Thanks to Timothy Davis for putting into print my favorite Charlotte Rant ("Ah, Whadda You Know?," June 18). Since I moved to the area in "94 I have screamed about the whole safe corporate music that comes to this village. I am a 38-year-old punk, who happens to also enjoy a lot of roots and "Americana" music. Bob Crawford of the Avetts is a good friend of mine and I was overwhelmed to see how many people came out for their show. It is a shame, however, that on Wednesday night, there weren't any kids there. They could have learned how pale and corporate their idea of punk is. Bands like Good-182 and Blink Charlotte and New Found Biscuit annoy me with their hypocritical anti-establishment bullshit. They are Boy Bands with guitars and silly haircuts.

Now if we could get 400 out to see Jem Crossland & the Hypertonics and 4 on the Floor, life would be perfect.

-- Chris O'Neill, Charlotte

Lucy's Got A Point
Re: "Drugs R Us" by Lucy Perkins (June 11).

Having spent a number of years as a teacher in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg School system, I have seen the failures of the current drug enforcement program. The drug problem is very complex, therefore it is not likely to be solved, because our politicians are incapable of thought beyond a single solution, whether a single answer satisfies all or not.

The starting point for reasonable decision-making has to be facts, truth, and scientific evidence. I would like to see unbiased research about each of the drugs now subject to restriction. It would be refreshing to have researchers who simply let the facts fall where they may and report them honestly.

I am not certain that a world with legal drugs being consumed is a world I would want to occupy, but we have drugs being consumed now and I do occupy that world. If the drugs were legal, they would be of consistent quality and concentration, thus overdoses would diminish; the criminal element would be out of work; and the tax revenue would allow politicians to go on a spending spree of epic proportions.

Continue to challenge the thought processes of the readers. I do not agree with everything Ms. Perkins writes, but I love to consider the arguments she presents.

-- Name Withheld by Request

Kelly Misses the Boat

Kelly Boatright's claiming that Fox News provides "balanced no-spin reporting" ("Hal the Twisted Liberal," Letters, June 11) flies in the face of that network's own internal documents, which reveal that Fox News began as a conservative platform, opposed to the major cable and broadcast network news operations. This doesn't mean those news outlets were or are necessarily "liberal" in focus.

The important issue here isn't the standard name-calling tantrums poorly informed conservatives throw when they are faced with opposing viewpoints. No amount of childish finger pointing at Bill Clinton can excuse the Bush administration's blatant deceptions it has given justifying the invasion of Iraq. Mature, responsible leaders don't resort to war unless they believe they have no other option. George W. Bush doesn't seem to fall into this category. His administration is trying to spin Americans' recollections as to what Bush and other high-ranking officials said were the reasons for war.

By any reasonable standard, Bush is showing a shocking lack of candor and accountability on this matter. If WMDs aren't found, then it will be obvious that this allegedly moral, responsible president lied to the American people in order to start this war. And if faking a reason to start a war that's continuing to kill US troops on a weekly basis doesn't anger conservatives, then someone needs to start questioning their commitment to freedom and honest government.

-- Michael A. Clark, Charlotte

Boatright's Bias

In response to Mr. Boatright's letter, Mr. Crowther may "embrace free thought only as long as that thought results in one arriving at the proper politically correct conclusions," but Mr. Boatright shuns stupidity, unless of course it serves his own bias. He has failed to account for the huge barrage of propaganda we receive every day in our media, namely Fox News. Every news source bends over and takes one so that we all may see good ol' Dubya strut around in his flight suit. I bet that military garb feels rather odd since he mysteriously disappeared during his supposed service to the National Guard. The best attack Boatright seems to come up with is the extremely cliched "liberal being serviced by an intern" bit. I'm aware of plenty of other things to not like about our last "liberal" other than the intern debacle. While every one, including the FBI, was placing all of their energy into finding out exactly what brand of cigar it was, terrorists were planning 9-11. Meanwhile, Cheney is meeting with Osama only months before the attacks to discuss . . . you guessed it -- our oil interests. Some homework into media tycoon Rupert Murdoch might clear the way to reasonable thought. By the way, I don't hate America, but I do love the truth.

-- Les Gulledge, Matthews

Lack of Democratic Etiquette

Hal Crowther's supremely cynical down-putting of the culture of Fox News ("Weapons of Mass Stupidity," June 4) contains this blooper: "It violates democratic etiquette to call your fellow citizens "idiots.'" Is he not concerned with "democratic etiquette"? Crowther complaining about name-calling resembles the Pope disapproving of crucifixes.

I don't think much better of the people he vilifies than he does. Put me down also as a democratic progressive wanting to read stronger spokespersons against mindless conformity than Crowther.

And being a Christian with little affinity for Christian Coalition types, I like to quote my favorite spokesperson on being conventional:

Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide / and the road is easy that leads to destruction,/ and there are many who take it./ For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matt. 7:13-14)

It's easy to imitate the critical styles of Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken and then to invite others to join the PC clique. It's truly hard to stand alone, support what little you know, and stay humble about it.

-- Tom Booker, Charlotte

Crowther's Brilliant

As a resident of South Florida I do not have regular access to your paper but I am very well aware of it. This is to extend my congratulations to you for having the good judgment to employ the likes of Hal Crowther. His recent article about the moronizing of America by Fox Nazi News is one of the best opinion pieces I have ever read, going back a dozen years or more. I immediately forwarded it to everyone in my mailing list. It was absolutely brilliant in its message and brilliantly written as well. Wow. Keep up the great work.

-- Skip Martin, Deerfield Beach, FL

Clay It Isn't So

I am not a current reader of Creative Loafing and heard of the piece "Clay Aiken Exclusive!" (by Shannon Reichley, June 4) from listening to 107.9. I have to say that I was appalled. I visited the Loafing web site and read the story. I understand that you were trying to make a point about a totally unrelated item to Clay, but could you not have been a little more judicious in choosing a victim? Clay is a "hometown" boy with all the charm and charisma that has not been seen in the music industry or any other industry for a long time. He has a career on the cusp of becoming something big and can be hurt by the smallest of rumors. He does not have the armor built up of a long time performer.

People have read your article and, as is human nature, stopped reading at the bad part and carried the rumor around. You know as well as anyone that people tend to believe the worst and it then becomes very hard to disprove and gain your respect back (just look at Sammy Sosa). I believe that you owe Clay Aiken as well as the reading public an apology.

-- Cindy Kidwell, Charlotte

Penny For Your Thoughts
In response to Tim Davis' "One More For The Road" (June 4):

Perhaps one gets into the music business for love but one doesn't stay in the business with love alone. Economics and, eventually, common sense dictate that one end up treating it as a business or disappear into history like so many former venues in this city. After 12 years in the club business of which 8- 1/2 have been at the largest alternative music venue in Charlotte, I think I might know a little bit about booking and club going in this town.

The phrase "if you build it, they will come" is from fiction and I, along with any other live music club owner in this city, can attest that the phrase does not translate to "if you book it, they will come." This is not speculation as so many people did in Tim Davis' article. These are hard, cold figures on the bottom line of the page at the end of the night when I pay the band. We've had some great shows at Tremont such as Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, Iggy Pop, The Psychedelic Furs, George Clinton, The Offspring, Paula Cole, Fiona Apple, Blues Traveler, Papa Roach, etc. And all of these shows lost money either for me or for the promoter on at least one occasion. Some were a few hundred dollars and some were several thousand dollars. I recently talked with one prominent Southeastern club owner who lost $50,000 last month alone.

Obviously, most people have no concept of what producing a show entails. Following a sold out Matchbox 20 show, I had a customer come up to me and say, "You sure made a lot of money, didn't you? Tickets were $25 and you sold almost a thousand tickets. That's almost $25,000. Wow!" He actually thought that all that money was going in my pocket so I began to ask him questions. "Well, do you think the band played for free? And do you think all of the people that worked here tonight worked for free? Do you think someone printed your ticket for free? And did you see any advertising for this show? Do you think that was free?" He got the point that the expenses of putting the show together were almost as much as the show generated and he left extremely disillusioned.

I take offense at being referred to as gutless and "lame-assed." It's very easy to provide lip service. What's really tough is putting your own money on the line night after night in an environment as fickle as Charlotte. There are a few "sure things," but basically, promoters are professional gamblers and just like when you go to Vegas, if you leave with more than you came with, you're doing pretty good. So to Tim Davis and Mr. Anonymous, step right on up. Let me know which shows you want to put your money on and I'll do my best to book it. When you're getting your money together, don't forget that you'll need 50 percent of it upfront for the deposit and add in $1,000 to $3,000 for advertising, security, sound and lights, a hospitality rider for 3-5 bands, guarantees for all support acts, lunch for 10, dinner for 30, performing rights societies, loaders and stagehands, 3-4 dozen towels, insurance, a runner and we'll go over the rest later.

-- Penny Craver, Tremont Music Hall