Sunday, February 28, 2010 10:15 PM
To Whom It May Concern:
So, I guess I’m way, way overdue for one of these. I guess I should kick things off by saying Happy New Year, first, and, then, maybe, Happy Valentine’s Day. Hmmm. Where to start?
I may have mentioned before that it’s hard to keep the motivation I had going in Year 1 at the same level through Year 2. Moving forward, I’ve decided that my focus will be quality and not quantity. I updated the category descriptions to reflect this a few months ago. Instead of stating how often things will post, they just contain general descriptions. There’s only one of me and, as I’ve also previously stated, I do have a day job. Without J. Dub’s assist I’d get even less accomplished. So, I’ll do what I can when I can. I still hope to get you as much content as I possibly can, but I don’t want to sacrifice quality for it. The more you start feeling like your burning the candle at both ends, the closer to burnout you are. I’m not going there.
That said, I’m looking for volunteer contributors to popolio. I need writer-photographers. I also need an associate of sorts to brainstorm with, bounce ideas off of, and help plan and organize as we try to move towards more popolio-sponsored offline events. Actually, I’d like one contributor for the Austin area, one contributor for the El Paso area, and this additional Austin-based associate.
I’d prefer writer-photographers to start, but if it needs to be one writer and one photographer for each area then I can work with that, too. As I can’t afford to pay anyone; it’d be more about perks in the way of CDs and shows and some dinner meetings may be my treat. Because of this, I’m more interested in someone who is a passionate up-and-coming dabbler with some talent than someone who considers themselves an all-out “professional.” Regardless, I will want writing and photo samples. If you’re interested, email me directly to get more information.
So, what’s been going on at popolio in 2010? The guest artist-helmed MY TOP 10 countdowns continue. NYC comedy hip hopper, Soce, The Elemental Wizard kicked off our new year with his TOP 10: Analog Videos with two videos for each post and BONUSES galore. I needed a February TOP 10-er and local soul artist, Lisa Marshall (she was also our first January 2010 pop quiz Artist making her our first pop quiz Artist of the year as well), was gracious enough to step in at the last minute with her TOP 10 “Rhythm in my Blues” Videos. A big thank you and shout out to her. She had some shows last week, so her Number 1 video and OUTRODUCTION are still pending. Stay tuned for those last two posts. Our other January pop quiz Artist was Austin folk artist, Aly Tadros. Back to Lisa Marshall for a moment, her TOP 10 acted as an unofficial ode to Black History Month. That was nice serendipity.
Our February pop quizzes were devoted to local new wave/rock band, Tribella. So, you got three pop quizzes instead of the usual two for the month. We featured them once before with a 5 Questions for interview in anticipation of the Summer Sizzle fashion show they headlined last year. This time around the pop quizzes were in celebration of the release of their debut full-length, Thirteen. It was released last Tuesday, February 23, 2010, and the release party was last night. I was in attendance and it was a rockin’ affair. Check out Sarah Glynn’s, Rae Goldring’s, and Dena Gerbrecht’s pop quizzes.
I also kicked of my SXSW coverage this month with SXSW Artist pop quizzes. Posted daily for about a week-and-a-day, most ended up being Austin-area artists, though I do reach out to national and international acts. The featured artists were Colin Gilmore (ATX), Broken Records (Scotland), Best Fwends (ATX/Ft. Worth), Alvarez Kings (UK), The Golden Boys (ATX), and Monarchs (ATX/Birmingham, AL). I’m going to make the first two weeks of March the official SXSW 2010 editions of popolio.com and the official popolio.com MySpace Page. So, I will be re-presenting those pop quizzes starting tomorrow, Monday, March 1, 2010. I wanted to give you more SXSW content this year than I did last, so I have some things in the works. There maybe some more SXSW Artist pop quizzes coming your way. Keep an eye out for that.
Also, those who aren’t familiar with our MySpace Page — All the artists featured at popolio are our Top Friends. Now, if the coverage is around an event, I don’t normally include them, but when it’s a straight-to-popolio feature, I do. It is a rotating roster as we are at our max of 40. So, those featured more recently are near the top and those near the bottom will fall off unless we feature them again.
I always add the song of the latest artist we’ve featured to our Profile Player as well. In most cases, if they’re a pop quiz artist, it’s the song that was included with their pop quiz or if I interviewed them for a popolio podcast, it’s one of the songs streamed into their interview. Sometimes you’ll be able to tell what’s coming up if I’ve added a new artist and song and you haven’t seen a post on them, yet. Just thought I’d share some insider info for those who are into that sort of thing. Like I stated above, I will be changing the popolio MySpace Page to feature the SXSW 2010 Artists we cover.
March is Women’s History Month and I’m proud to say I’ve been featuring many female artists here of late. I’d like to say it was premeditated, but , at times, it seems like it just happens in waves at popolio. For awhile it seems like we’re focused on Latin artists then it’s urban artists and, more recently, there have been many female artists featured. I like it being a hodgepodge (it’s in our definition) of types of artists, musical genres, and content and that will continue. So, though I don’t focus on gender, I do try to keep it mixed up and balanced on all levels, if at all possible.
I bring it up, though, because TOMORROW, Monday, March 1, 2010, I will be posting Part 1 of a 20Q interview with a dynamic, strong, critically-acclaimed, Ten-time-Grammy-nominated female musician. Part 2 will post on Tuesday, March 2, 2010. I think this is a great kick-off, not only Women’s History Month, but to a month of abundant and eclectic music brought to us by way of SXSW. Definitely, check back for that interview.
I think the anticipation of the future is a good place to close.
11:30 PM
peace, love & all that jazz
freddie beat
popolio creator/editor
