Plugged In

In the traditional sense, none of them are. But Dallas bloggers are the new CD critics, concert recommenders and even news tipsters, earning their J-school degrees one post at a time. They're making some money in the process--Cantalini's traffic fuels banner advertising that "pays a few bills," and his Sirius gig has led to thoughts of working for the A&R division of a record label. And Chaffin's tenure with Pegasus News resulted in a minor stipend and the cash sale of her domain name. She hopes her learning experience with Pegasus will result in eventual cash at the Fine Line. But nobody's quitting their day job just yet. Each blogger I spoke with had to arrange interviews around their work schedules, and other than Texas Gigs, nobody's getting enough hits to survive solely on advertising.

"You can take the route of taking it to the next step and saying, 'How can I translate this kind of ethos into something that can actually be a successful business?'" J.R. says. "What steps would you have to take to do that? Or you could just say, whenever I grow bored with it, fuck it. I'm just gonna quit doing it. I don't really know which is the prudent choice."

J.R. talks repeatedly about the weird seesaw he stands in the middle of--in one direction, he could devote even more time to the site as a financial project, complete with WSJ.R.-themed concerts. In the other, he could click a few buttons and say goodbye to the blog altogether. I'm compelled to ask whether the thought of being found out makes him bend toward the latter.

"No, because I honestly, genuinely don't know that many people in the Dallas music community," J.R. says. "Actual musicians. Most of the people I've said shitty things about, if they found my name out tomorrow, they wouldn't have any fucking clue who I was anyway, so it's like, 'All right, dude. I'm the dude from Dallas. Good luck finding me, asshole.'...and even so, I would continue to deny it until the end of time. As ridiculous as it would become, I think that would make it a new sort of fun."