Feedback: Let’s talk Nick Nolte and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Just like Ojai in the good old days

Mark Swed’s report from Lucerne, Switzerland [“Spirit of the Playful Revolution,” Sept. 6] had me missing the great old days of the Ojai Festival. Stravinsky conducting (I think it was) “Pulcinella”; Aaron Copland, Pierre Boulez, usually with the L.A. Phil in top form. Once a year, you felt you were center stage in the world of new music. How I wish we could get that back. Ojai seems to have turned into these precious chamber weekends from musical peoples’ imaginations. I see that next year’s imagination belongs to Peter Sellars. Nothing against you, Peter, but you aren’t Pierre Boulez. And ICE (the International Contemporary Ensemble), you ain’t no L.A. Phil.

Bob Klein

co-executive producer,

Festival of New American Musicals

The making of a demographic

Regarding your review of “The Making of Asian America,” [“A Rich Migrants’ History,” Sept. 6], I can only conclude: Instead of having engineers, doctors and scientists, the demographic will soon have a generation of “activists” looking for freebies and welfare for their own, just like the other less successful ethnic groups. An American success story changed to an American tale of failure.

Edward S. Kizer

Los Angeles

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I noticed some people reacting to this subject by saying, “Don’t Asian Americans interact among themselves and support their own interests?” Can’t the same be said of almost any demographic in this country? People tend to stick to people that are most like them. That’s pretty much universal.

Chris Garbers

Glendale

Nick Nolte is such a fantastic actor

Nick Nolte is the kind of actor who has so much going on inside that it’s impossible not to see [“A Life Unvarnished, a Career Unfinished,” Aug. 30].

He was the embedded soul in HBO’s “Luck.” I wished HBO hadn’t given up on it. At this point, Nolte is kind of like Yoda. He speaks, you listen.

John G. Hill

Mission Hills

Riveting take on high-wire hero

I love the story of high-wire hero Philippe Petit, and I always enjoy Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s work, but why “The Walk” [“With Lofty Inspiration,” Sept. 6]? “Man on Wire” is such a riveting documentary — nothing a Robert Zemeckis film will ever approach.

Jim Hsu

Seattle

We get what we pay for on TV

Too much good TV, asks Mary McNamara [“The Angst of TV,” Aug. 23]. My reply: The more the merrier.

I mean, we pay plenty for cable, so this is exactly what we should be getting.

Gordon Allen

Altadena