Changes

I've been considering a lot of things this year: it boils down to ordering my priorities, which has always been important to me, but even more so since the autumn and winter when my E-Rex had his cancer treatment.   He's doing excellently, by the way.

It's necessary to consolidate how I spend my time, even more than I already have.  So .... at least for the time being, and it may be permanent, or maybe not, I'm going to suspend the podcast.  It has been a hard conclusion to reach, but because it requires a lot of time, not just accumulating the info I want to podcast, but then the syndication and the show notes etc., I will replace the audio podcast with blog posts, akin to the show notes I posted here for each show.  I'm going to work more with social media, so there will be the same amount of content, if not more, than when I was actively podcasting.

I want to thank all the listeners who tell me they enjoy the show. I'll try to keep  the same vibe, here on the blog. 

Expect a long post that would have been a podcast by the beginning of the week.  Until then, I'm D A Arlaus, "doing my part to spread the excellence, one guitarist at a time."

A Breath of Fresh Air

Over the past week of 2, a few students have played exceedingly well.  Not only does it give me great satisfaction, but they will have the honor of being mentioned in the next show's Student Spotlight segment.  I have another week before the first August podcast will be recorded, but suffice it to say that for now, congratulations are due to Bridget, Gary and Shira.  I hope I will have a few more names to add to the list by next week, when I record.  

Great playing, everyone.

Bombardment

I don't even know if bombardment is a word, but it is what Guitar Center has been doing to me, and probably to you, too.

If you are one of their customers, you know that they have been relentlessly hurling ads your way.  I have received them in print and online.  The online variety come just about daily.  Surprisingly, the print ads are at least once a week, sometimes, twice.  

This escalation in advertising me causes me to wonder whether things are so good, in the industry, or so bad.   The online advertising doesn't cost anything over their already employed media people's time and expertise.  The print advertising, offering flash sales, used gear, workshops, enumerating their near future podcast topics etc., are a little harder to fathom.  

Have you been to your local Guitar Center lately?  Was it busy?  I'm in an area where there are several Guitar Centers, a few independent guitar shops and I'm just a short ride from Mandolin Brothers, on Staten Island  and the multiplicity of guitar stores in Manhattan.  My local Guitar Centers are buzzing from November until January, with the gift giving season, but when I drive by or go into them, there isn't much traffic.

In all fairness, I get ads via the web and snail mail from other major retail guitar outlets, too.  However, none of them are as unceasing as Guitar Center. I know they are celebrating 49 years in business, but if they don't moderate the   constant shilling, I'll be left no choice but to remove myself from all their lists.

Housekeeping

I was making buttons for my other blogs and thought it was a good idea to make one for this blog, too.  So, I'm just using this post to upload the image, and thereby use the source code for the image when I create the button.  Earth shattering, I know.