That Wasn’t Funny
Congratulations on the new format, but I am heartbroken that you removed Carol
Lay’s comics. I would intentionally view her artwork as the last item in L.A.
Weekly, so I could put down the paper with a smile on my face. I
am especially down about the matter because she would include our Los Angeles
community in the strips as well, as in “Things
I Love About My Neighborhood”.
I also would recommend moving Lynda Barry’s “Ernie Pook’s Comeek” off of the
same page as the adult advertising for “Sun Kissed Ta-Ta’s.” I see it as being
a bit disrespectful to the artist, but hey, maybe Ms. Barry gets a kick out
of it.

—Jake Tringali
Los Feliz

Don’t kid yourself. The Comics section is your best asset. I look forward to
its triumphant return to the sticky back pages of your rag.

—Walter Lutz
Highland Park

The comics aren’t going away. We’ll continue to showcase all
our regulars, though not always together. Look for their whereabouts on the
contents page.

Exhibits, Eh?

Congratulations on your redesign! It makes complete sense to run listings next
to the articles in subject categories and really improves the ease of use. It
must represent a lot of hard work and I, for one, appreciate it.
In all this delight, my one slight cavil is that we seem to have lost museum
coverage, in particular the Museum Pick of the Week. There’s a beautiful big
art section, but it concentrates on galleries. Could we have a museums page,
please?

—Alison Rowe
California Heritage Museum

Art lovers, take note: Museums listings
are still in the paper, just in
a new place. See Page 71 in
this week’s paper.

A Fond Goth-bye

I would like to address a few areas from Retail Slut’s farewell write-up [“Goodbye,
Slut,” March 11–17].
It stated that the second owner took possession in 1993. Shared management started
in 1998 and the final paperwork for ownership was completed in 2000.
I started Retail Slut to be an outlet for all wild and crazy fashion,
but the tide was punk and goth in the ’80s, which led to Retail Slut’s reputation.
And thus the customers’ con­flict with the bright and shiny rave culture that
followed. L.A. purports to be wild and daring with fashion, but mostly after
the trend is publicly accepted — even among the “flamboyant gay community.”
(I was kicked out of Rage twice — once for being punk rock and once for being
a drag queen. I guess my earrings were too big.)
You also mentioned a list of big names that frequented the store. But I’d like
to give kudos to Andi from Snap-her, Viva Rebecca of Frightwig, Dina Cancer
from 45 Grave, Vaginal Davis, Joseph Brooks, Jason Lavitt, computer artists
Scott Kilburn and Sean Shur, photographers Pierre and Gary Silva, George from
Global Sound Systems, and the Theoretical and Dragstrip crews. It’s them — and
hundreds of others who constantly came walking in with a smile, and are still
contributing to the scene and staying true to their art — who helped make Slut
what it was. I’d like to thank them all.

Goth Eternally,
Rave Forever,
—Helen Bed/helen13/Helen O’Neill
Grand mistress and creator of Retail Slut

 

Passing Into History
As a classical music lover and obit aficionado, I note several major omissions
from John Powers’ “Mortal
Storm: The Deaths of the 20th Century” [April 15–21]. Beginning during the
World Series, we lost the American baritone Robert Merrill, then in December
the beloved Renata Tebaldi. January saw the passing of the miraculous Victoria
de los Angeles, and last month the baritone Theodor Uppman, my first Papageno,
died at 85.
Already the 20th century seems more and more historical.

—Murray Aronson
West Hollywood

Lawn and Order
In response to Marc Cooper’s article “Lawn-Chair
Militias” [April 8–14]: Well, after all the media and your take on it, the
Minutemen were effective. No matter the slants — and yes, though the media tend
to try to co-opt anything — they did pretty much what they set out to do. The
illegals stopped coming.
You should know that the general public, the citizenry, are fed up with Bush,
the Border Patrol, the media — which all tilt favoring the lack of enforcement,
while they, the citizens, pay for that failure in taxes subsidizing the retinue
of illegals; they feel betrayed. So, if it makes any of you uncomfortable, well,
TS. Way to go, Minutemen!

—Burley L. Morris
Houston

A Toast to Wry

In response to your review of Woody Allen’s latest: I doubt that Allen needs
me to defend him, but I would point out that his latest, Melinda and
Melinda, rather subtly showcases the story of a woman who has literally
— and plausibly, in my view — gotten away with first-degree murder. A wry, serious
topic, about as serious as topics get. And handled, to my tastes, exactly as
it should be, give or take a flat-fallen joke or two.

—Charles R. Hockett
Los Angeles

Correction: In our April 15 issue, the photo of Phil Ranelin in the Jazz
Pick of the Week was by Joe La Russo. Our apologies for the oversight.

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