Why the dude with the Travis Bickle hair mattered....
While blogs and print give us various options, let's face it the most influential arts paper in town given print runs and readership is likely the Houston Press and Houston music fans have always had a testy relationship with its music writers. We've been cursed with the all time worst music writer Anthony Mariani who combined ignorance and arrogance and last year Olivia Florez Alvarez was awarded worst music writer ever by many people too young to recall Mariani's atrocities. In both cases, the writers eventually left their post at the Houston Press to everyone's relief. Yet these are the more extreme journalistic horrors we've suffered. More often than not, what we have are decent writers that have, at best, a casual relationship with music. Some don't get out often enough and others took the same editorship position because it was the best gig they could get.Last year, for once, the paper via John Lomax made a great decision and brought down Chris Gray from the Austin Chronicle to fill in as assistant music editor. Immediately it was apparent that this writer was different. He had something that was missing for too long - honest to goodness passion. The guy gave a shit and you could tell. For one thing, people actually saw him out at shows. Imagine that? When I was out, I came to expect him to at least poke his head into a bar and see what's up. He'd also do things like ask questions, seek out bands, and even champion bands. On top of all that, he was a damn good writer. In short, he was exactly what we'd been waiting for at the Houston Press for ages and we were all pretty excited about what he brought to the paper and to Houston.
Unfortunately (if the past tense doesn't make it obvious), The Houston Press' parent company made some cuts and Lomax was bumped back down to his old position and Gray was bumped from the staff. Which , no offense to Lomax, means that the Houston Press even fucked it up after they finally got it right. It was kind of like watching Democrats lose elections to chimps, where you just think "Man, they are on a roll now! How can they fuck this up? It's impossible!" and sure enough they go right ahead and fuck it up.
So the sad thing is that, first off, Gray got jacked by New Times who brought him down only to then drop him mere months afterwards. The other thing is that Houston really does need good writers like Gray who give a shit about what is happening in the trenches and not what is happening in the latest press release to cross their desk. Good luck Chris, we're pretty sure you'll find a solid gig with your talents and New Times Media - hats off to totally fucking it up .... again!
Credits:
Chris Gray Photo by AasimSyed
PS Apologies, Justin. This post is being posted early - though dated for the right date - because I don't have Internet at home. (Thanks Comcast!)
Labels: "Chris Gray"
26 Comments:
Comcast management is almost, almost as badly managed as the Houston Press. Both are smaller examples of how most of America is managed. If the democrats lose it in November then everything, Houston Press, Comcast and what have you, will be a big flush and all of us will be clinging to the rim for survival.
Oh, uh excellent informative post.
Maria L Gwendolyn
Fuck 'em. Chris was too good for HP. BTW, that photo captures him really nicely.
President McCain. Get used to it.
ms. rosa said...
President McCain. Get used to it.
Yeah, probably. Let's continue Bush's legacy. If we can afford it.
Maria L Gwendolyn
Man, you Dems are already running for the life preservers over this little flap with Obama's preacher? Come on. I mean, personally I hope you're right but I still think Obama wins the general election... the libs will put blinders on like always and he'll become the Messiah again, at least until he gets caught poking a ho or washing Farrakhan's car or whatever.
Let me put it this way - if the Democrats fuck this one up you should all just give up for good.
Be thankful that if he does win, McCain will be the most moderate Republican we've ever had, he has a good record of bipartisan efforts and a lot of experience, and he seems to have marginally more integrity than most politicians. We could do a lot worse (huckabee or another Bush scion, for example).
Oh yeah the presidential race...I think that ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Oh wait what were we talkign abotu
Oh yeah Obama, McCain and ClintoZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
MLG: that wasn't an endorsement. at all. i simply meant it was an apt metaphor.
anyways this post was about chris' hair, remember?
another couple of republican terms, and we might just get the civil war that we so desperately need. Then maybe this country will finally be all split up into a few smaller pieces. and be done with this ridiculous american empire. let the infighting begin! death to your neighbor!
though maybe an obama victory might yield the same results...
yours in war,
José Castillo
jose - no need to google it: travis bickle was the dude from taxi. no, the other taxi. though it would be funny to see chris wear a mechanics jumpsuit a la latka gravas.
Hey Jose
if memory serves the Republicans won the *last* civil war. Be careful what you ask for.
Well Sparrows, the republicans did a lousy job at splitting up the union last time around.
That is so the last time I am ever making a simile to anything political. :\
JNL would do himself and Houston live music fans a favor by focusing less on the big picture and more on the minute. Less lamenting what the city doesn't have (i.e. it's ability to embrace his musical hero-Haaga) and more focus on what the city does have, without constantly comparing it to some place else.
The sense of place is becoming a big blur in America (which is a bad thing). A good writer can help keep it intact. In that regard also HP Music can write directly to the live music fan without constantly viewing it's readership as Everybody, thereby making the writing generic.
daaaamn
At the risk of being labeled a devil's advocate, I will say this about Lomax --
It is true that his coverage of pop/punk/rock/college/alterna whatever in Houston seems a little lethargic sometimes. But on the other hand, Lomax puts a lot of energy into other genres.
We should not forget that in Houston there are indigenous blues, country, rap and Tejano scenes which dwarf our little 3 or 4 club deal. These people deserve a mainstream writer just as much, if not more, than we do. And though I know I'm pushing buttons here, many of these bands (ok maybe not the rappers) are much more well rehearsed, work much harder, and are much better musicians overall than the alternacollege bands that I see playing out.
Lomax is writing for the *Houston* press, not the Indie Hipster Eclectoprog Alternafanboy Press. Whatever his faults in covering one particular scene, Lomax has always gone broad and wide and pulled in many deserving artists from other walks of life. For that, I give him his props because a lot of other guys who could hold that job would not have the background, knowledge or connections into all those genres that Lomax does. If his heart isn't in the scene we're familiar with, he at least still tries to cover it in good faith. It may be that the lack of professionalism he occasionally bemoans in the Houston indie scene is based not only on comparison to national acts, but also to your local mariachi band or blues outfit.
We live in a city conservatively estimated at 4 mil, and we have one viable artsy-fartsy newsweekly. We sit on a miniscule part of a very large stage with a lot of other artists. Yes, the coverage could be better and I know I've thrown plenty of stones at HP over the years, but it is what it is. It definitely sucks that when they seemed to be expanding their music coverage in a good way, corporate slugs came in and throttled it, but that's capitalism for you...
I wasn't dissin' on Lomax. I was just annoyed that Gray was given the boot.
Let's be sure that no self-respecting musician in Houston of any stripe would ever be dumb enough to expect comprehensive coverage of any genre in any measurable way. That, folks, is where the management of the Press steps in and imposes its will. They're not after depth, they're after ad dollars. Since they know nothing about music, or music writing for that matter, I would imagine that in their minds whittling down to a staff of one (Lomax) ia a sensible solution to trimming the budget. It does little to illuminate a paper that has never had any real musical focus outside of whatever Lomax and whoever else he had at his disposal were able to sneak through. Anyone reading the Press looking for anything that isn't easily dismissed or forgotten is either the subject of a glowing article or just easy to please. Besides, I would bet money that most local musicians read the Press only to see if they're in it and then move on. It's always been spread too thin over there to matter. As for Lomax, he covers as much alterna whatever as anyone else, even though he doesn't usually care for it. I only read the Press because it's there. That's almost the only reason. Not exactly ground shaking, and that goes for every single editor they've had, without exception. With regards to music, I like strong writing and strong opinions. I'm a big enough boy to sort things out for myself. Has anyone ever said, "Thank god for the Press, now I know so much about Houston music, and music in general!" No. Aside from me just now, no one has ever said that. Canning Gray was agreeably a stupid and poorly designed decision as far as the writing goes. Poorly timed too, as well.
yup. pro-lomax camp here, too.
and just to be accurate, LOMAX'S POSITION was eliminated by corporate. i assume it was self-preservation that he demoted himself back to local music editor. thereby bumping chris. but that's pure speculation on my part.
Well, Lomax was always the editor, it's just that his assistant did the actual editing. Lomax was doing other stuff. Now there is no assistant and Lomax goes back to actually filling his title. You know, from what I understand.
No, Ramon I didn't think you were knocking Lomax at all. I was mainly replying to Kilian's post, partly agreeing with him and partly disagreeing.
We probably all agree that Lomax does what he can with what he's got, but that HP music coverage is still anemic at best. I have just always felt that his best work wasn't in the indie-alterna scene, it was in other genres and there are some good reasons for that.
The Press is fluff. It does seem to be in the hands of the music editor to improve that though - at least for the music section.
I doubt that (other than paying lousy salaries and not giving a hoot) corporate has much say in what is done with the articles (although I'll bet a lot of natl/commerical stuff is forced in).
As far as the Indie Hipster Eclectoprog Alternafanboy scene goes, HP is not even close to being the most influential arts media in Houston. You'd probably have to give that prop to the HUH Board which is nothing but a left-behind to a now non-existent collective. Pretty cool actually.
In fact I can't think of any art scene where HP has any real influence at all. There are plenty of Houston area websites, blogs and magazines with a lot more influence.
HP sells sex ads and that's about it.
It's certainly a medium that could be something. I think it has to decide on a speciality and quit whining.
It's not all fluff, and it of course doesn't all have to be literature either (not that anyone's arguing that). I personally like Rob Walsh's stuff, and some of their news stories are decent too. For that matter, some of the music writing is decent occasionally. It would be ridiculous, however, to claim the Press to be anything more than a throw-away rag above anyting else. And I have written for them on many occasions in the past. I just wish they would grow a pair.
As for management, or more to the point, senior editorship, it is my understanding that there are serious unwritten rules about content and tone. I got the feeling that a sort of template is in place and that deviation is discouraged. You would be surprised how low they will stoop in order to appease nonsensical threats too. Fairly pathetic really.
Then again, who here is attempting to claim the Press was ever a creative threat? Surely not I.
Yeah I've read some good stuff in the Press, not all fluff. But I think, John, that your description of readership is on the mark. Not known for consistency.
Music fans pick up the Press to see the ads - see what concerts are happening and what's going on where. And that's all the mainstream reader needs. That's why I think, for the articles, they could specialize.
I know you want to know that it's "more often than not." Not "more of then than not."
Thanks Grammar Nazi that is clearly the result of a spell check trying to make sense of my bad typing. Thanks for catching that. I'll fix it.
CHRIS IS AWESOME! He was a huge asset to HP and exactly what they needed. I know there is a better opp in store for him. You will be missed! Much L.O.V.E.
Thanks Ramon (and the rest of you). I know you can't tell from the picture, but I'm actually blushing.
And for God's sakes, I'm not going anywhere, so hopefully the plan is to write about more bands and go to even more shows than before. That'll show 'em!
-- chris
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