A NEW VIEW ON CATS
DEAR MERCURY—Your review is snotty and inaccurate [Visual Arts Listings, portlandmercury.com]. Many of my pictures do have cats in them [The Insouciant Beauty of the Street at Newspace Center for Photography], but I like to think that they are doing interesting things—the very things that maybe viewers have not quite seen before. Please give the show another look—assuming anyone went in the first place.
-Rosemary Hammer
YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT SHIT
DEAR MERCURY—Pok Pok is amazing, though has little in common with Ping ["Memory Lapse," Last Supper, April 30]. Pok Pok serves Thai food, Ping serves authentic Southeast Asian dishes. Portland is a town that seems to have just discovered good food, where over night everyone has become a "foodie" (a term that, FYI, died years ago in the rest of the world, thank god) and developed the most refined of palates. Based on the ad nauseam blogs and the above review, this town has a loooong way to go when it comes to understanding and appreciating good food.
joycejay on portlandmercury.com
FOR YOUR OWN BENEFIT
HI—I just read the listing for the Atole Tour Benefit at Backspace on Thursday, April 30, and was left wondering; was the previously neutral word "benefit" recently reassigned exclusively to matters of human rights [Up & Coming, April 30]? When an event is set up to generate funds for a specific purpose, that's called a benefit, and the word exists as a way to describe it. Some bands have big record labels or other sponsorship to assist them in going on tour, and some musicians are independently wealthy. The rest rely on the support of their community and I think you should know that there is no shame in that.
-Carls
ADVOCATING EXPLOSIONS SINCE 2000
Just curious, Erik [Henriksen]—do you usually like these kinds of movies, summer blockbusters ["Exhausted," Film, April 30]? Or are you an art-house douchebag who wouldn't enjoy sitting through anything that doesn't involve subtitles, split screens, or tortured emotional bullshit? Because movies like Wolverine aren't about telling complicated stories, or overthinking every camera angle—they're about explosions, loud noises, and bright colors. I'm looking forward to this movie and I'll be enjoying their weak, clichéd storylines while you can suffer through some well-written and depressing drama about real life down at the Cinema 21.
jbruner97 on portlandmercury.com
THE PERSONAL OPINIONATOR
Erik, I found your review, or more likely personal opinion, of Wolverine offensive ["Exhausted," Film, April 30]. What, may I ask, do you expect from a comic book blockbuster? Depth, intellect, tragedy? Please, it's a comic book adventure for God's sake!!!! I'm a 58-year-old woman who can see a movie like Wolverine for exactly what it is and frankly, I loved it. I could have spent another two hours lost in fantasy with Hugh Jackman's biceps. Obviously this isn't your genre so leave the comic book/blockbuster reviews for someone who gets it!!!!
-gmason on portlandmercury.com
MORE NIPPLE STORIES, PLEASE
DEAR MERCURY—This week's Mercury cover [April 30] is the best ever—a half-naked woman, on a horse, with a rifle. With excitement and a desire to learn more about this goddess of a dreamy western era gone past, I turned to pg. 11 and what do I find? A crappy story about "storytelling" ["The Subtle Art of Shooting the Shit, Feature]. No offense to the Word to your Mother event but it just cannot compete with exposed nipples. Next time please back up totally awesome covers with something totally awesome, like an actual story about half-naked women with exposed nipples and rifles, riding horses. Thank you.
-JJB
BE CAREFUL what you wish for, JJB. You win the letter of the week, two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater, and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish! over which you can tell your own tales of nipple exposure and firearms.
