While surfing the worldwide web this morning, I clicked on a Rolling Stone’s article about the best live bands, “50 Greatest Live Acts Right Now.” I think I found this via Facebook. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/50-greatest-live-acts-right-now-20130731
Naturally, one of the best was the Parlor Mob. http://www.disarraymagazine.com/2012/03/live-review-parlor-mob-rocks-house-of.html Alright so I’m prejudiced. Since they parted ways, I hear from my Lovely Leo birthday boy what each band member is up to; who they are playing with, flying off to Sweden with, getting married to… Aside from scoring films, the Rocker is currently playing with 2 bands:
Sikamor Rooney http://sikamorrooney.bigcartel.com/products and
the Black Jesuses http://blackjesuses.com – http://www.surfingmagazine.com/sounds/sounds-the-black-jesus/
Because music is a part of his DNA. But he is also a writer, writing all of the lyrics to his music today. And I thought back to a time in middle school, when he wrote an exceptional essay on censorship. We were proud that at such a young age, he could feel so passionately about artistic freedom.
So with some sense of danger, I sought out the latest edition of Rolling Stone magazine. Because it’s not OK with me when drugstores try to limit my access to a magazine. I found it surreptitiously bundled in front of the very last cashier at our local Barnes and Noble, not in its usual spot among all the other magazine racks. And somehow the cashier gave off a sinister vibe, or maybe it was me, like I was purchasing contraband. 
And the article about the Boston Bomber was compelling and answered many questions we’ve all been asking, like how can such a normal looking kid, a kid who was in college and became a citizen last year, become a monster? I know in today’s world that magazine article was a click away, but in a small way, I was making a point. And now we hear that the magazine doubled their news stand sales this month…so you see censors, some things have unintended consequences.
You may not agree with me, but lucky for us we live in a country where writers can speak the truth not only to power, but to the world.
I don’t believe in censorship, either. I studied journalism and I’m totally for journalistic freedom. But this isn’t an issue of “artistic freedom.” Nobody wants to suppress the author’s article. What it is is a prime example of a mega-corporation exploiting a sensational subject to appeal to consumers, and sell product. And if they stir controversy to assist sales, so much the better. Which I guess is the American way. But RS’s choice of a pretty-boy cover image of Tsarnaev, an accused mass murderer, is offensive to me – and evidently to many others.
I respect your opinion, all types of print media are having a hard time selling their products today. Would it have been better to bury the piece inside the magazine and not make it a cover article? To use a different picture of him on the cover? If something is offensive, we all have the right NOT to buy and evidently each business has the right NOT to sell. Certainly the picture the Boston police released of his capture, I think, would do more harm than good, by terrorists trying to make him a martyr. I just generally don’t like being told what I can and can’t see…and I don’t think this cover photo is so much “pretty boy” as is it is a “normal boy.” And that should scare us, and make us talk, which it is doing!