Somewhere or other in the second issue of the Idle Times zine (available November 13), Mike gave a capsule summary of where the Institute of Idle Time came from and what it’s all about. All well and good for the inside cover of a zine, but hardly adequate if we are going to launch a full-sized web presence. So now I will present to you the Short and Dubious History of the Institute of Idle Time.

 

It all started with three bored co-workers circulating a semi-daily “Top 5” list. It has since expanded to a multi-media empire, incorporating print (paper and online), live DJ sets in noted drinking & dancing establishments, a bar trivia team (several hundred dollars in prizes won already), and even a bi-annual athletic competition.

 

But let’s start with the three original co-workers. Professional educators and gentlemen all. (The name of the school that employs them is being withheld here due to fear of reprisals, lawsuits, flaming bags of feces left on their doorsteps, etc.)

 

First, there’s Mike DiGino (“MDG” in the zine), he of the stubbled chin and spiky coif. The Idle Time Den Mother and All-Around Grand Poobah. Editor and publisher of the zine, organizer of the Idle Time games, and in general a humming little ball of energy, a mini-sonic boom in a track jacket. Without him, none of this would exist in its current form.

 

Then, there’s Will Howell (“WH” in the zine, “DJ Lazy Bear” in the seedier clubs). Will has been one of my best friends for almost fifteen years. He can talk for hours on any cultural or societal subject, revealing the keenest intellect I’ve had the pleasure to know, and an artistic soul…and none of you will hear any of it because the rat bastard won’t fucking write it down. Seriously, trying to get this guy to put finger to keyboard (or, God forbid, pen to paper – he does not have a grown-up’s handwriting) is like trying to squeeze a nickel from a Scotsman. So expect minimal input from this jackass…but he’s vital to the collaborative process.

 

And me, Matt Isenhower, your Humble Narrator. (“MI” in the zine, known as “Isey” in the Google Groups to avoid confusing me with Mike’s kid brother, Matt “E.A.D.” DiGino. Although to be fair, I had the name Matt years before that Frylock-looking motherfucker.)

 

So the three of us, like anyone working an eight-hour day, often found ourselves with yes, idle time on our hands. (I claim credit for naming us “The Institute…” Mike might dispute me, but fuck him, he can write his own history.) A Post-It with something like “Top 5 Overrated Bands” or “Top 5 Gangster Movies” would be passed among us in between (or during) classes, each of us contributing our rankings. A harmless diversion.

 

But then we made two discoveries:

1)      All three of us are narcissists with raging egos, and

2)      We disagreed on matters musical as often as we agreed, which inflamed #1.

 

Mike made the first official Idle Time compilations, a decade-themed collection (Best of the 60s, 70s, etc.), and Will put together the first "Best of the Year" disc as a Christmas gift for his students in 2002, with each of us contributing key tracks from our favorite albums of that year. We upped the ante the next year, making the other two listen to any albums from our list not on the others’ lists. Then we added the scoring system. I remember Mike created an Excel sheet to record all the scores, and I thought, “Gosh, we’re really going a little overboard with this.” Little did I know…

 

The scoring system gets refined a little bit each year, but it boils down to everyone listening to everything, and then giving each album a score of 1 to 10 (based on http://www.pitchforkmedia.com ’s system, decimals a must!). The final compilation is then created based on the twenty best average scores, and distributed free of charge to anyone who wants to get turned on by what we’ve collectively deemed to be the best music of that year. Nothing we’re doing is blazingly original (as anyone who’s read Nick Hornby can tell you), but we do it in the spirit of “anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

 

We try to change it up a little each year, to keep it fresh. Original cover art crept in a couple of years ago, there was last year’s fifth anniversary Ultra Pretentious Box Set (collector’s items these days), and I think this year’s going to be a Top 40 list. Yowza.

 

And speaking of keeping things fresh, we added a fourth member to our review group in 2005. Rex Flores (“RF” in the zine) is a decade and change younger than us, and is in fact, a former student of ours. Adding him was like the addition of Scrappy Doo to Scooby’s gang, only instead of a horrific, shrill vortex of suck, Rex is a horrific, shrill burst of youthful enthusiasm and sharp wits.

 

2006 saw the first version of the Idle Time Games (now in Winter and Summer editions), and 2007 was the debut of the Idle Time online Google Group, inviting all and sundry to weigh in on such topics as fantasy sports, the good ol’ Top 5 lists, and comics, comics, comics. The Games and the Group have created a far-flung family of Auxiliary Idle Timers.

 

And 2008? We just keep getting bigger and better. We’ve invited two more folks to join the review group, people who actually create music as opposed to just critique it: Musician/DJ Erik “3D Chain” Hanson, and electronica artist Donald “Arcturus the Boy Tune Wonder” Hanson-No-Relation. Recently, 3D Chain has spun some official Idle Time DJ sets out in the real world to approving murmurs, with promises of more to come.

 

Get your grubby mitts on a copy of the zine before they’re all gone, with contributions from all of us (even Lazy Bear, and Rex who has an endearingly zany habit of playing chicken with the zine deadline), along with Matt “E.A.D.” DiGino, celebrity chef Jill Pellerin, and other guests and surprises. Issue #1 (Fall 2008, released Sept. 7) has been snapped up and is now as rare as hen's teeth, Issue #2 (Winter 2008, released Nov. 13) looks to be heading the same way...

 

And this website? It was created by Mike so when someone asked “do you guys have a website?” he could say “yes.” Not exactly being Mr. Attention Span, he registered the domain name and forgot all about it. But I’ve settled in, kicked the wood shavings around, and built a cozy nest out of chewed-up paper towels. And I’ll try to keep a fire burning here, posting IT news, links, maybe some classic Top 5s from days of yore, and anything else that might fit. Any suggestions and contributions from Idle Timers and Auxiliary Idle Timers will be welcomed with the proverbial open arms.

 

Cheers,

MI