IOW: Site to enshrine C-U music
A good Independence Day to all! We’ve chosen to divert from our normal topics for this “Image of the Week” and point out Holly Rushakoff’s long gestating project, Champaign-Urbana Music, which apparently will restore the type of jam-packed overview formerly offered by Steve Sobel and his dormant creation, OpeningBands.com. Based on looking through Rushakoff’s visual concepts, CU Music would facilitate a stream of timely and ephemeral material, fueled in part by site users, and also function as a curated Wiki database with subject profiles like one might read at an AllMusic or Discogs. Naturally, it would be unique due to the regional focus and “family tree” roots running throughout its content. We certainly have recognized how the music itself augments and influences local media production, as proven in several current C-U Blogfidential posts including this one, that one, and that other one, with more on the horizon; maybe our C-U and her CU will team up in the near future, yes? It’s not out of the question, dearest readers, as Rushakoff was one of our original copy editors for MICRO-FILM and remains a friend and colleague. As well, we could stand to glean a few pointers from how the potential wealth of CU Music content is managed so CUBlog can better present the details of our resident film culture in the near future.
Even with what little has been shared so far on this Facebook page and in this Web site mockup, it should be noted that Rushakoff has the sensibility and skills to make her venture worth the visit. She’s practiced what she’s preached for nearly 20 years in her sincere fandom of local music including as writer at The Octopus-turned-CU Cityview, on-air host of the Monday night music program at WEFT 90.1 FM, and self-publisher of the short lived scene ‘zine Squirrel Scream. Furthermore, she’s practiced that much more in the instrumental sense as bass player for bands like Triple Whip and Electric Bitters. Her creative pursuits have also included graphic design and personal comics, while she recently concluded a 10-year run in the marketing department at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of her alma mater, the University of Illinois, to take a similar position at their College of Veterinary Medicine. We could probably spend several paragraphs detailing her accomplishments but we’ll allow this Linkedin profile to do so for the sake of brevity. Back to the archive, one of seven samples Rushakoff uploaded for CU Music groupies to see using the ISSUU electronic publishing service is replicated below; we’ll guess the final template will not look exactly as it does in this thumbnail, already several months old.
We will keep a supportive eye on her effort to put this ambitious beast into motion once complete funding and partnerships fall into place, wishing her the absolute best in making CU Music history and securing its use in our community for years to come. Join in the compilation fun, won’t you?
~ Jason Pankoke
