The State of the Blog, 3 August 2010

You will have noticed, perhaps, that there was no State of the Blog post on Saturday last week.

This was perhaps less than intentional, yet I will admit that there was a bit of relief in not writing one, and instead simply posting some release news.

Tonight's SotB post will likely be a brief one, but I did want to draw your attention to the right hand side of the site, where I have a series of links to other pages on my blog. It's right there, under where the poll was, and above the Google Search box. See it now? Well, there's a new page there.

As polls complete, I'll be archiving the results on a new page, creatively entitled "Past Poll Archives." Pretty witty, huh? I thought so too, actually. Seriously now, any polls I run from here on out will have their results posted there, with the newest poll posted at the top. This way it will be easy to see what we've voted on in the past, and have a record of those results.

For those too busy to hit the page to see the final results of the first poll, I'll copy and paste them below just for you. But this will be the last time. Next time, click the link, OK?

Anyway...

Who was your favourite band at NEARfest 2010:

Steve Hackett 20 (47%)
The Enid 19 (45%)
Iona 11 (26%)
Three Friends 10 (23%)
Forgas Band Phenomenon 8 (19%)
Riverside 7 (16%)
Eddie Jobson/U-Z Project 7 (16%)
Astra 6 (14%)
Moraine 5 (11%)
The Pineapple Thief 1 (2%)

As always, I want to thank you for stopping by, for reading, for voting, for taking part. There's a lot of very cool stuff coming up, including some more insightful interviews, some great albums and reviews, and hopefully a contest or two in the not so distant future. Keep your eyes peeled, and keep visiting!

Thanks, and have a proggy night!

Blog News Update

Hello all.

A few days ago, I mentioned the '10 Questions With...' project getting off the ground. In fact, it started earlier today with our interview with Dave Kerman. I mentioned in that post a few days ago that there were several other people I was awaiting word from, and at this point, I'd like to tease a little more with some additional players who will be sitting down with me in a virtual, cyber-interview kind of way:

Brett Kull (echolyn, Grey Eye Glances)
Greg Jones (Pinnacle drummer)
Simon Gannett (Mirthrandir keyboardist)
Mark and Henry Ptak (Advent keyboardists)

As always, there'll be more to come, so watch this space. Remember we have an RSS feed (link at the very bottom of this page), so if you use a feed reader, you should be able to get notification of new posts as they go up.

Thanks for your continued reading.

Some Updates/Blog News

I wanted to make a quick post, after a long weekend, to update you, Constant Readers, with an idea of what will be coming this week and in weeks to follow.

I had made brief mention of an idea for a regular interview feature. This is definitively a go. I have contacted a number of musicians, all of whom have expressed interest in participating. This will be in an abbreviated, '10 questions with' type format. I've already got the following people lined up for interviews in the coming weeks:

Dave Kerman (Thinking Plague/Present/5UUs/et cetera)
Cyndee Lee Rule (solo artist, has played with Nik Turner, Harvey Bainbridge, Systems Theory)
Lynnette Shelley (The Red Masque)
Matthew Parmenter (discipline.)
Bill Berends (Mastermind)
Gary Lauzon (The Rebel Wheel)

Alan Benjamin (Advent)
Frank Camiola (Cardboard Amanda/Frogg Cafe)
Graeme Murray (Pallas)

There's several other people I am waiting on response from, so rather than tease names that might not come to pass, I'll leave you with that tantalizing list.

I still have several albums and DVDs that I plan on covering for you all soon...I've not forgotten about them. Expect the Spock's Beard and Marillion live DVD reviews soon. I'm also going to be taking a look at Robin Taylor's newest group, Art Cinema (which I posted about HERE).

And as a final update, here's what I've been treating my ears to the past few days...

Premiata Forneira Marconi - Per un Amico
Premiata Forneria Marconi - Storia di un Minuto
Renaissance - Prologue
Renaissance - Ashes are Burning
Renaissance - Scheherazade and Other Stories
Magma - 1001 Degrees Centigrades
Magma - Kohntarkosz
UK - UK
UK - Danger Money
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso - Da qui messere si domina la valle

What have YOU been listening to?

As a side note...

I'm sticking my neck out here...but I've changed settings so anyone can reply. You do not need a blogger or Google account or an OpenID to comment or reply to comments now.

I reserve the right to re-evaluate this if necessary.