Disgruntled
in clubland

[Re: “Fete inflators,” Cover, Jan. 31] I was, quite frankly, surprised, and a bit perplexed when I picked up the Mirror last week and saw the guys from Nu Ravers on the Block on the cover. It was, to me, a symbol of what the promotions and nightlife has now become in this city.

It pained me to look at that cover, mostly due to thinking of a lot of the hardworking promoters and DJs in this city. Some of them have been working at this for years, doing successful events and playing successful parties and receiving little to no recognition from the weekly paper that seemingly claims to be the source for “what’s up” in Montreal in terms of music.

Yet here are the NROTB boys on the cover, after a meager one year of fairly successful parties, looking smug and arrogant, like a rich kid whose father paid his way into the Ivy League university because he couldn’t make it on grades alone.

Your weekly electronic music column, now written by Jack Oatmon, has gone from the promotion of interesting and under the radar events and happenings to week after week info for the events that everybody knows are happening anyways. I have nothing but respect for promotions companies such as Neon, Peer Pressure and even NROTB (some of those people even fall into my personal circle of friends), but is that what our city has come to in terms of what is really available in the club and nightlife market? Is that really all our city has to offer anymore?

I think the cover photo really says it all, to be honest. The colours, the clothing, the expressionless “We’re too cool to even be here” look on their faces, which, had the photo not been accompanying the article, I would have simply taken for sheer boredom. 

Judging by what’s been promoted and featured as of late, this is where we’re at now: short attention spans for music (everything mash-up, and mixes every 30 seconds, mixed poorly at that); pure narcissism; every DJ doing the Jesus Christ pose; and every single person in the room high on coke (not just some, but every single one).

And, finally, new fads being heralded as the saviours and future of music, when they are for the most part regurgitating leftovers of what has gone on for decades before them, with a new synth thrown in the mix.

Oh and by the way, for the record, I DO like nu rave.

>> Anonymous

Support Palestine,
hate Israel?

[Re: “Letters play an important role,” Letters, Feb. 7] Just a quick clarification—by “stop this nonsense” I was specifically referring to the repeated accusations that any criticism of Israeli policies constitutes anti-Semitism and/or that the Mirror is an anti-Semitic paper.

I certainly did not intend to imply that the discussion should not continue in the letters page, and agree wholeheartedly that the Palestinian narrative is given short shrift in the media. Thank you to Mira Khazzam for flagging this.

>> Shira Avni

[Re: “Chomsky & Finkelstein vs. Dershowitz,” Letters, Jan. 31] Ken Frankel’s description of Noam Chomsky as an “Israel-hater” reminds me of how critics of the Vietman war used to be called “America-haters.”

Noam Chomsky “hates” Israel only in the way Canadians who oppose the Afghanistan mission “hate” Canada. Ever the loyal “patriot,” had Frankel been a non-Jewish German during WWII, he no doubt would have denounced critics of German policy as “German-haters.”

There is so much injustice committed in the world he would have argued, (as he tirelessly does when Israel is concerned), why are they always picking on poor Germany? Anti-Germanism, no doubt.

>> Patrice Bombardier

City leaves
inhabitants buried

[Re: “City smacked with fine,” Letters, Feb. 7] On a Saturday night, a night after the latest heavy snowfall, I was at the bottom of my street, weeping, bent over a stroller containing my two very small children. I could not get my stroller home, one block through the snow without the help of a friendly stranger. Help came, and we arrived home relieved, cold and tired.

Now it is a Tuesday and still no one has cleared the sidewalks outside our home. I think about people whose mobility issues are far worse than mine—the elderly, wheelchair bound, etc—and cannot believe that, in the 21st century, in one of the world’s wealthiest cities, people are stuck in their houses for days on end.

I love this city but am worried that it is no longer doing a good job of providing for its most vulnerable citizens. Could someone at City Hall please explain to me why the city is letting us down like this?

>> Kirsten Weisenburger

WE WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!