<< this place is becoming a bunch of bitter old dudes curled up with copies of "Goldmine" obsessing over a scene in grave danger of eating its own tail. I assume this is supposed to describe everyone except for you, Jason? >> I never said it didn't include me! I certainly behave like a bitter old dude sometimes. My concern is that all that's *left* is going to be bitter old dudes. And no, I don't have any issues with Goldmine or many of their writers in our midst. It fills an important niche amongst the nostalgic/collector crowd. If it's all there is, however, if we're not moving forward, then there's a problem... wouldn't you think? John, I know you write for Goldmine and that you similarly don't fall into this ideological camp, so I would imagine you understand what I mean. << As a 52 year-old man who's hairline is diminished, this galls me. Should I scream "I'm leaving" and hope I'm begged to stay? No, I'd rather point out that IMHO ageism = racism = any other prejudice, should not be tolerated, suggest that Jason learn more about the subject http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/ageism.htmland also remind him that if he is lucky, he will also one day get old. >> Oy. I am sorry about your hairloss (and you are correct, it's likely I'll be losing mine someday soon as well) and am fully well aware of the concept of ageism. Frankly, if I ascribed to such a point of view, I probably would NOT be listening to much of the music we discuss here in the first place; but the reality is that I don't care, and don't harbor any prejudice towards people who happen to be older or younger. However, I'm not actually the one who brought this up. In fact--and I do realize this is the kind of thing frequently lost during e-mail correspondence--I included the line about "balding, middle-aged men" in quotation marks for a reason. Was it not something being tossed about as a defense against Ms. Kelley's arguments, that--"Hey, we're not beautiful, and people discriminate against us too!"? That alone makes it directly relevant to the dialogue, and I'm not the one who even brought it up! And hey, that IS a legitimate point and I do think several posters articulated this argument relatively well, but the level of vitriol that picked up against Paula after the fact was nowhere NEAR justified. I find it rather hypocritical to criticize Ms. Kelley for being overly sensitive when you then turn around and actually *cite sources* to prove that I've offended you. Besides, for several years I'm pretty sure I (or at least those in my age bracket, natch) were the targets of vitriol from some quarters of this list for being too young, and part of a generation that simply didn't appreciate good music. I didn't much care about this then, nor do I now, but the street cuts two ways. Second of all, if we're going to have a big party about who's-offended-by-what, I *am* routinely somewhat offended by Gabe's (and others) blatant homophobia, even though I *do* realize he's joking (characters will be characters, after all, and he's certainly one of ours), and frankly, it's not worth wasting energy worrying about. But it's funny how these things come back to touch everyone eventually, don't they? The difference is that I come here to learn about new music, not (generally) to start a shitstorm about political correctness. Unfortunately I felt the need to chime in this time because we felt the need to chase off a talented musician in our midst, and I do find that to be a bit of a loss for Audities, and everyone here. In addition, to all those who keep asking "Who's Paula Kelley?," she also duets with Bleu on one of the tracks on the L.E.O. CD, "The Ol' College Try." It's likely many members of the list have heard this since it seems poised to come in quite high on the year-end rankings. --J