[Harp-L] Archive plans

["\"\"Ben J. Nathanson\"\"" <bjnath@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The archives are central to harp-l and may be the single
greatest (and noisiest and most logically inconsistent)
repository of harmonica knowledge anywhere. In addition, the
postings, like old newspapers, are a contemporaneous record
of the last dozen years of harmonica history. I seriously
intend to get the old archives back on this list. That's
really the reason I got on board (aside from the fact that
fjm is a true original and a delight to get email from;
imagine seeing three of four of his gemlike, sardonic
postings in your inbox every day). The archives are in
scattered pieces in different formats. (If those files could
talk!) Keith Graham (http://harpamps.com) has done a great
job with a considerable block of the archives, massaging
them and putting them online at his own expense, and he's
been sharing his work with me. The rescue effort makes me
think of smuggling art treasures to safety in wartime. fjm
took possession of a disk drive that survived Dickensian
ordeals and might possibly work and probably has archives if
it does. There are some easy stretches, too. I hope to begin
filling in the archives in coming weeks.

This list has changed what it means to be a harmonica
player. I'm not reverent at all about harp-l, and I can go
for days scoffing at or ignoring posts, but I could also
spend a long time tallying all the changes it has made in my
life, directly and indirectly. What a delight it's been to
have this 12-year-old legend under my care.