Parrotheads retort

[RE: “Meet the flockers,” Punkusraucous Rex, Aug. 14] Cummins’s tirade against Jimmy Buffett sounded like some crotchety old man going off about that noise the kids call rap music. Give me a fucking break.

If Cummins is too sensitive to deal with a performer whose fan base includes people that drink alcohol and smoke pot, perhaps he should be moved to the classifieds section. Seriously, is he bothered that some of Buffett’s fans are overweight? Yeah, parrottheads have a particular escapist style that appeals to both suit-wearin’ conservatives that have the nerve to invest in a public market, bohemian beach-bums and Canadian tradesmen who like the sound of an acoustic guitar, steel drums and a soothing southern lilt.

I see a lot more diversity at Buffett concerts than I do at punk shows, though I admit the flowery shirts are common enough, but compared to what? Tight jeans and piercings? A studded belt? Now that’s shaking up the system, you badasses.

Buffett’s biggest fan-base are working-class Southerners and punk’s origins come from a youth proletariat movement. Where’s the rift? Don’t get me wrong, punk is fucking cool. And Buffet IS a big stinking capitalist, but the rich fucker writes and covers some beautiful tunes that people from somewhere other than the Plateau seem to enjoy.

I just wish Cummins could do his job better because his bitching and oh-so-rebellious beard and cigarette-smoking image are a lousy supplement for clever reviews, dates and venues. Next time I’m at Foufs, I’ll be the one in sandals and a flower-shirt drinking a margarita.

>>Nich

Just read Johnson Cummins’s commentary about ridding the world of Jimmy Buffett’s mediocrity as Team Canada was assured of their first medal in women’s wrestling. Isn’t it ironic...don’t you think?

>>Mark Szulc

Ball coverage flippant?

[Re: “Sex up and dance,” News, Aug. 7] With regards to the interview conducted by Chris Barry with Frank Scucci about Bal Erotique, it’s disappointing to see an exciting annual ball of this calibre treated so flippantly, when there are a wealth of interesting questions the interviewer could have posed.

Perhaps the Mirror is unaware that the attendees of this event are travelling from all over the world and such immature writing may be the first impression an out-of-towner gets of the city. 

Thankfully I’ve been to Montreal before and know how lovely and open-minded its residents are!

>>Mina LaFleur, Toronto

God and mental health

[Re: “God lives,” Letters, Aug. 7] I happen to know a lot of people who speak to God on a daily basis. I’m also aware that many of these people are in the mental health community and some see him in that folksy sort of way—white beard, robe, sitting on a throne or cloud. They talk issues and problems every day. These people need the construct of God and religion in order to contemplate their options in life.

I’m an agnostic (surprise), and I don’t prescribe to the notions religion and organized religious thought promote. Especially when it’s about sexuality, free speech and other modern rights. But all living religions share a few things in common that are not in of themselves terrible or “an insult to man’s superior intelligence.”

First there is prayer, and all of its forms (such as meditation and contemplation). This helps people to be self-commanding and not buy into something that might compromise them and their values. Second is sacrifice—this helps people set reasonable boundaries and perspective by being a little more circumspect. And third is a code of conduct—this allows some people to establish a clear set of ethics.

Too often those cynics among us want to throw out the baby with the bath water. Sure religion, at its worse, is as terrible as humanity gets. But we should recognize what is good in religion before we reflexively chuck everything out in a moment of moral anguish.

If I were God, would I stop all the suffering by taking away our ability to feel? Now there is something worth contemplating!

>>Gilles Chiasson

I’m amazed that so many people actually believe that an all-powerful being created the universe, and furthermore expects us to worship it by praying to it and performing specific rituals. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?

Of course, the followers of each religion believe that their prayers and rituals are the right ones, and the followers of other religions are using the wrong prayers and rituals. That sounds even more ridiculous.

It scares me that billions of people believe this nonsense. Hopefully, the human race will grow up one day, and there’ll remain only a few isolated nutcases who still practice religious observance. In that enlightened future era, these deluded people would undergo mandatory treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

Sorry, I can’t reveal my real name. I live in a home where religion is observed and I don’t want to be thrown out in a fit of arrogant self-righteousness. Such is the nature of religious followers.

>>John Random

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