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News & Reviews
WORD'N'BASS.com
turns 5 years old
By BPM Smith
Time sure flies when you’re both a participant and an observer of the
literary and electronic music scenes. WORD'N'BASS.com, which launched
in spring 2005 to draw attention to our favorite authors and DJs, is
now five years old. To mark our five-year anniversary, I’m going to run
a series of ‘Where are they now?’ pieces on the scene's personalities I
covered way back in our first year.
When WORDNBASS.com first entered the
Internet stratosphere, it had simple goals:
-- Act as a medium where my two main interests, literature and
electronic music, could receive equal coverage that would encourage a
crossover between fans of the two unrelated arts. I hope this little
website helped led club goers to discover new authors to enjoy on lazy
Sundays, and literary fans to find that electronic music is so much
more than flipping records on a turntable.
-- Provide a medium where my Drum & Bass, Downtempo, and Electro
sets could have a permanent archived lifespan while proving readers
with free audio from top DJs as well as from my friends. On our audio page
Lantz, a talented San Francisco Breakbeat DJ, has dished several over
the years, while other locals DJ Noah, Maneesh the Twister, Denise and
San Diego’s Calculon have also provided sets.
The fun thing about running my own literary and music website is I’ve
been able to cover strictly the authors and musicians who interest me.
My formula for newsworthiness has always down to one criteria: How
interesting and enjoyable is their work?
We’ll see
whether the public at large agreed with my appraisals going back to
2005 by updating what happened to the folks who made news five years
ago. We’ll learn new information about several authors including Seth Greenland, Shane Gericke and Amanda Marquit, who were all debut
authors that year.
Don’t forget the literary agents. Without their deal-making skills,
authors would never reach the audiences they do today, and clearly
there's much interest in their comings and goings judging by the many
searches that lead folks here. Readers might be surprised to find out
what’s gong on with Lisa Van Auken,
Dan Lazar and Evan Fogelman, just a few agents we
covered back in 2005.
On the music front, I’ll dish updates on some of the top
DJs of 2005 we covered like Armin Van
Buuren, Photek, Alley Cat, Sasha & Digweed and DJ Fresh. I might even post a
surprise audio feature from someone we’ve not heard from since way back
on our first year.
So many interesting, fun, and tragic events have occurred since 2005.
We’ve seen the book industry finally jump on the digital format
bandwagon, a transition that electronic music was already deep into
when I first launched this site. The Internet has become a way of life,
with interactive
raves, club shows,
literary contests,
and even book launch parties occuring online.
And some fine talents like J.D. Salinger (1919-2010), Kurt Vonnegut
(1922-2007), and DJ Ralphi
(1978-2005) passed away. Let’s hope some of today’s budding talent can
fill the void our past artists have left behind.
It's been a long road for WORDNBASS.com. Here's to another five years
covering the artists and personalities who will shape the scene for
many years to come. My DJ sets will continue streaming every Friday
night at 10 pm, and I’ll add to the 26 archived sets already here
beginning with my 420 Drum & Bass set next week -- an annual
tradition each April 20th that began several years ago.
As for me, now that my novel "Bistro de Mars" is done perhaps later
this year I’ll be able to post a story on the homepage about my own
book deal. That would be a nice way to mark five long years.
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