15 years ago today, I was a lost and wayward corporate marketing guy, staying up late on a Sunday night, hammering away words on a keyboard about the Channel 25 weathermen and (holy inflation) 80-cent draws at Henry Hudson.
It was an old-school TLO media riff that introduced our "strikingly attractive" presence to the world, promising to share our “2-cents,” “rants” and “morning news show-styled opinions” on a variety of topics concerning Oklahoma City.
Well, I guess you can say we've been successful in that mission.
Fast forward a decade and a half, and here I am – still hammering away words on a keyboard, only now as a semi-burned-out solopreneur who's made a decent living in the web publishing and bar entertainment fields, and, become one of the most read and influential alternative media voices this city or state has ever seen!
Or at least that's what I tell women at bars.
Every year I set down to write one of these birthday posts, I tend to get a bit reflective and nostalgic. The past 15 years have been a wild ride filled with tons of memories, emotions, triumphs, failures, and Aaron Tuttle lawsuits. I've written more than 5,000 articles on this site, and virtually all of them feel like they were simultaneously typed out both yesterday and 100 years ago. It's hard for me not to look back on all the stuff we've covered, and get glued to the computer screen like one of the shark poster's Jessica Alba plastered on the walls of Stage Center (RIP).
That was from 2009. I honestly can't believe that happened 13 years ago. Time really does fly. I wonder if Skip Bayless feels the same way when he looks at his high school basketball box scores?
That was from 2012. WTF.
Anyway, I'm going to avoid digging deeper into a TLO nostalgia wormhole and instead flip this birthday post into a message about the future.
Over the next year or so, we plan on introducing some really really really big changes around here that will usher this website and media brand into its next 15 years of Internet existence. How big? Stop by in a couple of months and see for yourself.
Until then, I want to thank all of our talented contributors who have lent their words to this site over the last 15 years. From our co-founders Tony and Clark Matthews, to stalwarts like Marisa, Louis and Hayley, I've been lucky to share this platform with way too many great local writers.
I also want to thank all of our readers, commenters, lurkers, skimmers, and especially our paying subscribers for still stopping by this site in today's loud, chaotic, and very algorithmic media age. I'm not sure why you do it, but it's always an honor and privilege to help keep you advised.
Although the last 15 years have been, admittedly, kind of awesome, I'm hoping the next 15 will be even better. Happy birthday to us!