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Your Letters: Political Ads And Art

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now, to your letters. Last Sunday NPR's Tovia Smith reported on the high stakes Massachusetts senate race between Republican incumbent Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren. Brown and Warren struck a deal aimed at banning paid advertisements by outside groups. Both candidates are trying to score political points for their piety, as we heard this political science professor mention in that report.

TOBE BERKOVITZ: The tap dance is certainly who is squeakier cleaner and they're both showing that they're sort of model citizens.

MARTIN: Jonathon Krauss (ph) writes on npr.org, "Fighting over who is the most positive is really no better than fighting based on negativity. Both still circumvent a rational discussion of policy issues in favor of irrelevant superficiality." Barbara Necker (ph) on our website: I find this refreshing. Hopefully, it will allow the candidates to focus on actual issues and the voters to gain a clearer understanding of the candidates' stance on them.

Last week, we also brought you a report about an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum showcasing the work of the late artist Keith Haring.

TRICIA LAUGHLIN BLOOM: This piece is called "Matrix," and it's 50 feet long by six feet tall. It has a cinematic quality, that it's all black and white and you have this almost psychedelic interweaving of human figures and snakes and televisions and dogs...

MARTIN: Cesar Zelemara (ph) writes on npr.org, quote, "How debased the art world has become. What a bunch of phonies. Come on, folks. Haring defaced walls by drawing stick figures on them, that's all." Katherine Madres-Anabel (ph) had a different opinion. She writes on our website, quote, "Haring has remained a great influence for me since I was a child. Keith Haring expressed love and connectedness in the community. If you don't like it, then don't look."

Finally, a few letters about our conversation last Sunday with folk and blues musician John Fullbright about his new CD, "From the Ground Up."

JOHN FULLBRIGHT: Well, I, you know, I don't have many friends.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

FULLBRIGHT: No. It comes...

MARTIN: I don't believe you.

FULLBRIGHT: ....from locking yourself in a room and thinking about things for a really long time.

MARTIN: Rebecca Hansgrove (ph) writes on our website: "John Fullbright, like his music, sounds refreshingly unaffected, honest and worldly." Wanda Fisher of Schenectady, New York emailed us saying: "I first heard him at the Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis. He was on the same stage with two amazing musicians. The format was a round robin and here was this young kid, barely old enough to vote, or so I thought. Wow, I thought, he's pretty brave and yet he held his own. I've been telling people about John since that day."

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FULLBRIGHT: (Singing) ...but don't forget me. Why are you leaving? Just remember my...

MARTIN: We like hearing from you. Go to npr.org and click on the Contact Us at the bottom of the page. And I'm on Twitter @rachelnpr. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.