2023: My Year in Review

In which our hero wraps up his year with something he never thought he'd have again: full-time employment.

When 2022 ended, I didn’t really know what to expect from the coming new year, except that after six years of work, it looked as though Surely You Can’t Be Serious, the book on which I’d collaborated with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, was finally - FINALLY! - going to be coming out. It had been a long road and a lot of work to get to that point, and as it turned out, I would still be doing interviews for the book into January 2023), but if it actually happened, it was going to be a very good thing, because to be perfectly honest, that book and this Substack newsletter were pretty much the only things I had going for me at the time, aside from a few regular freelance gigs.

Yes, between my family, friends, and readership, I’d managed to lock in a trip to the 2023 Television Critics Association press tour in January, but doing so without a full-time outlet to back me, it was going to be rough pulling in interviews. I did, thankfully, get a few for this newsletter, but it was definitely the least productive TCA trip I’d ever had.

By the end of February 2023, I didn’t even have most of those freelance gigs anymore. I’d been writing posts for Rhino Records since 2014, but due to a bit of bouncing around and some budgetary cuts, I’d been bounced over to somewhere within the Warner Music organization the previous year, at which point they decided that they were going to be reorganizing how they did the posts and that they’d let me know when they’d figured out what they were going to be doing. (I’m still waiting.) I’d also been writing press releases for a company that suddenly decided that they were going to divest themselves of all freelancers in favor of doing all of their releases in-house. And last but not least, I’d been writing for EW.com and pulling in a decent chunk doing so, but suddenly my editor left, and although I was still in the mix as a freelancer, when his replacement took over, it took a few months before I was able to get another assignment, which was rough on the pocketbook, I can assure you.

Suddenly here I was with I only one regular freelance gig (TV Week in Vancouver) and one as-regular-as-the-budget-allowed freelance gig (Decider). Otherwise it was a matter of pitching my heart out and hoping that it might result in either an assignment for a new outlet or - in a perfect world - an assignment for an outlet where I’d already proven myself. But the latter category tended to yield very little, since it seemed as though either the editors I’d worked with over the years had moved from those outlets or the outlets where I’d previously written just weren’t the same outlets anymore…and, yes, I’m looking squarely at you, A.V. Club.

So I scrambled as best I could. I wrote more for this newsletter. I started selling plasma. I accepted some charity here and there, which is not something that I ever wanted to do, and the people who assisted me, I’ll never forget and will forever be grateful. I even started getting back in the habit of applying for full-time journalism jobs, even though I’d been doing that off and on for a dozen years and literally hadn’t even gotten as much as an interview for my trouble.

That changed in May 2023.

A job popped up on… Geez, I can’t even remember where it was anymore. That’s how many jobs I was applying for at the time. But this one was for a music writer/editor. I figured, “Well, I started out as a music journalist, I’ve been writing music posts for Rhino for nine years… This is clearly something I can do.” So I applied. And it wasn’t in May that I applied. It was just in May that I got an email apologizing for the delay in getting in touch because of a delay in the hiring process, along with a request to answer a few questions about my availability. From there, it led to an interview, then a second interview, and… Well, long story not much shorter, I got the job.

A full-time job. With benefits and bi-weekly paychecks and a salary which, while I would never be so gauche as to be specific, is roughly double what I’d been averaging for the previous few years as a freelancer.

Of course, money is still going to be an issue for a little while yet - I mean, after all, I do have a daughter who’s a freshman in college - but this is the first time in years that I can actually exist for more than a few days at a time without suddenly feeling like I need to pop a Xanax.

And on top of all of that…?

The book finally came out, virtually everyone seems to love it, and even though my name isn’t on the cover, it’s prominently placed inside, and as David Zucker accurately put it, “It’s in a perfect spot for you to sign it.”

So having gotten all of that unexpected joy out of my system, I’m now going to favor you with a collection of links to pieces I’ve done throughout the year. Not all of them, mostly because my new gig involves the penning of a lot of daily news pieces, but all of the interviews I’ve done, anyway.

By the way, maybe you’ve noticed, maybe you haven’t, but when I started this new job, I put a pause on all of the paid subscriptions. I knew I wasn’t going to be in a position to do much in the way of updating the newsletter, so I didn’t want to be taking people’s money when I wasn’t giving them any content. But at least now you’re getting a little bit, anyway…

That Thing They Did interviews:

• Exene Cervenka

• Vondie Curtis Hall

• Lance Henriksen

• Adam F. Goldberg, Bill Barretta, and Jeff Yorkes

• Liz Vassey

• Emilia Schule

• Terry Matalas

• Michael Pare

• Betsy Brandt

• Oliver Goldstick

• David J. Burke

• Jonathan Glassner

• Richard Kind, Kent McCord, and Joe Maruzzo

• Kent McCord

• John Davidson - Part One and Part Two

• D.J. Nash

• Ben McKenzie

Decider interviews:

• Will Forte

• Connie Britton

• David Strathairn

• David Johansen

• Tim Robbins

• Keith Carradine

• Jon Hamm and John Slattery

• Stephen Root

• Casper Van Dien

Q interviews:

Stephen Duffy of The Lilac Time—Still Enthusiastic After All These Years

Peter Frampton on His Latest Live Album, The State of His Health and the Best Bit About Being on The Simpsons

Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub on the Band's Ironically-Titled New Album, Nothing Lasts Forever, And More

Nick Heyward on The 40th Anniversary of North of a Miracle And Other Efforts From His Solo Catalogue

Glenn Mercer on The Feelies' Live Album of Velvet Underground covers, Their Connection to Jonathan Demme, and More

Graham Parker Still Makes Records Because He Still Writes Songs — Simple as That

Robert Fripp on 50 Years of (No Pussyfooting), Working With Brian Eno, the Future of King Crimson, and More

Chris Butler Remembers Former Bandmate Mars Williams: “He Was Equal Parts Charming and a Knucklehead...And Unbelievably Talented”

Mariel Loveland of Best Ex on Leaving the Candy Hearts Behind and the Partial Delusion Required to Make It in Music

Madness' Suggs on the Band's First No. 1 Album, Covering Supergrass, and the Importance of Norton Folgate

Phil Manzanera Has Put Roxy Music Back on the Shelf, But He and Andy Mackay Are Still Together

John Douglas of the Trashcan Sinatras Reflects on the Sudden Top 10 Success of Cake After 33 Years

Dave Alvin on the Blasters’ Legacy, Playing with the Third Mind, Writing Music for John Waters, and Opening for Queen

Martin Fry of ABC on Beauty Stab Turning 40 and Surviving Critical Slings, Arrows, and Accusations of a Sophomore Slump

Billy Idol on Making a Concert Film at the Hoover Dam, Collaborating with Miley Cyrus, and Almost Playing the T-1000 in Terminator 2

Andy Mackay Discusses His New Collaboration with Phil Manzanera and Some Famous Freelance Gigs Outside of Roxy Music

Jason Isaacs on Transforming Into Cary Grant for Archie, Children Not Recognizing Him as Lucius Malfoy, and His Love of Bob Marley

Rosanne Cash on Re-Releasing The Wheel, Starting Her Own Record Label, and Working with the National

Stewart Copeland on the Origins of Klark Kent, the End of the Police, and His Adoration of Oysterhead