READING REED
DEAR MERCURY—So, I love the Mercury, but I must
admit I don’t love Matt Davis. I’m particularly annoyed with his little
article on the Reed Shitstorm That Wouldn’t Die [“Reed Students Mock
the Holocaust,” posted on Blogtown, Oct 15]. Firstly, saying that
The Pamphlette‘s article was “accusing Lewis and Clark staff of
’rounding up and gassing all the Jews on their Portland, OR, campus'”
is rather sensationalist, don’t you think? Secondly, you claim that the
article triggered “the most absurd round of hand wringing about whether
or not The Pamphlette should be censored.” Um no, actually. It
didn’t. There was no question as to whether The Pamphlette would be censored. Actually, Colin Diver (the president of Reed
College), sent out an email to the entire student body saying that the
administration does not censor student-funded publications, and would
uphold that policy. No hand wringing involved. Reed has one misinformed
sensationalist jackass out for its blood (smooches, James Pitkin!), it
doesn’t need another.
-Maggie G., Reed Alum ’09
TALL BIKES & POOPY PANTS
DEAR MERCURY—I just wanted to write a general “thanks”
for being a local paper that basically pisses on the local artists by
representing only about 10 percent of the hard-working musicians in the
scene. Next time you start feeling high and mighty, remember that
you’re no better than MTV, and much worse for doing it willfully, and
on a local level. By that, I mean catering to only current trends and
dodging anything that resembles true musicianship. I’ll literally
shit my pants if you ever start to represent the local scene more
widely, accurately, and start to write columns that not only try to
make the reader feel like an idiot by showing them what you know and
they don’t, but go beyond that, get down off the high horse (or tall
bike in this case) and provide real information about a band’s sound
and stage presence, etc. Now that I’ve written it, it seems like one of
few ways you’d ever write a few decent music reviews… [is] by having
someone shit their pants for it.
-Gabe Rodriguez
THE SMELL TEST
DEAR EDITOR/SEAN BRESLIN—Your published article “Don’t FedEx
Your Pot” written by intern Sean Breslin is sensationalized, poorly
reported, vague, and flat-out insulting [News, Oct 15]. I am a FedEx
employee, though I am not particularly proud of the fact. I have worked
with the company for three years, and have never once heard of an
employee becoming “suspicious” about a customer’s package just
for its value. In actuality, his package probably just smelled
like pot. We weren’t born yesterday here at FedEx, though people treat
us as if we were. Furthermore, if someone drops off a package and we
toss it into its proper bin and we get a whiff of weed from it, that is
the fault of the customer alone. Who just up and tries to ship pot
across the country in a FedEx package and expects to get away with it?
At least put it in a bag of coffee, or in 10 plastic bags inside of
each other in a shampoo bottle! Anything other than dumping it into a
package in a plastic baggie and expecting everyone at FedEx to turn a
blind eye (or nose, rather) when it smells like a skunk sprayed the
shipping area. The article was an immature way to have an excuse
to talk about pot in print. I know Robert Stinnett probably feels like
a chump for getting caught, and his ability to pay his lawyer bills is
an extension of his ego, but I for one do not need yet another reason
for customers at my job to treat me like shit. And from stoners
everywhere, use your head and wrap your shit up in something
concealing, n00b.
-Melissa Sneers
CONGRATULATIONS TO MELISSA for reminding all the potheads to employ
the disguising powers of Vicks VapoRub/ground coffee/etc. to camouflage
the dank stank of your crizzity chronic. Bravo: Two tickets to the
Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish! where there is no
need to conceal the smells.
Great point, Gabe. How dare a newspaper focus on the most popular 10% of local music? They are ignoring their duty to you by not printing, at their own expense, pages and pages of information about bands nobody likes! Every week! Because papers make so much money nowadays, that they can afford to print stories that don’t reflect local trends!
Kudos Reymont!! I agree that the Merc should put absolutely NO effort in mixing up their reviews. Gabe obviously meant what you said and wants the Merc to write …. “pages and pages of information about bands nobody likes!” I’m sure he wasn’t just pointing out the OBVIOUS, INARGUABLE bias towards ONLY current trends.
These local prints all follow the same framework, city to city withe the exception of Portland music reviews (basically a copy and paste from a teenage emo mag). I think the point is that with very little effort the Merc COULD support local music and also represent the whole portland scene more accurately by expanding past emo/metal/punk/indie 3 chord songs with 80 synths and a mullet. But they won’t.
@audioinjection – I’m suggesting that the magazines and newspapers that attempt to appeal to the kind of niche markets you’re talking about fail. They are businesses, they have to make money. Just like network TV, they *have* to cater to the broadest demographic, no matter how distasteful, or they go bankrupt. If you don’t believe that, you’re free to prove me wrong! Start your own periodical that covers that shit – a lot of folks have tried, and none of them have succeeded, at least in Portland. The remains of one (PDXUnderground?) was just for sale on craigslist, pick it up and run with it, and I hope you make payroll.
Gabe is right. The blatant nepotism in Portland is gotten out of control. The Mercury seems to have been taken over by transient hipsters that moved here from somewhere else. So many local people are out of work. Yet douchebags that just moved here because they couldn’t afford LA or San Fran, all seem to have numerous bartending and serving gigs. Oh, and a real shitty band that all there transient friends flock to see.YOU ARE NOT THE SCENE. Mike Nesmith (Former Monkee and D-bag sellout) was asked how he stayed on top of trends and knew what kids wanted to hear, he said “I don’t, I tell them what they want to hear”.
The Mercury abuses this same power. I know numerous great bands that can’t get The Mercury to even list their shows because someone that works there hates them because he used to date so and so and so on it goes. PDX Pop Now is just as bad.
Their not promoting the top 10% of what good, they are promoting themselves and their friends. At least Adam Gnade doesn’t write about himself anymore. In fact, it seems like when Kill Rock Stars label moved here, an army of Keytars followed. And it seems that these bands are the only ones being written up. Go back to Olympia! Oh wait, you ruined that towns scene already.
You KNOW Gabe plays in some terrible metalcore band. Keep up the pig squeals and gutterals, Gabe. You’ll make it in the Merc’s music section someday…
Reymont, could you stop being an idiot? Probably not if you tried.
The mercury is supposedly about Portland, and by writing a more diverse music column they would not be “appealing to a niche market”. If you actually read what I’ve written instead of put words in my mouth you’d, well you’d show us that you could actually read and not just rant on your mommy’s computer.
And Gabe is in a FUNK band, so you don’t know shit Oregometry.