Flak Magazine Letters
Sep-Dec 2006
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11-07-06
To: James Norton
Re: Feasting on Asphalt
Hi Jim,
I know it's distant history internet-wise but someone just recently sent me the writeup you did concerning my little summer project, Feasting On Asphalt. I so appreciate that you dug it and wrote so well about it. I hope the other three episodes were as enjoyable for you as the first. I had fun, right up until breaking that damn collar bone.
It looks like Feasting 2 will encompass 6 episodes next year. I'm thinking of a voyage up the Mississippi river from New Orleans to Minessota. Hope you'll tune in.
Best regards,
Alton Brown
10-13-06
To: Stephen Himes
Re: Team America: World Police
Dear Stephen,
I am writing to you about a Team America 2, I dont have the creators contact so I thought I would e-mail you. My idea is more based on the characters and it is very breifly based. What I thought you could do is have Kim Jong II the reason its obvious because of his recent nuclear weapon programme he would get peed off, of him being in Team America again. Kim Jong II would lead the terrorists and his WMD programme in the film. Next character could be Usama Bin Laden it does sound a bit childish because of all that he has done but also if he heard about this himself, he also would be peed of as his terrorist group the taliban/al-quida is coming to an end, i think also the terrorist group should be in the film. For Team America I think you should have some one well known on the film like George Bush. In the film I think Usama Bin Laden and King Jong II should do a comedy dance to a well known track like the recent one by Bob Sinclar — Rock this party also I think Team America should do one. Also Usama Bin Laden and King Jong II should hide out in the mountains of Afganistan and the terrorists should kidnapp the well known person on Team America i.e. George Bush. The news reporters should be against Team America but not with the terrorists and I dont think some actors like Matt Damon should be on the terrorist side.
Thank you
Joseph Baggaley
P.S. I Tried
09-27-06
To: James Norton
Re: TV on the Radio
I'm not entirely sure why all the hype has been built up around this band (who are admittedly freaking incredible) right now rather than when their first album Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes came out a few years ago. That one was nearly as good as this is!
I also think you exaggerate how much of an anomaly these guys are. We're not so much in a period of dry, uncreative music as a period of really intense fragmentation. There's LOTS of really excellent music around, adventurous things, even of supposedly dead genres like rock. The problem is that the market's bigger than its ever been, more wide-open than ever before. Sure a lot of people try to gain focus by picking a favorite "informed" source (College radio, Pitchfork, HypeMachine, etc) or recommendation service (Pandora, Last.fm), but these just seal us into our own little niches ever tighter.
I don't see the Pulp-lite of the Arctic Monkeys (for example) as even competing for the same audience as TV On The Radio. But neither do I see the latter as standing alone in making great rock music that's actually innovative.
Joey Malefatto,
Oviedo, Florida
Re: TV on the Radio
Hey Joey,
Thanks for writing. Music... well, the stuff's subjective. One, because we come to every group / album with our own set of pre-existing preferences and prejudices, and two, because we all perceive the overall framework of bands / movements / styles in different ways based on our own breadth of experience. Personally, I thought that their first album was a little rough / overly experimental, whereas I found Return to Cookie Mountain much more polished and mature. But I wouldn't say you're nuts for objecting to that characterization — just that you hit their first disc with a more open mind or different set of priorities than me.
Re: exaggerating TVotR as an anomaly... well, certainly not deliberately, or with malign intent. To my ears, they're fresh as hell, and defy most of what I've been hearing via my local alt-rock station, mixes from friends and clicking around in iTunes. But to someone else with a different sample pool, I can see how that's not necessarily the right way to describe them. Basically, I think any time a critic tries to put a band into a larger context, they're going to fail to some extent unless they're up on EVERYTHING — which few critics have the time to do. And even if they are up on everything, they risk listeners thinking them jaded / unnecessarily broad with their listening / too loose with their associations / etc.
In summary: Thanks for writing an intelligent note in response to my piece. I can't say that I agree with it, in that I still think my assumptions were pretty sound — but I don't think your assumptions were off-base either, if that makes any sense.
best regards,
James Norton
