By being innovative, City Councilman Andy Weissman saved a night that was trying to jump out the window at last night’s meeting.
Smart people often make their ingenious ideas look as smooth as pulling on your sox.
Instead of choosing from Option 1, Option 2 or Option 3 for a producer for the Summer Music Festival series, Mr. Weissman, a lawyer, performed like a world class chef.
He took the heart of Option 1 — Gary Mandell producing the series of eight concerts — and seasoned it with a sprinkling from Option 2, allowing Ruth Price of the Jazz Bakery to select jazz-type acts for two of the eight weeks. As Mama used to say, “A little something for everybody.”
We Know Why He Dissents
Not in the opinion of Ms. Price’s patron, Councilman Scott Malsin, but that is understandable because he had invested heavily in seeking to bring her to the Courtyard stage at City Hall.
Since two votes on the Mandell side and one on the Price side were presumed to be iced going into the meeting, the question was, which way would Mehaul O’Leary and Jeff Cooper go?
Mr. Weissman’s clever mix-and-match won Mr. O’Leary and nearly landed Mr. Cooper, who demurred over a technicality.
What was the motivation spurring Mr. Weissman’s late-evening sort-of compromise that really was a victory for his side?
“I was resistant to the idea of the (City Hall) staff taking on added responsibilities (marketing the concert series instead of leaving that job to Mr. Mandell) given their workload,” he said this morning. “I appreciate the fact they want to promote the Jazz Bakery coming to Culver City.
“There seemed to be a win-win out there. Allow the producer, who has been fairly successful if attendance is a guide, to remain while incorporating two Jazz Bakery nights into the series. Carving out a couple of nights to have somebody else responsible for the evening did not seem troublesome to me.
A Clash? Nah. Well, Maybe
“There didn’t seem to be personality issues between the two promoters. But to the extent there may be personality or ego issues, once those are cleared up, I don’t see any reason why it can’t happen.”
Am I Late for Chem Class?
Once again let us re-visit the lifeblood of human beings, chemistry between people working in proximity to each other.
If one of those strong minds at City Hall had reflected for five minutes, it would have occurred to a person of average intelligence, it seems, that signing up Ms. Price of the Jazz Bakery and the incumbent Mr. Mandell as equally weighted co-producers of the Summer Music Festival series was at least the worst idea of the year.
Boys, they don’t even know each other. Where is the chemistry to make the program click?
The scheme that had each Very Independent entrepreneur producing four weeks of concerts was scarcely different from walking into a crowded restaurant and saying I am going to propose marriage to the first girl I see wearing a navy blue dress with a corncob pipe in her left ear.
If I think I had rotting wood marriages earlier in my life, Price-Mandell — or is it Mandell-Price? — would have resembled Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan in the same room without a fix in sight. The 4-and-4 plan rivals a man dashing back into a burning house because he grabbed the wrong shoestrings.
