2007 In Review: UBO Magazine

Editorial

2007 In Review: UBO Magazine

By Aaris A. Schroeder
Editor-In-Chief
May 19, 2007

I recently created an account with http://www.blogger.com due to personal issues concerning web designers, becoming overwhelmed with UBO assignments as well as taking on odd-jobs and adding on two important staffers, my Assistant Co-Op P.R. Director, Giselle Peck who doubles as a collage artist, college student and full-time mommy and Promotions and Public Relations Intern Assistant, Dominique Brun, full-time music lover and student as well as model enthusiast.

Let me tell you first, everything that I have been up to and then I will be able to go into detail all of the wonderful things that UBO Magazine and P.R. Services have been up to the last few months.

Since the beginning of '07, I have taken on a new serving position at a corporate restaurant which actually did pretty well and turned out to be semi-floppy with hours and tables per hour so I had to recently take on a second serving position but luckily I am being trained in the bar at this point.

I also took on the position of Sales, Promotions and Street Teaming for Midtown Grid, a Sacramento, CA based website; http://www.midtowngrid.com that utilizes local businesses in the 'Midtown' area by means of advertising everything they are about and having high-hits on search engines such as Google, Excite, Yahoo!, etc. They also have these cool postcards for local restaurants called, "Eat The Grid" and for shops and boutiques, "Shop The Grid" so that locals, visiting Sacramentians and tourists can locate specialty businesses to make their day.

Imagine waking up in downtown Sacramento and being able to cruise down to a local coffee shop like, Butch & Nellies on I St. and 19th, then shop the cute shops down on J St. near the freeway then walk over to a small restaurant called, Tres Hermanas or Zocalos both located in the 'Midtown' region for dinner and drinks.

I am also taking on two UBO 'side businesses,' as I like to call them. UBO P.R. Services and UBO Promotions. UBO P.R. Services assists artists, whether they are a music label, bands/solo artists/groups, etc, urban artists, business owners, designers, etc by creating press kits, press releases, biographies, one-sheets and contacting media sources, radio stations, venues, etc to get the word out about their artistry.

UBO Promotions just started about three weeks ago. We will be booking shows. I want to start slowly and I have picked the perfect thing to do to get my foot in the door. UBO Promotions and 3rd Eye Collective; who started Artistic Insomnia [A.I.] Live will be working hand in hand to create live spoken word and poetry shows with a sidedish in comedy relief at the fun, local midtown coffee shop mentioned above, Butch & Nellies. This place is truely a home away from home, something like an oasis of sorts. UBO Magazine will work on P.R. and Promotions and 3rd Eye Collective will be booking and directing the event.

Butch & Nellies offers pastries, cookies, gelato, panini sandwiches, specialty cakes and coffees as well as teas and other fresh, cool beverages to de-steam yourself and comfort your tummy. There is a lot of seating in this coffee spot and room, offering UBO and 3rd Eye Collective live spoken word and comedy, knowingly bringing in a full house.

First place prize will be cash, second prize will be a gift certificate and third prize will be a gift from Butch & Nellies. We want everyone in Sacramento, especially local downtown people to be a part of this wonderful event, so let's pack the house!

On to other news, UBO Magazine has been working the last year and couple of months to bring an online e-zine to life offering monthly features, album and show reviews along with specials within the four corners of hip-hop which include our DJ Booth, Urban Art section, Poetry section and our Other Reviews section bringing in product reviews for books/videos, designers, candy, skateboard designers, shoe and other accessory designers, fragrances/scents, energy/soda/juice drinks, beer/wine reviews and so much more.

The magazine will offer so much more than other local magazines and still hold true to journalist ethics and writing standards along with keeping it real on the independent media source level. If we are working with independent and up and coming artists then we should allow our model of business to stay at that same level.

A lot of local media across the nation may begin the way UBO has started but have visions of becoming bigger and then taking on larger acts, etc. UBO Magazine will grow with the artists and move ahead with the clients that we serve. This is our ethical duty and therefore everyone who is planted in UBO Magazine whether they are an interviewee, advertiser, someone we review or network with we will move ahead with our sources and affiliates, it is only natural. We are here to promote artists not step on what they are about. This is how collectives are born and how they, together move forward as a positive, conscious group of artists with differing local responsibilities.

Currently we are working on a website design which will be created by RoX GrafiX from Southern CA. She created the current website that is up. So if you like that look, then get ready for our new 'cool' look which will utilize our MySpace's page, http://www.myspace.com/ubomagazine and the uniqueness of RoX GrafiX into one.

UBO Magazine will serve the Sacramento, CA region and Northern, CA areas. We choose to bring in artists from other areas of the USA along with artists from all over the world that Nor-Cal locals would love to hear, based on artists they already are listening to and are similar to local artists in style and art.