Love/Hate Mail
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Joe Galante has been to me a dear companion, a generous mentor and a wise boss. I very much enjoyed the chronicle of his life and times in Guitartown (“They Barked, He Bit Back,” Nov. 6). Taking not an iota away from Joe’s remarkable ability, insight and success, I must submit a small bit of reality that was otherwise tossed aside as so much parenthetical filler in your article. You referenced a few executives who were in place during the years Joe was in New York, with a very strong implication that everything had unraveled in his absence. I know those people well. In fact, I am one of them. There were also Jack Weston, Josh Leo, Garth Fundis and a host of other committed, talented and hardworking folks who toiled tirelessly in those lean and transitional years. Their sweat and blood built a sturdy bridge between Joe’s two empires, and I find it exceedingly inappropriate that they be overlooked.
I have been a roofer, a frame carpenter, a short-order cook, a busboy and a house painter. But the hardest job I’ve ever had was attempting to manage a once-astonishing record label that had lost its magic. It was a daily dose of heartache, humiliation, frustration and whiskey. You could see it in the eyes of everyone in the building. But, here’s the truth: The careers of Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Mindy McCready and Lonestar were seeded in that era, and three of those acts have become the cornerstones of the BMG powerhouse. Here’s to the nameless bridge-builders!
Thom Schuyler
viviansboy@comcast.net (Nashville)
Rick, you know you love him
Poor Phil Bredesen! Even if the slack-jawed citizens of Tennessee haven’t evolved beyond their 19th century knuckle-dragging ways enough to realize how progressive a governor he is, at least Phil Ashford is giving him his props (Political Notes, Nov. 13). On the other hand, the mere fact Ashford approves of Bredesen could doom the governor’s reelection chances quicker than he could say “Confederate flag.” Like the self-satisfied, Northeastern-indoctrinated reformist he is, Ashford persists in explaining every liberal political defeat in terms of the mental or moral deficiencies of the opposing constituency. This does not play well among Southerners who are already justifiably suspicious of modern-day Yankees come South (or to Washington, for that matter) professing the altruistic intention of saving the backward Southern heathen from himself. One only has to look at the mess that has already been made of supposedly progressive states such as Massachusetts, California and New York to explain the ingratitude most Southerners express for such offers of “assistance.”
To supercilious simps like Ashford and his soul mate, presidential candidate Howard Dean, there are apparently only two kinds of Southerners—those too stupid to vote liberal and those who at least have enough sense to let their liberal betters run their lives for them. I don’t know if Bredesen shares these sentiments, but if he does, I at least credit him with having enough political savvy to keep such thoughts to himself. This kind of culturally insensitive and wrong-headed analysis might earn you a gig writing leftist boilerplate for the Scene, but it won’t win you many friends south of the Mason-Dixon and it will win you even fewer political campaigns.
Rick Baker
rick.baker@verizon.net (Vienna, Va.)
You may be waiting a while
As soon as the City Paper begins home delivery, The Tennessean is history at my house (Desperately Seeking the News, Nov. 13). The latter’s substitution of non-news for genuine news on its front page may win applause for trivialization, but it does nothing for serious readers who want only to know what’s going on in the world.
Gene A. Russell
grusselltn@aol.com (Nashville)
That pot/kettle thing
After remembering Desperately’s commentary in the past about Channel 4’s sweeps offerings, I wanted to share my disgust: Channel 4’s sweeps “report” on cell phone surveillance was rather disturbing to me. I suppose I understand why the station chose not to address the hundreds of other ways our privacy is being covertly infringed upon—that would require more than three minutes of videotape and a newsman who doesn’t mind admitting to secretly snapping photos. But for Channel 4 to pose as the concerned defender of its audience’s privacy is, to me, incredibly hypocritical, given the station’s repeated willingness to covertly film Nashvillians going about their daily business and then recycle that footage to fit the needs of their “stories.”
During sweeps week a couple years back, a friend of mine and her boyfriend were filmed picnicking in Centennial Park without their knowledge or consent, and that footage was used for an entire week for a montage promoting an investigation on the sexual activity of teenagers. They didn’t get to say, “Dude, that’s me,” like the dimwit in the cell phone story; instead, they got to try to explain to their parents, classmates and acquaintances why they had been singled out to serve as the symbols of sexually active teens. I seriously doubt that half of the innocent bystanders used to put a human face on Channel 4’s voiced-over content know they are being filmed, and I’m sure most would probably—given the choice—wish not to be used for that purpose.
Walter Benjamin
beneluxer@yahoo.com (Nashville)
Correction
Last week’s editorial, “Those License Plates Must Stop Speaking,” incorrectly stated that Gov. Phil Bredesen signed the legislation creating the “Choose Life” license plates. In fact, he allowed the bill to become law without his signature. We apologize.
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