My feature on the history and legacy of Asco brought loads of letters, calls, and emails. Some congratulatory, some reprimanding, some critical. The Weekly published a couple this week in print and more online. Because the letters published are mostly scathing or critical, blogger's prerogative here at Intersections dictactes that I reproduce the only friendly letter below, from Sean Carrillo in New York:
If I had a hundred hats I would take them off to Daniel Hernandez for his brilliant, insightful and thoroughly engrossing article. As a member of “Asco B” and witness to this spectacular debacle I must say he has captured some of the perfidy, drama, madness, careerism, exploitation and mania that were hallmarks of the Asco that I knew and lived. It is not his fault that he was not able to conjure the many performances when we held the audience in the palm of our hand followed by Rat Pack–esque after-parties, the effortless collaboration, the unbridled laughter, relentless joy and youthful exuberance that I knew and loved. Nonetheless, the article was like a bullet train to one’s past where the destiny is known, cherished and avoided. As I sit alone at my computer writing this I hear a faint rumble in the background like the murmur of a roomful of ghosts. Maybe it is just the sound of a hundred hats hitting the floor.
The rest of the letters are here. Along with corrections on the piece. See also 'A Dada daydream in Chicanoville, U.S.A.'
* And while we're indulging here, I would like to note and congratulate my friends and colleagues at the Weekly who swept up all kinds of awards at the L.A. Press Club and AAN this year. Shout out also to Adolfo Guzman-Lopez for winning "Radio Journalist of the Year" at the Press Club. And, on the blog front, to my former editor Alan Mittelstaedt for kicking butt as guest blogger at WitnessLA recently.