"Even I can see the blatant, secular, progressive thrust at trying to promote a gay day at a Cardinals game by putting a rainbow Cardinals logo and teaser headline on the cover...."

Stage, June 29, 2006

Dennis Brown Rocks
Props to Arrow Rock: Regarding "Philadelphia Story," thanks for Dennis Brown's recognition that we out here in the "boonies" have some really outstanding culture. I, too, was thrilled by Arrow Rock's 1776. I think Quin Gresham deserves kudos for his selection of shows, casting, direction and acting when he contributes in these areas.
Joanne Heisler, Columbia

Unreal, June 22, 2006

Play Ball
Blatant, secular, progressive thrust: I admit I am only a casual and occasional (and suburbanite) RFT reader at best. But even I can see the blatant, secular, progressive thrust at trying to promote a gay day at a Cardinals game by putting a rainbow Cardinals logo and teaser headline on the cover but only a less-than-ten-paragraph blurb in the Unreal section concerning the matter.

Personally, I could care less if it happens. Professionally, surely you can do better than that if you really want to push your agenda. I dare you. Bob Flynn, St. Peters

Have you met Bob Flynn? At first I thought it was great to publish an article questioning if Busch Stadium is ready for a "gay day" just before the St. Louis gay pride celebration. It's also a breath of fresh air compared to the sometimes anger-filled gay marriage protest stories that you read and hear in the news. From the news lately you would almost think all gay men and women do is protest. This couldn't be farther from the truth in my eyes.

You ask if St. Louis is ready for a gay day at Busch Stadium, and I reply with an ecstatic "Yes." St. Louis is more than ready, in my opinion. I work at Novak's, which is mainly a lesbian bar, but everyone is more than welcome. We welcome everyone from men and women to gay and straight and everyone in between. We are more than welcome to wear St. Louis Cardinals jerseys instead of our uniform on game days. There are also a large number of people that come on their way to or from Busch Stadium on game days. Not to mention that we always have almost all of our television sets tuned to baseball nonstop during the season. Even the repeats are tuned in when there are no live games available. That tells me that there would be enough participation to make this a great thing for Busch Stadium, the gay community and our city. St. Louis loves its sports teams, no matter what age, race, sex or creed you come from. We especially love our Cardinals.

St. Louis is also a host to many events that are a mainstay across the nation. Along with the city's annual gay pride celebration, there is an annual pride day held at Six Flags. There are also many fundraisers for charity and other events hosted by the gay community in our city.

Now that I think about it, I believe that the events and venues geared toward and available to gay people has grown dramatically in the past few years. This, in my opinion, would be a great thing for our city. So there is no question in my mind that St. Louis is ready.
Name withheld by request, Creve Coeur

Cover, June 15, 2006

Figurine It Out
Where's the Mark McGwire exposé? Unlike other periodicals that generally put shit stories on the front cover, I usually read the cover story in RFT first, as you typically cover some cool, off-the-wall aspect of our community. Not so when you put Tim Lane's "Make Your Own St. Louis"on the cover. That could have been a quarter-page filler piece or a Web site feature.

Have you run out of things to write about? Where is your edge? How about an exposé on the love life (or maybe, lack thereof) of one of your St. Louis figurines, Beatle Bob? Or what about covering how Mark McGwire has become a pumped-up embarrassment to the community?

There are a lot of things to cover without resorting to gimmicks; please do not tease your loyal fans with such dribble in the future.
Greg Stine, Wildwood

Stage, June 15, 2006

Let's Get Back to That Louse Brown!
Overpoweringly biased: It seems that Mr. Brown has an overpowering bias and even hatred toward Stages St. Louis. I find it odd that a paper as respected as the RFT would allow someone who has such a close-minded view of a topic the ability to continue writing about that topic.

Mr. Brown rarely has anything positive to say about any productions. If you don't like theater, Mr. Brown, don't review it. Find a new job.

These types of one-sided, murderous reviews that don't even make an effort to find the positive sides or opposing opinions of a topic are just as bad as the non-alternative articles written by the mainstream papers. Furthermore, theater, especially not-for-profit theater, has a hard enough time surviving in modern America without having to deal with completely negative criticism from the press.

To say the show's ending left him feeling happy — Mr. Brown must be a twisted soul if an ending of all love failing and a gay man being electrocuted in a concentration camp gives him joy.
Kathy Humphreys, St. Louis

Simply wrong: I was disappointed to read Dennis Brown's review of what I found to be an outstanding production. But what do I know about theater: I have only seen about 700 productions in my 68 years, in New York City, in London and yes, in Kirkwood. Brown's review is simply wrong. Michael Hamilton can take any play and turn it into a real success on an extremely small stage with a few weeks of rehearsal.

Perhaps we didn't see the same production — or it's your job to be wrong.
Darryl Redhage, Kirkwood

News Real, June 8, 2006

Kitty Lit
She just hates cats: "Catfight," Chad Garrison's article about the Hatfields and the McCoys (a.k.a. McGraths and Morgan) was very well written. I didn't know one cat could stir up that much trouble. Kudos to Tiger for his bunny patrol. They usually do a good job of destroying my garden each year.

I hope Judge Ullom has more compassion for the McGraths' autistic daughter than the neighbor apparently has. Tossing McGrath in jail for 30 days would certainly wreak havoc on the family. Something tells me if Sally Morgan would have bothered to call the McGrath family instead of the health department, it would have saved a lot of aggravation for both parties. I wonder if she just hates cats, or hates her neighbors. If I had a neighbor spite me like that, I'd grab every roadkill rabbit I could find and toss it in on her front porch.
Barbara Favre, St. Louis

The electric fence fix: I wonder why no one has suggested the invisible fence method for the cat that would only allow him to roam in his own yard. For the cost of their fines, they could have installed this fence system long ago and stopped all the squabbling. Everyone would be happy, and if you want to pet the cat, simply go in the yard and do it.
Alan Butterworth, Ste. Genevieve