6th
i don’t think that i’m the only working writer/editor/critic who reading their own work after publication is like chewing on their own arm. this doesn’t make it any easier. i got a good byline kick for a while when i was an intern at willamette week, and every few weeks now i’ll read something particularly snappy of mine and get that old feeling, but mostly now—especially now as a less-green editor—i get bummed. like, everything i do in print could have been done better and whatever comes out on wednesday/second thursday/”beginning of the month” is not the reflection of the writer i should be. in journalism, i’d like to be up to par as me as a writer of short stories and that doesn’t happen often. journalism is the perpetual compromise agreed to only because it’s provisional—it will, somehow, catch up. don’t ask me how that’s supposed to happen.
anyhow, sometimes i wind up being able to see through all of the above, and the past couple of weeks have included some of those times. i wrote a fair amount (too much) for XLR8R’s portland issue, which is out right now. looking at the stories, i’m first very thankful to the magazine for, well, letting me be so loud. i hate on the city a lot these days, and so often it deserves every bit. but, when i got a call for pitches for this issue, a lot of things i love came back and the truth is i could have written two full magazines worth of copy about awesome things in portland. so, head to http://xlr8r.com/features and look for these stories
fist fite - AWESOME BRATS.
vibe posse - an attempt to explain ROB WALMART
holocene - one of the best things to happen to portland in my four and a half years there.
daniel menche - simply the best interview i’ve ever conducted. drone shaman, sweetest musician left in portland. maybe the only noise musician i’ve ever talked to that can articulate perfectly what their music is about. i’ll post a full text interview here later.
