Congratulations! Since it launched sub rosa in February, our little corner of the Web has grown like Topsy’s … Thanks to your good efforts, we’ve reunited far-flung friends; listened to some great music (some of it unheard for a quarter-century); and shed a bright light on a wonderful and largely forgotten chapter in the musical history of San Diego.
But wait — there’s more! The Che Underground digital empire is adding new features and new opportunities for you to contribute. You’ll notice the sharp new look created by Dave Ellison and implemented by Jason Brownell. I also want to direct your attention to our new e-mail address: cheunderground@gmail.com. Got flyers, photos, audio, video, clippings or other ephemera to share? We have a home for it!
Other Che Underground features for you to enjoy and enhance:
- The Che Underground Blogroll: Add your name and Web link to the list on the right side of the blog home page … Send us your info, and we’ll put you up!
- Related Bands: The eclectic collection of bands that comprised the core of the Che Underground scene owed a debt to many great groups from across San Diego’s underground spectrum. Many of us went on to form new San Diego bands after the Che era. We want to celebrate all these groups in our Related Bands section — share your stories, sounds and pictures! (Coming soon: Write-ups of 5051 and Everybody Violet. Who’s next?)
- Flyer Gallery: Focusing on the years 1980 to 1985, we’re looking to showcase the most visually creative, historically significant flyer art San Diego produced. Scan and e-mail us your favorites!
- Performance History: In a closely related effort, we’re re-creating a performance timeline for your favorite bands. Help provide dates, locations and lineups!
- Listen to Che Underground: We’re hungry for more audio — and desperate for video from the era.
- Che Underground: The Forum: We want your membership, your topics and your comments. Guide the conversation and suggest new ideas for the Che Underground site!
And one more special request: The more links we get to the site, the easier it is for old friends and new fans to find us online. Link back to https://cheunderground.site from your MySpace page, blog, Facebook profile or favorite message board … Win major karma points!
I’m always concerned that anything I provide from my archives is properly credited to me.
As Dave Fleeminger & I discussed, is there any kind of template that can be attached to any visual or editorial contributions to indicate whose archive the footage is from?
IN other words, can we give credit to where credit is due?
Kristi: Interesting question … Starting with the Cyndie Jaynes photographs, I’ve been adding a photo credit to the alt text that accompanies each picture — I can certainly add “(collection Kristi Maddocks),” say, to the alt text if you were to contribute any flyers. And I’m bylining any contributed editorial with the name of the author.
Adding a credit to the image file itself isn’t something the blogging software can do; perhaps folks who want to do so could add a watermark with that information to the image via Photoshop or another editing tool before sending it to me.
Matthew has been VERY good about making sure credit is given to all contributors. I’d trust him. 🙂
This might be a good moment to post a public plea for patience RE turnaround times and custom design: Any post with text and audiovisual files requires several hours to package up nicely. I don’t want to inhibit anyone’s creativity — quite the opposite! — but with a volunteer production staff of … Well, ME! … and a growing number of contributors, I simply can’t guarantee instant gratification.
In addition, the blog format means that the faster I post, the faster posts drop off the home page. To give each post a little time in the sun means trying to keep a steady post-a-day pace with a good programming mix. (That’s a pretty challenging task in itself!)
Bottom line: This is a labor of love, but it is labor. Please don’t feel neglected if your material doesn’t make it online for a week or two — the goal is to do it all justice! 🙂
Matthew -thanks for keeping your nose to the digital grindstone. holler out if you need help. 🙂
RE: Photo credits
Some versions of Photoshop require a Digimarc plugin to create a watermark.
You can also create one in Acrobat and Word, for those without Adobe products. Just type in “watermark” in the help menu.
Or download free software for batch processing:
http://batch_watermark.software.datapicks.com/
good luck!
Adding a waterwark puts the responsibility of including a photo credit with the person supplying the images.
I just found a shareware app (iwatermark) for the mac that seems pretty easy to use:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22028
Of course people can try to edit those parts out, etc., but that is something that can and might happen to any material posted on the web. Keep in mind these little JPEGS aren’t high-resolution images, so if you haven’t made the originals publicly available the size of the images can be a form of protection as well if that is a concern.
I don’t see it being the blog’s responsibility to provide photo credit as a mechanical service. nor to provide any sort of copyright protection.
Dave Elison (who has done an amazing job with the site graphics!) said this most eloquently already but I’ll paraphrase in agreement: Matthew has gone out of his way to reward credit where it is due. I’ll also add that I hope he has been given the proper credit he deserves, not only in creating this whole thang and sharing it with everyone, but in keeping up with the task of wading thru what is becoming mountains of media…and he is alone in this Herculean editorial task!
Kudos, Mr. Rothenberg!!!
Thanks! There’s no one I’d rather sweep the Aegean stables for. 🙂
yup. ditto what Dave F. said. humans are usually good at giving themselves credit! let others do some of the work for you. or your family might go “Matthew who?”
Dave: thanks for the mac shareware!
Come on Matt -- I only gave you 119 photos -- what’s the hold up:)
I love seeing things in dribs and drabs and I like the way you’re grouping stuff together.
For me, it’s just like sharing my personal photo album with all of you so I’m not worried about credits. I have had websites steal articles that I’ve written for another purpose and that really pi**ed me off. But the photos? Feel free.
About the redesign: I’m absolutely flabbergasted. Dave Ellison with geek skills? Who knew? Nice work, Dave.
Tom, I only created the visual look of it… Jason is the one who deserves credit for bringing it to life. Glad you like it though!
I’ll have you guys know that background’s a photo of the ACTUAL WALL of the Che Cafe, too. I hired a famous photographer and we drove down to UCSD and shot it.
Just kidding.
Beautiful design. I love the black background.
Sometimes I think I’d like to shove an icepick into my eye, just to make the friction go away. But alas, I have obligations that won’t allow that luxury.
Matt: You have my permission to use anything I have no strings attached. Check my Flickr. If I have stuff that’s sub par quality ask me to scan it again. I’ll do what I can. Some of it is on hard drive only at the quality you see. But I can still get to some of the originals via email. Also the videos are available (thought presently Eric Rife has the discs for the San Diego documentary, but I still have the film here at home) and he also has the Dave Dawson Audio from KSDO, which Jason S. also has a copy of. In short- what’s mine is yours. Same as it ever was.
I don’t want to get hung up on credit, especially since I wasn’t really there for some of the best years anyhow. I was welcomed into a scene that existed before me and treated pretty OK in the long run. I’m stoked to give something back. Have at it. Lets make something really beautiful and great. Aloha- aka Tobylifehater.
Thanks, Toby … We’re well on our way!
ha ha ha ! toby rules and embodys the spirit of what we did. shared supported created and grew each other up. i pay homage to the blessed one ! the lifehater
Does that mean I should put away the ice pick?
yes please.
Into which organ, msr cricket-bobo?
im not fond of my mind, my liver has never been my friend either. if you must.