Letters

BURGER WARSThis is regarding the Sports article by Jon Hall regarding bullfighting ("They Kill Cheeseburgers, Don't They?" Aug. 6), in which Mr. Hall laments that the bullfights he saw in Tijuana were not entertaining enough because the bulls did not put up enough of a fight.I can imagine only one scenario that could make a bullfight entertaining: the bulls emerge in the ring en masse to trample and gore the matadors and picadors, whose job it is to hack the bulls to death. The bulls then rampage through the stands, wreaking equal vengeance on the loathsome rabble who find entertainment in watching an animal be tortured to death. Sounds like a great pay-per-view to me.-Jan Rainbird
IrvineC'mon, guys! Get your fucking bearings! A Tijuana-bullfight review, complete with photos of a bloody dying bull!? The OC Weekly should be making fun of publications lame enough to publish that kind of junk, not participating in it. There's enough animal-cruelty propaganda coming out of the mainstream press without you joining in.May you come back as a tortured bull, Jon Hall! Cancel my subscription.-Rolf Wicklund
Laguna BeachThe editors respond: Sounds like we better spike that cock-fighting cover story we were planning.MAKING A ZINEAs the chief and all the Indians of the publishing non-empire known as Black Box Press ("Idols smashed for the price of three stamps!"), and since no nit to my perceived discredit is too small to pick, I must protest Lorraine Mahru's bad one-sentence review of Screed and its superseder, Soul Invictus (Fine Print, July 31).Aside from getting the address slightly wrong (it's P.O. Box 25572, Santa Ana, CA 92799-5572) and misspelling Screed's superseder (it's Soul Invictus, not Soul Incvictus), sweet Lorraine attributed to me actions and, implicitly, motives that were never mine. Screed, she wrote, "was rushed to print so it would be available for the gathering" (namely, OC's "first official zine convention"-though I'm not sure what makes it "official") on July, not "June," 18.I never said anything remotely like, "I rushed this to print to have it [t]here." I published the summer 1998 issue of Screed weeks before I even knew of the impending "gathering." And while Screed (formerly New Standard) may look slapped-together to some extent, it never has been. Anyway, thanks for the ink.-Ron Leighton
Fountain ValleyThe editors respond: You're welcome, Jon.MORE PINKO VIEWSI can't see how you could be any more wrong than you were in your smear of Jonathan Volzke and The Orange County Register. I can appreciate that you want them to look bad-that's part of the modus operandi of an undergroundish weekly-but you could have found a better case to hang onto than that of defending a child molester.Perhaps I shouldn't expect much sophistication when your headline, referring to the molester's resignation, says, "That Sucks." Hardly New York Times style, is it?Still, the fact that Mr. Maxwell was not arrested is not as important as the fact that he is an admitted child molester. Perhaps police didn't think they could get a conviction. Perhaps a technicality hampered the investigation. Keep in mind the man who shot up Congress recently was thought to be only a minor annoyance.Perhaps you think a child molester is entitled to a job working around children, as he had at the Orange County Fair.I've met Mr. Volzke, and I think your attack on him is less honorable than his pointing out that Mr. Maxwell has a history of molestation.-Jay Berman
Manhattan BeachOh, yes, let's feel sorry for this man who has damaged the lives of at least two children beyond repair. Instead of focusing on the injustices visited upon "PinkMan," let us focus on the damage that has torn through the lives of the defenseless children he had sex with, not to mention the turmoil his own children have to face! Let us not forget that "molest" means forcibly fondling or having sex with a child! At the very least, the victimized children will have problems in all of their sexual and personal relationships indefinitely.I for one do not feel sorry for a man who targets children's affection by riding around in a pink unitard with free access to "just make people happy"!-Melissa Pratte
AnaheimROAD RULES"For Whom the Road Tolls" by Matt Coker (A Clockwork Orange, July 24) was right on-target in exposing Congressman Ron Packard's special-interest legislation that could exempt the last leg of the Foothill Toll Road from proper environmental review. The California gnatcatcher would lose valuable habitat without special safeguards, and so would five other endangered species. The Foothill Toll Road is designed for maximum harm, and this unneeded highway would irreparably damage some of Southern California's most ecologically important land.-Dave Hall
Huntington BeachKISS OFFDear OC Mexican Ass-Kisser Weekly: Your July 31 issue, one that I actually took time to browse through, was chock-full of misinformation and nonsense. 1) Regarding the Byte Marks about the Taco Bell commercial with the little Mexican "rat" dog (your words, not mine): any normal person can see that it's a sendup of Che Guevara and certainly not very complimentary. Wyn Hilty wrote a very confused and confusing piece regarding who would find the commercial insulting, etc. She shows what her feelings are on this issue, however, when she states that "it seems a shame to cheapen the memory of one of its brightest stars," referring to transforming Guevara into a Chihuahua. She also (supposedly) quotes an article that states "some members of the Cuban emigre community were offended by the thought that they glorified Guevera [in the commercial]." I have enclosed an article that says just the opposite. It shows that Spanish-language radio stations in Florida were flooded with calls from listeners who thought the ad was insulting to so-called Hispanics. So what was the point of Ms. Hilty's article? 2) If I read Nick Schou's article "Here Comes the Neighborhood" (The County, July 31) correctly, he fears for the mostly so-called Hispanics who might be displaced in a particular Anaheim area because some decrepit buildings might be torn down. HAVE NO FEAR. Never underestimate the largess of the dumb Gringo taxpayers. Enclosed is an article about the U.S. taxpayers paying an illegal Mexican pig $12,000 so she could move herself and her 10 children (by about nine different men) to another location because her building was to be demolished. A lot of young people, and some older ones, work all year to make $12,000. She should have a gotten a swift kick in the cunt and been thrown over the border with her 10 mongoloid bastards. 3) In answer to a letter to your newspaper regarding the illegal votes for Loretta what's-her-name, Matt Coker says no one could come up with even one example of an illegal vote (A Clockwork Orange, July 31). Really? Enclosed are a couple of articles confirming the counting of hundreds of illegal votes in the Bob Dornan/Loretta what's-her-name election. However, it seems there were not enough votes to overturn the election results. That's like a bank robber saying, "But your honor, there were about 30 people in the bank when I robbed it, and I only shot two of them!"-Patt Monte
Laguna HillsThe editors respond: The fact that Latinos might be upset at the Taco Bell advertising campaign for very different -even contradictory-reasons would surprise only someone who supposes all Latinos are alike. You read Nick Schou's article correctly, but not Matt Coker's. What Coker said was that no one-not the district attorney, the registrar of voters, the secretary of state or the House of Representatives-could find a single instance of illegal or fraudulent voting; improper registration constitutes neither "illegal" nor "fraudulent" voting. Further, even if all the voters registered by Hermandad Mexicana Nacional in the 46th Congressional District were disqualified, Sanchez would have still won the election by almost 500 votes. And while you're getting hacked about Democrats, get hacked about this: no one ever spent one second investigating similarly improper voter registrations by local Republicans. Finally, the copy editors have asked us to let you know that you almost surely meant to hyphenate Mexican-Ass, not Ass-Kisser.ANARCHY IN THE OCWhy in the hell would you print an article about Vicious Fuel, since renamed White Trash Disco (Music, July 31)? They are without a doubt the worst band in OC. Jim Agnew has never challenged anyone to a fight because he is a big puss. I read your paper every week and love the articles about the bands. But Michael Alarcon really screwed up by putting that piece-of-shit band in your paper. Tell Agnew that I will tell him how badly his band sucks, and then we'll see how big of a tough guy he is. I'm the Mexican guy next to the stage at the next show.-Joe Lantres
PlacentiaThanks to Michael Alarcon for his terrific profile of White Trash Disco. I missed the Cowboy Boogie gig [sad face], but I've seen them several times since, and I'm convinced that these guys picked up where the Sex Pistols left off. And I mean that in all ways. I have a feeling that White Trash Disco, like the Sex Pistols, is performance art. Any chance of sending out Mr. Alarcon to find out who's the Malcolm McLaren behind the band?-John Nguyen
Huntington BeachMichael Alarcon responds: I already found him. His name is Joe Lantres.ART ATTACKI am writing to thank Rebecca Schoenkopf for her interest in my exhibit at the Marie Elias Center for the Arts and to complain about the negative personal characterization and misrepresentation of the facts of the evening (Art, Aug. 7). First, the woman who asked for my signature happens to be the girlfriend of a buddy of mine, and I did not treat her in the curt manner Schoenkopf described. She did not flee from the exhibit; she stayed until almost the conclusion of the reception, which is when I bid her and my friend a fond farewell. I don't have a problem giving out my autograph; in fact, I enjoy it. I merely pointed out to her that my signature was already on that poster from a previous signing session. It was not preprinted but an original signature.Second, this notion that I hate people is fiction and patently false. I am a quiet and reserved individual. People who know me, personally and professionally, will attest to the fact that I am not a hateful person. The critical element in my work is directed toward such things as intolerance, poverty, oppression and injustice-not people. Schoenkopf's characterization, based on a misrepresentation of the facts, threatens my professional reputation and is uncomfortably close to reinforcing negative stereotypes about Latinos.-Emigdio Vasquez
OrangeRebecca Schoenkopf responds: Here are some of the adjectives I used to describe you and your works: "passionate," "principled," "uncompromising," "soulful," "beautiful," "fiery," "compassionate," "gritty" and "hungry." As for the woman whose poster you tapped, perhaps it happened twice because I was speaking about my mother (who was so moved by your show she cried). We didn't realize the signatures were from a previous signing-they looked preprinted. Sorry about that. And, no, she didn't flee; actually, she chuckled. I was being silly when I wrote that, as I sometimes am. You do have a sternness of demeanor that can be intimidating. But as for it being "uncomfortably close" to negative stereotypes of Latinos, give me a fucking break.Contact us via voice mail at (714) 825-8432, or by e-mail: letters@ocweekly. com. Or write to Letters to the Editor, OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627. Or fax: (714) 708-8410. Letters may be edited for clarity and length. All correspondence must include your home city or service provider and a daytime phone number.

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