I was surprised and disappointed when I read Swizzle, your recent “Locals’ Guide to Bars and Clubs” (issue of Feb. 2-8). You glaringly omitted one of the hottest new destination spots on the East side of town, Oakley Square.
It’s like you went to every bar in the area, on back roads and isolated areas, and missed really the most obvious and happening area on this side of town. I realize you purposely left out the 20th Century Theater because it’s strictly a concert venue, but what about Habits Cafe? Have you seen all the beautiful people in there on weekend nights? Or heard they have an open mic on Sundays? How about Animations? The new Oakley Pub and Grill? Kona Bistro?
It’s like you had to drive by all these places to get to the other bars you listed.
You put a bunch of little hole-in-the-wall places in Swizzle, like the Pilot and the Edge but failed to include an entire area of great places to go. There aren’t five or even four places in a small walking community anywhere else on the East side and definitely not in your “guide.”
Hyde Park Square is finished at 10 p.m. Mount Lookout has taken a downturn. And every other place in your listing is isolated from anything else.
Oakley Square is the only place on the East side where you can actually park your car and “bar hop.” It’s on the up-and-up, better than anywhere else in the area, including Hyde Park, and you completely neglected it. Come on, you’re better than that.
— Aaron Roco, Linwood
Pushing the Basic Truth
I have a complaint — several, actually — about the writeup on Putter’s Tavern in Swizzle (issue of Feb. 2-8). First and foremost, the description didn’t mention the fact that Putter’s features live music. The CityBeat staff should know that. My group, Basic Truth, regularly performs there, and we always have those show dates listed in the CityBeat music listings, as do many of the other groups that perform at Putter’s.
Second, I have complaints with the descriptions of “Sweet: The twang” and “Would Fit in Here: Truckers and those who love them.” My group, Basic Truth, is an old-school R&B, Soul and Funk band — there is absolutely no twang in anything about us. Yet we fit in so well at Putter’s that we’ve been performing there since May 2003, and we performed there for New Year’s Eve.
Third, liquid refreshment and Country ballads aren’t the only things that Putter’s Tavern has to offer. It’s a sports bar/restaurant, so it has a standard restaurant menu and, like any other sports bar, a plentiful number of TV sets, including a typical projection-screen TV. In addition, while its jukebox does indeed contain Country ballads, it also contains some of almost everything else — Oldies, Classic Rock, Blues, traditional R&B, current Top 40, some Hip Hop and even some Reggae.
I don’t know whether you were attempting to ridicule Putter’s Tavern or whether the Swizzle writeup was based on a sincere perception of the place, but I feel that it could easily give someone a distorted and incomplete picture of Putter’s Tavern that could actually turn off someone from wanting to check out the place — let alone leaving someone unaware of some of its attributes in which someone actually might have been interested.
— MarTinez (Marty) Butts, Basic Truth
Tour Will Be Missed
I was so disappointed last week when I opened CityBeat and didn’t see a single letter about the end of an era — the final Your Negro Tour Guide column. Kathy Y. Wilson’s weekly epic about whatever she wanted to write about — like it or not — was no more, and nobody flinched.
And now this week I look and there are still no letters about the YNTG ending. Where is the outrage that Wilson is not “touring” anymore? Where is the satisfaction by those that hated her? No one even bothered to write to say “thanks” or “finally she’s gone?”
I will miss Kathy’s weekly tirade. I didn’t always agree with her, but that’s life. I loved her style. I loved the way she used the English (sometime Ebonics) language. She said it the way she felt it had to be said. She had a way with words. She made me think. I learned from her.
John F. Kennedy once said: “Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion, without the discomfort of thought.” Kathy enjoys and exemplifies both opinion and thought. I’m happy to have gotten to know her through YNTG.
I wish her all the best as her life’s journey continues. I pray she moves on to bigger and better adventures.
Because only Kathy Y. Wilson can truly tell it like it is.
— Victor P. Fabro, East Price Hill
No Problem Fighting Intolerance
I would’ve never thought that a CityBeat reflection on the Sundance Film Festival would be jumping on the neo-cons’ ever-accelerating anti-liberal bandwagon, but such was the case with Steve Ramos’ “Sympathy for the Devils” (issue of Feb. 2). He beseeches liberal artists everywhere to “respect those people they too quickly deride as intolerant devils.”
Firstly, “devil” is a pretty strong word. Though I’ve heard a lot of Democrats and liberals aptly describe their political opponents as “intolerant,” I’ve yet to hear them use the “D” word. But let me ask Ramos this: Since we currently have an executive branch, both branches of Congress, a Supreme Court, lower courts, a popular majority of Americans and a mainstream media providing tea and sympathy to conservative causes and ideals, why is he so concerned about one of the few enclaves of liberalism left in America — independent filmmakers? Is their outrage against an ever-growing social intolerance that troublesome?
Perhaps liberal artists should have shown more tolerance toward Southern racists back in the days of Jim Crow. Maybe they should have shown more tolerance to Nazism back in the 1930s. And since tolerance is a “two-way street,” perhaps they should now “respect” those who indulge in gay-bashing and use religion as a weapon.
Sorry, but I can’t find too much fault with artists — and others — who have difficulty bestowing understanding and tolerance upon intolerance.
— Pete Kurtz, Landen
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2005.
