Tag Archives: Comcast Center

Why I Love Where I Work

I know I’ve been talk­ing a lot about beer and the music indus­try here, but I want­ed to stop for a moment to talk a bit about my work. Since I got back from my long over­due trip to Den­mark, I’ve been invit­ing bands into the Com­cast Cen­ter for inter­views and ses­sions in our lounge, CIM City. Last week, I had Mastodon in to talk about their new album, Crack the Skye. This week the Ther­mals came in to talk about their new record, Now We Can See, and they were nice enough to play a few songs, too! It’s been some­thing of a life­long dream real­ized and it would­n’t have been pos­si­ble with­out being sur­round­ed by peo­ple who weren’t only will­ing but excit­ed to work on projects like this. It’s impos­si­bly cool!

It’s also intense­ly reward­ing. I’ve been thrilled to talk to bands I love in a free­wheel­ing inter­view style that real­ly cap­tures their per­son­al­i­ties and brings fans clos­er to them and their music. I can’t wait to share clips from both shoots with you!

What else have I been up to? I’m get­ting back to writ­ing more often now that I have a great intern help­ing me with the day-to-day issues at comcast.net/music. I’d love to get back where I was before our last crop of interns left, when I was writ­ing some­thing every day that could be fea­tured some­where on the music page. It’s a chal­lenge to pro­duce mate­r­i­al that real­ly res­onates with an audi­ence that’s grown accus­tomed to a steady diet of gos­sip, but when artists like Bruce Spring­steen are plagued by Tick­et­mas­ter, there’s a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to speak out about the ways in which the music indus­try is still pun­ish­ing fans at the very moment they should be falling over them­selves to please them.

Last­ly, I record­ed my first voice-over yes­ter­day. This, too, is some­thing of a life­long dream. Peo­ple have been ask­ing me if I’ve thought about doing radio for years, so when I got a chance to read for a forth­com­ing web series on Fan­cast, I leapt at the chance. It’s a real­ly fun con­cept that gave me a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to read in my best Movie­fone voice, which I don’t do near­ly enough these days. I’ll be sure to post that here when it goes live. I’d love to hear what you think.

None of this would be pos­si­ble if I weren’t sur­round­ed by great peo­ple who are will­ing to take a chance on pro­duc­ing the sort of music con­tent I think appeals to peo­ple who love music…like me!

I’m Interviewing Mastodon Today

Today is a real­ly excit­ing day and not just because it’s Fri­day and the sun is final­ly shin­ing. I’m bring­ing Mastodon into the Com­cast Cen­ter to talk about their new album, Crack the Skye! I know that inter­view­ing a band on tour isn’t that big a deal, but it’s a major step for­ward for comcast.net/music as I try to work more orig­i­nal music con­tent into my work­flow. The idea of hav­ing reg­u­lar inter­view and per­for­mance fea­turettes is one I hope bands, labels, and fans will appre­ci­ate. Of course, the pos­si­bil­i­ty of my face being some­where in the video on demand music fold­er is excit­ing as well.

I know. I used the word “work­flow.” If you’re pro­fes­sion­al­ly involved in any aspect of the music busi­ness, espe­cial­ly in edi­to­r­i­al, you already know how dif­fi­cult it is to do this sort of thing when peo­ple are clam­or­ing to find out whether or not Madon­na will be allowed to adopt in Malawi. Take my word for it: it’s hard.

Hav­ing said that, the Ther­mals are com­ing in next week to play a few songs for us before their show at John­ny Bren­da’s next Tues­day night. I’m real­ly look­ing for­ward to that, too! It’s an excit­ing time. Now the key is just build­ing momen­tum. Wish me luck!

The World Series Trophy


The World Series Trophy
Orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by J T. Ramsay

I final­ly down­loaded my pic­tures from my moment with the 2008 Phillies World Cham­pi­onship tro­phy on the 44th Fl. of the Com­cast Cen­ter. It’s hard to artic­u­late how thrilled I was to be in its pres­ence. It’s not some­thing I’ll soon forget.

Helen and I are going to three games the first week of April. I can’t wait to see all of our friends in Sec. 143 in Cit­i­zens Bank Park for anoth­er awe­some sea­son of Phillies base­ball. It’s going to be strange not yack­ing at Pat this year, but I’m sure we’ll have plen­ty to say to Raul Ibanez over the course of the season.