Welcome everyone to the return of Cornerstone.
It has been more than nine years since the last Cornerstone column made it to print, and to those who have actually been awaiting its return, may I extend my condolences. Wasn’t there some drying paint you could have watched instead?
Anyway, the history of Cornerstone is as follows:
Once upon a time back in the mid-nineties in a quaint little state college in Peru, Nebraska, there was a guy on the college newspaper’s staff that developed film because he thought he could use the $75 a semester, and he liked the inflated title, “photographic coordinator.” It gave him a sense of importance that stocking toilet paper and cereal at the local Hinky Dinky grocery store didn’t.
After a semester or two of being the “photo developing guy,” this person was self-absorbed enough (as many at that age are) to think that someone else would actually care what he thought about the music that he cherished. So he proposed to the staff that he would write a music column titled Cornerstone, and the staff was desperate enough for content that the editor said, “Yes.”
When he submitted his first columns to the editor, the editor promptly and appropriately pointed out all of the language problems and contradictions, and our young writer was thoroughly displeased, angry even. How could the opinions of this young writer be wrong? (Very easily, it turned out.) Wasn’t everyone entitled to his or her own opinion?
What our writer found out was that it wasn’t about the value of the opinions (although they are subject to debate), it was about how they were expressed, and as it turns out, they weren’t necessarily expressed very well.
So our young writer got better (not good, mind you, but better), and there were a few shining passages of prose that showed potential, but upon graduation in May of 1997, the first era of Cornerstone came to a close.
About six years later, in the fall of 2003, our writer had spent three years working for a newspaper in his hometown, two years in graduate school in northern Arizona pursuing a Master’s degree in literature, about nine months of using that degree to work at the Orscheln store in his hometown, and another six months as a reporter in Nebraska City learning journalism by trial and error.
And then one fall day, the nominees for the inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced, and Alice Cooper wasn’t even listed, nor was Black Sabbath. Both, according to the Hall’s requirements, had been eligible for eight years or more, but hadn’t even been nominated.
This monumental injustice led our writer to sacrifice his lunch hour to composing a column that expressed his deep-seated anger and disappointment at the ignorance of those who were entrusted with the preservation of an art form that meant so much to him.
And his editor liked it. She really liked it, enough that it was actually printed. She even asked if there was more where that came from.
And so Cornerstone was resurrected.
Our writer got free concert tickets and CD’s, and he enjoyed the creative process of writing about music he enjoyed.
The editor and publisher liked having original content they thought was at least interesting, and some of the newspaper’s readers even responded well.
So all was good.
Then our writer, who had met his fiancé shortly after beginning his foray into journalism, found a different job, one that would actually support the family the two of them wanted.
This other job, which had our protagonist teaching English and journalism at a community college, included in its duties editing students’ work for a campus newspaper. There was always more student work than would fit in the print publication, so Cornerstone died a second time.
Several years later, the campus newspaper started an online edition, which meant that since space was not a problem, there would be room for Cornerstone, but alas, such was not to be until now, and here it is.
So I’m looking forward to getting Cornerstone rolling again. I’m looking forward to sharing some things you might find interesting and maybe even providing a dialogue for things that are fun to talk about. But most importantly, I’m looking forward to creating and having fun with words, and I hope you enjoy it.
A new column will be posted every Friday.
Let me know what you think; I’d love to hear from you.