As of today I am no longer working at the Hook, because they’ve decided to shutter all music, arts, and culture coverage as a drastic cost-cutting measure. This is a pretty surreal development, both because it takes them so far from the usual blueprint of an alt-weekly paper and also because the music section I operated performed quite reliably for several years as their #2 source of web traffic (after the news blog run by the full-time reporters, obviously).

The really upsetting part is seeing all the work we all put in behind the scenes go down the tubes for good. Expanding the online culture coverage was a really ambitious project for which we designed some awesome technological features — for example, the calendar listings controlled a podcast that could shoot MP3s from the bands performing that evening directly onto your iPod each morning, and we later started syndicating our content back out separately for each venue so the promoters could use it on other sites to make their own jobs easier. Even several years after the initial launch, I have yet to see another publication or web outlet try anything remotely comparable. I’d hoped to eventually find myself handing off the keys to an excited intern instead of watching the whole endeavor shut down, because landing that job at 23 was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

With all that said, it’s very hard for me to be angry about any of this, since I quite literally owe my writing career entirely to Hawes. On to other projects now. I am extremely excited about them.

Well, the material in question has been pulled from the DMB web site — probably because The Hook decided to put that little blog news blurb into last week’s print issue.

Since I grew up in Blacksburg, the recent Virginia Tech murders hit close to home, and I wrote the closing essay in the current issue of The Hook. Please take a moment to read it or reflect; either will do.

The 2006 Hook music issue hits today. Go get it. Now with 300% RDA of Cripsy!

The Hook’s annual music issue hits today. Go get it. (Also available in the real world.)

I am now the music editor at The Hook. The annual music issue drops on Thursday. Talk about a trial by fire. Yeesh.