Trashwire updates and such

It’s been a while since I last posted anything on this blog and I decided it was high time to update.

Since we last spoke, I moved Trashwire to a new web host. As many of you (and our Twitter followers) know, I’d been more than a little displeased with the annoying downtimes of our former host. I’ve got to deliver Trashwire to the people 24/7! I can’t have some company standing in the way of your ability to read our completely unimportant-but-amusing ramblings! So far, so good with the new host but let me know if you notice any problems or glitches by using the contact form on the site.

In other news, I decided to change the Featured Article block (that one with the larger picture off to the left on the main page) to include two feature stories. Most of you already know I’m a HUGE Michael Jackson fan and I was completely torn up by his death. The reason behind the change is that I just couldn’t bring myself to shrink down that lovely Thriller image and put that article off in the Recent News block before the memorial had even taken place! I’m thinking I’ll leave it there until July 25th so it can have a good 30 days of glory before I move it over.

On a related note, I’ve been weighing how much coverage I should give to the media storm that’s been kicking up around Michael’s death. I’ve seen some really touching clips on YouTube from news shows to fan vids, and even superstar tributes from Beyonce and Madonna, but I’ve been undecided on how to bring you all this news without trivializing the significance of what Michael meant to the world. His name, his image and his music are everywhere you look right now and I’m worried that people will get burnt out. I’ve made a conscious effort not to post videos like the “haunted Neverland” clip from last night’s Larry King or the dancing inmates tribute to the late King of Pop because I feel like that might dilute the real impact of the loss. Like I said, I’m still undecided on how much we should be posting about Michael Jackson, so I’d love to hear your opinions. Should we be posting the videos of the Beyonce and Madonna tributes? How about clips from Larry King’s interview with Michael’s brother Jermaine? Old clips of Michael from interviews or making-of videos? Links to download Captain EO online? Since my main goal is to keep the readers happy, let me know what you’d like to see.

To shift the mood a bit, I wanted to acknowledge some of the awesome people that have contributed to Trashwire over the years. Ann Rakowiecki’s article about meeting Johnny Depp on the set of Public Enemies has been getting a ton of hits with the release of the film and (my mom) Pat Sue’s interview with Arj Barker was a fun multimedia addition to the site. Our tweeps in Phoenix have been super rad with Greg Esposito sending us a killer article about the possible cancellation of NBC’s Chuck and Chris Coffel contributing a great review of Away We Go. Of course, who could forget our favorite contributor of all, Wil Chinchilla?! Wil’s writing has grown by leaps and bounds since he first started sending us articles way back in 2007 and now he’s kicking ass (and doing parkour) all over this site! Thanks so much to everyone who’s ever sent in an article! If you’re interested in getting your writing published on Trashwire, just use the contact form to send something over.

Anyway, I realized that what I intended to be a short letter has now become a sizable post, so I’ll end things there for now. Keep checking out Trashwire.com!

Alexis Gentry
Creator/Editor
TRASHWIRE.COM