1470 AM on Your Dial

Former Mayor and good friend Gwen O’Looney and I are hosting a talk show on local radio station WXAG 1470 AM Fridays at noon. We talk about what’s going on in town; I mention some of the articles in Flagpole, and we usually have a guest with something interesting to discuss. So far, we have had Dr. Cory Brown, the UGA vet school’s internationally known pathologist, talking about her experiences in third-world nations; Kathy Kirbo discussed her longtime association with the Reef Ball Foundation (www.reefball.org), which rebuilds ocean reefs all over the world; Myra Blackmon explained her efforts to elicit citizen input on ways to help our school system resolve its budget crisis; Ernest Johnson moderated our discussion of same-sex marriage; and Bertis Downs emphasized the importance of public schools to our community. Right now, we’re taping the 30-minute show, but we’re threatening to go live, with call-in, at least occasionally and eventually expand the show to an hour. WXAG is looking for sponsors, and the station has asked listeners to come up with a name for the show. While on the air, we’re in the capable hands of station manager James Ford and promoted by advertising manager Yvonne McKethan-Roberts. Tune in, and we’ll try to give you a good show every Friday.

Nobody’s Perfect

Banner-Herald entertainment writer Andre Gallant posted on his Facebook page last week, “OK: I love Flagpole Magazine, but there is absolutely without a doubt cut and paste from press releases going on in this week's issue without noting the release as a source. Just saying.”

When we looked into it, we found that indeed Flagpole contributor and former music editor Chris Hassiotis used two quotes from a Heartless Bastards website without attributing them. This breach of journalistic standards gave the impression that Chris had interviewed bandmembers when he hadn’t. Further checking reveals that Chris has used this method previously in Flagpole. Chris is an experienced and knowledgeable music writer, and he should not have taken this shortcut. It is embarrassing to Flagpole and to me personally, since I have spent the past three weeks in this column expounding on integrity in journalism and criticizing the Banner-Herald publisher for his own shortcomings.

Seen Any Good Movies?

We attended Ciné’s fifth birthday party and the showing of the classic film Sullivan’s Travels the other night and got to see the legendary Veronica Lake, sometimes in full glamour mode and sometimes disguised as a tramp. She was really something, along with the young Joel McCrea as a leading man, before his later Western persona set in. All the familiar character actor faces peopled the film, whipping writer/director Preston Sturges’ snappy one-liners back and forth.

I am frequently surprised to encounter people I know who have never been to Ciné. I am not by any means a cineaste. Well, after having looked it up, I guess I am. It just means I like movies. But I’m no expert. It’s just that most of the movies in the quadraplexes are predictable and therefore boring. Don’t get me wrong: I love car chases of any kind: Bullit, The French Connection, The Bourne Identity, Ronin, Short Time, etc., and I don’t enjoy movies so unrelentingly grim that I might as well be watching the Georgia Legislature.

But here’s the deal: you can just about bet that any movie playing at Ciné is worth watching. The films are so carefully “curated,” new and old, that you are almost surely in for a treat. Plus, you always run into interesting people, and Ciné has great popcorn, not to mention locally made cookies and of course beer and wine and, I am told, a mean martini.

Take my advice: you can’t go wrong at Ciné. It’s a non-profit now, so you can join up and help assure that it’ll stay around and continue contributing this richness to our local culture. Get into the Ciné habit, and you can call yourself a cineaste.

Pete McCommons [email protected]