Star Diary

JUAN MORE TIME

When I started out on Rising Stars, I was big into album reviews and music. One of those was a profile on the band Big Sir. The band consisted of stars such as Lisa Papineau, Cedric Bixler-Zavala from The Mars Volta/Antemasque and my favourite bassist Juan Alderete. His bass playing followed me pretty much throughout my life as he played in bands such as Paul Gilbert's Racer X, The Mars Volta and the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group. People, especially guitarists, rarely shut up about Paul Gilbert and the bassline of Scarified to this day remains one of the fastest grooves ever. When I followed Juan Alderete and ended up with Big Sir, I couldn't help but write the profile of one of the most underrated trip-hop bands ever. After getting published, I decided to message Big Sir on Facebook with the link to the profile. There was literally nothing to lose apart from being seenzoned by the bassist you idolise. A few days later, I woke up, Facebook and right there, the first thing on my newsfeed, is Big Sir sharing the link to the article I wrote. Not only that, Juan Alderete, himself, replied to my message thanking me. No other profession can offer you this much satisfaction, that's all I can say.
Rumman R Kalam
Sub-editor at SHOUT and when he's off-duty, he likes to be a goat with opposable thumbs at Rantages.

THE BIZARRE, THE WEIRD AND THE FANTASTIC

In my two years working with The Star, I had the opportunity to contribute to this wonderful magazine in a number of capacities. I wrote features, often helped with the editing and collected the entries for Star Diary and Write to Mita. Of all these responsibilities, I felt a particular affinity toward Star Diary. Our readers shared their stories and their experiences on various issues. It helped the magazine team to relate and connect to the readers in a more personal manner. As is the case with most publications, while all of our readers' submissions were definitely heartfelt and more than welcome, there were some that left us puzzled or in splits. We could never understand why a reader was insistent on sending 'jocks' to us, for instance. Until a wise colleague identified that the poor man only wanted to submit (his idea of) funny 'jokes' to the magazine and not enthusiastic sportsmen who are too consumed in their popularity to be interested in something else.
It wasn't that we fumed or seethed when we found such emails in our mailbox. We did laugh a bit at the expense of the poor reader but we loved our contributors just the same. They are what made us and continue to make us what we are. On the 25th anniversary of The Daily Star, I'd sincerely like to thank our crazy, fantastic, weird, wonderful people for your love and support.
Upashana Salam
Senior Editorial Assistant of TDS' Editorial team, who worked at The Star magazine from 2012 to 2014. She likes to scream at the top of her voice and tear paper when she's not working.