I ran across an issue of Sacramento Spotlight Magazine, (SSM) which I had never seen before. Looks kind of like an arts/media-focused rendition of Sacramento Magazine. NB: this is not a compliment! Many of the articles seem to be puff pieces, written by the subjects themselves, or are at least highly flattering, a la Sacramento magazine (minus points). I hadn’t heard of most of the artists profiled in this issue (vol. 3 iss. 4), which is a “plus” to me. I decided to check out two of the artists–an author and a musician.
The author is Ron Montana. I looked for his work in the Sacramento Public Library and on Amazon.com. The library was a complete bust. Amazon was a little better–they had 4 of his books in stock, but the prices were outrageous. ($22.99 for a paperback?!?) I decided to buy one of the used copies of Ride a White Zebra. It should arrive in a week or three. I’ll post a review in the blog and on Amazon as soon as I read it.
The musician is Mike Comfort, former lead singer and songwriter for the band “Thirst”. Thirst is gone now, but Mike is still playing. He’s got four tracks from his album available on his website. “In my Eyes” sounds particularly good. His CD isn’t available on Amazon, but I was able to buy it directly from his website. He uses PayPal (boo!), but at least you aren’t required to have a PP account. (Good thing, too. It would have cost him my business!) I expect to receive the CD reasonably quickly, assuming that shipping time will only be a few days tops. Again, reviews will be posted on the blog and Amazon as soon as I’ve had a chance to listen to the CD.
I’ll see how these two artists stack up, and that’ll pretty much be my review of SSM. If the artists are reasonably good, I’ll overlook the gushing tone of the articles. If they suck, I’ll be out $20 and spend much time and effort talking smack about SSM.
Well, I got the book today, all the way from Tennessee. No sign of the CD yet.
I’m not going to have much time to read over the next few days, but as soon as I get a chance I’ll devour the book and post my thoughts on it.
Just got the CD from Mike Comfort today, slurping it into iTunes right now. It came from Chico, Calif. via USPS, 13 days after I ordered it–postage was paid 4 days ago, so order processing took 8-9 days. Not a bad turntime, but not great.
I’ll post my review as a separate entry once I get a chance to listen to the CD.
My review is posted here.
I got a nice email from Mike explaining why it took him a while to fill the order, so I guess I’ll have to cut him some slack. More info from the email will be revealed in a new post, probably tonight.
Hi Jim,
I am the director of content and co-owner of Sacramento Spotlight Magazine. We are a very upbeat and positive publication, but we’re not trying for “fluff”. There is just already PLENTY of negativity out there, and we’re trying to avoid it. No, the artists do NOT write their own pieces. Our articles are also NOT paid, although we have written editorial about an advertiser, if it was appropriate and deserved. We are really not much like Sac Mag, but hope to share in their advertising success.
We are striving to spotlight local talent, both the lesser known and some of the more popular personalities in our area. Our publication is free and widely read. In addition to talent… business, health, events and several other topics are explored to increase our advertising as well as reader appeal.
There is basically two of us running EVERYTHING, myself and our publisher, Todd Rowland. We are both from Sacramento and are trying very hard to support our community.
So take it easy on us! We are genuine.
Thanks, Becky
SacramentoSpotlight.com