It was not to be. Not yet. The ongoing story of my life continues. Where, oh where is tonyola? No joke: we care. I wrote the man a couple of times, but I never heard back.
Numbers and participation were down a bit this past year, but our Facebook friends have increased substantially. Someone’s tuned in. I encourage folks to tune in and be heard. The last year has seen great participation from newcomers like Suburban Kid and loosehandlebars. That guy patrock, in the tradition of our founding member alexmagic, always comes through with a winner. These Townspeople are like Rennie Stennett, the old Pirates’ super-sub who often flirted with winning the batting title but struggled to get enough plate appearances to qualify.
We’re in the middle of a long run of activity. We still have our moments. I still get plenty of kicks running this joint with old friends and new. There are numerous reasons why things slowed down a bit in our 6th year, probably starting with familiarity, even overuse. I’ve moaned a bit about the influence of social media sites. I think they’ve enabled us to get our rocks off in a more immediate, simple, and satisfying manner. That’s good. That’s right. I’m glad the rock chatter is out there, that people are still making efforts to earn “turn-on” points with their friends.
Not all of you share my obsession with trying to build everlasting castles made of sand. Plus, I’ve been busy: with work, with family, with making music, and with trying to write a book that’s an outgrowth, in many respects, of what goes on around here. I hope to have an entire slaved-over draft completed before I hit my mid-century mark. Wish me luck and continued good health.
For all my occasional bitching and moaning and whining about dashed dreams, I appreciate and enjoy this place as always. I still look forward to my weekly “planning sessions” with sammymaudlin. I still get psyched when a new person registers as a Rock Town Hall user. I still take delight in removing the second space after periods as I marvel at the intelligence and humor in any new post from HVB. I still consider people like BigSteve and SlimJade, two people I’ve only ever met one time each, friends. I still hold out hope that E. Pluribus Gergely will stop being so stingy with his deep genius and general good will toward men. I keep on rolling—and I hope you do too—because it beats golf or spin class or whatever it is normal people do.
I’ll leave you with the following thoughts:
If I may, I would like to tip my hat to some damn fine commenters and contributors: Cherguevarra, Funoka, Trigmogigmo, k., Bobby Bittman, Bronzed Nordic God, and Raoul G.
Thanks to Mr. Mod, Sammy Maudlin and to all the Back Office contributors who make this the best Rock discussion site bar none.
Thank you, Rock Town Hall, for providing me one of my favorite means of whiling away the hours. I follow the site daily, and although I don’t always comment, I always enjoy reading everyone else’s responses.
To quote some fine lyrics and reference some excellent fashion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFnRqkax44Q
Really happy to be Rennie Stennett in a field full of Bill Madlocks.
Thanks for providing a forum for my personal zeal on rock & “Other” music, and for keeping our household abuzz with silliness.
I agree with everyone above. Thanks especially to the guys that make RTH show up when I click the link! That’s a lot of hard work, and I really appreciate it, especially at times when I’m so busy I barely have time to read RTH, let alone contribute.
Happy Birthday RTH.
It is only in the last year that I finally entered the 21st century & I have been in no hurry to add to the noisy nothingness I found on so many forums. I hang out here because it is, in Mod’s words, “intelligent rock discussion” which does not take itself too seriously. I too appreciate the work to get all this stuff into my computer.
To paraphrase – “It’s Mr. Mod’s world, we just live in it!”
Thanks!
I don’t hit the comments as often as I’d like these days, but I still read almost every thread and appreciate the effort it takes to keep this site running. Happy anniversary!
I repeat my reply Mr. Mod’s happy birthday wish to me last week: it is an honor to participate in the Hall. The knowledge and opinion here amazes me. Thanks cliff for the hat tip.
It’s thru RTH that I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting new friends like the Royales and the Jades (and a couple of other posters who post so infrequently that I don’t even recall their user names offhand!), for local shows and good conversation. Fantastic!
Happy 6th! And here’s to Mod & sammy in appreciation of what I know must be hard work keeping the place running.
Happy Anniversary! Any Boston area folks who’d like to meet up sometime for a beer are welcome to get in touch. Would love to put some faces to names….
6 years already! Time goes by pretty quick. Happy Anniversary, RTH & i hope that my contributions make at least almost sense.
Kudos to all — and Mr. Mod and Sammy — especially. Didn’t work out last year — but perhaps a Nats-Phils game RTH event could be in the cards for 2013.