OK, you probably have several questions, as do I…

Why me?    Why a blog?    Why now?

Believe me, ego and notoriety aside, I have no pretensions that anyone out there gives a whit about my personal life or musings on such (even my mom tends to fall asleep halfway through my emails).  Seriously, aren’t Blogs pretentious by definition?!

And the last thing I need is another task…I’m beyond behind and overloaded (trust me).

But watching my wife Jaci do it (well, she actually ghostwrites for Auggie), it hit me that the blog medium and discipline might be just what I need as a way to keep not only Harpguitars.net readers current, but myself more organized.  OK, not organized, but at least perhaps a means to keep too many things from slipping through the cracks.

Example: I still have a couple hundred Excel lines of entries to add to the site, and they just keep growing.  These may be a simple photo, a short listing, a new instrument, player or luthier, or they may entail a bit more research and write-up, or even a full article.   You’ll notice I haven’t even gotten around to updating the Knutsen Archives in a couple years, and there’s lots of new info and specimens piled up in my files.

Most of these new finds are worth archiving, and some are pretty important.  Then there are all the things that never make it onto the site, as there’s no logical place for them – yet they’re still interesting.  I (along with many of you) have been posting various finds and news on the relevant Forum threads – as we should continue to do – but there’s so much happening in the harp guitar world, and always coming across my desk, that I think this will be simpler for me, while being more interesting for you.

So, rather than keep piling up the information and finds and news (much of which I will eventually have to incorporate into the site, regardless), I’m going to try and highlight them literally as they happen.  I think this will better ensure that I don’t lose track of the zillion tidbits that enter my harp guitar orbit…when needed, I can just go back through my own blog archives for reference!  As I’ll also be formatting and writing things up in some minimal, presentable way for the blog, this small-amount-each-day may be easier to handle than the insurmountable harp guitar data mountain that continues to grow.

But I’m rather hoping that it will also be more fun for you, the reader.  It’s always enjoyable stumbling across new finds out there, and when emails come in out of the blue from all manner of strangers, with all manner of surprise discoveries, I’m like a kid in a candy store – often on a daily basis.  If you’re into harp guitars and their history (and present and future), I think you’ll get the same kick that I do out of the “real-time” news and discoveries.  I have a busy and stressful but ridiculously fun and blessed life as “the harp guitar pope” – if I can give you some vicarious sense of that, I’d be honored.

SO – we’re off.  I’ll prepare a few entries from the last week’s events to get the lay of Blogland, and then soon start on daily up-to-the-minute entries.  It might be something new in my Inbox, something new one of you alerts me to, something I worked on that evening (perhaps a new tune, or CD project, or research or something ), or saw while out and about (harp-guitar related, at least in some way).  Feel free to send in your own news and finds as well.  When I have nothing specific for the day, I’ll fill in with the backlog – I’ll work backwards on that to continue to chip away at it, while working forwards on the “real time” stuff.

Sound like a plan?

Just kill me now.

Your host,

Gregg Miner