MUDEDE MISSES MARK

CHARLES MUDEDE: You may have completely missed the point of Be Kind Rewind [On Screen, Feb 21]. While you sat in the theater trying to come up with pretentious things to say about it, a great film was playing to a largely vacant audience.

Five minutes of the film should have been enough to convince anyone that being realistic had nothing to do with it. This was a movie meant to be a movie—nothing more than that. The events are unreal; the characters are unreal. Jack Black and Mos Def parade around the screen in an orgiastic, excessive celebration of film (and do a far better job than the weekend's other film orgy, the Oscars). The point, if there is one, is that what we love about film is seeing ourselves in it, literally or figuratively, and also that we create our own reality through the stories we tell.

Additionally, it should be pointed out that Be Kind Rewind is a truly sweet and human movie in the end. Michel Gondry excels at taking a tired format ("community comes together to save the Rec Center") and, by making a strange version of it, infusing it with the truly unique and human emotions that films made by marketing committees rarely contain.

Kristaps

OUR BIG HEART

STRANGER: There's more that hasn't changed than Everett True lets on ["Notes from the Gutter," Feb 21]. He still, sober or not, could not write his way out of a wet paper bag. In any case, it is nice of you to give him a little work. So I guess The Stranger still has a big heart.

Seattle Expat

KNOW YOUR PENCILS

JEN GRAVES: I found your article on Lead Pencil Studio very interesting ["Gray Area," Feb 14]. I must admit that every time I've seen a reference to the current Lead Pencils, I am reminded of the Pencil Brothers. In the 1970s, Ken Cory, jeweler, and Leslie LePere, painter and graphic artist, were Red and Lead Pencil. Their work is absolutely marvelous and is documented in a book called The Jewelry of Ken Cory: Play Disguised, published in 1997 by the Tacoma Art Museum and UW Press. I hope that if you don't know of their work already, you can find a copy of this book. Thank you for your knowledgeable and provocative criticism. I always enjoy your articles.

Ellen B. Carlin

MOORMAN THE GREAT

STRANGER: I think Trent Moorman's article on Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground is the best thing I've read in the music section over the past year ["Friends, Family, Lovers, and Neighbors," Feb 14]. This piece kicked it in for me. It's such a great mixture of Trent's writing, which I love, with reporting on the record and a scene. I also really liked the interview with the Kay Kay producer on Line Out. Complete coverage! Congrats on a solid section.

Annabelle

THE MISTRESS AND MARRIAGE

MISTRESS MATISSE: Just wanted to drop you a line to say that last week's column [Control Tower, Feb 21] was one of the best things I've read about marriage, well, ever! Frankly, I think you should submit it to the Atlantic as a formal rebuttal.

DG

BETHANY BE PRAISED

STRANGER: I have to say that Bethany Jean Clement sure knows how to write! She makes me actually want to read The Stranger's restaurant reviews—and believe in them, too.

Carol Brown

SEMICOLON LOVE

STRANGER: I just had to write in and say that this week's Up and Coming section [Feb 21] made me very happy. The rise of band names that include commas (such as Palmer, AK and Yes, Oh Yes) has made the process of listing such bands in a series difficult and potentially confusing, and your use of the semicolon as a solution was masterful. Kudos! That combined with the fact that an article about semicolon use has been in the top-10-read articles at nytimes.com all week makes it a good time to be a punctuation geek. Keep up the good work!

Levi

[SIC] THROUGHOUT

STRANGER: I'm looking through your website and I find it annoying, honestly I think it typifies everything worthless in capitol hill. Who exactly is picture of the crotch on corner meant for? Putting it there betrays the same mentality of your readers, incorrigible and then sourly in a state of poverty because of it. Should've mentioned the hives, they are all scandinavian, instead of reping the usual bunch of worthless shit that send the children to float worthless puddles, lots of bad air

Andrew