“I like kids, and I like being around kids - but it was never an ambition, something, like, I need…
I like working. That’s what I like doing. I like to work.”
— Zooey Deschanel, Marie Claire May 2012 (out April 17)
Influence isn’t just a matter of copying someone or learning his or her tricks. You get influenced by writers whose work gives you hints about your own abilities and inclinations. Being influenced is largely a process of self-discovery. What you have to do is put all your influences into the blender and arrive at your own style and vision. That’s the way it happens in music—you put a sitar in a rock song and you get a new sound. It’s hybridization again. Hybrid vigor. It operates in art, too. The idea that a writer is a born genius, endowed with blazing originality, is mostly a myth, I think. You have to work at your originality. You create it; it doesn’t create you.
“Sometimes we don’t realize that we are compromising ourselves. To understand that a person is not good for you, or that that person is not treating you in the right way, or that he is not doing the right thing for himself—if I stay, then I am not doing the right thing for me. I love myself enough to walk away from that now.”
- Jennifer Lopez, Vanity Fair September 2011
a few weeks ago, i received a phone call. “944 is closed,” my editor said.
i sat there in shock. the seminational luxury publication - and the magazine that thankfully started my editorial career - would soon to cease to exist. despite the economy’s struggles and the industry’s tendency to fold, i never thought the day would come when those black metal mag stands would stand empty for good.
944, thank you so much for everything…and i mean everything. because of you, i was forced to learn the neighborhoods and freeways of San Diego when delivering hundreds of magazines to clients all over the city, and only managed to get one parking ticket. i’ve lost my car in the Horton Plaza parking lot - while in a tight skirt and high heels - and stuffed more gift bags than i’ll ever care to collect for the rest of my life. i’ve repeatedly emptied my wallet at coffee shops and parking meters, skipped class to set up for nightlife events and gained weight from all those McDonald’s meals i bought when running late to and from the office. thank you so much.
hey, i’m not done thanking you yet. thanks to you, i’ve shared the stories of inspiring entrepreneurs, and had the pleasure of working with an amazing team of talent, especially the editor and publisher. i’ve seen the looks on the faces of fashion designers, musicians and restaurateurs when they see pictures and paragraphs promoting their businesses in print. i’ve open the covers to find my very first print magazine byline and now, a ten-page feature…and my face! thank you, 944, so much for everything. though only in print for almost ten years of good times, your gifts and positive impact will stay with me forever.
celebrate the end of a roller coaster ride by flipping through the last issue online! and thank you to everyone who supported the magazine.
Front Row: Anna WintourHow to Lose Friends & Alienate People
But Enough About Me
starting some summer reading waaaaay too early makes for great procrastination, just in time for the papers i’m not writing and the tests i’m not studying for.
She had landed on her feet her very first day on the job and never stopped running and never looked back to see whom she left in her dust.
Dropping Acid
Jazz music in San Diego is alive and well…and occasionally a big acidic!
Occasionally, innovative improvisation seizes the stage of the music industry, breaking the boring and predictable rhythm of monotony with something refreshing and new. Decades ago, DJ Gilles Peterson dug through crates of vinyl to sample ‘70s jazz, soul and funk grooves at a British nightclub, sparking a new subgenre: acid jazz, loosely defined as jazz mixed with funk, soul, hip hop, electronic and disco, with beats and bass at the forefront.
“Jazz has seen many transformations over the years: bebop, hard-bop, traditional, smooth, soul, swing, free, funk, fusion, and, yes, acid,” says Chad Fox, radio host for KSDS Jazz 88.3. “It’s not in what some people may call its traditional form, but that’s the beauty of jazz – it doesn’t have to be.”
Throughout the late ‘80s and into the ‘90s, DJs and musicians collaborated live, putting bands like The Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai in demand and on rotation. Percussionists imitated the beats of mixmasters and paired it with jazz chords, soul grooves and funk bass lines. To this day, this fusion music plays loud throughout Europe, but the “acid jazz movement” isn’t exactly interrupting Top 40 playlists.
“Acid jazz is a past term,” says Karl Denson. “It was recognized in the media when it was new and fresh, but its time is now over.” Denson, the vocalist, saxophonist and founding member of jazz prodigy ensembles Greyboy Allstars and Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, calls his sound “deliciously funky soul” and infuses some tracks with Afro-beats, sitar strums and surreal psychedelic production touches. Though Denson has met success – playing saxophone alongside Lenny Kravitz, recording multiple albums and booking a national tour (including two nights in LA later this month), today’s opportunity for acid jazz artists to find fame beyond niche audiences is rare.
“Most genres of music had their spotlight in the time period they were constructed,” adds Fox. “Acid jazz kind of falls into that underground category; most people just prefer what’s hot and happening today.”
Well, acid jazz may be underground, but it’s hot. And happening. Today. If you look for it. Here’s who to watch out for and how to witness their mind-tripping music the way it was meant to be: live.
Read the rest of “Dropping Acid” in the latest issue of 944 Magazine, available around San Diego and online!
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that’s the first page of april’s “Dropping Acid”, a profile on the local acid jazz scene. my other article, “For Music Junkies” lent space to Sezio and T.U.K. Shoes, and it was a pleasure to feature Owl and Bear, The Sleeping Giant Music Blog, and Friends with Both Arms as the mag’s favorite local music blogs…and then to have the shoutout featured on these blogs as well!
i just came back from 944’s april issue release party at analog, celebrating everyone’s hard work on an issue that features so much talent from all of SD neighborhoods and musical genres. i spent the evening meeting the people I’ve been emailing back and forth before a tight deadline, while catching up with fellow writers and the amazing senior managing editor who brings it all together: issue after issue after issue.
amidst a heavy load at school, a demanding schedule at work and a shockingly silent postgraduate job market, the conversations i had tonight sealed my fate: this is the career i want to further explore, pursue, even chase, if necessary. even as a child, i’ve always been more than content when playing around with these twenty-six letters, and nothing felt better than consuming creative combinations from the pages of monthly magazines. i want to be a writer and editor because, honestly, i don’t know what would happen if i didn’t become one.
i’m pretty much posting this for myself, to reread when i get discouraged while drowning in job applications over the next few weeks. but if you’re reading this, thank you for your support - and please, wish me luck!
Thursday Throwdown: Snooki vs. Ne-Yo
Remember how mad people were when the girls from The Hills were on the cover? Though I’m (sadly) a fan of both shows, I’m glad to see Ne-Yo speaking up about a publication’s compromising lack of authority in its original niche. However, I’m not really sure how he feels: it seems like he’s torn between blaming the magazine for going so far from music to sell more issues, and also trying to recover from shock that in today’s reality, maybe this tangential direction is where a music medium needs to go in order to keep a revenue. Isn’t that what MTV discovered ages ago?
But to add insult to injury, the coverage presented by Los Angeles radio station KIIS FM completely sidesteps the issue: obviously, Ne-Yo doesn’t despise Snooki personally (at least, not in a way pertaining to this issue), but what she represents - no matter how sweet, funny and adorable Snooki may be, she is still a star of a reality show that has nothing to do with music (besides DJ Pauly D and their infamous fist-pumping). This conversation not only reveals that the cover of a magazine may no longer be a coveted place of authority, AND that an Internet post on a radio station will sacrifice the integrity of the artist and his justified point of view to collect more interaction on the online poll. Because the more people who answer the question, “Is Ne-Yo just jealous of Jersey Shore’s success, or is Snooki’s Rolling Stone cover a travesty?”, the larger numbers their publishers can show to potential advertisers, and convince them to place a few pricey pixels online.
No wonder Ne-Yo spoke out over social media, it’s probably the most trustworthy platform where people can actually say what they want without crafty censorship or manipulative filtering! And, it’s perfect for speaking directly to an audience, the same audience who watches The Hills and Jersey Shore and convinced too many people in suits that we won’t put in our time or pull out our wallets unless one of our reality show heroines are in the headlines. I mean, that’s why I clicked the link on the radio’s website in the first place, and that might be why you’re reading this post. So then who should I really blame every time I see an orange-hued brunette riding a rocket as I wait for my coffee by a mag stand? I’ll be punishing myself for the rest of the month by not watching my favorite, guilty pleasure television show…until a new cover comes out, that is.
Chasing dreams? Run hard, don't trip.
SMITH Magazine Six-Word Memoirs. current narrative: inspired by the realization that i only have three months left to sleep in, make minuscule mistakes and hand out my resume like it’s a free sample at costco. anyway, what’s yours?
a creative writer typing from LA & SD.
