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The LA Weekly's (possibly) longest-serving editorial staffer, Mary Katherine Aldin, has been there more than twenty years and remembers when "Jay and Joie were running the Weekly out of his house, and most of the writers got paid little or nothing." Since issue #16 she has been writing up the blues column listing where performers could be heard, with a little bit about them. Seems the Weekly has gone to a new, formatted database that makes Aldin's $42-a-week personal touch unnecessary. Her wistful farewell missive to the staff objects to the rote nature of conformity and gives some insight into a changing L.A. media institution:
Dear L.A. Weekly friends:I have now been trained on the new database for the calendar listings. It's not difficult to understand at all. It's just a series of boxes or fields, into which information is entered in exactly the same way for each listing. Name of artist, followed by a field for a few words of description, then the address and phone number of the venue.
Since the name of the artist HAS to come first, every listing looks exactly the same:
Joe Blow, B.B. Kings Blues Club, address, phone number.One can't write "Blues guitarist Joe Blow," because nothing can appear in the field *before* the artist's name; it all has to come after.
One can't say "Open blues jam hosted by Joe Blow;" it must read "Joe Blow hosts the open blues jam." Every listing has to be in exactly the same format, in order to comply with the needs of the database. So in the blues column there will be a long list of identical entries for the blues jam sessions:
(name of artist) hosts the open blues jam session at (name of venue) on (date) at (time).
I understand that this new system makes for a consistent and uniform style throughout the paper. Alas, the uniform does not fit me.
Continued after the jump:
I have been at the L.A. Weekly for over twenty years; longer, I believe, than anyone else currently employed there. I started doing the blues column at Issue 16 or thereabouts; Jay and Joie were running the Weekly out of his house, and most of the writers got paid little or nothing. I seem to remember that my first paycheck was $10, but Jay threw in a gift certificate to a local restaurant! I've stayed through innumerable changes of office locations, editors, department heads, computer formats and styles, and ownerships. The paper has grown and changed and expanded over the years, and has become very successful. I'm pleased that the readership for the kinds of music I write about has also expanded.With the advent of the new database, however, the Weekly no longer needs my expertise. Any intern who can read the press releases can do the mechanical data entry that used to be called writing. Therefore it is with a profound sense of regret that I inform you that I am retiring from my long tenure at the L.A. Weekly, effective immediately. I am blessed to be in a position where my financial needs are well met, so that giving up the $42 weekly paycheck that I earn for doing the blues listings will not be painful for me.
Time definitely marches on. It's been a terrific twenty years and I don't regret a minute of it. In sadness, and with sincere best wishes to you all,
Mary Katherine Aldin