Please explain this to me

[Tybee]

I always thought that Jessica Walter killing Clint Eastwood in Play Misty for Me was justifiable homicide because of the music he played on his radio show.

[Alan]

Why is Bob Ross popping up everywhere so long after he died? He was gone more than a decade before my kid was born, but the kid owns multiple t-shirts, etc.

The Atlantic recently did a story on this phenomena, the 1500 or so word love letter basically boiled down to "the world could use a little positivity". I just wonder how his image continues to be positive considering that permed Afro, he reportedly didn't like it but it was such a part of his image that he couldn't afford to lose it. I think we've become too "woke" to allow that sort of thing anymore.

[SteveinMN]

I think we've become too "woke" to allow that sort of thing anymore.

So people with curly hair cannot style it the way they like?

[Alan]

So people with curly hair cannot style it the way they like?

Sure they can. Maybe the cultural appropriation folks won't notice.

[catherine]

Sure they can. Maybe the cultural appropriation folks won't notice.

I never heard anyone complaining about his hair.. just as I never heard anyone complaining about Anne Lamotte's dreads (although I personally feel they're a little too 'look at me'--I don't consider it inappropriate cultural appropriation).

I think the reason Bob Ross is so popular these days is the same reason we have fallen in love again with Fred Rogers. Probably also the same reason that when my family life was crazy and chaotic, I found such refuge in watching episode after episode of Little House on the Prairie (not as a child either--in my late 30s/early 40s).

[ApatheticNoMore]

Is it even a style, isn't that just how curly hair is when it's grown out (as opposed to cut). Having and knowing people with curly hair, I'm going with yes (although he might add gel etc.) if it's a dense curl, a bit surprised he's not jewish though.

[LDAHL]

I sense some sarcasm mixed in this response but having difficulty figuring out if smooth jazz is so good that it's bad or really really bad. I am not a jazz fan as may be obvious and just wanted some clarification. Smooth jazz as compared to ? When I have listened to jazz, I have really enjoyed the sounds that are gentle harmony but the discord that other people really love to hear, drives me out of the room. Because some of my friends who are very knowledgeable about music love the noisy jazz in which the instruments sound as though they are in acute pain, I ask the initial question in complete humility.

There’s no accounting for taste, but I think good art should be a little challenging. That’s why I’m not that fond of YA literature or adult coloring books. That’s why I prefer Art Blakey, Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young over the listless murmurs of smooth jazz or soft rock, and am glad such tripe peaked in the seventies.

[catherine]

There’s no accounting for taste, but I think good art should be a little challenging. That’s why I’m not that fond of YA literature or adult coloring books. That’s why I prefer Art Blakey, Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young over the listless murmurs of smooth jazz or soft rock, and am glad such tripe peaked in the seventies.

I'm interested in learning more about this. I'm not a huge jazz aficionado but I agree with you about "art lite." (Instilled in me by a father who prohibited his children of ANY age from reading books with pictures in them, and who told me he was ashamed of me for using black in a painting, because "black is not a color.").

I'm interested in learning the difference between the artists you mentioned and the "smooth jazz" artists I found out about when I looked it up (Kenny G, for instance).

What are two examples of a traditional jazz artist and a smooth jazz artist that would clearly help differentiate the two for an unlearned listener?

[iris lilies]

There’s no accounting for taste, but I think good art should be a little challenging. That’s why I’m not that fond of YA literature or adult coloring books. That’s why I prefer Art Blakey, Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young over the listless murmurs of smooth jazz or soft rock, and am glad such tripe peaked in the seventies.

I’m not a fan of jazz, and actually find much of it hard to follow. But I understand distain for smooth jazz, it is dull.

R &B seems to me to be a pleasant, relatable, child of jazz that is its own thing and doesn’t corrupt the original, as does smooth jazz.

But you may NOT dis “YA literature” as one monolithic body of writing. I think you do not really know of what you speak! If you are thinking of the Twilight series or Hunger Games, well, sure, but those are no different than half the adult novels on the NYT bestseller list.

Also, in case you are thinking of graphic novels in this put down, there are some seriously great works where the visual storytelling is essential to the work. Not all of it is comic book-seque.

[Yppej]

I enjoyed YA novel Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry which I read recently and recommend it.