JEN GRAVES: I loved "Statues with Limitations" [Jan 18]. Bravo. You have successfully subverted most of my pessimistic tendencies regarding the Olympic Sculpture Park. The physical space is visceral and arresting, but I've been feeling somewhat dismayed by the relevance of the collection as a whole. It is, of course, "nice" for the museum to have relatively staid masterworks at their opening ceremonies. That said, I've been left wondering what the OSPâespecially the sculpture thereinâhas to do with here and now (except for the fact that it is here, now, etc.). In your article, I hear your optimism for a future infusion of new energy, new ideas, and new pieces; I hear your optimism and become optimistic myself.
Benson Miller
the siegeDEAR MR. SAVAGE: I will continuously lay siege to your e-mail address with vicious electronic kicks to the testicles until you put the I Saw U ads back in the weekly paper.
Perverts can be perverts with their lusty "My sac is full for ANYONE to empty" ads; the shy can be shy with their coy, 40-word self-descriptionsâbut I have to go online!? My erection for The Stranger subsides. I have to sew my broken heart in the same realm as internet predators and dirty old men? You heartless bastards. Every Thursday I packed a big rubbery one for those who fell in love at first sight and put it in the paper for a million people to read and for a thousand homeless people to sleep on. Waging cutting-edge cunnilingus while mind-fucking that random girl on the bus will never be the same. She'll never even know I fell for her.
Clark Jeffrey
queerly bentEDITOR: Sad, so sad. I'm gone for a while and everything changes. I've been a loyal fan of The Stranger for about a decade now and have seen many things change at the paper, but to see that Adrian Ryan isn't writing for you anymore is truly sad. What is happening to your paper? There seemed to be some great talent there, and now...
Well, simply put, there seems to be a larger amount of people claiming the title of writer who, and I'm assuming here, would rather being smoking weed, attending parties, and tossing up in everyone's toilets than actually writing!
I won't go into who I think are crappy writers currently at The Stranger because I think that's evident to the majority of your readers, but I would like to know if Adrian will be writing any fantastic articles as he has in the past; I mean more than Celeb I Saw U. To be honest, he was truly being underutilized.
Yes, it's true that some (actually, many!) of his articles are queerly bent; he seemed unabashed about them being so and the articles provided fun reading. In looking through those previous articles, they still are funny.
I hope the powers that be at The Stranger don't overlook the talent that Adrian Ryan has. Allowing Adrian to stretch his abilities as a writer and using The Stranger as a forum for said talents could bring a larger readership for you, but please, let it be articles with ideas and a challenge, not justCelebrity I Saw U.
BJ
BRADLEY STEINBACHER RESPONDS: Adrian will continue writing for us, just not in a weekly column format, and you can find him gossiping on Slog, the Stranger's blog: www.thestranger.com/blog.
toothpicksEDITOR: You know, after sifting through your snowboarding "spectacular" ["Mountain High" Jan 18], it strikes me, as a skier, how little attention is paid to skiing these days... and I ask you, as part of the hipster press, why is that exactly?
For starters, skis have advanced light years in technology over the past 10 years. My old skis look like toothpicks; my fat powder masters look like a spaceship from Mars comparatively. Yet when I look at snowboards, they look EXACTLY the same as they did 10 years ago. Yawn.
Sure, there's more sweet anime graphics to choose from, you can hit Zumiez and score snowboard wear current with today's hesher fashions, but is that what it's really all about? My new skis make me feel like a goddamned superhero, every powder day is a snowgasm, every mogul field a playground. I was in the Stone Age 15 years ago, now I'm cruising through reentry.
Ski technology has gotten crazy: It's no longer the ride of yesteryear and I want to keep hitting sicker and sicker terrain.
Take a look around, folksâyou know why you see more snowboarders on the groomers than skiers? Because we've left all that behind. Park your snowboard and stare off into the tree-dotted craziness of the backcountry, and like rare birds, you'll see us... skiing like it's the end of the friggin' goddamned world!!!
Matt
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS: In the article "Sell-to-Play" [Jan 18], our explanation of BigTime Entertainment's ticketing policy was incomplete and incorrect. For example, we said if a band sells fewer than 25 tickets, they make nothing. That is wrong. Here's how it actually works: A band gets $1 per ticket for the first 34 tickets sold. The rest goes to BigTime. If the band sells between 35 and 49 tickets, they get $1.50 for each ticket. The scale bumps up to $2 per ticket for the band at 50 tickets sold, and $4 per ticket after 100 tickets are sold. We regret the error.
