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When I first discovered journalism in high school, I was hell-bent on becoming a writer for Rolling Stone Magazine. It was one of the top 10 news magazines we were told to study and it covered rock and roll - seemed like the place for me. Well, I never made it to New York, but I do freelance occasionally for the local newspaper and this week, my article on a rock band called Hero's Last Mission was published. Here's the article...

www.amadorvisitor.com/music/contentview....

If you're interested in the outtakes and/or what went on behind the story, feel free to continue reading here...

First of all, writers at the ALD are limited to 1,000 words for their original submissions, which makes it nearly impossible to include every detail from an interview into the story. Even after an article is submitted, it's still subject to further edits depending on 1) what else needs to fit into the paper that day, and 2) anything the editor feels may be inappropriate or stupid. Fortunately, editor Mayra Jimenez ran my story ran in its original length with the only edit I could find being she corrected my "signing" in paragraph eight to "singing." However, there were still some details that didn't fit into the constraints set by the word limit.

For example, during the numerous levels of competition for the West Coast Songwriters, each band had to play the same, originally composed song at each round of the competitions. HLM's "Baby, You Are Something" was their winning piece.

Another outtake was the mention of Sacramento-based musician Mike Johnston who played drums live off and on as well as in the studio for the band. He also did the artwork you see on the band's Myspace page. He was a huge influence on the Hurtados. Johnston is well known throughout Northern California for his drum lessons as well as his active participation in the local music scene. "He's the one who taught us how to play professionally," Lee said in our interview.

When I asked the Hurtados what band they closely resembled, they cited Maroon 5, Rascal Flatts, Fall Out Boy, Nickelback, and Coldplay. In my nowhere-near-humble opinion, I'm not pickin' up any Coldplay or Nickelback. Lee has a much different voice than Maroon 5's Adam Levine, but the bands' music is similar, although HLM have no keyboards in their music, and they're more rock than pop. I can say the same for the current album Rascal Flatts has put out (didn't they used to be a country band?). I will, however, give them Fall Out Boy. Both bands are good, high-quality rock and roll with lots of energy and danceable, young spirit.

The last outtake involved the band's determination to play Van's Warped Tour in the cities of Ventura and San Francisco. HLM took the liberty of using a roving cart with portable microphones and amplifiers to play to the fans waiting in line to get in. While there, they performed to the crowd and sold CDs and t-shirts. They ended up getting kicked out of Ventura, but were allowed to stay the whole time in SF.

After the article was published, I found a huge error on my part. In paragraph eight, the Hurtados did not sing in the 5th grade band. I have no idea why I wrote that. They played in the band, though - started off with trumpet and graduated to various instruments after that.

If there are any aspiring journalists out there, you might be interested in learning what literary faux pas I made on the actual story. These blunders are sure to keep me in the reject pile of Rolling Stone Magazine.

Students are taught in Feature Writing 101 to begin the story with a catchy lead (the first paragraph of the article). If the lead doesn't include a quote, you need to have a quote immediately following the lead. I don't know who invented that rule, but that's what you're supposed to do - something about making it readable.

For my lead, I really wanted to focus on the quality of the music and the energy of the stage performance. Unfortunately, when I was at the Aug. 13 gig, I was so overwhelmed at how good HLM sounded live, that I just stood there in awe the whole time and didn't take down any quotes from Lee Hurtado when he was interacting with the crowd. I knew their CD "Road to Recovery was well produced, but to hear them execute that level of quality live is hard to pull off, especially for a band that young. To compensate for my lack of attention, I quoted one of HLM's songs in paragraph two of my article. It cost me 43 words that I could have used on other details of the story. Lesson Number 1 to my protégés out there: Pay attention and jot down as many quotes as you can, especially if they're good quotes that you can use in your story.

The second mistake I made was neglecting to mention that the story transitioned from the Aug. 13 performance at the Boardwalk to a personal interview with the Hurtado brothers in the living room of their Amador County home on Sept. 2. I also should have mentioned that the quote from Wayward's Chris Stanton was submitted via e-mail (well, actually it was over Myspace mail, but that's considered a form of e-mail and it would have sounded too clumsy to be so precise). So, it should have read, "Chris Stanton, vocalist and guitarist for Wayward said in an e-mail to the Amador Ledger-Dispatch..." But who really cares anyway, so why not save the extra seven words and just use "says"?

Any math fiends out there might realize that Luis, who is currently 23 years old, was only 4 when Stevie Ray Vaughn died. That meant that Vaughn had been dead for 11 years the first time Luis heard the rock icon for the first time. No matter how I tried to work that fact into the story, I couldn't make it flow well, so I just left it hanging out there.

I did a really crappy job clarifying the chain of events.  Rock and Roll Study Hall started in 10th grade. At the end of 11th grade, the Hurtados were playing the high school revue and met some other guys in another band who ended becoming the first lineup of HLM. Nuclear Blast played Sober Grad when the Hurtados graduated high school. Two of the guys from that band are now playing in the current lineup.

I mentioned their first CD was titled "You're Better Off to Know." The album is actually titled "Your Better Off to Know" but I corrected the grammar and changed the "Your" to "You're" since it was a contraction of "you" and "are." That was just me being anal-retentive.

Speaking of being better off to know...

So now you all have a feeling for what it's like to be a journalist. Did I mention the pay sucks? That's why I don't do it full time, but getting to see bands like Hero's Last Mission and interviewing talented musicians like the Hurtado twins - even on a freelance basis - helps keep me sane when my day job drives me to the brink of insanity and my only hope of survival is pour myself a bowl of Cap'n Crunch and pop in a Bugs Bunny DVD. Don't worry. I promise that no matter how bad things get, I won't annihilate Earth because it blocks my view of Venus (that obscure Marvin the Martian reference was targeted to die-hard HLM fans and old fogies like me).

Anyone interested in reading some of my recent work for the Amador Ledger-Dispatch, can check out the following articles (published under my real name Gwen Johnson)

www.ledger-dispatch.com/life/lifeview.as...