How Sanford came to the Reader:
I was still in the comic book publishing biz (Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, Carnal Comics) when I spotted the notice in a 1994 Reader offering $500 for local music features.
It occurred to me that the paper might be interested in my stories of sneaking into local concert venues from the late 70s through the eighties, mostly when I was underemployed but sometimes even after I bought a ticket, just for the thrill of getting past the gatekeepers.
I wrote up what was basically a tutorial rather than a confessional, resulting in me being unwelcome at several of the venues I wrote about when the article was published the following year (1-19-95).
This was a minor problem when I first began contributing weekly articles to the music section, but launching the Overhead in San Diego comic in 1996 seemed to smooth things over, at least with places featured in the strip over the next 20-plus years. Around 2000, I began writing occasional cover features, many of them autobiographical.
Sanford's most viewed stories he wrote for the Reader:
Hey, man, nice ponytail - What Pee Wee Herman and Lana De Rey have to do with my hair
The last time I had an actual haircut was March 1983, when I was so new to North Park that I accidentally booked myself by phone to get my ponytail whacked at a nearby African-American salon. I had just returned to San Diego to take a job with the city’s first Subway sandwich operation, after managing a couple of Subways in Connecticut, where the chain started. My California bosses didn’t want their new guy looking like he played cowbell with Blue Oyster Cult, so I blindly booked the hair appointment out of the yellow pages.
How Sanford came to the Reader:
I was still in the comic book publishing biz (Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, Carnal Comics) when I spotted the notice in a 1994 Reader offering $500 for local music features.
It occurred to me that the paper might be interested in my stories of sneaking into local concert venues from the late 70s through the eighties, mostly when I was underemployed but sometimes even after I bought a ticket, just for the thrill of getting past the gatekeepers.
I wrote up what was basically a tutorial rather than a confessional, resulting in me being unwelcome at several of the venues I wrote about when the article was published the following year (1-19-95).
This was a minor problem when I first began contributing weekly articles to the music section, but launching the Overhead in San Diego comic in 1996 seemed to smooth things over, at least with places featured in the strip over the next 20-plus years. Around 2000, I began writing occasional cover features, many of them autobiographical.
Sanford's most viewed stories he wrote for the Reader:
Hey, man, nice ponytail - What Pee Wee Herman and Lana De Rey have to do with my hair
The last time I had an actual haircut was March 1983, when I was so new to North Park that I accidentally booked myself by phone to get my ponytail whacked at a nearby African-American salon. I had just returned to San Diego to take a job with the city’s first Subway sandwich operation, after managing a couple of Subways in Connecticut, where the chain started. My California bosses didn’t want their new guy looking like he played cowbell with Blue Oyster Cult, so I blindly booked the hair appointment out of the yellow pages.
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