Dear Gov. Corbett,
Thank you for meeting with our family to discuss our daughter Anna’s life-threatening seizure disorder and our new hope as children like Anna trade wheelchairs and hospice for bicycling and skiing by trading their pharmaceuticals for non-psychoactive cannabis oil.
We were encouraged by your efforts to find a workable solution, your compassion toward Anna, and your initiative in sending your Physician General and Secretary of Health to visit patients who need this treatment.
We’re concerned that recent headlines may not accurately reflect the position you’re developing as you research the issue.
We understand your need to protect your family, and we don’t want you to make public policy decisions under pressure from reporters. We’re asking you to continue to...
Lifestyle
Dear Glen T. Senk, CEO Urban Outfitters Inc.
This past weekend, I had the unfortunate experience of visiting a local Urban Outfitters store in Minneapolis. It appeared as though the recording “artist” Ke$ha had violently exploded in the store, leaving behind a cheap, vulgar and culturally offensive retail collection. Plastic dreamcatchers wrapped in pleather hung next to an indistinguishable mass of artificial feather jewelry and hyper sexualized clothing featuring an abundance of suede, fringe and inauthentic tribal patterns.
In all seriousness, as a Native American woman, I am deeply distressed by your company’s mass marketed collection of distasteful and racially demeaning apparel and décor. I take personal offense to the blatant racism and perverted cultural appropriation your...
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Dear Police Chief Acevedo,
I’m an Austin resident. I drive my kids downtown to school every morning and back every afternoon. Since I’ve been driving the same route twice a day for five years, I’ve befriended some of the homeless who stand on corners I almost always stop at. These guys sleep mostly under bridges and overpasses.
One of the guys recently told me that he was woken up in the middle of the night by a few police officers who told him he couldn’t sleep there under the bridge.
He asked if sleeping was a crime, to which the officers responded that he was camping and according to the no camping ordinance, he was breaking the law.
A day or two later I was asking another homeless guy if he could use a tarp and/or a sleeping bag. He told me he didn’t have any use for a...
3,152
Dear MoCADA Family,
MoCADA is in danger. If that scares you a bit, good. You are receiving this letter because you are a part of the MoCADA family. Perhaps you have attended our exhibition openings, gone to a Soul of Brooklyn block party, or your children participate in MoCADA’s Artists-in-Schools program. Maybe you like our great posts on Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest. Whatever your reason for joining us, you’re not alone. Over the past 15 years, MoCADA has provided arts programming to over 500,000 people in Brooklyn, and throughout the African Diaspora.
We’ve been lucky to have the support of so many fantastic foundations over the years, and we are very grateful for their ongoing commitment to cultural arts. Our funders are model philanthropists who continue to stand by our...
2,432
Dear Jamie,
Well, this is a little awkward, but I can assure you that is just as awkward for me as it is for you. Us. You We know what we mean. I spent the past weekend attending the 40th annual World Fantasy Convention, which took place in Arlington, Virginia, practically down the street from where I work. Laws of causality prevent me from going into too much detail about the event, but there are a few things worth noting, and I wanted to make sure you knew about them.
First, the event was a lot of fun. I know it might seem odd to you, to hear that in 22 years, you’ll be attending the World Fantasy Convention, what with your great desire to write science fiction, but there is a good reason for attending. Many of your friends are attending, too.
I can’t go into a lot of detail, and...
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Dear Bekah,
By now it is quite clear that the damage done to your sculpture was not as malicious as we originally suspected. I still feel compelled, however, to speak directly to you about what happened last Wednesday night. Your piece has joined a sad club of defaced art, bruised by anger, ignorance, and the inflated ego of a viewer. Unfortunately this kind of vandalism has a long history, both at Covenant and throughout art history. Many artists have had their works altered; some, like Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa, were attacked for nationalist reasons, while others, like Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, were damaged by iconoclasts, who saw themselves as defenders of religious integrity. At Covenant, the Art Department underwent one of its darkest couple of months in 1996 when a drawing...
2,567
Anyone who has ever been unhappy with their body or health will no doubt have attempted a diet at some point. There are so many ridiculous fad diets out there that I feel sorry for the people who get suckered into trying them and especially those who end up paying for them. This is why I felt compelled to write my opinion of the Paleo or 'caveman' diet.
For those who don't know the Paleo diet is based upon the types of foods that we presume were eaten by early humans. These means a diet focused of meat, fish, vegetable and avoiding the likes of dairy, cereal and processed foods. There seems to be a lot of confusion around what the Paleo diet is, but I believe people needn't concern themselves with this at all!
What's great is that you don't have to follow this diet exactly to see...
4,328
Dear Mr. Ross
Your response to my criticism of ARC indicates that my feedback comments concerning the Art Renewal Center upset you. It was not my intention to poke a stick in a hornet’s nest but I feel it is necessary to reply in the interests of the truth of which you do not have a monopoly.
Your website is an art educational site, but it assumes a narrow definition of education and it would seem that its main function and purpose is the rehabilitation of 19th century academic art. Its stance is to argue that academic art has been castigated and marginalized by the art establishment. It is quite possible that it was merely ignored because it was so poor, most UK and European Municipal galleries have a collection on permanent display but they are not usually humming with visitors...
2,923
Dear Nail Art,
It was a typical dark (bright) and dreary (beautiful) Los Angeles morning when I first learned about you, maybe a year or so ago. My friend Hilarie had convinced me to drive all the way from the comfort of the beachside community where I live to the depths of downtown LA, to a mysterious place called “Nails Garden” in Koreatown. I didn’t know what to expect. A garden? A garden where they grow nails? I sure hoped not! Hilarie had emailed me a few pictures of this magical Nail Art prior to our manicure date, but I was dubious, at best, and I certainly was unprepared for what was in store.
Nail Art, did you know you are CRAZY? I mean, part of this is probably my fault because the nice little manicurist lady was all “what do you want” and I was all “I have no idea what’s...
2,055
Dear Terry and Kim.
Congratulations on your reported purchase of the Buffalo Bills with the intent that they will remain in the City of Good Neighbors. You have epitomized the “Good Neighbor” attitude with your purchase of the Sabres; development of the Harbor Center and now owners of the Buffalo Bills.
You have now provided residents, fans and non-fans, that Buffalo and Western New York will continue to be elevated, through your actions, in the minds of non-residents. The people are expressing joy and thanks for this shot-in-the-arm to Western New York. Huge thanks and applause are being sent to you.
If there was one mis-step since the purchase of the Sabres, it was the departure of Pat LaFontaine, with no given reason why this very popular part of Buffalo Sports history was...
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