Re: [Harp-L] SPAH award criteria

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

I enjoy the recent discussions regarding SPAH and how it does/doesn't attract harmonica interest from the community.


My personal opinion is that a lot of attendees like it because of hangin' w/their buddies once a year. This isn't a bad thing, but doesn't do much to attract newcomers in a large sense.


As the organization evolves w/Winslow at the helm, I'm sure they will start to figure out how to grow it beyond it's Buckeye type "clique hang" (even though this is only a part of it) into a world class event that will bring in more members from everywhere.


One approach I'm fond of is to not continue to mirror the same ol' same ol' harmonica gathering stuff and venture into out of the box imagination....since I'm a fan of nothing is impossible, (having proven it works in the good ol' days), reaching out to Dan Akroyd or even Bruce Willis would be a lot of fun and could boost the visibility of the gathering.


I remember how it was stated "You'll never get Kim Wilson to the convention" or "Toots is out of reach for a convention". Well, it could be done and was.


Just before I left SPAH, I was working on reaching out to Stevie Wonder....to bypass all of his "handlers", I was going to compose a letter in Braille and have it delivered to his organization...most likely it would have ended up in Stevie's hands. This is out of the box thinking.


Go for it, Winslow!



-----Original Message-----
From: Aongus MacCana <amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx>


This is only of academic interest to me really, as I am too old and too far
away to ever make it to SPAH.

However what the heck Joe? Must you keep tabs on all the harmonica players
who are getting old, "past it" and even actually "popping the clogs"?

I am 76 already and can't even bend - much less play the harmonica to my own
satisfaction. I don't need to be reminded that I am near the front of the
queue in the "Departure Lounge".

I have just taken delivery of the Michael Peloquin DVD set and hope that I
won't find the suggested techniques beyond me (senile dementia and all
that!)

Having said all that, your down to earth (and sometimes caustic)
contributions usually cheer me up.

Beannachtai

Aongus Mac Cana