L.A. WeeklyAND NOW, A WORD FROM THE “LOSERS”
DEAR EDITOR:
Re: “Tuned In, Turned On, Locked Out” [July 30August 5]. It's unfortunate that Kate Coleman sees the current Pacifica crisis as no more than “lefties fighting each other.” Despite the fact that the national board contains women, people of color and minorities, it does not mean they are doing a good job. It does not mean that their agenda and the agenda of Pacifica are one and the same. Nor does it mean that they are looking out for the interests of Pacifica. Actions speak louder than words, and their actions show that their concerns are not in the best interests of the five Pacifica stations.
As for [Pacifica executive director] Pat Scott, I'm sorry she feels that the left is a “culture of losers.” Her attitude regarding “good friends” Angela Davis and Alice Walker is a perfect example of why her tenure with Pacifica was filled with strife. I would think that Davis and Walker are more than capable of looking at the actions of the current board and forming their own opinion; I don't believe they need Scott to explain it to them.
Ms. Coleman apparently finds this situation quite amusing. Perhaps it is. We “lefties,” in our self-righteous zeal, could never believe that any of “us” would ever betray the quest for free speech. Well, we've been proved wrong. People get older. They get jobs, get a little power, and they want to hold on to it. This is what's happening with the Pacifica national board. Money, slickness, catering to the lowest common denominator, becomes more important than content. Luckily, some of us — a lot of us — are still wild-eyed “lefties,” ready to fight. We got our education from Pacifica, and the reason we're raising such a stink is because we want the stations there for the next generation.
–Kate McCullogh
Los Angeles
DEAR EDITOR:
Pacifica's national board has thrown every type of smoke screen, lie, false accusation, etc., it can to draw the public eye away from the heist that it is perpetrating. Unfortunately, Ms. Coleman's investigation was too superficial. Had she dug a little deeper, she would have found, for example, that the meeting Mark Schubb, KPFK's manager, was not “invited to” was an open forum that had been announced over several Web sites and that everyone was asked to attend. It was not some secret meeting by bomb-throwing extremists. If Mr. Schubb was so concerned, it might have been a good idea if he had addressed the meeting. He was asked, and he refused.
Obviously, there is a major problem with Pacifica's national board. Angela Davis, Joan Baez, Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Howard Zinn, and on and on are decrying its actions. Obviously, they're seeing something Ms. Coleman is not.
–T. Arrington
Silver Lake
TESTY, TESTY
DEAR EDITOR:
Re: Sara Catania's “Screen Test” [July 30August 5]. Boo-hoo! The current management of the American Cinematheque has wailed through millions of dollars on a project its founders had the good sense to turn down, and we're supposed to feel sorry for them? Not! Perhaps if the Cinematheque acted like the nonprofit film organization it is instead of taking on ventures befitting a for-profit business (e.g., its café, cinema and bookstore operations), it wouldn't be in its current financial situation. Besides, why would the Cinematheque restore a 675-seat theater if its goal was to fill only a small portion of those seats? Hello? Anyone home? Here's a suggestion: Sell the Egyptian to Disney, pay off your debts, and hold screenings in the Spielberg Theater, where a nonprofit film organization belongs.
–K.A. Norman
Los Angeles
DEAR EDITOR:
Sara Catania's piece explains the operational sloppiness at the American Cinematheque, but does not excuse its staff's smugness. They should be proud of what they've done with the Egyptian (perhaps the finest theater in town), and I have no complaints about the programming. But they need to do something — anything — to at least pretend to be happy to have audiences and filmmakers showing up.
–Otto Kitsinger
Los Angeles
DEVIL OR ANGEL?
DEAR EDITOR:
Re: Johnny Angel's preaching to the choir [“Full Feminazi Jacket,” July 30August 5]. In his determined intolerance for conservatives, Angel doesn't seem to realize that the right isn't the only group that panders to the fears of its audience. I seem to remember liberals claiming that conservatives and Republicans were coming for our children, poisoning our water, and would allow our elderly to starve and die. That is pandering to fear just as much as Jerry Falwell's (out-of-context) quote on Teletubbies, or Gary Bauer's support of Lieutenant Ryan Berry's religious convictions. ã
Get off it, Angel. You don't give a damn about the “military mission.” What you do give a damn about is your fear of religion and the people who practice it.
–Matt Garrett
Van Nuys
ALLIES
DEAR EDITOR:
Bobbi Murray's article “A Dream in the Works” [July 30August 5] needs some clarification. She states, “Some angry environmentalists had originally characterized the Metro Alliance deal with DreamWorks as a sellout.” I can think of no one in the environmental community who has expressed that sentiment. While we don't think jobs and training programs can be separated from environmental protection and quality of life, many of us applauded Metro Alliance's progress in extracting some sort of benefits for the outrageous public subsidies being offered to Playa Vista.
–Marcia Hanscom
Executive Director, Wetlands Action Network
Sierra Club Angeles Chapter
Executive Committee
Malibu
BUGGED
DEAR EDITOR:
Regarding Rita Neyter's “Ladybug Man” [Good Neighbors, July 30August 5], I feel I was mischaracterized and misquoted. The day Neyter called me from the L.A. Weekly regarding the article she was writing about ladybugs, I said that I had just received a copy of my latest release of the Jazz Corps' Live at the Lighthouse from Cadence Jazz Records. I also mentioned that my next recording, Frogs Breath Saloon, is being released mid-August of 1999. She said she would try to include this information in her article. Instead, I was characterized as a “struggling jazz musician,” which I feel is putting me in a negative light, is damaging to my career and couldn't be further from the truth. This has been a great year for me so far — except for this article.
I was misquoted as saying, “Pesticides are used minimally.” What I told her was: To my knowledge the city of Beverly Hills uses no pesticides, and only uses beneficial insects.
–Tommy Peltier
Los Angeles
DRUGSTORE COWBOY
DEAR EDITOR:
Louise Steinman's “Pharmacist's Daughter” [July 28] brought to mind the late Charles Brown's observation “You don't need no narcotics, no antibiotics, you just got a virus called the blues.” As a former Culver City drugstore cowboy (now wrestling with form and content in Germany), I say, “More Steinman stories, please.”
–Richard Posner
Witten, Germany
CORRECTION
We regret, in Brendan Bernhard's August 612 cover story, “Making Money: The Conceptual Art of J.S.G. Boggs,” having omitted credit for the artwork. The credit would have read, “© JSG BOGGS –JSGBOGGS.COM — Image courtesy SZILAGE Gallery at 145.”
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