OPEN LETTER TO McGURL:
I hope this is not seen as a rant or gripe, but more like what Wendell Berry would call “another turn of the crank”.
Please take it on faith or prima facie that I have some cred re music, journalism and education.
I am responding to the article by GH of the Mercury about a Stanford course on Taylor Swift. My first thought was they should expel Ava Jeffs and fire you, until I read your cv or at least the page on the Stanford website.
I don’t think I read the book on “the program era” but I recall that it came out the year I signed as a management client Dao Strom. Dao’s story “Chickens” was anthologized in Larry McMurtry “Still Wild”. She wrote it as a student, later signed with the same literary agent as Patti Smith. She was a Michener Fellow at Iowa. I thought that I could help her songs get the same level of traction in the industry or with audiences as her books. I was wrong.
(Before that, I was the manager for Stew, Mark Stewart, aka Stew Stewart — at least at Harvard — the creator of the Broadway show “Passing Strange” — a semi-autobiographical work about a middle class Black man posing or passing as lower class. (Stew is currently working with Spike Lee for a musical movie about Viagra, working title Don ’t Call me The Dick Joke Marlon James” or maybe “Don’t Call me A Dick Joke, Marlon James”.
Also, if this is not a non sequitur, I commissioned Dan Bern to write a song about Wallace Stegner’s story about playing tennis at a snobby resort in Santa Barbara. Coinkydinky — and I coined the term “coinkydinky” — which is not a dick joke — I am taking my wife to Cambria this summer, which is near Santa Barbara. Then I am meeting Dan Bern in Santa Fe, at La Fonda, on “the Terrazza” next fall.
I think Taylor is over-rated and a product of market forces. Maybe Josh Thurston Milgrom or his father could break it down.
Ms. Jeffs et al should teach instead Dao Storm or Malcolm P Harris, the guy who says Stanford could or should give (back) 8,000 acres to Muwekma Ohlone.
I wrote this before “the jump” — meaning my gripe, rant or “another turn of the crank” might be mitigated if the Mercury (which is not a Hayes paper, not owned by Knight Ridder and maybe not even McClatchy – -it might be owned by the people who were on “60 Minutes” who were buying up papers to deliberately destroy journalism and democracy —- says this class is not for credit towards a degree, merely for “fun” or just something to do so that people don’t step in front of the train or get too drunk to give consent. (Then write memoirs about such).
Please rescind your support of “the Swifties”. What about Jonathan fuckin’ Swift, you bastards.
Mark Weiss
In Palo Alto
a.b. from Dartmouth (in English)
Dba Earthwise Productions of Palo Alto since 1994
Why not substitute a course about Marsh McCall (1964-2017) his humor writings, from Gunn Oracle, Stanford Chaparral, Peninsula Times Tribune (Palo Alto) and Hollywood – -just shoot me. He wrote a few songs — I would say he was as good a songwriter as Taylor Swift; and he looked almost as good in a skirt — when he was 16. Marsh McCall once walked into the journalism lab at Gunn after lunch and said “Today: ‘Women Who Dress As Men Who Dress As Women’”. This is all true — except the joke about Marlon James. Which I was just makin’ up. Why not teach a course about Lydia Pense and cold blood playing electric guitars as Lenny Siegel and David Harris thru rocks thru the window of the trustees’ meeting?
edit to add: the honorable Rebecca Eisenberg rightfully chided me for my unkind reference to Chanel Miller. So I wrote to the student mentioned in the mercury, as the creator of the course, and suggested that she might add know my name to the syllabus: how would knowledge of the brock turner case affect the way a group of Stanford students see celebrity in the form of Taylor Swift or feminism or beauty?
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 
I was (kinda) with you until you said that horrible thing about Chanel Miller. You don’t know that she was roofied – aka, drugged? In other words, Brock Turner slipped a strong tranquilizer in her drink, so she was not “too drunk;” she was DRUGGED.
But even if she was “too drunk,” her rape would NEVER BE HER FAULT! If a woman is sick, or drunk, or injured, or sleeping, or otherwise unable to give consent, it is RAPE to use her body in that way. It is disgusting.
If you don’t understand, I recommend that you ACTUALLY READ CHANEL MILLER’S BOOK. It is spectacular and deserves EVERY SINGLE ACCOLADE it has received, which are numerous. While you are at it, you might as well educate yourself about consent, rape, and how it is never okay to touch another person – especially sexually – without their consent.
I also am offended by the condescending way in which you refer to Chanel Miller. Do you know anything about her? Her mother has won dozens of writing awards, writing for the Chinese community. Her father is a well-regarded psychologist. Chanel attended Gunn and for that reason alone one would think you would treat her with respect.
I really think you need to re-think this part of the post. It’s not relevant, and it’s extremely offensive.
Thanks-
Rebecca
Also, as to Taylor Swift, I can think of numerous ways that a course about her would be worthwhile. One could make a political analysis of her lyrics, or question whether she is feminist or regressive, or investigate the representation of racial minorities in her videos … the list goes on. Studying the world’s biggest and most influential pop star is not the same thing as worshipping said star. It is standard in sociology and psychology (among other social sciences) to make this kind of inquiry into whether pop phenomenons are shaped by culture more, or if they shape culture more, and how we can measure each/both. Honestly, Mark. Plus, some of Taylor Swift’s music is not horrible. I was not a fan of her latest album, but I think that some of her previous albums had a lot to like, and her earliest work is interesting too!
Finally, there is a HUGE lack of courses about WOMEN – any women – across all academia. I give Stanford credits for making baby steps.
On Mon, Jul 3, 2023 at 11:14 PM Rebecca Eisenberg < rebecca@privateclientlegal.com> wrote: