Dear Reader,
I am Michele K , the Webmistress of PDXnet.net. I produce PDXnet.net as a hobby because I love music, entertainment, musicians, and the whole Portland, Oregon scene. I am proud of these pages. They erupted from a series of Portland entertainment bookmarks that my friends kept pestering me to share with them. Everyone loved being able to check movie times online, see what bands were playing tonite , find where a bar or venue is located and all that good stuff. I finally was coaxed to start maintaining that information online, where all my friends could get to it. Being the good and thorough webmistress-in-training, I finally broke down and got my own "dotnet" and submitted my little pages to the search engines. Now PDXnet gets about 5,000 unique visitors a month, and it's taken on a life of it's own.
No webmistress is an island, I do get a little help from my friends on this thing. Tom Cashman does the Talent Pages , and Bulldog does the backend programming on the PDX Live Shows Calendar and the PDX Bands Database . But I need help. Way more help.
These pages have grown into something truly unique. I have spent almost no money at all promoting them, and I make almost nothing off them, but the number of visitors I log every month tells me that I'm reaching a pretty good-sized audience. I'd like to take this site to the next level. I envision a team of field reporters -- you, the reader -- out there covering events for me. I know you're out there going to shows, and I know your friends ask you over Sunday brunch, "How was that show you went to last night?" You run it down for them, why not run it down for Portland?
What I want from you
I'd love for a few aspiring writers to step forward and help me out. If you knew a little HTML already, it would help, but if not, I'd easily be able to work with you. If you're reading this, chances are you have some kind of internet access. It would be great if you could just email me HTML pages with your reviews. I could upload them to the PDXnet server for you, and link them from the front page of the Bands section. I could give you an index page of your own for your reviews, byline, photos, whatever you have to contribute would be great.
I think this would be a great opportunity for anyone into the local music scene. If you're an aspiring writer, this is a great reference; an online portfolio accessible to the world. I wish I could offer pay, but I can't; PDXnet doesn't even support itself so far. I can offer some experience and an opportunity. I can also offer an official PDXnet Press Pass which might or might not get you into shows free or cheap. It's worked for me before a few times...
Thanks for reading this far! If you think this is something you'd be into, send some e-mail to michele@pdxnet.net . Tell me about the last show you saw. It doesn't have to be long, or perfect, just a little description of the venue, the bands, the vibe, whatever impression you left with. I answer e-mail pretty fast, so I'll get right back to you. All submissions will be acknowledged! Any feedback you have about this page, PDXnet in general or anything at all, for that matter, can be sent to michele@pdxnet.net
Thanks again for taking the time to read this -- let me hear from you soon!
See you at a show,