Letters

The Weekly’s May 7–13 issue was one of the most
enjoyable issues I have read in the 11 years since I became an L.A. transplant.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Dave Shulman’s article on Andy Kaufman
[“Uncle Andy’s Fun Afterlife”] is a keeper. It not only answers a few questions
I had but also raises some. In fact, I think there’s a possibility of a death
hoax. I remember when I was younger, seeing pictures of Andy in the midst of
chemotherapy — his head was bald as an egg, while the rest of him was hairy
as a monkey. That seems impossible.

I was then treated to articles about Richard Pryor [“Pryor
Uncut”], Mitch Hedberg [“Petting
the Koala”], Don Herbert (a.k.a. Mr. Wizard) [Considerable
People, “The Whiz”], Mark E. Smith of the Fall [“We
Are the Fall”], the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (featuring
faves the Pixies) [“Live
in L.A.”], as well as the hysterical Courtney Love comic strip by Ellen
Forney and David Schmader
[Pulpit, “Memories of Love: Courtney Through the Ages”]. Jerry Stahl’s tribute
to Hubert Selby Jr. [“Dark
Angel”] also was a touching read.

Thanks for the memories and for showing such respect to some of the people
whose adventurous spirit provided inspiration for me as a child of the ’70s
and ’80s.

—Jaye Barnes Luckett
Los Angeles

BUFFOON ON THE MOON

Andy Kaufman is overrated, obnoxious, cruel and unfunny.
Why should we care about him now? I didn’t 20 years ago. Kaufman and Zmuda were
overgrown delinquents who treated those they worked with poorly and their fans
worse. Zmuda should find a real job and stop pushing this dead act off on the
public.

—Brian Chandler
Pasadena

Dave Shulman’s article on Andy Kaufman is as much a lame attempt at comic
mendacity as it is a shameless promotion of Zmuda’s overpriced event at the
House of Blues. He should have done some research and come to the conclusion
that faking one’s death is next to impossible, and Kaufman, unfortunate as it
may be, is pushing up daisies. Also, Shulman’s assertion that there is a real
Tony Clifton is simply bizarre. As any Kaufman fan knows, Tony Clifton is
a character created by Kaufman and Zmuda. (The Clifton interviewed by VH1 was
actually Zmuda in costume, and one assumes that the man Shulman interviewed
over the phone was also Zmuda). Either Shulman knows this and is simply acting
as a shill for Zmuda’s event, or the writer is extraordinarily ignorant.

—Jon Thibault
Los Angeles

LEGALIZE IT

Regarding Doug Ireland’s story [“Royal
Coke,” May 7–13], if all drugs were made legal, it would take all of the
money out of the dealers’ pockets, and then the Saudi Prince, the CIA, the DEA
and other agencies would have to get real jobs. Wouldn’t that be nice? Even
some of the police forces would have to go back to working on real crimes.
It is time for the public to stop believing all the crap about the phony drug
war; it is really about competition and who gets to sell the garbage to the
users. Often, the only people to get punished are the small independent dealers
or the producers or those who won’t play ball with the CIA.

—Shannon Taylor
Holualoa, Hawaii

SEEKING CLOSURE

Last June, Elliott Smith won the L.A. Weekly award
for the songwriter category. A year later he is gone, and a lot of questions
about the circumstances surrounding his death are left unanswered. There is
still an investigation going on, from what I’ve heard, but after 6 months it
seems to have gone nowhere.

Back in January, the Weekly published several articles by Christine
Pelisek about Elliott’s death [“The
Elliott Smith Mystery,” January 2–8; “The
Final Moments of Elliott Smith’s Life,” January 9–15; “Another
View of Elliott Smith,” January 16–22]. Does anyone know what’s going on?
Elliott was living in L.A.; he was certainly the most important songwriter in
the local music scene; numerous musicians have praised his talent after his
death. I really think that the Weekly should continue to report about
this tragic story. Everybody needs an answer and closure.

—Laurence Laneque
Los Angeles

The Write Stuff

Work by L.A. Weekly reporters, columnists and
reviewers has been nominated in eight categories in the 46th annual Southern
California Journalism Awards, a contest sponsored by the Los Angeles Press Club.
Michael Kaplan was nominated for Best News Feature for “Dealing
With the Master” (May 15, 2003), a profile of professional gambler Men Nguyen;
Jeffrey Anderson was nominated for Best Investigative/Series for “Ghost
in the Machine” (July 4, 2003), part of the Weekly’s “Taking Liberties”
special issue on civil liberties, also nominated for Best Special Section News
or Features. Erin Aubry Kaplan is up for an award as Best Columnist for her
Cakewalk column;
and John Powers for Best Entertainment Reviews/Criticism/Column for his On
column. Three Weekly writers had work nominated for Best Entertainment News
or Feature: David Chute for a cover story on Bollywood
movies (March 6, 2003); Doug Harvey for a critical essay on video artist
Bill Viola (January 24, 2003); and Steven Leigh Morris for a feature on the
residents of Sunset
Hall (April 17, 2003). Winners will be announced on June 12.

CORRECTIONS

On last week’s contents page [May 14–20], a photograph
taken by Ali Farboud ran without full credit information. The model in the photograph
was Robert Sherman, who appeared courtesy of Dragon Modeling Agency.

Our film capsule review of Wasabi Tuna [Calendar, May 7–13] incorrectly
states that Celia Fox is the director. Celia Fox is the writer. Lee Friedlander
is the director.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.