Dear Folks,

I've been away for quite a spell, so the prefixes are new to me. I haven't used them yet.

A couple of thoughts: I just posted a new thread about something I call "lyric drift," which relates to music but doesn't fall under any of the non-BS headings. I think there needs to be a "miscellaneous, music related" prefix for threads like mine, and one for "procedural" discussions such as this one.

Secondly, I don't consider everything that is not specifically musical, "BS." I would like to suggest a more neutral term, like "off-topic." The FYI/News idea seems like a good one, too.

One reason I'd like to see a couple of choices, other than music-related categories, is that I'd like to skip some of the *way* off-topic threads, but, as a "spinner" myself, I am interested in other folks "yarns," like the ones in the recent thread about "cute kid" doings.

And here's the thing: folk *music* virtually never occurs in the wild, except in the company of folk *tales," and popular politics. The stories, and current events are intrinsic to the creative dynamic. They are the stream-bed down which the music flows.

That's how it was on my Gampop's porch, that's how it was in the coffeehouses of my activist youth, and that's how it will ever be if we are to go on *making* and not merely archiving music. This is the Mudcat *Café*, not the Mudcat *Museum*. When we share stories and ideas, we resurrect the memories of forgotten musical treasures, and fertilise the ground for new songs. Where do you think the Digitrad would get its "harvest," but for a little "BS?"

Shalom,

Shula