Thursday, July 03, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Letters

Maybe Mercury's rock scribes should break up

I just finished reading your article titled "Local Bands That Should Break Up" [June 26] and I was dumbfounded at what was written, in particular the portion regarding Bent Valve. I respect your right to your opinion, but I have an opinion also, and (perhaps not surprisingly) mine is at odds with yours.

Citing band members' hairstyle choices or who they've performed with in the past as the basis of your argument for breaking up is akin to lambasting the author of an articulate, well-crafted piece for the font style he used to present it; it is irrelevant.

I have admired your work covering the local music scene in the past, and frankly, your participation in a piece that promulgates such a mean-spirited attitude toward bands--and in particular bands that strive to achieve more cohesion in an already fragmented music scene--saddens me. Certainly any performer runs the risk of critics who will not appreciate their talents, but your article seemed more an excoriation of trivialities than of the talents and abilities of the bands in question.

Perhaps it is not the bands that need to hang it up, but the journalists whose attitudes are so jaded they cannot see beyond the minutiae.

--Laurie Steele

How about a Danish with your coffee?

In "Free Will Astrology" (June 12), Rob Brezsny quotes "Norwegian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard" for the "smart-ass witticism" that "People demand freedom of speech...as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they never use." You might say that Mr. Brezsny is in a small way proving Kierkegaard's point. After all, Kierkegaard was a Danish, not a Norwegian philosopher.

--Henrik Thiil Nielsen

Rade's `art' hurts First Friday

In response to Rade Zone's letter to your publication ("What's First Friday Without Rade Zone?" June 19), I have a few words. The Arts Factory allows its common spaces, usually free of charge, to be used by artists, performers and vendors. The owner of the building has me curate and schedule the spaces and performances. These artists are scheduled months in advance; it is not on a first-come, first-served, "whoever shows up" basis.

Rade showed up to the first First Friday at the Arts Factory after being shuffled over from other arts district venues that would not allow him to perform in their places of business. I, being the unhip guy that I am, allowed Rade to do his thing that night even though I don't much like what he does. I was barraged with complaints. People visiting the Arts Factory did not want to walk past him to go to other parts of the building and he created a "dead zone" in the common area. Rade was never invited back and never asked in advance to be placed on the schedule, he just showed up feeling entitled to a place to perform.

I allowed him to perform, but asked that he keep the obstinate hassling of people down. He did not comply. Following First Fridays produced the same result, with more and more complaints. Several attendees did not come into my gallery because I allowed Rade to perform near my space. The complaints escalated from patrons and business owners alike. Not one tenant in the building wanted him there; the owner of the building told me to give him the boot several times. Rade has always expected from us and never given back, not even with gratitude. He just rode the coattails of the hard work of Arts Factory and arts district tenants and business people.

Rade will no longer be welcome to perform at the Arts Factory. I told him this face to face when he showed up for June's First Friday. I stand by my decision. If you have a problem with this, you can invite him to perform at your business, or Rade, start your own!

--Jerry Misko II,

Curator, the Arts Factory,

Proprietor, DUST Gallery,

Proprietor, M(9) Studio

Thanks for defending our water

I thought Hugh Jackson's piece on trafficking in water ("The Public Works," June 12) was very well-done. There has been a lot of news coverage on this escalating problem this year, but this article related the problem to the local community, and that is very helpful in alerting the public to defend itself and its water.

--Dennis Myers

Growth has cleaned up the desert

I would like to comment on your articles regarding water issues and professor Larry Paulson ["Haunted by Waters," June 26]. The Las Vegas Valley owes a huge debt of gratitude to Dr. Paulson for his tireless efforts on water and waste issues. God bless him.

Dr. Paulson states: "Scientifically, this is all possible. But politically is where the stumbling blocks come in." I disagree somewhat with that statement. I would have said: "...but the law and politics are where the stumbling blocks come in." It is the "Law of the River" and the fact that the water is over-allocated that seemingly make this a hopeless situation.

It is important also to keep in mind that the dam and lake belong to Los Angeles and the Southern California farmers. They built it and they paid for it. Nevada had little, if anything, to do with it other than to profit off the work and laborers. Calfornia grabbed the water rights first and Las Vegas would not even exist if not for Los Angeles.

Hunter Thompson was right when he wrote that Las Vegas is an abomination on the desert. The Las Vegas Valley can support about 150,000 people without Lake Mead, which was approximately the population when the first straw was put in. For people to bitch and moan about further development when they themselves are the benefactors of the river water (growth) is a bit ludicrous, although the law does support first-come, first-served.

The snide comments on the Bellagio fountain ["H2Whoa!" Editor's Note, June 26] do not take into account that the Dunes was here before many of them were born; they have the water rights; and the fountain uses a hell of a lot less water than the golf course it replaced. Many of the other golf courses are strategically located to use gray water, which keeps erosion from once again destroying the Las Vegas Wash.

I turn a deaf ear to many of the complaints that growth is seriously hurting the environment. Hell, the Indians ate those tortoises until they became so dependent on government handouts that they didn't have to. One of the big environmental issues afoot when I arrived was shooters using the turtles to test their shot patterns on. When the suggestion was put forward to hire game wardens, it was shot down because the valley didn't have the tax base to afford them. The turtles are a hell of a lot better off now.

I hear comments about how "pristine" the desert was before big development kicked in. Oh, squat shit! The place looked like a goddamn Indian reservation. The beautifil bike trail that Howard Hughes put in was unuseable because of all the trash that was dumped on it. Ditto for every other place even halfway close to a road or trail. Growth cleaned up the valley and provided the large tax base to pay for code enforcement. As long as you people keep having kids, these people are going to have to live somewhere and we're better off developing on desert than on valuable crop land.

--Todd Farlow

Bush continues tradition of White House lies

Clinton besmirched his own presidency when he lied about his liaison with a young twit in the White House, at least according to his own version, because he wanted to protect Chelsea and Hillary from the truth. Somehow this never works. The real legacy of the affair will not be his entry in the history books, but George W. Bush. Not so much because it helped Shrub squeak into the stained office, which it surely did, but because history will not resist comparing Clinton's lies with those of his successor, and might even suggest a lineage. Covering up a little nookie in the Oval Office is one thing. Lying to the world about your reason for starting a war is another. Clinton lost his personal credibility. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Wolfowitz, et al have destroyed the credibility of the United States of America.

This country had an opportunity to use its economic domination and military power to make the world safe for democracy. That's all gone now. The U.S. has survived incompetent and dishonest presidents, but this is different. Lying to escape calumny or to fill your own pockets or those of your friends is not new to American politics and has seldom caused a ripple in foreign affairs. Lying to start a war begins a new era. This sort of thing rarely ends well, as when Saddam Hussein claimed that Kuwait was pumping Iraqi oil and Adolf Hitler claimed the Poles fired first. Welcome to the New American Century.

--Chuck Gardner