. . . Beyonce is in . . . at 92.1 fm. Our only all-news radio station -- and a good, honest one -- has given up the ghost and started playing Beyonce 24-7.
The Chronicle may or may not be happy about the disappearance of a competitor, but it's bound to be ecstatic about the the elevation of Miss Beyonce. Who can forget the excruciating fanzine rave last January that masqueraded . . .
. . . as a major-city newspaper editorial?
Help us, Beyonce. You may be our only hope.
And why is that? Because, it appears, she's as down on Houston as the Chronicle's guilty white liberal editors are. What follows are snips from the editorialist's rant, loosely based on the wisdom of a pop video. There is, is usual, no argument -- just a stringing together of hateful insults.
Echoes of the relationship between Houston's predominately white economic power structure and the cultural capital of our black community . . . can't wait to replace [Houston's black artists'] historic neighborhoods with townhouses . . . the exploitation inherent in Houston's sex trade and the oil businessmen who keep the cash flowing. It is an open secret that the annual Offshore Technology Conference is a bonanza for Houston's strip clubs. The downtown skyscrapers may shine squeaky clean, but inside they're no angels, either. . . . "the real character of Houston." . . .
The piece ends with what amounts to an airy dismissal of something worthy of serious discussion: thug culture.
Thug culture, it seems, is not real. It's the product of "some pundits" -- not of boys and girls reared without fathers, not of a popular culture that celebrates violence, drugs, and misogyny.
But we're going to ignore all that and consider, instead, Beyonce. She may be our only hope.
All I can say is that the wrong media outlet, the one run by adults, has gone out of business.
Thanks to Lana, J.P., and the crew for fighting the good fight. You'll be missed.
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