Author Archives: Steve Mitchell

To the editors: Thanx for publishing Salim Muwakkil’s incisive “Pop: I’m Bad, Therefore I Am” [January 22]. Muwakkil’s notion that rap is a cognate of bebop is quixotic. I can see the economic need for hip-hop organized sounds; but I’m too much into Ohnedaruth et alia to swallow Salim’s specious ideation re rap as music. […]

To the editors: Doug Cassel’s article “The Law: Fifty Years of Fortitude” [October 23] was superb. I hope the National Lawyers Guild fights the forces of troglodytism for another 50 years and then some. Steve Mitchell De Kalb

To the editors: Your quotes of Saint Elizabeth unnamed personnel [City File, July 10] re the alleged psychotropic proclivities of such entities as toothpaste and mouthwash were startling. Your City File columns are among the first Reader regular pieces I peruse. They should be anthologized some day. Steve Mitchell DeKalb

To the editors: I enjoyed Steve Bogira’s 6/12/87 piece–“Blackball.” It was fascinating and disturbing reading–as was the essay on Minnie Minoso the Reader published a couple of weeks ago [May 8]. Steve Mitchell De Kalb

To the editors: M. Kiefer’s critique of J.C. Oates’ superb essay On Boxing [April 24] was tedious. I did not find Ms. Oates’ book “academic” — as Kiefer asserts. I got a visceral rush from Oates’s opus. Allen Barra’s Village Voice critique of On Boxing was better and briefer than Kiefer’s piece. Steve Mitchell De […]

To the editors: James Krohe Jr.’s “Reflections: Beware of Your Schools” [April 24] was very good. I agree — the American “education system” is social control training. Computer “literacy” is a sinister oxymorontechnical know-how passed off as the ability to understand Chaucer or Coover. Publish more Krohe. Steve Mitchell De Kalb