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Slate Gets Booted
Oh, how the mighty have
fallen.
Slate
, formerly the new bastion of journalistic
integrity, the watchdog of all media, has blown it. Or at least Jacob Weisberg
has in "Positively
Fourth-Rate." First, let me say that I very much agree that most of the
time snobbish aficionados trumpeting the obscure B-side, bootleg, or rare
import are nothing but annoying. However, when it comes to Bob Dylan, I begin
to suspect that Weisberg is not much of a fan or a fact checker. First, Greil
Marcus does get rather obsessive, but the song "I'm Not There" is readily
available on the "illegal Basement Tapes bootlegs." I personally own it on two
different collections, one a five volume collection of all known Basement Tapes
recordings titled The Genuine Basement Tapes (the history of which is
detailed by Clinton Heylin in his book Bootleg ) as well as a bootleg
greatest hits collection called The Genuine Bootleg Series, Take 2 . I
live in Kansas, the middle of the Midwest, and these CDs were easy to find in
local stores. Anyone with Internet access or living in a larger metropolitan
area should be able to hunt down "I'm Not There" in less than an hour.
Second, I personally
disagree with the given assessment of the 1966 concert; I love the whole thing
and, having heard many a live Dylan tape, consider it one of the better live
concerts out there, and certainly one of the best-sounding recordings from the
'60s. The bootleg recording is not like the standard pop album; it is by nature
released mainly for the die-hard fan or collector, and while there is a great
deal of dross to sort through, there are a lot of wonderful moments if you take
the time to find them.
Furthermore (and what you should be writing about), the bootleg industry is
currently undergoing a revolution in production, thanks to the introduction of
CD-ROM technology, which effectively means that anything ever bootlegged is
readily available. While CD-ROMs with color copies for inserts lose a great
deal of the artifact value boots used to have, the resulting availability is
ample compensation, especially since it has forced producers of traditional,
higher-fidelity aluminum CDs to increase their standards, with better liner
notes, more photos, and higher quality packages. Bootlegs preserve music that
otherwise would have been lost forever and allow music fans, as opposed to
consumers of pop music, access to a much fuller canon of musicians' work.
-- Neil
Dryden Lawrence, Kan.
Political
Uses of a Dead White Woman?
Your
"Frame Game" title "St. Matthew: The political use of a gay man's gruesome death"
strikes me as harsh and callous. While the content of the article on Matthew
Shepard's murder is thoughtful if analytical in tone, the heading seems to
support the idea of a gay person as a symbol, but not as an equal. Would you
ever have written "Political Uses of a Dead White Woman"?
-- Patrick Meade New
York City
Yes,
Health Care Is Unfair
Thank you for "Sickbed
Populism," your well-balanced article on health maintenance organizations.
You are on target with your suggestion. Republicans should counter with
logical, informative statements that point out the costs involved in
litigation. Sadly, the average citizen doesn't seem to understand that
financial settlements are not manna from heaven.
My husband works in health
care, and we often discuss related issues. One of the major problems HMOs are
facing is inadequate Medicare reimbursement. Someone has to absorb the loss.
The provider? I don't think so. The patient? Not politically correct. As a
society we may have to face facts.
Maybe we
shouldn't save every premature baby regardless of the cost. Maybe we shouldn't
attempt to extend the life of every individual. We want it all and want it to
be free. Life isn't fair ... never has been. You can bet no one will ever elect
me to public office. I'm way too truthful.
-- Margaret T.
Richman Metamora, Ill.
Nothing
but Talk Is Cheap
Re
"Sickbed Populism": So HMO patients shouldn't complain because they are getting
"cheap" medical care. Well, I belong to Kaiser Permanente Senior Care, for
which the government sends Kaiser $390 (!) per month to care for me. Does David
Plotz think that is "cheap"? And the care I have received is not "managed"
care, but mismanaged care. As soon as I can, I will be changing to some
other plan, which means I will probably have to go back to work to pay for
it.
-- Dee
Townsend Annandale, Va.
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