Intolerable
There was an article in my Sunday paper about the Aladdin-Ronstadt incident. The writer, Ben Wener, really got me thinking about how polarized we are right now.
He pointed out how all Ronstadt said was she dedicated the song Straighten Up and Fly Right to the "good folks at Enron" and later dedicated to the song Desperado to "the nicest, bravest, most patriotic man," meaning Michael Moore. The rest is history with spin. She just dedicated two songs and some people caused a real ruckus. It must be remembered that the show was billed by The Aladdin as a "Greatest Hits" concert when the entire Ronstadt tour, including the Vegas show, was with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra doing mostly old standards. So some people were pissed to begin with.
Those who were indignant claimed they were incensed with what Ronstadt said. She just dedicated 2 songs for crying out loud!!!!! When did we get so intollerant???? Since Rondstadt is a close friend to such political musicians as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and CSNY who do many political events, why should they be surprised?
Ronstadt comes from the generation of musicians who were allowed a political voice, who were, infact, the voice of the struggle of a generation. Why should they be surprised? Why are they so intolerant?
Wener goes on to note it's not just the old, drunk Vegas vacationers, either. He mentions a concert in So. Cal. that was called Rock Against Bush and people booed NOFX's Fat Mike when, between sets he tried to provoke discussion of current events. All they wanted was music, not think.
What would John Lennon do? Imagine if he were alive and got shouted down for daring to state his opinion.
It's intolerable.....
He pointed out how all Ronstadt said was she dedicated the song Straighten Up and Fly Right to the "good folks at Enron" and later dedicated to the song Desperado to "the nicest, bravest, most patriotic man," meaning Michael Moore. The rest is history with spin. She just dedicated two songs and some people caused a real ruckus. It must be remembered that the show was billed by The Aladdin as a "Greatest Hits" concert when the entire Ronstadt tour, including the Vegas show, was with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra doing mostly old standards. So some people were pissed to begin with.
Those who were indignant claimed they were incensed with what Ronstadt said. She just dedicated 2 songs for crying out loud!!!!! When did we get so intollerant???? Since Rondstadt is a close friend to such political musicians as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and CSNY who do many political events, why should they be surprised?
Ronstadt comes from the generation of musicians who were allowed a political voice, who were, infact, the voice of the struggle of a generation. Why should they be surprised? Why are they so intolerant?
Wener goes on to note it's not just the old, drunk Vegas vacationers, either. He mentions a concert in So. Cal. that was called Rock Against Bush and people booed NOFX's Fat Mike when, between sets he tried to provoke discussion of current events. All they wanted was music, not think.
What would John Lennon do? Imagine if he were alive and got shouted down for daring to state his opinion.
It's intolerable.....
posted by Gr8fulTed at 8:26 AM
1 Comments:
Take Heart, many of us still look to our public figures to have political values, and love them all the more for their courage to speak their minds. Like you said, many of her fans had to expect that she'd make comments such as she did and they still continue to buy tickets to hear her--afterall, she apparently has been doing the same dedications for her whole tour and doesn't hide her friendship with other left leaning stars. I think that our population is hungry for more than just entertainment. M. Moore's movie itself is a good example of this. The fact that it is doing so well and moving from art houses to mainstream cinemas shows that we want more than just entertainment. We the people, want some discourse and information too, for the most part, we are not yet a population that will walk out on a rock star for a few mild political comments. I do think John Lennon would still have a devoted audience and voice now. (If only we were fortunate enough to still have him.)
Another question this news article brings up is whether there was a riot at all or was the story greatly embellished. It sounds entirely possible that it was a situation where the club owner was already peeved with LR for several other reasons and was looking for any reason at all to give her the boot. Her political comments gave him a reason he could use publicly for his own different private motives. It is also possible that some of the audience left and requested $ back because it was a lackluster performance (she had stated to the press prior to the show that she wasn't excited to be in Vegas) not because they were upset by any dedications she made. It is also possible that after the Moore dedication, the audience which left was doing so meerly because the show was over or nearly over--it was an encore afterall. Perhaps the problem these news articles bring up is less a problem of our cultural/political divisions and intollerance and more an issue of how our media is missrepresenting our population and misstelling the stories of the events we experience.
Another blogger, Xymphora, suggests the following: "...The Las Vegas riot - if it in fact even occurred - and the reporting of the incident, especially the categorizing of it in strict Republican red-blue terms to show the supposed gulf between the Democrats and decent Americans, is almost certainly a creation of the Rovian propaganda mills. The Republicans are starting to panic a bit, as Moore has them spooked, so the dirty tricks are starting..."
There is much to think about regarding this concert, but I wonder if the real questions are not regarding the presumption that the audience was intollerant, but rather 1)regarding the media's interpretation and embellishment of the story and 2) regarding who stands to gain from making our divisions seem wider than they actually are and 3) our willingness to believe such events happened in the way we have been told they did without questioning eyewitnesses further. Sensational stories (candy) sell far better than the true discourse
(green vegetables) we hunger for and are so much more palettable.
I hope and trust that we are still a tolerant people, but I fear we are not at all a well informed lot. My appologies for to trading one dissapointment for another.
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