(Pasadena CA) A smorgasbord of new unrelated facts and events that started a week ago now add up to a chance, for one particular columnist, to augment his continuing effort to provide freelance journalism criticism, cover Jeb Bush's effort to restore the Bush Dynasty to its rightful place in the Oval Office, watch a town other than Berkeley draw the attention of freedom of speech activists, provide some "inside baseball" news for bloggers, draw attention to the contention that attorney Richard Fine may possibly be considered a political prisoner in the USA, with a simultaneous effort to promote the writer's new hometown as the unrivaled car-spotting capital of the world.
After moving in on a Friday afternoon, one particular song kept popping up in his mind. On a Saturday morning stroll following coffee and a scan of the Los Angeles Times, the columnist had not been walking down Colorado Blvd., two minutes before he saw a deuce (1932 Ford) roadster. Three minutes later a deuce coupe followed.
When an invitation to join the National Society of Newspaper Columnists arrived in the e-mail in box on Monday, it seemed that, based on previous information, that perhaps it was time to visit the offices of the Pasadena Star News and inquire about the possibility of getting a gig writing about the process of a new citizen discovering the charms of this famous city.
The regular Monday night session of the local city council was devoted to swearing in new members and taking a new official picture.
Plans to wage a campaign to have the aforementioned song designated as the official city song were scrapped when, after contacting the city clerk's office, it was learned that the city had already named a different tune as their official song.
A Ted Rall cartoon in the Pasadena Weekly gave a heads-up that the next city council meeting might draw the attention of freedom of speech activists, rekindled hopes of getting a gig taking a fresh look at the city that is home to college football's most famous game.
Every day in the new area produced at least one remarkable instance of happy car-spotting. Two Cobras (or replicas?) had been seen. A Nash Metropolitan, a sedan that from the side and going away seemed to be a 1931 four door Chevrolet sedan, and some powerful sounding newer cars indicated that it might be a good idea to advocate Pasadena as the car-spotting capital of the world and possibly entering into a media feud with the car-spotting photos editor for a leading web source of news and pictures of interest to automobile enthusiasts.
Many of the cars seen in the Pasadena area are in what car collectors call "cherry" condition, while those featured on-line by the photographer scouring Alhambra find cars that are obviously in daily use.
There are other sites for car-spotters on-line, including one that is not geographic specific, Madwhips, but seems open to submissions from around the world. (Yeah, but did they have photo coverage of Summer Nats?)
At this point, an effort to do some fact-checking on old information produced the news that the National Society of Newspaper Columnists had changed its rules and that Internet columnists were eligible for membership, caused a reevaluation of the need for doing the work necessary to catch the attention and approval of the editor of the local newspaper.
If an on-line columnist can now join the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and be eligible to attend their national convention, which will be held this year in Ventura on June 25 to 28, 2009, then it might be time to "cut to the chase" as they say in Hollywood and immediately apply for membership.
The NSNC web site has a page-full of links for those members who live in the cusp area of being both newspaper content providers and bloggers. The possibility of being listed on that page is yet another solid reason for considering joining the group.
Max Lerner said (wrote?): "A politician wouldn't dream of being allowed to call a columnist the things a columnist is allowed to call a politician."
Now, the disk jockey will play the 1923 song "Home in Pasadena." We'll go get the digital camera and shoot some photos that will put Alhambra fans to shame. Have the kind of week that will get your membership application approved by the Anaheim, Azusa, and East Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review, and Timing Association." (Ask a Jan and Dean fan about that group if you must.)
