Scene4 Magazine | letters to the editor

Great article, Ned. I always considered you one of the "ultimate hipsters" from the generation just before mine. Articulate and spot-on, man. I think I was born one generation too late. I was watching a PBS special the other day about the heyday of Greenwich Village culture(50's and 60's), and longed for its return somewhere....anywhere. And I really liked the way you tied jazz music into the soothing of our country's wounded collective soul. We need it now more than ever. Thanks.

Chuck Cobb

read Ned Bobkoff's article

At last! At last! At last! I want to thank the author for bringing us this news of a national native television station in the USA. My every visit to Canada has always included ample hours to watch APTN, Aboriginal People's Television Network, which has been around for decades! It has it all: news from the people's communities, national news impacting the First Nations, excellent, even brilliant children's programming with world class animation, movies, fitness shows, cooking, interviews on urgent issues of concern to native people, etc. etc, etc. Every such visit ends with a return to the USA and "desert wasteland" TV. Native issues NEVER make a spot on CNN or any other news program. Remember, even non-native people will watch the Native American Television programming. The general American public just might learn a little more about how we really live, who we really are and what we are thinking about and why. Hooray!

Rosalie Jones

read Carol Quattro Levine's article

Absolutely love the page opener with the montage of moving photos and the jazz playing! Veeerrry classy! I am the partner who accompanied Mr. Bobkoff to the Wild Magnolias blowout at Harro Ballroom. Being Native American myself, I felt it was an excellent opportunity for me to finally see the "Mardi Gras" Indians. I knew it would be a mix of influences, but it proved to be pure theater, as the author so expertly describes.This phantasmagoria is an excellent example of a kind of intercontinental cultural diaspora: when displaced peoples loose the homeland moorings, adaptability attaches itself to survival. On the way out, the lead "Spy Boy" autographed the CD I bought while I commented admiringly on the beadwork on his "outfit". Glancing behind him, however, I saw his feathered headdress lying unceremoniously on the floor. A Native American dancer would never let those feathers touch the floor. So much for authenticity. In terms of survival, however, perhaps he was the one who was admiring us, by way of imitation, after all. The "good time" became a sobering insight.

Rosalie Jones

read Ned Bobkoff's article

Mr. Bobkoff knows his Jazz and we, the readers, are better off for it. Please write more reviews.

Les Marcott

read Ned Bobkoff's article

Full disclosure...I am one of the photographers. Regardless, good article on the Fest. So much music you don't know what to do. Something for everyone who likes Jazz. If you don't like a particular group, just walk out and go across the street. Gets really hard to work my day job.

Kelley Yost

read Ned Bobkoff's article