When Readers Really, Really Want to Drink, We Shouldn't Leave Out the Address of the Bar
Dear Lissa Townsend Rodgers,
I enjoyed your review of the Dispensary Lounge. However, I think you have forgotten the first rule of reviewing any establishment. Location, location, location! How in the hell do you forget to include, at the very least, what part of town it is located in? Great editors you got there. I still love the mag, though.
Editor's Note:
D'oh! Address? Directions? We've been there so many times, we're like homing pigeons. Our bad. The Dispensary is at 2451 E. Tropicana Ave.
And Another Thing. You Get Paid to Drink? Ah, Journalism.
Dear Lissa Townsend Rodgers,
Since you've covered all of the other great bars in Las Vegas, I sense a spotlight on The Bond-Aire Club in the near future; although bear in mind this is a prediction rather than a suggestion. I mean, anyone who has actually figured out how to get paid for drinking must already be in tune with the strange, dark magic which surrounds this unassuming tavern.
Cheers!
Thanks For Spreading the Love, New Favorite Reader on the Bus!
Dear Editor,
Just dropping a note to say I've been very impressed with your newspaper. Great artwork/photography on the covers every week. Topics are right on point. This week's issue was the most fun/one of the best I've ever read. "Mystical Vegas" by Josh Bell was very intriguing and eye-opening. I'm sure all the weirdos in Las Vegas loved it! Also, the Poker Dreams piece by John Livorno is one of the best short-short stories I've read in a long time. Keep up the good work. I look forward to reading it every Thursday on my bus ride to work.
Brevity is the Soul of Mysticism. Large Font is the Soul of Wit. Or Something Like That.
[Regarding Josh Bell's July 28 cover story on "Mystical Vegas":]
Josh,
I LOVED YOUR STORY
Middle-aged Single Mother Reviews Our Review of a Movie About a Middle-aged Angry Woman. Thumbs Up!
Dear Josh Bell,
I just rented the DVD of this movie Upside of Anger, and was looking forward to it, as I am a middle-aged single mother who finds very few movies that are intelligent and thoughtful. I was so disappointed in it. I read over several reviews on the Internet that highly praised it. Yours was the only one I agreed with. Although I loved the acting, especially Kevin Costner, I found Joan Allen's character dislikable to such a degree that I couldn't understand why any of her daughters, or Kevin, would abide her.
Your review was the only one that pointed out that she didn't even bother to try to track down her husband, just assumed he had run off. This plot point was so unbelievable that it ruined most of the movie for me. Wouldn't his relatives, friends, business associates, someone, try to find him? Apparently not.
That's why I agree with you that the ending was ridiculous. She was such a mean, nasty woman, yet found love immediately.
As well, I was bothered throughout by the fact that she seemed to have oodles of money, lived in a lavish home, didn't work, and didn't seem to worry about money.
Yet if her husband's estate hadn't been settled, where did this money come from? I'd like to see a movie for once that is realistic about being a working parent who actually has to budget, etc. I suppose if the movie had been better, I wouldn't have quibbled over these details.
Anyway, just to let you know that I agree with you. I love movies with lots of intelligent conversation. I really liked Before Sunset, for example. Too bad that there are so few movies with mature characters and interesting dialogue that The Upside of Anger was given so many high ratings.