L.A.'s Media Cake serves up more than literary dessert - By N.L. Belardes

Lit Chicks: Tess. and poets Andrea Quaid and Teka Lark

I love discovering literary communities and creative media entities, especially online. Whether large or small, sub-alt genres or commercial reader groups, I admire what such groups are trying to do: gain readers, build community, and provide new views and outlets for writers to connect.

Enter Media Cake, brand new on the L.A. scene. Spit Poetics reviews, angry rants, discussions of adolescent and political bullies. And more, there’s film criticism, columns and even a travel narrative.

My favorite piece is a complete twist, an academic look at the Great Gatsby from an alternative perspective. Contributor Mandy Kronbeck writes in her Media Cake slice, “Why Won’t Nick and Jay Just Get Together? A Queer look at The Great Gatsby”:

Sexual subversion, or queerness, in canonized literature may not be easily detectable to the modern reader, but it certainly abounds in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. It is possible to unearth some of this queerness by examining the individual lives of, and the homosocial relationship between, the two main male characters in the novel, Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. Moreover, the queerness, or sexual and gender fluidity, that is demonstrated through various signs in these two characters helps to undermine the heterosexual relationships in the story; Nick’s queerness undermines his relationship with Jordan and Gatsby’s queerness ultimately undermines his relationship with Daisy.

(Read Mandy’s full triple layered cherry Media Cake)

I recently got together with Tess. Lotta and ask her a few questions about Media Cake.


Tess. with Gretta Harley and DJ Kat Corbet

Check it out:

Noveltown: Media Cake. You have your cake and eat it too? A mixture of raw materials all built into one finished product? Just what does Media Cake mean to you?

Tess.: Totally built on raw materials, but this is just a start.

What does it mean to me…well, for me, media is an exchange of ideas; I love examining ideas, especially stuck ideas, and I value the investment that it takes to really understand what you are reading, hearing, or seeing. And, as the assault increases, I am equally blown away by the potential of media to fuck with its own destination. I very often find myself shaking my head with a mixture of horror and hilarity at TV commercials, for example. The really telling ones lately have come from the fast food giants that are targeting hetero-identified men. The message is that only manly men can handle the power of a gianormous hamburger. Big meat equals man (let us just ruminate on how many levels that plays on). These marketers are trying so hard to pimp phallic-centered machismo as a selling point that the ad actually parodies the very customer it wants to attract! Not only is it insanely hilarious and pathetic that a burger signifies manliness, but scary that the idea is bought into on so many levels. Media Cake is a way for media makers to either examine stuff like this or start a discussion with their contribution: it is about ideas, discourses, images, notions, and cultural mandates and how these produce or identify stagnancy, disruption, or (re)creation.

Self-portrait with hubby Dave

Noveltown: Who started Media Cake and where do you see it headed a year from now?

Tess.: It is really a community effort—meaning, I conceived of and started Media Cake, but it would not exist without the contributors. It is as much about their voices, brains, and time as it is mine. It is also about generosity because it is a labor of love for anyone involved. In a year? Well, still out there and more involved by incorporating more tech-geekdom, so to speak. I have visions for it as a multimedia site and look forward to that day. I hope to take it to print, too, with at least one annual print issue. And, at some point, if the Universe is smiling, I hope to be able to offer stipends to the contributors (cross fingers here).

Noveltown: You're working on an MA in English, you teach high school creative writing, edit a poetry site, and now Media Cake? What are you, a workaholic or a write-a-holic? And tell us more about your poetry editing and high school gigs...

Tess.: I’m something…a total spaz, probably. My brain is always going, and I need the space to spill or insomnia sets in, and that sucks. So, writing and music have always been there; poetry as more of an ongoing discussion with myself (and writing groups); music and freelance journalism as the main outlet. I was a working musician (meaning, I was working hater jobs while pursuing the indy rock dream job) until I started grad school, which I just always wanted to do. Poetry began taking over as the main creative outlet soon after that. Editing has been there all along and is just fun as hell. I’ve edited creative writing, zines, journalism, music and culture sections, academic stuff…just fun. Right now, it is limited to poeticdiversity.org, Media Cake, and friends' work when they ask. The high school gig is through an amazing program called Spoken Interludes, which puts creative writers in small group mentoring settings with at-risk youth. We work on fiction writing basics, and, at the end of the 8-10 weeks, they read their finished story to parents, teachers, and friends. Totally amazing experience—such great people and the kids have taught me so much about life and being a stand up person.

Noveltown: Tell us something about the people you're working with at Media Cake. Can I trust these writers and photographers in a dark alley?

Tess.: Yeah, if you met John Gerlach, Gretta Harley, Dan Krejci, or Tonja Renee in an alley each of them would probably invite you to the local pub for a round of Guinness and a good argument. These four are politicized artists I’ve worked with in some form, and all of them are wonderfully talented, hopeful, and kick ass people. Gretta is an activist, musician, and composer; John is a musician, father, and screenprint artist; and Dan is a musician, writer, academic, and audiophile. Tonja Renee Hall is a yogini-traveler, multimedia artist, and singer. The folks that submit their work open up and expand the dialogue, like photographer Giuliana Maresca and Mandy Kronbeck.

Noveltown: You're really looking for a wide range of submissions, both academic and creative. Why such a broad range?

Tess.: All media—art, academic, advertising—reveals a critical frame, an idea available for examination. Corporate advertising, poetry, an academic paper, and a rock record are all saying something, adding to the broader discourse with an agenda colored by certain influences. It is important that we get familiar with as many of these discussions as possible not just as consumers of media, but as discerners of the messages. So, I not only want to attract poetry fans with poetry that pushes on established thematic and poetic borders, but tempt them to read a review about the agenda of feminist sex workers. Gretta Harley’s column pushes on conservative politics by exposing the pathology of bullying. In his piece, John Gerlach uses a book review as way to historicize current US imperialism. Mandy Kronbeck’s research essay on The Great Gatsby is doing something similar. She took a canonical piece of American literature, which is a tell in itself about what voices get heard over and over (being that Gatsby is written from the point of view of a white privileged racist and misogynist narrator), and she used the discourse of Queer criticism to open up another discussion. Good stuff—it shouldn’t be hidden away in an academic journal where the only people who get to read it are those in the tower. So, I hope this inspires other media makers to get in the discussion.

Noveltown: Can writers submit articles that they've written for other sites or that they have posted on MySpace? I guess what I'm getting at is, do your writers need to submit articles exclusive to Media Cake?

Tess.: If it has been published in print only, send it and include the previous publication info. We prefer stuff not previously published online, generally, but I’d say send it and we’ll see. Also, if we like the piece and where it is going, we may suggest edits to get it there. We also welcome comments / letters to the editor. And, as an artist who pimps her work out there, I know the game of the submission process and rejection is part of it. Not everything will get in, but it does not mean it is not good or worthy. I know many editors, and I include myself here, that have gotten hate mail from people whose submissions we’ve rejected. I’ve seen some really ugly shit come back to editors that are doing what they do for the love of indy media, small press, and art. I say on behalf of all of us that it is nothing personal and keep submitting elsewhere. It is part of the game, and online journals, mags, and zines are a great vehicle for getting your work out there to lots and lots of folks.

My bird, Angus Bird Young at bath time

Noveltown: Is Media Cake anti-blog? I mean, I wanted to post a comment on an article or two but couldn't. It would also be cool if I could subscribe to regular contributors. Do you see Media Cake ever transitioning to a blog format?

Tess.: I’m totally into the blog—what an amazing medium for real time exchange. I’m not sure yet how it will all play out in terms of the site, but I want there to be an interactive element, yes. Part of it is that I am learning the tech piece as I go.

Noveltown: What can people do as readers to be a part of Media Cake? And are you on MySpace.com? Oh, and thanks for doing this interview!

Tess.: Thank you very much. I really appreciate the support.

MySpace is coming. For now, I am hoping readers get fired up and submit, submit, submit.

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Monday, March 19, 2007. You can leave your response.