On the Morning After the heavily clouded Day After, the Prince of Punning and Practical Joking in Culver City was not close to being his old self. The Wizard of Wisecracks, a man of many words, today was in a mode to dispense fairly few.
Like longtime devotees of the 16-year-old Summer Music Festival, the producer of the festival for the last 10 years was, between customers at Boulevard Music, maintaining a somber vigil.
For the last 36 hours, Gary Mandell has been getting used to the idea that his relationship with the city is dangling by a slinky thread that just completed a successful course at Weight Watchers. Mr. Mandell’s festival-producing future hinges on the outcome of yet-to-start talks with Santa Monica radio station KCRW (89.9). The projection is that KCRW would swing into historically more staid Culver City with a grand and glamourous flourish as the new booking honcho and promotion king.
A Time for Reflection
Imaginative and funloving as he normally is, Mr. Mandell did not correctly predict the outcome of Monday night’s City Council meeting. After shielding the crack entrepreneur for years from stone-throwing critics, the Council, as a body, took one step back and left Mr. Mandell standing alone.
If the talks with KCRW crash, he probably would be re-signed in February, but the day of the cinch has passed.
The scene might have been reminiscent of being invited to a preview screening of your own funeral. How can a public figure feel when his replacement is being openly, nakedly pondered while he, presumably, still has the job?
At first, he said, “I can’t worry about this stuff anymore. I get too wrapped up with it.”
Mr. Mandell said a friend told him that it would not have mattered what he had told Council, that members’ minds were made up. “He told me, ‘They just wanted to get their way.’
At the heart of the long-simmering disagreement between the producer and his critics are two questions requiring specific responses:
• Exactly what kind of entertainers should he book on 8 Thursday nights in July and August in the Courtyard of City Hall?
• What is the preferred interval between Culver City appearances?
“When I asked all of the Council members, ‘What is an appropriate time to re-book acts?’ nobody answered,” Mr. Mandell said.
Can You Name That Tune?
Some Councilmen, pointedly Scott Malsin, have sought a change in the style of music, but no one has identified a favored alternative.
Back to Mr. Mandell: “I told the Council, ‘Look, I have a 20-year-old son, and it is going to be one of these four types, hip-hop, alternative indie rock, electronic or some forms of reggae. If there is some other type of music I don’t know about, let me know what it is.’”
Unable to resist an aside, “then there is the other 10 percent, A.P. students, who prefer classical music or maybe the Beatles. They can’t stand contemporary music because their parents listen to that.”
After Mr. Mandell listed the Council’s options, only Mayor Chris Armenta, who often favors seeking compromise, spoke up, saying “Can we find something in between?”
“That,” said the producer, “was a good question.
“Here is the deal. It is a very complex question. I could probably do something that would still get those people (a younger demographic) out that they want.
“I don’t think they should cut this series (a recommendation firmly rejected). But I think they should explore how they can get money to do an additional series. If they really want to get that age group, it is going to be that age group only.
“The seniors are not going to want to be there for that stuff.”
(To be continued)
