her Slats-Grobnik-in-drag, was more consistently interesting and relevant.
Jeffery Quick
Cleveland
1964 is a terrific tribute:
I understand that Scene wants to be a diverse employer, but who would've thought you'd let the retarded janitor break out his crayons to preview 1964 -- The Tribute [Night & Day, April 18]. Michael Gallucci, do you really consider yourself a music reviewer, or even a rock critic? Basing your opinion on a photograph is sheer journalistic genius. Have you even made the effort to see the band?
From their moptops to the bottom of their Cuban heels, these guys are the real deal. They not only capture the atmosphere of the Beatles in 1964, but they also have the music down note for note. The instruments are authentic. The amps, the lighting, the movements, the vocals, and yes, even the way they look cannot pay better tribute to the musicians who changed the way the world viewed music. And really, do you believe twentysomethings would have been able to accomplish the task of performing Beatles music without ever being exposed to anything but what their parents showed them on video?
Obviously, someone gave you a little too much freedom with the keyboard. Their mistake. Next time, get off your ass and see the band you plan to preview before you form an opinion. And before doing so, why not jump on the scale yourself and look in the mirror.
John Hlucky
Parma Heights
Seattle's WTO demonstrations were thug-free:
Just setting the record straight on David Stevens's letter in the April 25 issue [Stevens's letter was in response to "White Power Outage," March 7]. While there were groups of thugs (both black and white) jumping people at the 2001 Seattle Mardi Gras, the WTO demonstrations had nothing of the sort. If you're looking for violent parties, check out the police, and make sure your facts aren't bogus. I'm not even going to start with the rest of your letter, so I'll just leave it at that.
Toby Crittenden
Oberlin
Promoting white interests isn't racism:
The Council of Conservative Citizens is proud to promote the interests and protect the heritage of European Americans ["White Power Outage"]. Our chapter starts each meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer.
We would like Scene readers to know that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is in no way a neutral or objective source of information. The SPLC is notorious for taking in millions of dollars by slandering organizations. SPLC fear tactics use fringe organizations to raise money, yet your article points out the weakness of such groups.
Scene recently smeared the CofCC by associating it with allegedly racist or supremacist organizations. Using fear tactics and character assassination may sell newspapers, but it does nothing to promote truth. The CofCC opposes racism as unconstructive. We do not consider promoting white interests as racist any more than blacks and Jews consider their own agendas to be racist.
Our CofCC chapter informed Mayor Campbell that the Black Nationalist flag flying over City Hall is racist. This is the flag of the New Black Panthers and has flown over every race riot, including Cleveland's Hough riots in 1968. Its supporters publicly advocate violence against whites. Martin Luther King never flew this flag. We protested this outrage to Cleveland's television media. No journalist showed the moral courage or intellectual honesty to honestly pursue this matter.
Richard Charles III
Ohio Northcoast CofCC
Cleveland
