Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

Back last May when Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie said that The Lonely Forest was “totally doing it for me right now”, I knew that good things would be on the horizon for The Lonely Forest. A few months ago I was talking to John at a show and he mentioned that there were some big things happening and that it looked like they were going to be picked up by a label. How exciting that would be! Well, earlier this week, The Stranger reported that Walla’s new label, Trans, an imprint of Atlantic Records, has signed The Lonely Forest as their first band. Awesome indeed! From the article:

Walla initially approached the band members about producing them, but soon decided to create the Trans imprint with Atlantic to release their records as well.

�I�ve been lucky enough to make records with tons of phenomenal bands, and I�ve considered [starting a label] a number of different times,� he says. �I don�t know�is it oversimplified to say it�s them and it just makes sense? This wouldn�t be happening if it weren�t for the Lonely Forest. They�re a phenomenal band. I�ve been following my nose for so many years, doing the things that felt like the right thing to do. And this time the answer was yes.�

I am definitely looking forward to this union of talents! Great job guys and great pick up by Walla!

The Lonely Forest is currently on a good sized tour (check out their MySpace page for show info) and will be doing an all-ages show at Neumos on Tuesday, March 2nd (they will be going on around 10:30), $15. Hope to see you there!

And a little extra: check out a great version of Woe is Me from Catapult Records and KEXP.

The Season of Lent is upon us. Here we wait for Christ’s death on the Cross and His ensuing resurrection. As we walk through these next 40 days, reading through the words of the Prophet Isaiah might be enlightening.

I am not catholic so do not always follow the practice of giving something up for Lent, this year I will be doing something a little different. Lent is a time where prepare our hearts for Holy Week, often by abstaining from something that could be replaced by contemplation of Christ and His Gospel. I have decided that I will be fasting (everything except for water) on Mondays as a way to focus on my spiritual life. This ascetic undertaking should be a reminder to me of what Christ gave up for us.

Related Posts:
Lent Begins - Isaiah 55:1-7
Ash on the forehead, beads around the neck - a look at the cultural dichotomy that seems to happen at Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday (and throughout Lent… and the rest of the year I suppose…).

Sent to:
NBC: [email protected]
IOC Press Office: [email protected]
Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver: [email protected]
NBC’s vice president of sports communications: [email protected]
Chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics: [email protected]

I live in Seattle; a little over two hours away from Vancouver, BC. I live in the United States; high definition cable with incredible variety in programming is accessible around the clock. I live in a world where global communication has never been easier and faster. And yet I cannot watch the Winter Olympics live. I have to wait until prime time to catch all the major events. Sure, I could watch curling and ice hockey on USA or MSNBC (both of which I do enjoy), but most events don’t come on until after 8pm. This, to me, is absurd. This clearly shows that NBC doesn’t have any regard for their viewers; you care about advertising spots that you can charge a premium for during prime time. But even that is inconsistent because you are willing to let the Olympics play from midnight to 5am; who is watching then? Wouldn’t more people watch during the day, white the events are actually happening?

What makes this even worse, is that during the selected events you choose to show during prime time, a very large portion of that precious time is filled with commercials or with commentators talking about the sports. If you are going to pack a day’s worth of events into the three or four hours of prime time, I, and I am sure many other countless viewers, would rather be watching the events themselves! (Sports anchors should be briefly talking about sporting events, not being the events; I am not watching to see them!)

Your coverage is completely intolerable and you should be embarrassed for having the worst production in the world (countless other countries not only have live programming of the events, but also live streaming on the web!). You should be ashamed and change they way things are doing. Caring for the viewers of your programs might actually be a worthy policy.

Please reconsider the choices you have made for your Winter (and Summer!) Olympics TV coverage.

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-Matt Jones, Seattle, WA
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Matthew James Jones
[email protected]
mattjonesblog.com

UPDATE: Here is a great article from CIO: NBC Olympic Coverage: is the Internet the Enemy?