June 23, 2004
Lava Lamps Come From Benson Records
[...and Benson Records doesn't even exist anymore.]
Does that mean that no one owns the publishing rights to that goo that floats around in there?
I went running today for about the first time in a year. It felt good. I took baby steps and probably ran just half a mile. I stretched a little and stopped before my body went into convulsions. It's nice to know that my body doesn't completely shut down on me if I don't exercise. I hope I can take some momentum with me and keep this stuff up.
We have two great interns with us this summer. Unfortunately, their time here is drawing close to an end. James will be here another week or two and Dave til the end of this month. They have done a fantastic job doing a bunch of different tasks. Their writing is keen. I got a call from a girl at Hot Topic today. She asked me some questions about Colin, our most recent ex-intern. His band, The Kerby, is about to get serious at the end of this summer and go on tour. That is so cool. Maybe if my positive words help him get a job, the next time I'll see him he'll be sporting high heel shoes, studded belts, and mirrored sunglasses... or maybe just a trendy emo shirt of some sort...
:?)
We've got some good article ideas brewing for this next issue.
Had another argument with a staff member today about our editorial direction. It's a tough balance to keep -- covering what's new and hard and maintaining some semblance of balance with older styles. The younger listener (15-25) in many ways listens to much different music than that of the 30+ crowd. On one extreme is covering nothing but trendy music. And on another extreme is covering a dying breed of hair metal that only a handful of older males are listening to (okay, a few older females, too). It's tough to keep a balance and not feel like you're either hurting yourself by disappointing a part of our audience (the guitarist in x-band who doesn't want to see another "butt rock" band in the magazine -- at least not in every issue) and alienating another part, who sees lack of coverage as turning my back on my roots. To me, reacting too extreme in one direction or another would be a mistake. I've already weathered the storm of 1995 (and 96 and 97 and 98!), where metalheads thought I had done a Judas to their fav form of music. Change happens. It's a good thing. If there never was change, Maiden, Priest, Scorps, Motorhead and a host of others never would have sharpened a metal edge on the blunt end of hard rock in the late 70s. If there wasn't change, bubble gum metal would have stayed on the radio for 20 years, and speed, thrash and Metallica never would've happened.
Music has changed. It's moved on, and the whole thing has blown wide open. There's not just one kind of music that's labelled "cool" by the freaks, stoners, or general cool kids at school and everyone else is supposed to like it or get laughed at. There are still music snobs from every corner of the musical spectrum, but now there's jam bands, guitar shredders, death metal, emo, indie rock, goth, math rock, roots rock, Radiohead, punk rock, hardcore, prog rock, anything goes. Like one artist said a long time ago, "Baby, baby, it's a wild world..."
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at June 23, 2004 11:01 PM