That would be me.
Beginning on September 13, I will be writing the People column for the Orange County Register five days a week. I’ll be covering the likes of Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dr. Laura (did I spell those right?) and all the other worthies whom readers can’t get enough of. Drunken tirades, courtroom dramas and sex scandals will be the grist of my mill. No joke.
I will continue to be a music critic, as time allows. How much time that will be I don’t know. I’m guessing about 50 percent, but that might be optimistic. The People column will certainly take a lot of my time and energy. So, we’ll see.
In recent surveys, readers have said that they want this (though they didn’t mention me by name). They want less classical music coverage; more People. I’m trying not to take it personally.
Newspapers are in a crisis, in case you haven’t heard. Papers the size of the Register can no longer afford to have a full-time classical music critic on staff (though there’s certainly enough to write about here). I was one of the last ones standing at a small(ish) market publication.
The irony of this situation is that I’m going to go from being one of the least read writers in O.C. to perhaps its most popular.
I’m not happy about this. But I’m going to do the best I can. And I’m going to try to be cheerful about it.
It’s a job. It’s a sign of the times. It’s weird.
I’ll not link my People columns on this blog, but will continue to link to my classical music articles in the Register and provide original material in this space.
Classical Life 
Hate the circumstances, but love your attitude.
Yes, you will survive. But will we????
Apparently, no one cares about those of us who only pick up a newspaper for the regional cultural reviews and news. We can get the rest elsewhere, usually faster and better.
Sorry about that, Tim. It sucks. What a waste! We, your local readers, know where you should be and what you should be doing. Well, i guess, good luck with whatever you have to do, anyway!
Sign of the times, but then we’ve discussed this elsewhere. You will bring classical balance and grace to a nutty beat. I’ll now read People, or whatever the column is called, in addition to your classical postings.
Note to OCR publishers: when I commented at the time the Artsblog was axed that you should have mentioned Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson more often, I was being sarcastic.
This is depressing as hell. But I’m glad you still have a job. I could use another martini column about now.
Who needs the column? The martini would do.
Make those doubles and my treat. Here’s to a great writer no matter what beat!
(But, yes, these are sad times when writers have to pander to those who prefer junk news.)
I’m so sorry to hear that Tim. I can relate. As an apprentice during a very slow time in construction I spent a year and a half working on the expansion project of the Huntington Beach sanitation plant. You’ll probably be happy to get home and take a shower as much as I did.
Kay
This. Is. Nuts.
I really understand that they’re in a bind financially and want money money money, but yikes.
Tim, I’m sorry, for you and for us, where “us” means both “the community of OC Register readers” and “the segment of the human race that still considers classical music extraordinarily relevant.”
The OC Women’s Chorus will solemnly essay to assist you in fulfilling your new duties by including more drunken celebrities in our future concert events.
Good luck and best wishes.
OMG! The ONLY reason I read the Register was for the music coverage and, oh yes, the occasional tips on alcohol. I don’t want to read about those people, don’t make me read about those people. I grew up with those people.
Dear Tim,
This development is not surprising. Neil Postman plotted this roadmap to nowhere in his 1985 book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.” Irrelevance and frivolity rules. That’s why a Sarah Palin gets so much time on TV, or why Glenn…Argh! We all know who the moron-entertainers are.
But to give this turn of events some context: “Time” magazine survives because “People” magazine arrived on the scene to save it. (If only “Newsweek” had such foresight.)
In his foreword, Postman noted that Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” predicted a future culture where “the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance…Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture.”
Postman delivered the message that Orwell’s “1984” was wrong. What we hate — any externally imposed oppression — won’t ruin us. Instead, as Huxley wrote, the oppression would come from within. No Big Brother is necessary “to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history…Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”
But with Tim at the helm, I’m confident the column will be a witty watchdog of sorts — a kind of “Daily Show” in print. Idiocy has poked its idiot head up in all ages.
So let’s welcome Tim to this brave new world. If ever there was a time when we needed someone in league with an H.L. Mencken (1880–1956), someone capable of giving reason and intelligence a compelling voice amid all the floating celebrity junk in our culture, it is now.
Rick Schultz
music critic, “L. A. Times”
This is a great way for the Register to find its niche in the new, increasingly internet-driven journalistic marketplace! Readers all over the world, are sure to flock to their unique and incomparable coverage of celebrity scandals. After all, I can read reviews of the Pacific Symphony just anywhere—whereas if I want to find out who Jennifer Aniston’s been sleeping with, I’m sure to head straight for the pages of another town’s local newspaper.
I wish it were different, Tim. Your writings on music have been one of the best things about living in the Southland. I fully expect you’ll apply the same sense of empathy, understanding, ability to listen and absorb and then communicate in whatever journalism you do so that your readers will grow not only in number but also in awareness and thoughtfulness.
It’s enough to make you throw up.
I’d love to know why the paper thinks it’s going to get out of a financial crisis by putting out a worse product.
I’m flabbergasted.
Of course, I get the Zeitgeist, but I just can’t imagine having to write a daily celebrity column. Yikes.
I’m glad you still have steady employment and delighted that you will have so many more readers (!).
You didn’t say much about how it came about. Were there discussions, options, suggestions? Or a simple edict from on high? Were they at least cordial, maybe even sympathetic?
I’m still flabbergasted.
That’s really unfortunate and the worst part is there is already so much of that content available everywhere. But as Rick pointed out, we’ve been heading this way for awhile. I write a blog which is mostly about opera and classical, but when I write posts about movies or rock music the stat counter registers significantly greater numbers.
What a waste of an extraordinary talent. I wish I could afford to hire you to continue as OUR music critic. I can only hope that your editors soon realize the errors of their ways. Granted some economies may be necessary at the Register, but couldn’t thay have found some more appropriate assignment for your abilities, if splitting your assignment was necessary? Too bad Olivier and Sir Gielgud have passed, they could have been given the weather reporting assignments. We will miss your reviews, but appreciate your music essays when hopefully you have the time and the energy to crrate them. Hang in there!!! You have a multitude of supporting readers.
America needs to divorce from their minds the idea that the number of hits a topic gets equates with relevance, importance or even, yes, profit. Making a worse product, no matter what the numbers say, will only result in failure.
It’s like all those God-awful, by the numbers, giant Hollywood flicks that fail at the box office. The powers-that-be say, “But numbers show this is what people want. It should have been a hit.” Still, they don’t understand that only a few groups will actually make a living profit out of those junk numbers. It’s gambling. A better (and more ethical) bet in business would be to put out a quality product.
In particular, news sources are lurking in dangerous territory trying to run a business where profit is akin to despotism…. where profit rules absolutely and not to the greater benefit of others. I don’t claim to have the answer for them. But I do know that answer will NOT be in lowering the quality and content of the news to meet base popular appeal.
Exciting Tim! Listen–when you get to Zsa Zsa Gabor, I should share with you that we have been friends since 1988 when Zsa Zsa heard me perform Prokofiev Third Concerto with the Honolulu Symphony in Hawaii. Having noticed her at a hotel, I left a message for her to invite her and her husband to the performance. They attended and we met up the next day. I’ve visited her home in Bel Air, and played Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies nos. 11 and 12 for her. Her nanny was present at her home and said she was a pupil of the great Ernst von Dohnanyi! All of the Gabor girls took piano lessons, and Zsa Zsa listened to me play with intensity and really appreciated the music. That meant so much to me as a classical artist. We also visited her horse farm and had lunch together, and shopped at a fruit and vegetable market!
Zsa Zsa sure was fun.
Hey Jeff
Did you happen to read Tim’s article about being reassigned? Just wondering.
Yes–and I hope he can write up something when I get back to town in November–he’s such a fine writer!
My condolences, Tim. Though, as you suggest, the benefits of being gainfully employed are hard to ignore. I hope to still see your smiling face around as much as before.
It sadly seems the OCR, like so many other papers, are addicted to the wrong-headed decisions that got them into this boat in the first place. Here’s wishing you personally the best though and that you stay afloat wherever, or with whomever, you may sail.
Dear Tim, I can’t believe the news !!! You were and are a GREAT music critic for the Register. It’s always a pleasure to read your columns. We get enough of “People” in People magazine when we get our hair done….. I guess we will have it now in the O.C.Register . We will all read it just because of our loyalty to you and our appreciation of your wisdom and intelligence. Keep up your positive attitude and good sense of humor. Fondly , Nira Roston
Gag a maggot! I wouldn’t bet you can do it.
Maybe you could wangle your old job back at the LA Times someday.
Well I have found that having a soul-killing day job has, if anything, increased my determination to succeed in the arts. How do I know I’m not just another slack-jawed salary slave? Because I play in an orchestra and write music for my church choir – my passion for these things feeds off my workday frustrations.
I bet the same will happen to you – and you will take your game to a whole new level.
As one who has NOT been gainfully employed for several months, I applaud you for making what is most likely a financially prudent (albeit less intellectually satisfying) choice to accept your newly assigned beat. Kudos for making lemonade out of lemons.
In the world of newspaper journalism, having to chronicle the exploits of “The Vapid and The Narcissistic ” , must be manifestly less satisfying than your first-rate reportage of the classical music world.
Still, we all must do what we must do, especially in this economy. Undoubtedly, you’ll find a way to make it fun and interesting.
In any event, we your devoted readers will continue thirsting for any and all future classical music reviews or columns you manage to sandwich in between trips to Tinsletown.
Hope to still see you from time- to- time during the upcoming season of PSO concerts.
Best of luck to you , Tim.
My first reaction — certainly to the first few paragraphs in your blog entry — was that this was a parody. That you were being tongue-in-cheek about the state of the media in particular, the state of the economy in general. Or that you were trying to make an acerbic point about Don Rosenberg and the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
Now that your words have sunk in, I still can’t help think you’re going to shortly blurt out “April’s Fools!”
Tim – Terry and I are saddened by your news, but guess it was inevitable, given today’s economic climate, and newspaper economics in particular. However, it’s the old lemon and lemonade story – we think you can put your own spin on the “People” column, and make it one of the most popular columns in the Register. In that regard I’d like to refer you to the The Arizona Republic’s “People” columnist, Suzanne Condie Lambert. We both read her column with pleasure because she does it in such a satirical and sarcastic fashion, as if to say “Look what these morons, these so-called celebrities, are doing now!” Anyway, good luck, Tim. With affection, Terry & Jim
Wow. I could see it being almost fun if you bring the proper Mencken / Raymond Chandler / Tom Wolfe perspective to it: i.e., the ‘lurid spectacle of American life’ and all that. You definitely have the literary versatility and depth to pull this off … Good luck!
Also, I’ve always wanted to meet Theresa Russell (San Diego girl). Could you arrange it??
Everyone,
I hardly know where to begin or what to say. Well, then, just thanks. You’ve bolstered a battered ego.
After all this build up, I’m sure to suck as the People columnist.
Meanwhile, I’ve been digging the Cake video. It’s positively Chopinesque. There, I said it. But why? Because Cake is performing “I Will Survive” in the same manner that Chopin wanted his music performed. That is, the rhythmic and chordal support in the guitar, bass and drums is in strict time, like the left hand on the piano, and the melody in the voice is performed with rubato, toying with the time like Chopin wanted in the right hand.
Dear Tim;
Bummer! But the fact that you are taking this with such good humor indicates that you have a strong constitution and a great, detached slant on our times of pop culture über alles. Give ’em what they deserve, and don’t let ’em scare you!
Take care;
Rick
I’m sorry, Tim. It seems too that this will take a lot more of your time than you would want. I hope that this is only a temporary thing. In the meantime, I will actually look forward to your entries in the People column and know they will be very well written and clever. You’re also not the only musician to do double duty: George Antheil ran a gossip column in LA too.
Sigh. Another sad sign of the times. Glad for your sake that you still have a job writing….
This is a sad marker of the state of American culture. I see a lot of people have commented along those lines already, so I won’t belabor the obvious. Do keep up the blog, please. It will now be more important than ever.
Yet another blow to classical music. Why does the Register assume that what you do is not popular and necessary? Why do they not realize that is is part of a newspaper’s purview to educate its readers? We will soon be ruled by generations of students that have received no arts education, and we are beginning to reap what our politicians have sown – thousands of people with minimum skills, taste and education. Try to keep your hand in, Tim! There are many, as you see, that care deeply.
On the brighter side of this thing is that this new blog of yours can now be your major bully pulpit for your classical music writings without fear of its encroaching on or competing with what you write for The Register, and can emerge as The Place To Go for classical music coverage in your area.
Just a passing thought.
Good luck with your new OCR gig, no matter that I think it’s a waste of your expertise and a rather frivolous beat into the bargain.
—
ACD
http://www.soundsandfury.com/
Tim,
I’m embarrassed to say that I can provide mentorship in this area.
I agree with your eloquent fans who say you’ll bring uncommon grace to the new beat.
But if you need tutoring on Paris, Lindsay, etc. I’m afraid you can come to me.
Please don’t tell a soul.
At least Anne Midgette will be pleased for Mr Mangan. As she wrote last month: “I’ve found myself saying a few times this week how much I regret the sharp division, in many print publications, between the pop critic and the classical one.” (http://musoc.org/classtraitors.htm)
Unfortunately, as Rick Schultz says above, this is an entirely predictable Huxleyan/Postmanly development. Yet there is also an element of the Orwellian about it too – the subtle refashioning of history, the ideology-driven media management of language and information, omnipresent TV (CC & widescreen!), hero-worshipping etc.
Often it’s only when water gets up past their chins and into their lungs that people finally realise they’re actually drowning.
Boy, do I disagree with you about Anne Midgette. There is no way she would like a classical critic being essentially removed from that area. And Tim isn’t being assigned to cover pop music – he’s being assigned to a gossip column beat.
I think what I said about Anne Midgette shows that she would indeed approve, because that’s what she’s saying – ‘watering down’ a classical critic with non-classical assignments – i.e writing about pop/jazz/whatever.
Your final sentence appears self-contradictory – isn’t it true that a large portion of gossip column material supplied by the pop world? Isn’t the Lindsay Lohan that Tim refers to above a pop singer?
A People column – see Tim’s posting – will cover whether Lohan is currently under arrest or in recovery, not whether she gave a good concert last night. Please don’t confuse a gossip column with a legitimate pop review.
With respect, would TM really feel any better about this if he’d been reassigned to write legitimate (whatever that means in this respect) pop reviews? I can’t see how having to listen to Lohan’s caterwauling for a couple of hours can compare favourably to having to listen to a Verdi opera or a pair of Beethoven symphonies. Anne Midgette clearly wouldn’t mind, great Michael Jackson (&co) fan that she is, but I’d previously gathered from TM’s reviews that he might be little more excited by that idea than by the gossip column stuff.
Lisa, look at the bright side. If Tim gets a following from those who follow pop music, maybe when he recommends something from the classical side his readers might give it a try.
And vice-versa, I suppose.
Someone just rolled over in his grave!
a good friend of mine used to joke that we are only one generation from going back to sticks and fire. well it looks like it’s time to start gathering wood. 😦
I hope you uncover tons of actors and actresses that love classical music and would go public with it! Who knows?
That’s a good idea and Tim has done that very thing, before, interviewing famous people who are not musicians but love classical music. I suppose it will be up to the Register to decide to allow more of that. So far as I can tell, with this new assignment, he is being handed copy to write and not being given choices. But time will tell how this all plays out.
For those of you who may be interested, here’s an interview with crime novelist James Ellroy that I did last year about his love for classical music: http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/jamesellroy-88616-laconfidential-blood%27sarover.html
Appalling.
Here in Philadelphia I’m still amazed that we have two classical music critics writing for what is an otherwise mediocre paper.
Good luck on your new gig though.
Here’s a tip from @FakeAPStylebookArticles on Twitter:
Articles on pop culture revivals should never contain the phrase “remember the first time you paid for this shit?”
Geez, Tim, what a drag to lose your voice in OC, or at least 50% of it. The upside is going to be that it will send legions to your blog. As another writer suggested, a print version of a kind of Celebrity Daily Show would really be fun, although it would probably just invite a lot of Celebrity Lawsuits – which, after all, could beef up the workload for the Register’s Legal Beat reporter, so that s/he won’t also have to take on the Heartwarming Pet Stories beat …Good Times! Seriously, thank you for the intelligence and dedication you have brought to classical music reporting for all these years, and we will continue to find your work online when it’s not in the Register. Now go out there and get on that Jeffrey Biegel story!
I’ll be a-waiting….
On the bright side you still have a job. I have been unemployed for over a year. So count your blessings.
I’m sorry to hear about this change. A sad commentary on the times, I too love classical music and could care less about all thing Lohan. Good luck with Mel!
~ Shoestrings and Peace,
Beth Engelman
Sorry to hear that people don’t want to increase their knowledge in the arts and music. So many newspapers are doing this. As a publicist for musicians, I have for the most part ruled out pitching to newspapers across the country. Waste of time. I guess I do not understand how the papers think they can compete with People, US, Inquirer, OK and all those other Hollywood trash magazines. Especially when they are the ones paying millions of dollars on exclusives that a regional newspaper won’t get til it’s old news.
I do press for musicians that are extraordinarily talented (artists) and very successful. however, they don’t rape under aged girls or get caught shooting people, or fall off stages from drunkenness… so now, they will never get written about. I know this is not the writers fault. It is being dictated by the paper. Thanks to all you writers (artists) that cared about quality writing and quality stories. Those were good ole days. Keep up the good work in blogs, you get a world wide audience instead of just the locals. Good luck Tim!
In my own Pollyanna way I’m imagining linking your classical music expertise with pop culture so here goes:
How did Alex Baldwin become the host for NY Phil broadcasts?
Is it true that Beethoven was good at betting on the stock market?.
When and why did Dudley Moore make the transition from classical music to comedy?
What ever happened to Lori Singer, cellist and movie star?
Tough as this is, I’m glad you will still be writing – these are as tough times as I’ve seen and I’m old!
Sheila
Oh, and LOVE the video!
About time somebody said that!
I know I shouldn’t be surprised but I am. We’ve all known that newspapers are disappearing and I for one, don’t want to live in a world without newspapers. What shocks me is the stupidity of the management at OCR-one, for not recognizing one of the most talented and knowledgeable writers around (you) and two, the belief that “dumbing” down the paper will save it. I want to use every 4-letter word in the book right now (and believe me, I can cuss with the best of them) but I will refrain and be the mature person I am capable of being.
I consider myself an artist and have a deep appreciation of other writers, painters, musicians because I know how hard it is to make a living at what you love to do. It saddens me to see art being cut out of the schools and good writers being cut from the papers. You are offering something special and it’s obvious that people in Orange County appreciate your opinion. I can only hope that this will result in a backlash at the Register and/or you will move on to more amazing things.
I do not want to read about Lindsey Lohan rehab dramas or Tiger Wood’s divorce but I’m sure, of all the writers out there, you can make a dull subject interesting.
No, Tim, don’t take it personally. As a former newspaper book critic (33 years with the San Jose Mercury News), I know something about obsolete professions. You’ve been terrific at what you do; I know I’ve enjoyed and learned from your work. As newspapers die, I’m confident that new economic models for art and criticism will emerge. I hope yours is one of the voices we’ll continue to hear. In the meantime, draw that paycheck as long as you can! Best wishes…
Hi Tim,
So sorry to hear this news. Yet another swipe by newspapers of coverage of classical music. If you’d like another outlet for what you write about classical music, we’d love to invite you to contribute material to Bachtrack.com. If you’re not familiar with us, we’re one of the biggest classical music listings sites with a world-wide audience, and in the last few months we’ve started publishing reviews of classical music, opera and ballet. Anyone looking at a concert listing with (say) Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony will see a list of all reviews ever written for that symphony (and the performers.) It’s early days but we hope over time to build up a wonderful archival resource for music lovers, tightly linked to where people can see the works live around the world. We believe that the material will provide those new to classical with a great and quick way to find out more about works they’re considering going to see.
Sadly we can’t yet afford to pay our contributors, so we can’t substitute for the Register, but we can offer you a platofrm where your work can be found by many like-minded people.
All the very best. I hope you survive the move to becoming a gossip columnist…
Alison at http://www.bachtrack.com
Yes, the video is great!
Any chance the OCR would give some latitude and allow you to write for the world premiere of the William Bolcom ‘Prometheus’ in November?
I’ll probably try to fit that one in, Jeffrey.
Excellent, Tim! If you want to do an interview beforehand that fits your new assignment, give a holler.
I am terribly sorry to hear you will not be covering classical music full time any more. I used to save your reviews so that I could read them after I wrote my own.
I guess the problem is that few of us buy a newspaper any more. We read online and we don’t pay for the information. As a result, we writers have to support our writing with another job.
On the Cal North Coast, we long ago dropped any interest in newspapers (other than the New York Times) and started out own reviewing/calendar/features for classical music.
Please see it – http://www.classicalsonoma.org. We have about 10 reviewers. I urge Orange County people to start one like Classical Sonoma and expand, not contract, coverage of noble classical music.
We also have a piano series here, no committees, but concerts in three counties. It’s at
http://www.concertsgrand.com
Regards, Terry McNeill
Well, if your website is paying writers a full salary with benefits, then that’s really fantastic! I think the problem online is, many people don’t see professional writers as worth paying for (as with other professions where people make money to pay for bills and other living expenses).
Tim, I’m appalled. Your lively and cogent writing has done so much to nurture SoCal’s vibrant classical scene. With Alan Rich gone and you moving over (mostly) to People, it’s a sad day indeed. That said, your attitude is admirable, and that Cake video brought a rueful smile to my face. Hope you’ll find ways to sneak in classical coverage…
I really feel for you. When my funding ran out during my grad studies in 2008, I briefly switched over to doing some odd jobs in artist management for about five months, (dark times indeed). Things eventually worked out a bit better when a position opened up for me, but I think it was bitter sweet because the bottom line is: even when you are doing good work in the arts, there is always the feeling that there is not enough to go around…a kind of “rats on a sinking ship effect”…however, your perseverance WILL payoff, and I encourage you to rely on past successes as much as possible. In the end, I think merit and quality of work matters more, regardless of circumstances, no matter how dire.
Just for the sake of balance:
“Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at a
very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred by nature
upon few, and the labour of learning those sciences, which may by mere
labour be obtained, is too great to be willingly endured; but every man
can exert such judgment as he has upon the works of others; and he whom
nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his
vanity by the name of a Critick.” — Samuel Johnson
Hmm. Someone tells you his job is changing radically and you tell him people who do his job aren’t very useful? And you say this is for “balance”? Can you explain how, or why “balance” is needed? As you can see, pretty much all of the postings here are from fans of Tim’s writing who rather think he does a good and useful job.
Johnson was a literary and, at times, social critic. If you take his comment in context, he was specifically referring to those critics who only tear down. Johnson often praised the art of criticism, too. He dislikes those who aren’t qualified to criticize (he would not like our street opinion culture), or who are simply nasty. He is not against enlightened, informed opinion.
Other quotes by Samuel Johnson:
“The duty of criticism is neither to depreciate nor dignify by partial representations, but to hold out the light of reason, whatever it may discover; and to promulgate the determinations of truth, whatever she shall dictate.”
“All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment; he that refines the public taste is a public benefactor.”
And, more humorously,
“If in an actor there appears an utter vacancy of meaning, a frigid equality, a stupid languor, a torpid apathy, the greatest kindness that can be shown him is a speedy sentence of expulsion.”
One of my favorite Johnson (I’m a big fan) quotes on criticism:
“You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables.”
Your trade, writing and also evaluating music on a sophisticated level, is a wonderful one. I know many have enjoyed the quality and insights of your work including various musicians, composers, and conductors. (And God Forbid that we would not be allowed to scold a carpenter who has made us a bad table. Or that someone who can recognize more hidden flaws in a table design not be able to get that information out to an unsuspecting public.) ; )