About
THE CULTURE OF ME is a music, art, news, mp3, and nightlife photography Web site based in New York City. The focus is to consume for the consumer, provide resources of all kinds for the culturally needy, and document the lives and lifestyles of the young and vital. Think demographically of a VH1 “Celebreality” viewer who happens to peruse Interview magazine and seeks out open bars and killer DJ sets as often as possible, all the while setting style trends and knowing the best bands before you’ve even heard of them.
THE CULTURE OF ME hangs the hat in Brooklyn and vows never to leave (though the lovely girlfriend can see right through that one) downtown New York City in a Thai food-smelling building a very quiet area on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, contradicting completely the life documented on this Web site. Things to note: deathly afraid of cream cheese, Indian food, bad grammar, the sound of ligaments/bones/hearts breaking and insects. Also looking endlessly for a lyric to match “Teenage dreams/ so hard to beat”.
Disclaimer
MP3s on THE CULTURE OF ME are available for a limited time only and are intended for evaluation purposes. If you like what you hear, support the artists featured by buying their records, rocking out at their shows, and wearing the t-shirts for VICE to make fun of.
(Ed. note a/o October 5, 2009: The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will soon pass requirements that put into law that blogs—like THE CULTURE OF ME—must clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. Now, we don’t get a check for making reference to band X, Y or Z, but boy, we’ll tell you, we get a lot of freebies and payola-like items from labels, PR companies, independent artists, etc. We’re on mailing lists and press contact databases, just like the tens of thousands of other “tastemaker” blogs and Web sites you all read every day. So, yeah, secrets are out, we guess. If you didn’t already know that, then, er, consider yourself enlightened. We don’t work for any of these labels, PR firms, artists, promoters, etc. and all of the opinions that appear on this Web site are ours and ours alone. We never make reference to things that we don’t like and wouldn’t think our readers would like or we wouldn’t back on our own, so rest assured: we’re merely using them to get free CDs, tickets to shows, invites to special events, crap and news like they’re all using this site and others like it to make even more money while claiming the recording industry is dead.)
Have a news tip or came across something that THE CULTURE OF ME should know about? Email us at jeff @ thecultureofme.com.
If you own copyright to one of the songs posted or images used and would like it removed, simply email us and we’ll promptly take care of it.
All photographs posted are copyright their respective owners or the property of THE CULTURE OF ME. If it looks like THE CULTURE OF ME took the photograph, it’s probably because we did. Any reproduction or further uses are restricted without the proper consent of THE CULTURE OF ME. Again, just email and we’re pretty sure we’ll okay it.
Some praise
“…rather splendid music blog.” - Mark Hooper, Guardian UK
“You’re like the blog-house gazette.” - Dances With White Girls
“a tireless events photographer, writer, party organizer and curator of [a] music, arts, awesome, etc. Web site” - Damien Neva, Ford Models Blog
“Thanks to music-photography blogs like THE CULTURE OF ME, you can forgo attendance at just about any hipster forum and still feel like you were there…the musicians and their eccentric fans are captured through a fuchsia-tinted lens.” - Sophia Betz, Zoom-In Online
“…a hip New Yorker who writes about the music, art and nightlife that inspire. Take one part Studio 54, one part Village Voice, add a large helping of originality, and you’ve got THE CULTURE OF ME” - TypePad feature
“…normally great…” - vainattempt blog
“that blog just keeps getting bigger and bigger doesn’t it?” - RCRDLBL.com
“Apparently humor is lost on the likes of your pathetic indie ass…” - Kristen, a reader
“writes about music and things I want to read about.” - a StumbleUpon user
“…some great stuff.” - Blake Garris, Buzzgrinder.com
“And by ‘me,’ they mean ‘you,’ and by ‘you,’ they mean someone super hip. Music! Art! Fashion!” - Anne Stewart, “53 of the Best Indie Music Blogs”
“THE CULTURE OF ME has been busy — every time we open our goddamn inboxes, we’ve got three new emails from them. But unlike those reminders from your mom to make a dental appointment, their emails actually get opened. Why? Because they consistently finds the best up-and-coming tracks and they have something intelligent to say about them. Music blogging at its best.” - MeanRed Productions
“Your [sic] gay” - Jon, a reader
“The hippest of the hip, THE CULTURE OF ME chronicles music that should be in the know as well as the happenings of those in the know, specifically of NYC nightlife. Tunes + tales of the city = cultural coolness” - Popsense.com
“You’re really interesting and I’m glad to have been a part of that.” - our psychologist
“THE CULTURE OF ME is not only A) down with the Royal We, B) not above posting the Doherty heroin video with a ‘Godspeed’ wish at the bottom but C) out of EVERYONE that is posting the new Hot Chip track, asks that you sign up for the band newsletter… which was the whole point of the free giveaway to start with. The other blogs should be ashamed.” - punkphoto
“Nicely writted [sic] personal blog with some various indie etc. musical offerings and more” - Gravy Bread
“I think what you’re doing is great.” - our parents
Terms & Conditions
THE CULTURE OF ME is committed to protecting the privacy and security of both new and frequent visitors as well as our supporters and subscribers. Here is our online privacy policy for information collected through our Web site and through email lists.
THE CULTURE OF ME expects it may need to revise its privacy policy as it develops the features of its future site. We will make reasonable efforts to inform users of any changes, but the spirit of this policy will be maintained, and our policy not to sell, exchange, rent, trade, or give email lists to unaffiliated third parties will never be altered.
Use of THE CULTURE OF ME’s Web site is not restricted to registered users, and we expect to provide a rad experience to all users.
If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to email us at: [email protected]
What THE CULTURE OF ME will do with your information:
THE CULTURE OF ME will not sell or share the personal information you provide or that we collect through our Web site to any unaffiliated organization without your permission, with the following exceptions: We may share personal information with third parties who provide services, such as Web site hosting or other services of an administrative or technical nature, solely for the purpose of providing such services and subject to confidentiality obligations. In addition, we reserve the right to disclose personal information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is required by law. From time to time, we may send you information from other like-minded organizations whose products or services we think subscribers might find interesting, but we do not exchange, trade, rent, or give email lists to unaffiliated third parties.
If you sign up for one of our mailing lists:
THE CULTURE OF ME is committed to providing timely updates to our users by email. We will request information from you to enhance our ability to customize our communications with you so you get the information you want. We will collect relevant contact information and enable you to self-select the type of information that you’d like to receive. You will be able to unsubscribe from communications you receive from us by following the directions included in each such communication.
Cookies:
A cookie is a small piece of information that a Web site can store on a computer and later use to recognize a user. A purpose of cookies is to enhance your ability to receive the information you want. THE CULTURE OF ME may use session cookies to enhance the experience of users. A session cookie expires when a user closes the browser in which THE CULTURE OF ME’s Web site was viewed. As with all cookies, users can personalize their browser settings to reject session cookies.
IP Addresses and Log File Data:
IP addresses are ID numbers for the location of your computer or network on the Internet. Log files are recordings of the traffic to and from a server. THE CULTURE OF ME’s servers log IP addresses for systems administration and troubleshooting. We track page hits in the aggregate to track the popularity of pages that people visit. With that information we can improve the quality of the site.
Children’s privacy:
THE CULTURE OF ME is concerned about the safety and privacy of children online. Because of this, we will make all efforts to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying FTC regulations establish United States federal law that protects the privacy of children using the Internet. We do not and will not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13. Our site is not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under 13, and we will develop our site with the capacity to block acceptance of information from children under 13 whenever age-related information is requested. It is possible that by fraud or deception by others we may receive information given to us or pertaining to children under 13. If we are notified of this, as soon as we verify the information, we will immediately obtain parental consent or else delete the information from our servers. If you want to notify us of our receipt of information by children under 13, please do so by e-mailing us at [email protected]
Security:
THE CULTURE OF ME has measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of visitor personally identifiable information that is under our control. For example, only select THE CULTURE OF ME staff and contracted individuals have access to personally identifiable information provided by visitors to non-public areas of our site. We use industry-standard encryption technologies when transferring and receiving sensitive personal and financial data from our site. Please note, however, that security breaches can occur even if reasonable steps are taken to prevent such breaches; for example, we cannot guarantee that information provided through our sites will not be illegally accessed on our servers or intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. Please contact us if you believe there has been any breach of the security of a THE CULTURE OF ME site.
Please Note:
THE CULTURE OF ME plans to regularly update and add new features to our Web site. Because of this, THE CULTURE OF ME expects to revise its privacy policy as its site develops. Such amendments will be posted in the privacy policy section of the site. As stated above, the spirit of this policy will be maintained, and our policy never to sell, exchange, rent, trade, or give email lists to unaffiliated third parties will never be altered. THE CULTURE OF ME links to other like-minded Web sites, but is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of those Web sites.
