Getting To Know Us

In November we received a request from Impact Weekly, a Dayton-based, alternative weekly, for an interview. Stoked on the chance to dish out big ups to all the peeps and bands that make this webzine possible. Over the course of two days, Anne and I answered about 30 questions and the results, in their entirety are below. Enjoy.

Interview conducted via e-mail by Leslie Benson for The Impact Weekly.

Names: Anne and Tim Anderl

Website: Bettawreckonize

IW: When & why did you first create your website?
T: I graduated from Ohio University in 1998 with a degree in Magazine Journalism and began working for a nonprofit agency in Cleveland, Ohio. I was working long hours for little pay doing more administrative work than actual writing. This left my creativity pretty stifled and I immediately started to kick around the idea of doing a print zine. Unfortunately, long hours at work also stifled the time I needed to get it up and running. A year later I returned to Dayton for a technical writer position at Wright-Patterson AFB. This job afforded me a little more time to focus on putting a print zine together and at one point I actually had a mock-up copy. When Anne graduated from OU in 2000 she was finding similar frustration in not having a really creative outlet for her web design skills. Fortunately, a lot of our friends, who were writers, photographers, music enthusiasts, designers, programmers, etc., were similarly stifled and frustrated and Anne and I proposed the idea of an online webzine to them. So, BW was started in July 2001 as a collaborative, creative and cooperative effort produced by us and our friends (ones that we went to school with and friends with similar goals that we've picked up along the way).

IW: Why is the website an asset for Ohio's bands and music fans?
T: I think that we've designed the site with Ohio's bands and music fans in mind because we ourselves are Ohio's music fans. For example, when one of our contributors, Matt Clark, was transferred to a fire station at Wright-Patterson (was military firefighter, is civilian now) he said that he immediately sought out local shows for his recreation. He said that it was a challenge to keep track of them, and in some cases, even find out about them by relying on bulletin boards at local record stores. So, he suggested that we develop a regional shows list as part of the site so that music fans could keep track of upcoming shows and concerts.
In addition, countless Ohio band's have been reviewed, interviewed, photographed or included in the news section on our site including: The Six Parts Seven, The Greenhornes, The Black Keys, The Lack, The Cinema Eye, The Party of Helicopters, to name a few. I'd like to think that these and other Ohio bands get a little bit of mileage out of being featured on our site. In fact, I hope that getting some exposure from BW isn't unique to Ohio bands. Recently, one of our contributors recently received an e-mail from our friends in a band called The End Transmission (from Minnesota). The End Transmission played a club in Seattle while they were on tour and said that a girl who bought a t-shirt from they had mentioned that she read their album review on BW. This isn't an isolated incident, and we are pretty proud of that.
Our message board is also used by bands and fans to correspond with each other. It allows them to interact with us and each other; bands use it to help each other find shows, music fans use it to critique the latest additions to their record collection, some use it to trade tips on the new Tony Hawk video game, and others use it to find people in the area with similar politics.

IW: What percentage of the sight features information about local/regional bands vs. nationally-known bands?
T: When the website was conceived the idea was that it would be an all regional fanzine. Collectively, the staff knew several Ohio bands, and several of the staff were members of bands. So, because local bands were accessible, were our friends, and were in some cases already contributors to the website it made sense to focus on regional acts. However, early on we had the good fortune of corresponding with the publicists for some of our favorite national acts, partially because Jason LaVeris, one of our photographers, was freelancing for Strength Skateboarding Magazine and already had a relationship with them. Other publicists discovered us on their own and solicited our reviews, interviews, etc. BW took this opportunity to broaden our somewhat limited view and to feature both our friends regionally and also national acts. I think each "issue" of Bettawreckonize features a balance of regional and national acts. It hasn't been uncommon to see a local band like Dead Blue Sky or Waking Kills The Dream featured in the same issue as Omaha's The Faint, U.K.'s Clinic, or L.A.'s The Icarus Line.

IW: Why did you choose the title "BettaWreckonize" for the site?
T: I'm not exactly sure how the title came about. Chances are that I was listening to hip-hop (like the Snoop Dogg clip on our Flash intro) and it just struck me that we should title the web site BettaWreckonize. Everyone involved seemed to agree that it was an appropriate moniker. And, I think the message behind it is appropriate -- the goal of the website is to expose readers to bands that they've never heard and to "wreckonize" hard working, intelligent and creative musicians, filmmakers, photographers, graphic artists, painters, etc. We also hopes that our website espouses a little pride in the independent music "scene" both regionally and nationally. Unfortunately, it is a little difficult to spell, which has caused some confusion.

IW: Approx. # hits per day to the site?
A: We have between 300-350 unique visitors each day.

IW: What kind of response/feedback have you received about the site from visitors?
T: Most of our feedback has been positive. People appreciate being turned on to new sounds or having their favorites recognized. However, we have received some criticism. For example, on Christmas of last year we received a length e-mail saying that we were "scenesters" who were ruining the revival of do-it-yourself music in Dayton by not paying enough attention to the author of the e-mail's favorite bands. He also accused us of not being involved in proactively supporting Dayton music. Most of what he said seemed pretty absurd for a couple of reasons. We aren't scenesters; in fact, the reason I was turned on to punk in the early late 80s and early 90s was because it was an inclusive environment, or "scene." Also, some of the bands we were accused of ignoring were bands that our staff had played in or were playing in, or were friends of ours, which made it obvious to us that the author didn't know us as people. BW has also operated under the D.I.Y. ethic to promote and put on shows in venues around Dayton featuring local and national acts including; Anodyne (Escape Artist Records, New York), DJ JJD (Canada), The Beautiful Mistake (Militia Group Records, California), The Chase (Baltimore), and most recently The All-American Rejects (Dreamworks Records). These are things that BW has done because we love music and want good bands to be accessible to the kids in Dayton. Costs associated with these shows, and with the website, have never been covered by the amount of money taken by the door or the small amount of paid advertising BW receives. We do these things because we want to give something back to the community and to the proactive Dayton kids who have done these same kinds of things before us. I've realized that you can't please everyone, and though some of our criticism resonates with me, if some people aren't getting mad we probably aren't putting enough though into what we are doing.

IW: What makes your site user-friendly?
A: It's been designed so that it's pleasing to the eye, and organized logically so that everything is fairly easy to find.

IW: How often do you feature articles about local bands/music/ or the music business? (How often do these articles change?)
T: Bettawreckonize has historically been updated once every two months (an average of six or seven separate editions a year). Though we've tried to get it out on a monthly basis, coordinating the content and getting things ready for the web is done in our "free-time" and the little pitfalls of life makes it pretty hard to get it out as often as we'd like.
Each issue is a combination of band interviews, music-related news, album, show, television and movie reviews, columns, feature articles, art features, photographs and links. The regional shows listing on the web site is updated by two of our contributors on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.

IW: What determines what goes on the site?
T: The content of the site is 100 percent dependent on what our contributors are inspired by, and have taken the initiative to pursue. For example, you wouldn't have seen an interview with Milemarker or Clinic on our website unless one of our contributors liked them, and had the time and took the initiative to figure out a way to interview with them. Sometimes this is countless hours of coordination with publicists, bands, booking agents etc.
The hobbies of our contributors also determine what goes on the site. For example, we featured Ryan Disney's comic art and Debbie Rizer's (sister to contributor Dan Rizer) paintings in out art gallery section. We wouldn't have been exposed to these mediums if it hadn't been for a suggestion by Ryan or Dan to get these up on the site.
We also want the site to be a forum for fans to interact with each other and meet the nameless kids that stand next to them at shows. This is why we've added a message board section and regional shows list. It helps fans of music to interact with each other and stay current on upcoming shows.

IW: Number of local (Dayton-based) writers you have working for the site?
T: We have between five and ten regular writers from the Dayton area. However, there are also people involved with the website who aren't contributing content, but who are playing a pivotal, invaluable role. For example, Michelle Clark updates the show list, corresponds with bands, labels and publicists when a new issue goes up to let them know we are out there, and handles a large amount of our show promotions duties. Also, though my wife, Anne, doesn't contribute written content, she designed and re-designed the site, handles the web end of all of our updates, produces all the printed fliers for our shows, and takes pictures for our gallery section at nearly all of the shows we attend. She also does a fair amount of correspondence with bands, possible contributors, labels, and publicists.
In addition to our Dayton-based writers, BW has an east coast hub (Boston and New Hampshire) of around seven regular contributors, four or five contributors from Columbus and Cleveland, one in New Mexico, one in Detroit, one in Seattle, one in L.A., one in D.C., and have had contributions from writers in N.Y. and Atlanta.

IW: Do you and your staff writers have any running jokes based on any site articles or content?
T: Yes. For a while we had a staff writer named Jamie Maloney who would trash nearly everything that he was given to review. Though I think his outlook was a little short-sighted I also thought that there was some humor in his candor. Several of the contributors have received comments from readers about his reviews ranging from "That guy is hilarious" to "Man, I want to kill that guy." The funniest responses that we got to his reviews were from bands though. One time an indie pop band wrote us an e-mail to compliment a scathing Maloney review of a pretty popular hardcore band. That got a few laughs from the staff.
We've also had some funny run-ins with bands that we've interviewed. In December of 2001 I did an interview with The Red Shirt Brigade from Detroit. Things started out innocently enough with a pre-show interview at the Tumbleweed in the Oregon District where they were playing. We didn't have enough time to finish the interview and the band didn't have a place to stay so I invited them to crash on the floor of our apartment. By the time we made it back to my apartment after the show to resume the interview, the band was very intoxicated, the keyboard player was wearing my Bear In The Big Blue House Halloween costume, and I really couldn't get a straight, or coherent answer from any of them. Several of the Dayton BW contributors had come over for an after-hours witnessed the interview. Though it turned out to be one of the funniest things on the site, it isn't an experience that any of us will soon forget.

IW: Is the site family-run?
T: Yes and no.
Joe is my younger brother and Anne is my wife. Anne does nearly all of the layout and web design duties for the site, I am the primary editor and ready the content for her posting, and Joe contributes some of the content.
No one person can take 100 or even 50 percent credit for the site. It is a collaboration between a couple dozen writers and contributors from cities all over the country....one big extended family if you will.

IW: What local bands have you played in? Are you in a band now?
T: Several of BW's contributors have been in and are currently members of local bands. Though I'm probably going to screw this up royally, I'll give it a shot:
I was in a five-piece emo band at Ohio University called Lopan, and upon moving back to Dayton, played keyboard in Chasers Ready (the predecessor to Strangers As Heroes) for a couple of weeks. I am currently in a Dayton/Columbus band called In The Black Hearts of Men.
I met Matt Clark because he was also playing bass in Chasers Ready (we were kicked out at the same time). He plays in a band with Ryan Disney, another contributor, called The Janitor's Drinking Problem.
Joe Anderl started out in Dayton ska band The Krusty Watch Guys. He played guitar and sang in Athens, Ohio-based Keaton and is the current singer in Waking Kills The Dream.
Chris Worth, who did the computer programming for the message board and the shows list is in a post-rock band from Columbus called Denovo and also played in Special Aviation Project.
Dan Rizer was the bass player for Cleveland's Chalkline for a while.
Jason LaVeris played in Dayton's Everyday Fake and Blue Ash Solution. He is the current drummer for a Columbus-based electro-glam band called The Cinema Eye (who will be releasing a record on California's Sound Virus soon. Sound Virus put out records by The Liars, The Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves).
Paul Bugala cut his teeth in Cleveland's 45 RPMs.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but I think this shows that we have been active participants in local/regional music for some time.

IW: What instruments do you play?
T:I play a little guitar and keyboards and sing. Anne played violin, clarinet and sax in high school. I think if you were to survey all the regular contributors to BW, there wouldn't be very many musical instruments that we collectively haven't ever put our hands on.
IW: Best local venues to perform in or watch bands perform in, in your opinion?
T: BW has promoted shows at Elbos, the Knights of Columbus Hall, and Jag's, and I've appreciated the openness of the managers and owners of those bars and halls and the atmosphere of the venue. I have seen some pretty incredible things happen in the past at the Antioch College Student Union, The Sub Galley (R.I.P.), Rebos (R.I.P.), Network (R.I.P.), Brookwood Hall (R.I.P.), The Palace Club (now Arnold's Palace Club I think), and the Safari Club (R.I.P.) Canal Street Tavern, the Charity Grange Hall, El Diablo Lounge and 1470s. It seems like the punk community has been really transient over the last decade and a half, because individuals have historically promoted punk shows, rather than the venues actually pursuing, and promoting shows for independent/indie bands. I really enjoyed playing at Elbos (In The Black Hearts of Men did a show with High on Fire, Mastodon, and Dead Blue Sky there), and I know that Joe has really enjoyed the musicians co-op at Canal Street, playing all-ages shows at The Charity Grange Hall and Knights of Columbus Hall and sharing the stage with Hopesfall and From A Second Story Window at Jag's.

IW: Best local bands in Dayton, Cincy, or Columbus area, in your opinion?
T: Dayton has always had excellent bands of all the independent music genres. I cut my teeth on bands on now defunct bands like Bondage Box, Acme, Brainiac, Forechild, Scortched Earth Policy (these bands frequented Network, Brookwood Hall and Rebos in the early to mid-nineties), Ten O'Clock Scholar, The Mulchmen, 24 Possible, Blue Ash Solution, Honeyburn (mid to late nineties), and I'm sure I am forgetting tons of others. I think that Dayton bands have historically been top-notch and continue to be among some of the most creative musicians in independent music. The Dayton bands that I most enjoy now are Twelve Tribes, Waking Kills The Dream, When Sparks Fly, 8 Bit Revival, The Ohio Casket, Guided By Voices, The Story Changes, Rune, Simply Waiting, I Cried This Night, A Day In The Life and Etherea. Unfortunately, I haven't yet had the opportunity to see Fakey Vampires, Shesus, Dirty Walk, or The National Drink, all bands who I've heard really good things about.
In Columbus my favorites are The Cinema Eye, Denovo, Pretty Mighty Mighty, BlowUp, and The Lack (R.I.P.), and I've enjoyed Koan and the Afghan Whigs from Cincy.

IW: How long did it take for you to create the site? Did anyone help you? If so, who?
T: It took Anne and I about two months to get the first edition of the site together. The content was provided by a dozen and a half of our closest friends from around the country. Anne did a redesign of the site early this year. I think that it took about two months.
BW has always been a very collaborative effort. It would be a HUGE LIE if we said we had done this on our own. Just a browse through the website will show you that there are dozens of contributors who all have a unique voice and a little different taste in music.

IW: Does advertising help your ability to keep the site so professional, active and up and running?
T: So far, the amount of advertising that we've sold has covered the expenses for the website (hosting and domain name) for one month, and Anne and I have covered the other 16 months out-of-pocket. Most of the advertising was done in trade (For example, When Sparks Fly let us borrow their P.A. for a show we promoted). Though we'd like to cover all the costs associated with the web site with advertising it hasn't really worked out that way yet.
There are other costs associated with the website and BW shows that we and other contributors have incurred, such as fliering for shows, paying bands on an off-night, mailing promotional materials and album advances to out of town contributors, etc. We never expected to make money off of the website and think there are advantages to keeping the website and our other activities a hobby rather than a business. It would be nice if these things were self-sustaining though, and that is one of many goals for the future.

IW: What do love most about computers, technology and making web pages?
A: I love that we have to ability to reach so many people. Thousands of people from across the U.S. and other countries are able to read BettaWreckonize. We have had visitors from Japan, France, Belgium, Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and Hong Kong, to name a few.

IW: What does your site offer that other local music sites don't?
T: I think that trying to find two music fans with identical tastes is like trying to find two snowflakes that are exactly the same. I don't believe it can be done. What BW offers is OUR contributors and writers unique opinions about music, bands, concerts, television, movies, and the world around them.

IW: Are you familiar with other local websites, and what do you think of them? (ie. www.gemcitygrrlrock.com, www.daytonbands.com, www.themusiclair.com, etc.)
T: I've used each of these sites on more than one occasion to find out about a local band, information about a local show, or news about a local favorite. Each is a unique spin on the local music scene and is a tremendous resource for information about Dayton music.

IW: Where did you grow up & what first got you interested in web design?
A: Tim grew up here in Dayton. I grew up in Columbus and got interested in web design while in school at Ohio University. After I graduated I got a job at a small graphic and web design firm in Dayton, where I did a majority of the web design work. I recently got laid off when the company downsized and am now seeking employment.

IW: What were some of your earliest experiences as a child or teen with music? (Any funny stories or exciting memories?)
T: One of my earliest concerts was My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult and Souixsie and The Banshees at Memorial Hall in Dayton, December 13 (a Friday), 1991. I wasn't old enough to drive so my dad volunteered to drop me and a couple friends off at the venue. I remember being in the most appropriate goth-rock attire I could muster from my closet: black turtle neck, black jeans, black sneakers, and had my nails painted black. When my dad pulled the car up to Memorial Hall and saw all of the kids wearing shades of blood read and black, and the teased up goth hairstyles, and even jeweled turbans, he asked if we really wanted to be left at "the Addams family reunion," but begrudgingly let us out. Naively I thought that I'd won a huge victory, I was at the concert, dressed in all black, surrounded by some of the weirdest folks I'd ever seen in my life, and my dad wasn't particularly happy about it. I was officially a rebellious teen....until....a few weeks later I went to get my braces adjusted and the middle-aged orthodontist's assistant asked if I was the one she saw at the Souixsie and The Banshees show. I was mortified that a nice, normal orthodontists assistant was also in attendance and wondered how many other perfectly normal veterinarians, librarians, and health food wholesalers had tricked me into believing that they were my freaky and rebellious kindred spirits. It was so obvious to me now that they were just the everyday folks that demonstrated my headgear and molded my retainers. With a horrified look I asked her how she had spotted me and she said, "You were the only one there with blond hair." That was my last official goth concert outing.
Also, I hate to admit this, but when I was in high school I sang back up at Barry Manilow's concert at the Fraze Pavillion. Seniors from choirs at Beavercreek High School and Kettering Fairmont were selected to back the crooner with the feathered hair and sequin pants. We sang back up for "I Write The Songs" and "Dancing In The Streets." The words, "listen to the music, I am the music, music fills your soul, let it go!" haunt me to this day. Is there anything more punk rock than that...
A: I have to interject here. Tim does NOT "hate to admit" that he sang back up for Barry Manilow. He loves to admit it. He brags about it all the time!

IW: What genres of music are mainly represented on your website?
T: I'd say that the website is primarily composed of information about independent and mainstream emo, punk, hardcore, screamo, new-wave, pop, metal, hip-hop, and rap.

IW: What semi-famous/indie bands do you think are the best in modern music right now?
T: This is a tough question and I'm proud to say that no two BW contributors would have the same answer for this question. Some bands that I'm pretty excited about right now are Pretty Girls Make Graves (Lookout!, Seattle), The Liars (Mute, N.Y.), Milemarker (Jade Tree, Chicago), The Blood Brothers (last album on GSL, Seattle) Ted Leo (Lookout!, New York I think), The Party of Helicopters (Capricorn, Kent, Ohio), Thursday (Victory/MCA, New Jersey), Desaparecidos (Saddle Creek, Omaha), Cursive (Saddle Creek, Omaha), Cex (Tigerbeat6) and bands that are my friends/kindred spirits who are making their mark regionally and nationally (The Chase, Waking Kills The Dream, Twelve Tribes, Breaking Pangaea, The Minus Tide, Lenore Syndrome, The Dream Is Dead, The Story Changes, The Beautiful Mistake).
It seems like the environment now in music is both exciting and compromising. You can't turn on the television or open a magazine without seeing that a lot of excellent (and some not so excellent) things going on in music right now. The drawback to indie, "rock-revival," punk, hardcore, emo and really any other musical genre being more recognizable in the mainstream media is that one can't pay $5 dollars to see bands like The White Stripes play to a crowd of 40 at the Union Bar and Grill in Athens, Ohio anymore, or that Bright Eyes latest stop in Columbus sold out, or that Jimmy Eat World is playing the Schottenstien Arena in Columbus and not the OSU student union bar. But, I'm not one of those people who will stand on a soapbox and tell you that "punk is dead." Money, major labels and the media has been and will continue to exploit bands, but when the smoke clears, the ones that really moved me, with a combination of their ethics and artistry, will still be around or will retain their spot in my record collection. I think a quick trip through the website introduces readers to the bands that are moving, inspiring, and even pissing us off.

IW: Have you met or interviewed any well-known/"famous" musicians or people? Was it because of your website?
T: I guess this depends on what the definition of "famous" is. In independent music the bands are way more accessible. Bands like Cursive and Pretty Girls Make Graves don't have bodyguards like the Spice Girls or Avril LaVigne do. You can walk right up to the band and talk with them. Does that make it any less exciting to me as a music fan? No way, because I like Pretty Girls Make Graves and Cursive much better than the alternative.
I've had several opportunities to interview people that I considered famous. When I was in school I interviewed the drummer from Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion for the school paper, which was sort of a disaster. The publicist at Matador, who I'd been corresponding with for months didn't put me on the guest list or let the band know about the interview. I lucked out and dazzled one of their roadies with my tale of singing backup for Barry Manilow to get in the door.
A: See what I mean?!)
T: After asking the very pleasant Jon Spencer if he could hit in a little time for an interview, he sent Russell Simmons, the band's drummer to field my questions. He hated me and spent most of the interview ignoring my questions....I think he was asking the roadie to go out and score him some drugs. That was my first experience and things have gone considerably better since.
For BW, I've really enjoyed my interviews with Todd Baechle from The Faint (right before they hit the road with No Doubt), Jordan from The Blood Brothers, Keely Davis from Engine Down (which features ex-members of one of my favorite bands ever, Sleepytime Trio), Dave from Bats and Mice (who also played in Sleepytime Trio), and a few others.
I was really nervous before the interview I did with The Icarus Line. I'd seen Aaron Icarus' Buddyhead website, which is a little mean spirited, and had heard the stories about them breaking into Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst's office and stealing his signature red ball cap, vandalizing the Strokes' tour bus, and their crazy, destructive on-stage persona. When I arrived at the venue at Cincy to interview them, the entire band was crowded into a van outside. A lot freaked out and nervous I knocked on the van and they invited me in. Much to my surprise, the interview was just as mellow and pleasant as any of the others I'd done (sans the drunken shenanigans of The Red Shirt Brigade). On stage the band was another story....Aaron smashed two guitars and kicked over his amplifier when it shorted out during their second song. Then he left the stage for the rest of the set....I didn't ask them any follow-up questions:)

IW: What type of people visit your site? (Whom is the site actually geared toward?)
T:I don't think we have a whole lot of preconceived notions about who visits the site. We don't have marketing focus groups, or readership surveys because it is a hobby and not a business. I know for a fact that my wife's great aunt has visited the web site.
A: She said it was "cute."
T: Anne and I are also going to teach some kind of writing/desktop publishing badge to my sister's girl scout troop and we'll show them the site. While we hope that more young-adult and twenty-something rockers visit the site than girl scouts and great aunts, I think that there may be enough differing content on the site to catch almost anyone's interest. Can you get a feature length article on punk rock aerobics, a review of E.T. the Extraterrestrial, haikus about working at a museum in Boston, and a review of the Glass Candy and The Shattered Theater album at any other single stop in cyber-space? Probably not.

IW: Do you need any new freelance web writers?
T: We are always open for adding new writers and contributors to the BW family. Because it is a collaboration rather than a business, and because we aren't making enough money to break even on costs for the website, we can't pay contributors. But, I do think it is a good way to get your voice heard, or your artwork, photography, etc. seen.
I would encourage interested contributors to send samples of their work to the e-mail address on our website. This will give us a good idea of their abilities and will allow us to determine if we are a good match for what they are doing.

IW: What musicians were you obsessed with while growing up? What about now?
T: The first musician I was ever obsessed with was Michael Jackson. I remember wearing one mitten to second grade and trying to teach my grandma to moonwalk. I also wore out my parents' Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, Flashdance and Top Gun Soundtrack tapes. I think the first tape I ever owned (after the Smurfin' Sing Songs and Macho Duck) was either Tiffany, Debbie Gibson "Out of The Blue" or Belinda Carlisle's "Heavan on Earth." Belinda Carlisle was probably my first musical crush, but I think I would've married Tiffany or Debbie Gibson if they'd asked me in sixth grade.
I think that my strong feelings about a band aren't so much "obsession" now as respect. I admire quite a few bands and artists like Public Enemy, U2, Sunny Day Real Estate, New Order, Elvis Costello, Elton John, Ice Cube, The Who, Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones, and a laundry list of others in very different and distinct ways.

IW: Who are the "main contributing writers" to the website?
T: The regular contributors to Bettawreckonize are listed in our Staff section at: http://www.bettawreckonize.com/bios/main.html. This isn't a comprehensive list of everyone who has ever contributed, just the folks who took the time to submit their bios.

IW: How popular is your general chat forum & what are typical topics that come up in conversation?
T: Our general chat forum is very popular. A person wishing to use the forum has to register before they can post messages and there are about 160 registered users and over 12,000 posted messages. There are four sections of the chat forum: General, which is a free-for-all of topics; Shows, which generally consists of announcements of upcoming shows (bands also use it to trade shows from time to time); Recommendations, discourse about new music, books, etc.; and Issues, a forum for discussing politics. Each section isn't strictly kept to its subject area, but we wanted the forum to be as organized as the website for users wanting to locate specific kinds of information. The topics cover a wide variety of obscure topics like from light-hearted stuff like "Channels on Atlanta cable television," "Having Your Eyes Dilated," "Halloween Candy," to band related information "The break up of The Promise Ring," and hot-button politics "The World Bank," and "Ohioans To Stop Executions."

IW: Is there a print/'zine version of the site? If so, where is it distributed?
T: No, just a web version.