I have a friend who knows Courtney. He says that people routinely underestimate her - she's very smart.

Seconded. She's wickedly smart.

and completely crazy.

That's a very frequent combination. I wonder if there's a reason why?

Reportedly the genes for intelligence and schizophrenia are linked: http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/003341.html

No clue. I know a lot of smart people who aren't crazy though.

I think with Courtney (who I have a mutual friend with), she's been isolated just enough to let the crazy foster and the smarts carry her through.

I admire her, not without caveats.

I've often wondered if famous people tend to go off the deep end more than the rest of us because they're constantly surrounded by people who tell the what they want to hear.

After I've read her article, I would say I have high regards with her.

...because the wild women of grunge can't possibly have brains too? Disingenuous, my friend. There are famous rockers with PhDs (the guy from green day comes to mind).

First, I don't think anyone in Green Day has a PhD.

Second, I wasn't surprised because she was a women, or a musician, or because she was part of the grunge scene. I know there are lots of smart women, and lots of smart women in music. I wasn't saying anything about a correlation between gender and intelligence or professions and intelligence. I was suprised because she's Courtney Love, and most of what I've read and seen of her prior to this makes her seem like an idiot. And this article seemed well-thought out, thus surprising me.

My bad about Green Day -- it was the Offspring I was thinking about (can't blame me, they're almost interchangeable as bands). On the other hand, rockers with PhDs:

Dexter Holland from Offspring (molecular biology, but dropped out with a masters)

Greg Gaffin from Bad Religion (zoology, 2007)

Brian May from Queen (astrophysics)

James Lilja from Offspring (medical degree, not PhD)

Sterling Morrison from the Velvet Underground (medieval literature, 80s)

Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers has worked for NASA or the NSA on missile defense systems or something like that.

"Some person worked for some agency on something, or something"? Thanks for the well-researched comment.

Tom Sholz, guitarist from Boston -- MS in Engineering from MIT. Guitar Hero and Nerd. The only one in captivity?

I've done a lot of work for Dexter Holland in the past (and a little for Bad Religion but I never met Graffin) and I can vouch for him being a seriously smart guy.

Accomplished pilot, small business owner and inventor (several patents on LBS stuff from early 90s).

Juli Crockett of the Evangenitals is only an overdue (philosophy) dissertation away (and now that she's pregnant she may never get the damn thing finished).

I don't think the issue is that she's a wild woman from the era of grunge, but rather she was addicted to heroine and cocaine for a while.

People use drugs, the mild ones and the strong ones (including alcohol), in every class. Rich or poor, smart or dumb. Some get addicted, others find some other interests in life.

The two might go hand in hand...

I've managed a couple passing conversations while she was staying in SoHo NYC and she definitely has an idea of what she wants out of things but I can't say there wasn't an amount of fakeness to the whole situation (recalling the defamation lawsuit in this case). To her credit, she explains things very well and certainly doesn't give in lightly to things. I guess it takes an extremely determined personality to live her life.

I'm convinced that she knows the record label situation well but it was probably after having the same conversation many times with many other folks in the industry. Still, none of that is necessarily a bad thing nor does it make this a poor piece of writing (regardless of any editors).

Don't worry, she basically plagiarized it from Steve Albini. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=79162

(I still find it really satisfying when I google for something I know is true and find myself as the #1 advocate of it on Google -- in this case the search "steve albini courtney love plagiarism")

Nonsense. The Albini article covers a lot less ground and has far fewer ideas. In particular it says nothing about alternative distribution models or the internet.

OK. I retract the plagiarism accusation.

My belief was that Courtney Love had been influenced by the Albini document (which might have originated as a speech that Courney Love heard) but she brings enough in the way of sufficient new ideas to the table that it doesn't really matter that she doesn't cite her source.

After reading both articles I'm left wondering what wacko liberal definition of plagiarism are you going with anyway?

Seems hard to believe, but cool if true.

It's from Salon, and claims to be a transcript of a speech, so I doubt they could have been easily deceived regarding its authorship.

I think it's incredible how wild woman [1], with so many issues are also very smart, I guess they have too much time in hands to thinker about so many things.

[1] I dated a girl who Coutney Love might as well be her role model... a total disaster, the girl read piles of books, had tons of great ideas, learned math for fun, etc etc etc.