Wait ‘Til You Hear About Mandell and His White Sox Mandate

As with all successful, self-respecting artists, Mr. Mandell believes he knows best when choosing the acts. Still, like a good, loyal employee, he submits to their will, as he should. Every year, there is a supposedly serious meeting when the arbiters of the community — who wish they knew what Mr. Mandell does — pass on his recruiting choices. If you could read the minds of some arbiters, you could not reproduce their sentiments in this family newspaper. Like good, traditional burghers, all parties hold in their feelings, even though they are nearly choking on the internal pressures. If this were an opera instead of a nonsensical dog-and-pony show, it would be known by a simple name, “Dishonesty.”

The Language? Oh, Please

The Redevelopment Agency is scheduled to vote this evening in Council Chambers on several matters regarding the now- renamed Culver City Music Festival. The stuffy, stilted, artificially perfumed language that was used to describe the agenda item for tonight’s meeting was so tortured that I am sure the person who created the words ached for days afterward. If you ever have been part of a family that does not love you, or if you ever have walked into a family reunion where you are the most successful person present but are snubbed by all relatives, you will understand how Mr. Mandell feels. He has turned the Summer Sunset Music Festival into the city’s proudest promotional nugget, even if no one in City Hall will admit it. In the agenda program that will be distributed to the public this evening, Mr. Mandell is identified as an incidental piece of living room furniture, as a dull-minded uncle who is passing through town. As this newspaper reported last week, the key changes the Redevelopment Agency will vote on tonight include reducing the concert schedule from 13 dates to 8, reducing Mr. Mandell’s fee from $15,000 to $10,000 and forbidding Mr. Mandell to hire cover bands. Finally, Mr. Mandell will be required to submit his choice of acts not only to what will pass for public scrutiny at a weeknight meeting, but separately, he is to submit them to Susan Obrow, the Special Events Producer at City Hall. He also will be required to wear white sox for the second, fourth and sixth concerts or be subject to immediate dismissal.