LETTERS

Dear Josh Bell,

I loved your review of the Television Without Pity book and website ("Taking Pity," November 16) because you were able to identify and explain the problem of the site without being harsh.

I am a longtime reader of the site, but I find the content, especially on the message boards, increasingly nasty as a result of myopic, overinvested fans who start spewing venom when storylines or characters don't please them. The point of the boards is to discuss all viewpoints, but the forums usually end up as an example of the power of groupthink: The most proliferative posters dictate which opinions are allowed, and dissenting views get shouted down, attacked or ignored, to the point where dissenters don't even bother anymore.

And because you cannot defend yourself against another poster, only their opinion, a lot of junior high girl-style bullying goes on.

There is little fun at TWoP anymore. Too bad.

Hey Josh Bell,

Thanks for writing the Television Without Pity review. My online fandom experience has started on TWoP. I was reading recaps because my favorite shows were being aired much later in my country and I wanted to know what had happened to Heroes next. These recaps almost ruined the shows for me. Thankfully, I managed to find other, more friendly boards. It's baffling to see such amount of hate towards good shows and great to see that not everybody shares TWoP opinions.

Josh Bell,

Your Television Without Pity book review was great! I only recently discovered the TWoP forums and such, and the people who run that place are ridiculous. Just posting over there is like walking through a minefield. The moderators don't follow their own rules. I didn't realize TWoP was such a big deal. I guess they think so, anyway. Loved the review.

Sorry Josh, The Nativity Story ("What Would Jesus Watch?" November 30) does not come from Hallmark—it is from our Heavenly Father. Read the Bible—the Word of God. I am amazed when I read such critical and hateful things toward a movie about our Savior and astonished at the praise of Hollywood's fervor for a theme of decadence that is extremely redundant and has no originality. Please name me one good movie from Hollywood in the past year? This movie is a message and so many like you don't get it. I hope someday, you do.

Wow Josh ... I thought it was pretty entertaining.

Las Vegas Weekly Editor,

An article about a participant quitting the city's First Friday event ("A Little Complaint About the Arts District," December 14) mentioned the presence of Clark County representatives for our Targeting Area Graffiti campaign.

We chose First Friday as an outlet to promote our campaign because it draws a diverse crowd, and we are always interested in reaching out to the community.

An important part of our anti-graffiti efforts is education. We want the public and potential vandals themselves to know that putting graffiti on public or private property without permission is a crime. Graffiti costs Southern Nevada taxpayers an estimated $30 million a year in damages.

To combat this crime, Clark County has worked with the Southern Nevada Graffiti Coalition and its membership organizations to create the Targeting Area Graffiti campaign.

The message of our initiative is this: If you vandalize property with graffiti, you will be caught, you will be prosecuted and you will be punished. I invite readers to visit the home page of Clark County's Web site at
www.accessclarkcounty.com for more information about the "Targeting Area Graffiti" initiative and its new Turn-In-A-Tagger program, which offers a reward of up to $500 for information that leads to the arrest of a graffiti vandal. You also can call the Graffiti Coalition's hotline at 455-4509 to report graffiti if you see it, or to get involved in clean-up efforts.

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to further explain our efforts,

I cannot believe the nerve on Iceberg Slick ("A Little Complaint About the Arts District," December 14). Here is a guy with the heartlessness to make a play against the very people who helped him get where he is. Without First Friday you would be selling crack and tagging walls with your vandalizing allies. Vegas finally has a chance to have something good and here you come with your disrespectful and negative attitude about it. I am a local artist and have been coming to First Friday since it began. I am personally glad to see you go and hopefully you'll take all of the graffiti/hip-hop garbage with you. The city spends a lot of money repairing what you perpetuate. Maybe now that you're gone our event can return to a normal and fun experience minus the tagging and hooligans! C'est La Vie!!

Your bad review of Rocky Balboa (December 21) was one of the better poor reviews I've read. I agree with your checklist criticism. But those checklist items were necessary. It's called bringing the character "full circle." This is also classic mythological storytelling—the character coming home again after his adventures. Rocky did have a compelling reason to get back in the ring—just as much if not more than any other film—he had "stuff in the basement"...his grief, his feeling like a has-been, his basic human desire to feel alive despite others trying to keep him down.