Architecture: Inspiring the Many or Pleasing a Few?

The design of the new Children’s Museum (“Realm of the Child,” by Nicolai Ouroussoff, April 22) looks like a pile of discarded material waiting to be thrown into a dumpster. It may be “innovative and bold” but my adjective for it would be just plain “scary.”

Who are the architects designing this junk for? Other architects?

CAROL THOMPSON

Anaheim Hills

Ouroussoff describes the building’s “folding planes” as appearing “like an origami sculpture.” Yet traditional origami is rooted in symmetric and asymmetric harmonies, neither of which appear here.

More obviously, and I feel more ominously, we are looking not at origami, but at a model of a crumpled piece of paper that will be architecturalized to stand inappropriately for destruction and unyielding self-assertion, qualities that should not be made central in the minds of developing children or adults who are going to properly participate in community living.

MILANO KAY

Hollywood

Regarding the proposed Children’s Museum: It looks just like the old Monsanto House at Disneyland would after a really big earthquake. And it screams “Imagine, Be Curious,” just like a train wreck.

Beyond this, The Times’ coverage would have been strengthened by a companion piece acknowledging the Little Tokyo community’s long campaign for a recreation center at this site. Let’s consider all the issues and not just build the museum because it’ll be housed in a really cool building.

WES JOE

Los Angeles

Talk about the emperor’s new clothes! If that museum gets built, San Fernando Valley residents will have to look daily at this latest pile of “architecture”--resembling fallen space junk--until somebody with brains safely removes it. What a travesty!

HILDA E. WENNER

Santa Barbara

Design Dressing

Considering the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’s interest in reaching out to the broader community, the number of seats that will have to be filled in the new Disney Hall, and the enormous resources that are going into its construction, one would hope the artwork would be a little more universal than “a giant white collar and bow tie” (“Ideas for Accessorizing Disney Hall,” by Christopher Reynolds, April 23).

What is the message here? That the Disney Hall is by and for the tuxedo class? Passing by such elitist symbols on the way into the auditorium would put a damper on the musical experience for many.

GENEVIEVE MARCUS

Los Angeles

Uh Oh, Not Again

Howard Rosenberg’s column (“With Another Celebrity Arrest, the Circus Returns to Town,” April 20) was right on the money about the Thursday night fiasco of the Robert Blake arrest coverage. What a waste of talent, time, airwaves, gas for the helicopters, cops’ time, etc. I couldn’t believe that they were all covering the same story--ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

JIM TIERNEY

Simi Valley

As a criminal defense lawyer of 25 years’ experience, I am embarrassed to see alleged lawyers like Dan Abrams and Catherine Crier jump on the air and critique the lawyers and the case without having a scintilla of hard information or evidence.

This isn’t the NBA playoffs. It’s a real trial of a real person charged with a real crime. Unbelievable.

MARC TRIPLETT

Bellefontaine, Ohio

Not too long ago, I was telling a friend why I was fed up with the 24-hour news media and rarely watched Fox, CNN and MSNBC. My reasons reflected what Howard Rosenberg so eloquently described in his article.

I am tired of seeing/hearing these so-called experts, analysts and pundits fill time and space by second-guessing, speculating and projecting outcomes of whatever event or situation the media are obsessed with at the time. I find it cumbersome, tiring and an insult to people in the government, military and public service who are trying their best to do their jobs.

PAT CONNERS

Huntington Beach

TV Diversity or Not

I first thought the Counterpunch article (“Diversity Isn’t So Black and White an Issue,” by Marlon Mohammed, April 22) would champion the cause of Native Americans, Asians, Latinos and others who are missing on television. To my horror, the article chose to castigate the efforts of groups such as the NAACP that have been, in no small part, responsible for making sure that the issue isn’t completely disregarded.

In criticizing a movement that has very little power to do anything proactive besides speak for minorities, Mohammed belies the work necessary to achieve real change in the entertainment industry.

When the time comes that we can turn on the television and see so many different races of people that we can’t ask, “Where are the gay, blind, black rabbis?,” then I will believe what he wrote.

I offer this challenge: Watch television for a full 24 hours (you can even flip through DirectTV). If you find two Native Americans playing Native Americans within a five-hour time block, I’ll eat the newsprint this letter is written on. If not, a simple “touche” will suffice.

HERMAN WILKINS

Los Angeles

I would suggest to Mohammed that the issue of diversity is no more complex than for casting directors to get past stereotyping and typecasting and commit themselves to changing the widely accepted negative image of African Americans and other minorities.

If we can achieve that goal, Los Angeles and the world would be a better place and our children would have a brighter future.

WESLEY G. GREENWOOD

Baldwin Hills

Equity and ‘Music Man’

Don Shirley’s article, “Musical to Strike Up a Band Without Union Members” (April 25), about the upcoming engagement of “The Music Man” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, misrepresents Equity’s position about the “qualitative difference” between union and nonunion performers in this tour.

As reviews and audiences have proven and as we agree, the cast of “The Music Man” is indeed very talented. Having an Equity card doesn’t make you a better--or a worse--actor. The card does mean that you enjoy benefits that have been negotiated through collective bargaining. We hope to begin this process on behalf of the actors and stage managers in “The Music Man” very soon.

JOHN HOLLY

Western Regional Director

Actors’ Equity Assn.