Ricky Jay is cooler that I thought.
The NRO crew is coming to Atlanta. I wonder if I should bring up my gripe with NRO. Basically I feel that Movie and Music reviews on NRO are boring. People argue all the time over whether the Republican Party has become the true progressive party but there can be no mistaking that complacent nature of Conservative Culture pieces.
The NRO staff’s political work-product is robust and lively. Unfortunately, this same spirit doesn’t extend to its Culture pages. Aside from the occasional symphony Review by the aficionado J. Nordlinger, NRO’s articles on Music and Movies tend to be quaint and un-ambitious. The last ‘rock’ review I read was a tepid requiem for Iron Maiden. Not to mention the nearly self-parodying fawning over an experimental Rock band named Spock’s Beard.
I understand that a Conservative magazine would service the tastes of the average American: Conservative thought, in shorthand, often reads “Just cause the majority of Americans’ like it, doesn’t mean it sucks”. But must we resign ourselves to reviews of REM and U2?
If they really believe the Derb’s trademark statement “Pop Culture is Filth” then they should stop writing about it. The only thing they managed to say about Million Dollar Baby was that it was pro-euthanasia. Which is like dismissing Life is Beautiful as Pro-American propaganda. The culture section is all so Paleo. C’mon guys, get with it!
David insists that among the under-twenty-five crowd its ‘cooler’ to be Conservative. Yet if I pick up a San Francisco Weekly, or Pitchfork Review, or a Creative Loafing, its music section is lousy with sophomoric liberalism. Stomp and Stammer, an Atlanta music rag, is the only one I know of that breaks to norm, actually seeming to rejoice at taking highbrow swipes at the prevalent liberal smugness of the music scene. The National Review Online certainly can’t be expected to lead this movement, but is it too much to ask that it stop being such a killjoy?
