And other trivial matters: The Ticket may be great entertainment for IQ-challenged frat boys who flunked out of community college, but for die-hard local sports-talk fans? ("A Dirty Dozen," by Richie Whitt, January 26.) The Ticket is as much about sports as Brokeback Mountain is about herding cattle in Wyoming. Maybe some listeners are dying to hear about the various exploits of Mike Rhyner's penis the day after a big Cowboys game, but please don't count me in that group. Here's a great snapshot in the history of the Ticket: It's 2001, and the Mavericks are about to play their first home playoff game in over a decade. My brother and I are driving to Reunion, fired up and wanting to hear some local sports talk that's fired up too. So, we flip on the Ticket. Except they're not talking about the game. Not even close. Instead, they're discussing a rapper named DJ Pooh. For 10 minutes. That's when the Ticket lost me forever. The fact that Rhyner and his merry band of morons are winning the ratings war in Dallas says much more about the sad state of local listeners than it does about the Ticket.
David Marcus
Dallas
Butt-Rock Beating
Spectacle of mediocrity: I agree with Sam Machkovech's assessment of the rather embarrassing spectacle of mediocrity called the Dallas Music Festival (Is This On?, January 26). It really is nothing more than an overgrown battle of the bands. Local bands that don't get good gigs lean on their unfortunate friends to buy tickets, therefore getting a better slot on the bill, and they get to feel like they got a real gig. Lame, yes. But I don't think it is going to tarnish Deep Ellum's status as implied in the article. Anyone with an interest in local music at all knows this kind of crap happens. It just does. I live near Lower Greenville, so I know what it is like when your area of town is taken over at night by interlopers who really should stay in their own neighborhoods. But what can one do? If the Dallas Music Fest is so offensive, then the clubs that host it could pass on it next year. And maybe the Dallas Observer could put its money where its mouth is and not run the two-page ad promoting it.
Jefferson Furnier
Dallas
No. 1 Ho: I've been a big fan of the Observer for years, but there's a rumor going around your publication that has to be put down. Strangleweed, contrary to popular belief, did not do the most whoring out; my band, Front Runner, which received a semi-positive/negative blip in your review of last year's panel show, was in fact the far-distant top-seller of the fest. Not that it is an achievement much worth boasting for, but credit should be given where credit is due. Call Sugarlight and check, they'll vouch for it. Other than that, I love the article. Oh, and if you want some insight into the lack of organization in the Dallas Music Fest, especially from their top-selling and most screwed-over band of 2005, we would love to comment!
Eric Eysermans
Lewisville
Hideously cruel: Who pissed in Sam Machkovech's corn flakes? While I agree the organizers and producers of the Dallas Music Festival deserve criticism for their fund-raising methods, was it really necessary to trash the bands in such a hideously cruel fashion? Apparently, in The World According to Sam, only bands who have received "anything resembling a kind word" (presumably his) in the Dallas Observer are worthy of inclusion in this festival. While Sam manages to sprinkle his "kind words" on three artists "tricked into coming" to this music fest, he summarily dismisses all other scheduled acts as "a sea of sewage."
I truly feel sorry for any musicians having to put up with the likes of Sam; he is to Dallas-area musicians what Nurse Ratched was to her patients. Simply put, Sam Machkovech is one serious asshole.
Susan Wisland
Plano
Dollar signs in their eyes: I read this article with two things in mind. At first I was in total agreement with your assessment of the Dallas music situation, as well as my feelings on this festival. I am in a local band that is doing everything we can to bust through the lack of talent that Deep Ellum is currently spewing out. So being a participant in this event was a chance to maybe get a real audience. Once involved in the process, all I saw were dollar signs in the energy behind the event. The people who we did work with seemed to have an honest representation that they actually wanted to help local bands. It was just when it came to money that the true intentions began to appear. My point in writing is if you have a lot of negative things to say about it, why not give the other side? What real bands are looking for are ways to help the Deep Ellum scene become a fighting force of talent as it once was. Putting it down just adds to its demise.
Oliver J. Walker
Dallas
