Jim,

Glad to hear it. I don't know how any of you do it. I work with music and songwriters all day and into the night and am so wiped out I cannot fathom how it would be to try and do that and have serious health problems. So the fact that all of you are here and still participate is amazing to me. Very inspirational and underlines how unique this community is.

On the timelines and life of most web sites and parts of these type sites. There is always change. Change in music, change in styles, change in artists, change in writers. The only thing consistant in life is change. One of my points I always try to make is that relatvily the same comments and complaints about everything from life to music to whatever, are virtually the same throughout history. I always say there will probably one day be a discovery of a cave drawing with some Cave dad telling his Cave son, about how music was "back in his day."

It is easy to think we are the only ones involved. One of the mistakes I see writers make constantly is the fact that they never see the enormity of how many people are trying to be involved in music in some way shape or form. Literally millions of people. And there are sites for just about everyone on the Internet, just like music, you gotta go find them.

The life span of most writers, artists, musicians, are that when they are young, (16-30) they are busy trying to be artists, writers, etc. They also are just learning about life and usually have many intersests. As they get older and gain more experience, they tend to calm down and want to learn more than talk all the time. They realize they actually don't know it all, and that many things they thought were one way are actually very far from it.

We have all gone through that. We have had dealings where our "Perfect song" was shot down in flames. People talk over our songs in clubs, life gets in the way and bills and kids take precidence in what we do.

At that time, most writers turn to the internet because it is the most accessable. Right there 24 hours a day and you can do it in your underwear.

Most writers who are at that stage, over thirty, not artists, or just plain worn out, come to places like these. The other underlining factor is that most writers here are not present artists. I know I am not. I am WAY past my prime. But I write with literally hundreds of artists worldwide, working with their ideas, emotions and cultures. So I have to remain somewhat aware of various styles, attitudes etc.

Most of us come here to share info, experiences and relate to others who are like us. We are lucky enough to have a forum to do that. It is quite frankly, very cool.

So I hope none of us abuse that. We should be grateful for the opportunity to interact and always try to further each other's understanding. Even when we dissagree, it is pretty interesting.

MAB