Greetings friends
It’s October, or Rocktober here in Modesto, and that means two things. First, it’s time for the MAMA Awards where we celebrate live music and many categories of musical accomplishment, and second, it’s Halloween, our favorite season of the year, right up there with Graffiti Summer. At our house, it’s a national holiday of preparation to make a magic night of trick or treating. Our pirates are getting ready.
Let’s get to the music. This year the MAMAs will have a new format so we can welcome some of the different groups that are making a big difference and showcase the many different segments of our music community from the Modesto Arts Movement, VMA, Girls Smash Guitars to MoFolk and others, so expect to see an exciting show with the best cross section of music in one event all year long. One of the new big MAMA projects will be getting the Modesto Music and Radio History Museum built within the Graffiti USA Museum and we will be celebrating Modesto’s first “modern” band. Vote now at www.modestoareamusic.com
It’s Hallowe’en season and we like to make it last all month and the performing arts and the creatives here in town really help us out. First, the Rocky Horror Picture Show turns 50 and the annual showing will bring Frank N. Furter and crew live to the State stage along with the film and we have fun with our own local Brad and Janet outside Modesto’s spooky castle. There are spooky happening on stage everywhere, from the Gallo Center, to the Queen Bean, the Prospect and even local film makers and actors that are deep into the mystery and horror with offerings from the tame to the adult, with a tip of the hatchet to the 80s style VHS world.
Quick rant. I am already sick of AI. From Linked In to Facebook and blog. You can tell AI “thought leader” style posts a mile away. Content should be labeled #AI, just like Red Dye #1. It may be the readers’ prompt, but the resulting words are not of the person posting and it’s the collective passive skimming of other intelligence. My real empathy goes out to the poor teachers trying to grade and sort out this plagiarism. Don’t get me wrong, I am not clinging to my vintage electric typewriter. AI will truly change the dimensions we can think about and replace many basic processes, but don’t put if off as your own work, plus it’s already getting boring. Obviously, there is no AI in ModestoView. Real local work from real local people delivered in real printed copies from a local printer via the good ‘ole local US Mail and local non-robotic people. End of rant.
Whew. I feel better now,
There’s so much happening and you’d really better keep your eyes on the ModestoView calendar as there are a couple of weekends that are so action packed, it’s impossible to do it all. In 1997, we set out to highlight the good in our community with a single webcam and a blog. Here we are in 2025, still cheerleading what is good in our community and celebrating living local and printing 60,000 copies that reach nearly 165,000 people*. We are focused on capturing as much as we can, and what we can’t get in the print magazine, we will get online at www.modestoview.com<www.modestoview.com/> or the socials @modestoview. If you are a local business and want to reach a larger audience, talk to us as we have the largest reach of any monthly magazine and let us help you grow.
Teamwork is the key. Keep on connecting us with the good that happening and we will then try to connect everyone else. See you out and about and be safe trick or treating.
Vote for MAMA! www.modestoareamusic.com
With gratitude,
Chris Murphy
Founder & Publisher, ModestoView.
chrism@modestoview.com<mailto:chrism@modestoview.com>
*based on a conservative 2.7 passalong rate
