Happy Birthday to DeadJournalist (10! 7? 6?)

By Chuck Norton On March 16, 2012

Elvis Is Dead And I Don't Feel So Good Myself

16 march 2006
four years in the making, deadjournalist finally is a reality. finally.

With that, this URL launched six years ago.

In 2002, my friends Sam and Jeff and I were talking about various projects. They were designers and I wasn’t. So, I decided that my artistic adventure would be a returning to writing. One day, after talking about various topics, we began discussing journalists of bygone eras. Yes, those dead journalists.

Dead journalists, huh? That sounds like a cool name for a Web site. And so, for three years, deadjournalists or deadjournalist or thedeadjournalist was tossed around until, in 2005, I decided on “deadjournalist” and grabbed the domain.

It took me a year to actually get the site up. It started basic, with me coding the site in an old copy of Dreamweaver. It started as something simple. Then got more involved when I started doing interviews. Then added writers …

Here we are, in 2012, and DeadJournalist is turning 10. Or turning six. Or turning seven? Who knows. But I’m here and the site’s here and I guess that’s all that matters.

So what does that have to do with Lewis Grizzard?

Well, 10 years ago is when Sam and I (we were roomies at the time) threw our first ‘Elvis Is Dead’ party. At first it was 30 friends in an apartment. The last three years it was hundreds of people at various venues. It wasn’t about Elvis. I was an honest excuse and throw a joint birthday party without it being a birthday party. And since the party fell on the day Elvis died (or did he?), the name was formed.

Every time I think about ‘Elvis Is Dead’ I think about the Grizzard book. My dad was a fan of his writing, and his book titles were pretty damn funny.

But I think “Elvis Is Dead And I Don’t Feel So Good Myself” has become my unofficial montra over the years. I think it sums me up about as well as anything could.

What does that have to do with DeadJournalist and its birthday?

Obsoletely nothing.

That’s why I’m still publishing this damn site 10 years after the original idea.

Thanks for reading.

Chuck N.
Publisher
DeadJournalist.com