Stephen Mejias

Beautiful, beautiful! That's it right there, yes. Wait, no, don't lose that pose. Steady now. Oh, yeah. Yeah! You got it. The camera loves you, baby! Just one more now. One more. Hold it, hold it, yes!

Each month, we send one or two lucky components to our photographer, Eric Swanson, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to be shot for our cover. Because the YG Anat Reference is so dang heavy (440 lbs per channel) and expensive ($107,000/pair), I asked Dick Diamond, YG's director of sales and marketing, if he'd personally deliver the speaker to Eric.

John Atkinson snapped this shot of our hardworking intern, Ariel">http://www.myspace.com/arielbitran">Ariel Bitran, during last night's performance at the Sidewalk">http://www.sidewalkmusic.net/">Sidewalk Caf. It's not that this photo was taken on John's phone under poor lighting conditions; Ariel actually looks like this when he plays. The dude is on fire, lit from within like a good single-ended amplifier.

I have loved Drag City for many, many reasons including: Royal Trux, Silver Jews, Red Krayola, Fucking Champs, Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan, Jim O'Rourke, and more.

Excuse me while I slip into something a little more comfortable.

Me, too, Chan. I've lived in bars, too!

These are my MIMOBOT flash drives. In theory, these cute little guys would go back and forth, delivering InDesign and image files, between me and our graphic designer, Pip. That's how we make the magazine, you see: We pass files back and forth and voila!