LETTERS

The following is a transcript of a voice mail left on Art Director Benjamen Purvis' extension after last week's cover—a laughing black man in a Santa suit—hit the streets:

Good afternoon, Benjamen, this is William Martin. I applied for Las Vegas Weekly back in March 2003. Here I see on the cover today is a black man. So I'm wondering: Why is that? Give me a call. I applied in March, I should've been on the cover. All right, later.

Editor's note:
As it turns out, Mr. Martin, appearing on the Weekly cover is not—unlike being its editor—a first-come, first-served proposition. Many call, few are chosen.

Wherefore Art Thou, Theater Critic?

Word on the grapevine has it that the paper has decided to do away with theater reviews. Say it isn't so!! Not only did many in the theater community read and comment, many theater-goers read and commented. Steve's critiques were witty, well written and (even if negative to the production or aspects thereof) always a joy to read.

Your paper is quantified as: "Las Vegas Weekly: Arts // Entertainment // Culture + Everything Else That Matters." That description cannot be complete without including theater. With the recent proliferation of live theater companies in the Valley—so many that Steve wrote an article regarding it—the art form and reviews definitely matter.

Please reinstate Steve and the column! There's a great, gaping hole in your publication without them.

Editor's note:
Many in the theater community read and commented? Many theater-goers read and commented? Not to us. Our sense was that we were pitching our theater coverage into a void created by everyone paying rapt attention to Tony Del Valle at the R-J. Steve's impression was that few of our readers cared deeply about theater.

Now, while a play that doesn't draw an audience may still be worth doing for artistic reasons, reviews surely aren't. They're consumer reports, and without consumers to report to, there's no sense in running them. Which is why Mr. Bornfeld (not, as the grapevine suggests, the paper or its editors) decided to curtail his coverage.

I Am Not a Xenophobe, I Just Don't Like People Speaking All Those Other Languages

The following arrived in response to an editor's note in last week's Letters section—our well-meaning editor tut-tutted over a letter-writer who said Las Vegas sucks in part because of all the non-English-speaking people. That letter-writer has taken exception to the note:

DEAR EDITTOR: YOU POSTED MY RESPONSE TO AN ARTICAL IN THIS WEEK'S PUBLICATION BUT IN YOUR EDITOR'S NOTE YOU SAID I HAD XENOPHOBIA.

LET ME TELL YOU I DON'T FEAR OR HATE ANYONE I ONLY HATE STANDING IN LINES WHILE WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO TRANSLATE FOR SOMEONE THAT DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH NOR DO I LIKE GOING TO A FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS AND HAVING TO REPEAT MYSELF SEVERAL TIMES BECAUSE THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND ENGLISH.

THIS DOES NOT ADD UP TO FEAR OR HATE SO GET YOUR FACTS STRAIT.....

Editor's note:
We stand corrected.

Hillary Clinton Is No George W. Bush

Congratulations to Senator Hillary Clinton. Without any fanfare, she spent a whole day in Afghanistan, ate Thanksgiving Dinner with the troops and then travelled to Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with Musharraf; then she flew to Baghdad and spent the day touring the city, meeting with civilian leaders, military chiefs and U.S. troops. She has already visited injured troops (the ones that are ignored by Bush) at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

What a contrast to the hoopla and publicity than accompanied Bush's latest photo-op—2.5 hours at the base at Baghdad airport, accompanied by White House spokespeople, photographers, and journalists!

Take Us to Your Art Director!

The cute extraterrestrials on the cover of the November 27 edition prompted this response:

The aliens—are they a drawing or a doll or statue? If real, I think they're adorable and wonder how I can get one.

Editor's note:
Drawing? Doll? Statue? Sherrie, they're real aliens, or so the modeling agency tells us. If you want one, we suggest that you move to a trailer in rural Arkansas—they'll find you.