Letters to the Editor

Battle of the Bands Continues

Dear Bay Weekly:
We are writing this letter in reference to your Battle of the Bands article published in the January 23-29, 2003 edition of your publication [“Dock of the Bay, Vol. XI, No. 4]. As hosts of the show, we found some of the comments made by the seemingly musically frustrated author to be out of line and totally counterproductive to the purpose of the show.

Although the author did make several positive comments about some of the bands, calling high school musicians “chimps with guitars” can hardly be considered constructive criticism to a teenager who is experiencing a large crowd for the first time.

In past years, this same author managed to write a whole article about all of the bands without snide comments. Indeed, Mr. Pugh does seem to understand that the event was originally designed by Nancy Almgren to “promote teen fellowship,” but his subsequent comments indicate otherwise.

He acts as if he is critiquing big national bands when he makes comments about how an act had “too much treble” or that they “sounded like girls.” We did not ask your publication to attend the event for the purpose of trashing the effort and hard work of this group of teenagers. These kids do this for fun, and they looked at this as an opportunity to showcase their talents in front of a group of their peers. What they received, however, was an arrogant dissertation.

Also, he seemed to pigeonhole a great deal of the bands into the punk-rock genre who didn’t belong there. He stated that every band except Kentavious was of the genre. However, most would agree that the Broken Puppet Show, Next Day Flight, Fatal Dreams, as well as others, don’t fall under that genre at all. In his effort to point out that there was little originality among the bands this year, he unjustly categorized a variety of music into one specific genre.

It is just as much a tragedy that this article was allowed to be published as that it was written at all. The editors obviously either didn’t catch these comments or believe that it is okay to put down aspiring high school musicians in a community newspaper.

Next year, perhaps you can send someone a little more civil to our “six-hour punk rock slaughter fest.”

Congratulations to all the bands who competed, and Kentavious for their victory. You all did a great job and we wish you the best of luck. Thank you for your time.
— Danny Mays and Jason Spaniol, Crofton

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Take on Mosquitoes Early

Dear Bay Weekly:
A month ago or so, you published a brief article on building bird houses that help deter mosquitoes. Please if you could, forward the article so I can begin for spring. I live on Weems Creek and last year was terrible for gardeners.

Thanks for you assistance.
—Helen Kennedy, Annapolis

Editor’s note: The city of Annapolis is holding workshops in building bird housing at Chesapeake Children’s Museum. Adults build houses for voracious purple martins on Feb. 15, while children take their turn Feb. 19. Call the museum for more information: 410/993-1993.

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