BUT WHAT IF THE MUSE BLOWS?
DEAR EDITOR: Next time, just publish the picture of "critic" [Bret] Fetzer sucking himself and others, so we don't have to read about it in such obtuse so-called "reviews." It would be more honest and to-the-point, even if visually icky. The lack of insight and the self-serving fluff that fills such "writing" about the theater is completely without merit or integrity. Surely The Stranger can find a writer for theater that doesn't have such issues as this conflicted post-dweller: "The critic digests the experience and hands it to the spectator to confirm his own conclusion. The spectator, conditioned to be told what to see, sees what he is told, or corrects the critic, but in any case sees in relation to the response of the critic. Unfortunately, none of this has to do with the real work of the artist."--Joseph Chaikin, The Presence of the Actor (1972)
The Muse knows. Good lick, Fetzer, on your next "play." And please print my name!
Ki Gottberg
Playwright/director of Ubu at Empty Space Theatre
BRET FETZER RESPONDS: As Ki has just (a) rewritten someone else's play (Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi) and (b) turned it into a broad satire of the current political administration--both critically-minded acts-- she's in a poor position to make personal attacks on a critic. Also, is it really wise to defend herself with a quote that is as contemptuous of the audience as it is of the critic? This letter is a lot like the show: bilious, confused, self-defeating.
STUPID PAPER
TO THE EDITOR: Re: "Anonymous Yet Not Alone" and Sharon Ott ["Ott Woman Out," letters, May 13]. Since when do you publish anonymous letters? I realize you have a certain level of cheeky hypocrisy to maintain, and Sharon Ott is an easy target, but your decision to let a reader (or a writer) take pot shots at her from the safety zone of anonymity points out what is actually rotten in our news and in our whispering theatrical community: No one has any balls.
The complaints listed in AYNA's seething missive may be well founded. The wealth of specific information suggests that the reader has worked at the Rep. And I welcome the expression of an honest opinion. I take exception, however, to anonymity.
So long as theater artists in this town try to have it both ways--bitching at perceived authority, while shivering like Chihuahuas at the thought that they might be held responsible for their opinions--nothing will change. We will always have a half-assed theater scene full of gimmicky shows and occasional, tiny jabs at safely remote targets. If you want grown-up theater, grown-up reviewing, and grown-up artistic direction, a good start would be: owning up to your opinion.
S. P. Miskowski
Playwright
ANONYMOUS RESPONDS: My decision to post anonymously remains solid. If, in the future, my financial means allow me to work at only the places I wholly support, I will cease to work at the Rep. Currently I can eat my politics OR feed myself in the more traditional manner. So now is not the time to streak naked across the picnic of my career. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: BLOW IT OUT YOUR ASS.
NEIGHBORHOODIES
TO AMY JENNIGES: Nice article on Mayor Nickels and neighborhood planning ["Big City Mayor," May 20]. Hope your colleague Josh Feit reads it.
Having been involved with the Pioneer Square neighborhood plan over the years, I appreciate the new administration's more flexible approach to the process. Given the length of time it can take to build "consensus," new issues can evolve and take priority. Outcomes can and should evolve.
Richard Thurston
Grover/Thurston Gallery
THANKS FOR THE WEDDING PRESENT
TO THE STRANGER: On behalf of Lambda Legal I'd like to thank you for your fundraising event [Big Gay Wedding, April 8] and gift of $2,029 in support of our work. Your donations help us in achieving the full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, the transgendered, and people with HIV or AIDS. Marriage is one important focus in our greater fight for full equality. Lambda Legal is at the forefront of this significant issue. Your generous support allows us to fight this and so many other important battles.
Kevin M. Cathcart
Executive Director
Lambda Legal
DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: In last week's "Murray's Worries" by Sandeep Kaushik, the quote stating, "The NRSC doesn't send Elizabeth Dole out to give speeches for losers," was misattributed. It was uttered by Republican Party chair Chris Vance, not George Nethercutt. Kaushik regrets that news editor Josh Feit screwed that up. Feit, conversely, regrets that Kaushik was too damn lazy to read the final edit before it went to press. Kaushik, however, regrets that Feit is too churlish to acknowledge that Kaushik was completely burnt after returning from a speed run to Portland to interview Howard Dean. Feit, on the other hand, regrets that Kaushik wasted most of his time in Portland lounging in a strip club with a Willamette Week reporter, which Feit considers a pretty piss-poor excuse for Kaushik to have been tired on his return.
