The media make a potentially fatal mistake by dividing arts coverage into high and low, old and young, and by trivializing our passionate attraction to things.
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
High-school paper. First paycheck? San Diego Reader, 1971 or '72.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Of course. I'm old.
How is social media changing news?
Not enough space to answer.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Great question. Two, played by Orson Welles and Rosalind Russell.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
That's a long conversation, with a martini in hand.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
No longer doing that. But I do advise.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
The usual.
What's your favorite social network?
Oh my.
Why did you become a journalist?
I could use all my fiction and other skills. Gave me intense purpose and pleasure.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
I was columnist at the John Adams High School (South Ozone Park, Queens, NY) paper, the Campus, then co-editor-in-chief. Hot type!
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
Another good question. A series of stories over the years about gay partnership and gay marriage.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
So many answers. The most crucial? Never forget that you have power in your words.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Not taking pitches. I'm a writer and former editor.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
"Let me write what I want. I'll never disappoint you." [She didn't.]
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
"Can I write about [name of artist]? I know nothing about him, but that's how I'll learn."
What's your favorite drink?
Drinking a Negroni now. Probably a Plymouth martini, not too dry.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Cooking.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Not a good question. I have favorite articles, paragraphs, sentences, people and voices, but not publications.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That food is an aside, that objects don't have emotions attached, that writing isn't a goal in itself.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
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