Funny

One of the funniest things about the music/entertainment writing gig is almost nobody understands the title. This is why I came up with the descriptive phrase, "I talk to a lot of burned out bass players and former celebrities." It helps, but most of the time people sort of forget and everything else I say is rendered as gibberish.

"Did you hear there's a new Jesco White movie?"

"Sure, I talked to the director and to one of the locals involved with the production," I say. "I got death threats from The Whites. Funny stuff. I saw the trailer, but it's not what the director told me it was going to be, you know?"

"So, like there's this really weird trailer," she says. "It's on Jackass's website."

"Right," I say. "Johnny Knoxville is producing it."

Ignoring the words coming out of my mouth, she says, "You ought to check it out. Maybe there's a story there."

I nod.

"You ever seen Mountain Stage?" she asks. "It's awesome."

Uncle Bill's mailbag

I got an e-mail from a college kid asking me about media stuff. My first... I've got butterflies and everything.

They wrote:
I am currently taking a Media Law and
Ethics class and am researching the ethical habits of reporters from my
hometown area. Being that you write for "The Gazz" can you give me your
opinion and response to this question:How common is it for tabloids to
publish completely false stories on celebrities without concern for
minimizing harm and showing compassion? Do you think this is a particular
problem in WV? Thanks so much for your time!

My sort of spiffy answer:
I think tabloids report only false information occasionally. They're a lot
slicker and a lot more skilled than people give them credit. What they
report is often mean-spirited, embarrassing and often unsavory, but it's not
usually with the intent of being false. It's true, more often than not. Of
course, with the hyper-competitive nature of the tabloids, they can be a bit
sloppier than other kinds of "news" media. They can be misled a bit easier
and sometimes seem a little slower to verify their information --or print a
retraction.

Compassion or minimizing harm seldom enters into the equation these days.
Most of what they do is prey on the darker parts of our own psyche and sell
news-based entertainment around that. We want the successful, the wealthy,
the pretty to fail. We want them to get caught doing what they shouldn't and
we want them punished collectively for all of our transgressions. To want to
be a celebrity these days is to ask to be a sacrificial goat. Tabloid sleaze
provides a balm for the pain of being anonymous and unremarkable.

As far as West Virginia and celebrity coverage... not really. I write a lot
of what would be considered "celebrity" or entertainment-based stories,
mostly "B" or "C" level musicians (meaning celebrity) doing local shows. Our focus is never
evisceration for fun and profit. Often we're introducing or reintroducing
performers to a potential audience. The information presented is largely
superficial, taken from press releases, other publications and brief
interviews over the phone. There's not much need to dig and little
opportunity. We save the good ol' fashioned muckraking for the locals, not
for the crazy lady who does too much coke and keeps forgetting to wear her
underwear. If we have a flaw, it's because since we are in a small, rural
area, we tend to follow the adage, "If you don't have anything nice to say,
you're better off saying nothing at all."

That's how I see it, anyway, but in balance, I don't read a lot of tabloid stuff. My time spent with your average pseudo-famous person is so brief I haven't got the time to figure out who they're fucking, what drugs they're on or if they're wearing underwear (Grace Potter was one of the few exceptions... She totally wasn't wearing a bra and I'd have put five bucks down the lower half coordinated, but it never came up while we talked).

Princeton

I haven't been back to Mercer County for a visit in years. Now, I've got one. You'll have to scroll down to June 7th to see.

Sure, it would be nice if Mountain Stage would bring somebody I liked to Charleston, but that's part of the philosophy of the show: to personally annoy Bill Lynch by only occasionally scheduling acts he wants to see in the town he resides. The rest of the time, they ship everybody off to the hinterlands of Morgantown or Beckley or worse, Philadelphia.

Bill did not love The Moving The Mountain Tour. He has always been plain about this.

I swear they sit around and plan this stuff over biscuits and gravy down at Tudor's.

Of course, I'm making that up. I know how it works. They get who they can get when they can get them. Mountain Stage has a certain amount of prestige to it. The radio show is a good medium to get word out for new albums, tours and etc., but I've never gotten the impression anybody gets rich playing it. Mountain Stage benefits as much or more from a higher profile act playing the show. Steve Earle is available June 7th. The show is in Mercer County on the 7th. So, he's going to play when he wants, but not where I want him to --say, like June 19 in Charleston, during FestivALL and the day after my birthday.

I figure they're planning something big for the 19th... possibly A-Ha will make their debut on The Mountain Stage. That'll show me.

It's sort of ridiculous and I know it. The music fan in me is livid. It's unfair. The music writer guy thinks it's great for them --which, they may or may not know. True story: I once went to a .38 special in the heart of redneck country (Brushfork Armory). The tickets were cheap. A lot of energy had gone into promotion. With the number of people who showed up, if I'd wanted to hop on stage and air guitar at any point during the performance, it wouldn't have presented a challenge.

And this was a mainstream act, not a kind of out there, grizzled troubadour with some very interesting political leanings and a history with drugs that sounds like something out of an Irvine Welsh novel. Randy Travis, Steve Earle ain't.

Anyway, Mercer County is getting a good Mountain Stage. If you have the means and want to, you should go. I'm certainly considering it. I'm not happy about it, but I'm thinking about it.