lousy magazine writers

[jaime marzol]

.............

i finally got to the welles article in an issue of film comment i bought because of the welles article. i was a bit surprised to see it was the sept/oct 99 issue and that it took me this long to get to it.

the title of the article is a marvel of wit, SHADOW OF A DEBT, THE THIRD MAN AND TOUCH OF EVIL. the article was written by harlan kennedy, who attempts to state links between both films. minus pictures it runs for 3 pages, and says nothing. i was surprised because film comment is supposed to be one of 'the' film rags to read.

equally bad is an article i think is in FILM FAX about welles' don q.

interesting was that the writer of don q had stuff to say but had a difficult time putting it down in a concise manner, and the writer of the TOE/TM article had no problem putting it down but had nothing to say.

times have changed. i have 3, 3-inch notebooks filled with excellent articles on welles written 20, 30, and 40 years ago, but the latest 10 articles i've added written in the last 5 years, basically sucked.

this post is going nowhere, i just wanted to register my complaint with the crappy state of the relationship between
film magazine writers, and welles.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

i've got an article here from the new yorker dated 9/17/55.

this moron, among many others, has written about how he thought the movie was.
well, he complained about this, he complained about that, he said this was wrong, he said there were too many of these, it was done wrong, it was said wrong, etc. etc.

(i think i'll send ya this one jaime)

couldn't one single solitary magazine writer in this damned world say something nice about an orson welles movie for once.

apparently not. but it sure would be nice.

jaime, if you've got nice articles, where'd ya get them? i'd like to get them myself. from 20-30 years ago.

i've got some from 20-30 years ago, and none of them are non-negative. i must be lookin in the wrong place.

bye now!

[Jeff Wilson]

There are any number of positive articles about Welles' work, if one looks for them. People are under no obligation to like anything, regardless of how we ourselves may feel about it. And please, let's try to be more constructive than simply resorting to namecalling.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Filmfax is one of the few magazines around that pays attention to old movies and movie stars (many of them still alive who appreciate being given some recognition in their 'sunset years').
The articles about Welles that occasionally appear in Filmfax are laudatory and always first-rate (especially the stories on the history of Don Quixote and the Touch of Evil restoration, in which Rick Schmidlin was quoted extensively).
Yes, I write for Filmfax and obviously have a biased opinion on the subject. But I believe Filmfax (and Outré, Shock Cinema, Psychotronic Video, Scarlet Street and the Horror-Wood Webzine) should be supported by those of us who like the good old stuff and find today's cinematic product rather lame by comparison to the greats of yesteryear.

[jaime marzol]

................

sorry harvey, forgot you write for film fax. i remembered you write for a mag but did not remember it was a film mag. film fax has the most innovative look of any of the film mags around, and i have been very appreciative that they ran interviews with actors like the monster in CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON. no other mag of it's class has the guts to run such things. my beef was with the article on DON Q, not the mag.

the mag reminds me of the cool monster and horror film mags that were around when i was a kid. that bold, black look is tits.

perhaps being so well versed in welles i can identify a writer who wrote a quick article with just surface research. i guess it's not fair to expect a writer doing short articles to read 12 books, 105 articles, 65 interviews, and watch everything welles directed before writing a 3 page spread.

i have the same problem when A&E does those mafia things they do. the second topic i have done most research on is the italian mafia. i can run through any of those docus and point out where they are wrong, and in most cases tell you what publication their info came from.

in the future i will avoid reading welles articles in film mags so i'm not compelled to come here and voice a negative opinion.

.......................

[Fredric]

Jaime,

Why don't you start writing articles for these mags? With all that research behind you, you should put out something interesting, and it would be good promotional stuff for your TOE book, too.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

Jaime,

Why don't you start writing articles for these mags? With all that research behind you, you should put out something interesting, and it would be good promotional stuff for your TOE book, too.

i second that, jaime!

bye now!

[jaime marzol]

...............

already did that, it wasn't for me. mag articles have a shelf life of 30 days; till the next issue come out, and it doesn't pay very well. it's something that you do as a hobby, or to fill your resume if you are trying to get a writing job. for some one trying to get a job writing getting published in a bunch of mags looks great in your resume. for some one trying to fill a resume i highly recomend THE WRITER'S MARKET. it's a yearly book that lists 2000 publications that need your work. they pay nothing but give you lots of credit. all great things to get a writing job.

if i got a writing job i'm sure i'll be fired within a month, and if i don't get fired, all my work, the stuff that i am passionate about, will come to a screaching halt because i'll be consumed with writing 'their' stuff.

a good writer can knock off a mag article with 3 hours of web research, and 2 or 3 nights of writing.

it would take me 4 months to write, the publisher will only use 1/4 of what i wrote, and he'll send me 50-bucks, and 25 issues of the the mag that my article is in.

[jaime marzol]

THE LOUSY WRITER’S LIFE:
I had a writing job sort of. Or at least a period when I tried to write for the rent. Through friends, and acquaintances I got dumb offers to do dumb stuff that i turned down. Making up mail order catalogs for gift companies, doing the artwork, writing pleasing descriptions of the gifts. A hot sauce company catalog. Newspaper fold-outs.

I also wrote treatments for an agent. I wrote 2 LIVE JEWS MEET FRANKENSTEIN. It was shopped to Troma. Troma offered $500 to buy it outright, no credit, no rights, give it to them and get lost. I turned them down. Carrot Top's manager was looking for a vehicle for his star, who was very hot then. I wrote a kid’s story about a band, MEGABAND, it came out GREAT. I spent 4 months on it and really loved it. We recorded original music for the story, the band’s music, made story boards, etc. Carrot Top’s manager loved it and offered $800 to buy it outright, no credit, no rights, give it to him and get lost. I turned him down. It was shopped to Troma. They offered $500 buy it outright, no credit, no rights, give it to them and get lost. I turned it down. I wrote some treatments for Inner Sanctum. They were looking for stuff like 9½ WEEKS, only spicier, and that could be made for half a million dollars. I wrote 3 treatments. They liked the treatments, then Margo Hemingway, their big star died, and they went into a tail spin and nothing happened with my treatments. I wrote a press release for Milestone’s restoration of THE TRIAL. I didn’t get paid but the public relations firm that handled the release sent me boxes of videos for my work. That was cool. They sent me some good films. My press release appeared one year after THE TRIAL was released. Along the way I also wrote 3 screenplays, and maybe 12 other treatments before I decided to try my hand at books.

I have a book started on THE TRIAL (the press release took on a life of it’s own). A book started on TOUCH OF EVIL. Also started 10 YEARS OF COCAINE, AND MURDER IN MIAMI.

And now that I can edit and make special effects at home in my spare time, documentaries have been added to the workload, THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE NY MOB, THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE PHILADELPHIA MOB, I have the structure, and all the research materials for this, but need more footage. THE GREATEST NIGHT OF THE AMERICAN THEATER (or something like that), based on the events of Project 891, I already have the structure for this done. And the TOUCH OF EVIL book now has a cd-rom.

None of this was commissioned, they are my own projects that I work on because I am passionate about them.

The important thing is to have lots of stock. The stuff i didn't sell to Troma, or Carrot Top for peanuts i still own. When the first item sells, the first thing they ask is, ‘What else you have?” Well, I have a room full. Come in and look around.

......................

[jaime marzol]

.............

Oh, i almost forgot, MTeal is acting as historian, i'm doing the editing and special effects on our Mom's Kitchen restoration of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. and The Major (as he's know here) has contributed greatly to the project. This has been very enjoyable to work on.

i have a lot of time on my hands, and this stuff is more constructive than smoking crack and stealing car parts in condo parking lots.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

so in other words your tearin' down one kitchen to build another?

what part do you think your gonna like more? the tearing apart or the puttin' together?

as for me, i like to tear them apart. as long as someone's gonna put it back together again. just gimme a thick wooden stick.

nah, maybe steal. i tried a wooden stick on a subject once, didn't work.

i would get fired from a writer's job that quick too, jaime. with the words i'd use.

it would either be that, or the fact that i would be writing about orson in a positive manner than what the so called "lousy magazine writers" write about.

bye now!

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

stupid somputer!

always doing that t me. saying error didn't go through. then out comes two posts

where's that stick!!!