Peace, Love and Disunity

A lot of ravers just didn't like last week's cover story about Lady Casa (“Queen of the Raves,” by Ben Westhoff and Sarah Purkrabek). Some thought Lady Casa was shallow. Others simply seemed upset that they'd never heard of her.

Masterofchale writes, “This entire article is made-up bullshit, plain and simple. L.A. Weekly has officially lost all credibility for posting this vapid trash in such a sad attempt to stay relevant with today's rave culture scene. NO ONE knows who this girl is.“

Reader 2nd7 disagrees, writing, “I have to laugh a little at all the angry comments on this one. If you're whining, 'I don't know who she is,' as it happens, now you do. Second, if you're a hardcore raver, you should be happy that 1) there is a positive article about raving being featured and 2) a raver who is apparently good at getting coverage is also at least coherent at giving interviews. I'd go on a limb and say a lot of people in that scene aren't as, eh, media-savvy.”

Depth Perception

Suzanne Diamond sent us a thoughtful letter touching upon both the Lady Casa profile and Jennifer Swann's piece about Geoff Barker and Bessie Bardot, who gave up C-list stardom in Australia to travel the United States in a van (“The Honey Trap,” Sept. 19). She writes, “My father likes to use the phrase 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing' and the writers of the two articles above demonstrate just how easily the hip and trendy can be fooled by pretty packaging: In Swann's piece, she writes about Barker and Bardot rejecting 'the good life' by ditching their 'high-profile lifestyle,' only to mention that Barker and Bardot are doing so by shooting a YouTube series, ghostwriting, etc.! That's not exactly leaving the world and living in an ashram.

“Meanwhile, Lady Casa's heart may be in the right place, but she does a great disservice (to put it mildly) to both East Indian and Native American belief systems. The notion of someone selling plastic kandi and mass-marketing their stickers for great material gain while wearing an Om symbol is a type of ignorance (sin). One of Patanjali's core beliefs is that one should not take more than what is needed, the idea being that it is a form of theft: The one taking (more) robs another.

“Merely looking pretty and flashing an Om sign does not qualify one as a yogi, nor does wearing a certain hairstyle and flashing breasts make one a spiritual guide. Yogic teachings have to do with balance and knowing self is the basis of learning to know God. How sad that many will read these articles about Barker/Bardot and Lady Casa and merely pick up the bullet points and thus never get the real message of Eastern and native philosophies.”

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