Letters may be edited for clarity and length. E-mail to le*****@oc******.com, or send to Letters to the Editor, c/o OC Weekly, 1666 N. Main St., Ste. 500, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Or fax to (714) 550-5908.
SUV THE EARTH
I can certainly vouch for the black SUV in Hey, You! [May 5]. I've had that very same moron do the exact same thing to me. And I mean EXACT same thing. Next time, call the cops and report him as a drunk driver. At the very least, you'll get the satisfaction of knowing he's having to perform a field sobriety test!
Shane
Via e-mail
GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT
I really enjoyed the article regarding colon hydrotherapy [It's A Living, May 19]. Jeannie Martin, the colon hydrotherapist interviewed by Greg Stacy, said that she has never seen strange things come out of the body except for worms, but that's because her colonic system is completely contained and the waste is inside of tubing. People who have done cleansing fasts/enemas/colonics on their own have found all kinds of stuff that had been sitting inside of them for who knows how long. One story comes to mind of a woman who passed popcorn kernels, and she hadn't eaten popcorn in 35 years!
But what I liked about Jeannie is that she was so open and willing to discuss the subject. In 1980, while living in Naples, Florida, I had my first colonic done. A few days later, I happened to see the hydrotherapist at an outdoor art show, and I excitedly ran up to her to discuss my experience and colon hydrotherapy; I was shocked when she brusquely responded: “I don't talk about shit on my day off!” and walked away.
Brenda B.
Costa Mesa
SOME OF OUR BEST FRIENDS ARE RACISTS!
I applaud your publication for providing a forum for Gustavo Arellano. Mr. Arellano's column often makes me wish I had the nerve to bring my perma-tanned ass to the OC more often. His frighteningly accurate assessments of the state of racism in Orange County manage to remain funny and genuinely entertaining. His report of events on May 1 [“The Anti-Immigrant All-Stars,” May 5] included a statement attributed to an unidentified white woman that some of her “best friends” were Mexican. I have to say that line brought a tear to my eye as I recalled with great nostalgia the countless times I've heard racists utter it and similar lines. From the jury foreman trying to explain away his comment to me (“You know how they are”) concerning a conspicuously Hispanic plaintiff—”You mean, like my mother?” I asked him—to the assistant manager of a Brea Mall department store who assured me I had “misunderstood” her employee's bald suggestion that my olive-skinned (and obviously Mexican) wife was trying to cheat the store. (The manager then attempted to placate me by telling me the story of how she and her wonderful husband had taken pity on a poor brown child and tried to save her from her heritage by adopting her.) Yes, OC can be a scary place for anyone with a perma-tan but with daylight saving time here (rats tend to hide whenever the sun is shining) I might venture yet again to our nation's greatest bastion of ignorance for an espresso con panna and a good laugh.
Walter Hackett
Walnut
SOME OF OUR BEST CRITICS ARE BIGOTS
My name is Eric Cho and I'm one of the artists “briefly” discussed along with Carrie Yury's work in “Leaking, Bleeding, Out of Control” [May 26]. I want to thank you guys for your coverage of our show and the discussion of our work. I just wanted to point out that Rebecca Schoenkopf's representation of my work is a little misunderstood. She has automatically assumed that my work is “Von Dutch”-like just by pure association of the medium, which is Custom Car Culture. I've got one line about my work: “Eric Cho paints car hoods, which (Von Dutch) is pretty much the reason I really, really hate art.” If she had actually come to the opening, she would have been able to view my work in person and would have been able to comment on the actual work and see it as not just “some car hood (Von Dutch).” She has it all wrong and now she's blasted this out to all of Orange County with no real grounds for her statement. I was also hoping that, since she used some powerful language like “HATE,” she might have taken a few moments to let the word settle and written a reason as to why she “HATES.” The hood piece she discusses is essentially about the dialogue between imports and domestics on the playing field of globalization in the American car industry. I was just completely shocked at the misrepresentation of my work as being “Von Dutch.” Von Dutch was a nationalist, a pin striper (a damn good one), a fabricator and someone who was a great craftsman. I don't think he was ever intending to make critical art. I am making critical work that happens to comment on California Custom Car Culture. For her to say she hates art because of work like mine? That's just shocking and, in my eyes, a blatant example of bigotry on her part. Yeah, she can hate Von Dutch all she wants, but to hate art because my work exists and it happens to take a medium that is related to cars is complete nonsense. I just hope that my work can be represented right and not lumped in with some “Oh yeah that's car stuff, it sucks,” point of view.
Eric Cho
Via e-mail
LETTERS 'BOUT LETTERS (THAT WERE ALSO 'BOUT LETTERS)
Many of us are attuned to “Letters to the Editor” as a reflection of coverage and performance of a publication, but those of May 11 call to question the judgment of the editor in publishing them: basically raw in terms of good taste or substantive relevance, not to mention a disturbing lack of any intellectual bent. These are especially serious and troubling times.
Teddi Alves
Via e-mail
