Memo #3
2/21/03

Fellow scribes,

I visited the offices of the San Fernando Valley Weekly on Thursday. They are on Cahuenga, just SE of Lankershiem, across the street from Universal Studios, with a great view of the Black Tower where we will be able to see Universal executives jumping if The Hulk tanks.

1,600 square feet, spotlessly clean, one big office with a door and big windows overlooking the street (Jan's), one smaller office with a door and a smaller window overlooking the rest of the office (mine), a reception area, a rec room, two bathrooms, and a large central area with room for at least a half dozen desks. A perfect workspace I can see us outgrowing in six months. Phones, computers, furniture, and we're in. We're hoping to be ready the 1st of March.

But that's the end of the week. Dare I flashback to the beginning? I dare. On Tuesday night I shared in the celebration of Jay Levin's 60th birthday with his kids, Art Kunkin, Paul Krassner, and a host of others. Krassner said "From now on, when people ask you if you remember the 60s, you can say Remember them? I am them!"

Sharing a dinner table with the founder of the L.A. Weekly, the founder of the L.A. Free Press, and the founder of the Realist was boggling to say the least. The history of alternative journalism made flesh before my eyes. I gathered as much information as I could. My main question? What the hell is my job?

Grammar, punctuation, and spelling seem to be the realm of the copy editor and proofreader. What's left after that is called editing, a word with a baffling variety of definitions.

Kunkin told me he never edited anybody, just printed what they wrote. If anyone said something he disagreed with, he simply wrote a reply and put it in a box next to the article, and THAT only happened once. Levin was a notorious monster with a blue pencil, as the bald spots from 10 years of pulling my hair out will attest to. I have no idea how Krassner edits because the bastard never printed me, but Lenny Bruce's Autobiography came out pretty good.

Most of my personal experience is from the other side. I've had more than 1,500 articles published in dozens of different magazines and newspapers, and I've worked with every kind of editor, from lazy bastards who happily didn't touch my work, to aggressive bastards who challenged me every inch of the way.

I did a weekly video column for Billboard Magazine. For more than a year, I handed in my copy, and they printed me without changing a single syllable.

I once handed in a piece to Movieline where they totally rewrote half the piece. My name appeared in a national magazine on a couple hundred words I didn't write. I would have thrown a fit if I hadn't read what they put my name on, only to discover it was intelligent and witty and better than the rest of the piece. They made me look good by making me look bad.

Get a bad response to a piece of journalism and hey, what did you potentially waste? A month? A week? A day? But a novel takes a goddam year. Get a bad response to a novel and you just wasted a goddam year, so giving your novel to the very first reader is a nerve-wracking experience. 

The first person to read Hollywoodland called me back and said it was great except for one thing, chapter 16 should be chapter 17 and chapter 17 should be chapter 16. Outrageous! Impossible! Until I made the change, read it, and discovered they were absolutely right. I wouldn't have picked up on it in a million years. THAT was editing.

Am I good enough to read your stuff and say Hey, THIS sentence belongs HERE and THAT sentence belongs THERE? We'll see. Allow me to point out I've never done this before, but neither had Kunkin, Krassner, or Levin. They just decided to do it.

Hal Ashby once told me that the job of film director is actually quite simple. His job, his ONLY job, is to make sure that everyone does their best work. Some people need guidance. Some need to be left alone. Find out what everyone needs to work at their peak and give it to them. Sounds to me like a pretty good definition of newspaper editor too.

So how do I make my job easier? By hiring people who are so goddam good they don't need editing. People who will make us all look good. Kunkin, Krassner, and Levin have passed the torch to me and I'm passing it to you.

MD
 

Your editor

P.S. I was being so fucking facetious in my last memo that I failed to point out a lot of your legitimate credits, so allow me to point out that aside from his tenure in a Turkish prison, Billy Hayes has been writing, acting, and directing up a storm. He has written the sequel book Midnight Return, and is currently co-producing the filmed version.  He's written numerous screenplays, including Cock & Bull Story, Southside, Kauai and Pamplona. He directed the critically acclaimed Cock & Bull Story at the Fountainhead Theatre in Los Angeles, garnering numerous 1992 L.A. Drama Critics Circle, L.A. Weekly, and Drama-Logue awards. He recently directed the feature film version of Cock & Bull Story, which is being distributed by Pantheon Entertainment and will open in the Spring of 2003. 
    His other directing credits include the award-winning The Last Pad (written by William Inge and produced by Amnesty International) in Los Angeles; The Cage in New York City (which he adapted for an all-female cast); and the 1993 production of Washington Square Moves, which the L.A. Weekly awarded Production of the Year honors, and for which the NAACP Theatre Awards honored Hayes with a Best Director nomination.  Most recently he staged the critically acclaimed production of Break of Day at Los Angeles' Lillian Theatre.
    He previously directed episodes of the TV series Copper, and produced/directed Angel Food, (starring Michael Dare!) a documentary about the Project Angel Food delivery program for homebound AIDS patients.  Angel Food has been shown in the Dallas, Boston, and Denver Film Festivals.  He has developed and co-produced The Bachelor's Baby (about Michael Dare!), a movie of the week for CBS, starring Scott Bakula.
    As an artist member of Inside Out, Hayes used theatre skills in his work with both at-risk kids and disturbed, incarcerated patients at Patton State Hospital.  Additionally, Hayes has shared the lessons of his life experience through his work as a mentor to homeless youths at the L.A. Free Clinic.

    Also, Truusje Kushner is definitely more than an L.A. Weekly alumni. She's a much published N.Y. journalist turned writer/producer who's written and produced non-fiction shows for all four networks and cable stations including A&E, Discovery, History Channel, and The Learning Channel on subjects ranging from Mary Shelly, and the history behind her creation of Frankenstein to the Quest for the Holy Grail.

    And a hearty welcome to Jennifer Oliver, a Disney animator/editorial cartoonist responsible for this...

    I'm still not sure what position Kalynn Campbell is going to occupy, but as art director/cartoonist with the Realist, he sure as hell is going to be part of the team. Welcome aboard.

    Richard Bailey, our new theater critic, has credits up the wazoo. Just the fact he actually worked with Samuel Beckett is enough for me, but here's his bio:
    R.S. Bailey has written, produced, and directed for film, theatre, video and radio throughout a career that began by doing radio commercials as a child during the '50's.  He has worked as a producer, director, designer, actor, film and sound editor, business manager, publicist and marketing director and consultant in film, television, radio, legitimate theatre, opera, and classical music.
    He majored in theatre and minored in film at San Francisco State College during the tumultuous '60's.  At that time he produced talk radio, worked as a film editor at a local television station and began working as a professional actor.  In the '70's he continued producing radio with a late night comedy series on Los Angeles' first underground rock station, KPPC-FM (now KROQ).  Additionally, he worked as a lighting designer in live theatre.  A move to Signature Film Distribution brought him to the Signature Films production unit where he worked on over 20 feature-length films as editor, cameraman, writer, and producer.  At that time he received an invitation to tour Europe, as an actor, with the world renowned San Quentin Drama Workshop.
    The initial 6-week tour became a 5-year run in touring repertory during which Bailey acted in multiple productions, regularly playing London, Paris, and Berlin.  He was eventually invited to work with Nobel Prize Laureate Samuel Beckett at the West Berlin Academy of Art (Atlanta's Emory University archives his correspondence with Beckett.).
    Returning to the San Francisco area, he became Artistic Director of the Actors' Unit, producing and directing three plays, and a short film on go-kart racing.  Additionally, he designed and built the Attic Theatre for the City of Oakland Dept. of Parks and Recreation.
    Back in Los Angeles in 1980, he became Director of Press Relations for the Los Angeles Actors' Theatre.  Promoted to Associate Director of the theatre, he produced the experimental series L.A. AT Midnight and directed plays for the subscription season.  He engineered the marketing campaign that increased season subscriptions 1400% in four years, which enabled LAAT to become the Los Angeles Theatre Center.  He continued with LATC as Associate Director, Media Production Coordinator, and Director of Marketing and Communications.  After leaving LATC, he continued his relationship with the organization as a marketing consultant.  He founded his own Press Relations agency, Tz Entertainment, handling publicity and marketing for numerous arts organizations, including Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, Long Beach Opera, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA. 
    He recently produced feature film Cock & Bull Story, based on his award-winning legitimate production at Hollywood's Fountainhead Theatre. He also produced The Cage at the Odyssey Theatre, and directed Beckett's Women at the Irish Arts Center and produced its subsequent tour to California universities.  He recently produced and directed the audio book of Samuel Beckett's novel Murphy (the first to be approved for release by the Beckett Estate). He is the recipient of numerous press awards in Europe and the United States.
    He has worked as a film and theatre critic for the L.A. Reader and Pasadena Star News, (his reviews being reprinted as far away as Moscow and Yerevan) and hosted the weekly radio talk show, Theatre Talk.  His still photography has appeared in all of Los Angeles' major publications; his paintings and sculptures have been sold throughout the United States.