July 10, 2007
To WJ Schafer from WC Smith
Dear Addity,
Amazon.com tells me:
“Dear Amazon.com Customer: We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased . . . Brass Bands and New Orleans by William J. Schafer [uh, JAZZ, guys— it’s Brass Bands and New Orleans Jazz] or other books in the ‘Bands (Music)’ category have also purchased Cheech the School Bus Driver by Cheech Marin. For this reason, you might like to know that Cheech the School Bus Driver is now available. You can order your copy . . . savings of 27% . . .”
“Book description:
Why can’t all bus drivers be as cool as Cheech?” [The kids “pile into the bus” and head for a battle-of-bands, where they intend to pit their mariachi against rock’n’roll “in this zany story by beloved performer Cheech Marin.”]
------Yes of course! These Amazon guys can read my very heart! Surely it isn’t through the magic of computers alone that they sensed my wants! O, lordy mercy, I am KNOWN! At last in this universe, I AM TOTALLY, UNEQUIVOCALLY, WONDERFULLY KNOWN!!!
--Does Cheech kick you back a little something for your plug?
Fibes
July 11, 2007
To WC Smith from WJ Schafer
Dear Fubes,
You think YOU’RE KNOWN??? Who the hell put Señor C. Marin Esq. in MY category, anyhow? What band instrument does he play? Mellophone? I expect to be grouped with Walter Gieseking, Yehudi Menuhin, et al. and situated on the southwestern slopes of
Yes, let's concoct some anti-Amazon diatribe about those one-breasted bow-pulling bulldaggers, anyhow. Who do they think they wuz?
Must go bother God.
Adannoyed
September 17, 2007
To WC Smith from Amazon.com
We've noticed that customers who have purchased . . . Brass Bands and New Orleans by William J. Schafer have also purchased Beautiful City of the Dead by Leander
. . . when narrator Zee arrives at school with a temperature of 102 degrees, Watts' novel reads with the blurry intensity of a fever dream . . . gorgeous, brooding student Relly invites her to join his band . . . grinding, eerie sound is so powerful that it seems to signal otherworldly forces . . . as Zee discovers powers she never knew, she finds herself at the center of a cosmic, dangerous battle . . .
December 16, 2007
To WC Smith from Amazon.com
We’ve noticed that . . . . . . Torn by Stefan Petrucha. . .
. . . Devin's rock band Torn is about to hit the big time . . . Between his gorgeous girlfriend, Cheryl, and all the perks of high-school stardom, Devin's feeling pretty good . . . Then his band mate is murdered. . .
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-----Why don't I feel that the Amazonians are exactly on the bubble in relating to me that they’ve noticed that customers who have purchased Brass Bands and New Orleans [JAZZ] have gone on and bought all these other books they keep pitching out here . . .? Brass Bands and New Orleans Jazz is a serious piece of business. These all other ones appear sort o’ silly, as it were. The respective audiences would seem totally at cross-hairs with one another. Big-people with résumés vs. fourth-grade underachievers. I’ve just . . . just gotta doubt they’ve sunk all that much ear into what they’re gabbling at me. Still, it’s pleasing to be able to sit down at the keyboard and in a few minutes have a prized book sent forth on its mystical journey to my dwelling. An anomalous ripple or two proceeding thereoutta might be expected in this day of ham-fisted marketeering. Say, they’re at least friendly types working to introduce people to ideas. (Might fare better introducing ideas to people.) |
| jptArchive Issue 5 |
| Copyright 2008- WJ Schafer & WC Smith - All Rights Reserved |
| The Journal of Provincial Thought |
 luminance |
| In 1977, Louisiana State University Press published the now classic volume Brass Bands and New Orleans Jazz by Professor William J. Schafer— the same WJS to whom jptsters doff our caps in supreme regard— authored with the assistance of noted jazz historian Richard B. Allen (1927-2007). Oft-quoted author of Rock Music, and co-author with Professor Johannes Riedel (1913-1996) of The Art of Ragtime (in which, declared the Washington Post, “Schafer and Riedel are at their best”), Professor Schafer is widely respected for disciplined analysis developed in incisive, buoyantly erudite commentary. Considering this, and thus & all, online bookseller Amazon.com shrewdly reckons it has a few additional titles to interest the discerning purchaser of Brass Bands and New Orleans Jazz . . . |