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CLAY FELKER, Greatest magazine man of our times, gone, gone, gone

2008-07-02T17:53:12Z

Clay Felker, the legendary editor, who founded New York Magazine, New West, and acquired Esquire for a moment has died.

There are many obits and reminiscences of Felker by mnay of the writers he made legendary including Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Andrew Tobias and Steve Brill in the New York Observer.

New York Magazine was the first magazine to find a sweet spot that included service articles and great reporting, that both uncovered and launched trends, that impacted the culture. Articles in New York Magazine became movies like Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy and articles by Tom Wolfe seemed to define a moment in time (The Me Decade).

Felker great run at New York effectively came to an end in 1977 when Rupert Murdoch purchased New York Magazine. Felker went on, and had good runs at Esquire and elsewhwe but the stars never aligned the same way again.

I only met him once, and I saw him in the street (he lived a block away from my parents) and at parties here and there but Clay Felker, who launched many careers, also launched my wife, Amy Rappeport's career at Adweek.

Amy had been a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and had come to New York and decided to try the advertising sales side. One might have thought that Clay Felker would treat editorial and advertising as church and state -- and he did -- but he understood that the advertising pays for the editorial and supported their efforts. Advertising sales had long been a male dominated field, a old boys club, and Felker was among the first to realize that make ad execs were less likely to flat our refuse a sales from a woman than a man. Felker hired women for advertising girls, so much so that the ad staff at Adweek were called "Clay's Girls."

"He couldn't wait to go out on sales calls," she recalled. And he treated the ad sales well. "He held the most fantastic staff dinners." But while Felker understood the importance of ad pages, his lasting message to the sales staff, and to my wife, was the importance of the editorial -- how quality sells. "Clay taught me power of the editorial sell. " After working for Felker, she said, "I couldn't just sell anything." Felker created "a really strong editorial product... He was great guy."

Not to belabor a point I've made elsewhere, at a time when newspapers and magazines are cutting back on editorial staff, and finding new ways to pay writers less for more writing on more platforms -- it is important to remember that there is no substitute for excellence and quality.

The writers and editors and salkes people Clay Felker mentored are spread throughout the media. His example at New York begat the careers of Adam Moss, Greydon Carter and many others who continue to do, in their own fashion what Felker did first.

7.1.08: Jewish culture in Poland, Moscow, expanded book coverage on NPR and writers room the world over

2008-07-01T17:41:41Z

RUTH ELLEN GRUBER, whose book on Jewish "roots" Travel is a classic, has an article in the Forward on the dynamic duo behind the revival of Jewish Culture in Krakow, and who have opened Jewish bookstores in Krakow and in Budapest. Click Here.

The Guardian UK has a feature on writer's rooms

Nextbook has a feature on the Moscow Yiddish Theater

NPR is beefing up its book coverage at its online site hiring several new reviewers and has several book lists worth checking out.

LIVE MUSIC NOTES

2008-06-30T17:31:45Z

Summer is always a great time for seeing live concerts and this summer that seems particularly so, In the last week I caught a number of great shows:

NIKKA COSTA at the EL REY. Great show. Great live performer. An on your feet for the entire show, sweaty audience participation performance. Someone we went with who is a huge fan thought it was mellow for her -- but I find that hard to believe. Costa is a funk master. She inhabits a space somewhere between Lenny Kravitz and Amy Winehouse -- with some Janis thrown in there as well.

Caught SAM PHILLIPS at the newly launched LARGO @ THE CORONET. Phillips has a new album, "Don't Do Anything" and she performed many songs from that accompanied by a few select players and by the Section, a
The old Largo was a bar with table seating and food and very small stage. The New Largo is more akin to a small concert hall -- you sit in assigned seats -- no food and drink (although is a separate bar) and it's more of a concert than a club date. Even so, Phillips low key conversational style, her humor and her irony, made for a wonderful evening immersed in her smart songwriting.

My wife went to TOM PETTY at the BOWL, She said it was great. II passed. Seen him enough for now.

ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS, RISING SAND TOUR. One of the surprise hits of this Spring is the collaboration between Robert Plant and Alsion Krauss, and the Rising Sand Revue delivers Plant doing some interesting versions of Led Zep tunes, Alison Krauss doing some of her own, and T Bone even gets a few of his own. The evening, at the Greek, reminded me of another great evening there, Springsteen and the Seeger sessions -- rock artists rediscovering a treasure of American roots music, this time from Appalachia. It is really is an extraordinary combination of talents that yields a completely unexpected results. We all know that Plant could be on a Zeppellin reunion tour -- even begrudgingly doing so in the memory of Ahmet Ertegun whose death was inspiration for their reunion concert early in the year. But Plant is choosing te pursue this tour. SEE IT IF YOU CAN.

THIEVERY CORPORATION at the Hollywood BOWL with Seu Jorge -- Love Thievery Corporation. They put on a great show last summer (or was it the summer before?) with Os Mutantes. This year they brought their usual assortment fo singers in Portuguese, French, English, from all over the world, including Perry Farrell doing a song. It's great that these two guys who have been around for more than twenty years and started out in DC are still cutting edge.

BEBEL GILBERTO performed at the same show. I had seen her before (also at the Bowl) and despite feeling that she had a great voice, I had not found her to be a great performer. That was then. She has come into her own and she gave a great rousing performance at the bowl.

6.24.08: Stuff you should know about....

2008-06-24T18:40:35Z

DEANNE STILLMAN @ ALOUD TONIGHT
LA CENTRAL PUBLIC LIBRARY

Deanne Stillman, author of the just publishing MUSTANG (Houghton Mifflin) is being interviewed by Samantha Dunn as part of the Aloud Series. CHECK IT OUT!!! Fans of this column have heard me sing Deanne's praises but she is not only a unique writer but a unique mind and I'm sure a conversation with her is going be very interesting. Unfortunately I can't attend. Sorry to be missing it.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett, Raising Sand revue. Tonight at the Greek, Tomorrow at the Santa Barbara Bowl. A truly extraordinary show. Reminds of Springsteen;s Seeger sessions in that we have a rocker rediscovering a treasure trove of American music and teaming with some of the greatest musicians to deliver a sound that transcends categories. Plant covers a number of Zep tunes, Alison Krauss does of her some catalog, and T Bone gets to play a few. Listen, Plant could be doing the Zep reunion tour, he prefers to do this. Doesn't that tell you something?

FRENCH KISS FOR SETH GREENLAND.
Not exactly, but the vide for his new book, Shining City has been posted on his french publisher's website replete with French subtitles. Check it out here.

Denise Hamilton's THE LAST EMBRACE (Scribner), has been getting lots of buzz. I met at BookExpo and she was kind enough to send me a copy of her 1940s set ion Hollywood mystery (She is also the author of the Eve Diamond series). Looks cool. Have put it in the stack to read for fun/vacation reading (whichever happens first)

I've also been listening to The Paul Carlon Octet's "Roots Propaganda" album, which is as if Duke Ellington's big band broke down in Africa and started to incorporate all kinds of world rhythms into a swinging jazz sound. Going to keep listen to it some more, it's infectious and grabs you in strange ways.....

Sample Track 1:
"Roots Propaganda" from Paul Carlon Octet

Sample Track 2:
"Yorubonics" from Paul Carlon Octet

Vladmir and Estragon are Jewish!

2008-06-23T20:08:20Z

My friend Steven Roth drew my attention to an item that he saw in ArtsJournal, that they in turn picked from Sign and Sight (I get sight and sound and missed it), that they in turn picked up from Die Welt that drew up a conversation printed in French -- between Valentin Temkine and Pierre Temkine that "decodes" "Waiting For Godot" and situates it in 1943 in the Free Zone of France.

As Temkin posits it, Vladmir and Estragon are French Jews who lived through the anti-Semitic Times surrounding the Dreyfus trial and onc the Nazis invaded France and curtailed liberties for Jews in Paris they fled to the Free Zone. But time is running out there. They have been part of or made contact with the resistance and they are waiting for Godot, who is to lead them across the border to Spain. Pozzo is a Petainist collaborator and Lucky represents the silence of the intellectuials in France who were at the service of the goverment.

The key that unlocks this interpretation of Godot for Temkin is a phrase where Vladmir and Estragon say that if they could go to the top of the Eiffel Tower they would throw themselves off. But, as they explain, they are no longer are allowed to go up the Eiffel Tower. Temkin explains that between 1940 and 1945 only Jews were no longer allowed access to the top of Eiffel Tower.

THe article interpolates other llines, and facts from beckett's bio, is in French and is worth reading. Click here for the article in French.

I look foward to seeing GODOT staged with this new interpretation.

Chaplin at the Hammer

2008-06-23T19:59:33Z

I also had the sublime pleasure this weekend of seeing Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights" at the Audrey Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum.

The film was being shown as part of the LA Film Festival and was chosen at the express request of honoree, director, writer auteur Melvin Van Peebles who selected it as one of his favorite films.

It was pretty great. It was not a pristine print. But it's hard to beat seeing Chaplin on the big screen in a great theater. There are some great bits in the film -- we probably laughted hardest at the sequence where Chaplin having swalled a whistle, burps in whistle tones. All in all, however, I probably prefer "Modern Times" but that's just a matter of ranking greatest over great.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film is that the plot hinges on a blind flower girl who eventually has an operation that allows her to see.

During the movie, my daughter asked me if that was possible -- an operation that would allow a blind person to see. I had to say that in most cases it can't but that the movie hoped that it could.

In 1930 when City Lights was made, it must have seemed that many medical advances were just within reach. And if we look at all the medical advances between now and then -- and there have been many, it is impressive. But the ability to make the blind see, remains elusive.

Cataract surgery and laser and lasik surgery have allowed millions who would be vision impaired to have great vision -- to see. But that is mostly operating on the lens. Same for detached retinas.

You would think with cameras and players advanced to the point where a laptop can have a webcam and we can watch movies on our cellphones or Ipods --that there would be some way to clamp a camera to someone's head or replace an eyeball. But not yet......

6.23.08: Thievery at the Bowl

2008-06-23T19:19:17Z

INCREDIBLE NIGHT AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL: THIEVERY CORPORATION, BEBEL GILBERTO, LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES,

Going to the Hollywood Bowl is one of those authentic incomparable LA experiences -- dining under the stars in a box, with firends, listening to great music on a beautiful summer's night, looking at that iconic Hollywood bowl --- it is wonderful.
Last night the headliner was Thievery Corporation, who are two Wash DC artists. who take to the DJ stands and then have a whole world mix of talent performing with them. Last nights guest vocalists including Perry Farrell and Seu Jorge.

Opening for Thievery Corporation were Los Amigos Invisibles who I enjoyed very much. Now I can't tell you that I understand any of their songs, or caught all the music they referenced but there was a moment when I think they slipped into a little Stevie Wonder and there were even a few bars from Was Not Was Walk the dinosaur. Maybe it's my imagination but that's what I heard!

Germany requests Demjanjuk's extradition

2008-06-19T23:08:50Z

According to an AP news report that is being carried right now by Alabama's the Anniston Star, Germany is requesting the extradition of John Demjanjuk and will try him for crimes committed at Sobibor. See the story here.

"You kill me" slays me and Caution of "Lust, Caution"

2008-06-19T18:59:14Z

Summer seems to be a good time to catch up on videos and cable movies. Here a bunch I recently watched, with very short reviews

"You Kill Me" A John Dahl movie with Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni. I enjoyed this, definitely worth watching, Kingsley is a hit man whose alcoholism gets in the way of his job, so he joins AA. Leoni is the woman with boudariy problems that he enters a relationship with. THe joke here is the way the AA language and experience colors Kingsley's being a killer and returning to doing his job well.

"Lust, Caution" Ang Lee's R-rated epic set in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation would like to Casablanca or Notorious, but although gorgeous, it is BORING despite a few explicit sex scenes which might make you think you should rent this but I can't recommend it.

"Eastern Promises" Cronnenberg continues be one of the most interesting filmmakers over the course of his long and varied career. Great performance by Viggo Mortensen, interesting script. In the end there is something that makes only very good and not great. Not sure what that is but I almost feel this should be the pilot for a BBC TV series. Still I recommend this (although there are some brutal scenes not for the squeamish -- ths is not for Kids and not a chick flick -- although viggo could be a draw.

"The Darjeeling Limited" Wes Andersen's film, starring Owen Wilson, Jason Scwartzman and Adrian Body is practically unwatchable and I can't say that I liked the short Chevalier Hotel any better.

I am also a consultant

2008-06-19T18:53:31Z

Having spent a great deal of last year consulting for Fanista.com. I recently signed up with the Gerson Lehman Group as a consultant on media, technology and content.

As part of the GLG groups, I am asked to comment on certain news stories and trends. Asked to comment on the recent story about the LA Times intention to move to a 50/50 ad to edit ratio, and to comment in general on the cuts at the LA Times occasioned by Sam Zell's acquisition of the paper and the state of the newspaper industry, I offered up the following:

The L.A. Times's Human Wrecking Ball

www.washingtonpost.com | (view article) Tech, Media, & Telecom > Media > Print > Publishing

Will trimming editorial improve newspapers?

6/19/2008, 2:51 PM | Mr. Tom Teicholz - Producer and Content Consultant | Tom Teicholz Productions

Implications

Editorial cost is often the easiest to cut, and the first place new management turns to for cost savings. However, quality editorial creates value and distinguishes product in the market place. Excellence is a unique selling proposition. Publications that pay for top writers and produce a high quality product, such as The Financial Times and The New Yorker are thriving in a marketplace where others are suffering. Zell would be better advised to invest in editorial.

Analysis

The announcement by Sam Zell and the LA Times that they intend to move to a 50/50 edit to ad page ratio is the latest salvo in any attempt to cure the newspaper's ills. However, cutting editorial may not be, in the long run the best strategy.

Editorial cost is often the easiest to cut, and the first place new management turns to for cost savings.

However, quality editorial creates value and distinguishes product in the market place.

Publications that pay for top writers and produce a high quality product, such as The Financial Times and The New Yorker are thriving in a marketplace where others are suffering.

A depressed marketplace for content is an opportune time to invest in editorial, and recruit the best writers, reporters, editors to make a better product. Not better meaning hewing to a lofty ideal, but better in terms of reporting, scoops, service writing, and writing that grabs readers, and stories that readers talk about by the water cooler.

Excellence is a unique selling proposition.

Zell would be better advised to invest in editorial.

Tom Rothman on Fox's Movie Channel

2008-06-18T19:07:39Z

Tom Rothman, the chairman of Fox Filmed Enterainment, has been introducing movies on their cable channel since last year but I've only discovered this recently.

Let me start by saying two things: First, is it not enough to receive millions for running a successful movie studio, do you have to take the job away of a host -- someone like yours truly, or some other film reporter/arts journalists/ nerd. And second: this may be all the more galling since I know and life Tom, having gone to law school with him.

Now that I've spent my bile -- let me say that watching Tom Rothman alternates between finding him stiff and sort of fake in his delivery and being interested in what he has to say. Because let's face it, he knows a things or two about movies, making them, and particularly to the extent he talks candidly about it, how certain movies got made from the studio point of view (which he does, here and there).

On the whole, although I would prefer to see someone else doing it (i.e. me), I have to say that I'll tune in again, from time to time, to here what Tom Rothman has to say.....

What if Arts Writers and Sports Writers Changed Places?

2008-06-18T19:03:04Z

This is exactly the question England's Guardian newspaper set out to answer. In today's installment, dance critics, visual art critics, and other arts writers, review horse racing, darts and crickets. Click Here.
Tomorrow the sports writers take on the arts.

MONDAY REPORT

2008-06-16T18:11:22Z

MORE ARTISTS IN LA THAN NEW YORK -- LA has most artists in The US

According to an NEA report published on June 1, Los Angeles is the city with the most working artists in the US, and California, the state with the most. Read the article about the report in the LA TIMES here.

DAYWATCH
I watched Timur Bekmambetov's film "Daywatch." I have to admit that I found a lot of it difficult to follow. but the effects and action sequences are impressive -- I have a feeling that WANTED which opens soon, will also be stronger on visuals than coherence.

ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED
Speaking of "wanted," I watched the new documentary about Polanski's conviction and flight from the US (it's currently showing on HBO) --it's well made and you get a full measure of Polanski's charm.

The documentary has been reviewed as being "even handed" but I would characterize it as sympathetic to Polanski, although it spells out the facts of the case.

It is clear that Polanski offered champagne and quaaludes to a thirteen year old girl whom he photographed topless in a hot tub, then had sex with her, including sodomizing her, all of which he characterized as consensual and which she did not. The documentary does not point out that consent is not relevant, as no 13 year can give legal consent to having sex with someone over 18 -- it is automatically statutory rape.

However, at the plea bargain stage, all charges were reduced to one of sex with a minor in order to spare the girl in question from having to testify. The film then focuses on the judge and the sentence, which when it appeared that Polanski who served 42 days in prison would have to serve no more, was prepared to give a stiffer sentence. That's when Polanski fled.

The Judge comes off badly, but the documentary doesn't really address what should have happened to Polanski, and what really would be fair now. It would be hard for me to give an answer -- I certainly can't say -- but I would have liked to hear other more expert opinions. The film concludes with info that recently a deal to settle Polanski's outstanding charges fell apart.

A GREAT BIG THANKS
to everyone who was kind enough to read my Op-Ed, "the pariah loophole" and responded so favorably. I hope this will help the Justice department in their efforts to deport the remaining Nazi war criminals in the United States.

READ MY LA TIMES OP-ED

2008-06-13T16:57:51Z

Here's the link to "The Pariah Loophole" in today's LA Times in which I discuss how former Nazis remain free here because no country will take them.