…Memoirist Augusten Burroughs

Memoirs are a hawt topic these days, with all kinds of scandal going on and such. Thoroughly enjoyed this piece from NY MAG on Running with Scissors (and now, cash) author Augusten Burroughs. The author set out to disprove them, and it was humorous about what Burroughs didn’t remember, but was scary what he did.

Having a good memory is apparently a talent that society fails to properly recognize, or at least are skeptical of. How Burroughs describes the author of the mag piece at the end is eerie.

…ben gibbard in Paste mag

Is that a halo around Ben Gibbard’s head?

This first person essay by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie in the May issue of Paste Magazine is a manifesto of sorts. It’s to promote their new album, Narrow Stairs, but it’s also his declaration that a band can be cool and have longevity. That a band gets better with age and popularity rather than worse. That it’s ok to sell out.

“I don’t want to go back to that period of being obscure and having nobody know who I am, let alone have to struggle to get people to come to the show. I remember what it was like, and it was shitty,” writes Gibbard in Paste.

…CREEM magazine book and controversy

…Bill Holdship from the Detroit Metro Times puts the best spin on this stuff. He has a healthy respect for the past, while understanding some of the quality that came out of the 80s incarnation of CREEM as well. He understands nostalgia, but sees the opportunity Here’s part 1 and part 2.

Bill’s best point is that Lester Bangs was the only genius that came through there, and has the most enduring legacy. It’s hard for a journalist to transcend the copy that’s given to him–only a few manage to do it well. And Bangs created a legacy with very little ancillary material–it was only his magazine writing, not some novel or investigative report that he did.
And thanks to Stomp and Stammer for helping me come across these articles.

…another magazine down

…And so the list continues. Resonance has now folded as well. 14 years. Putting The Octopus Project and Dan Deacon on your covers is pretty risky to expect big results for a glossy. Ambitious and noteworthy, yes, financially feasible probably not. Though I’ve posted The octopus project on here and just recently downloaded their stuff, it’s hard to pierce the magazine buying public with stuff like that. You gotta give stuff like that away, and hope the adverts are on for the ride.