July pours sludge-like
down its own weeks, thick liquid time careening inexorably forward. Everything
is the same every day: the weather, the road to work, the details of the job.
July in Texas becomes a blur.
Each week there is a new issue. This doesn’t help. New issues are pretty much
the same, they begin the birthing process on Thursday (though preparation
happens well in advance), they are delivered to the printer the following
Wednesday.
The next day, Thursday, we start on the next one. This occurs all year. In
July, with all external detail gone, it is as though we are lost in some huge
Arctic snowstorm rather than just blanketed by endless heat.
We’re also knee-deep in both our vacation schedule and preparation for the
“Best of Austin” issue we’ll publish in September. Kate X Messer is heading up
the “Best Of” project.
Before the “Best Of” issue, we will have the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce
Contest — one of our most popular events of the year — and the paper will
celebrate its 15th Anniversary.
The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest has become a national event and
it should be bigger than ever this year, with more salsas entered, and more
folks visiting, dipping and tasting.
Expect much musings during September on the state of the Chronicle having achieved 15 years old (as well as the traditional Laguna Gloria show and
who-knows-what special events). The once-street punk has become the emulated
establishment… what is in store for this paper next? I’ll muse as to who we
were, what we thought we’d become, and what we are. As with any modern horror
tale there’ll be a lot of meandering personal meditation on the meaning of this
and that, but you don’t actually have to read this stuff unless you want to. At
some point we may actually tell the whole Chronicle story, but then, out
of kindness, we may not.
I no longer much write
on staff comings and goings because the staff has become too large and I leave
too much out. It is worth noting, however, that our adored Nisa Sharma has
left, Lisa Taylor is the new production manager and very welcomed on board.
Clay Smith is onboard as a proofreader again (he interned as a proofer before).
The remarkable Christopher Gray, who must be lying about his age, has taken
over Music Recommendeds. The good news is that this means Music Editor Raoul
Hernandez will write more. Actor Matthew McConaughey taught Margaret Moser how
to chew tobacco (many of us wish he hadn’t). Everything is exactly the same
with Nancy Schafer, for those who were wondering. There is no news.n
This article appears in July 26 • 1996 and July 26 • 1996 (Cover).