At The Peak Of Exhaustion
Yesterday brought a new level of tired to my body. I woke up after my usual six or so hours of sleep but felt completely drained from a combination of allergies kicking my ass and an intense amount of work the previous day. On Tuesday I had what ended up being a four hour meeting with a label about hosting my own event. We had to wade through tons of CD’s to see who we wanted, put together sample rosters, then allocate backups if artists couldn’t show up. We had to think up so much stuff it was unreal. It was good, though. In fact it wasn’t just good, it was great. I think I accomplished more in those four hours than I sometimes do in a weekend.
Walking back to my car there was, of course, a fat ticket on it. Only $20, so I wasn’t really mad. I’m in such a constant New York state of mind that my first thought was "hey, cheaper than a garage." The time on the ticket was about three minutes after I had parked the car. I think there was a elf cop hiding in the meter ready to jump out and write the ticket as soon as the coast was clear. I’ll pay it, but only because the cost doubles if I wait two weeks. Kinda of strange, though, seeing that by not putting money in the meter there’s a chance I could have no dough, and no matter what you ask a broke person for monetarily you’re not going to get it.
All of that was followed by me rushing home, eating and promptly getting a call from DJ Cue at around 8PM saying that he was ill and couldn’t make the show. This gave me about an hour plus to get my ish together and plan out a full night of In Da Mixx. I gotta say I think I made it a great one. I wish WVOF would get back at me regarding me having my own time slot at the station. The world could use a double dose of Adam B!
Earlier in the week I got some negative news from a magazine, not negative as in they disliked my work, but negative in that it really made me feel real journalism is dying. Of course, since I’m a writer I’m going to blame editors for this, but this time I think it’s justified. I was talking with a magazine about some of my stories and they told me they don’t accept stories that are already written because they prefer to make sure the questions get the answers they want for the article. They said this matter of factly, but I sat on the other end of the phone in complete shock. Yellow journalism, straight up and down, and it’s happening at the top levels of publications. It was like being told, "all that interesting info you have, forget it, we only want THIS." The end result are publications that don’t tell the whole story and in some cases simply glorify the worst in an artist. If one looks further down where the path of something like this leads they’ll see that the more violent content that mags spit at us the more they influence the crime rate. Violence breeds violence. If violence wasn’t the only thing talked about there’s a very good chance there wouldn’t be so much of it. Maybe if all the other sides of an artist were shown we’d see more people being well rounded and have more well rounded artists coming up rather than the one trick ponies and borderline racial stereotypes that we’ve been force fed since the close of the 90’s.
Speaking of up and coming artists, am I the only person not enamored with Little Brother? Yeah, 9th Wonder can make some good beats, but to me they sound like yet another group attempting to channel the lost vibe of A Tribe Called Quest only to fall short and do what can be considered, at best, an adequate job of it. After hearing their new album I was left wondering "is this really what people think is next?" I just don’t see what all the buzz is about.
Fantasy Update: Not much to speak on right now. We’re about to head into the dog days of summer (where did that phrase come from? Five points to whoever can give me the answer) so I’m not expecting a lot of movement up or down for another month or two. Teams are settling into their places and though I know two of the bottom dwellers are primed for a surge not much else is going to happen. Khalil Greene helped me with my lead in HR’s and RBI’s by hitting two homers and driving in six the other night, unfortunately he did it against one of my pitchers. Ah well, I’m glad to have the HR’s and RBI’s. I want to build up a healthy lead in those categories fast enough to make some worthwhile trades.
Walking back to my car there was, of course, a fat ticket on it. Only $20, so I wasn’t really mad. I’m in such a constant New York state of mind that my first thought was "hey, cheaper than a garage." The time on the ticket was about three minutes after I had parked the car. I think there was a elf cop hiding in the meter ready to jump out and write the ticket as soon as the coast was clear. I’ll pay it, but only because the cost doubles if I wait two weeks. Kinda of strange, though, seeing that by not putting money in the meter there’s a chance I could have no dough, and no matter what you ask a broke person for monetarily you’re not going to get it.
All of that was followed by me rushing home, eating and promptly getting a call from DJ Cue at around 8PM saying that he was ill and couldn’t make the show. This gave me about an hour plus to get my ish together and plan out a full night of In Da Mixx. I gotta say I think I made it a great one. I wish WVOF would get back at me regarding me having my own time slot at the station. The world could use a double dose of Adam B!
Earlier in the week I got some negative news from a magazine, not negative as in they disliked my work, but negative in that it really made me feel real journalism is dying. Of course, since I’m a writer I’m going to blame editors for this, but this time I think it’s justified. I was talking with a magazine about some of my stories and they told me they don’t accept stories that are already written because they prefer to make sure the questions get the answers they want for the article. They said this matter of factly, but I sat on the other end of the phone in complete shock. Yellow journalism, straight up and down, and it’s happening at the top levels of publications. It was like being told, "all that interesting info you have, forget it, we only want THIS." The end result are publications that don’t tell the whole story and in some cases simply glorify the worst in an artist. If one looks further down where the path of something like this leads they’ll see that the more violent content that mags spit at us the more they influence the crime rate. Violence breeds violence. If violence wasn’t the only thing talked about there’s a very good chance there wouldn’t be so much of it. Maybe if all the other sides of an artist were shown we’d see more people being well rounded and have more well rounded artists coming up rather than the one trick ponies and borderline racial stereotypes that we’ve been force fed since the close of the 90’s.
Speaking of up and coming artists, am I the only person not enamored with Little Brother? Yeah, 9th Wonder can make some good beats, but to me they sound like yet another group attempting to channel the lost vibe of A Tribe Called Quest only to fall short and do what can be considered, at best, an adequate job of it. After hearing their new album I was left wondering "is this really what people think is next?" I just don’t see what all the buzz is about.
Fantasy Update: Not much to speak on right now. We’re about to head into the dog days of summer (where did that phrase come from? Five points to whoever can give me the answer) so I’m not expecting a lot of movement up or down for another month or two. Teams are settling into their places and though I know two of the bottom dwellers are primed for a surge not much else is going to happen. Khalil Greene helped me with my lead in HR’s and RBI’s by hitting two homers and driving in six the other night, unfortunately he did it against one of my pitchers. Ah well, I’m glad to have the HR’s and RBI’s. I want to build up a healthy lead in those categories fast enough to make some worthwhile trades.
Comments