I may be stretching it a bit with this analogy, but, at least for me, the last few years I've spent here on SI remind me of the early days of New Wave I went through from '78-'82 in college. I mean, back then we all knew each other: MTV was brand new, the New Music Seminar had just begun (the guy who founded it, Dave Josephson as I recall, was my college rep at RCA), CMJ (College Media Journal) was new (I was introduced to Howard Stern at the CMJ show in DC in '81 by his FCC lawyer who also was my radio station lawyer when we were trying to up our wattage), and the bands knew each other and attended each others' shows at the local clubs. Now it's big business and you hear that same music while riding the elevator.
As for the comparison with SI, it used to be a bunch of us just sharing random thoughts at all hours for fun. Now we've got "gurus" who got their start here establishing their own sites, holding their own seminars, and getting covered on the front page of the New York Times. And let's not forget all of us that have been sued this past year. What goes on here has suddenly become big business, so for better or worse now we have to watch every word we write. Threads like this at least show we can still have fun talking about things we like to do. (g)
- Jeff |
