Sports Illustrated & My Other Air Guitar Media Hits

This week Sports Illustrated TV included a 30-second interview clip with me in a show about air guitar! You can watch the full 10-minute episode here; a free 7-day trial is required. Click here to watch a 1-minute preview video that includes a brief quote from me. Here’s a transcript:

Me: Are you really here from Sports Illustrated?

Charlotte Wilder (Sports Illustrated): Yeah, we really are. Why are you here?

Me: I am a retired air guitarist. I still play all the time, but I haven’t competed in over 10 years now.

CW: Why’d you retire?

Me: I’m so glad you asked! I tore the labral cartilage in the joint of my right shoulder. So you try going to a sports doctor—I mean, this is Sports Illustrated—and they say “What sport do you play?” and I say “Air guitar!”

This isn’t the first time my passion for air guitar has been in the spotlight! I’ve appeared on CBS and in a book, I’ve been profiled by The Virginian-Pilot and Teruah, I’ve been quoted by an ethnomusicology doctoral student, and I’ve been cited in The Medical Journal of Australia and the Houston Press. The following “media hits” date back to 2005 and are divided into three sections: Appearing In, My Blog Posts, and Cited In.

Appearing In

• Licensed to Shred: Behind the Scenes at the U.S. Air Guitar Championship (Sports Illustrated, 2018)
• US Air Guitar 2018 Promo (Manhattan Neighborhood Network, 2018)
• Why Do We Air Guitar the Way We Air Guitar? (Air Guitar Byrd, 2014)
• Air Guitar Championships Return to New York (CBS, 2014) 
• Jewish Air Guitar (Teruah, 2008)
• This Guy Enters More Contests Than Anyone in Hampton Roads (The Virginian-Pilot, 2008)
• To Air Is Human: One Man’s Quest to Become the World’s Greatest Air Guitarist (Riverhead Books, 2006)
• Hot Air (Artforum, 2005)

 

My Blog Posts

• The Nation’s Biggest Night of the Year for Air Guitar (heebnvegan, 2010)
• Vegetarian U.S. Champ Wins Air Guitar World Championships (heebnvegan, 2008)
• Vegan Activist Injured in Air Guitar Competition (heebnvegan, 2008)
• The Struggles of a Jewish Air Guitarist (heebnvegan, 2007)
• Air Guitar Update (heebnvegan, 2006)
• Air Guitaring in Asheville (heebnvegan, 2006)
• Air Guitar World Championships (heebnvegan, 2005)

 

Cited In

• Air Guitarist’s Knee—A New Musical Injury (The Medical Journal of Australia, 2010)
• Free Stuff Time: U.S. Air Guitar Championships H-Town Regionals (6/13!) Giveaway (Space City Rock, 2009)
• Circus Animals Tortured Because of Air Guitars (Houston Press, 2008)