Re “These City Walls,” Editorial Digest, March 27: “Austere simplicity”? “Comforting”? Rubbish. The tile work in the older indoor subway stations is dreary, ugly, boring and lifeless. I can feel the spirit draining out of me as I descend into Wellesley Station every day. Since I’ve never had a car, and my parents never had a car, I’ve been staring at those damn tiles on most of the 20,000 or so days that have passed since the Union to Eglinton stretch of the Yonge subway opened in 1954. (I was there that day, age eight, my young mind doubtless already being dulled by those endless expanses of what you call “iconic visual elements.”) There is no background or foreground, nothing to catch the eye, just row upon row of bland sameness, except in the few stations which have been rescued by art, like John Boyle’s mural in Queen Station. A good definition of hell: having to stare at the puke-green tiles in Dundas Station forever. This is one bit of our heritage that I will be glad to see the last of. BRIAN MOSSOP

Not to split hairs, but the “world’s shortest ferry ride” doesn’t take you to the Toronto Islands’ quaint residential areas, as you write in “These city walls.” Rather, the world’s shortest ferry ride, at the foot of Bathurst (and travelling a mere 121 metres) only gets you to the Toronto City Centre Airport, from which the rest of the islands are inaccessible. MARK UMLAND

Idol chatter
Sarah Liss’ Street Spirit column on “Love You Live” (March 27) would have been more informative without the knee-jerk, tacked-on, phoned-in American Idol bashing. Most people will tell you that American Idol is trainwreck first, music second. Most people will also tell you that aspiring pop singers can sometimes be wrenchingly over-emotive. These things aren’t news, and they contribute nothing to the story, which is interesting enough in itself without the lazy journalistic hook of it supposedly being diametrically opposed to a reality TV show. Sarah, we get it: you don’t like anything that’s too mainstream. Neither do most of your readers.
NOTALENTATALL (VIA WEB COMMENT)

CORRECTION
In last week’s City Style story “Blowout party,” Jie Matar was mistakenly identified as the creative director at the Alan Parss Salon. Matar is now the creative director at 186 Davenport (416-925-6000). EYE WEEKLY regrets the error.

Send letters to letters@eyeweekly.com or 625 Church St, 6th fl, Toronto, M4Y 2G1. Names withheld on request, but name, address and daytime phone number must be included. All letters become property of Eye Weekly for purposes of publication in print, online or in any other form.