Casa Cabrillo

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Zine
Title: Casa Cabrillo
Publisher:
Editor(s): Theresa Wright
Date(s): 1980
Series?:
Medium: print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom: Starsky and Hutch
Language: English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Casa Cabrillo is a gen Starsky and Hutch 247-page anthology.

It has art by Nan Lewis, Beth Browne, Connie Faddis, Paulie Gilmore, David Hosky, Signe Landon, Jan Lindner, Tim Richardson, Julian B. Thompson, Linda Walter, Liz Wright, Dale Wright.

cover by an unknown artist; this cover won an Encore Award
back cover by Tim Richardson

From "The Footnotes"

As for the possibility of 'Casa Cabrillo II' -- I cringe at the thought. Zine publishing is, without a doubt, one of the most frustrating, painful, exasperating things I've ever done (and that was just THIS WEEK!!) It is also one of the most rewarding. Even so, I have no plans to do another S&H zine in the near future. If, and when, I recover from CASA I, I may decide to trek down the masochistic route again, but that's quite a ways off in the future, so please hold the SASE's.

Editorial

A year ago, I hit upon the idea of publishing an S&H zine. It sounded like a lot of fun, good, experience in the writing and editing fields, and plenty of hard work. I was right. Just coming up with a title took almost four months. I originally wanted, to call it PARTNERS, but Paulie had already staked a claim on that one. Then came STREET LIFE a la Neil Diamond's song), but the two vignettes and one poem I had at that time had absolutely nothing at all to do with Starsky and Hutch on the streets. So, one fine summer eve as my sister and I lounged on the back patio swatting mosquitoes, sipping Tab and watching tornadoes play on the horizon, Liz suddenly sat bold upright and squealed, "Casa Cabrillo!!" My first reaction: was "Gedzundheit!", but after a while I grew to like (even love) the title.

It's been an interesting year (to say the least) -- loads of fun and frustration in fairly even doses. I set out to make Casa the best possible zine (taking into consideration my zilch experience) and tried to live by the philosophy, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing, it's worth doing right!" Believe me, it's been hard! There have been times when I've had to curb my own enthusiasm, times when I've actually had to divorce myself from the zine in order to get a better view of what was needed. At the beginning I made a promise to myself and my readers - Casa Cabrillo would have three (and ONLY three) compromises I've kept to that number. I started out trying to be a little 'different' from the rest of the S&H zines, and if nothing else, I believe I've succeeded in that aspect.

I'd like to take this space to thank all the people who contributed to the zine. Without their talents there would be no CASA CABRILLO (or PITS (Hi, Mel.); or ONE-SHOT (Hi, Jan!); or L. A. VESPERS (Hi, Dotty!); or ZEBRA THREE (Hi, Lorraine!) or a lot of others). I'd also like to thank my darling cousin. [name redacted] (he's gonna kill me for that) for coming to my rescue and saving me from certain bankruptcy. Also, thanks to REFLECTIONS of Enterprise and MEIZEL of Atlanta for their help with the cover photograph, and to Dothan Printing and Litho, Alabama, for their gorgeous printing job.

CC has progressed very, very slowly (especially these final few months), and during this time I've learned many things: patience and cunning; how to hold my temper; how to be aggressive and get things done (cry a lot.); how to be flexible (and/or inflexible); how to beg; how to grovel (Lord have I learned how to grovel!!); how to cajole genius out of others' typewriters (and ink bottles); how to be wonderfully intimidating; and how to deal with temperamental genius (place both hands firmly on the back of stubborn writer/artist and KICK!). And here is the final product - CASA CABRILLO -- a labor of blood, sweat, tears and an awful

lot of love. In print! And just two months late. Not bad for a first issue. I await your reactions and LOC's.

Contents

Gallery

  • "In the beginning..."

  • Signe Landon

  • from the essay by Green

  • from the essay by Green

  • Nan Lewis, winner of a Encore Award

  • Signe Landon , Hutch and Vanessa from "Still the Same" -- "Signe Landon’s work for ‘Still the Same’ is competent – her art is never less, but in this case neither is it anything more." [1]

  • Signe Landon, from "Still the Same"

  • Signe Landon, from "Still the Same"

  • Connie Faddis, art for "Broken Faith" -- "The illos for ‘Broken Faith’ are easily her finest work since the ‘shadow-man’ Hutch in The Pits #2" [2]

  • Connie Faddis, for "Broken Faith." This was the winner of an Encore Award.

  • Connie Faddis, for "Broken Faith"

  • Connie Faddis, for "Broken Faith"

  • Julian B. Thompson, uses the brass bed photo reference

  • Liz Wright, Hutch as a baby

  • Liz Wright, Starsky as a baby

  • Linda Walter

  • Tim Richardson

  • meta regarding zine editing

  • Casacabrillo-13.jpg

  • meta regarding censors

Part of Some Fannish Memories in Australia

The minibus actually went down to Medtrek 2... which was part of a three week driving holiday with two friends and included a lot of fannish stops and photocopying the Casa Cabrillo - the S&H zine. Who would have foreseen the internet revolution which has put every author within reach of every reader (sort of) and made zines redundant! [3]

Reactions and Reviews

1980

While two writer’ and one artist’s work do offer exceptional inside and a touch of class… the other entries range between unremarkable and frankly poor. Less ballyhoo, and vastly less pretentious packaging, should been in order.

Problem areas first: The editor’s own ‘A Time to Grow’ takes as its theme the initiation of Kiko Ramos into responsible manhood… We are never told why a youth of Kiko’s background would want to join a clearly criminal gang, still less how he could be brought to betray a friend in the process This particular lack is at least partly a function of the author’s obvious unfamiliarly with Chicano socialization patterns – she is, alas, equally innocent of Spanish grammar – but the preoccupation with causing S&H the maximum amount of payne and aguuny contributes, too. If Starsky’s original injury is gratuitous, his relapse and return to surgery for unspecified complications is flatly inexcusable. Add to this a stereotypical coward-bully villain, an uncontrolled tendency toward overwriting, and a much-too-easy emotional resolution and you have (A) a tale that requires a stylite’s patience and flair for self-mortification of its readers and (B) an extremely cogent argument in support of the wisdom of writing what you know. A pity, this. Properly handled, the idea could have yielded a first-rate story.

Much the same judgment must ultimately apply to ‘Broken Faith.’ In this novella, Starsky goes undercover as a disciple in a religious commune, with Hutch as the ‘outside’ man. Their murder investigation proceeds without surprise or measurable suspense; the plot hums along steadily,… When S&H decide to quite the LAPD at the end, one is given to wonder whether it’s not a matter of sheer ennui at be forced to cuckoo every hour on the hour. On the positive side, they like the story’s other people, have received rather more attention than the plot. Mark, friend of the victim and Starsky’s ‘sponsor’ inside the Hospice, comes across as an intelligent, personal youngster. Hutch is very well-drawn and we are given a Starsky that is almost brilliant. That ‘almost,’ in fact, represents the crux of the story’s true failure. As the situation is originally set up, Starsky is subjected to the initial stages of a subtle and clever brainwashing, in the course of which he confesses the guilt feelings stemming from his perceived neglect of his brother. Mark then becomes a surrogate for Nick as well as an ally, and … nothing. The author simply abandons this line of development… Worse, it deprives the novella of its major thematic focus, at one reducing the issues to glib superficialities an severing the connection between the case under investigation and S&H’s personal concerns….

Of the minor pieces, ‘Starsky and Hutch Remembered.’ a retrospective by the producer’s secretary, manages to overcome its subject matter to be both uninteresting and unilluminating…. [the reviewer pans seven pieces in the zine].

Now, for the good stuff, which is very, very good indeed.

“Beginnings’ is less a novella than a series of closely interwoven short stories covering the period between Starsky and Hutch’s thirteenth birthdays and cementing of their friendship at the LA Police Academy…. Marian is a subtle writer, and the balance [of S and H’s different POVs] is frequently delicate…. All in all, it’s a writerly piece of work. Three cheers and a 10.

Less ambitious but equally fine is ‘Still the Same,’ an account of what happened four years, six months and twelve days before Vanessa came home to roost in ‘Hutchinson for Murder One.’ It’s marked by Mel’s usual clean style and neat construction, by her clear reading of human motivation…. Another 10.

On the humorous side, ‘The Waiting Game’ and “Work, Work, Work’ provide genuinely witty relief to the grimness of the rest of the zine. As exercises in stretching the basic double-entendre, both are delightful.

Artwork: the best is Faddis’, out front and running away. The illos for ‘Broken Faith’ are easily her finest work since the ‘shadow-man’ Hutch in The Pits #2 [incidentally, this reviewer wrote ‘shadow-man’]. The characters’ weariness and fear comes through with mirror clarity…

Signe Landon’s work for ‘Still the Same’ is competent – her art is never less, but in this case neither is it anything more. The same is true of Nan Lewis’ and Paulie Gilmore’s contributions. The much-touted front cover bears an unfortunately close resemblance to a Warm Touch greeting card, though we are mercifully spared a quote from ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ or ‘The Prophet.’ Plain is better.

Recommended, with reservations.[4]

[Regarding the essay, Starsky and Hutch Remembered]: I have a couple of pet prejudices and one of them is intrusive reality (or attempts at same) barging into my fantasy worlds. I was uneasy with Amanda Green's [5] article in Casa Cabrillo -- I bought a Starsky and Hutch fanzine, not an issue of MODERN SCREEN. If I'd wanted to read excerpts from VARIETY et al., I would have taken out a subscription. [6]

1981

[zine]:

My Scots heritage bridled at first over laying out ten bucks for any zine, but this is quite the most impressive and possibly the best S&H zine to come out yet. Not every phrase in every story is sterling, but the overall quality is exceptionally high, and the zine is well worth the money.

There are three particularly skilled pieces, each which could highlight a zine by itself.

The first, ‘Still the Same,’ an early-partnership story; four years, six months and an odd number of days, according to the author, did not refer to the time since the Hutchinson’ divorced but since the Hutchinsons last drew blood. The story is intense, vividly described, multitextured, with several almost invisible plot currents running. One bit of Mel’s skill especially worth noting is how she makes use of her point of view: the story from Hutch’s pov portrays Starsky as being deliberately obtuse; from Starsky’s own pov his real sensitivity blazes out and we gather hints why he hides his spirit this way. The contrast is almost extraneous to the triangle plot, but it gives a lovely richness and sense of craft to the story.

If ‘Still the Same’ is a diamond, Marian Kelly’s ‘Beginnings’ is a heart. The theme is friendships in the lives of young men…. Less intense than ‘Still the Same, ‘Beginnings’ give at least as much character detail in smaller doses, as well as a comprehensive summum vitae for Our Boys. The reader may disagree with parts of Kelly’s universe, but probably won’t be able to help believing it while in it; it is very convincing and complete, and does not contradict what we know of those years from the aired episodes. Marian shows what strength the use of commonly accepted underpinnings gives a story.

The third hosanna goes out to ‘Broken Faith.” This is the second novella (the first was ‘Hide and Seek’ in One Shot) in a probably series of post-Sweet Revenge stories. The connection between the two lies in their asides and resolutions, not in the similarities of their primary plots.

In ‘Hide and Seek,’ Starsky returned to the forced and admitted in the course of the story that he could no longer hack Supercop; in ‘Broken Faith,’ both S&H decide by the end they should transfer to less strenuous duty, for while investigating a self-proclaimed Messiah and his truck farm, Starsky came Nearer My God To Thee. There is a problem in criticizing a still evolving series – a critic can read too much out of what is merely coincidence. There’s a problem in writing them, too – the author can’t back up and fix contradictions or lay foreshadowing for a later brilliant idea. In both ‘Hide and Seek’ and ‘Broken Faith’ there is on odd tiredness to the characters, a distance that made it difficult for me personally to get really engaged into the story. This is not to say ‘Broken Faith’ wasn’t well-written, aptly characterized or tightly-plotted, for it was all those things. But I am guess that this tiredness in S&H is deliberateness on Linder’s part and will be dealt with or resolved in future chapters.

The remaining sketches and short stories are not as prepossessing as these three juggernauts, but then, they don’t have to be.

About] ‘Time to Grow’… I can’t say how authentic the street gang scenes are, but they come across like bits of 1930’s gangster films. While the writing is reasonably skillful, somehow Wright’s attention is too often unfocused onto distractingly minor business, such as clocks, IV needles or a great deal of rain…. [The reviewer briefly mentions the rest of the zine’s contents]...

Buy this zine, or else your mother won’t love you anymore.[7]

1997

[The Letter]: I love sad stories. I love stories that make me cry.... ["The Letter" is] one that has stuck with me for a

very long time is in Starsky and Hutch. It is called "The Letter" by Teri White (of course, one of the best writers in any fandom ever) and it is in the zine "Casa Cabrillo" (1980). When you asked the question of sad stories I had to go looking through my S & H zines to find this one. I have always remembered it. I just reread it and it made me cry again. It is a death story. I look forward to your list. I usually prefer when stories make me cry that they also have a happy ending.

There are a lot of other good stories in S & H to make you cry but like I said this story just stayed with me. [8]

2001

[The Letter]: One of the exciting things about fan fic is that a writer can explore anything --- even unsettling or unpleasant situations -- and that's ok, because it's not permanent. The reader can accept or reject any author's vision of Starsky & Hutch's world, depending on her own needs. Ok, I like these guys, and yes, I like it when they live happily ever after. But we'd miss out on a lot of awfully good stories if we didn't have writers

willing to examine all the possibilities suggested by their relationship.

While I have my preferences, -- I admit to believing that S&H is One True Pairing -- [Rosemary C's] "Alternate" (on the Slash Archive) is one of my favorite stories. And I find Teri White's "The Letter" (in the zine CASA CABRILLO) terribly poignant, in spite of the fact that I'm not normally a fan of death stories. [9]

References

  1. ^ from S and H #16
  2. ^ from S and H #16
  3. ^ Effect of Commercialisation and Direct Intervention by the Owners of Intellectual Copyright : A Case Study: The Australian Star Trek Fan Community by Susan Batho (2009)
  4. ^ from S and H #16
  5. ^ Green was the producer's secretary, production assistant, and wrote two episodes for the show: "Gillian" and "Birds of a Feather."
  6. ^ from a review of Me and Thee #2 in S and H #29
  7. ^ review by Paula Smith, from S and H #17
  8. ^ from Virgule-L, quoted anonymously (April 6, 1997)
  9. ^ from Venice Place Mailing List, quoted anonymously (May 11, 2001)
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