Music: Watchoo Talkin' 'Bout Sasha Frere-Jones?!

This weeks indie-rock controversy continues to snowball (see my original post here) -- Yes it's Sasha Frere-Jones' Molotov cocktail of a New Yorker article (and blog posting and podcast -- can a video game be far behind?) suggesting that indie rock has eradicated all traces of "black" musical forms. Now comes Carl "not the Beach Boys one" Wilson's response in Slate which turns out to be actually pretty good. While taking Frere-Jones to task for all of his article's obvious shortcomings Wilson posits class as a bigger differentiator in indie rock, and makes a decent case for it. Of course any kind of reductive argument like this gets hung up on the exceptions but this is worth thinking about. He also puts some of the racial trends in music in a broader social and historical context -- both sorely lacking in Frere-Jones' original piece. The folks at I Love Music's board are already all over this one -- may the controversy continue!

Politics: O'Reilly -- Blacks Eat Just Like The Rest of Us!

Bill O'Reilly: Shocked at absence of M.F.er, B----, C.S.er, etc...

CNN reports that regular guy and Fox News talking head Bill O'Reilly was surprised to find patrons of Sylvia's in Harlem (where the fried chicken is fantastic -- I've had it) didn't carry on and say "M.F. er". Of course until I saw the story on CNN I'd never heard anyone say "M.F.er". Either way, O'Reilly seems to feel that this astonishing bit of news actually stems from his enlightenment as a human being and not from his utter stupidity. Dan Froomkin at The Washington Post draws the connection between O'Reilly's boneheaded comments and his pal Juan Williams. Williams was asked, by special request of The White House, to interview the President about race. His employer NPR declined as they have been attempting to have a reporter of their choosing, preferably an anchor, interview Bush (Williams already has). The goodhearted folks at Fox made sure that Williams and the Pres got their sit-down. For a baseball guy the President sure enjoys softballs, and that's all Williams was pitching.