At around eleven o'clock this morning, I was ready for a beer.
"Is it too early for a beer?" I had asked our production dude, Phil McRae. Of course, I'm here in New York City and Phil's out on the west coast, so it took him a couple of hours to respond. "It's only too early if you're drinking alone," he finally replied."Cheers!" I shouted.
We've been shipping our July issue to our pre-press people, wherever they are, (in California). First, I exchange e-mails and information with our graphic designers, Pillippa Tannenbaum (who works from home in Park Slope, Brooklyn) and Natalie Baca (who works from home in Santa Fe, New Mexico). We pass InDesign files back and forth over an FTP site and various flash drives, and I obliterate hardcopies of editorial material with my red pen. Over night, while Pip and Nat work on my many corrections, I pray to God (in heaven) that they can read my scribbles and make no mistakes in revising the files. Even the simplest error may take another day to correct.
It's a long, intense, and stressful process, made more difficult by distance and time. This particular shipping cycle has been slightly more challenging because John Atkinson has been out of the office all week, giving presentations to enthusiastic crowds at ListenUp's Music Matters sessions (in Colorado). But we make it work. As I type these words, the last eight editorial files are being transmitted to pre-press. These are:
STRP-090700-(004)TOC
STRP-090700-(009)Letters
STRP-090700-(055)Crabbe
STRP-090700-(063)SonicYouth
STRP-090700-(101)RecRevs
STRP-090700-(109)ManComs
STRP-090700-(114)AuralRB The screen tells me that we're currently at 323.4MB of 495.7MB (about 55 minutes left to go in the transaction). Outside, the sky grows dark and cold and hints at heavy rain. In the office next to mine, music editor Robert Baird sifts through his latest batch of advances. Steve Earle groans from his hi-fi. Meanwhile, from intern Ariel Bitran's cubicle come the sounds of John Houx's Green Period. Robert stomps out into the hall and: "Jesus, do we live (in Seattle) now? It's about to pour out there again."
