Geek Weekly #8

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Margaret and Jennifer M- I love it. To me, that's one of the really wonderful things about Austin is that it really feels so much like home. When I went away-- I lived in Hawaii for two and a half years and, God, it was horrible! I mean, physcially, it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life, and I had some really amazing adventures there. S- When did you move out there? M- I moved there in October of '88 and I moved back in June of '91. S- You were on the groupie panel two or three years ago at South By Southwest, right? M- Yeah. S- You said something about writing good-byes in bathrooms in rock clubs here, I think. Is that right? M- Oh yeah! I did. I almost forgot about that. I went around to all the bathrooms and took my Sharpie marker and I wrote good-byes on all the bathroom walls. S- So I guess you quit writing for the chronicle [When you moved to Hawaii]. M- No, actually I continued to do writing for them. it wasn't real often. I probably did two, three, four pieces a year for them and then unfortunately I was over there when Stevie Vaughan died and so they called me and said, "We need you to do part of the history on him." And I remember sitting in my office and looking out at waterfalls up in the mountains in Hawaii, and it was so beautiful and I was so sad and I knew right then and there that I was never going to stay in Hawaii, as beautiful as it was. S- What got you out there in the first place? M- My husband. I was married to a tattoo artist named Rollo Banks. You know, this is how I'm, like, practially related to Michael Corcoran. Because my ex knew Michael Corcoran in Hawaii and they

Last edit almost 5 years ago by cxex
Austin Confidential
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Austin Confidential

decided to go to Austin and they were roommates and when they got to Austin, Corky looked around and he looked at the Chronicle and he said, "This is the paper I wanna work for," and he looked at the gossip column and he said, "This is the job I want." He used to tell the story, he said, "The only way I knew I could get that job was to get rid of the person who was writing it, so I introduced her to my roommate and married her off." And, in a sense that was true. That was why I was really mad at myself later, because I did the thing that girls always do, "Oh, I'm married now, I don't need to do this nightlife thing anymore." And I quit going out all the time. I didn't quit writing, but I quit doing the scene and that was the first time I really pulled myself out of the scene.

S- What was going on at that time?

M- That was the New Sincerity. New Sincerity was really hot back then, so it was like, True Believers and Zeitgeist and Doctor's Mob and Dharma Bums and all those bands all the time. It was really kind of fun.

S- I can't see as how it would've been too terribly hard to rip yourself away from [the New Sincerity] scene, though.

M- Yeah, I had already kinda made the break from going out all the time so by the time we moved in '88 I wasn't so attached to it.

S: One of the things that I just have to ask, since we did it with out last rock critic interview and it was such a smash, we want you to talk some trash about your fellow writers in Austin. You want me to talk trash? But see, the thing is that I really get along with most of them. Like who?

S: Andy Langer is a great place to start. I introduced myself to Andy because I'd see this guy who was obviously full of himself blow into the Chronicle periodically. I'd seen his byline before and wondered who he was, so I introduced myself to him. Here's the deal; I have three younger brothers. I have a beta male brother, an alpha male brother and one who's gay. And almost all men fall into one of those three categories. And Andy is most like my alpha male brother. So that's the way I relate to him. With Andy, it's talk, it's industry talk and it's figures and statistics and hot gossip and stuff like that. And he's absolutely amazing in the way he gets down to the dirt. He's really cool in that. He also really annoys the shit out of me sometimes because he so brusque and he's so single-minded sometimes he's hard to deal with. But he's twenty years younger than I am so I write some of that off to his being young, too. With that much of a gap between me and the other writers, that's why I have that real kind of maternal thing with them.

S: Do you have any fond memories of Rob Patterson's time at the Chronicle? Ah, no. Rob Patterson is a good writer and Rob has a lot of things to say about a lot of people, because I think he thinks he got screwed out of a lot of stuff in town, but I think he probably screwed himself out of it. I wish him luck in his freelance career because it's tough.

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Last edit over 5 years ago by terriertle17
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being a freelance writer in this town, and I think he resents, probably, the fully employed writers in this town.

S: Corcoran you've known for a long time. Corky and I were practically related, because he was my husband's best friend. And best man. Louis gave me away. We stood on the star at the capitol. What can I tell on Corky? When I first moved into the apartment that they were sharing, I literally had to chisel the urine stains off the toilet. Corky had a huge stack of pornography by the bed. He loved Traci Lords, and when he heard that the videos were being confiscated, he went around town and rented a bunch of them and didn't return them. Corky's got such a wicked sense of humor, that no matter how mad at him I get I always wind up making up with him. I'll tell you one thing I did to him -- he'd just moved back to town to go to work at the Statesman, and he came over to my house and we were watching the NBA playoffs or something like that, and he had brought his notebook with him, and at the time I had just started hosting Check This Action on AM15, and he left his notebook at my place. Now what do I do? Do I be the nice honest girl and call him and not read it? Fuck no! I read the whole thing, and one of the things he had in there was a suggestion for a new column in XL called "Austin Confidential." So I immediately went on AM15 the next week and said, "The new name of the gossip section on the show is Austin Confidential." He liked to have had a fit over it.

S: I think he's got a great gig going. He really does. And the thing is, he's got such a wicked sense of humor that it doesn't get good use there, because he's much funnier and more wicked than that.

S: Greg Beets? I love Greg Beets.

S: He's like the last punk rocker there. And he's like Mr. Clean! I used to love those clips on ACTV of him in Noodle. To me, he really represented the best of that spirit, 'cause he didn't adhere to the notion that you have to have spiked hair and wear makeup, like Tim Stegall. Instead, here's this cheery looking guy, like a Boy Scout!

J: Since you mentioned it, Tim Stegall, since he's not with us any longer. Tim and I still email each other a lot. And he's one of my boys. He's so earnest. Tim's the perpetual 14-year-old.

S: What did you think of the Hormones? I kind of liked the Hormones. I remember taking Steve Van Zandt -- who'e now in The Sopranos -- to see the show a couple of years ago. And nobody knew who he was, and someone came up to me at the Awards Show and said, "Hey, Steve Van Zandt's here." He was a really fun guy, and I could tell he was up for anything, so I said, "Come with me to see this band." He really seemed to like the show. Tim's like me, he gets really starstruck around heroes.

Last edit over 5 years ago by terriertle17
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Austin Confidential

S: Chris Gray Chris Gray is my discovery. When I was editing, I used to read the Daily Texan to see who was writing and what they were saying, and I ran across Chris Gray's writing. So I called him up and basically I said, "If you're gonna write this kind of shit, why don't you come write it for me and get paid for it. We're having a party in a few weeks, why don't you come over?" It was a party we were having with Texas Monthly. This kid shows up at my office and everyone's looking like, "That's gonna be your new discovery?" He has exceeded all my expectations as a writer. The one thing I wish he would do is go back to school and finish and get his degree.

J: I had a class with him once. I'd go, "Let'd go study for the test," and he'd say, "Okay. When did you go to class last? What have we been talking about?"

S: Chris, I'll make you a bet that I'll graduate before you do. Chris, I might graduate before you do.

S: What's up with that nickname? What, Weezer? He's got asthma.

S: What about Raoul Hernandez. When he first started writing for us, he wasn't using his name. He was using Val Masters. He had some reasons that meant a lot to him personally, but I said to him, "You have a really beautiful name. It's really evocative, and it's your name." This is one thing I've always stressed to the guys, that your name is really important to you. He was another one of my babies, one of my boys.

S: You know we're going to use your comments to decide who to interview for the next issue, because the Geek Weekly Jason Cohen and Michael Krugman interview apparently isn't gonna happen. I love Jason and Michael. Jason was another one of my favorite boys. I came on just as he was working his way out of the Chronicle and we crossed over for like a year, year and a half.

S: This is really going to make up for all the shit that Rob talked.

J: We won't be such a trashy magazine anymore.

S: At least you talked about Michael, so he'll have to mention it in his column. Which should have been named Austin Confidential! You can start a column called Austin Confidential.

S: I think that can be the name of this interview.

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Carl Smith and ECFA play the big holiday party

William Parker plays the Empanada Parlour

Last edit over 4 years ago by purplebow2
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