As summer winds down, the calendar virtually explodes with things to do every September - the Bengals roar (or is it limp) back into town, Oktoberfest releases its goetta fueled chicken dances, every arts organization in the city opens a new production, and then comes Midpoint, Cincinnati's locally grown, all organic feast of all things cool. Soapbox dedicates a chunk of its coverage this week to the annual music festival for a couple of different reasons - first, we love it. And then there's the fact that Midpoint is the kind of event that Soapbox is all about, a celebration of talent, innovation and diversity all within an environment of electric possibility. This week, Soapbox pulls CityBeat Music Editor, Mike Breen away from the festival to talk about Midpoint as well as Cincinnati's vibrant music scene.
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SoapBlog 3 - Blurbs
Posted By: Mike Breen
9/25/2008
For the past seven years, when it gets close to MidPoint Music Festival time, I’m guaranteed to be a skittish, emotional mess. Well before CityBeat took the reins, MidPoint was for me what the first days of summer must be like for air-conditioner repair people. It’s my “busy season.”
My anxiety comes in the form of what I now call “Blurb Patrol.” Each year, I’ve been in charge of putting together CityBeat’s comprehensive guide to the festival, with well over 100 blurbs about every band playing the festival. Though I’m assisted by freelance writers, it is still a major undertaking, listening to 150 or so bands, writing a representative 150 words on each and then finding where they’ve floated in the ever-rotating schedule.
The first several years of this process were brutal. The most memorable was the year my home computer broke, meaning I spent an entire three days in the CityBeat offices, from about noon until 4 or 5 in the morning. And being downtown late at night usually means Papa John’s for dinner. I can still taste that mushroom hoagie I lived off of for a night and a half. That weekend — and many other MidPoint prep nights — was like that scene in Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen in going stir-crazy in a hotel room before shipping out. Except I usually keep my shirt on and keep the drinking to a minimum.
By now, we have gotten the MidPoint guide process down to a non-exact science and I don’t complain nearly as much. This year, I was hardly stressed at all. But it did take me longer than usual to write my own blurbs, usually because I’d go to some band’s MySpace site and get sucked in by their music for a half an hour.
That’s what MidPoint is all about for me – getting blown away by some band you know nothing about. This year, the caliber of acts coming in for MidPoint — both signed and unsigned — is the best it has ever been. I am really looking forward to popping my head into some MidPoint venue during the weekend and getting sucked in, unable to leave until the artists have played their final note.