Monthly Archives: September 2003

Ken Layne is peddling some of his old crap. I’m a sucker. I bought a copy.

I never heard the Outriders before. The band was history by the time I met Layne, but not by much. But I should have known these guys. Rick Wilkens and I have crossed paths several times over the years, with many friends in common. Paul Denton played in the Road Hogs, which as I’ve said before, Ken Layne used as a backing band, which is how I met Layne, because the bass player for the Road Hogs was my best friend from high school (and roommate at the time), Todd Hilton. Todd and I were once bandmates. If you remember how Cream used to do band geologies, you can notate all of this some where for future reference.

And how are the Outriders? Not bad. If I had been in San Diego during their salad days (while these longhaired shitkickers were smoking weed and doodling around with six-stringed instruments, I was off protecting my country from the Rooskies), I would have liked these guys. There’s plenty to admire here — good (though not as good as Layne and Denton would later get) musicianship, tight arrangements, good recording quality and songwriting that at least holds your interest. If all that sounds like a left-handed compliment, it’s only because I don’t want to oversell these guys. They were young, and it shows, but there is also a lot of promise, promise that Layne’s later work helps validate. Ditto Denton.

Speaking of music, I’ve dug my old Dell NT Workstation out of mothballs and am turning it into a dedicated digital audio machine. It’s going to server one purpose — recording music. Mostly, it will help me turn some of my LPs into CDs. I’ve found some cheap-o software that is supposed to help make this process easier. We’ll see. I’m trying it out now by recording some Julie London for Billie (she love’s London’s version of “Summer Place”). I’m also hoping it will make it easier to digitize some of my own compositions, such and as few as they are (I can hear the stampede away from my site now with the threat of me putting my own music up). Continue reading →

Many years ago and for several years, I subscribed to Columbia Journalism Review. Like most everybody I know, I read the funny mangled headlines in the back of the book first, then, like everybody I know, I read Darts and Laurels next.

The D&Rs were little vignettes about the good and bad things newspapers around the country were doing. You would read about publishers who killed stories about a car dealer paying off a city councilman because the car dealer was an advertiser and also belonged to the same country club, or the education reporter whose investigative work led to a school superintendent getting fired for spending the kid’s lunch money on a stripper.

It was all that industry insider stuff that navel-gazing journalists like to gossip about.

Darts and Laurels are now on the web and I like to stop in once in a great while. Here’s what I found today … a Dart to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Months before the advent of Billy Graham and his evangelical Christian crusade in San Diego this spring, the Union-Tribune began spreading the news of his coming, and on Sunday, May 4, it let out all the stops. An adoring, eight-page, special section (heralded on page one) was devoted entirely to Graham – “Eternal words from a man for eternity,” ran the section’s front-page blurb – his followers, his mission, and its music, not to mention such mundane matters as the availability of parking and food. Meanwhile, a story in the news section seemed to imply that the absence of rain from the stadium during a preview student gathering had been the result of an organizer’s prayer. In all, from its first report about the newsworthy revival (December 28) to the final wrap-up on its great success (May 15), the Union-Tribune blessed Billy Graham’s mission with an awesome sixty-one photos and at least 24,500 words. As one believer put it in a letter to the editor, “Your coverage . . . served to magnify the message that Graham continues to bring to the world.”

Let’s see, the biggest evangelist in history at the end of his career is making his final appearance in town. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people will attend, and even more care. The only events that are comparable in magnitude are the Super Bowl and the World Series — on a purely local basis. Shouldn’t it get the same kind of coverage such mega events get (and having seen the coverage of a Super Bowl, I’m sure an SB gets more, and just as gushing)?

Here’s my complaint with this dart: It is being issued purely because the U-T did a lot of coverage. There is no mention of how the coverage might have been different or better, just that there is a lot of it. And gosh-gee, it’s positive coverage. And gosh-darn-it, it emphasizes the religious beliefs of the people involved.

If I didn’t know better — and I’m not sure that I don’t — I might be concerned that there is some anti-Christian bias going on here.

And the media wonders why many Christians don’t trust it.

Of course, there may be fair ground for criticizing the U-T coverage. Did the U-T delve into what happens to the millions of dollars BGC raise in a fair and objective manner? Did it question how many and what resources might be better spent within the city? Did it discuss the economic impact, for good or potentially ill? Did any story examine whether the Crusade is paying market value to rent the Stadium? Did any story examine whether workers at the Stadium were being fairly compensated for working the event? What about the cost of having police work overtime? Are people who are “saved” at a Crusade like to “backslide”? Are lives really changed, or is it all a facade? What studies have been done that can answer these questions beyond the merely anecdotal?

I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but the point is, presumably, neither does Gloria Cooper, author of the column, because she doesn’t raise any of those issues herself. She doesn’t suggest how the U-T coverage might have been better, only that there was too much of it. And given the magnitude of the event, it’s a hard charge to sustain, which is why I raise this question for Ms. Cooper — is there anti-Christian bias going on here? Continue reading →

You know, if the Bee had said, “We’ve noticed that Weintraub’s blog is really popular, and we believe that it has a future as a viable part of our publication mix, and because we want to ensure its continued success, we’ve decided to include Weintraub’s postings as part of our regular editorial process. Weintraub’s blog entries will now be reviewed by an editor.” I don’t think very many bloggers would have complained. In fact, most of us would have applauded the move as a sign that blogs are coming of age in big media.

Sorry, no time to add links … but read Matt Welch today on this topic … Welch blog rolled on the right. (links TK this evening) Also, Instapundit links to a Tim Ruttan column that is worthwhile. (UPDATE: See, good to my word, I supplied the links.) Continue reading →

From Sunday morning, I Tivoed ABC’s This Week. The subject, Ronald Reagan’s letters just out in a new book. The point several people make in the show, including Nancy Reagan, the president was a compulsive writer. He wrote thousands and thousands of letters on every conceivable topic.

If he could, I’m sure Reagan would be a blogger. And he’d kick our collective ass. Continue reading →

Dan Weintraub is probably the smartest man in the state when it comes to analyzing California politics. His California Insider blog has rightfully become one of the most popular blogs in the state over the last couple of months. And rightfully so. Word for word, it is among the best blogs in the blogosphere. I want to read Weintraub unfiltered and uncensored. He’s better off the cuff than most pundits edited twice over. Unfortunately, his publisher doesn’t agree. Continue reading →