HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.27.09

Wait, it’s July 27? Huh. I guess two months isn’t that long.

Ah well since we last spoke, I worked at Doug’s house Friday since the internet out here is a drag. I worked on laying out the Paramore and Showbread features in InDesign most of the weekend. I’m not too experienced with designing spreads from scratch, so it was a challenge, but I had random creative inspiration for both of them and I think they look pretty decent. I finally got a large enough photo to start the Thousand Foot Krutch layout, which won’t be as creative so hopefully will go quickly.

I’m also proofreading like crazy, which brings to mind a question I often wonder: Does anyone actually care about spelling/grammar? Please take this quick one-question survey and help me sleep.

I started watching 24 season 7 Thursday night to count for swears for the new LIFEstyles section. Now, this wouldn’t be a big deal except back when I used to watch TV I watched seasons 1, 3 and 4 (I think) and each time I bailed about 3/4ths of the way through the season and I’ve never seen the end of any of them, which of course is the most important part. I can kind of fill in the spots when I notice that a character who used to be evil is now good, or when a character who used to be dead is back to life, but I made a promise to myself that I’d actually finish this season and I did yesterday! This is a monumental accomplishment in my life, so now I can die in peace.

I watched Metallica – Some Kind of Monster yesterday while working as well, which was not so monumental.

Tornado dropped off another cat for the Ranch yesterday. She’s a calico with white feet named Hope.

She’s chilling in the laundry room, meeting Marvin now. She’s a sweet cat, except meows a lot. Better quit that quickly if she’s going to be in there till I leave.

Friday I went to Scream The Prayer Tour but I’m mentioning that last since I hope by the time you read this I’ll have posted my review and photos.

I should do this more often,
Corey Erb

“Say what you will about me. Just spell my name right.” – P. T. Barnum

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.14.09

After finishing the Showbread feature last night, I finished the Memphis May Fire featurette tonight so all I have left to write are the extra CD reviews by the end of the week.

A pro motocross racer who’s currently in a correctional facility in Ohio wrote us a letter recently saying we was inspired by HM and wanting to know if he could put an HM sticker on his helmet when he gets out in December. I wrote him back today and put a few stickers in the envelope. I hope it makes it to him. Pretty cool story.

Doug, Kelly and I made a Wal-Mart and Jack in the Box run then did a Bible study on worship, our first since Kelly’s been here. We make an oddball family.

Doug’s wife is going in for surgery tomorrow so he’ll be out of the office taking care of her for a while. It’ll be different around here for a while leading up to deadline in a week and a half.

Apparently All-Star Games are boring,
Corey Erb

“Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.” – Francis Schaeffer

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.13.09

Having writer’s block this close to deadline isn’t much fun. I finished my article on Thousand Foot Krutch last night finally, and today it was on to Showbread. Unfortunately, taking 10,000 words’ worth of raw quotes from Josh Dies and coming up with a 1,200-word feature article that is actually readable is somewhat of a challenge. I’ll hopefully be able to finish up tonight. I suppose if Doug or any potential future employers read this I probably sound like the last writer to hire, but hopefully my honesty won’t come back and burn me. I still have the Memphis May Fire featurette to finish up as well, though 400 words will feel like nothing after two 1,200-word beasts.

See? Optimism. Don’t call me a pessimist.

One thing that made me happy today was finding out that Staple is back together. Their last Cornerstone show was one of the best shows I’ve witnessed – easily worth skipping whatever mainstage band I skipped to watch it, Relient K I think. Ha! I’ll have to listen to their new stuff and make sure it’s a good thing they’re back before I get too excited though.

Also, I began reading Revelation last night. I’ve never read it so it should be a fun trip.

Light at the end of the tunnel is haunting me,
Corey Erb

“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” – Unknown

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.9.09

Ugh! When it’s not spiders, it’s skunks, and while it’s still skunks it’s ants! My girlfriend thoughtfully sent me the ingredients to make that dirt/mud dessert, which was an old favorite in grade school, and I just yesterday got around to making it. But tonight after an otherwise productive day, I opened the cabinet to find a bunch of ants carrying off the bag of Oreos she crushed to make the dirt part.

So instead of the hot food I was looking forward to, I’m sitting here reluctantly eating my peanut butter sandwich and dried fruit because that’s the only “meal” I could throw together since I have yet to check to see how much of my other food is salvageable. Wonderful.

The Ranch smells a bit less like skunk today, though there are definitely still areas where the smell is uncomfortable. I just hope the skunk isn’t living anywhere under the house.

Other than all that mess, today was somewhat productive. I finished transcribing the Showbread interview finally, but I have a lot of work ahead of me since the notes and transcription are 13,830 words combined and I have to whittle it down into a 1,200-word feature. But I guess that’ll leave some interesting stuff to be posted online as a full Q & A.

I spent a good amount of time determining which album reviews have been turned in, assigning anything that hasn’t been reviewed and inquiring with any delinquent writers on the whereabouts of their reviews. I guess I should count myself with the delinquents since I have three new reviews to get done ASAP. One of the reviews is Skillet’s Awake, which came in this package for me the other day:

I’m not a PR major, nor should I be, but I don’t understand why they’d pay $7.10 to send a can of Rockstar with the CD. I could understand if Skillet was on the can, or at least if they went the ghetto route and slapped a Skillet sticker on the side. But to just randomly spend the extra $5 per kit to send an energy drink along with the review CD? Maybe they think jittery reviewers give more positive reviews. Don’t think I’ll try it, 280 calories of sugar would put me in a coma. I don’t think I’m very articulate or nice when I’m passed out.

Tonight, I’m going to try and forget my urge to go hunt down and murder every last ant in a 5-mile radius and watch the movie Lord Save Us From Your Followers while picking out pictures to post from Warped Tour. Probably not a smart idea since I could use some reassuring and I’m way frustrated with photo editing, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Not not counting the days until I leave this deathtrap,
Corey Erb

“Treat the other man’s faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine.” – Henry S. Haskins

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.7.09

Day two of living in Skunkville. If my indecipherable rant yesterday was indecipherable, I woke up at 6 yesterday because there was a horrible smell in the Ranch that I fully tried to sleep through but, with my nose, couldn’t. So I woke up and tried to determine what was making the house smell like burning rubber or burnt garlic but couldn’t so I went outside and hung out with the cats and read. I texted Doug since he had been over to pick up his dog Biscuit Sunday night and I usually assume shenanigans by default. The text exchange went roughly like this:

6:32 a.m.: Corey: Did u leave a stink bomb in biscuits place last nite?

11:18 a.m.: DVP: Haha. No.

I’m still not convinced. Anyway, since it decided to rain for the first time in 38 months I was forced back inside to try my best to work through it. Doug stopped by later to drop off the trailer and reported that it was a skunk that sprayed, so maybe I believe him.

No, I don’t, but let’s pretend.

That brings us to today, huh? Doug was in at his normal time and we went to work trying to ameliorate the odor with bottles of Fbreeze and carpet cleaner, candles and plug-in air fresheners. It at least made the Ranch smell like baking soda and vanilla and burnt garlic. But workable conditions for the time being.

I worked most of the day transcribing my interview with Josh Dies of Showbread. It wasn’t as easy as transcribing the Thousand Foot Krutch interview yesterday, since Josh and I talked for over an hour and nearly everything he said was interesting. Oh well, I’ll finish that up tomorrow and have the article done by Friday.

I also helped generate some advertising leads for the special Christian apparel section we’re running in this issue. Do you know of any t-shirt companies or anything like that with a Christian message? (Preferably that aren’t lame and/or look like they’re from 1993, but that’s my request not necessarily the magazine’s. Something like Faveur Clothing.)

Also, do you know of any effective, inexpensive ways to rid a house of skunk smell? I think the skunk (/Doug’s leftover 4th of July stink bomb) sprayed (/went off) under the house, probably provoked by the little orange doofuses, though they don’t smell like they got sprayed.

Peace in the Middle East,
Corey Erb

“Money doesn’t talk, it swears.” – Bob Dylan

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.24.09

Thanks to everyone who voted in the survey about bands swearing, here are the results so far:

If you haven’t voted, I’d still like to hear your opinion!

Ironically, I interviewed Josh “Dies” Porter from Showbread today and we talked for a long while about secular music and its influence on Christian artists. It should be a deep article – we talked about the new album, The Fear of God, a lot too.

Our internet was being soooo slow today so I went into Taylor to find WiFi. Tornado suggested the library so I spent a little time there before it closed, and her friend mentioned Pizza Hut randomly has free internet so I sat and ate my P’Zone and posted stuff on the HM website at the Taylor Pizza Hut. Check out this Cornerstone guide I put together featuring a bunch of bands and showtimes, plus links to listen to their music if you’re not familiar with them.

I’m going to be busy tomorrow and Friday since I still have to post album reviews from the last two issues online, transcribe my Thousand Foot Krutch and Showbread interviews, write those two features and the Memphis May Fire featurette and a bunch of other pressing items I’m sure I’m forgetting before Doug leaves for Cornerstone this weekend.

But it’ll all get done. Assuming I go to sleep ever – Doug and I were working till 4 a.m. yesterday night/this morning haha.

The need to be constantly productive is a blessing and a curse,
Corey Erb

“Oh, these soft-legged girls / And hard-faced boys / They know no god / They have no voice / We are the sound” from “We Are The Sound” by Alexisonfire

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.22.09

Music Monday lived up to its name once again. Here’s a short list of either new albums or new bands I listened to today: Showbread – The Fear of God, We Came As Romans – Dreams EP, Alexisonfire – Old Crows / Young Cardinals, The Color Morale, Alesana – Where Myth Fades to Legend, Mr. Del – Thrilla, Shadows Fall – Retribution and Darkest Hour – The Eternal Return. What do you think about a Darkest Hour “So and So Says” article by the way? Apparently one member was born to a former Catholic nun who left the convent to give birth to him and he loves talking faith.

I guess I have a ton of new material for the next time I’m driving in Miami and want to blare some aggressive music with my windows down. (That happens a lot by the way – have you met Miami drivers?!) Personal favorite album for that is Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East by Greeley Estates. They’re writing their new record right now, I cannot wait for it. I liked their old stuff but I love the heavier sound and more complex song structures they introduced with Go West. It would make my year if they made a guest appearance at Warped Tour next week. C’mon, Texas is right next to Arizona, right?

Speaking of Warped, Tornado stopped by with some of her famous baked goods and she’s hopefully coming along to Warped in San Antonio July 2. If Kelly’s able to come, that’ll be fun the three of us going. If you’re in Texas, you should meet up with us there!

I checked out the lineup tonight so we could make interview requests and there are a lot of bands I’ve never seen but am excited to check out live. My list of requests includes: A Skylit Drive, Alexisonfire, Dear and the Headlights, Saosin, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, The Devil Wears Prada, There For Tomorrow, Thrice and Underoath. I’m hoping to get maybe three of those haha. But at least hopefully I can get a photo credential for most of them.

I guess putting a Bud Light girls cardboard cutout in Kelly’s office didn’t scare her away, so we’ll have to try harder this week to convince her we’re chauvinist pig dogs. I’ll update you on our progress.

Hazing is just another way of saying “good, clean, all-American fun for everyone involved,”
Corey Erb

“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?” – The Scarecrow, The Wizard of Oz (my aunt sent me a card with that quote on it – kinda too close to describing me for my liking…)

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.16.09

So I guess I scared off the other intern with my verbal bullying yesterday so she decided her car was gonna break down so she can’t come in till Friday. Ha! I see right through that, you’re not fooling anyone!

Naw, I hope it gets fixed (and for free, I hate car maintenance costs) and she makes it here safely. (Ha I guess I really am mean, aren’t I?)

Anyway! I got interviews with Thousand Foot Krutch and Showbread set up and will be listening to both forthcoming albums soon to further prepare. I proofread several articles, columns and reviews that have been coming in lately as well.

This afternoon, I got a ridiculously random idea for a book I think I’m going to write (no, Doug, I’m not going to steal your unpublished novel). I made some notes as thoughts came to mind but I think I’ll sit on it for a while till I can make sure it wasn’t just that I got some bad granola this morning or something…

Doug and I are going to see mewithoutYou play at Emo’s in downtown Austin with The Dear Hunter and Bear Colony in a bit. I’ll admit I’ve never been the biggest mwY fan but I enjoy deep lyrics so I’ll keep an open mind especially for their live show. I can say I’m looking forward to seeing The Dear Hunter, though. It’s ex-The Receiving End Of Sirens guitarist/co-vocalist Casey Crescenzo‘s experimental rock band, and I’ll be interested to hear them live since the only two albums they’ve released are acts I and II of a six-act story about the birth (to a prostitute), life and death of a boy known as “The Dear Hunter.” I wonder if they’ll play songs more or less in order of the story, or if they’ll just play random stuff. Their new album comes out next week so I suppose they’ll probably play a good amount of new material and that may take precedence over concerns of chronology. We’ll see if they break out any of the various horns or strings live that they feature on studio material. I hear Crescenzo has a really good live voice too. I guess he produced and even co-wrote some of the music on Falling Up‘s latest album Fangs!, which is a concept album as well. I’ll let you know what I think of all of them, and post some pictures if you’re lucky – and assuming I can get there on time and without getting lost ha.

Sleep now in the fire,
Corey Erb

“Crimson hands, brandish words which masquerade / If you flee from grace your souls can not be saved” – from “The Oracles on the Delphi Express” by The Dear Hunter

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.12.09

Listened to lots of new music today – Memphis May Fire, Neon Horse, Falling Up and Miss May I for album reviews or articles, will get the new Hawk Nelson, Thousand Foot Krutch and Showbread on Monday, and am about to check out the new He Is Legend album on my way to Doug’s church’s public baptism event. Plus there were finally a bunch of good indie bands in the stack I listened to today, so we’re going to have a tough time narrowing it down to 12. I’ll probably post the best of the ones that don’t make the cut here, so look for it. The worst of today was March Into Paris, so I wouldn’t dare give them any mention, and you shouldn’t waste your time checking them out.

Okay, maybe even they weren’t that bad.

While I was listening to all the new stuff, I assembled some media kits to hopefully get advertising sales going next week and got a bunch of tear sheets ready to mail to advertisers or publicists who sent us a DVD or book reviewed in last issue.

I got a weekend request for you all: Doug and I discussed the possibility of a Killswitch Engage article in this issue, but we weren’t really able to come to a clear decision. What are your thoughts, should we run a feature on them, review their album, both or neither? If you’re not familiar with them, check them out and report back. Their frontman, Howard Jones, is a man of faith but other members aren’t, and they’re touring with Marilyn Manson, among the many other pros and cons to covering them. Do it or skip it?

Check out the quote for some lyrics from one of KsE’s most puzzling songs.

Writing eight pieces totaling 4,200 words by next Friday is possible, don’t doubt me,
Corey Erb

“Rock / What would I give, to behold / The smile, the face of love? / You never left me / The rising sun / Will always speak your name” – from “Rose of Sharyn” by Killswitch Engage

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.11.09

Whoo! Day off! Ha well it was welcomed since Doug and I were working till after midnight last night. Not much happening today, I got some music I’ll need for the album reviews and articles, including Showbread and Neon Horse, both of which I’m looking forward to listening to.

I also took like nine phone calls in the span of 30 minutes on the office line, and all after business hours at like 7 p.m.? Don’t know what was up. I almost thought it was Doug’s friend again, who called a week or two ago right at 8 a.m. and asked me a bunch of weird questions like how I kept track of the many things I have to do daily.

It’s thundering out tonight and raining a little bit, so that’s making me happy. I actually like thunderstorms. And there was a pretty sunset with all the crazy clouds earlier. One of these days I’ll actually take my camera outside…

Ha well anyway, more work tomorrow. It’s my mom’s birthday today, so in honor of her, the quote is from someone who was born on the same day and year as her. But don’t go out and start Googling him to see how old she is, that’s rude!

Happy birthday mom!
Corey Erb

“There’s only one reason for doing anything that you set out to do. If you don’t want to be the best, then there’s no reason going out and trying to accomplish anything.” – Joe Montana