Hello, everyone.
It’s been a very tumultuous year to date for me personally, but a very important and prosperous year for Digital Era Entertainment…and I couldn’t be more happy with the progress that has been made in that time:
From starting it off launching an ever growing podcast in the form of “DEE CODE“, to watching a flagship project begin to be shopped around behind closed doors and the streaming side of things expand with the return of past contributors in a more active role in the coming weeks, it has been wonderful to see this brand I’ve been cultivating for fifteen years finally find a footing and a new fun direction to head in.
But something has always bugged me this whole time…and that was, when exactly WOULD I consider the “first day” of Digital Era Entertainment to be?
On paper, it would be December 23, 2004 when I formally put in a “placeholder” for the brand with New York City. Or maybe the dates of one of the many website launches/relaunches in 2006, 2007, and 2011?
It’s bugged me all the more because the aforementioned flagship project has had a conception date forever etched in my psyche: April 13, 1997. So how, after all this time, do I NOT remember something this important? Only the year and a fairly nebulous recollection of the month?
After all this time, if I’m being honest, I’m mostly just remembering it as “September 2003” because of when the original EMP videos were shot as it was early in the American school year, as well as the beginning of my early film studies which had me thinking towards the future about needing to develop a proper production company. And that was about all I had up to now. If nothing else, I should at least have a proper date to commemorate its founding since it’s lasted this long and is only picking up steam…right?
But then, I decided to check into something relevant to solving this problem: my late father’s birth date.
See, I remembered his birthday having been in September, but I couldn’t remember exactly when since I was most impacted by his passing and mostly commemorated that date ever since. When I briefly looked up my memorial to him from 2011 (which was ten years from this), I saw the date and realized that I had picked the PERFECT day to look this up.
That was today. September 5th.
As a history enthusiast, and stickler for continuity in general, I prefer my facts to NOT come with deliberate revision. However, given the tech-oriented bedrock of this brand, and the very nature of the modern internet (and tech culture as a whole) being built on revision/updates/etc., it feels appropriate that I ask for clemency in doing so this one time out of necessity.
Today, I’d like to celebrate the first ever formal celebration of DEE’s founding on it’s now officially designated “BirthDEE.”
(In a fashion befitting of the journey the brand has made up to this point, this was the name proposed/settled on by the team currently fueling the growth of the brand. So wonderful, hahah.)
Here’s to the newest beginning, another “Neo Genesis”, in the history of this brand. Here’s to the cameraderie and support from friends, collaborators, and supporters of our content like all of you reading this. Here’s to the forerunner of this brand (Dr. Hermann R. Bueno) who made this journey possible in the first place, and the start of who’s life now serves as the formal celebration of the start of this brand’s.
Here’s to Year 15. Happy BirthDEE.
