EMILY: Just finished reading your article ["The 'Wow' Factor," March 28]. Wish to pass along that I found it beautifully written and absolutely useful. I think you hammered through a lot of distracting complexities and ended with the clearest appraisal of indeed a bizarre coupling: government and art. Really, a wonderful, wonderful read, and somehow, oddly liberating.

Curtis, via e-mail

EDITOR: I am very thankful that someone, namely the arts editor for The Stranger, spoke up in the media about the insanity of the arts funding structure, approach, and politics in this state. I was excited when she told me that she was working on it and knew that it would present a balanced journalistic introduction to the tricky-trick of arts money in this place.

As a person who regularly applies for local, regional, and state arts funding, I find it quite insane that an emerging artist working to create a more "diverse" and "professional" service for our collective community has to follow the narrow and anti- creative processes of getting arts money for projects. If you are not already well-to-do in the arts, or have a patron to support your ideas, you cannot survive based on the politically based accounting practices of this stupid city.

Emily is attempting to open a door that many are really happy keeping their enlarged foot behind to block its complete opening. Arts funding has gone away from being directed straight to the artist working on art. Public money should pay for public art. In these times of decreased arts in the schools, and an increased need for arts to be provided as a voice and venue for artists, be they youth, emerging, or established, the arts are required to provide more of a publicly interactive and broader message or application. This still leaves a problem for individual artists to "create their works," but as artists we should understand that our need in the society is critical and sometimes it isn't about the self. As Spock said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." If we do not spend this money directly in education, training, and exposure to youth and teens and under-represented people in this region and nation, who will become artists in the future?

Eddie Hill, Arts411

BRADLEY STEINBACHER: Thank you for having the chutzpah to stand up and boldly remind The Stranger's postmodern, anti-metaphysical, supremely cynical editorial staff (and readers) of an eternal truth: Baseball is the greatest sport, the pinnacle of game strategy, the building block of what's good in life, and the tangible, physical evidence that there is, in fact, a Divine Plan to the universe ["Nobody Gives a Shit About Baseball," March 28].

Steinbacher comments on the leftist/intellectual bent of The Stranger, alluding to how difficult it is to find a baseball fan in that lofty ivory tower of urbane elitism. Personally, I have done more than my share of reading Chomsky, Nietzsche, Celine, and Patti Smith verse, and I'm here to say that it's okay to know who Habermas is or have voted for Nader and still follow baseball. So all you leftist-leaning fans of the game, come out of the closet! Not only will you feel happier with yourself, but your ability to promote your own political view will be enhanced greatly.

Justine Sadoff, via e-mail

EDITOR: Bradley Steinbacher is so effusive in his love of baseball and the fascist Seattle Mariners that one is inclined to wonder from whence he came. Free agency and salary arbitration have altered the landscape of baseball to the extent that survival depends on how well you can extort money from the community. The Mariners blackmailed the city, county, and state legislature into building a magnificent palace for their overpaid millionaire ballplayers. And we, the citizens, pay the freight! So, while I may love the purity, intellect, and athleticism of the game, I no longer frequent Mariners games. Mr. Steinbacher blithely overlooks this unlawful conduct in his appreciation of the game.

Doug Barnett, via e-mail

EDITORS: I am writing to complain about David Schmader's article about Kevin Kent ["Lucky Genius, April 4]. David says: "When it comes to improv--the demanding, infinitely risky art mastered by few and degraded by many--Kevin Kent is a genius."

I challenge David to see what improv has been produced in Seattle in the last few years. As the producer and founder of Jet City Improv and Wing-It Productions, I am offended by the comment that improv is "degraded by many." Has David Schmader seen an improv show lately? Has anyone at The Stranger? There is a whole world of fantastic improvisational theater going on that has never been reviewed by your newspaper.

Improv has long been treated as the redheaded stepchild of theater. As long as people like David Schmader continue to make comments about improv without knowledge of the latest shows, people will continue to miss out on the interesting theater that is being created by improvisers all over the city.

Andrew McMasters, via e-mail

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: In Emily Hall's April 4 club box for the Sunset Tavern, she mistakenly stated that the club has a full liquor license. This is not the case. The Stranger regrets the error.