The Island of Doubt

I probably shouldn't get bent out of shape over this, but the intrusion of superstitious nonsense into the culture I have chosen to embrace just makes me so angry sometimes that I just have to exploit my blog pulpit to vent. The offending journalist in this case is Melanie M. Bianchi, the A&E editor for my local alternative weekly. The Mountain Xpress, and the offending item is a preview of a performance scheduled for Wedneday night in Asheville, N.C., by Neko Case, who is one of my favorite musicians these days thanks to her near-perfect 2006 CD, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.

What has any of this to do with doubt, dogmas, science and/or faith? Well, just a few lines into the article, which might have been a reasonable precis of what Neko Case is all about, we are told that Ms. Case is a Virgo. Not just any old Virgo, however, but "a proud Virgo who's actually quite gracious."

But it doesn't stop there. Two paragraphs later Ms. Bianchi tells us even more:

But not unlike Aimee Mann, who thawed to genius effect on 2004's The Forgotten Arm, Case, on last year's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, has likewise come in from the cold--and just as stunningly. (Note to astrologers: Both women were born on Sept. 8, a decade apart--Mann in 1960 and Case in 1970. This may be significant.)

1. important; of consequence.
2. having or expressing a meaning; indicative; suggestive: a significant wink.
3. Statistics. of or pertaining to observations that are unlikely to occur by chance and that therefore indicate a systematic cause.

Keeping astrology segregated (or quarantined) from the news sections isn't enough. Unless you're making fun of horoscopes, it really doesn't have a place in popular media. And I don't care what Kerry Mullis thinks about it (Google him and astrology if you want to -- I'm not going to make it any easier by providing a link.)

Incidentally, and as if to prove she's not up to the task of understanding the difference between truth and fiction, Bianchi makes this gaffe:

Case's own process sounds the same: "In the beginning," she says, "I have no f**kin' idea what I'm doing. Then, two thirds of the way into [writing a record], you figure out what you're obsessed with." Which was "mythology and folklore in general," as far as Fox goes.... But her seemingly random inclusion of an interpretive gospel traditional ("John Saw That Number") happened for no heavy reason.

Hmm. A gospel traditional inserted into a series of songs drawn from "mythology and folklore." And that's surprising because....?