Letters

WORK IT, GIRL

Re: “DIY Design” [cover story, May 10–16]. I still haven’t got past reading about Marlene Salcido, but I’d like to let you know that she has always had style. Thanks for a great story on a local girl working hard to make her dreams come true.

—Monica De La Hoya
Los Angeles

WIR SIND HAMBURGUESAS

Re: “An Exquisite Scar: Life and Commerce Along the Alameda Corridor” [May 17–23]. Living in Hamburg, Germany, I now see people strolling, biking, skating through abandoned industrial docks that will soon be restructured into a mix of housing, culture, entertainment, trade and commerce. It is highly interesting, therefore, to read stories of those L.A. urban areas and notice an increasing awareness of citizens towards their forgotten inner-city environments.

—Bodo von Ulmenstein
Hamburg, Germany

LEGITIMATE DESIRES

Re: Ben Ehrenreich’s article “A Family Divided” [May 17–23]. I’m supportive of the idea that Jews should continue to criticize what’s wrong with Israel’s policies, as well as what’s wrong with the Palestinians’ actions. This needs to happen even in this time when Israel has been subject to unprecedented attack. It’s been difficult to find ways to express my support for both the continued (restored) security of Israel and justice for the Palestinians.

But if the organizers of a demonstration can’t bring themselves to clearly call for Israel’s ongoing existence and safety as a Jewish state, they’re not going to get much Jewish support. They shouldn’t expect it, shouldn’t complain about it. Support for Israel is a core conviction of virtually all American Jews of every political and religious stripe, a few left sectarians notwithstanding. Hopefully someone else will create an action that speaks to the legitimate national desires of both Israelis and Palestinians, and the desire of many American Jews to support both.

—Nathan Landau
Berkeley

NOT-SO-PETTY LARCENY

John Payne’s “Wheels of Steal” [May 17–23] was a typically biased piece of tripe written by a dink-head scribe who probably has never picked up a guitar in his life. Every one of these Napster/file-sharing stories makes the songwriter appear as the bad guy. Payne all but lays out the blueprint for stealing songs from the Web, then says there’s nothing to be done about it. How about starting the article with the plight of starving songwriters and what can be done to protect them? To say there’s nothing to be done about the illegal downloading of songs and we should just turn our heads is absurd. People will pay for a service if it’s delivered to meet demand. Payne gives 10 words at the end of his essay about the songwriter’s rights — how decent of him. If this piece he wrote appeared in a hundred other journals and he was not compensated in any way, do you think he’d say, “Oh, at least my name is out there”? Very doubtful. Why don’t you call the Napster guy what he is — a thug, a criminal, with no respect whatsoever for the artist. He should be in jail. Yes, sharing a song with a buddy or two is here to stay. It’s when 10,000 people are in on the scheme that it becomes horrendous.

—Steven Rosen
West Hollywood

I have been unable to find “inexpensive audio recording software” to record analog 45s from my jukebox to listen to in my car. I have a “burner.” I have been to many stores and made lots of phone calls — please, where and how much?

—Chuck Striegel
Los Angeles

EDITOR’S NOTE: You may not want to ask Mr. Rosen, above, about that.

Re: Judith Lewis’ “Power to the Peer” [May 17–23]. What always seems to amaze me when I read articles on peer-to-peer networks and the “plight” of the Recording Industry Association of America is the often overlooked solution. It’s basic economics, people! Consumers will always choose the least expensive product unless the more expensive alternative offers features or services that are worth the difference in cost. Face it, RIAA, using copyright laws and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to strong-arm consumers into more expensive, less flexible products is no way to solve your poor research and development woes. Read John Payne’s “Wheels of Steal” article about copying via analog sources in the same L.A. Weekly issue. What next, outlaw headphone jacks because people could use them to copy digital music?

The solution: Instead of spending billions on copy-protected CDs that are doomed to fail, cut the price of your CDs to $9.99 or less. â All of them. Second, offer products or services that mp3-swapping fans can’t get electronically, like band merchandise at reduced costs or pre-sale concert tickets. It’s time the RIAA got creative and innovative and stopped lobbying Congress to increase their copyright and patent controls. Their current practices are just plain un-American.

—J. Riedel
Northridge

POTSHOTS FROM THE PULPit

If Michael Dougan had made a single salient point about Michael Moore in last week’s potshot party [PULPit, May 17–23], he could have counted himself in good company among other empty-handed, empty-headed social-critic wannabes who have nothing to offer but potshots at other social critics. Dougan proves himself even more useless than that. What exactly was his point? That Michael Moore shouldn’t charge money for his books? That liberals who make money shouldn’t be trusted? How convenient for the status quo that both conservative nut balls and bitter liberals alike perpetuate the idea that the only liberals worth trusting are poor and unsuccessful fringe folk who are too “real” for the mainstream media, or financial success.