The Vintage & Handmade Market Distraught over switch
I didn't know about the transition from SLAMM to CityBeat until I went online to find out why stores stopped carrying the magazine. Anyhow, I think one of the best aspects of SLAMM is-I mean was-the fact that they printed local bands on their cover, making the magazine much more attractive and appealing. I absolutely loved reading SLAMM and am a little distraught about the switch. Anyway, I really hope you guys keep that style of SLAMM active.
Can't say too much about the covers you guys have been producing except that it looks a lot like the Reader, which is geared more towards middle-aged fogies. Sorry, tried to steer away from name calling, but I don't know another way to put it more brusque.
Jennifer Lao,
San Diego
‘Pure trash'
I wish I had taken Edwin Decker's advice when he instructed his readers to “stop reading now” if we felt it was too soon to think positively about Sept. 11 [“Sordid Tales,” Sept. 11]. That article was pure trash.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I read, “maybe Sept. 11 was bad for America... but it was kinda good for the planet.” Good for the planet? Maybe he didn't see the footage. How is it ever good for anyone when 3,000 people are senselessly and cowardly murdered? That's the kind of talk that immediately discredits a new magazine.
Also unbelievably grotesque was Decker's assertion that God is a “slacker.” If anyone is a slacker, it's a guy who gets paid to sit on his behind all day and write. God is not a slacker. God created the universe! Now more than ever in these horrible times, we need to praise God, not ridicule him.
Another thing: I don't believe a respectable paper allows its writers to use the word “horsefarts”-my 15-year-old son is above such language, shouldn't your writers be too?
Judith Calilao,
Point Loma
Gold country
Re: “Top 10 of 9/11” by Edwin Decker [Sordid Tales, Sept. 11] Good, gutty column, mister. I bet you have some more cynical observations/witticisms lurkin' behind your private wall (as do I), but were wise enough to keep 'em inside. America shits gold right now, and anyone who sees some corn in this crap is considered an Al-Qaeda operative. I liked the yin and yang, but the masses only seem to understand black and white.
Unfortunately, I think “Ugly Day” has set us back-big time-in whatever sort of progress that was made in regards to recognizing America's “clumping” on the rest of the world. I'm hopeful enough dumb asses will be affected by the monumental corporate rape of this country to turn the tide a bit.
Russell L. Bauder,
Pacific Beach
Crystal ball
My Iraq prediction:
1. Saddam develops atomic bomb.
2. Saddam secretly gives the bomb to the terrorists.
3. Terrorists detonate bomb in midtown New York, killing thousands. Saddam denies involvement.
4. The world says there's no proof Saddam is to blame-so there is no retaliation.
5. Terrorists give U.S. ultimatum: get out of U.S. or we will repeat the bombing.
6. U.S. leaves Middle East.
7. Iraq , using atomic blackmail, takes over all the oil-producing countries except Iran.
8. U.S., dependent on oil, pays whatever Saddam asks. U.S. economy suffers and unemployment rises.
9. Terrorists make further demands.
If you think this is unlikely, what was the likelihood of a few men hijacking an airliner and crashing it into the World Trade Center?
Mel Shapiro,
University Heights
