“[In the age of the caveman], they had two ways of entertainment. One was the chief of the tribe telling about the hunting of the day – how big the tiger’s teeth were, how brave this guy was when he went to hit the mammoth with the stick or whatever. And that was to impress the crowd. The fun, the thrills, were coming from this impression that you got from outside. Then they moved into painting on the cave walls, then writing stories, then the stories started moving, like cinema, and the cinema went to television. Still the same system. The media of impression.
“The second way of entertainment they had was to take two sticks, beat them together and dance around the fire,” he continues. ”And here the thrill was not about being impressed but about expressing yourself. That moves into the invention of musical instruments, getting different emotions from different styles of music, growing the music experience into opera or whatever. And that really leads into the video game. Playing with a joystick is basically the same move as playing a piano; the thrill is not what you get from outside, but what you express from inside. Whether it’s a piano or a chessboard or a joypad, that’s your technology, and you express yourself through it.”
– Bruno Bonnell
former Atari CEO
If DMZ Press is like the chief telling about the hunt of the day, DMZ’s Press Club is nothing less than the passing of the torch (or in this case, the passing of two sticks), from the chief to the natives, with all of them now talking about the hunt of the day, and everyone dancing around the bonfire together, wherever it may take them, come what may … let the madness begin.
DMZ’s Press Club is the only one of its kind to invite Press Club members to not only passively observe the inner workings of DMZ Press 24/7, but actively participate.
Two venues: 1) The Press Room, where the daily grind of DMZ Press’s grunt work takes place, and 2) The Crossroads Bar and Grill, where the real business of what makes DMZ Press tick goes on, usually beer in hand.
The Press Room – depending on who you ask, DMZ Press appears to utilize a wide range of time-tested and breakthrough technologies and techniques, including:
- a highly classified, military-encrypted, “murder squad”-vetted, digitally divined, proprietary computer algorithm, and/or
- a protocol of delirium and despair inspired by a gang of batshit-crazy, disillusioned rock reporters (well, maybe just one batshit-crazy, disillusioned rock reporter) in the sweet haze of a three-day drunken binge, guided by nothing more than gut instinct, dumb luck, and blind faith while Alabama 3’s “Converted” bleeds out of the speakers.
In short, anything goes, from the scientific to the supernatural, from E=MC² to rabid chanting and hoodoo-voodoo, from Shakespeare in The Park to graffiti in the bathroom.
Press Club members enjoy unlimited access to all of the Press Room’s resources, opening the proverbial gates to hundreds of the world’s best music publications and journalists (and to the morgue; that is, the catacombs where music journalism’s archives are kept), a rolling carnival of interactive music sites, interviews they can sit in on (even asking questions themselves), impromptu gigs and drop-in concerts (unplugged and/or plugged in with the dial cranked to 11), and best of all – well, aside from the 24/7 streaming webcam, and the chance of becoming a regional reporter with full press credentials, The Press Room offers full access to DMZ xPress, where Press Club members explore and discuss the news of the day that they themselves helped find … because let’s face it, the next best thing to listening to music is talking about it.
The Crossroads Bar & Grill (VR) – Like Po’ Monkey’s juke joint in the Mississippi Delta, Toronto’s now-defunct Cadillac Lounge, Vancouver’s Yale Hotel (where the blues were kicked to the curb by tourist-aimed Country music and line dancing (then again, with girls in jean cutoffs and cowboy boots riding bareback on a mechanical bull, it’s not all bad!)), and the Ground Zero Blues Club in Robert Johnson’s old Mississippi stomping grounds – The Crossroads Bar & Grill exudes all of the qualities of the world’s most legendary blues bars … yet somehow maintains a character entirely its own.
Just down the street from DMZ Press headquarters, The Crossroads Bar & Grill (VR) is a Virtual Reality blues bar where the real business of DMZ Press is conducted. It’s a mad, mad world, and Press Club members are invited to tag along and enjoy record release parties, open mic, live shows, interviews, a worldwide battle of the bands, shoot a game of pool, play a few favorites on the jukebox, watch music videos throughout the day and full-length movies with the gang on Friday Night at the Movies, sit-in on interviews, sing karaoke, all with an endless array of other like-spirited Press Club members … because as a computer magazine editor said decades ago, “Next to Virtual Reality, reality is just not what it’s cracked up to be.”
[The Crossroads Bar & Grill (VR) has currently taken up temporary residence in VRChat’s “Cozy 90s Style Bar.” Check DMZ Press for the Whens and What-fors. Temporary VRChat avatar handle: Shadow5050.]
[The DMZ Press Club is a work in progress …]