Letters

Captured Audience
Jim Pirtle is weird and authentic ["Unreal Estate," by Lauren Kern, May 6]. You captured everything so well. So well that I want to get down to No tsu oH and give him some business.

John Staples
via Internet

Follow Up?
Overall, I commend you for a job well done on your tenth anniversary issue [May 6]. It was interesting to read stories about Houston happenings which received little, if any, attention over the past decade from the "mainstream" press. However, it would have been interesting if you had revisited some previously published stories and told us what happened in each situation since the story appeared.

David Hinterberger
Conroe

Serious Music, Too
As I type this letter, my radio station, KUHF 88.7-FM, is broadcasting the final installment in our week-long series of reports on homelessness in Houston. KUHF's daily newscasts have been filled with our usual mix of stories about issues of public policy and politics, business and industry, education, community concerns and events, science, medicine and the environment.

So when I read Richard Connelly's piece ["The Bush Chronicles," May 6], I felt he got only half of the story when he wrote that radio stations all but ceded serious local news coverage to KTRH.

"There is," as Yoda said to Obi-Wan Kenobi, "another." You'll find lots of serious local coverage at 88.7 FM.

Bob Stevenson, KUHF programming director
University of Houston
via Internet

All-Seeing Swamis
I thoroughly enjoyed your tenth anniversary issue, especially Tim Fleck's retrospective on the political follies of the '90's ["Political Splashes and Splats," May 6], but I can't believe you passed up a chance to say "I told you so"!

Way back in 1991, when gay and lesbian political aspirants were firmly locked out of elective politics in Houston, the Houston Press was the very first to run serious, in-depth coverage of Annise Parker's campaign for City Council District C.

While others dismissed her as a flash in the pan, the all-seeing swamis at the Press predicted a big future for Parker. She spent the next six years inching her way across the city with the determination of a glacier to achieve what the "experts" claimed was impossible: an openly lesbian candidate winning an at-large City Council seat.

So whatsamatter, are you guys suddenly overcome by an attack of modesty? Why pass up a chance to thumb your nose when you can get it!

Rob Bridges
via Internet

Revisionist History
I disagree with Tim Fleck that future political scientists will catalog the Houston 1990s as the Bob Lanier years.

Future political scientists will catalog the decade as the Galvan years and the Galvanization of Houston. Galvan began a mayoral campaign in 1989 with telephone stickers, and he managed Elizabeth Spates's City Council campaign. He took on Kathy, Bob, John Castillo and Sheila.

Happy tenth anniversary!
James Partsch-Galvan
via Internet

Hey Hey
I have the utmost regard for Sara Fitzgerald ["Back to the Front," by Anthony Mariani, May 6]. However, I must take exception with your inaccurate and misleading comment that an "employee opened her own club down the street using contacts and partners that she knew from Fitzgerald's."

That employee is my ex-wife, Pat Armstrong. Pat left Fitzgerald's many months before Hey Hey club was even a gleam in anyone's eye.

I strongly resent your context and manner that implies that Pat was somehow unethical. Pat was one of the most principled people in the music business and one of the best in any business.

Mr. Mariani, if you could have removed your nose from Sara's butt for a few minutes and taken the time to ask anyone, you would have found out that it was a stated concrete policy at Hey Hey never to solicit an act that had an established relationship with another venue.

I applaud your efforts at paying homage to one of the true greats of the local Houston music scene.

Peter Selin
via Internet

Tube Puncher
Russell Contreras ["Roping In Ratings," April 29] misses some serious points about Spanish television in Houston.

Channel 45 seems to think Latin America ends somewhere in Panama or Colombia. Telemundo does a mediocre job by trying to cover so much in 30 minutes. Channel 45's ratings are so high because it is the only choice in Houston and because of the Hispanic tradition of staying glued to the TV set.

And in an industry where ratings are everything and they equal money, Camacho's editorial is about ratings. I find it insulting. Does Camacho believe that the Hispanic people in Houston cannot move forward if we do not have scholarships specifically targeted to our community? Telemundo tries to do some form of bashing on Univision all the time.

I hope that I am not the only one who notices the terrible Spanish that is spoken in the local television news. By the time the news shows are over, I just want to put my fist through the TV set.

Radio Unica AM 1320 is the only in-depth news source from Latin America that is worth mentioning.

Bernardo Pohl
via Internet

Time for a Change
Thanks for exposing the joke that has become the athletic program at Houston Christian High School (formerly Northwest Academy) ["Winning in the Worst Way," by Tim Fleck, April 15].