NUTS IN THE EYE!

HEY JUSTIN SANDERS: I'm really glad that you "loves me some Grand Central lovin'" (???) ["Sugar and Spice," Food, July 13]. But c'mon man, where the hell were you eating at? I've been a baker at GCB for six years and NEVER has there been a single solitary nut in a chocolate chip cookie that I have made. Maybe the nut you were tasting was the one that you ate the night before after too many apple martinis. However it surely wasn't in a GCB chocolate chip cookie. Here's nuts in your eye!

Jason Howd

SPANISH HUGS

HI FRIENDS: I am from Spain. I have spent three weeks in Portland already and I have to say, Portland's Mercury has been a great magazine to know what was going on. I loved some of your articles. Today I read Will Gardner's article about nudity ["My Nude Awakening," Feature, July 13]. Splendid! Good job and greater writing! I have one week left but I would definitely like to meet you before, if possible. Do you think Will will agree to have a drink sometime next week to share experiences? I hope it will be possible. Keep on the great job. A hug.

Gorka

WHERE CAN WE MEET A GENIUSES?

DEAR MERCURY: "There's nothing interesting about geniuses. Flawless works—and those who create them—are usually boring as hell and twice as predictable." [Quoting Erik Henriksen's review of M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, "Boy in the Corner," Film, July 20.] Bullshit... you never met a geniuses, Mr. HENRIKSEN.

David Parks

VISUAL EMOTION: NOT REAL

DEAR MERCURY: M. Night Shyamalan is not masturbatory because he writes in a cameo role for himself ["Boy in the Corner," Film, July 20]. It is an homage to Hitchcock, who appeared in each of his films. And because another idiot critic called him the "next Spielberg" in Newsweek, your critic continues to bemoan it and minimizes the references to Hitchcock. He is a bulimic hack who substitutes hyperbole for measured insight. As for his visual emotion... what a hack; what he is trying to say is that the director uses timing, suspense, lighting, sound, light, managed expectations, etc., to provoke a deep, primal, unsuspecting emotional response in the theatergoer. There is no such thing as Visual Emotion.

Brad Herring

BIKINI SHOT

DEAR MERCURY: I've always felt your publication was far superior to your rival weekly, the Willamette Week. This week my opinion became solidified for personal reasons, rather than the usual lack of interesting content. In their July 19 issue they published my body on the cover, sans the head, in a pink bikini, with no warning whatsoever. Besides the correlating article being BORING and poorly written, I was unaware the picture had been taken, and so my consent was never given. Needless to say, my once-a-year trashy day at the river is now an event I dread to ever repeat for fear of lurking, pervy, voyeuristic photographers. I appreciate that your cover art is always created respectfully toward CONSENTING models, and when the female body is printed in a degrading manner, it is done with tasteful irony. Keep up the good work.

Evangeline Nichols

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVANGELINE for successfully avoiding having her face on the cover of the WW. That was a close one! As this week's Mercury letter of the week winner, she gets two tickets to see Himsa on Friday, August 11 at the Hawthorne Theater, plus two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater!

WHAT YOU MISSED IN BLOG TOWN

HEY READERS! If you forgot to drop by Blog Town PDX this week, here's what you missed: Adam Gnade breaking the news about the super awesome Halleluwah Music Festival, Chas Bowie breaking the news about the new Greg Kinnear film being shot at the Fresh Pot on N Mississippi, AND a local North Portland kid being chosen to play Max in the Spike Jonze adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. Plus the latest news updates, gossip, podcasts, and mind-bending videos! Stop by portlandmercury.com/blogtown NOW, okay? Forget weekly... the Mercury publishes every stinkin' day!