Letters

A Yuppie Eclipse?
Jeff Stark's article on Circus Redickuless was great ("The One... The Only... Circus Redickuless," July 8). It captured the zeitgeist of something that seemed to be dying out with the yuppie eclipse of San Francisco. Thanks. I was cheered and inspired. I was also pleased that you, the reporter, are not one of the ubiquitous urban hicks I come across daily in California.

Jillian Steinberger
Via Internet

Picking on Aging Leftists
I recently read the latest SF Weekly. I hadn't realized that being hip meant so little. Let's see: You print profanity, you spend a huge amount of time attacking a local aging leftist ("Love Letters From Bruce B. Brugmann," sfweekly.com), you have very nice, kinky graphics, and you have imported a carpetbagging columnist from New Times in Phoenix.

Brugmann's letters to you do not seem all that outrageous to me. I'm sure dirt could be dredged up on any of your editors or columnists. It's not hard to make someone look stupid.

Brugmann ineffectual? Maybe. Because of structural problems in society, lots of leftists are marginalized.

I mean really, has San Francisco improved since your weekly was sold to New Times? You folks have some good articles, but still seem to think that being "anti-establishment hip" and anti-aging leftist is enough.

Ben Cota
Via Internet

No Surgical Clamps on Madonna
I am responding to your article "Madonna's Not a Virgin Anymore" (Music, July 1). Natasha Stovall comes off like a bitter old maid who needs to refill her Prozac prescription.

As a gay man in my late 20s, I can say Madonna and her music -- along with her forward attitude -- made it easier for me to be me. Fifteen years ago gay men ran to the floor in droves to dance and sing along with Madonna's music. And trust me, Miss Stovall, it hasn't changed.

And as for the Rolling Stone pictorial: Yes, it is quite obvious Madonna has been airbrushed. But I would not say she looks 25 -- more like a mature woman presented in flattering light. Every woman in show business is guilty of the same thing.

Your article could lead someone to believe Madonna is an 80-year-old woman with surgical clamps holding her face up. I am always amazed that it is women who point out what they believe to be another woman's flaws and undermine her success.

Madonna appeared on the Oprah show recently and looked fabulous -- and that, Miss Stovall, cannot be airbrushed.

Brandon Koehl
Via Internet

The Satanic Letters, Part VII
I read with interest Jack Boulware's June 17 feature article on Anton LaVey ("Has the Church of Satan Gone to Hell?") as well as the comments subsequently submitted by John Raymond ("The Satanic Verses," Post Script, July 1) and Willy Werby ("Shake a Leg," Letters, July 1).

As an active member in the Church for over nine years, as well as one of the last priests appointed by Dr.LaVey before he died, I can attest that, regardless of the hairsplitting over which circuses LaVey worked for or whether he laid Marilyn Monroe, the religion/philosophy which he codified actually works and produces results in the real world.

I, along with most members, could care less whether Dr. LaVey provided pseudonyms for his parents (obviously to keep the spotlight off of them), if documented records exist of his days with the SFPD (this was the '30s, '40s, and '50s, people -- computers did not exist back then!), or the exact identities of early members who feasted on a human leg.

As for John Raymond's allegation that the CoS was formed merely as a publicity vehicle, what CEO does not want to garner publicity for a newly formed organization? LaVey was indeed a talented showman, who succeeded mightily in his quest to establish a first-ever "above ground" satanic church.

Regardless of the petty personal and legal attacks aimed to tear down the substantial legacy left by Dr. LaVey, the originality and truthfulness of his works serve as the real testament to the penetrating intellect which makes Anton LaVey one of the greatest philosophers the 20th century has known.

Phantom
Via Internet

Correction
In our editor's note following a letter to the editor in the July 1 issue, SF Weekly did not intend to imply that author Burton Wolfe was not an authority on Anton LaVey, nor did we intend to impugn his professional reputation. The letter writer's assertion that Mr. Wolfe "got all his 'facts' directly from Anton, without checking them" was unsubstantiated. We regret the error.