(Re: "What Is Music Worth?" post on CityBeat's Spill It blog about Radiohead's experiment with releasing their new album on the Web only and asking fans to pay whatever they want.) Pretty fascinating idea. Jane Siberry has been doing this on her Web site for a couple years now.
I'm not much of a Radiohead fan — I have OK Computer and like it as background music — but I'll check it out just to support the idea. Given that I'll (probably) rarely listen to it, I'd say $5 is fair.
On a related note, I saw a link on Bill Mallonee's (Vigilantes of Love) site where you can donate money in a sort of old-fashioned "artist's patronage" kind of way. (Bill has gotten sadly desperate with his fans about money, but it's still a good idea.) I'd be happy to send a band money — especially if I hear of unfortunate news (a broken-down van) or if I get their music through legal means that likely doesn't generate much dough for them (Emusic).
Over the past year, I've managed to find digital copies of many out-of-print records I have on vinyl or cassette but that were never released on CD. I'd love to send Scruffy the Cat, Rave-Ups, Del Fuegos, etc. some jack for their records, though I already bought them once, but there's no way to do it.
— Dave P., posted Oct. 9
Vote of No Confidence
(Re: "Word Games and Outright Lies" post on the Porkopolis blog about recent revelation that the Bush administration backed torture techniques.) President Bush has been caught red-handed, yet he denies it! This is big, but most media give it about 10 seconds before moving on to the next topic.
Who ever thought far enough ahead to think that Vice President Cheney is Bush's insurance policy against being impeached?
What we need is a parliamentary system so we could have a vote of no confidence and the whole stinking administration could be tossed out.
— David E. Gallaher, posted on Oct. 8
Information Educates
I would like to compliment you on the fine article about mercury and its dangers by Cathy Creger Rosenbaum ("Understanding Mercury Poisoning," issue of Sept 5). It's rare to find an informative article of this sort that explains the basics: what is the nature of mercury, how does that impact hazardous exposure, etc.
An article like this educates the public. This is very important, because an educated public can ask probing questions in public policy debate or in response to far-too-common news that does more to alarm than inform.
— Julie Zavon,
Clifton
Correction
Last week's cover story on Cincinnati City Council challengers, "Raising the Bar," incorrectly listed the party affiliation for Michael Earl Patton; he is running for council as a member of the Libertarian Party. The same story incorrectly stated that Brian Garry ran for council two years ago; he ran as an independent four years ago.
