I've been writing for Chicagoist for TEN YEARS.

A prehistoric Tankboy post for Chicagoist.

I've been writing for Chicagoist so long that I don't even have my first emails to Scott Smith when I was applying to write for the site, because back then I was on Earthlink and didn't have a Gmail account. I think at that point I was still waiting on an invitation. Remember when you had to be invited to Gmail?

I don't even know for certain what my first try-out post would have been, but I think it's this one.

Here is my public announcement I would be writing for Chicagoist though. So let's say June 1 is my anniversary date of actually being on staff?

So. Ten years. Who survives in this media climate for ten years? My secret is that in 2002 or 2003 I decided to leave the nightlife biz and enter the 9-to-5 world doing stuff I was good at. This meant that I was free to write about music however I wanted for as long as I wanted. People get misguided searching for the job they love, because no one is going to love their job all the time. What people should be doing is searching for a job that supports them doing what they love.

This photo's been on
the staff page for TEN YEARS.

Luckily for me I've had great partners in NYC in Jen and Jake who have allowed me to run the A&E section for 9 of those 10 years. And I've had amazing partners on the Chicagoist editorial staff along the way who have also supported me. And the writers that have written for my section? Hoo boy, what an amazing bunch. Nothing makes me prouder than being able to look around the media (and agency) landscape and see just how many writers I brought onboard that went on to do even greater things. I can't even begin to name all of these people, both editors and writers, but a peek from the top to the bottom of our staff page should give you an idea just how many talented people I've had the fortune to work with over the years.

So how do I wrap this up? Ten years later, I feel I should give due credit to the three people without whom I probably wouldn't still be here ten years later. Rob Duffy helped me raise my national profile in those early, heady music blogging days by allowing me to have my own little corner of DoneWaiting to run rampant with. Sean Bonner deserves a little backwards creit for forcing me to choose between writing for his Chicago MetBlogs and Chicagoist (Chicagoist won that choice, easily).

And of course, a huge thank you to Scott Smith for bringing me on in the first place, offering me the editor job when he left a while later, and for convincing me to keep the name "Tankboy" when I had intended to use Chicagoist as a chance to write under my god-given name and "go legit."

Let's see; think I can make it another ten years?