It has been pointed out to me by several respondents (and by that same daughter who came home to visit) that Chris Brown is not a rapper (even if Wikipedia lists that as one of his genres -- what do I know? I don't listen to him much, let alone following his whole oeuvre). He is, apparently, a soul singer or R&B artist. I went and heard him out on a couple of songs: the lyrics remain awful, I would contend, and if he is an R&B artist, then Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Bobby Bland, Aretha Franklin, Etta James -- well, they must be R&B gods. "I would Rather Go Blind," say, by Etta, is just in another category, vocally, lyrically, musically, etc.
But there I go. Face it, I was wrong. Not surprising. I spoke of my post as "Some Ignorant Words...," etc.
Meanwhile, and not all that irrelevantly in this regard, I am mourning the recent death of my wonderful mother in law, Margaret Barone. She was a woman who taught with good will and dedication for more than three decades in as tough an inner-city school as you can imagine. That she would simply not give up even on those students whom her colleagues -- and in many cases the law -- wrote off as worthless makes her a hero in my eyes, and an exemplar, because, as my condemnation of Chris Brown, and even of Jay-Z may have made clear, the withholding of rash judgment is not something that comes to me, as it seems to have to the dear, late Marty, all that easily.
I have been out of town for eight days, out in the woods and, rather mercifully, away from the cyber-world meanwhile. I'll get back on track soon.
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