Imagine you’re walking along a foreign beach. You’ve been traveling all day and night to get there. An amazing vacation lies ahead of you – something you’ve thought about and planned for, bought books about, etc. But today, you’re exhausted and jet lagged and all you have in you is the desire to walk along the beach.
You and your travel companion exit the hotel and set out. You’ve gone about a quarter of a mile along the coast when your foot kicks the corner of a small box left there in the sand. You dig it out and dust it off, and see a string dangling out the bottom, with a note that says “pull string, step back.”
You exchange looks. You shrug. You hold it in your hand and keep walking.
After some time, your companion suggests you pull the string and see what happens. So, somewhat ceremoniously, but not entirely so, you pull the string, drop it, and step back.
You don’t know if the box is going to explode in a thousand directions, into tiny sharp shards which could wound the feet of anyone else walking on the beach. You don’t know if it’s going to assert some magical power which will spin you into an alternate dimension (jet lag does wild things to your imagination). You don’t know if it’ll shoot flames or spit out money or simply send up a fireworks display.
You don’t know if all of this will happen at once, or none of it at all. But there’s a curiosity. That box was there for a reason. Someone wanted it to do its thing.
This is a rather loose analogy I’m drawing here. A sloppy parable. But, I’ve come on here before to thank you guys for showing up, and I’m not interested in repeating myself.
When Kyla and I hit “go” on this thing two and a half years ago, it was a little like pulling the string on that box.
At the time, I was pretty evenly straddling the print and online worlds. I’d been writing for West Coast Performer and SoundNW magazines, as well as some occasional other freelancing gigs. I’d also been running the Folk Music page on About.com for a few years at that point, had been the Editor at Seattlest.com (part of the Gothamist network of hyperlocal news sites). Kyla’s background was all in print, and she had a sizable learning curve, which she tackled with seemingly zero fear and a wide open mind. Really, neither of us had any idea what this thing would be, or could be, or was bound to become.
It’s certainly unlike anything else I’ve ever been involved with, and I still haven’t figured out exactly what to call it when I’m talking to people about my job. “Social media” and “community blog” sort of fit, but not really. And, anyway, those buzz phrases still make people a little nervous – they’re unwieldy and still somewhat undefinable. They furrow brows.
And yet – thanks to the amazing volunteer bloggers, who post on their whim some not only readable, but often quite thought-provoking, insightful blogs – we’ve hit a new landmark. We’re now reaching more than 100,000 unique readers each month. Holy cow!
How’s that for burying the lede?
So, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for being here – not only for the sake of preserving a publication which had remarkable integrity and intuition in its print days, but also for honoring incredible music made by musicians with remarkable integrity and intuition.
I hope you’ll continue to come around and share this site with your friends. I’d encourage you to help us keep growing by clicking on the “like” button at the bottom of blog posts which interest you (this will automatically share them with your Facebook friends), or tweet out links to great videos and photo galleries. Also, please feel free to blog here any time, with your thoughts on new albums or shows you’ve been to. If you happen upon an artist people in this community would enjoy, share a few words, pop a video in the video section…
And, as always, if anything is confusing or broken, or you get hit with spam, etc., please don’t hesitate to let us know. This community – like any community – remains as good as we make it together.
Thanks again!
