Welcome to summer in Bloomington, where it's WEEKEND all week long. This is poised to be a renaissance of sorts for the magazine. We are in the second week of a beautiful redesign by Mark Koenig, and we have an exceptionally qualified staff here this summer. We know what we want to do, but this isn't about us. I've been dreaming about having my own magazine for years, but now that I have one, I want to share it with you. I recognize that our audience changes in the summer, but to be honest, I don't know exactly who you are. I know we lost a lot of underclassmen and that our audience shifts to an older one. I wanna know who you are and what you care about. It looks like this crazy Internet fad is here to stay, so we're dedicating ourselves to completely overhauling and retooling the Web site. We've only got 16 pages to work with this summer, so we're flooding the Web with extra content. This issue alone we've got an extra 1,000 words from the "Scrubs" interview, a review of Elvis Costello's new compilation album, DVD reviews of "The Queen" and "Little Children," a review of YACHT and much more festival content. Once the new site launches, we'll have multimedia audio, YouTube videos and anything else you can think of. Send us an e-mail about anything WEEKEND-related and let us know what's going on in Bloomington that we should be covering We couldn't do it without you. Contact me at teibs84@gmail.com.
In magazine speak the section of feature pages in the middle of the book is called the "well." As in "feature well" or "deep collection of features that you can make a wish and drop a penny into." And, to be frank, the well has pretty much run dry here at WEEKEND ... and there is a small child trapped down there ... starving ... and his name is Narrative. My goal is to scrounge up some sandwiches (talented writers), toss them down to Timmy (let them write narrative) and transform this barren well into a babbling brook of good ideas and great writing. I spent the past school year serving as editor of INside and it's my summer ambition to revive WEEKEND's approach toward the feature well and treat this publication the way it ought to be treated -- like a magazine. To me, the purpose of journalism is to share stories. So that's exactly what we'll be doing more of: storytelling. Expect to see more narrative story-sharing, starting with a Summer Survival Crash Course next week. Also expect more one-stop shops of information, much like the Summer Music Festival Preview in this issue. These will be browse-friendly packages jam-packed with nuggets of advice, commentary and general servitude. The goal is to enhance your experience with WEEKEND (without resorting to mind-altering drugs). The reason it will happen is because we're telling you it will. Now that it's in print, we have no choice.
For the WEEKEND reviews staff, summer officially started at 12:01 a.m. on May 4. Yes, I am talking about the premiere of "Spider-Man 3," which had 11 midnight showings in Bloomington alone and grossed a record $151 million on its opening weekend. Despite its financial success, the movie was reviewed as mediocre by WEEKEND (see pg. 6). I'm sure more than half of you reading this have seen Spidey and have your own opinions. My dream is that, this summer, you spew your popular culture thoughts to me; I'm listening. I want the WEEKEND reviews section to be a community forum. Part of the Web overhaul we're working on will include a place for Web surfers to grade the movies, music and video games WEEKEND reviews. Did we get it right or were we way off base? Let me know by sending comments to weekend.reviews@gmail.com. Your comments will be published online as well as in the magazine. A musician once told me the local music scene in Bloomington dried up. I don't completely believe that, but I know what he was trying to say to me: Cover more local music! You will see much more local music in my section, the community demands it. Finally, I strive to have as diverse and knowledgeable a reviews staff as possible. I am looking for new perspectives. Want to be on staff? Send me a 400-word review with a letter grade and we'll go from there. WEEKEND reviews are students writing for students, and I want the best.
