LA Weekly

Interrogation Games
Kudos to journalist Paul Teetor for his cover story, “Bad Rap” [April 11-17], which detailed the arrest and horrors experienced by Herbie Gonzalez, an innocent man sucked into the System — and then charged with a murder he did not commit. I would also like to highly commend Torrance Superior Court Judge Cary Nishimoto for ensuring that justice prevailed. Teetor’s fact-finding and fearless reportage of this story is an outstanding example of how the Fourth Estate can and does serve as watchdog — for the people. Keep up the good work!

Steve Hodel
Studio City

Herbert’s life has been turned upside down, surely never to be the same, while the members of law enforcement keep their homes, jobs, families and freedoms after they make these kinds of “mistakes.” What is going to happen to those who accused Herbert and had him wrongly imprisoned? Will they be punished for the mistake they made? I feel they should know what it’s like to have everything they have worked for taken from them. He was wrongly accused, wrongly imprisoned and now must continue to fight for what should have never been taken from him.

Posted on April 10 by L. Dasher

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Isn’t It Rich?
Is it true that the Weekly is letting Alan Rich go? Are you nuts? Los Angeles is one of the hottest cities in the country for classical music. Does the name Dudamel ring a bell? Placido Domingo? The upcoming Ring cycle at L.A. Opera? How the Weekly can end Alan’s reviews is beyond me. Are more ads for strippers and escorts going to take up that space?

Timothy Eckert
Los Angeles

Never done this before, but I gotta this time. I’ve lived in L.A. 12 years, and I read L.A. Weekly every week, mostly for the articles and the theater and movie reviews and listings. But the first page I open every week is Alan Rich’s on classical music: one of the best regular pages of journalism anywhere. It is my understanding that not only are you dispensing with the services of this great critic but also with a regular classical-music critic altogether. If true, the appropriate response is: unbelievable! And this at a time when Los Angeles has finally become one of the most important locations internationally in terms of all those forms of music we lump under the name “classical,” and is thriving like never before. Such a decision, if I may phrase it this way, makes your organ just that much less vital.

Peter Gahan
Los Angeles

Please count me as another reader horrified by your decision to drop Alan Rich. He is one of the greatest (the word is not too strong) critics of our time, in any field, and still at the top of his game at an age when most writers are burned toast. His marvelous collection, So I’ve Heard, is never far from my desk — and it even made the L.A. Times best-seller list for a while. L.A. Weekly is deeply diminished by Rich’s departure.

Tim Page
University of Southern California

The firing of Alan Rich is a disgrace. Now there’s absolutely no reason to pick up the paper. The Los Angeles Times cannot and will not cover most of the musical events that happen in our city, and Rich’s column provided a much-needed clearing-house of vital information and criticism. I’m disappointed with your decision, and will no longer read the paper.

Mark Alan Hilt
Los Angeles

It’s true that with the loss of Alan Rich’s column we are losing the weekly pleasure of reading one of this country’s finest critics, but Rich will continue to cover classical music in these pages and we look forward to many more years of his sharp and witty analysis. Meanwhile, read his latest “A Lot of Night Music” column here.

Royal Blood-Boiler
Tibby Rothman’s article “Emirates of Grand Avenue” [April 11-17] worries about subsidies given to the oil-rich Dubai royal family, and the L.A. taxpayers’ apparent “lack of awareness.” Hello? Ever heard of the Getty family and that monstrosity overlooking the 405? How about the Doheny family (apparently one of the sources for the oil tycoons in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood) and the development of USC, for example? The history of oil-rich (“royal”) families developing L.A. — with or without taxpayer subsidies — is an old one. The real question, perhaps, is: Why are you, Tibby, so paranoid about Middle Easterners getting in on the action — i.e., drinking “our” milk shake?

Christian Hite
North Hills

Correction
A line that read, “Russian girls will do anything for $10” in Steven Mikulan’s Pellicano Briefs column [“’Tis Pity She Was a Whore,” April 4–10] should have read, “Russian girls will do anything for $100.” We apologize for the typo.

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