2011-02-15

You can make very valid arguments for why Rolling Stone is no longer relevant, but I'd be lying if I said that it isn't still The Dream for me as a music journalist (or 'music journalist', if you like, since most of my journalism time in the last two years has been taken up with interviewing people about things like balancing the cultural, social, physical, and educational needs when helping children in developing countries, which is actually pretty fucking rock and roll in itself anyway). My point: Even if Rolling Stone itself is kind of hit and miss, the idea of Rolling Stone still has a lot of currency in the world.

And I think it would be totally neat for Empires to be the first unsigned band ever to appear on the cover. They have an admirable work ethic and attitude to their creative output, they're hilariously bad at being rock stars, and I don't know a single fan whose experience of being a fan of theirs hasn't been above and beyond rewarding.

My understanding of the contest is that you go here, and rate the band, and if they're one of the four highest rated they progress to the next round.

Earnest ridiculous weirdos from Chicago are basically my favourite kind of people in the world. So let's get some of them on the front of a magazine!

I apologise for the continued downtime on ye olde Etsy shop. I'd hoped to have it back up by now, but suspect it will be early March at least before I cut the reopening ribbon.

There were some things up there that'd been listed since I opened the shop, and I wanted to give it a fresh start-over with everything fabulous and gorgeous and without stuff that'd been lingering around for a zillion years (or, you know, since late 2009. Same thing) and cluttering up the place.

This, of course, has turned out to be a more time-intensive enterprise than I actually have enough time spare for. But I'll get there! I just wanted to explain why I was being such a slowcoach with getting the store back up.