Letters from Rosie, 2

Hey J,

I WANT to know what you think about certain records, because I'm
INTERESTED in what you personally think. Our interests maybe esoteric,
but because of the democratising power of the internet, that doesn't
seem to matter anymore. I wanted to know if you've heard the new
Gossip record, or what you make of the Beth Ditto thing. 'Isn't it
funny how things work out?' That's what strikes me as I watch Beth
Ditto on tv, or on the red carpet. The meat and bones of the music -
well, it's no real advance on anything Heavens to Betsy or Bikini Kill
or any of the other predecessors did. (I still reckon, for sheer
experimental musical flair, The Raincoats Odyshape is the most
striking all-female effort out there and it predates all the riot
grrrl stuff). But Beth Ditto is the victorious culmination of all the
women who came before her. Dude, because of your Huggy Bear cover,
Beth Ditto is sitting next to Kate Moss and Karl Lagerfeld at Paris
fashion week. She's out there and credible and punk and gay and fat
and female and she's not only getting away with it, but it's actually
compounding her success. Isn't that amazing? It means that something
within culture at large has...changed. All that persistent chipping
away has borne this victory. I really hope she won't just turn out to
be a fluke. And I don't want the hardcore grrrls to reject her. I hate
that the hard nosed female(!) New York bloggers like Maura at Idolator
find her annoying. It is our duty to love her! She's doing her best
and she is what she is, I know you don't like Morrissey but, I've
always agreed with him when he says, 'it takes guts to be gentle and
kind'.

James Joyce wasn’t interested in what the academic world thought about
his writing. He said he thought Ulysses was the kind of book any man
could pick up and read. He didn’t like discussing literature in salons
and in academic settings. He’d rather be out rapping with the guy on
the corner, asking him his opinion on the goings on of the day.

Have you read this book? I read it in art college… devoured and got
considerable pleasure from it. 'Air Guitar: Essays on Art and
Democracy' by Dave Hickey. He says:

 “Colleagues of mine will tell you that people despise critics because
they fear our power. But I know better. People despise critics because
people despise weakness, and criticism is the weakest thing you can do
in writing. It is the written equivalent of air guitar - flurries of
silent, sympathetic gestures with nothing at their heart but the
memory of the music.”

I’m afraid of twitter. I don’t condone the use of any status update
systems. What’s wrong with me? I can't not care about the
responsibility of committing a thought to type. Words aren't sacred,
but experiences can be, and if you choose your words carefully, you
can communicate something of real experience with them. That is a gift
and must be respected.

I like print media over web 2.0 because print is intimate. I don’t
want people knowing things about me. I don’t want lots of people
knowing what I’m doing right now. It’s private. You get to see the
bits I want you to see. Filtered and arranged and I take great care to
present the best stuff. What’s the point in proliferating a truckload
of common ore that is immediately lost amongst the rest the instant it
is published online? The pages of old magazines smell nice.

In life, the things we say, the things we feel are only really
relevant to a very few people who are close to us. That’s if we’re
lucky enough to have people close to us. Other than that, the fact of
the matter is, people do not and cannot possibly care about the
comings and goings of an enormous amount of other people.