Adrian Mack is Great (let it be known)

5 reasons why Adrian Mack (music editor at the Nerve Magazine) is great:

1. He has never once made a frivolous or unnecessary change to my writing. He does EDIT my stuff, when necessary - it's not that he doesn't do his job or such - but (I truly believe) he recognizes effective prose, and doesn't want to fuck with it to produce mere journalese, or for the sake of asserting hierarchy. This is rare indeed, as is the faith that readers might PREFER to read good writin' to generic newspaper-style prose. When he does step in, it's always for the betterment of the piece. You may think that that is the standard role of an editor, but I actually find it rather exceptional behaviour.

2. He likes the new Meat Puppets CD as much as I do, ie, he has good taste in music (I ain't seen him in his role as drummer - for John Ford, Rich Hope, etc - sufficient times to really evaluate him as a musician, but it's cool that he has been on the other side of the fence, too).

3. The guy can WRITE. I don't scour the local free papers lookin' for him, but when I do bump into his prose, I am almost always entertained - I mean, digging deep for the socio-cultural significance of celebrity upskirts is all right by me (hey, didn't there used to be an MKUltra reference in that column, about how Britney and whatnot were Monarch sex slaves?). I wish his Hinder review were online; I laughed out loud, readin' that one.

4. He knows more about weird conspiracy theory shit than anyone else I know, but, unlike the people you meet who try to convince you that their given conspiracy theory is the correct one, he also retains a sense of humour and distance and is both aware of, and has a healthy respect for, consensus reality, which makes him very entertaining to discuss these matters with. Whatever else he may or may not be, Adrian Mack is not a humourless fruitcake.

5. He's, like, a really nice dude. Ever aware that I work hard for the Nerve for little in the way o' tangible recompense, he sometimes goes out of his way, when I have been exceptionally productive, to provide very thoughtful, delightful daubs of payola for me (he tracked down John Cassavetes on the Cavett Show online and burned me a disc of it, I mean, ain't that great? Find me another editor who does shit like that! Thanks, man!). Don't worry, Mack: I love writing for the Nerve (with the exception o' the odd episode of horrifyingly inappropriate captions bein' attached to my writing by OTHER editors, who shall go nameless and uncredited). And no one else in this no-dick town is gonna pay me for my Meat Puppets reviews ANYHOW.

Cheers to Adrian Mack!