I'm not really sure where to start. Frankly, I'm not even sure who might be reading this, so I guess I'll just start here:

 

I was recently at a hockey game in Chicago and I was handed a homemade program for the night's matchup. I had heard of these guys before, I even followed them on Twitter (@RealFansProgram) for a while, but I didn't know they made a physical program for people to buy. I thought this was an incredible idea. Here are a few friends who came together, wrote some stuff and now sell it to people attending hockey games. I couldn't stop thinking about it. How could I write for people and how can I get them to read it? How could I take the bundles of ideas in my brain and toss them into someone else's?

 

I got back to my hotel room and I started thinking about an "interview" I did with my grandfather back in 1995. It was a school project for my 3rd grade class. What an amazing opportunity to connect to a man that really didn't have much to say back then. Granted, I was an 8 year old boy not concerned with such things, but, looking back, what an idea. He was a man of few words to begin with and Multiple Sclerosis had already started robbing him of what little verbal communication we could share. I still have the interview and that makes me very happy.

 

Since then, I suppose subconsciously at first, but now very actively, I have always adored interviews. I mean good ones, of course, where someone lets their guard down and opens up for a second. I'm not sure I can do that, but I want to try. So on this site, I'm going to interview people in hopes of getting closer to them. I want them to be trusting and open with me because they know me, but I want them to pretend we're starting from scratch (that's where the site's name comes from, naturally). I would love for our relationship to provide a foundation to be built upon, but nothing more. These are their words, my topics, questions and words, for everyone to read. I'm also going to write some other types of articles to try and keep some content flowing.

 

So, that's the idea.

 

Now for the main obstacle (besides not knowing how to write, how to interview or how to wrap my mind around web design). How would I ever produce enough content to keep anyone coming back? That's where you come in. I have some interesting friends... or at least I think I do. Maybe I'll interview every single person I know and come to the conclusion that they're not that interesting. Who knows? Here's what I do know: I have a lot of creative friends, a lot of smart friends, a lot of funny friends and, hopefully, a lot of friends with their creativity being stomped on by growing up just like me. So, this website will be a place for us to unleash our pent up creative energy. I want this to kind of be an open source blog / news-y / scene-zine / sounding board / whatever for all of us.

 

If you want to write an essay about the Civil War, you should write it here. If you want to pimp your band's new record, pimp it here. If you have a killer tip for grilling, you should post it here. If you can make someone want to read what you're putting out, I want it. If you can't make someone want to read your stuff and no one cares, but it makes you happy, I want it even more. This is all about creative energy and a place to unleash it and hopefully that energy will lead to more readers, which hopefully will lead to more writers.

 

We have some more stuff planned. I'll actually interview some people soon, maybe we'll have a podcast or two, we've got some more contributors writing away, hopefully a more awesome set up, but we'll cross those bridges when we get to them.

 

Get reading and get writing. If you don't see something that interests you on this site, write it yourself. Welcome to Pretend It's Not Me.