he started up ILM and freakytrigger, he's pretty much the one-man catalyst/definition of poptimism, he's written for the seattle weekly and a few other places in print, has a column on pitchfork, which i'm guessing is the inspiration for this thread, and although i frequently disagree with him, i reckon he's one of the best writers/thinkers covering music in the uk today. could be wrong, but i think he has a job in marketing which he incorporates really interstingly into his cultural observations sometimes (see this month's p4k column). from the couple of occasions i've met him, he's also a really nice guy, for what it's worth.