The Year That Was

In your 1998 Year in Review arts article (“Diversity Must Be Served,” by Scarlet Cheng, Dec. 27), Andrea Rich, the president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is quoted as follows: “Clearly, in the entertainment industry--to the extent one views that as an art--L.A. is the international center.”

I find it incredible that Rich, as a leader in our arts community, is not sure whether motion pictures are “art.” The L.A. County Museum of Art has had a film department and theater for many years and is considered one of the best venues for film retrospectives and the showing of important film restorations. Film preservation and restoration generally has become an important part of the arts heritage movement in the United States and are strongly supported by most museums and archives.

There should be no question in Rich’s mind that film is an art form that, although younger than painting, music, etc., demands respect, recognition and preservation.

ROGER L. MAYER

President and Chief Operating

Officer, Turner Entertainment Co.

Los Angeles

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Regarding “The Picture Is Scrambled” by Brian Lowry:

For ABC, CBS and NBC, becoming more like cable networks, either by choice or circumstances, is totally unnecessary if network executives step back and take a realistic view of the state of the industry instead of doing business as usual. What they would find is that the ratings decline they’ve experienced is totally reversible and creating programs that generate “Seinfeld”-like ratings is actually not hard to do.

In every industry, major changes in the competitive environment require corresponding and substantial adjustments in how product is developed and promoted. That’s Business and Logic 101. However, TV programs are still developed and promoted almost exactly like they were in the 1960s, when there were only three players.

The problem of high production costs can easily be solved. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, sitcoms had two or three producers; now they have 15 to 20 producers and “consultants.” Don’t pay producers six- and seven-figure salaries for programs that, based upon recent results, are likely to fail. Instead, tie their compensation into results--like other industries do--by paying them based upon how many rating points their shows increase the ratings in their time slot.

KEN CONVOY

Woodland Hills

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In “Too Much Bill and Too Many Blunders,” Howard Rosenberg put the right word on what happened to the media regarding Bill Clinton during 1998. He called Jay Leno’s nightly knife operations on Clinton without anesthesia a “fixation.” This word describes the American media as well. One could call it “loss of mind,” “brain fever” or any other name in the book.

It all comes down to this: The media is sick with a terribly dangerous disease and we all pay for it. The Republican Congress is afflicted with the same disorder. Those two gave birth to a monster: an illegitimate impeachment.

BATYA DAGAN

Los Angeles

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Rosenberg blew it big time when lambasting CNN’s Tailwind story. The real mistake was CNN’s panicked backtracking and withdrawal of support for the extremely conscientious and professional producers, April Oliver and Jack Smith.

Rosenberg, if he were the independent curmudgeon he flatters himself to be, would have picked up on this and not believed the military and defended the corporate media.

ROBERT LIPTON

Los Angeles

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I read with great personal and professional interest “In the Shadow of Hip-Hop,” Robert Hilburn’s article examining the latest evidence for the imminent death of rock ‘n’ roll as a viable form of artistic expression. Although Hilburn seems to have little confidence, and less hope, that the genre will heal from its current sclerosis, I must passionately disagree. Rock ‘n’ roll, in its ongoing mutational state, is actually beginning to thrive again, but in ways not apparent to consumers of broadcast radio and cable video and record store hype.

As the host of “The Music Never Stops,” a weekly psychedelic radio show on KPFK-FM (90.7), I have been closely monitoring (and championing) the burgeoning jam-rock scene that has taken root in bars and dank clubs across the country in the years since the death of Jerry Garcia and the demise of the Grateful Dead. Although Garcia and his mates were usually dismissed as irrelevant, both musically and culturally, by the mainstream press, the improvisational aesthetic they established has made an indelible impression on many young musicians.

Contemporary jam-rock is hard-edged and belligerent, a music that demands intelligent listening to complex patterns and yet inspires with visceral blasts of youthful exuberance and sometimes rage. Both muscular and cerebral, it’s the bastard offspring of promiscuous parents, a mongrel gallimaufry of psychedelia, bluegrass, funk, jazz-fusion, progressive-rock, zydeco, klezmer, blues, trance and even ‘70s porno-soundtrack.

There is an artist right here in our own backyard who I believe is capable of completely reshaping popular music. His name is Mark Stewart, and his band the Negro Problem is currently making the wittiest, edgiest, most inventive and revolutionary musical journeys you are likely to find on this or any other planet.

BARRY SMOLIN

Los Angeles

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Rock ‘n’ roll isn’t dead. It’s just showing signs of old age: a lack of vitality and a tendency to be very set in its ways. Those symptoms are exhibited not only by the artists but by the mega-corporate record companies, whose tastes in rock have become about as bland as a nursing home dinner. The entire industry needs a fresh, youthful outlook and a shot of adrenaline.

Speaking of which, I hear Blondie has reunited and will release a brand-new album in February. Coolio even performs on one of the songs. Is it possible that Debbie Harry and company will do again what they did 20 years ago and breathe some much-needed life into rock ‘n’ roll? Ah, rapture!

CHUCK ZAREMBA

Oceanside

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There is still challenging, creative rock music talent out there, but it’s slowly being strangled by the likes of the relentlessly mainstream Hilburn, who long ago lost any trace of musical adventurousness.

Has he ever heard of Cath Carroll, Cat’s Miaow, Action Plus, Penelope Houston, Broadcast? I’m sure he’s busy re-cuing his new obsession, the ludicrously overrated Alanis Morissette.

WILLIAM PLATT

Sherman Oaks

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Excuse me, but was my copy of Calendar missing the pages listing the ballots of all 15 participants in the 18th annual best album voting by The Times’ pop music contributors? All I got was Robert Hilburn’s list--kinda like an Olympic-size swimming pool on a hot, smoggy summer day filled with only a foot of water.

BRIAN FEENEY

Valencia

All 15 lists are available on the music page of our Web site, www.calendarlive.com.

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I was very disappointed that I failed to see a great man’s name in your “Passings” column. He was one part of a husband-and-wife team who had a variety show on CBS in the 1970s.

That’s right: Sonny Bono, who was tragically killed in a skiing accident on Jan. 5, 1998. My parents watched the show in the ‘70s, and at age 20 I enjoy the reruns of “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” on TV Land and listen to their records all the time.

LISSED SOUKIASSIAN

Glendale