LETTERS

Dear Xania,

I just finished reading your article in the Las Vegas Weekly about your soul-searching that you experienced with Tony Robbins and his powerful program [May 4].

Xania, I am far from a critic, but I wanted you to know I have seen a slow and positive improvement since you first started writing The Circuit. I know I have mentioned to you in the past what a great job I think you are doing with the column.

I felt writing this piece was not only important for you to experience, but also just as revealing putting it into words, and I thank you for sharing yourself with us. I am not sure I could be so forthcoming.

As much as Ms. Linda Randle-El and others are doing to take on homelessness in the Valley, it is NOT enough, because the problem of homelessness remains too narrowly defined. As long as even one person does NOT own an acre of land, we are NOT living up to the Equal Protection of the U. S. Constitution, and the Right to Life, which must include land ownership, of our Declaration of Independence.

How do we humans fail to see that the so-called "all-against-all" extreme is, and must remain, an example of unmitigated absurdity? Every form of competition has limits: The best professional sports team ever had a tie game to limit its single season record to 64-0-1 (Cincinnati Reds).

Whoever has the most of anything must remain the subset of everyone having the minimum.

The Most Beautiful People article [May 11] is incomplete.

Forget degrees, minutes or even seconds, the list can NOT be complete because it is NOT the largest list you've ever published and does NOT include Rikki Cheese or me.

Thank you,

There seems to be a small uproar going around town about the Weekly's recent "Most Beautiful" list, and one of my friends is challenging the Weekly with her own list.

She's already had over 60 nominations in less than an hour. ... I don't know how much fun the editors at the Weekly are, but do you think they would publish the challenged results in one of the upcoming issues?

Here is her link:
http://myspace.com/kguldi. [Under "Latest Attraction's Latest Blog Entries," click Most Beautiful People in Vegas.]

Editor's Note:
We're pretty much lard asses when it comes to fun, depressed as we are by letter-writer John D'Aura's comments on homelessness, the Cincinnati Reds and the Declaration of Independence, but we're all for checking out your friend's site and the runners-up to our perfect list of Most Beautiful People.

Excellent Article!

Virtual greetings.

I just wanted to congratulate you on the following article:

"Questions For Skeptics—The problem with James Randi and his foundation on the paranormal, pseudoscientific and supernatural" by Skylaire Alfvegren [January 26].

I enjoyed its thought-provoking and rational approach very much, and it was a refreshing change from the regular attitude in mass media, which has a tendency of applying the "If you don't understand it, blindly denigrate it" philosophy.

Keep up the good work!

[In reference to the May 18 issue's list of movies about packin' heat:]

Five more movies with great gunplay:

King of New York: Before joining NYPD Blue or becoming a joke for the South Park kids, David Caruso tore up the screen as (you guessed it) a New York cop. Also starring Wesley Snipes, Lawrence Fishburne, Steve Buscemi and Christopher "I'm creepy in every movie" Walken.

The Killer: John Woo did the whole "cop vs. criminal" story years before Face/Off and to tell you the truth, his Hong Kong movies were better.

Instead of Nick Cage and John Travolta we have Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee. If The Matrix is "artful" then The Killer is a full-blown opera worthy of Wagner.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Showdowns at high noon have been a staple of westerns for many years. This one ends in a three-way shoot-out!

Taxi Driver: Those who support war on the battlefront might take another look at this Martin Scorsese classic and take note of the damage it does on the home front. Remember, Vegas natives: Be really nice to your cabdriver.

Scarface: Come on, you know you love this movie. It's influenced everything from hip-hop albums to video-game soundtracks. The one-liners and over-the-top performance from Pacino are complemented by a great shoot-out in the end.

Dear Pj Perez,

Saw your article on all the old bands that use to play back in the day [April 27, Music Issue] in the Weekly. Nice job, keep up the good work.

From: Travis

Date: May 18, 2006 12:05 PM

Subject: No Subject

Just stopping by to say "love the magazine."

Editor's Note:
Travis, you're a man of exquisite taste.