A Sober Statement of Intent

by Tom Gasson, Entertainment Editor

Rolling Stone, the Austin American-Statesman, The New York Times, Vanity Fair; what do they all have in common? Seriousness. Journalistic integrity. Respect in their field. Ability to write grammatically correct sentences. I would like to communicate to you, Net Surfer what our Entertainment Section will be and mean to you.

First, reviews of music, restaurants, and movies will take on a form that is decidedly different from the above publications. We do not wish to waste your time by informing you in a detailed and prosaic manner what you should not do or see or where you should not be. What is the point? With the onslaught of information that you ingest on a daily basis why would you be interested in weeding out the mediocre from the outstanding. When it comes to technology and business, this exercise is necessary. When it comes to your personal time, there is no room for error.

So, our philosophy here is not to provide you with reviews, per se, but recommendations. That's right, an outright "you should go here and do this because it is awesome and we stake our reputation on it" type of thing. Austin, Texas is of course the perfect vehichle that we can use to pull of such an anti-journalistic concept because our experiences, available venues and shear pleasures abound to an extent to which you can confidently look forward to a regular diet of superb entertainment. Welcome to the city of the embarassment of riches.

Combine this with a few regular columns that I think you will find intruiging whether you leave your comfortable castle or not such as: "Chef's School"- Master chef's of Austin reveal shortcuts and secrets of their trade, "En Vino Veritas"- my personal wine column guaranteed to introduce you one of the finer joys of life, and "Microgroove"- the down and dirty story of the rising stars and revered favorites of the Austin music scene.

Also, we will not bore you with the classic "see what you missed" stories. We would rather inform you of upcoming exciting events. That means we will find out the coolest inside story on where to be and when so you our reader will know it here first. Our what to do and where to go advice will not be a blanket-barrage of unrecognizable listings, but a concise and to the point compass to your entertainment desires.

Recreation is an art. For driven professionals sometimes it seems that it is work. Such is not the case. If you read Austin Axis, you have no excuse. If we can't lead you to fun, it's time to crash the hard drive.