It’s been an exciting week because I was published in a brand new journal. It was brand new not only to me, but the world. As if that wasn’t thrilling enough, it was my first completely digital magazine — it exists only in cyberworld, and so no trees were harmed in the making of Line Up, the new magazine from the folks at the International Music Festival Conference.
I got to write about Summerfest, for sure the biggest and pretty much the best music festival in the country sez me. It takes place in wonderful Milwaukee, and it was inspiring to talk to the wonderful folks who put it together. The article was really fun to put together, and stretched my muscles a bit. While I often write on the technical aspects for the live entertainment industry, I got to take a step back and enjoy writing about the bigger picture. It was also pleasing that the powers that be enjoyed my work enough to give me two assignments for the next issue — including one covering a film festival.
New assignments reinvigorate me, and I love that I can write about anything. I really enjoy talking to people who have passion in what they do, and I just let that passion spill over into highly engaging, educating, and entertaining copy.
All the many magazines I’ve written for over the years all pretty much have digital versions, but that Line Up is digital only is new to me.
It’s fun to look back. In the 1980s, I would get a job as a typesetter at a Kansas City publishing firm where I would code into what now seems like quite the archaic computer the font, size, layout, etc., of everything from ads to books (my claim to typesetting fame is I physically typed in every word of Roger Ebert‘s first “video movie companion” of compiled reviews).
Then dropped out of the conservatory to go to Tulsa to play in a punk band (that was a fun letter for my parents to receive). There I physically worked with old-fashioned lead type pretty much like my revolutionary era hero did. (This was for a company that made checks for banks and apparently that was still the best way to do it.)
I would return to college and get my music degree, and start a career writing about music and the arts and continue playing music. I’m grateful that that continues to today. Also grateful to get new opportunities to make editor’s job easier by giving them the copy they ask for in the manner they ask it and of course, on time.
I don’t know where “print” will be in 10 years — people yearn for quality content, and that will never change. How it is delivered will be different than it was when I was a kid, but my desire to create articles that tell engaging stories will never change.
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