BS: Mudcat Memory Book

Subject: BS:MC Memory _Your 1st Experience
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 04:57 AM

I have been thinking and wondering about the heritage of Mudcat Cafe. I thought it would be interesting to have a kind of scrapbook in which Catters can record their first experience of Catting.

What brought you here? How did you discover MC?   

What do you think about having a series of MC memory books

First
Worst
Best
Most memorable
Most useful

Or is this just a waste of time?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 05:03 AM

I'll start

My first expereince was at the beginning of MC when there was Mudcat Radio. I was invited by AllanC to performance he did yonks ago. I don't think I left any comments. Just visited to see that performance.

A few years later I came in as Guest Poetspider a couple of times, seeking lyrics from the DT.

Last spring I joined under my current handle in order to communicate with new folk friends made at the Sweeps Festival, Good Intent sing around in Rochester Kent.

And hence sucked into the vortex.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 05:38 AM

Heard some Folkies talking about Mudcat at a Folk Club and thought 'What's that'?.... went online when i came home and googled it... that's how I came here. Had some early battles over my Christian beliefs and although somewhat discouraged, have come many times since. It is a source of great information and somewhere to air views, have a laugh and generally belong. There is always someone ready to help.................
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Amos
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 11:26 AM

I wandered in all unawares, still carrying the flower of innocence, seeking only some harmless lyrics. It was so long ago -- the world seemed new, and kind. Little did I know.

Look at me now--a ruined addict. Little did I know that the evil Spaw, the wiley Rick, Professor T., the charming and scurrilous BSeed, the sharp-witted Swanno, the beautiful but dangerous Jen, and the brilliant Mick and so many others, would soon rope me, hogtie me, and steal my flower. I am a fallen folkie today--my life is but a warning to others...


A

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 11:35 AM

"Music ruins lives."

Hardi's quote.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Alice
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 11:39 AM

Lots of old threads on this if you do a search.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 11:42 AM

Yep, it sure is, Amos. You done been headed and footed, strung out, and branded. And ya better hold still, the cuttin' is next.

My story is simple: I was but an itinerant bibliotroubador who was wending his weary way thro' the wilds of Northern Kentucky with naught but his lute, his wife, and his unemployment compensation for company when lo! I found a place of light and warmth and welcome and merriness, a place of laughter and caring, of music and morris dance. As a result I quickly found new work, my skin cleared up, I could execute a triple riposte without falling over my blade, I could sing in key, and I became the studly, brilliant, witty, handsome person you all know and love.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: bobad
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 11:55 AM

When I got my home computer, some five years ago, one of the first things I did was set out trying to find answers to questions that were circling in holding patterns in my brain. One of the big ones was; "What the hell ever became of Bruce Murdoch?" Well, I punched his name into the Google machine and came upon this Looking For Bruce Murdoch and my life was never the same again (thank goodness).

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 12:00 PM

That'll teach ya!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 12:01 PM

What we need is a permathread indexing the past similar ones.

Or a set of links at the top for the group of them, but that'd prolly have too many in it.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 12:10 PM

Alice is right, there are several threads along these lines. Of course, that doesn't mean newbies shouldn't post their memories, too.;-) If you want general history, etc., it's always fun to look through the Classic Mudcat Threads lists.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: kendall
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 12:56 PM

A member called JETS told me about Mudcat over 10 years ago. I sorta snuck in without any intro, and one of my first experiences was asking about the nature of the grains in a guitar top. That is, if close grains had more sound than wide ones, and Spaw was all over me like a cheap suit! "That crap has been covered over and over again"...on and on ad nauseum. If I was easily intimidated I would have left at that moment, but no one heaves me around!

Since then I've made many good friends, (including spaw) and even met my present wife.
The best part of Mudcat is the sense of community. With only a few exceptions, everyone I have met is welcome to visit me anytime, and I can't say that about some of my own kin!

The worst part is the frustration of knowing that some members are too far away to ever meet. Australia is literally on the other side of the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Alice
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 01:41 PM

Didn't mean to rain on your thread, Virginia.

I've related my finding of mudcat in more than one thread over the years, and I just wish the threads were named something obvious... cause now I can't find them!! If I do find them, I'll link to this thread.

I was looking for lyrics to Irish folk songs and found the DT and Mudcat sometime in 1998. It was before there was actual membership with one member name. We would just type our name in the From field on a message. Sometimes I typed Alice in Montana, sometimes just Alice.

Alice Flynn

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Leadfingers
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 02:10 PM

When I dragged myself kicking and screaming into the twentieth century , just before it ceased to be ,and bought a Computer and got E Mail (All my Folk Club mates were swopping E's like teenagers at a Disco) , I was told that I ought to look into this thing called Mudcat ! A little while lurking and the odd (Sometimes VERY Odd) Guest posts , and I was hooked . I now have two Getaways to my credit
and have met catters from All Over The place , and even visited Max's basement and seen the (Then) little white box that we all live in !!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: gnu
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 03:38 PM

Said it on a few other threads over the years, but it bears repeating.

I came here to ask a question about a song I was researching. Within hours I had responses that boggled the imagination. Even had one that pointed me to it's singing in a movie... repleat with the studio, the reel, the time and the archive numbers.

I was immdediately hooked. I joined up.

Then, I met the most wonderful and knowledgible people... not only about music... about everything, especially about life. I have met people here who have been everything to me. Mentors, confidants, contestors, sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers... they helped me through some very dark times in my life, made me laugh, made me think, made me angry, made me happy... filled a part of my life which was lacking.

It bears repeating.... thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 04:16 PM

I haven't been able to find them, either, Alice! Frustrating. Here are a few others of interest:

Where do Mudcatters Live;

What do Mudcatters Do for a Living;

there are a lot of location ones' links listed above the former.

I came near the end of 1998 looking for lyrics for my dad and fell in love with the place and its denizens.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 04:47 PM

Well, I think it was around 2001 when my son showed me how to turn a computer on and nuthin' more and...

...I had somehow found my very first website, "The Blues HIghway", and thought it was probably the only website (whatever a website is/was) in the world and was having a great time there causing trouble until one night I got kidnapped by Tweed...

Tweed must have felt sorry fir me so he invited me to his paper mache blues website where he had a plan to settle me down...

'Bout a month into that plan I guess I had driven everyone there nuts and so he said that I needed some time in the big city so he sent me off to Mudburg where I found that rather than the 8 people at Tweeds ro bug that there were lots of folks here to bug...

And I'm still buggin' ya'll...

And, sniff, that's the truth...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 05:40 PM

In 2001, I received a grant to start a website on children's rhymes. I had a personal computer, but knew very little about using the Internet. At the last minute, I told my website developer that I wanted to include a page on 19th century African American dance songs, because it seemed to me that some of these songs were the source of verses in contemporary children's rhymes. One of the dance songs that I decided to feature was "Jim Along Josie". In 2002, not that long after the website was launched, I got an email from a visitor to that site asking me about comments that I had written about that song. That person indicated that he was a member of an Internet discussion forum called "Mudcat", and he had shared my comments on Mudcat "threads". That visitor [who now goes by the name "Q"} and I exchanged several emails, and I told him that I would check out Mudcat. I gave a friend the URL that I had written down on paper, and he got me to this website. I was too techie challenged to do that by myself. However, when I got to the Mudcat page, I didn't know that you had to click on a title in order to read a discussion, and besides which I didn't see any titles that sounded familiar to me. So I shrugged my shoulders, and left the Mudcat website, still unsure what it was all about.

Fast forward to 2004. By then I had become an experienced Internet traveler and, as a member of the Wesley Clark for President blog, I had grown used to posting comments on the Internet. I liked the sense of community that I felt as a member of that Internet community, and I felt adrift and "homeless" when that blog
abruptly ended {because Wesley Clark's primary candidacy ended}. For some reason, I remembered my visit to Mudcat, and amazingly, I had kept the URL for this website that I had written down in some paper notebook. This time when I visited Mudcat {in August 2004} I "got" that you had to click on a title to read the discussion. I lurked for a month, and jumped into a discussion about kumbaya in September 2004. Coincidentally, the person who wrote a comment about kumbaya that I disagreed with was Q. I received responses from him and from other people to my comments, and two members invited me to join this community. And I did.

I've never regretted that decision as I've met many interesting, talented, and good people who post on this forum. And I've learned a
lot from reading Mudcat threads, and from engaging in serious online discussions. In addition, Mudcat's play on words and other less serious threads have made me realize that there's some things to smile about, even if the world is going to hell in a handbasket. And I need to remember that. That's why I join others in saying "Thanks" for the opportunities to share and learn and enjoy myself on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 06:25 PM

Azizi,
I hear ya!

If you don't have a sense of humor, "it" isn't funny.

"It" = all the crapola everywhere now. But the good old sense of humor must be cultivated and nurtured. Often when I post to a serious thread with a quip of some sort, it is only because the obvious humor of the insanity is so very apparent to me---and I wish to share it!

Lately, some here are quite a bit less than happy with my comments.

I am sorry about that. But it is how I cope!

Such is life now.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: SINSULL
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 06:32 PM

Like this one, art?
"Today, huh? I learned I can still eventually figure a way to get back in the wheel chair when the malady puts me on the floor."

Put me in mind of me trying to get rubber boots on while my foot stuck. I could have used an extra pair of hands and a block and tackle.


i thought it was funny.
Sometimes you either laugh or cry and laughing hurts less.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 06:37 PM

Laughing 'tis a far, far better thing we do, today, than...:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 06:56 PM

:-).... we did on a day when we didn't laugh??????

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 08:16 PM

I'm serious.

:o)

I didn't know that I had a sense of humor until I found it on Mudcat. Now even if other people don't think I'm witty, I think I am. And-in this context anyway-how I think of myself is more important than how others think of me.

Though I'll admit that most of my Mudcat posts are serious, as evidence that I really do have a sense of humor {or humour if you prefer that spelling}, here's the hyperlink to my still all time favorite lighthearted Mudcat thread:

thread.cfm?threadid=87517
Sponge Bob dead on Xmas eve

-snip-

I really wish that Donuel would ask Joe Offer to close that thread. as Its last post seems to me to be just right.

**

Btw, in my search for that thread, I found one that is somewhat related to this Memory Book thread:

thread.cfm?threadid=95009
Just found Mudcat too

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 08:36 PM

Virginia Tam, my last comment was partly in response to your first post in which you asked us to share what threads we thought were

Worst
Best
Most memorable
Most useful

-snip-

You also asked "Or is this just a waste of time?"

To that I say, "What? Have Mudcatters ever wasted any time?

Surely not!

Actually, I don't think such a listing would be a waste of time, as it would call other folks' attention to threads that might be good time wasters. :o)

So, with that in mind, the "serious", folkloric thread that I like the best is this one:

thread.cfm?threadid=23200#1827320
Jacomo finane? What does that mean?

**

You didn't ask this question, but the thread that I started that surprised me the most was the one on the possible song sources of the children's rhyme "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky":

thread.cfm?threadid=94034
Origins: Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky

What surprised me is the large number of versions of that handclap rhyme that children and teens know. What continue to surprise me is the most of the people posting to that thread are Guests who presumbably found the thread using Google or another Internet search engine. Also, judging from their comments, a large number of these guests are children and teens.

**

I hope other people will respond to Virginia Tam's questions about the thread or threads that they consider to be notable.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 10:27 PM

my introduction to Mudcat was thru. Bob Bolton, who passed on something I passed to him, I think it was a song by one of my friends.

Sometime later (2001?) when I got my very own dear little laptop (I had no space for a computer, but I later arranged stuff when it died 7 managed to fit in a purpose built desk & an iMac!) I started looking at Mudcat, posted a couple of times as Guest, sandra & joined in March 2002.

Then I started spruiking Mudcat & others joined ...

a few of my favourite threads -

my first post as a Guest was on this thread - BS: Untidy Mudcatters? - which deserves reviving as we have lotsa' new members!

Naemanson's threads - latest is Settling in Guam

A little vintage Art Thieme

Mudcat crafters

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 10:54 PM

I followed the progress from the first rustlings of the database right up to the online debut. I posted about the end of the 1st month in Oct.'96.

I'm sure someone will dig up other threads about early experiences.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 10:54 PM

Art, I said the same thing early on and I'll keep saying it: laugh or go nuts. Your choice, but I've made mine.

Every situation, even the worst that can be imagined, has humor in it if you look at it right. E.g.:

It was Easter Monday and we were burying my mother, her grave next to my father's. I was holding the hand of my then-youngest nephew (aged 3, I think he was). Suddenly he piped up with, "Why are they putting her in that hole??" I responded, "Because we can't keep her in the living room any longer." He was satisfied and the properly mournful crowd and priest almost split their collective seams trying to hold back the laughter; I think my mother would have (did?) LOVED it.

As the man said, "Life's to serious to be taken seriously."

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 04:46 PM

Err, I'm a bit new to really have any memories, but I do hope to generate some. In fact I suspect it'll be somewhat inevitable.

Even in the small time I've been onlist, some-mysterious-how (?) I've already managed to eveigle a small handful informal promised future real-world meeting-ups and singsongs with some of the nice members here!

Amazing what a cheeky invisible smile and a silent voice can do for ya ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 05:15 AM

Thank you folks. Thanks for the links above and the shared links to other telling threads.

I did a search for mudcat memory and memories but did produce a result so I started this scrapbook. One has to know what exactly to ask (what is the name of the MC database, is it HAL or HEX?) to get a computable answer.

Please keep them coming.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 09:58 PM

I seem to have started out in July 2001 with a response to a query about songs mentioning vicars.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 07:58 PM

I'll have to come back here when I have more time to type thoughtful answers to your query, but Rapaire's story (and the first smile I've had all day) reminds me of the very best thing about Mudcat to me:


No matter how bad my day, how low my mood, how tough things might seem, checking in here almost always provides at least a smile, and usually a chuckle.

Good thing for the music stuff, too, or Max would've kicked us out of HIS living room a looooong time ago : )

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Memory Book
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 10:17 PM

I was one of the early contributors to the Digital Tradition - back in the early 90s. I later joined Mudcat (can't remember exactly when) but posted very infrequently until recently. I still don't have time to read much of it. I don't know how people manage.

I do have a favorite thread - and it's one I never even posted to. I am honored that no less a person than Max himself has also declared this one his favorite.

kazoo. how to get a sound

Dan