End of an era

Since the beginning of 2001, I've had this great little job that I do. I'm the guy that writes the What's-on-in-Adelaide SMS info messages for Virgin Mobile. So say if you want to see a band or eat at a restaurant but have no idea what was where, you can get an SMS sent to you with a suggestion of what to see/eat etc. The company I work for is contracted by Virgin to give them content. This is for every day. So since I started I've done reviews of what's on in Adelaide 1307 times. And I write in four categories: Bands; Bars; Restaurants; Theatre, for a grand total of... well given that I may have missed two or three days along the way (no, I never really took a holiday), over 5000 individual reviews for things to do around Adelaide. I think you'll agree that 5000 is a lot of anything, even if they are limited to a maximum of 141 characters. Sometimes I'm really quite witty when I write stuff. Once or twice my editor has had to ask me to rewrite an entry because I was being just a bit too rude, or whatever. Sometimes I've just hated doing it. It hung over my head every week and first and since we changed to uploading info to the web, our deadline has become every day. We can write ahead if we wanted but it's easier to bang out 10 minutes' worth of topical stuff the day before, especially when the gig guides aren't out yet. Sometimes I used to leave it till the last minute and it would be the most excruciating 10 minutes of the day. If I'm feeling a bit perky, I'll come up with something brilliant. Other times, I'll just do it to amuse myself, not knowing who, or how many people are actually reading the things. It has gotten me a press passes to Fringe Festivals and whenever I eat at a restaurant or see a band, I can keep my receipt and it's a tax deduction for me, which is nice. Or has been nice. I just found out that Virgin have pulled the pin. My editor sent me and the other writers an email today explaining the situation. I'm out of a second job. So while I'm relieved on one hand that it's one other thing I don't have to do, it's kind of a bummer because I miss out on the money, and all those extra little things, sure... the tax deductions, but the pleasure I would get every now and them when I came up with something fresh, original, witty or sarcastic. In a way, it's been a good creative outlet for me over the years: the attempt to distil information, humour, scathing social commentary and an 8-digit phone number into 141 characters of text. It's been a good discipline. It's helped me hone my skills as a writer, to be succinct, and to use numbers that sound like words where I have to. So if there's anyone out there in Adelaide that's ever recieved one of my msgs, I'd love to hear from you. Write to me on drewsms at yahoo dot com dot au ...or just leave a comment here I guess.