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IN CAREER-CRUSHING
MOVE, HITS UPS TWO

HITS has announced the promotion of two members of its editorial staff. Holly Gleason has been upped to Nashville Editor after serving as correspondent, while Michael Dominguez has been named Associate Editor after two years as Executive Assistant to Editor in Chief Leonard J. Beer, where his duties included ordering Beer’s lunch and removing every trace of cilantro from his boss’ tacos. In his new role, Michael joins the other members of the editorial staff in cowering under their respective desks.

Our sympathies go out to Holly and Michael’s loved ones.

Holly, who grew up in Cleveland in the thrall of legendary Plain Dealer music journalist Jane Scott, started writing for the Miami Herald at 19, went on the road with Neil Young at 20, contributed to Rolling Stone and the L.A. Times at 22, and wrote the cover story for the final issue of Creem.

Her ascendant career took an unfortunate turn when she came to HITS as Features Editor around the turn of the century, after which she moved to Nashville and originated the trailblazing if short-lived Neobilly column. She then managed to pull a U-turn out of the HITS cul de sac and went to work for labels (Sony Nashville, DreamWorks) and artists (Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Lee Ann Womack, Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney) before getting back to writing about music. Her tome Women Walk the Line won the 2018 Belmont Book Award for best country/roots book. A 2018 SOURCE Hall of Fame inductee, Holly has found the time to teach rock criticism at Middle Tennessee State for seven years. All of which begs the question, what sort of incriminating info does HITS have on her that has enabled the scourge of the music-trade business to force her ongoing indentured servitude?

Michael, who loves music and (Dodgers) baseball, was born and raised in the dairy-farm mecca of Tulare, which is in the congressional district of the odious Devin Nunez. After high school, he got the hell outta there and headed to L.A., where he entered the Music Industry Studies program at CSUN. While still in school, he got his feet wet in the street-marketing department at Warner Bros. Records before landing an A&R internship at the Bunny and getting a taste of how the "old school" did things.

After college, Michael interviewed around town, but it was 2009/10 and the music biz was tanking, and there wasn't much work for entry-level talent. While struggling to make ends meet, he worked at a coffee shop while still doing random music stints (writing/pitching songs, attending an ASCAP pop/rock Workshop in Nashville, working on a Dash Radio show). Michael’s dream of breaking into the biz turned into a nightmare when he replied to a random HITS tweet looking for interns. His expertise in SoundCloud rap impressed Beer, who took him in, much like Goldilocks was welcomed by the Big Bad Wolf.

Every weeknight, Michael escapes to Venice, where you’ll often find him waiting in line to get a baguette at Gjusta.

“Who are these people,” asked Beer, pausing briefly from sucking deeply on his bong, “and how much are they paying me to work here?” Publisher Dennis Lavinthal was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

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