Re: [ARSCLIST] Libraries disposing of records

[phillip holmes <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey, I will!  I'm going to lobby the UN to officially start "The Taste 
Police".  I have French heritage, so I'm already better qualified than 
most.  Also, my French roots are Cajun, so I can probably prove some 
mixed racial background and claim that "I know black music" or "I know 
the blues" or "It's a mixed racial heritage thing and you wouldn't 
understand" or "my great uncle was half brother to a Seminole Shaman, 
and I know deep things you don't know".  And I'm from Texas, so I have a 
simple answer for every difficult problem (by the way, why haven't we 
started any new wars recently?).  But honestly, what you're saying is: 
if it was ever recorded, and there is an extant recording, it should be 
saved.  That's a fair proposition, and I agree kind of.  But it only 
works in a fantasy Star Trek world where everyone works for "the man", 
and "the man" has decided that anyone like Steven Barr or Phillip Holmes 
or Tom Fine can spend all their hours playing records and making sure 
they have complete runs of every label.  I wonder who's going to clean 
the toilets and dig ditches in Utopia?
Phillip

Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "phillip holmes" <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx>
>   
> > You know, I'm sure there were hundreds of sides that were the equivalent 
> > of Britney Speers' "oops i did it again".  Pop music doesn't necessarily 
> > need to be preserved if it takes resources away from something truly 
> > unique (interviews, broadcasts, lectures, etc.) or productive.   I'm 
> > sure many of us got into this because of a love for music, but you know 
> > there's lots of crap out there that doesn't merit being saved.  Maybe 
> > one of you can look me in the face and tell me that we MUST preserve the 
> > outputs of The Backstreet Boys and Vanilla Ice.  I say fine, YOU pay for 
> > it.  But if their entire catalog was "sent to the cornfields" by Billy 
> > Mumy, I wouldn't miss a minute of sleep.
> >
> >     
> One VERY important point! No one of us has such perfect taste as to be
> inherently qualified to say "save THIS" and/or "trash THIS" as far as
> some ultimate uber-archive might be concerned!
>
> We can make such decisions (and usually do, if only by what we buy
> and what we don't!) for our own personal "archives"...but we can't
> in any realistic way say "This is what civilization must preserve
> and include in its histories..." and the implied "And this NOT..."
>
> Steven C. Barr
>
>
>
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