2007 – Year in Review
2007 won’t go down in the history books as a particularly memorable year, although with little competition from the previous 200x years, I would say 2007 wasn’t that bad.
Things Worth Raving About In 2007:
The Demonslayer’s Handbook – The story was finished in the middle of 2007. I set it aside, and came back to it over the 2007 Christmas break, and re-re-re-read the whole thing cover to cover. It is ready for beta test-readers and feedback, and perhaps one more round of revision before I subject it to an editor.
jaggedspiral.com The website got a MAJOR overhaul, and I personally programmed every last line of HTML/CSS by hand using an esoteric combination of Notepad++ and Adobe GoLive. Thanks to James for the new, shiny band logo.
Days From Evil the debut album from Jagged Spiral, two-years in the making and finally released at the end of 2007. Each track from the album was released one at a time on the internet (FOR FREE) over the last 9 weeks of 2007. Click here and scroll down for the download links. Fans can use the “donate” buttons on the website to set any price on the album they like. Note that Radiohead took the same approach with their 2007 release, “In Rainbows”.
Nine Inch Nails marketing genius. The Alternate Reality Game / Marketing behind the Nine Inch Nails release “Year Zero” was nothing short of genius. Trent Reznor remembered that an album is more than just an album, it’s an experience. The more you can add to that experience for the fans, the better. In the case of Year Zero, the album is great on it’s own, (and if you haven’t heard “Capital G“, you’re missing out) but the experience of the online phenomenon/pseudo-conspiracy pushed this album to the top for 2007, and showed the rest of the world how it’s done.
i-[fill in the blank] In 2007, “i” became the new “e”. Pretty much anything that started with “i” in 2007 was something you shoulda bought stock in. i-Pod, i-Tunes, i-Phone…
Things Worth Ranting About In 2007:
The 35W Bridge Collapse. I was surprised at the reaction of many Americans to this disaster, specifically the reactions of those NOT involved. If there is a house fire in Minnesota, you generally don’t call everyone you know and tell them that *you* are alright simply because you live in a house in Minnesota too. The bridge hadn’t even finished collapsing and bloggers were posting announcements that they and their families were OK, and tweeting on twitter.com to update their status as “Uninjured”. Someone should come up with a name for this strange behavior…
If you talk to anyone in Minnesota besides myself, they will tell you they JUST drove over the bridge moments before it collapsed. That’s about 4,919,478 people, which pretty much explains *why* it collapsed.
DRM = Dumb RIAA Morons. As much as I railed against the horrific, poisonous, anti-consumeristic atrocity that is DRM, you simply can’t stop what the consumers want. It’s obvious that people want music, and they want to get it through theinternet, badly enough to put up with DRM, and are willing to let the RIAA force a square peg into a round hole.
Too bad for music fans, but it looks like DRM is here to stay. Sorry, but I did my best…
Things To Look Forward To In 2008:
More stories from yours truly. Because the Demonslayer’s Handbook is written, my inner writer gets laid off for a while and my inner editor takes over. But every now and again I have to shift between the left and right brains, so I plan on letting my inner writer out of the basement periodically to work up some short horror stories…
The End of Ze World. Well, if we assume that Nostradamus made some kind of mathematical error. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until 21 Dec 2012 also known as Doomsday 2012.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Not that I want to get my hopes up too much, but hey, it’s too late. 22 May 2008 Baby!
Guitars, not DJs. DJs are dead. Good riddance. Long live guitars!
Jagged Spiral LIVE Look out world! Jagged Spiral is coming to a town near you! (…as long as you live near Minneapolis.) The band already held court at a private party back in October, and the first official public performance at Stasiu’s on December 11th. Look out for two upcoming shows, at Club Underground on Thursday 31 Jan 2008 , and a Battle of the Bands at the Dinkytowner on 10 Feb 2008! Check out the band blog for more details, pix, and future concert updates…
-Zero
