RobertSpuhler.com

Hope, Change

The most important thing that the inauguration of Barack Obama can do - it's not guaranteed, but *can* do - is inspire people to take civic responsibility seriously. The kind of enthusiasm seen on the National Mall today is the kind of energy we need to make it through these next few years, with a failing economy taking its toll on more than just the stock market.

Politics, civil responsibility, using one's voice to change that which needs to be changed - it's not a once-in-four-years event.

One Less Reason To Own a Radio

Indie 103.1 is Going Off the Air - LA Times

To be replaced by yet another Spanish-language station.

Everytime I get close to ditching my XM subscription, something like this happens. Public radio is now officially the only thing worth listening to in LA OTA radio.

Things That Are New

Two new Web-based places to find me:

1) LA Soccer Examiner - I'll be covering all things soccer in Los Angeles, whether it be Beckham's AC Milan journey or US National Team games. Galaxy and Chivas coverage will ramp up as the season gets closer.

2) Tubefilter.tv - I'm covering Web series news for the Web's leader in ... well ... Web series news.

Working For Free

Will Work For Praise - BusinessWeek

This frightens me.

I’ve spent since seventh grade working on how to effectively gather and convey information through print (and sometimes broadcast) media. I’ve taken grammar and research courses and I’ve written articles about everything to high school sports to Big Daddy Kane.

But all of that is worthless, it seems, because we as a people don’t see the difference between my well-worded prose and the scribbling of an amateur. Content costs money. That’s why actors and writers get paid. But we’d rather watch videos of cats attacking printers.

I've been trying for weeks to land new writing gigs. And I've cobbled together a couple of interesting ones (more on that later). But even with those, I still need to spend 20 hours/week teaching kids the ins-and-outs of the SAT to keep a roof over my head.

What happens when we don’t pay for content, when the modern-day storytellers can’t live off of their skill? Then we lose one of humanity’s most enduring arts.

(This is me being bitter today.)