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Claremont COURIER/Friday, January 20, 2017 9

Claremonts David Allen gets


started chronicling his career
Still, Getting Started holds up well.

H
es been at it nearly 20 years, but In- Theres a puckish piece, published on April 19, 2000,
land Valley Daily Bulletin colum- called Going for Broke, Upland Spares No Expense on
nist David Allen is just getting start- Its Way to the Poorhouse.
While the City of Gracious Living is getting its bear-
ed. ings, it has experienced years of financial travail since the
The Claremont writers first chronological collection columns publication. Notably, the former city manag-
of columns was released earlier this week through local er and mayor were arrested for financial malfeasance in
imprint Pelekinesis. It features dozens of articles penned 2012.
for the Bulletin from 1997 through 2000 and is available Back then, however, Upland was just beginning to edge
locally at Rhino Records and Barbara Cheatleys. toward bankruptcy through overspending. Mr. Allen re-
The book, Getting Started, is rife with humor of every sponded to the crisis by personifying the town as a shopa-
ilk, from anecdotal to satiric and from deadpan to gallows. holic, charting its movements through a blotter. In the first
Take a column written during a September 2000 heat wave entry, he reports the city was seen coming home with four
that had brow-mopping grumps complaining it was hot- new pairs of shoes.
ter than Hades. Rather than come through the front door as usual, the
Wondering how people can, in all good conscience, city approached stealthily through
bandy that phrase about when they had no clue what the the back door on tiptoes, Nord-
actual temperature of hell is, he goes straight to the source, strom shopping bags tucked under
traveling via hand-basket. its arm, Mr. Allen quips. When
As they chat, a stones throw from the Lake of Fire, confronted by taxpayers, the city
the devil marvels that Mr. Allen hasnt even broken a explained, it had had a bad day
sweat. Any denizen of the region can appreciate Mr. and shopping gives it a lift.
Allens response on a pore-deep level. The City of Trees also plays its
Well, I live and work in the Inland Valley. I dont have part in Getting Started. Theres a
air conditioning at home or in my car. And Ive spent the column about comedian Mort Sahl
last few days baking under the sun at the LA County Fair performing at the Athenaeum, and
in Pomona. a less flattering piece about an out-
Its one of Mr. Allens greatest gifts: blending wit with break of foodborne illness at Pomona Colleges Frary Din-
regional reportage. ing Hall.
In an April 1999 column, he reported on one of Another column documents an embarrassing photo
Pomonas best-kept secrets. The long-shuttered Fox The- shoot, undertaken to accompany a piece on the workplace
ater had begun showcasing lucha libre matches. The ef- of the future, involving Mr. Allen on the Claremont
fect is a little sad, a little comical, Mr. Allen writes of Metrolink platform, holding a briefcase and wearing a
seeing Mexican freestyle wrestling in a once-glittering space suit.
movie palace. But at least the Fox is open again. Mr. Allen is a great fit for Pelekinesis, according to the
He then describes the exploits of actor-athletes like Claremont-based publishing companys founder Mark
Amenaza Blanca (White Threat) whonaked except Givens.
for white shorts, boots, kneepads and the requisite Davids observational humor is interesting because COURIERphoto/Steven Felschundneff
headwearlooked like he rolled out of bed in his un- its not always laugh-out-loud funny, its much more sub- Longtime Claremont resident and local columnist
derwear, put on his mask and came down for action. tle, he said. Hes a newspaperman in a very archetyp- David Allen has released a new book chronicling the
The Fox has since been renovated by the Tessier fam- al way, observing and documenting. When you talk to him, early years of his writing about the Inland Empire.
ily, and now welcomes world-class music acts. Much else you can tell hes listening. Thats interesting to me.
has changed since Mr. Allens salad days at the Bulletin, at restaurants, in the street. They feel like they know me,
In 2014 Mr. Givens published David Allens literary he said.
when Clinton was in his second term and the word twit- debut Pomona A-Z, a collection of columns providing
ter conjured bird chatter rather than a social media site Hes also attained his lifelong goal of being a writer.
an alphabetical guide to Claremonts easterly city. The By third grade, young David was writing and illustrating
where he boasts 1600 followers. book sold 800 copies, brisk business for a local release. little mystery novels. He was on his high school news-
Though hes shyer in person than behind the keyboard, paper and wrote a humor column for The Daily Illini while
the Claremont writer found it gratifying to do book-sign- at the University of Illinois.
ings. Mr. Allen put in time at newspapers in northern Cal-
Most readers of newspapers you never meet, so to have ifornia, then landed a gig at the Victor Valley Daily Press.
people actually seek me outcome to an event and hand He moved south in 1997 when he got a job at the Bul-
me a $20 billis a very tangible way of letting me know letin, with Fontana as his initial beat. He began filing an
they appreciate what I do, Mr. Allen said. occasional guest column and, by summer of 1998, his col-
With Mr. Givens receptive to a second book, the colum- umn was appearing twice a week.
nist dug out his early clips and reread them. Some I re- This split-personality life ended in 2001 when I be-
membered fairly well, others I had forgotten. Some were came a full-time columnist, and the more universal ap-
difficult to make direct eye contact with, Mr. Allen said. proach to humor gradually faded as my columns became
About one of every four made him laughThe guy more about local journalism than whimsy, he writes in
who wrote these has a very similar sense of humor to me, the forward of Getting Started.
Mr. Allen jokedand those ended up in the book. Mr. Allen plans to release a new chronological collection
Getting a start of his Bulletin columns every year.
Like many humorists, Mr. Allen has a penchant for self- I kind of wish it happened 10 years ago, Mr. Allen
deprecation, from his self-professed lack of game with said of his book-publishing career. Theres lots of catch-
the fairer sex to a musculature indicative of a sedentary ing up to do.
profession. Along with Rhino and Barbara Cheatleys, Getting
In a column about helping a friend move, he talks about Started is available at the Ebell Museum of History in
how wrecked he was after a day of heavy lifting: Im Pomona as well as at Pelekinesis.com and Amazon.com.
a journalist, which means my main form of physical ac- A launch party will be held Saturday, February 4, from
Photo by Tom Zasadzinski
tivity is arching an eyebrow. 6 to 9 p.m. at Sonja Stump Photography, coinciding with
Mr. Allen poses as a space-age commuter for a Dont let the grown-up Charlie Brown persona fool you, the First Saturday Art Walk. Mr. Allen will also hold a
photo accompanying a 2000 piece he wrote on the though. In many ways, hes living the dream. talk and book-signing at Rhino Records in Claremont on
workplace of the future. The shot, taken at the Clare- Mr. Allen has a dedicated following, both throughout February 19 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
mont Metrolink station, is included in his new book the region and in Claremont, where hes lived since 1999. Sarah Torribio
Getting Started. People feel comfortable coming up to me at Starbucks, storribio@claremont-courier.com

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