CLIPS AND COMMENTARY FROM CANADA'S BEST KNOWN UNDISCOVERED OLD WHITE BLUESMAN

Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Grandfather, I bow my head in shame.



If I was to do the honourable thing I would offer my resignation to the jazz festival. How could I be so incompetent as to leave out mention of the gig & new CD of our own artistic director in our newsletter. That after having edited together a short blurb on the release (even though I haven't heard it yet). I just brought the newsletters from the printer and it must have been the first thing he noticed but he didn't say a word - he was probably so angry he couldn't speak! How could I do this to the nicest guy...and it's not the first time. And it's no consolation that I often forget to include my own gigs. I may be able to fix it on the last batch to be printed but they don't call me the (barely)managing editor for nothing.



In this month's blues newsletter I forgot about an ad that had been requested. It was a thank you to all their fans from Fathead, Toronto's busiest blues band (until now). They are calling it quits and so should I. Al Lerman, the leader, said "shit happens" and others mentioned Mercury retrograde...but I don't know. Maybe It's the Peter Priciple personified. My publishing career has risen to the point where I could really mess up several cultural institutions in this town if I had a bad week. A country-blues guitar player from the hills of the Eastern Townships should not be entrusted with the dissemination of important cultural information. Sometimes I end up writing the whole damn thing from cover to cover and nary a body to proofread or approve.



Why am I beating myself up in public, you ask? Well, if you don't hear from me again you'll know that I found an appropriate roof to jump from (just kidding - this is not an online suicide note).



This only encourages me further to develop a simple content management system to assemble and publish stories and event listings for these newsletters/websites. If you know anyone that would like to explore a wonderful business opportunity to bring to market the ultimate event listings and newsletters publishing engine, please pass along my coordinates. Any potential partners so far were a little put off when I said the program would be offered free to arts organizations like the Blues Society and the Jazz Society. Still there are many potential paying customers...



I've got to get something in place so that when I head out on the road to promote my new CD (yes, it's coming) that there will be a system in place where the newsletter/website contents can be viewed online and finally approved from a PDF. And the assembly will be so simple, that a couple of volunteers could handle it and I will have made myself redundant and can proceed to bring my life to a satifactory conclusion with a guitar in my lap (having pretty well abandoned the prospect of some sweet young thang in my lap).



Now I'm getting maudlin - I'm going to bed.







Well, nobody reads this anyway...