Welcome to Plug One.
I have operated this site since September 2006. My first post was a cheeky item about Jayson Scott Musson’s art for Plastic Little’s She’s Mature promo sampler, which was inspired by the cover art for the Smiths’ 12-inch single “This Charming Man,” itself a photo of Jean Marais from the French film Orphée. Three levels of hipster separation.
Since then, Plug One has gone through many iterations. It began as a webzine with contributions from friends and fellow journalists. When that failed — I’m not much of a leader — it turned into a news-oriented chronicle of the indie-rap world. And when that failed — I didn’t update the site enough, and I got sick of republishing tour dates and press releases — it turned into a collection of previously-published work and occasional new material, with a focus on alternative hip-hop.
Plug One originally launched via WordPress. After six test posts, I moved it to Joomla in October 2006. For the next several months, I struggled with the content management system despite having little to no knowledge about programming, design, or even HTML. (Incredibly, I tentatively planned to move to Drupal, which is far more difficult to use than Joomla.) After contending with code errors, phantom links and spam hacks, I abandoned ship and moved back to WordPress in July 2008.
I’ve employed numerous stock templates over the years. The closest I’ve come to a unique design is due to Stephanie Ornelas, a San Francisco-based DJ, promoter, web designer and all-around hip hop expert. Some of you might know her as DJ Stef of the Vinyl Exchange fame. She designed the bookmarklet you see in your URL window and the logo on this page.
As Plug One approaches its fourth anniversary, I often wonder about its modest existence. I’m comforted by an email my friend Ray Weitzenberg sent me when I considered shuttering the site. “One thing I read recently was some journalism/media person saying that today a writer without a personal blog/outlet is like a mechanic without a wrench,” he wrote.
So yes, I’m still paying dues. And the last one is death. Back to the essence.
If you don’t know who I am, do a web search. Or just email me at plugoneboss@yahoo.com.
[February 27, 2012: The above email address is no longer active. Please contact me via my new site, www.criticalminded.com. Thanks.]
