Bob Sassone is an American writer. He was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts

Gloucester, Massachusetts

Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...

, to Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 and Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 parents. He is the youngest of seven children.

Sassone began his career in the 1980s writing a weekly music column for North Shore Magazine, a weekly magazine inserted into several newspapers in Massachusetts. At the same time he was a sales and promotion rep for Musician and Billboard.

In 1990 he started his own music magazine, RPM, which he published out of his apartment with the help of friends. The magazine garnered attention nationwide, and included interviews with such people as Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

, Andy Summers

Andy Summers

Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...

, Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....

, and Marshall Crenshaw

Marshall Crenshaw

Marshall Crenshaw is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for his song "Someday, Someway".-Biography:...

.

RPM lasted for two years. In 1995, bored by the music industry, Sassone created another publication, Channel Surfer Journal, a monthly television newsletter. It lasted until 2000.

In 2002, Sassone started Professor Barnhardt's Journal, a web-only magazine that has been acclaimed for its varied and unpredictable blend of essays, humor and fiction. Contributors have included Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

, Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...

, Steve Almond

Steve Almond

Steve Almond is an American short story writer and essayist. He is the author of eight books.-Life:He was raised in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School. He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. He spent seven years as a newspaper reporter,...

, Tod Goldberg, Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann

Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...

, Michael J. Nelson

Michael J. Nelson

Michael John Nelson is a U.S. comedian and writer, most famous for his work on the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's 11-year run, and spent half of that time playing the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson...

, Joe Bob Briggs

Joe Bob Briggs

John Irving Bloom , who uses the pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs, is a syndicated American film critic, writer and comic performer.-Early years:...

, Paul Davidson

Paul Davidson

Paul Davidson is an American author who is best known for his Words for My Enjoyment blog and his 2006 book The Lost Blogs....

, Marty Beckerman

Marty Beckerman

Marty Beckerman is an American journalist, humorist, and author. He is a native of Anchorage, Alaska, and started his career with The Anchorage Daily News, when he was still a junior and sophomore at Steller Secondary School...

, Joel Stein

Joel Stein

Joel Stein is a journalist who wrote for the Los Angeles Times and is a regular contributor to Time.-Early life:Stein grew up in Edison, New Jersey and attended J. P. Stevens High School, where he was a writer and entertainment editor for Hawkeye, the student newspaper...

, Daniel Radosh

Daniel Radosh

Daniel Radosh is an American journalist and blogger. Radosh is presently a staff writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He was previously a contributing editor at The Week. He writes occasionally for The New Yorker...

, Will Leitch

Will Leitch

William F. Leitch is a writer based in New York City and the founding editor of the Gawker Media sports blog Deadspin...

, Shari Goldhagen

Shari Goldhagen

Shari Goldhagen is an American author of fiction. She is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of a grade-school teacher and a jewelry salesman. After briefly attending Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. she transfereed to Northwestern University, where she earned a journalism degree. ...

, and Ned Vizzini

Ned Vizzini

Edison Price "Ned" Vizzini is an American writer who is the author of books for young adults. He is best known for his novel Be More Chill. He has been a columnist for the New York Press since his teens.-Life and career:...

.

In 2003, Sassone published a collection of humor essays titled Book, With Words and Pages. The book was critically praised for its use of a box to house the pages of the book.

Sassone started one of the first online journals, in 1995, and it still exists. He has written for several publications and sites, including Salon.com

Salon.com

Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...

, McSweeney's

McSweeney's

McSweeney's is an American publishing house founded by editor Dave Eggers.Apart from its book list, McSweeney's is responsible for four regular publications: the quarterly literary journal,...

 Internet Tendency, Esquire

Esquire (magazine)

Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...

, The Boston Herald, The Black Table, Flak, and Tripod.com. He has been featured or profiled in several publications, including USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

, and has been a guest on MSNBC

MSNBC

MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

, FX, and PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

.

Sassone is currently a staff writer for the number one blogging network in the world, Weblogs, Inc

Weblogs, Inc.

Weblogs, Inc. is a blog network of about 90 blogs, covering a variety of subjects, from computers and gaming . Roughly half of these blogs are regularly updated and maintained. Weblogs, Inc. was founded in September 2003.-History:...

, now owned by AOL

AOL

AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

. He writes for several sites, including TV Squad(where he served as editor in 2005), Slashfood, and Adjab. He is working on his second book.

External links

• Official website
• Yahoo! review of Professor Barnhardt's Journal
• "Retail Store Compilation CDs (Six Real, Two Made-Up)", by Bob Sassone, at McSweeney's Internet Tendency