WHAT THE BUCK?
Buck Quigley on Journalism, the Steam Donkeys and Old Church Vans.
By: JOHN MACKOWIAK
In the “Bible Belt” town of Greenville, NC, old church vans frequently roll up and down the streets. Usually, the vans are filled with screaming Sunday school students or solemn nuns.
So when Buck Quigley, wearing a denim jacket that had a crucifix on the back, and his band—the Steam Donkeys—emerged from an old van that had pale blue crosses and the words, “Greater Emmanuel Temple Church, Buffalo NY,” painted on the doors, a few heads turned.
Needless to say, the Steam Donkeys didn’t quite fit into the Bible Belt music scene. The alternative country band from Buffalo, NY toured the Eastern Seaboard throughout the 90’s, singing songs about everything from a “Pothead” to “Jesus on the 90” to “Little Honky Tonks.”
About six years ago, Quigley’s wife, Heather, gave birth to a baby girl named Sophie. After the birth, the Steam Donkeys’ days of touring and constant gigs came to an end. Today, music has become more of a hobby for Quigley, while he concentrates on his career as Associate Editor for Artvoice, Buffalo’s weekly alternative publication.
Recently, Quigley spoke to a group of Journalism students at SUNY Fredonia. Though he doesn’t consider himself an expert in the world of newsgathering and reporting, Buck was more than happy to share some of his experiences and knowledge with the class.
A University at Buffalo alumnus, Quigley has always possessed a passion for writing. He has written plays that have been produced in the city of Buffalo. He composed the majority of the Steam Donkeys’ music. He writes and edits stories for Artvoice. Quigley finds fulfillment in writing.
Passion is absolutely necessary in any of life pursuits, Quigley subtly advised the students.
As passionate as Buck is for his work and music, it certainly is not easy to pick up on the immense enthusiasm through mere visuals. While speaking to the aspiring journalists, Quigley leaned against the wall wearing a faded blue sweater and worn-in jeans.
Quigley seems to be at ease no matter what setting he finds himself in. He may have felt slightly awkward wearing his crucifix jacket in Greenville, but he is laid back and comfortable in most other situations.
He speaks to people as if they were his old friends. While many speakers maintain a gap between themselves and their audience, Quigley warmly invited the students to share in his life’s stories.
Even after the same question—what’s it like to be reviewed and to review others?—was asked multiple times in varying ways, he remained cool and understanding, patiently answering each of the students’ questions and endowing them with advice and anecdotes.
After listening to Quigley speak, however, his passion for life and his work is easily perceived.
Quigley brought the students freshly printed copies of Artvoice—both for the students’ reading pleasure and to be used as a visual aid. Many would agree that the most boring aspect of Buck’s job as associate editor would be adjusting and formatting the layout of various pages of the paper.
Nevertheless, Quigley managed to animatedly detail even this utterly boring task, as he pointed out the layouts that he formulated. In fact, he made the dull chore sound interesting.
Conformity could be listed as Quigley’s archenemy. Indeed, he is comfortable in his current setting, but he has a history of refusing to conform to life in the mainstream.
He started an alternative country band when alternative country didn’t even exist yet. He works for an alternative newspaper that gravitates under the radar of the mainstream Buffalo News.
One of the very few instances of living in the mainstream that he has experienced over the years was his job in marketing with the Talking Phone Book. A chore that he wouldn’t mind forgetting.
Quigley’s personality and relaxed mindset fit in with the stifling corporate atmosphere like his “crucifixed” denim jacket fit in with Greenville music scene.
Not long after joining the phonebook’s marketing team, Quigley left the company, went to work for Artvoice and grew back his facial hair. Phonebooks, Quigley noted, are probably the most difficult product to market in the history of capitalism. Who gets excited about phonebooks?
Despite his refusal to conform, passion and laid back disposition, Quigley understands his role in the world. He doesn’t pretend that entertainment reporting is vital to life. He calls writing about the arts “fluff.”
Writing for a news section must be precise, concise and objective, but, as Quigley explained, when writing for an arts section, if mistakes happen, if your opinion comes out too much, oh well, it happens.
Nobody is going to get sued or lose their job over an error found in an entertainment article.
In 1992, the Steam Donkeys released a five-song EP titled, “Songs from a Stolen Guitar.” The band was chastised in reviews for promoting thievery. The truth is, however, that the EP was titled as such because Buck’s Roy Orbison-signed guitar, on which he wrote the songs, was stolen from him.
A major misunderstanding that could have damaged the Steam Donkeys’ image, but it didn’t generate any sort of controversy. Imagine, however, the consequences of wrongfully accusing a politician of endorsing stealing.
That’s the beauty of arts reporting. It’s like a sticky, white and delicious marshmallow spread—fluff.
And Quigley has no problem with that. Fluff offers more fun than hardcore news ever will.
During his time as a concert reviewer for the Buffalo News, Buck was sent to a Willie Nelson Concert.
He met Nelson and was invited to his tour bus. Quigley didn’t want to give all of the details of the event—what happens in Willie Nelson’s tour bus apparently stays in Willie Nelson’s tour bus—but he did summarize the experience with a nod of his head, a big smirk and a short phrase.
“It’s true.”
If you want more of Buck Quigley, you can read his work in Artvoice, or you can see him play with the Steam Donkeys on the second Thursday of each month at the Sportsmen’s Tavern in Buffalo.
LA TIMES STAFF WRITER VISITS FREDONIA
By: JOHN MACKOWIAK
“Hey Ron, you lost your ‘A’ in the paper today, eh?” said Don Cherry, co-host of Hockey Night in Canada, to his partner, Ron MacLean, while holding up a copy of Scott Martelle’s profile of MacLean from the Detroit News. In the article, the veteran journalist and SUNY Fredonia alumnus misspelled MacLean’s last name. He spelled it “McLean.”
The journalist became the laughing stock of Canada.
Martelle’s work in journalism began prior to his graduation in 1984. Since 1984, he has written for newspapers in Jamestown, Rochester and Detroit. After leaving Detroit, the LA Times became Scott’s new home.
This past Tuesday, March 13, Martelle spoke to a group of Fredonia State students and faculty. He narrated some of the most interesting stories from his impressive career, and he spoke about the future of journalism.
The lecture was titled, “We Aren’t Dead Yet: A Voice from the Journalism Trenches.” The speech also imbued students with loads of advice. Most students walked away from the lecture with a better grasp of what life would be like as a journalist.
Throughout his many years as a journalist, Martelle has been praised and embarrassed because of his work.
Don Cherry ridiculing him on Canadian national television: that was embarrassing.
He misspelled a word. A minor mistake, but in journalism, even the tiniest of mistakes gets noticed. Hubris, Martelle explains, the assumption that he had everything right, caused the error.
There are two types of journalist, Martelle claims. Journalists and people who like the idea of being journalists.
A Journalist works long hours, travels wherever his editor tells him to go, sacrifices his personal life and strives to go unnoticed. He is not the story. He tells the story.
A person who likes the idea of being a journalist thinks it’s cool to see his name in the byline and constantly tells people how cool he is for having his name is in the byline.
Martelle is, in every sense of the word, a journalist.
During the 2004 election cycle, the LA Times dispatched Martelle to cover the Joe Lieberman campaign in South Carolina. He planned on being away from home for two days. Two days turned into a few more because he was unable to speak with Lieberman while in South Carolina.
In order to speak with Lieberman, Martelle had to travel to New Hampshire. The next destination for the Lieberman campaign.
Martelle got his story, but the Times told him to hop onto the John Edwards campaign since he was already out east.
It was December when Martelle left his Orange County, CA home to join Lieberman in South Carolina. By the time he got a break from covering the Edwards campaign, it was February. Martelle’s wife and children did not see him until Valentine’s Day. A span of almost two months. He planned to be gone for only two days.
The job has its stresses. It is not an easy job, but Martelle loves every second of it.
“Journalism is a passion. It’s a way of life,” Martelle said.
A passion for writing and curiosity generates thorough, high-quality journalism. Martelle told his audience that journalists have to love what they do. He continued by saying that an overriding curiosity of why things are the way they are must be present inside of every journalist.
Students also learned from Martelle that there are two ways to reach the upper-echelons of the journalism world, to get jobs at the most prestigious news sources.
Number one: have rich parents. Wealth can get you into the well-respected yet expensive journalism grad schools. Syracuse, Columbia, USC—they all have great journalism schools, but they cost a fortune.
These schools’ greatest merit does not come from the education and training that the schools offer, Martelle explained, but from the networking that is established while attending the grad schools.
Syracuse alumni hire Syracuse alumni. That’s just the way it is.
The other option is to do things the way Martelle did. To work your way to the top. Martelle graduated from SUNY Fredonia. The school doesn’t even have a Journalism major yet. However, because of his work ethic and determination, Martelle was able to land a job at the LA Times.
Major league baseball players spend years in the minor leagues before they finally make the “big-time.” The same is true for journalists. Most have to toil at small market newspapers and work their way up to the top newspapers.
The LA Dodgers’ Nomar Garciaparra started his career with the Sarasota, Florida Single-A team. The LA Times’ Scott Martelle began his career with the Wellsville Patriot.
Martelle admits that his perseverance and talent weren’t only factors that got him a job with the LA Times. His efforts at networking paid off, too. Someone he knew from earlier in life gave his resume to an editor and encouraged the editor to consider hiring Martelle.
According to Martelle and as evidenced by his career, Curiosity, hard work, talent and networking yield the top jobs in the field of journalism.
