Feedback: Cello festival hit just the right note

Have you hugged your cello today?

Mark Swed’s enthusiastic and informative review of the Piatigorsky cello festival [“Rapt With Bows,” May 17] certainly makes me wish we had attended more than one concert. His statement, “To play a cello, you hug it, and if you wish, you can do more,” is particularly enticing.

Norman H. Green

Los Angeles

Of today’s mediums and messages

I beg to differ with The Times [“The Blur: A Special Series on Why the Medium is No Longer the Message,” May 22]. The medium is absolutely and increasingly the message. Look around and listen to what people are talking about while holding their stupid phones — they are talking about what is on their phones and what apps (whatever the heck those are) they have and how cool they are for having them. Their entire life is contained in their stupid phones (and they are proud of that). As Marshall McLuhan said, “We shape our tools and afterwards the tools shape us.”

Stephany Yablow

North Hollywood

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Your headline writer got it wrong. To McLuhan, the medium is always the message. Content is seldom, if ever, as informative as the medium.

Gene Touchet

Palm Springs

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Does a cinematographer mind if his or her film is watched on a smartphone? Does a sound editor care if the film is listened to on a tablet? Does a director care if that film is seen online? I understand convenience of not having to actually get up and go to a theater and then have to pay, but what about artistic integrity? I’m surprised there’s not more outspoken voices from those who help create these projects.

Shelley Butler

Chatsworth

Media bias based on race?

Regarding “Feedback: Woody Allen and the Media” [May 22]. Thomas Bliss asked: “Why isn’t Allen subject to the same level of scrutiny as Bill Cosby?” Could it be because Cosby is black and Allen is white?

David Tulanian

Los Angeles

“It’s like rain on your wedding day”

Regarding “Quick Takes: Singer Sues Ex-Manager” [May 19]. Alanis Morissette is suing her former business manager? Isn’t it ironic?

Randall Gellens

San Diego

Dylan sings with soul

Thanks so much for your incredibly incisive review of Bob Dylan’s new album “Fallen Angels” [“Dylan Back in Classic Form,” May 19]. Soul singing is too often limited to discussions of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and others, while the truth is, any artist can — and the best ones do — have soul. Sinatra’s voice was, of course, a fabulous instrument yet what separated him from other singers of his era was his ability to connect with a lyric, to make the listener feel that he is telling them a story from his life, that might also have value to them. While Dylan does not have a great voice, he is a truly great singer, with the ability to communicate the emotion behind every phrase of a lyric and, even more impressive in these new collections, find new meanings in words we have all heard thousands of times before. Once again, thanks so much for expressing your ideas so clearly and eloquently. I look forward to more of your writing in The Times.

Craig Heller

Woodland Hills

Softball Trump interview disappoints

Regarding “Review: Kelly Goes Easy on Trump” [May 18]. To very loosely paraphrase: I have watched Barbara Walters and Megyn Kelly is no Barbara Walters.

I am disgusted that Kelly, as well as many major Republican politicians (with the exception of a very few who appear to have integrity and stand by their principles) simply fall in line and give support to Donald Trump who reverses himself every other second on whatever he says or has said. And this is the man who wants to represent the United States on the world stage with his hand gestures and facial expressions. The media has help to put him there. Truly frightening.

Liz Sherwin

Los Angeles

Singer-songwriter’s voice will be missed

Thanks for your thoughtful and obviously heartfelt obituary [“Guy Clark Dies at 74,” May 18]. Well done.

Noel Park

Rancho Palos Verdes

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This Texan thanks you so much for the wonderful tribute to Guy Clark. I was moved to tears reading it in a coffee shop in Santa Ana. When I got here Sunday I was singing “L.A. Freeway” as I hit the highway to get here from LAX in my rental car. Little did I know Guy would pass in a couple more days. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone reference “The Randall Knife” as you do today. That song (spoken word) blew me away the first time I heard it. Thanks too for the heads-up on the forthcoming book. It will be a must-read for me and other fans of great American music. Keep up the excellent work.

Steve Davis

Professor of History, Lone Star College

Kingwood, Texas