Calendar Feedback: ‘Broadcasting a rebuttal’ on network television

Commercial free is where it’s at

As I read Robert Lloyd’s “A Forceful Defense of Broadcast TV in the Age of Premium Cable and Streaming” [Nov. 10], I could only think that he must be able to view the programs he wrote about without commercials.

Many programs produced by the networks are well done and worth watching. However, the barrage of inane commercials embedded in these programs destroys any pleasure a viewer may get from them.

I, for one, will wait until the programs reviewed by Mr. Lloyd are available on streaming services where they can be enjoyed and appreciated.

Murray Levy
Pacific Palisades

Give Boomers their due, OK?

Regarding “It’s No Reason to Go Boom, Baby” [Nov. 6]: As the parent of a 34-year-old millennial, I was recently “Hey, Boomered” by my daughter and her husband. The feeling seems to be that we are sitting fat and happy right now and are perfectly willing to let the planet, education, inner cities, sustainability issues, healthcare for all, etc., just go by the wayside.

If this generation is so concerned with how unfair things are for them, take to the streets like we did. (Google Kent State.) Get yourselves arrested, but be ready to bail yourselves out — don’t call on Mom and Dad. They may need the money for donations to ActBlue and Everytown [for Gun Safety]. A lot of us are still very much involved, but we may not have the selfies to prove it.

Kim Bullock
Encinitas

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As the middle child of the baby boom (born in 1955), I totally get the “OK, boomer” thing. Turns out that all that peace and love talk was mostly “fashion” (a line from “The Big Chill”), and I am embarrassed by a lot of what I see today.

But I would remind the younger set that I grew up during a time where just wearing my hair long could lead to my [butt] getting kicked and we had to stage walkouts in my high school just so girls could wear jeans to school and not just dresses.

To get things done, you need to put down the phone and get out and do it. (I wrote this letter on my phone) OK, boomer.

Alex Cole
Rancho Mirage

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It is easy to spot us boomers out in public. We are ones engaged with our physical environment. We invented desktop computers and the rest of your devices to enslave you, which we have.

James Moore
Los Angeles

Extending this tribute to Bean

Gene “Bean” Baxter has had an outstanding radio career as described by Randall Roberts’ piece “Bean Jumps From ROQ” [Nov. 7]. What was not mentioned was when he donated a kidney to his longtime KROQ engineer, Scott Mason. Bean is an impressive man — both in talent and character.

Aviva Monosson
Los Angeles

Keep digging up art’s dirty money

Regarding Carolina Miranda’s article “Tax, Pay Issues Seen in Museum Closure” [Nov. 8]: So the Marciano brothers want to do something different — they wanted “to be an incubator for artists.”

May I suggest that they could do something truly, completely different with their millions by, say, establishing a truly affordable artist’s colony? One where the artists don’t have to live with the constant dread that their rents will be jacked up sky-high, or that they’ll be evicted by the next greedy buyer.

Mickey Fielding
Los Angeles

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The high-end art market has long seemed like an asset class powered by social cachet, with gallery owners, curators and critics serving as informal guarantors of value.

Buyers use their collections to project their philanthropy and sophistication but are simultaneously up to their Basquiats in tax avoidance and money laundering strategies. I didn’t realize the role museums play in this industry, but your article peels back another layer of the onion.

I hope you will be able to investigate this topic further.

Ed Salisbury
Santa Monica

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I’m not an art critic but I think that the photo with that article might be something of a clue in the unraveling story of the demise of the Marciano Art Foundation’s place over on Wilshire Blvd.

Does anyone anywhere think that displaying what fully appears to be a Jeff Koons knockoff is going to draw much interest?

Doug Stokes

Duarte

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I understood the wage problem but otherwise couldn’t follow the money.

“Colllectors can forego paying taxes on the acquisition of works by donating…”

Tax on purchase? Which tax, local sales tax? Perhaps a short followup piece explaining which taxes are avoided and how the money flows would be in order.

I’m left guessing that a rich person buys something, avoids sales and asset taxes, then can later sell it for a capital gain.

I think this method is also used by other collectors, like those of automobiles or furnishings.

Bob Wieting

Simi Valley

A classic doesn’t hold up well

I share Justin Chang’s admiration of Julie Andrews [“Andrews is One of a Kind,” Nov. 11] but I just rewatched “The Americanizaton of Emily,” and while the dialogue is snappy and the cinematography crisp, the script severely lets the actors down. I hadn’t seen the film in many years, but the sexual harassment by Garner’s character was a problem and it was pretty unbelievable that Emily would drop her principles and reinterpret the Garner character’s boorish behavior as charm. How did this transformation happen? Scarcity of luxury goods in wartime England just isn’t sufficient explanation.

Alan Warhaftig

Los Angeles

Hollywood sticks to its guns

Regarding “Calendar Feedback: Gun Culture and the ‘Wise’ Guy” [Nov. 10]: Reader Henry Hespenheide’s letter pointing out the prevalence of gun violence in today’s movies is a welcome breath of truth. I know that the viewing public’s need for dramatic and literally explosive excitement has become an increasing and insatiable appetite, thus driving the constant promotion of violence as a means of entertainment. And who in Hollywood would dare defy their source of income and fame?

But I can’t help but laugh at the image of investors, producers, writers and directors pulling their hair and banging their heads against the wall should violence become suddenly forbidden or unpopular in all entertainment. Oh, no! Do we actually have to come up with new ideas? After all, everything’s already been done before, even sequels. Oh, that’s right, more sequels.

Sharon D. Graham
San Marcos

Stephen King and Kubrick

Sonaiya Kelley’s article [“Two Masters, Each to be Honored,” Nov. 10] references author Stephen King’s disappointment in director Stanley Kubrick’s film “The Shining.” King held that there was “no sense of emotional investment in the family,” and that Shelley Duvall was nothing but a “scream machine.”

For me, the heart of the film was Jack Nicholson’s madness, incorporating both humor and horror via an astounding visual experience. I believe that highlighting more nuanced performances by the supporting cast would have diminished the effectiveness of Jack’s acting masterpiece.

Duvall is a fine original artist who was free to engage us as such in her other works. “The Shining” is like an opera with spotlight on the devil, and the others are the supporting chorus.

Ken Hense
Los Angeles

Donald Junior in the lions’ den

Lorraine Ali’s dishonest, misleading recap of Donald Trump Jr.’s breathtaking appearance as a guest on “The View” [“Here’s Where We Can Have it All Out,” Nov. 9] is the epitome of fake news.

Bottom line: When attacked by five angry anti-Trump activist hosts on live TV, Trump remained calm and composed.

Michael Sanchez
West Hollywood