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Peripheral Vision 009: Jesse Thorn on using the internet to create something meaningful
"The fact that I'm an independent media businessman is because no one was interested in co-opting me," Jesse Thorn laughs. It's plenty easy to make light of with a decade's distance and a sunny office overlooking MacArthur Park and the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles. Maximum Fun's Westlake headquarters is reasonably quiet when we arrive, a half-dozen or so employees plugging away on the podcasting network's day-to-day operations, and prepping for its first-ever Atlantic Comedy and Music Cruise. In the past ten years, the Bullseye host has turned a humble college radio program into a bustling podcasting empire. "We started podcasting [Bullseye's predecessor] The Sound of Young America at the end of 2004," says the NPR host. "I thought if I could get 100 or 200 people to listen to this, it would be worth the extra 90 minutes for me to make it into a podcast." Thorn's secret to success is simple enough: do what you love. And doesn't hurt if you can't possibly do anything else. "It's about is creating something that means enough to you that you're willing to undergo some hardship to sustain it and to create something that means enough to your audience that they're willing to support it - even if it's in surprising ways," explains Thorn. "Even if it's backing a Kickstarter or buying a ticket to a cruise, rather than buying a newspaper. If you can bring those things together, this is a new world. When I got out of college, I didn't get an interview. It was horrible. I ended up working as my dad's secretary, and I'm a terrible secretary - and my dad is a terrible boss. Even if he wasn't my dad, he'd be a terrible boss." Subscribe to Peripheral Vision on iTunes
Polyphonic Spree melds music video and Choose Your Own Adventure in new iOS app
Anxious to get your ears on new tunes from The Polyphonic Spree? Join the crowd. For those in possession of an iOS device, you can have a listen at the freshest of the fresh ("Bullseye"), while entertaining yourself all the while. As artists look for ever-changing ways to get their points across, this particular group has teamed up with Moonbot Studios in order to create an interactive, character-based narrative music video. It's a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, layered atop a music vid; hit the source link to get your download on.
