Dusty Wright

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Dusty Wright (the professional name of Mark Petracca, b. July 2, 1957) is a NYC-based musician, writer, and cultural ambassador best known as the co-founder (with partner Richard Burns) and main interviewer of the smart culture podcasting website CultureCatch.com, which debuted in July 2005. David Lynch said of Wright’s work on Culture Catch, "Dusty is a detective filled with zeal and excitement for finding the new and interesting things coming out of the changing world. His reports on these phenomena are jewels."

Original audio and video podcasts on Culture Catch include Lynch, Les Paul, Tony Visconti, Kevin Bacon, Mark Morris, Duncan Sheik, Susie Essman, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, Laura Dern, Russell Simmons, Gore Vidal, Bobby Flay, Bruce Jay Friedman, Matthew Modine, Andy Summers of The Police, Ron English, Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks, Bif Naked, Del McCoury, Wynton Marsalis, David Cronenberg, and many others.[1]

Petracca grew up in Ohio and earned a B.A. degree in Fine & Applied Arts from the University of Akron in Ohio. Moving to New York City, he started in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency and climbed the ladder to agent status, in the process moving to the company’s Beverly Hills office. His biggest signing was Andrew "Dice" Clay.[2]

Quitting WMA and moving back to New York, he shifted his focus to writing and editing. In the early '90s he became the penultimate editor-in-chief of the print version of Creem Magazine, and later New Power Generation, a magazine launched by Prince (musician). Meanwhile, he was writing screenplays; one indie feature, The Gentleman Bandit, was screened at the AFM and Malibu Film Festivals in 2000 and released internationally later that year. Other movie work has included the PBS documentaries The History of AM and FM Revolution (2003) and Wildwood Days (2005), and he was the music consultant for the Johnny Depp movie Secret Window (2004). He is currently working on a documentary about mid-'70s glam-rocker Jobriath.[3]

As a singer/songwriter, he co-founded the Bastards of Execution (BőE) and The Wright Brothers, and led GIANTfingers and The Dusty Diamonds (that briefly featured co-vocalist Jill Hennessey). It was in his music career that he picked up the Dusty Wright pseudonym. He explains, “I became Dusty by accident in my old post-punk/pre-grunge band Bastards of Execution, aka BoE. Jay, our lead guitarist, would always break a string at some point during our set, and he'd make me do [a] punked out country song to fill the time while he'd change his string. He'd say, "Now my boy Dusty is goin' get country for you while I fix my git-tar." So I got the nickname. I then formed a roots-rock band with my friend Orville Davis – bass player from the Atlanta-based Capricorn record label act Hydra. We became The Wright Brothers: Orville and Dusty Wright. Then I went solo and kept the Dusty Wright moniker.”[4]

He is currently working on a new GIANTfingers CD with cellist Matt Goeke.

CultureCatch.com continues to be his main focus and new reviews and podcasts can be viewed daily on this growing and successful website.

[edit] References

  1. ^ CultureCatch.com
  2. ^ Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen, ENCORE Digital Weekly Magazine interview, August 2, 2007
  3. ^ Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen, ENCORE Digital Weekly Magazine interview, August 2, 2007
  4. ^ Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen, ENCORE Digital Weekly Magazine interview, August 2, 2007

[edit] External links

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