• Home
• Subscribe
• Store
• Service/FAQ

---

All Pages |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5 

The Intern Diary of Jonathan Nolte:

Friday, 1 August, 2003
This has been a crazy busy week, and I have been unable to add anything to my journal as a result. This will be my last day at HM and it has been mostly a good experience. A lot of crazy things have happened this summer and I will never forget the times I had here. Of those crazy things, none of the “bad” ones happened as a direct result of being at HM. Between a lack of financially gainful employment, car troubles, housing and family issues, it has been interesting.

I have one story about today that I think must be shared with anyone who cares to read it. We learned earlier this week that the magazine needed more advertisers. We prayed about the situation and some help came. Some crushing news came concerning advertising this morning, so we went to prayer about it again. Literally seconds after we finished praying, someone called wanting to buy an ad. G-D cannot make His work much more obvious than that. We learned once again that you can only get by if you put all your faith in G-D and proceed into life knowing that you cannot do anything by your own work.

To everyone at HM, the contributors and the folks in the industry, the artists, and the people who helped me get through this time: Thanks for a great summer! May Yahweh guide you.

Monday, July 28, 2003
This will be a long week at HM. I started my day out by dropping my peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the road in front of the office. Then I sat under my car and cried for a while. Not really, the crying I mean, but still a good way to start. I usually don’t come in every day, but I will have to this week. We have lots of proofreading to do, problems to work out, little things to work into the magazine that are not there now. Once I am done here, I have to make short work of getting my butt back up to Indiana. That will be a drag, for many reasons. I want to stay in Texas, but I don’t see that happening now. O well.

Tuesday, July 22, 2003
I must say that Warped Tour was fun. I saw a lot of good bands and got some exercise. With nothing more to say about that, I will proceed to complain…

The entire event was outdoors and the temperature was already into the upper nineties, and the reflection of the heat from the asphalt made it even less bearable and there was no easily accessible water to drink. The event vendors were charging $3.25 for a small bottle of water. The two first aid tents were constantly over-filled with kids who were dehydrated with towels on their heads, drinking the meager water that the ambulance brought, and some with I.V.’s in their arms, re-hydrating them. I am not sure whom to blame, Clear Channel or the Reliant Center in Houston or Vans. Sure, a lot of people don’t put enough thought into their own health to drink enough water, but not all of the people under those tents were dehydrated from laziness. I did not bring any extra money for water mostly because I am broke, but I trusted that if a venue offering an all-day concert in the blistering July Texas heat, they would be required by law, if not by common sense to provide people with some water to drink, even if it was warm water from a hose. If I had any money, I would have spent about $30 on bottled water to keep healthy. I joined the rebels who got empty cups from the drink stands and filled up whenever the grounds’ irrigation system came on. I would not have been surprised if the lack of water had been the inspiration of a water riot, a scaled down version of the riots at the last Woodstock concert.

The truth is that there is no excuse for the event planners’ disregard for the safety of concert-goers. Yes, they have to make a profit, but seriously, $3.25 for a little bottle of water? The crowd was at the mercy of the vendors and was left with no choice but to fork over lots of bills to stay healthy. The vendors probably laughed all the way to the bank, leaving a trail of sick, weary kids in their wake, unless their conscious overcame their greed and they realized what a horrible thing they had done, sacrificing the health of their customers for profit. Perhaps the over-worked EMT’s at the event will raise their voices in condemnation of this practice of coercing people into buying water with their very lives at stake and pressure future venues into providing water. Hopefully, Vans will realize the raw deal that they gave concert-goers by allowing the event to be held at a venue that would put their health at risk.

Friday, July 18, 2003
I am still trying to think about what I can say about The Hours. The movie might be a little above me. Futurama will be a bit easier, but what can I say about the spiritual relevancy of a Matt Goening cartoon. I finished my Symphony in Peril article in one day and I think it turned out well. I will be going to Houston for the Vans Warped Tour on Sunday, so I don’t know how early I will be able to get back to Austin in the morning. In the meantime, I will have tons of fun! I get to see Thrice, AFI, Slick Shoes, Underoath… too bad its so far away.

Thursday, July 17, 2003
Shawn Jonas finally got the interview questions about Symphony in Peril back to me via email after, I imagine, some prodding from facedown records. He was full of apologies for it being so late, but I understand that they are recording and on tour and I am a heavy procrastinator myself. So I will be working hard on that story. I have also gained a spot on the Side One Dummy guest list at Warped Tour in Houston this Sunday, so I will finally get to go to a show this summer! Yay! I will make it a point to stop and talk to Slick Shoes while I am there. I have no money to buy stuff at Warped but that’s OK. Hopefully I can sneak some food in there too, or I will spend a day in involuntary fasting.

NEXT PAGE
All Pages |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5 

Return to Intern Diaries

---