Blog No. 1 (again)

It’s 2010, and I just received an e-mail with this subject line: New Release from Papa Roach.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Rap-rock bands from my high school years coming back to haunt me not withstanding, 2010’s been a year of a lot of change—a big one being the brand, spankin’ new Alptress.com (she’s pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself). And with the new site comes the new (old) blogs from your fave editors.

So while I’m going to try to do a better job of talking more about music, shows, industry trends and pop culture and less about Husker football, Wilco and Chevy Chase movies, I can’t promise I won’t recycle a little bit of that wit all three of you who read my blog back in ’08 and ’09 came to know and love (shout outs to my mom, my brother and that one random AP-mega-fan who checked in regularly).

So where was I? Oh, right. The more things change, the more things stay the same. Currently, I’m working (at the very beginning stages, shh, don’t tell Jason) on the cover story for AP 266. And while I honestly do love talking to people (who in this case happen to be band members), hearing their stories, and then putting the pieces together to make a (hopefully) coherent and entertaining story, the process always stresses me the eff out. Each time I volunteer for another big assignment, it’s like I have momentary amnesia and forget about all the bitten-down fingernails, quarts of coffee consumed and nights spent transcribing until 3 a.m. in an un-airconditioned apartment while my cat mocks me by snoozing on my bed, belly-up. Why do crazy-writer types put up with this sort of torturous (insert melodrama here) existence?

Because there’s really nothing sweeter than hitting print when that sucker is finally polished and ready to be turned into the editor.

Of course, then there’s the whole prospect of seeing your “finished” product go through the wringer that is the editorial loop. But that’s another set of anxieties that I’ll save for another day when I can’t pull a blog topic out of my ear to save my life.

So, if I seem a bit frazzled this week (or post something that clearly would only be funny after 20 minutes of sleep and a diet of lattes and Freeze Pops), now you know why.