Las Vegas Weekly, I found Montecore!
[Regarding the “Whatever Happened To ...” issue, July 5:] Where’s Montecore???? Well, he has been found alive and well. Two days after his infamous rebellious actions, he has been residing off-chain at the Double Down Saloon.
No more badgering in German ... No more foolishly obeying the orders of his aluminum foil-clad masters ... No more confinement in that strangely named “magical garden.” Just good times with real people. Check him out at the Double Down. Just find the coffee machine and look up.
Enjoy the picture.
–CHRIS ANDRASFAY
Trashing Weekly’s take on Insomnia Entertainment
Josh Bell,
[Regarding June 28’s “Incredible tales of failure” essay on Insomnia Entertainment:] I will simply start at what would seem is your profession: The reason you’re not a reporter, just someone allowed to watch movies and write your feelings about them, is your inability to dig up any details or facts for your “article.” Your “source” for this was looking up an old Insomnia website? Great work.
Before you wrote about Trent Othick’s failures or inactivity you could have done the slightest bit of leg work before embarrassing yourself, as Trent just wrapped on his third feature film this past weekend called Yonkers Joe for GO Productions, backed by local John Gaughan. Starring Chazz Palminteri, Christine Lahti, Linus Roach, Michael Lerner and more, helmed by Sundance alumni Robert Celestino.
Myself and Trent Othick were interviewed almost weekly during production by a legitimate newsperson and movie reviewer, Carol Cling (“Shooting Stars”, Review-Journal 05/28/07; 06/04/07; 06/11/07) ...
Do some more “research” and look those articles up. You can even find them on a website. To go further, you could have found out about Trent’s new movies and projects from Nevada’s own NFO [Nevada Film Office], local casting agencies, JR Lighting and even a little website called IMDB.
Now if the point of your article, beyond showing your limited journalistic abilities and the reason we still find you in the same spot two years later, was to trash Insomnia Entertainment and not Trent Othick (because he told you to F yourself, which I’m sure you could fill a novel with those stories), then your readers may want to know that one of “the five major studios” Trent told you “were interested” did buy Vegas Baby/Bachelor Party Vegas. A little company called Sony bought it and changed the name for shelf placement to sell more DVDs ...
Also, it wouldn’t have taken much research, especially for a movie reviewer, to find out that Standing Still was just released on DVD by The Weinstein Co.
... So two movies to date by Trent Othick, one picked up by Sony, the other Weinstein Co. Just wrapped on a third with undoubtedly the best cast, story, and execution yet. Trent did this all by nearly going out on his own with the help of a good friend and investor.
Unfortunately, all your readers (which, in all honesty, it took a member of the family that owns your mag to point this out to me. We all know if the text in the Las Vegas Weekly is not written on a girl’s ripped tank top or booty shorts no one will see it anyway) will learn from you is your bitterness over the last two years.
... Go and ask all the properties we spent money at, the local facilities we featured, including downtown LV and Sunset Park, and the locals who were not only employed, but I can speak for myself and many others: Trent Othick gave us the opportunity of living out our dreams of making movies. And we were able to do it right here in Las Vegas with our families, while giving back to a community that allowed us to do this.
Incredible tale of failure? I guess it depends on the writer.
–CHRIS RAMIREZ
Lifelong resident, employee of Insomnia Entertainment and Yonkers Joe Productions
Josh Bell responds: The piece was meant to point out the failure of Insomnia as a company; Trent Othick may still be working, but he’s not working with Insomnia. All of my facts are accurate: Bachelor Party Vegas did come out straight to DVD, and I never said or implied that Standing Still was not released on DVD as well. As far as I can tell from everything cited, Insomnia has not worked on any projects since those two films. I’m glad to hear that Trent is still making movies in Vegas, and I look forward to seeing those projects wherever they show up.
Disputing the idea that the web killed the bookstore
The closure of any bookshop is something to mourn [“Literature loses a storefront,” June 21], but the assumption made in this article that websites “such as Alibris, Amazon, Abebooks, Half.com and others” are killing used bookstores is fundamentally wrong. Although Alibris and Amazon sell their own books, both have marketplaces for independent booksellers to sell to buyers. AbeBooks and Half don’t own stock—every book bought from these two sites comes from an independent bookseller who was able to make that sale because they took advantage of the “infinite shelf space on the web.”
You say in this article that “this isn’t New York, San Francisco or Paris. This is Vegas. Vegas doesn’t get excited about cultural things.” But because of the Internet Vegas bookshops can sell to people in any cultural hub worldwide 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Internet can help keep culture alive in Las Vegas.
–SCOTT LAMING
AbeBooks.com
Writer Michael Toole responds to June 28th letters about his story “Literature loses a storefront”
Mr. Clark, it seems that you might have projected more sentimentality into my piece than I had intended.
The focus on the closure of a flagship bookstore in the city wasn’t so much about the mourning and lack of options book lovers in the valley face, but more of a cautionary tale for so many of us that take used bookstores for granted.
The closing of used bookstores across the country is a sobering trend, and there’s no reason why Las Vegas should feel immune to it, so more than anything, we have to appreciate what is still out there. And I have to respectfully disagree with one of your points: “As bookstores have closed, others have opened.” With online competition, major chains in the Valley and the ever-increasing price of real estate, that scenario seems less and less likely, so all the more reason to support you guys when we can.
–MICHAEL T. TOOLE
Challenging your review of Sicko
Sounds to me like Mr. Mike D’Angelo needs to get organized. From his rambling, bloated webpage (www.panix.com/~dangelo) to this equally verbose Hollywood-esque review of a Sicko [June 28], I am missing the point.
Why bother using old, outdated cinematic models wrapped in equally outdated and terminally boring writing prose to review what is basically Political and Social Commentary and a serious call to action by the public at large? The issue alone demands a far more enlightened coverage, does it not? But we are dealing here with what is merely a “movie reviewer” with what I suspect is an all too obvious axe to grind against Mr. Moore.
Belittling the film, Moore and the issue is a sure sign one is reading not a review, but canned PR from the Republican National Committee, i.e. the PR arm representing huge parasitic Corporations.
But D’Angelo is not alone in his smear of Sicko; in the exact same issue of LV Weekly as D’Angelo’s dump is a slick 37-page paid insert pitching how great the Valley Health System is. The same VHS run by a man (Alan B. Miller) who personally raked in over $20 million from mostly the taxpayers last year operating several Las Vegas Hospitals/HMOs. In other words TVHS has perfected the art of making piles of dough off sick people.
D’Angelo and the Las Vegas Weekly prove the points made in Sicko better than anything Michael Moore can offer. You are transparent.
–STEPHEN BROWN
From Our MySpace Page
Allura
A really great issue!!!
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I absolutely loved the last issue, "Celebrating Failure". Love reading the reviews. Can't wait for your next issue!
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Shylah
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Corrections
• A story in the June 7 issue about development issues in the arts district referred to “attorneys representing local arts matriarch Cindy Funkhouser.” Those attorneys do not represent Funkhouser but told the Weekly at the time they were “with” her. In spirit, presumably. We regret the misunderstanding.
• Turns out that the DVD Linda Linda Linda (“Kicking Jack Black’s ass,” June 28) is available through Netflix.