Dear Chicago Reader,
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There was some very interesting information in Neal Pollack’s article “Everyone Knows Thax” [August 13]. There were a few points I wanted to bring up. First of all, I am not sure how to interpret the ambiguity on the working relationship between Eric St. Clair and Thax. On one hand, Mr. St. Clair told Thax never to come on his show again, but on the other, Thax continuously refers bands to him. Thax gave me Eric St. Clair’s phone number about 18 months ago. I still don’t know what to do with it. If I called up, would it be part of some in-joke? The article said that Thax gives people the opportunity to perform onstage who are ordinarily not given it. This is true, for thanks to Thax I played at Lounge Ax at two of his bass shows. It was a great honor to be on the very stage that was graced by the presence of my idols such as Borbetomagus and Faust. The article said that Thax had bad taste in music. Wouldn’t it be better to say Thax had different taste than the common herd? Say Thax likes Anthony Braxton’s music while many other people like Kenny G’s instead. That doesn’t mean necessarily Thax has bad taste. It’s all relative. If Marc Smith is the Stalin of poetry, is Thax Trotsky? If Thax is the Andy Warhol of Chicago, does that mean David Bowie will be portraying him in a series of movies? It might work, considering David Bowie has been seen many times this decade with a beard.
Hobart, Indiana
