The shape of things to come
My official retirement from bluegrass blogging begins today. What first needs to be said, after that, is that my heartfelt thanks go to the many friends who have expressed their appreciation of the BIB and its past work. Their tributes have been moving and eloquent, have for the most part been written to be made public, and have fully deserved to be made public. My not publishing them is not because of any false modesty, still less lack of gratitude; but I do owe the BIB's friends an apology. I may not be completely gone yet.
Part of this message should have appeared a week ago, to give BIB readers some idea of what to expect. On 18 January I was contemplating retaining the BIB, with additions and changes, as a relatively static reference source, with a role similar to Kevin Gill's pioneering 'Bluegrass in Ireland' website. However, from what BIB readers have said to me, it seems clear that the BIB's most useful function is letting people know what's on.
Posting news on the BIB, in the way it has been done, takes more work and time than I would wish for myself or anyone else. While the BIB served as the shop window showing the scene here to the world, then perhaps that much work was necessary. But I think we're past that stage now. What I can do is keep the BIB calendar active, while putting on the front page - perhaps twice a week - a post showing the calendar items for the next seven days and listing, very briefly and without pictures, news that has come in. The result would resemble the weekly posts on the FOAOTMAD news blog. And this would have the great advantage that anyone else could obviously take this up and run it if for any reason I couldn't do so.
This proposed plan should not stand in the way of anyone who wants to (a) carry on the BIB in the way it has been done, or (b) set up, say, a Facebook page where people can post their own news and photos in full. Anyone ready to take either of these courses has my blessing. While we're all thinking about this for a few days, enjoy the splendid photo shown below.
Labels: Media
posted by Richard Hawkins @ 9:35 pm
2 comments
2 Comments:
Dear Richard and wonderful bluegrass community.... I think I can speak for everyone on this occasion, that you deserve our deepest heartfelt thanks for your contributions to Irish lovers of bluegrass music. There is already a facebook page called Dublin Bluegrass... We are considering calling a weekly open session in Sine bar on the quays.. anyhoo the facebook page is open to everyone and somewhere, where news of events and picking opportunities could be expanded... Nothing can replace what you have done Richard... I check this page every couple of days at least and have heard some of the greatest bands perform because I found out about it here and would have missed it otherwise... Thanks again,... The facebook page may not be the solution however it does exist, Paddy Kiernan and myself are the current administrators but we can add more if someone is out there that would like to make a contribution to the info and material that is posted there.... I will update about the Dublin session when everything is confirmed.... I first started picking mandolin at the Rosie O'grady sessions and had some great times... Dublin needs a bluegrass session... happy pickin, Aran
ps. here is the facebook address http://www.facebook.com/DublinBluegrass
Folks,
Just to confirm, We are commencing the first of our weekly bluegrass circle jams at 8pm, this Tuesday 26th Feb 2013, in Siné Bar, Ormond Quay, Dublin...
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