Dillinger Four @ The Fleece

Had an amazing time at the Dillinger Show gig in spite of a day of epic fails ranging from the car breaking down to a severe tape recorder malfunction. Interview went well, I can testify that the band is cool, the show was great, and Lane read The Antagonist and said it was good. Hurrah!

The manager of the Fleece also liked it. He kept giving me whisky. Just as well. The bus station was freezing.

I'm off to bed finally, but I'll leave you with another photo:

That's awesome.

A Photocopier and a Stapler

As usual, I've spent today making plans for the magazine.

Tomorrow I'm interviewing Rat Scabies, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm trying to resist the temptation to read previous interviews because that never helps, it only convinces you that everything's already been asked. Still, I don't feel completely lost going into this one as I have something most music journalists do not: a background in early medieval literature.

Specifically the Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. I wasn't sure that would ever come in handy in my life as a journalist, but lo--!

Very excited, and equally chuffed to be working on some questions for Kate Smurthwaite of Cruella Blog. She's a fantastic writer and in this case, the trouble isn't knowing what to ask, it's limiting the questions.

Reading the blog (which I highly recommend) is making me think of the Old Days* with Teen Council and the always inspiring Jess H. In 11th grade I published her practical How-To guide to staging protests, but I never got to use the advice myself. Not long after that, I was in Britain, and it seemed like the issues were less pressing. It was an illusion, of course, but not every issue is as obvious as nearly getting hit by a missile aimed at a Planned Parenthood.

A year ago I covered a pro-choice rally in Cardiff. I thought I'd interview a couple of people and take some pictures, but I ended up hijacking the microphone and following a crowd of like-minded people to the police station to complain when a photographer was taken into custody for taking pictures of the event. Naturally, everyone took pictures of the arrest, and that's the great thing about Citizen Journalism. Everybody's got a camera.

There are a lot of great things about Citizen Journalism, but I don't have to tell you that. The Antagonist owes everything to self-publishing. And what's wrong with that? Do investors and advertisers make something worthwhile? If anything, they invalidate a publication/station/object by compromising its interests and creating a dependency on approval. That's not healthy. Much better to say what you've got to with a stapler and a photocopier.

*2003