Calendar Letters

Grammys discontent

I turned off the Grammy Awards show at 6 p.m. What a fake, disgusting, special effects-laden show. Oh, yes, and lower your pants to applause. Remove the special effects and exotic dress and most of the performers would fall flat.

Joe Lazzari

Seal Beach

How far we’ve come. Everyone adored Adele for saying that Beyoncé really deserved the award. Just a few years ago, everyone despised Kanye West for saying the same thing.

Paul Feinsinger

Agoura Hills

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Randy Lewis’ aticle about the MusicCares Fundraiser [“Petty Wins Their Hearts,” Feb. 13] made it sound a lot better than the Grammys! I’d trade two Beyoncés and three Adeles for that lineup.

John Krafft

Long Beach

The funny pages save the day

I just wanted to express my gratitude for your commitment to the comics section. I enjoy sitting down with my 5- and 8-year-old sons and reading the comics. It’s a nice escape from the stresses of the world and a ritual I can pass on to them. I know the newspaper business is changing rapidly, but newspaper comics are worth preserving.

Cody Shelton

Los Angeles

Some colorful L.A. characters

I have read with glee Gregory Ellwood’s sparkling article [“The Envelope: More to this Dance,” Feb. 2] on Damien’s Chazelle’s movie “La La Land.” I think it would make great reading material to gather the three artists whom production designer David Wasco credits with the vitality of color in the movie. Those are Ed Ruscha, David Hockney and Patssi Valdez. All three live in Los Angeles. A photo session with them and examples of their work would be a joyful experience for the viewing public.

Kene J. Rosa

Los Angeles

Gloria Steinem misses the point

Liberal Democratic activist Gloria Steinem doesn’t have a clue about who conservative women are [“It’s Just the Beginning,” Feb. 8]. She consistently demeans and insults women who voted for President Trump. By way of explanation for their vote, she suggests that they must have been coerced or restricted by their husbands. What? Is she kidding

Some 53% of all white women, married or unmarried, voted for President Trump. We helped elect Donald Trump and other Republicans across the country. Yet she consistently misjudges us.

She is right about one thing — “It’s just the beginning.” The next four to eight years are going to be a bumpy ride for Steinem.

Patricia Doyle

San Gabriel

Comparing actors to actors

Regarding “The Contenders: Comfortable in Any Skin” [Feb. 9], Michael Ordona writes: “Michael Shannon’s versatility can’t be explained by a Daniel Day-Lewis- or Robert De Niro-like mutant ability to transform physically.” Since when can De Niro transform himself into another character physically? He’s always been a one-note actor. He’s the same character in “Raging Bull” as in “The Comedian,” the same walk, the same expressions.

Eduardo Savoa

New York

Anti-Trump asides missing

I may have missed it, but I think Thursday’s edition had not one anti-Trump comment in your whole section!

Peter Lynch

Culver City

A ‘Brilliant’ performance

I attended the Sunday matinee of “Every Brilliant Thing” and Charles McNulty’s description [“‘Brilliant Way’ to Take On a Tragedy,” Feb. 6] of the movingly empathetic therapist, touchingly portrayed girlfriend Sam and emotionally effective child/father couldn’t have been more accurate. Which makes me think “Every Brilliant Thing” was even more brilliant than I thought.

Cheryl Lee

Santa Monica

White directors deal in race too

I was interested to read Josh Rottenberg’s interviews with directors Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”), Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”) and Damien Chazelle (“La La Land”). He may have missed an opportunity, though. In addition to asking Jenkins about “Moonlight” being a movie about race (blackness, or immersion in a milieu that is predominantly black and has a historical pattern of segregation), he could also have asked Lonergan and Chazelle about their movies, which are just as much about race (whiteness, or immersion in milieus that are geographically white and have historical patterns of segregation) as “Moonlight” is.

A lot of times, white people don’t think of whiteness as a race — we just think about it as being a person, and something being “about race” is only the purview of nonwhites. But whiteness shows up in all kinds of interesting ways, and it is as legitimate to ask white directors about race as it is to ask directors who are people of color.

Cynthia Freeman

Los Feliz

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