Letters to Artvoice

kyoto: 10 years later

In your zest to publish only those articles which support your biased agenda on the Kyoto Protocol, and with which you punctuated Ed Smeloff’s article by noting that Australia’s new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd immediately signed Kyoto, you jumped the proverbial gun, just as did Mr Rudd.

According to the Herald Sun, it appears that Mr Rudd has “immediately” made a reversal on his view of Kyoto, realizing that meeting Kyoto targets is a farce, and that to do so would only serve to destroy the economy of Australia.

Perhaps you would like to report and update the readers of Artvoice about Mr Rudd’s change in his stance on Kyoto in the next issue?

Douglas Caskey

Town of Tonawanda

THE CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE

I was both amused and bemused by an item in Chuck Shepherd’s “News of the Weird” column in your 12/6-12/12 issue. The item concerned college students up in arms over the raising of th price of subsidized birth control at student health services.

One student was quoted as saying “[Students shouldn’t] have to make a choice between their birth control and their gym mebership…”

The answer is obvious. They must forgo their cell phones and gym meberships. Theses poor, oppressed students must never reproduce. The future of this nation is at stake.

Jeff Martorana

Buffalo

Adios, Mondo!

When my wife and I moved from New York City to Buffalo five years ago, we were delighted to discover Elmwood Village and all of its underground, counterculture, bohemian shops, which reminded us of our previous locale. I was particularly happy to stumble upon Mondo Video: I’ve managed dozens of movie theatres and video stores over the years, including Kim’s Video in Manhattan, the model for all Mondo-type video palaces.

Underground video stores are important to any modern city that prizes itself on arts and culture. In a store like this, you can find foreign films, art films, and indescribable oddities sitting alongside the typical mainstream Hollywood pablum. You might even find a title or two that are, shall we say, ahead of their time release-wise. There’s a real pleasure in browsing disorganized display cases filled with old VHS tapes, never knowing what you’ll find; it’s a very similar experience to exploring a good used bookstore.

Twenty years ago Blockbuster came to this city and gobbled up all of the mom-and-pop competition. Mondo was a safe haven for film lovers who loved to find obscure and hard to find treasures, not just the films that multi-million dollar marketing campaigns convince people they should be watching. At my last management gig, the high school and college kids I supervised—every one of them a smart young adult—routinely frequented Blockbuster outlets at the expense of Mondo, despite my admonitions. I’m sad that Mondo Video has closed, and I’m also sad that our community doesn’t make an effort to better support local businesses that can enhance the culture.

Greg Lamberson

Buffalo