SF Weekly Letters

If by "Nonconformist" You Mean "Pervert" ...

These boots were not made for running: Lauren Smiley's "Misunderstood Artist," Omer Travers, is a menace ["Nonconformity Still Reigns!," Feature, 6/2]!

He is called Bum Jovi and he chases young women down the street, demanding sexual favors. This may be amusing to Smiley, but it is not to those of us who wear high heels and must run away in them!

A. Linney

Web Comment

David, Stop Picking on Goliath

Taking a shot at the writer: Maya Kroth is just another Giant basher ["Taking a Shot for the Team," Summer Guide, 6/25].

These Giants are rebuilding. Apparently Kroth hasn't watched any games, because they are fun to watch. Fred Lewis, John Bowker, Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez, and Brian Wilson, mixed with the veterans Randy Winn, Aaron Rowand, Rich Aurilia, Ray Durham, Bengie Molina, and the glove of Omar have this club competing right now. After the All-Star break, Kroth will see, like so many other writers, that this is a legit team!

The pitching is solid. The Giants are finding themselves during this rebuilding year and staying in close contention with the D-Backs. Give credit where credit is due: Manager Bruce Bochy is doing an excellent job playing young guys such as [Emmanuel] Burriss and [Brian] Horwitz, giving them a chance to grow. They may soon be everyday players with the other young guys who are becoming staples in the lineup.

I won't be surprised if at the end of the season Kroth is writing what a miracle season this turned out to be. Hey, I'll drink to that!

Mike

Web Comment

The Lefty Argument

But you can give them to the birds and bees: I play keyboards in Scissors for Lefty, and as Jennifer Maerz' article states ["Indebted to the Scene," Let's Get Killed, 6/11], we were one of the bands that played last year's Bay Area Indie Fest event.

We strongly believe in supporting and growing the local music scene, and to that end have played free shows at our fans' high schools, record stores, backyard barbecues, great local events such as the Ant Show, and pretty much every club in town. We have often played for free just because someone asked us and it sounded like a great idea. Our only goal in these shows is for our fans to have a great time, to play good music, and to have an enjoyable experience working with the promoters of the show.

Having said that, here are the facts about our experience at Bay Area Indie Music Fest last year: We spent about $500 of our own money getting to the show. We brought a lot of our own fans, who spent a lot of their own money to buy tickets to the show. When we got there, the sound system was in complete disarray and everything was at least two hours behind schedule.

When we finally got to play, it was four hours past our scheduled show time. We ended up playing close to midnight instead of our original early-evening set. At this point, many of our fans actually had to leave because they had prearranged rides from their parents, so they paid their hard-earned money to see us and went home disappointed. Furthermore, we were forced to cut our set time in half because the festival was so far behind schedule.

Joshua [the festival organizer] thanked us by giving us a check that bounced. Even when we tried to follow up with him about it, he was nonresponsive and just plain ignored us. It was quite a slap in the face to have this happen after all the effort we put in. We've been in the music industry for quite a while, and we're not ones to complain about every petty issue we run across. We appreciate the many legitimately hard-working, honest, and ethical promoters striving to make our local music scene special. We also think that musicians deserve to be treated with dignity and that fans deserve to see the bands they pay to see.

When it comes to the Bay Area Indie Fest, we think the Bay Area music scene can do much better.

Peter Krimmel

San Francisco