Mailbox 01.13.10-01.19.10

  Drink It In I am proud to have ventured into the bowels of the NYC mass transit system via the NY Press and discovered you for myself here in Rottenchester—just up the Thruway from Sirackus (I want to put an “e” on the end of that, but it makes it phonetically too much like what it’s accepted to be). I read three of your columns and, despite the fact that you are more than likely a—shudder—Liberal, enjoyed all enough to read them a couple of times. I think you are in that place where you can still put one foot behind you into the old haunts and also into the places those “guys in their forties with spiked hair” hang, trying to date their neighbor’s daughter. I have no doubt you’ll enjoy wherever you are as long as you can, drink it all in, write what you can remember down, kick yourself in the ass for that great idea you forgot and entertain people like me who think they were lucky to discover you. Perhaps when you arrive at 38 you will look back at say, the previous 12 years, marvel at your journey, bewilder yourself at how quickly it seemed to pass and apprehend when a similar splotch of time passes again—you may be 50. I have no doubt you will stand in awe of the whole thing and produce some great stuff. —Dean Morgan, Rochester, NY

Better Than What? Does anyone at the New York Press actually read Armond White’s columns before publishing them? White is a troll of the worst kind and has become the laughingstock of the film criticism community.He offers absolutely no insight into the films he reviews and, worse, his reviews are pretentious just for the sake of being pretentious. It’s not a question of whether or not he likes or dislikes a movie that other movie critics like. It’s that his columns fly in the face of good, sound logic. For example, his perennial “Better-Than List” (Jan. 6-12) makes some of the most questionable comparisons between films that share absolutely nothing in common. I mean, who cares if This is It is better than Me and Orson Welles? One is a concert film, and the other is a biopic.He also makes your publication look stupid.As long as you keep Armond White on your staff, the New York Press will have absolutely no credibility within the film community. —Wes Huizar