| I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack....well sort of.
Some of you may be wondering where I've been, why the site is still turned off, how come I've not been active etc. Well I'll explain it all here. As one of my friends mentioned in one of my past blog comments, that when I choose to be open, I'm fully open with my thoughts. Well, this is another time where I'll be COMPLETELY open with my thoughts and reasons why I've been absent so long. It may made some people in the Christian music industry (artists and record labels) unhappy with me, but I frankly don't care about that.
FIrst off, let me say thank you to every artist who has helped me in some way build up my website and my MySpace profile over the last couple of years. Thanks for the interviews, pictures, donated items for contests, etc. Without your help, some of that would never have happened. I'm glad you are my friends and I can't wait til the day comes when I can meet you all in Heaven. At least now I'll be able to sing with Dale and I won't be off-key. LOL Jamie and I can do the duet of 'Power of Love."
Okay, now for the answers you all have been waiting for....
The last few months I've been seriously debating with myself on what to do with the website (it's paid up for the next 2 and a half yrs and the domain name is paid for for another 1.5 yrs). I seriously haven't had any interest in updating any news, reviews (more on that later), interviews, etc. in a while. Why? you ask...I'll tell you.
It's because I'm not getting any help from the industry I love so much. I can't tell you how many e-mails I've sent to bands, management, labels, etc asking for either interviews, promo CDs for reviews, etc. I don't get any res pones what-so-ever. Sure I know that I won't get a response from some of the labels, but to not even send back a polite "No thanks' or any kind of response is just downright rude in my opinion. It's called common courtesy peeps.
Also, it seems that unless I've attended a GMA Week and made my industry contact there, then I don't exist or I'm not worth their time. Due to my financial and physical issues, I'm not able to make the trip out to Nashville. Nor do I have the equipment to conduct phone interviews (I have yet to find a way to make my mic's work with any PC I've ever owned so I can't do this via phone modem). I guess Oklahoma is sort of off the industry's map and I don't exist.
One other thing has been sticking at me for over a year now as well. Seems like a member of one of the larger well known Christian bands out there (I will never confirm the band) kind of 'smeared' me when a fan who was backstage at a concert asked if he had heard of my website. The person asked just replied with a 'yeah' and rolled their eyes. This person lost some respect in my eyes but I don't hold it against the band as a whole or their music. I know why he did it, and it really wasn't justified because I gave a non-published album review a bad grade. Really, kind of childish I think.
Do I sound bitter? A little bit, but it's more frustration than anything. I've basically put blood, sweat and tears into an industry I've loved since the mid-80's and I'm not getting anything in return to help it out and make more people aware of the Message.
So what am I going to do with it all. Well, I'm planning on just leaving the site turned on but not updating it unless I get a wild hair and want to work on it again. I'll check on my MySpace page every once in a while and approve comments and read any message I have.
Does all this mean I've turned my back on Christianity, God or Christian music? Nope, not at all. It just means I'm not going ot break my back trying to help anymore unless something changes. I'll still listen to the music and check out any new artists.
Another question one of my friend's asked me was if I was going to sell the site and domain name. I said not unless a really decent offer came in. I did a preliminary domain name appraisal of the bridefan.com domain name and I liked the price I saw. :) So I'm not opposed to selling if the right offer is made.
Okay, that's it for me now.
IF you wanna chat, just e-mail me here or on MySpace. I'll respond at some point.
In Christ,
BrideFan/Keith |
