MORNING IN AMERICA
TO THE EDITOR: I was hiding under my bed. In a little yellow room, in a little house in a filthy shitty little town, I had crawled halfway under my bed and stuffed myself into a sleeping bag. My mother couldn't find the time to put a lock on my bedroom door. I was dying of brain tumors as a needle-and-syringe-wielding cowboy shuffled down the hall. It was Ronald Reagan. Then I woke up, two hours late for work. Damn you and your cover art [July 17].
Keep on.
Sir K
HOUSE ENVY
TO TRISHA READY: Great article on the "United States of Anxiety" [July 3]. I felt like I was reading about myself, almost word for word. I haven't sold my house yet, and I don't feel that the changes are going to be quite as dramatic, rather, a long slow slide toward American irrelevance and a lower standard of living that most of the rest of the world will still view as absurdly luxurious, but which will not compare with what our parents had. But otherwise we're almost the same, down to the reluctance to shop for necessities (drives my wife crazy) and the type of house you lived in (down to the territorial view and yard) and how you felt about it. Thanks for being so articulate. I wish I'd written that article.
Matt Rosoff
LIFE IS SO TOO SHORT
TO BRENDAN KILEY: Nice job with a topic not often written about ["The Art of Dying," July 17].
James
IT DOESN'T GET MORE INDIE
TO THE EDITOR: The last time I was compelled to write a letter to the editor it was over the Seattle Weekly's COMPLETE OMISSION of Free Night of TheaterâSeattle's participation in a major national theater initiativeâduring Live Theatre Week. I've essentially boycotted Seattle Weekly ever since.
So it's ironic that it was the Weekly that sang a thoughtful, inspired love song to the Seafair Indian Days Pow Wow while The Stranger chose to ignore the event entirely. The powwow was not even mentioned in your listings.
Even if the powwow weren't a major attraction to the entire region's populationâI believe we are the third-best-attended Seafair event (when not rained out)âSeattle is home to one of the largest concentrations of urban Indians in America. This at a time when the urban Indian population is swelling to surpass the numbers of Indians living on reservations. This at a time when United Indians of All Tribes Foundationâthe producer of the powwowâis attempting major growth to meet this population's needs.
More importantlyâit doesn't get more indie than Indians. The Seminole Tribe recently acquired Hard Rock Cafe. Urban Indians were the focus of this year's Folklife Festival. Indian imagery graced much of SAM's opening campaign.
I find it hard to comprehend that the dance, music, and art presented at the powwow is not worthy of coverage by your arts and entertainment department. If it is oddity and spectacle and you-can't-see-this-anywhere-else that The Stranger is interested in, then you really can't beat Seafair Pirates storming through the Native Americans gathered in the Great Circle above Daybreak Star.
If it were appropriate to step out of my role as United Indians representative and freely speak my indie rockâ, underground comicsâ, and fringe performing artsâloving mind, I'd be tempted to take a bitter swipe at the staleness of this week's Stranger Suggests coverage of artists and events that are not new news at all. Instead I'll close with the fact that The Stranger should not have omitted the powwow completely. Because it's important. And because it's amazing good fun.
Noel Franklin
DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: In a review of WALLâ˘E [On Screen, June 26], Annie Wagner described WALLâ˘E's insect friend as "a beetle." Clearly, it is, in fact, a cockroachâa crucial part of a joke about what beings (cockroaches) and foodstuffs (Twinkies) might survive an apocalypse. Unfortunately, Wagner was under the misapprehension that the cockroach (of the order Blattaria) was a variety of beetle (order Coleoptera), and, not having room to explain the survival joke, she decided that "beetle" sounded cuter than "cockroach." Beetles and cockroaches don't even share a superorder. We regret the error.
In "Burning Beast" [July 17], Bethany Jean Clement called Bill Taylor of Taylor Shellfish Farms "marvelously jovial." It is Bill Whitbeck of Taylor Shellfish Farms who is marvelously jovial; Mr. Taylor is reportedly rather subdued. We regret the error, and we regret that so many people are named Bill.