Of Montreal and the Magazine Office Olympics

People sometimes ask me what a typical day looks like for the editor-in-chief of Paste, and all I can think is that there are few typical days. But I'd like today to be typical. As I write this, I'm sitting in our a/v studio, watching Kevin Barnes pose for our November cover. One of my favorite photographers, Jeremy Cowart, is in town from Nashville, and Kevin is dressed like he's ready for Cirque de Soleil. We're listening to a mix of Shuggie Otis, Isley Brothers and Danger Doom on the stereo, and a filter casts magenta lighting across the room—which a couple rum and cokes into the day is a little trippy and very relaxing.

My Monday started with me finishing an Emergent story on Georgia native, Los Angeles based singer/songwriter Meiko, who I first discovered a year and a half ago at a Hotel Café showcase at Sundance. I had trouble cutting it down to 350 words, but our managing editor has already done the honors for me. I find myself volunteering for more and more stories about brand new artists. I love finding new music and sharing it with our readers.



At noon, the whole office headed down to Avondale Park for the Atlanta Magazine/Paste 1st Annual Office Olympics, where I won a bronze medal for Cornhole—the worst named bean-bag toss game of all time. Associate editor Steve LaBate and I lost our bocci ball match-up against Atlanta editor-in-chief Rebecca Burns and her partner Susan, but we won our first game of ladder golf. We had to leave early, though, to make it back in time for the photo shoot. Still, we won bronze in Cornhole. And did I mention we won a bronze medal, which I'm wearing right now. Every Monday should be like this.