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TO SEE OURSELVES...
STILL BILL
With all due respect for his opponent who came in ahead of
him in the Democratic Primary, I still believe Bill Overend will
make the best Solicitor General. Bill knows our town from a lot of
different angles, and I think that kind of understanding gives him
the perspective to enforce our laws toward making a better com
munity. Also, to me, Jim Martin is by far the better candidate for
Lieutenant Governor in the Democratic Primary runoff on Tuesday,
Aug. 8. Don't forget there's advance voting through Friday, Aug. 4.
REALLY WILLIE
Willie Morris was the legendary editor of Harper's Magazine in
the late-1960s, a quintessential Southern intellectual good old boy
who came out of Yazoo City, MS by way Austin, TX as an undergrad
uate and Oxford, England as a Rhodes Scholar to make Manhattan
his own. His early autobiography. North Toward Home, was full of
love for his hometown and home state, but it was also a coming-
of-age confessional of a Southern liberal's embrace of New York
City's urbanity and sophistication. (A local lawyer once character
ized the book to me as "treasonous.'’) Willie's Later book, New York
Days, recounts the four years when, as editor of Harper's, he and
his friends enjoyed the city while they built a great magazine.
Now comes one of those friends. Larry L. King, to pen a tough-
love biography of Willie, In Search of Willie Morris (Public Affairs,
New York 2006), subtitled "The Mercurial Life of a Legendary Writer
and Editor." King is a writer/ reporter with numerous non-fiction
books and stage plays (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) to his
credit. He was one of the writers that Morris brought on board to
make Harper's one of the most exciting journals of the '60s.
Come to find out, Willie Morris was a terribly complex man
whose extreme extroversion masked a deeper, darker soul beneath
the bonhomie and charm: hence the title and the subtitle. King
starts out his introduction by stating, "Everyone thought they
knew him. Few did." Then he immediately shows you where his
account is heading, and I'll give you his words, because he tells it
better than I can.
"The private Willie Morris—the brooder, the loner, the man who
could lose himself in sleep because wakefulness was too painful, •
the man who preferred whiskey oblivion to facing problems, the
Willie Morris who hid his telephone in the stove or refrigerator to
muffle its rings and who called it an instrument of torture, the
Willie Morris who couldn't bear to say 'no' to writers, friends, or
supplicants and so would over-promise and then have to dodge
or fudge or run away, the editor who assigned magazine articles
and—should they go wrong—might avoid the erring writers rather
than convey bad news, the Willie Morris who having hired both-
Norman Mailer and David Halberstam to cover the 1968 Democratic
National Convention in Chicago for Harper's could not bring him
self to tell either of the proud writers that they must share the
only press pass he had been able to obtain, the Willie Morris who
could stick his head in the sand and think himself invisible, the
man who for a time became known (in plain ugly language and in
more than one place) as the town drunk, the man who could be
as stubborn and unyielding as any mule his idol William Faulkner
ever owned—well, that fellow was a complex and puzzling man his
adoring public never met.
"No way to rhyme that private, haunted, sometimes terribly dif
ficult soul with the public Willie Morris of legend: the boy-wonder
youngest editor-in-chief, at age thirty-two, of America's oldest
magazine, the glad-handet and shoulder-hugger, the merry eyed
Good Old Boy from Mississippi equally at home in Texas saloons
and New York salons, the editor who not only was near-perfect in
matching writer-to-subject but so adroit a copy editor—pruning
excesses, changing a serviceable word to one of more clarity or
originality—that writers felt chagrin they hadn't written it that
way. Willie was the pal of presidents and poets, the enthusiastic
fellow-reveler of professional athletes and rough-and-tumble trial
lawyers, a telephone joker who could imitate almost anyone well
enough to fool and gleefully embarrass his famous friends and oth
er contemporaries into making self-serving or pompous statements,
an editor who could—and most often did—write better than most
who wrote for him, a man generous with gifts even when short of
funds, the kind and playful 'Uncle Willie' on whom kiddies doted
and who himself loved kiddies and dogs and cats and all manner of
improbable strays, whether they had four legs or two."
King gives us a clear-eyed look at his friend and colleague
Willie Morris. His is a fascinating attempt to understand this com
plex man, how he got to be Harper's editor, how he lost it and how
he gradually and painfully put his life back together with a lot of
help from his friends, when he would let them. God help us that
we should have such a biographer!
Pete McCommons Editor & Publisher cditor@flagpole com
THIS WEEK’S ISSUE:
NEW <§* FEATURES
Anything But Straight 8
Born Different
A plea for tolerance...
Lunch Time on the Gallatin 9
Notes from the Montana Woods
Metaphysical reflections from a day well-spent fishing for trout.
Hip Mamma 11
A Vagina Monologue—Rated PG
Hip Mamma reflects on sexuality.
ARTS & EVENTS
Grub Notes 15
Subs and More Subs
MUSIC
Hot Town, Summer In The City 24
Local Promotion Crew Team Clermont Hosts Its Annual
Multi-Day Music Festival, Where You’ll Find Local Bands,
Touring Acts, An Indie-Rock Prom And Much More
Spread over several days, performers include nsing stars and about-to-break
artists like Mau Man, Modem Skirts. White Whale, Dark Meat and Now It's Overhead,
and it’s all topped off by a whimsical dance hosted by Elf Power.
So What’s Up? 27
Flagpole Checks In On Some Heavily Anticipated Local Releases
What can you expect from new albums by Patterson Hood, Now It's Overhead, Maserati and others?
LETTERS 4
CITY PAGES 6
ANYTHING BUT STRAIGHT 8
GALLATIN RIVER 9
HIP MAMMA 11
OUT THERE! 12
GRUB NOTES 15
MOVIE DOPE 16
MOVIE PICK 17
ABC 18
ABC@ATL 23
TEAM CLERMONT 24
UPCOMING LOCAL RELEASES 27
RECORD REVIEWS 28
THREATS & PROMISES 29
COMICS 30
REALITY CHECK '. 31
CLASSIFIEDS 32
COVER DESIGN by Kelly Ruberto
featuring a detail of a painting by Jeremy
Hughes on display at Evolution Salon
EDITOR 1 PUBLISHER Pete McCommons
ADVERTISING 0IRECT0R l PUBLISHER Alicia Mickles
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Larry Tenner
MANA6ING EDITOR Margaret Moore
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CITY EDITOR Ben Emanuel
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CIRCULATION Charles Greenleal, Clayton Aucion. JoJo GJidewell, Ansief Greene. Zack Haas
WEB DESIGNER Ian Rickert
ADVERTISING INTERN Stefa Witt
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ISSUE NUMBER 30
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