Computer Love

MN: The Internet seems to be breaking the hold that Clear Channel radio stations and the record industry giants have on the "musical conversation," with music sites like Pitchfork, social networking applications like MySpace, and blogs changing the way people discover and appreciate new music. It seems like good music now has a number of new avenues to find wider audiences, and I just don't see how anyone can hate that.

GK: How/when did you get into blogging?

MN: Blogging for me was originally just a strategy for writing practice; ever since I was a kid I've always been most motivated to write when I've had an audience for my prose. It transformed into a music blog early last year, when I was starting to get really disenchanted with writing about mundane things like my cats' nasty feline hygiene issues. I've always loved playing songs for people and talking about the music I like, and this sort of lets me do both at once, online, to a mass audience. It's been great fun so far.

GK: Finally, do music bloggers get chicks?

MN: Well, my wife seems to think that any day now I'm going to have women throwing themselves at me based on my blog writings, but I really can't figure out what the draw would be. Married music geeks in their mid-30s can't possibly score that high on the "must seduce" lists of many women.