Re: "Does pop music study reveal we're dummer and angrier?" Aug. 15.
Courier columnist Geoff Olson had better go easy on his critique of rock groups "Pink Zeppelin" and "Led Floyd" now that Russian premier Vladimir Putin, via his mouthpiece judge, has imposed a sentence of two years hard labour on Pussy Riot. He may be a fan. And none of Olson's witty barbs about balalaikas noire, or how Russians invented the world's biggest computer, else Olson might find a lump of plutonium in his Christmas pudding this year from Uncle Vladimir.
Not that Pussy Riot's head banging musicality is my cup of tea. It is hard to dance to, unless you're a beautiful, intelligent woman who can can-can like a folie bergère. I am sorry there was such a freak-out in the church. You'd expect that nailing a man to a cross or burning in hell for eternity would make Pussy Riot small potatoes in the scheme of the Catholic mythos. It's not like Pussy Riot was flinging molotov cocktails at oligarch limos, or burning Bibles in Red Square or smashing and looting on the Granville mall.
Madonna, Sir Paul and the rest of the civilized world may shake their heads and wonder at two years of hard labour, but from Nevsky Prospekt to Vladivostok, 105 per cent of Putin voters preferred three. So free Pussy Riot now before we laugh ourselves sick
Roger W. Henning, Vancouver
