Monday, September 8th, 2008

Makeover to push A&E past ‘make out’ edge

Arts coverage shift to DB Magazine echoes the Beatles' career arc peak

So, I feel like we haven’t talked much lately. How’re things going with you? Things are kind of busy around here.

We’re making a major change pretty soon. So, here’s what’s going on:

The Arts & Entertainment section of the paper is disappearing from the Daily Bruin’s daily rotation and in its place our staff of crack A&E analysts is going to put together a Thursday magazine, titled dB Magazine, to provide you with everything you always wanted to know about arts and entertainment, but were afraid to ask.

Don’t let this scare you. When you open the paper for the first time and instinctively turn to the area between Viewpoint and the Classifieds and you don’t find your beloved arts coverage, don’t have a breakdown, it won’t be worth it. Everything you get now will be in the magazine, except it’s going to be prettier, more creatively and analytically written and even more useful and helpful to your collegiate experience.

I liken what’s going on with the A&E section to the career arc of a little band I like to call the Beatles. That’s right A&E equals the Fab Four.

Take the Beatles’ early career; they were the biggest pop stars in the world – but they were pop stars. They put out great singles. They were nice guys, who provided satisfying, but disposable two-minute gems. You would get excited every time one of their songs came on the radio, because it made you feel good and want to make out with someone.

The A&E section up to this point has served a very similar function. It’s been a great daily one-off thing. You feel good while you read it. It provides you with momentary, but seemingly disposable entertainment – and little utility beyond helping you find places where and ways how you can get people to make out with you. Granted, during the last couple of years, this make-out info has gone up in quality, and deserves to be compared to the Beatles pre-masterpiece “Help.” It’s transitional. Not quite on the level with the genius the Beatles would later showoff, but containing more depth and variety than their earlier, more sugary work with songs like “Yesterday” and “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”.

The thing is, like the Beatles in late 1965, we’re about to make “Rubber Soul.” Instead of the daily section, we’re transitioning into the period of the album as the art form.

“Rubber Soul” saw the Beatles create a work that was more than the sum of its parts. They took their songwriting to a whole new level with songs like “In My Life,” “Norwegian Wood” and “The Word.” Their sound also had a much more mature, coherent quality than ever before.

Similarly, dB Magazine sees the A&E section concentrating not on a week of scattered parts, but on putting together a coherent whole that will better serve its readers’ needs. dB Magazine will give you more price listings, reviews and previews all in one place to help you plan your weekend and week night activities. The magazine’s writing will have a more consistent, entertaining and analytical tone. It will be more fun and thought-provoking. It will be a resource that you don’t throw away in anticipation of the next day’s paper. Rather it will be a comprehensive beauty you hold on to as long as possible.

Now, I hope we’re on the same page and I look forward to your continued feedback and support. This magazine is meant to be your resource and be fun for you, so please e-mail me or call the office. I promise not to always answer with a Liverpudlian accent.

Bromberg is delusional. Besides believing he’s a part of the Beatles he also thinks he wrote “Catch-22.” E-mail him with suggestions at abromberg@media.ucla.edu.