tRoPpMaNn-On A wIrE

So, when I used to edit a newspaper I had one rule, well, that isn’t true, I had MANY rules but one thing that really bugged the shit out of me was “journalists” who insisted on writing interviews in a question/answer format. I would send writers back to their keyboards all pissed off that the huge piece they “wrote” had to be made into an actual story.

It’s like an editor or publisher asking someone to transfer something from a tape recorder and expecting them to get paid for it. I find it lazy. I find it insulting to the reader.

I get a lot of biking magazines for the bathroom. It only seems fitting that some of the trash in these rags be brought to my attention there.

In the May issue of Bicycling Magazine on page 34 Pete Williams “interviews” Joe Maddon. Does he paint a picture about why Mr. Maddon rides a bike? Nope. Does he create some mood or a sense of feeling while writing his piece? Nope. It goes like this:

Why did you start riding?
In 2001 or ’02…..blah blah blah

There is no way I would pay his column inch fee for such laziness. If I cared why Mr. Maddon got on a bike in the first place I would want a picture painted by the writer to express the real reason why he was newsworthy.

Bicycling Magazine’s advertisers should be offended that they have paid huge fees to see this kind of laziness placed between their ads.

It’s everywhere; from Rapha’s Rouleur to Bicycle Times. The people who do this call themselves writers. I call them professional transcribers or even clerks. I wouldn’t call them journalists.

I will put my money where my mouth is.

We sit down with world renowned professional messenger bag maker Isaac Grigsby of Chicago Wig. He drinks a cold Sierra Nevada while he puts his feet up on his sewing machine.

He has just completed his 706th messenger bag. He wears the drab smile of someone who loves his work but doesn’t like giving up the creative control of being an artist.

“The main reason I make them is because I see each one as a work of art,” he says while taking a long sip. “I love making them. That’s why I will not go out and ‘enjoy life’. I’m enjoying it in my own way.”

He admires his handy work laying on the blue cutting table, “I have to also add that there is an amazing feeling I get when I see one going down the street. They’re not just things. They are a part of me.”

He chuckles to himself at this self realization and watches Sasha (his rabbit) hop across the floor.

“I did not pay someone to make something and slap my name on it. I hunted down the raw goods and then with a set of ingrained skills formed and manipulated the materials into a useful thing. That’s something you don’t get much of in this world.”

It’s just that simple.