Monday, January 19, 2009
4:55 PM
Well, it’s the beginning of 2009 and MLK Day. In terms of popolio and music what does that mean?
I don’t consider popolio a social, political, or news blog, but without the activists and freedom fighters (and I’m addressing them with a very broad brushstroke here) I wouldn’t be able to express myself here. I will make inferences or social commentary when I feel it necessary, but it will be very light. My focus is music entertainment. If it’s relevant to popolio as I’ve stated in the past, I will address it. We did with the tragedies involving DJ AM, Travis Barker, and Jennifer Hudson last year. And, I’ll reiterate that, I don’t want to be a gossip blog. There are enough of those out there. I don’t want to regurgitate and recycle the same pieces that are seen out there over and over.
The other part of this is that I know music is powerful and I know it can cause people to be politicized and organized. MLK’s and President Obama’s speeches are not quite music, but they work in the same way. Words can inspire and words set to music can light fires that can burn out quickly or indefinitely.
What do I want for popolio in 2009? I want to light a fire that burns brighter and brighter for a long time. I want to grow it. I want to make it bigger and better. What does that mean? That means more features, more content, and better content. That means me trying to step up my game to bring you a better quality blog overall. I want to be unique, entertaining, and quality. Hopefully, I can achieve this in 2009.
We’ve successfully operated on the two levels that I want to continue to operate on. Mainstream and Local. Established and Up-and-Coming. popolio is up-and-coming; independent; underground. It doesn’t mean popolio can’t be established, collaborative, and mainstream, too.
This month I posted a popolio podcast interview on which I spoke with Ron Lopes, brother of the late, great Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes about her forthcoming posthumous release, Eye Legacy. Thanks again to Mass Appeal Entertainment and Ron Lopes for participating in the interview. I’m also in the middle of a MY TOP 10: Left Eye Videos, counting down to the release date of Eye Legacy on January 27, 2009. So, in a certain way, it’s Left Eye Month at popolio. I am a self-proclaimed die-hard TLC fan, so TLC and Left Eye Forever!
Co-editor, JW Richard, presented a nice MY TOP 10 Countdown of his own. He counted down his Top Hot Tracks from 2008 on his Last.fm account. He’s more of an audio guy whereas I think I’m more of a video guy, so he made it an audio countdown. It was a nice change of pace from my countdowns. We got to experience someone else’s taste and that’s always nice.
2 pop quizzes this month as usual. First off, earlier in the month we featured the pop/club stylings of Brian Kent and coming up this week is homohop pioneer, Tim’m West’s pop quiz. I can’t wait for that one. Now, I love our pop quizzes. I’d like to get some feedback from you all on them. I think it’s one of, if not the, best feature we offer at popolio. I’d like to hear from you all. Maybe I’ll do a survey. I don’t know.
I’ve actively started to get out there into the Austin music scene more this month to meet and feature some local artists. I plan to do more of that. Just one foray into the wild urban jungles of The Live Music Capital of the World and I was turned onto artists such as Vitera, Jeder, and The Executive Life. I plan to go to more shows, take pictures, and post those. I also want to hear about any upcoming shows you all are excited about. I’ll post them. Give me at least one week out, though. I think that gives people enough time to dig for pennies if they want to go to a certain show.
Well, here’s to a progressive, productive, and impressive 2009 for popolio.
5:40PM
Cheers,
Freddie Rodriguez aka freddie beat
popolio creator/editor
freddie beat talks to Brian Kent about what being an openly gay artist means to him, what “gay music” means, his debut album, Breathe Life, and multi-charting single, “Whatcha Doin’ To Me,” his ties to Kristine W., his Summer Pride Tour, and more.
January 9, 2009
