Stereophile's First Blog

Mentioning the new Stereophile blog to folks this past week, I usually got two questions. First, "Cool, what will it be about?" Then, "What, in fact, is a blog?"

Here's the second answer first: "Blog" sounds like a name for a pet (this from someone who has a cat named "Pixel" and who always thought "Laptop" would make the perfect feline moniker), but the noun is actually a contraction of "weblog" and, in simple terms, refers to an online diary that is updated often. Wikipedia has a great definition here.

We'll initially be using our blog software in two ways: To allow ambitious writers to create a running commentary of their audiophile observations, and to allow communities of Stereophile contributors to write in on topics such as show reports from the Consumer Electronics Show and the Home Entertainment Show . (HE2006 will be in Los Angeles!)

To kick things off, Stephen Mejias has agreed to dive in with a blog he refers to as "Elements of our Enthusiasm." Mejias was recently promoted to assistant editor after serving time as the magazine's editorial assistant for several years and has an office-eye view of what goes on behind the scenes at Stereophile and within the high-end audio industry. He is young, a gifted writer (his CES coverage this year garnered the most page views of any of our reports), and considers himself relatively new to the audiophile thing.

Mejias sets his agenda: "I'm going to try to be smart, honest, and thoughtful. I'm going to try to make it interesting, meaningful, and fun. I would like the blog to be an innocent look into our industry and other things, including (but not limited to): people, places, and pizza; velvet blazers; oriental rugs; claw-foot tubs; fire-escapes; rainy Fridays; rooftops; sharing hot-fudge sundaes with pretty girls; and, of course, love (blind and double-blind)."

And one more thing: We've added a comments feature, where readers can respond freely to any of Mejias' posts. "I hope that readers will feel compelled to respond to the stories and ideas I share," says SM. "Comments are fun, dialogue is fun. I'm still young, and I'm still new to this—all of this—and I'm sure that I'll learn a lot from you. I can't wait, really."

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