Rock Candy

Wow, that is ridiculous. I can't believe she didn't even call 607 before she decided to "warn" families about his "profane" rapping. Absolutely terrible reporting. Shame on her.

probably more of a slash at the Times than anything. you'd have to be dumb to realize that all the music at RiverFest isn't set around the camp fire and sing kumbyah (or Praise Jesus! which probably would please Mrs. Caillouet a bit more), given some of the acts in the past.

She meant well. It was really just a direct message to Sweet Tea himself, Jay Grelen, warning him about the dangerous profanity that could be overheard by his kids (and his mama and daddy and even Harper Lee, who he's tracking at this very moment).

Kevin Kerby talked about masturbating and dropped the "f" bomb once or twice the last time I saw Mulehead play Riverfest. Shameful. Middle of the day and everything.

RE: 607 and Fear of a Black Penis

An Open Letter to Linda Caillouet at the Demozette

Way to really look dumb on so many levels! I realize that this was just a naive (and shockingly ill-thought-out) excuse to take a swipe at the AR Times (who cares?), but it says so much more about you and the same ol' good ol'boys you work for. Some of them would still be pacing outside of Central, if they weren't too scared to drive south of 630.

Are you a big fan of 607's - so much so, that you can predict what he's going to do with his hand? If not, I'm guessing you are stereotyping or passing along second-hand gossip? Is that the job of journalists? That must be part of the new D-G editorial policy we've seen so much of lately where you don't print the news (like when the CFO of a major Arkansas corp. goes missing after a dramatic fallout with Dillard's execs), but instead just print "your version" of how things "should" be - like rehashing Smtih and Hussey's "David O. Dodd - Civil War Hero" tripe and Jay Grelen's painfully sanguine, yet morbid column, Sweet Death.

Are you going to see ZZ Top? They're probably going to do Mexican Blackbird - you know the one where "...they all call her puta, cause no one really knows her name..." Look it up. It's not nice in English. You might want to warn your Hispanic readers about that, too. But wait, you're not writing for anyone but white people - are you? It's not that you're really concerned that some innocent family from Cabot is going to get their faces painted then innocently stretch out on the grass to listen to 607 talk intelligently about what it means to be a black man living in a society rife with hypocrisy and people saying what they think sounds good, while still remaining the same old crackers you can't turn your back on. But if they happen to do that, it would be OK and it would probably be good for them. They might even learn something that transcends their fear of a black man grabbing his penis.

Being so knowledgeable about his work, you probably know his rhymes by heart - so then I'll leave you with this (something you would recognize from 607's Mute Math):

It's all about perception.
Just because where we live at we think
What everybody perceives to be the truth is the truth
Cause the masses control it with their will.
But I'm here to say it ain't so.

Paper Trails column in s a joke. the dem Gazette as a whole is sorry when it comes to their columnists for the most part. There area few exceptions. Still, if you have a kid of middle school age and above it is wise to make sure you get a national newspaper delivered to your house and encourage them to read that. Just leave it lying around and they'll pic it up, find things of interest. and hide the Democrat Gazette.

You don't want them to grow up thinking newspaper "analysis" is like that everywhere. They may start thinking like that and that won't serve them very well once they head out from here.

Has anyone received a reply from Caillouet? I fired an e-mail off first thing yesterday morning asking her if she had actually ever seen or heard 607. I guess it's pretty easy to make an a$$ of yourself when you live in a bubble with the rest of the columnist up there (save one or two talented writers).

Anyway, I second the revjerrylee, and agree with Lindsey that "writing about the grandparents of reality show contestants" pretty much sums her up.

Well, that's not true. She also writes about Devon Helm (sp) and his exploits at least once a month, perhaps twice.

I'm so sick of hearing about the efforts of an aged rocker attempting to reinvent, reignite, his career. ENOUGH already.

How about when an Arky gets a new baseball contract, or signs up with a major record, or guess who I saw this weekend at the Clinton center.

And finally, for the record, Ted and Mary Steenburgen OWN a condo here. So yes, they will be spotted in public now and then. Ummm. so will Bill Clinton too, he also has a place here.

Wow, I didn't know I had all that in me.