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Here’s how busy I am: I didn’t even have time to mention that Blizzard has confirmed the rumors that there will be a Blizzcon convention in Anaheim this October.
I will be going, and Jenn is planning on going as well. Kids under 3 aren’t allowed, so some sort of grandparenting will be involved as well.
We both attended Blizzcon in 2005 and my dad and I went to the 2007 one. While it gets to be a bit much by the end of the second day, the first day is always a lot of fun, and even the second is, so long as you sit well away from the audience members at the panel who are just a little too excited that the Anaheim Convention Center sells beer.
(I know, I haven’t been posting a lot lately: I’ve been busy at work and busy at home. More soon, I promise.)
Although I’ve been subscribing to Coverville for several years now, it can be a somewhat lightweight podcast at times, particularly when host Brian Ibbott goes with requests instead of his own musical tastes.
That said, this week’s track-by-track set of covers of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album is an amazing show and more than the sum of its parts. I’ve heard of Pet Sounds and was familiar with it in theory, but hearing even the non-hits covered on this show just let me focus on the songs themselves, and Brian Wilson’s songs just absolutely shine.
Even if you don’t normally listen to podcasts or care about the Beach Boys, just listen to this show. Great, great stuff. If there was a Grammy for a single podcast episode, this show would be a lock for a nomination.
Tonight, the Hesperia Star won the most SPJ awards in the paper’s eight year history: five, including two for editorial writing.
As always, it was surprising to see what won, and what didn’t. The wildfires of last spring were popular at the awards, and my piece, Smoke-Out, won a third place award in the Breaking News Category. I don’t think the piece is as strong as my story about a Hesperia sheriff’s deputy being shot, but that’s how it goes.
My earlier guess was wrong: I did win an award about an infamous necrophiliac finally getting prison time in connection with his earlier violation of a child’s corpse. I was thrown off the scent because the award wasn’t listed as a Daily Press win, despite the story appearing in that paper. This also marks the fourth year in a row that I’ve won a Law Enforcement/Legal Affairs award (first time getting a first place award, and only my second first place award from the SPJs ever), which I worry will misrepresent what I was covering in Hesperia these years in future job interviews. No awards for my school board coverage or my California Charter Academy coverage, for instance, which dominated much of 2007 for me. Go figure.
And then there’s the award I have the most mixed feelings about: A second place editorial writing award for my piece on being a Virginia Tech alumnus in the wake of last April’s massacre. Jenn and Sharon have already stressed to me that I’m not capitalizing on a tragedy, but it still feels odd.
Overall, the Freedom High Desert papers cleaned up, with the Barstow Desert Dispatch in particular doing well — I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t been reading their multiple award-winning blog, but I clearly need to, especially since Peter wants one added to the Star’s site ASAP.
As always, it was a (reasonably) good time, although it almost feels like a Riverside Press-Enterprise recruiting event, between the ton of awards the PE and its associated papers get, and how happy everyone from the paper always looks (especially given the number of non-award-winning PE staffers who show up just to show support).
Peter got two awards as well: One was an editorial piece about founding father Val Shearer leaving Hesperia and the other was an entertainment piece about swing band Phat Cat Swinger. Peter always excels when writing about music, and it’s nice to see that recognized.
The full list of awards, and judges’ comments for many of them, will appear in the next day or so at the SPJ blog.
