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March 21, 2007
Cathy Seipp has left us
I met Cathy Seipp for the first time at one of the monthly parties she and Amy Alkon and Emmanuelle Richard used to throw for various authors. I was new to the journalism game, and appreciated the free food, not yet reckless enough to blow all my cash in hand on non-free drinks. Cathy was "that friend of Amy's in the bandana." She hadn't gone blonde yet -- I don't think she did that until after the first chemo.
I was naive then on some scores -- it didn't occur to me that cool people I met at parties might actually be right-wing. The first inkling of her beliefs I got was at the Press Club Awards one year, when Norm Jenssen asked her if she really really believed in the death penalty even though DNA testing was showing it to be unfairly applied.
"I believe in the death penalty for people who cut me off in traffic!" she responded. Glib, but a good line.
I think it was some months later that Roger L. Simon was having a book party and invited me and a bunch of other bloggers. Roger had not yet fully made the rightward turn, but many of the bloggers in attendance had, yet when the subject of gay marriage came up, everyone was for it except Cathy. Pretty much everyone in the room let her have it, too. Though I didn't agree with her either, I was struck by how easily she managed to debate an entire room without raising her voice her losing any aspect of cool. I mentioned that on the blog the next day, and she emailed to thank me for writing it, adding that she can't stand when everybody is so certain they're on the side of the angels. I think that informed most of her views -- never a "true-believer" Republican, as she put it, she was more of a contrarian. Had she lived in Alabama, I bet she'd have been a liberal, just to mess with the locals.
When New Times LA folded, Cathy was one of the only people at the monthly parties who actually talked to me. Over time, thanks to those parties and via Cathy's blog (which, by the way, her daughter dragged her kicking and screaming into at the beginning), I have had the occasion to meet many wonderful people whose presence has enriched my life. From Cathy's dad Harvey to various bloggers like Martin "Patio Pundit" Devon, to Cathy-philes like Brad Fikes and David & Julie Scott, associates like Gary McVey and Carla Sanders, to even, in a roundabout way, the only person in this world who can plausibly call herself my ex-girlfriend.
For someone known as a partisan writer, Cathy was one of the least partisan people in her personal life. I remember back when Martini Republic blogger Joseph Mailander used to go on tirades about how awful she was, and she'd respond by calling him "some obscure lefty blogger"...finally, one day, they met, and all of a sudden became friends. Part of it, too, is that Cathy never demonized her opponents -- the tone was always more like "Oh, why don't those silly-billies on the left listen to me?" as opposed to the standard right-wing-blogosphere "All Democrats are objectively America-haters!" I suspect the Canadian blood made her more laid back than some.
There were people who knew Cathy and still disliked her -- mostly, I think, they were people in some kind of authority who weren't doing things the way Cathy would have liked them done, so she made their lives difficult.
What I could relate to most, since I'm like this too, is that Cathy, while hugely self-promoting and having a high opinion of herself, was also hugely promoting of other people, and able to have a high opinion of them as well. I've always said there's a difference between ego and arrogance; Cathy had the former, but not much of the latter.
Cathy's legacy as I see it will be her ability to gather disparate people together, and advance the credibility of blogging as a legitimate medium (even though it took her so long to jump into it herself). I also think she would have been a better diplomat than Condi Rice or John Bolton -- if she could host a party where Andrew Breitbart and David Ehrenstein are both guests, why not Olmert and Abbas?
LA Times is reporting that funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Mt. Sinai Hollywood Hills, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles.
Posted by LYT at March 21, 2007 5:09 PM [Message Board]
Comments
May her soul now rest in peace; God is now with her. He has a plan for her for greater things.
Posted by: Edwin at March 22, 2007 10:30 AM
That was a nice tribute, Luke.
Posted by: Jaye Luckett at March 23, 2007 2:17 AM
Luke, I have been a delinquent lurker lately, and just heard the news. A great tribute. xox
Posted by: leigh at March 25, 2007 2:25 PM
Luke, you're an example of the kind of creative, high-quality, high humanity quotient person one tended to encounter around Cathy. I'm glad we met in the course of putting together the Cathy tribute.
Posted by: Gary M at March 26, 2007 12:58 PM
Very nice reminiscence of Cathy, Luke. Thanks for that.
Posted by: Nancy at March 31, 2007 6:35 AM