Articles [NAJP]

Call for Young Folks

I wrote Sasha Frere-Jones to congratulate him on his Beyonce column. One of his best. Was pleased to note his skeptical stance in re the president's dancing (see my inauguration post) and recommended the deletion of one adjective from the soy sauce joke. He wrote back to agree about the latter and added: "Doing an Ask The Author about this piece on the newyorker site. Maybe you can direct some young folks there:

www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/ask/2009/02/questions-for-frere-jones.html

I can't vouch for the youth of my readership here, but thought I'd pass the request along. Take a look at the column in any case. Exemplary. Though I would have found room for a sentence about "America the Beautiful." The way Mitch McConnell and Jim DeMint are going, we need all the reminders we can get.

3 Comments

By Libby on February 6, 2009 11:04 AM

Essence magazine and Vibe have given Beyonce the respect she deserves for years. Scott Poulson Bryant did a good piece on her for Giant. So, have others, including at the Nation and the books/music site the Compulsive Reader:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061218/brooks

http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1456

By Robert Christgau on February 8, 2009 9:34 PM

Respect is one thing, insightful respect another. I chose the Daphne Brooks Nation piece you link to when I edited the 2006 Best Music Writing book. It was a shoo-in, a great piece of criticism--greater than Frere-Jones's, probably. The other piece you link to, on the other hand, taught me nothing. I like Poulson-Bryant's writing and there's plenty of good criticism in Vibe, less but still some in Essence. So I'm sure there have been more good Beyonce pieces than Brooks and Frere-Jones. But I never said otherwise.

By Ed on February 10, 2009 10:49 AM

Thanks Libby for the links--I liked both pieces. It's nice to be introd'd to some new voices. (I'm pretty sick of the usual splooge.)

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