This article originally appeared on MyDentonMusic.
You won’t see Kevin Roden headlining any of the local venues. While he occasionally drums (and is secretly an incredible keyboardist), his “scene” is more far-reaching than any one particular clique.
Roden has been the long-time host of “Drink and Think”, a regular discussion group that addresses philosophical and cultural issues by examining modern topics. He is also the curator of ThinkDenton.com, a website that covers local news from NX35 to upcoming elections. He even hosts house concerts by local and national artists, one of which provided the first public announcement of the NX35 Flaming Lips concert.
While this website is called MyDentonMusic, we know there is much more to this scene than the music. There is a unique community and culture that allows such an artistically-minded scene to not just exist, but to flourish. MDM recently contacted Kevin Roden to discuss this unique community, to learn more about his various projects, and to get his views on local events.
MyDentonMusic: Where did the idea of Drink and Think come from, and how long have you been doing them?
Kevin Roden: When I was living in Bruce Hall as a college student, my roommate and I started a weekly discussion event called “The Thought Forum”. We’d buy pizzas and invite all the “lobby lizards”, as we called them – these were the folks who would hang out in the Bruce lobby for hours on end with seemingly no motivation to do anything else, but who always seemed to have an opinion on everything. We would pose a question on topics such as religion, philosophy, and the meaning of life and let the discussion go from there.
Upon graduation, this idea morphed into a forum open for anyone who was interested in reading some good literature and discussing over a meal. This is where I realized the benefits of combining alcohol with conversation – and I mean that in a serious way. Drinking is inherently a social activity and it has a tendency to bring people together. Practically speaking, it loosens people up to discuss and explore ideas. Philosophically speaking, any proper discussion ought to be aimed at drawing the individual into the divine realm of thought, where beauty and goodness is discovered. There is an aesthetic drive underlying good conversation, and the aesthetics of fine drink is absolutely necessary for tapping into this. This is why [my wife] Emily and I insist on providing beer and wine free of charge for our guests – it is our charitable contribution to the cultural thinking of Denton. But I digress…
Drink and Think took its current form when we lived on Fry Street and began inviting grad student friends and professors – this was back in 2001. Since we bought our house on Texas Street in 2005, the space allowed for our vision to expand.
MDM: What are some recent topics of Drink and Think?
KR: We did a series on politics during the Fall 2008 Presidential Election, all leading up to a raucous election night party. From that we went into less controversial topics like the existence of God and the meaning of life. Last fall we were fortunate to host Mayor Burroughs and former city councilman Mike Cochran in a discussion on what it means to be Denton. In October we had a great discussion on the place of the arts in our life and culture, which happened to be the thrust behind the NX35 discussion on “Is Midlake Better than Miley Cyrus?”
MDM: You seem to use a Drink and Think topic as lure to get to bigger questions. Do you find that attendees are surprised by the nature of the conversations and the turns they take?
KR: You’re on to me… We live in a soundbyte culture where our opinions about the most meaningful of topics can generally be boiled down to a bumper sticker on the back of a car. So much in our culture is blocking our ability to apply serious reflection to enduring human questions: TV, the political rhetoric of our day, the internet, etc. So I will often tap into this with outrageous sounding topics that will catch someone’s attention – I want people to be interested and brought to the table. This is also the realm of our opinions and, though it is not the ultimate goal to stay there, it is certainly a good starting point to exploring many of these questions. Sometimes people are surprised or perhaps disappointed (“I was hoping for a real fight over the question of Midlake and Miley,” someone expressed to me after the NX35 discussion). But because it is so rare when people can gather in social settings with a beer in hand and be challenged to think about big ideas, I find most people see it as refreshing and needed.
MDM: Why are these big ideas important?
KR: These bigger questions are important precisely because our answers to them are fundamental to the way we view the world. In a very real sense, most of us already have “answers” to these questions in the form of opinions that we have picked up along the way. Any educated, cultured person (of the type that all these artsy hipster folks in town pretend to be) spends serious time reflecting on these questions – it’s a life-long pursuit. Any great work of art, literature, music, religion, societal movement, and even governments have these big questions at the heart of them. If I haven’t been turned on to the big questions, I will not know how to make sense of the history of art or music, I will not know what to look for in a religion, I won’t be able to judge the merits of a social crusader (and definitely won’t become one myself), and I’ll fall for any form of government that comes my way. So yes, I guess they are kind of important. I wish we could channel all the hipster culture in town who pride themselves in appearing cultured into making them really cultured – we could changed the world. How did I get on to this hipster topic?
MDM: You serve on the Denton Historic Landmark Commission, and are working closely with debates leading up to local elections. What made you want to get involved with local politics?
KR: I’ve always been a political junky and watch CNN and MSNBC like its my ESPN – I know the players, the rules, the moves, and love the drama. I’ve typically been bored with local politics because it rarely pricks at our sense of justice in the way that national politics does. But as I began to grew roots in town, bought a house, and had a kid, I started to realize that what the walk was like on the way to the downtown square was perhaps more important to the development of my daughter’s soul than anything happening in Washington. By that I mean I began to see questions like this as important: are her surroundings filled with beauty or chaos and why does this matter? How can she see her mom and dad pursuing justice for the less fortunate in our own neighborhood? What sort of educational environment will she grow up in? Can she safely ride her bike to and from the park? I began to realize that local issues are the most important to our everyday life – the role of city politics all of sudden became interesting to me and I wanted to educate myself and get involved for the betterment of the community.
MDM: Tell me about Interviews in the Attic.
KR: We are cursed with a single news source in town. Denton RC does a good job, but they are limited. I felt that the Denton citizenry needed an opportunity to explore city life and issues in a more comprehensive and in-depth way that can’t be conveyed in a short newspaper article. At the same time, I wanted to utilize new media, in this case video and the internet, in order to reach a more younger demographic in town. There is so much passion, talent, and creativity among this demographic and it is my goal to get them informed and involved so that our great city can gain from what they have to offer. So I’ve marched all the current city council candidates up to my restored attic for a little Q and A. We’ll see where it goes from here.
MDM: Between the election, downtown development, etc., what is the biggest issue/challenge facing Denton?
KR: The biggest challenge by far is the economy. We are projected to have a 4-5 million dollar a year revenue shortfall each year for the next few years. That means that there are going to have to be cuts and there are going to have to be creative ideas of drawing good businesses into town. The downtown area plan along with the coming DCTA train from Dallas is about to attract a lot of interest in development in Denton – that is good. Our city will need to figure out how to do this in a way that enhances and doesn’t detract from our cultural and historic assets. We don’t need to tear down any more Fry Streets or Rayzor Ranches to make this happen.
MDM: On ThinkDenton.com, you write about the decline of the newspaper being caused, in part, by an over-dependence of syndicated content and an abandonment of local coverage. Do you think this is a cause, or a symptom, of independent media sources (like ThinkDenton.com and MyDentonMusic.com), and do you think these additional resources add clutter or clarity to the greater conversation over local issues?
KR: Worldwide, there’s a lot of clutter clogging the internet and the user has difficulty wading through the mess and knowing what is reputable.
In a local setting, however, these independent sources are invaluable. People know me and my reputation will either be an asset or liability to how people view thinkdenton.com. I love that I can walk into a bar and talk to someone who read something on the site. I even love that I can walk into that same bar and someone can ball me out for saying something they disagree with – it’s the beauty of local accountability. I want to get the city thinking and it’s my hope that thinkdenton.com can begin to change the level of discourse and involvement in these issues. I also don’t have the “burden” of constraining myself to journalistic style or etiquette. I can freely conjecture – this is good because sometimes a gut reaction to a story is really insightful, but typical journalists must refrain. Consequently, their coverage can appear dry and unimportant. The national media has the benefit of having blogs and cable show pundits to explore and vet these gut reactions and they can ultimately follow their leads.
MDM: You’re also somewhat involved with the local music scene. What are some of the events and shows you’ve hosted at your home?
KR: To name a few: Doug Burr, This Old House, Seryn, the Hope Trust, Darcy, The Heartstring Stranglers. On national level, I hosted a great David Bazan show a couple years back. Soon I’ll be hosting Will Johnson and Anders Parker to my living room. Does Danny Masterson count? He wasn’t there as DJ Momjeans, but he did take a lot of my money in a poker game in my own house!
MDM: You have an article on ThinkDenton.com about NX35 and “The Needed Virtue It Displays”. Now that there have been two successful NX35 Conferettes, do you still feel the same, and what would you say is the biggest contribution/success that came from it?
KR: I just got out of an interview with the mayor and he only had wonderful things to say about how important NX35 and our music scene is for the town. What I was hoping to convey from that article is that great works like this can come from ordinary citizens dreaming big and working hard, all for the sake of making Denton a better place to live. I think great works inspire other great works, so to me the example of someone pulling something of this magnitude off inspires everyone to perhaps do the same.
MDM: What is the unifying theme for you that ties together your participation in local government and your participation and support of something seemingly unrelated like NX35 or the local arts and music scene?
KR: The intellectual and cultural life of Denton is our most important asset as a city – it can’t be fabricated or created. Plano can’t wake up tomorrow and decide to be a cultural leader in North Texas, it’s simply not in its soil and it’s not in its soul. I’d encourage everyone to read Brian Daskam’s proposed fight between CS Lewis and Richard Florida on this very topic on thinkdenton.com because I think he could say it much better than I. But in short, when you have something this beautiful and this precious, yet also this fragile, it’s worth protecting and it’s worth fighting for in a town facing significant growth and change.
