UPDATE: In Comments, Uland caught a suspicious resemblance between the photo that used to be here and Prof. Kevin MacDonald of California State University. In fact, the photo was indeed of Prof. MacDonald; I picture-googled Jamie Kelso and didn’t read the text that came along with the picture.
I’ve changed the link and now the picture is Jamie Kelso’s official Stormfront thumbnail.
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I know about him because I’m writing a novel set in 1960s LA. My research included What Really Happened to the Class of ’65, a best-seller in the ’70s, forgotten now. The book is nonfiction and follows a dozen or so kids during the first 10 years after they graduated a fancy high school in LA. A lot happened to them, ’60s and ‘7os stuff, transcendental meditation and drug smuggling and massage certification and God knows what else.
Michael Medved, one of the grads, cowrote the book with David Wallechinsky, another of the grads. The book did fine by them both, and Medved has stuck around to become a wingnut scold who makes a fuss about sexy, unpatriotic movies coming out of Hollywood. Kind of a pain, really. But you know who really dislikes Michael Medved? That guy up in the first paragraph.
His name is Jamie Kelso and he thinks Michael Medved is a dirty Jew out to manipulate the white race. Kelso is another of the ’65 grads profiled in What Happened. Even then he was a dreadful pill, a twitch hung up on the idea of his superior intelligence. By book’s end he had become an Ayn Rand-ite. Now he is “a senior moderator of the American White Nationalist website Stormfront.” Fee-uck.
Here he rants about Medved by podcast. In What Happened he sounded like a fool but not stupid; he could turn a phrase. Now he just comes across as a whiny dope. In a way I’m happy to see life knock the shit out of his pretensions: all that talk about his intellect, all that testing and rejecting of mental systems, and he’s fallen for the dumbest of the dumb, retailed in the most flatfooted and unoriginal fashion. On the other hand, it’s depressing to follow a life, any life, and see it turn out this way.
In other What Happened news, Gary Wasserman is now vice president for merchandising at Bobbie Jones, a maker of quality men’s golf wear.
Thanks for the 'What ever happened to…?' tip. I just bought a copy online for 49 cents!
A couple more California books you might want to check out:
Holy Land: A suburban Memoir by D.J. Waldie
Any.all of Joan Didion's essay books from the 60 & 70's (most of the 70's books features stories written in/about Cali in the 60's)
Charles Phoenix's 'found photo' books
You’re a bookstore … ?
Yeah, I’ve got a beat-up paperback of The White Album that I’m going to reread — well, skim, since at this stage I’m just looking for place names and color detail. I’ll check out Charles Phoenix.
Wait, are you still around? Ok, why are you reading up on Calif?
I find the whole of Los Angeles to be endlessly fascinating. It started with my boyhood love of all things Hollywood, then spread. The glamor, the corruption, the art and the architecture, the assorted social/economic/ethnic enclaves, the inclement weather of every variety, the religious/spiritual fervor and the world famous hedonism…
It’s like a microcosm of the world, with all of the best and worst parts exaggerated, and then expanded upon to include tangible actualizations of our fears and dreams.
Wordy, no? But I’ve found that every book of L.A. fiction I’ve ever read — from Nathaniel West’s to Chester Himes’ to James Ellroy’s — ends up unintentionally having to tone down the schizophrenic nature of the place. It’s just that crazy and cool.
Oh, and the Inkwell is still a bookstore. Knock on wood. ;)
I think you’re misrepresenting Kevin Mcdonald.
Hey, yeah, there you are in Falmouth, Mass:
http://www.inkwellbookstore.com/
Have you ever read City of Nets by Otto Friedrich? It’s a monumental clip job about 1940s LA, emphasis on the movie industry. A fantastic read and one of the few Hollywood books I really like.
I’m ordering the Phoenix book and a couple of other picture books from Amazon. Thanks for the tip.
Any recommendations for online sites about ’60s LA? I especially need pictures. Googling “Los Angeles” with 1960s turned up the city-forum message board, but I’m looking for a bit more.
I think you’re misrepresenting Kevin Mcdonald
Doubtful, since nothing was said about him here
I love City of Nets. Now that I think of it, though, I’ve never read any of Friedrich’s other books. Have you?
I can’t think of any L.A. -in-the-60’s websites off the top of my head, but Charles Hess put out a great book, Googie Redux, which features a wiiiiide variety of photographs of private and commercial architecture from the 20's to the early 60's — focusing heavily on the 50's & 60's. And unlike a lot of other architecture books, this one is a fun read!
I read Before the Deluge, also good, and tried a book of his essays but didn’t go for it.
Pretty sure Uland has in mind Kevin MacDonald, the fellow with the views about Jews, but Jamie Kelso probably wouldn’t agree with what MacDonald has to say. Going by the podcast my post links to, anyway.
Hmn…It’s not often I say this, but I’m gonna have to brush up on my white supremacists!
I’m no expert, but Wikipedia says MacDonald stays away from the white nutter groups. Whereas Kelso is a white nutter thru and thru.
I think that picture is of Kevin Mcdonald though..
I could be wrong. Sorry for the confusion.
All right, chief, no problem. And …
… you’re right about the picture. It’s of MacDonald. I found it by googling “Jamie Kelso,” but the text that accompanies the picture reveals that Kelso is supposed to have been at the awards dinner where MacDonald received his plaque. David Duke is supposed to have been there too.
If that’s the case, then so much for Wikipedia and MacDonald’s staying away from white nutters.