LETTERS

Keeping It Real-Estatey

Associate editor Stacy J. Willis received the following in response to her November 13 cover story, "Real Estate Confidential":

You touched me right on the mark. I left Seattle over 10 years ago. I was one of those "original" real-estate agents making an OK living ... then the market went ballistic ... all sorts of idiots (agents) got into the business ... listings hard (impossible) to get ... buyers using more than one agent (could not blame them). And the comment about the big (occassional) sale really hit home. This business could be an addiction, in a way. There are good and honorable people in the business, but these kind of markets bring out the sleazeballs and flakes ... stories could I tell.

Thanks for the article and bringing back the memories of selling real estate.

Everyone's a Critic of a Critic

The following arrived in response to Steve Bornfeld's November 13 essay "Theatricide," his call for community theater groups to work together. His piece was prompted by a weekend that saw almost a dozen productions scheduled.

I am a freelance writer with many years as a theater critic in my hometown under my belt. Having moved to Las Vegas a short time ago, I have familiarized myself with the theater companies in town. I have attended most all of the shows running at this current time. With that said, I must admit I was both annoyed and appalled by Mr. Bornfeld's article about the state of community theater in Las Vegas. How in the world did the man find time to write a two-page piece about not having enough time to review all the plays? Perhaps that space and ink in your otherwise fantastic newspaper could have been used on maybe at least one theater review. If Mr. Bornfeld feels he can't handle the job that you pay him for, perhaps someone else can give him a hand. I, for one, would be happy to bring the review to you. Having just come from a fantastic sell-out show of Something's Afoot at the Las Vegas Little Theatre, I have plenty to write about.

Editor's note:
Mr. Bornfeld's essay was a theater-lover's dismayed response to so many shows being scheduled at once. That glut symbolizes the theater scene's failure to combine its brainpower for the greater good instead of fracturing the already small audience between so many productions. That seemed a point worth sacrificing a couple of reviews to make.

Roma, R.I.P.

This letter, presented as an obit for Cafe Espresso Roma, arrived in response to Joe Schoenmann's November 6 eulogy for the soon-to-close coffeehouse.

Café Espresso Roma of 4440 S. Maryland Parkway will be laid to rest over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Roma was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, some time in the '80's and lost the battle to stay in the black years ago. Roma was a devoted member of the uncorporate Vegas scene and a refuge to a few independent thinkers in this cesspool we call home. Roma is survived by poets, singers and a couple of UNLV students, meth-heads, teen angst and a unique scene. Services will be held for this dying icon between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. until the doors are locked and the last cup is poured. Come pay your last respects to the oldest Las Vegas coffee shop.

Disturbing Covers

Following is an edited version of an e-mail exchange between a Weekly reader and Art Director Benjamen Purvis:

Your last cover depicted a woman being stabbed with a real estate sign, and the week before a decapitated woman. The Weekly's new method to increase circulation (thus advertising and profit) is to sex up the covers with pretty, young things. It's disturbing enough that you don't always pay your models, but that you cut off their heads (post-Halloween) just to show off your Photoshop prowess is just plain sick.

When you don't have porn or horror you have cartoons or puppets. It's always fantasy; where are the real people? Sex and violence are not the only things that sell, and selling them together in porn-ified violence sends a dangerous, misogynistic message. If the Weekly continues down this route, your paper will become the tourists' paper because they're the only ones who really want this kind of capital "S" sin city.

Benjamen Purvis replies:
The last thing I want to do—in my personal life or as the Weekly's art director—is promote misogyny. I'm the first to say that some of my work walks the line separating nice from offensive. I like to think I walk that line with a sense of humor and playfulness, and that there's narrative reason behind the images I create.

Elaine Vigneault replies: Thanks for the personal response. I hesitated in sending that letter because I was worried the half-playful tone might not come through. Now I see I was right to worry. Perhaps I should not have omitted my first draft's request for more sexy, naked male cover models. :)

I did a mini content analysis on the Weekly's covers and here are my results:

In the last year, the overwhelming majority of your covers feature women or women's body parts. Very rarely are those women nonwhite. Never have the cover women had an article written about them. Women's heads were missing or severely distorted in at least five covers. Men were on the cover less than 15 times, however, most of those times they were on the cover because a story was written about them.

I am not sickened by your covers. When we say something is "... just plain sick," it's an expression to mean that there's a problem worth your consideration. I am disturbed, and I'm not alone, that the Weekly tends to have a theme of sexual violence that you describe as '30s and '40s pulp art. Once in a while is OK, but the Weekly covers really do portray a theme. This theme is interesting in your art, but it gives the whole magazine a feel of '40s pulp art that just happens to be more offensive within the context of our sexist Las Vegan culture.