Sound Off

How many people saw the opinion columns in the culture section in the July 25 mail-out issue of the Daily Lobo?

I hope more than just a couple lone disillusioned youths in the back there raised their hands.

This is a new section for us; we're calling it "Sound Off."

And the editor in chief decreed that she would let me get away with it.

And it was good.

This section is to be devoted entirely to the exploration of popular culture as a business and currency and will be comprised of your opinions.

Yes, I know classes are built around this very topic. It is my hope that this will provide yet another venue for angsty bitching.

For real though, I hope that this generates some good discussions on what is one of the most affecting and distinctive marks of American culture.

Disagree? Write me about it.

Let there be no punkass who complains without action. Let there be no behind-the-back snickering.

I'll read everything and anything that comes my way.

This idea came to me shortly after I took this job as culture editor.

Wearing the obligatory uniform of individuality - shaved head, multiple piercings in inappropriate places, ugly clothes, you know the type.

I walked into this office hoping to really promote the local scene as much as possible and avoid some of those mainstream, shrink-wrapped style stories.

While this is still a mission for me, it eventually became hard to ignore that not everyone holds that same ideal, and that a big part of this job is sorting through equally two-dimensional, nationally written pieces, and pulling the best one.

So how do I reconcile the necessary evils of this situation - which are really not that bad - with my tendency to critique everything I come across? Simple. I'll let you guys do the work.

Once a week I will propose a topic that I find to be particularly relevant on the state of popular culture _ music, art, movies, books etc. _ as commerce, and everyone is invited to respond.

These responses can be e-mailed to lobonews@unm.edu. Include my name in the subject field.

This Week's Topic: Eminem is going to play at Tingley Coliseum this very evening on the Anger Management Tour along with Ludacris and Papa Roach.

Speaking of music as a commodity, tickets for the show are $47.25.

In 2001, protesters in the United Kingdom greeted him at the start of his tour.

The Australian government has tried to deny his entrance into the country.

He is often harassed and brought up as a symbol of popular music's degenerative effect on our nation's antsy, and apparently impressionable, youth.

In his last album, which is reported to begin with the sound of the planes hitting the World Trade Center - I never really heard that myself - he shoots his lyrics at Vice President Dick Cheney's wife and, well, everyone who has ever caused him even the slightest discomfort.

He also proclaims himself to be one of the nation's biggest problems right now.

While this is obviously not the case, and hardly anyone is impressed or taking him seriously, I thought we could use him as a starting block from which to launch the debate on free speech and the music industry.

Reviled the world over for spreading messages of hate, Eminem has caused much uproar in this country and others.

Whose shoulders does it rest on that this icon exists?

What is he representative of in the pop culture spectra?

Should anyone have the authority to shut him up?

He is whatever you say he is.