Memories of Larsen leave their mark
By Bill Lascher 06/07/2007
About a week after I started at the Reporter, I received an e-mail. John Larsen, our film and calendar editor, invited the entire staff to have lunch from Mexican Express. He knew the owners — he referred to them as “friends” — and wanted to bring in some of their food as a way for old and new staff to get to know each other. It was, as worded in the punning style of the e-mail, a chance for us to “ketchup.”
I met John a decade ago while interning at the Reporter during high school. But in the blur of years I never really made a connection with him. Yet, through the years, as I returned home for summers away from college and eventually moved back to town, I began to recognize John. When I took a job at the Reporter I found my curiosity growing, particularly when John submitted his yearly summer movie preview and the editorial staff staggered at the thorough exploration of the season’s coming features.
By the time we received our invitations to John’s lunch I was enthusiastic to meet this man again. I had built up quite the image of him after the years of reviews, vague memories, tales from my fellow staffers and endearing e-mails.
John did not fail to disappoint. When I showed up the following Thursday, there was a spread covering our entire conference table. In the corner sat a man whose visage wasn’t readily familiar to me, but whose words were. His happiness to be there, in that room, in our office, radiated. Although he worked outside the office, he clearly knew everything about it. When I entered the room, he introduced himself and knew who I was before I said anything.
He loved where he was. With the news of his death coming suddenly May 30, it’s difficult to know whether he was suffering. But on that day it seemed like John was enjoying living.
As I prepared to write this piece, I re-read John’s e-mail and noticed the following line about the lunch he served: “While I usually do this in the middle of summer, it feels like the time is right.”
Perhaps John knew the Reporter was in the midst of transition and wanted to make me and other new employees feel welcome. Or, perhaps, he sensed something changing in his own life.
Whatever the case, the time was right. For many of us, that was the last time we ever saw John. For some it was the first time. There couldn’t have been a better time.
Since John’s passing, people keep asking me what we’re going to do about the film pages. Who is going to review movies now? Who will compile our calendar listings? Who will take his place?
I met John only briefly and the question baffles me. It angers me. The answer, of course, is obvious. Nobody. The Reporter hasn’t lost its film reviewer — it has lost part of itself.
Certainly, this is a publication that emphasizes its arts coverage.
Eventually, yes, someone else will write about movies and compile event listings. There will be a time. For now, the time is not right. When it is, that person will not replace John. No one will.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT