Coping without IBMA

There is no describing the joy one gets walking the town of Raleigh, NC alongside all of your bluegrass heroes. It's the most awesome feeling in the world to connect with old friends for your annual jam session. Essentially, it's Disneyland for the bluegrasser. It's what the NQC is to Southern Gospel groups.

....so I'm told.

I have yet to make it to IBMA's World of Bluegrass. Every year, I tune in to the awards show, and I stay glued to social media to watch all of the awesomeness that happens on the other side of the country.

Rest assured if you share these feelings with me that you are not alone.  Even though it seems like everybody and their brother's gerbil goes to IBMA and leaves you at home to do normal life stuff, there is a world of bluegrassers out there who are also missing the fun and frolic. 

So here's the plan: I hereby declare a festival of IBMA proportions for those who cannot attend. We shall call it...

...IBMStay which stands for International Bluegrass Music Staycation. Half the fun, twice the loneliness, for FREE! Let me tell you how it works.

Gather all of your favorite bluegrass records and play them back to back to back. When that is finished, post videos online of yourself picking your favorite tracks from these albums with the hashtag #IBMStay. If you find someone else in your friend's list chose the same song/key as you did, tag them in every single video you post until IBMStay is over. If you happen to come up with really awesome licks or figure out instrumental solos note for note, post a video online of you doing a Workshop and tag every single person you know who plays the same instrument as you. The most crucial part about making this festival work is that you MUST be alone and never make contact with anybody face-to-face.

Otherwise, you might as well had gone to Raleigh. 

Foot size: 11; Mouth: ditto;

Social media! Ah, how I love it!  A truly marvelous place where people come together and bicker about everything under the sun.  What a perfectly fascinating way to spend the time!

Don't get me wrong, there are other uses to social media besides arguing whose cat is more "adorbs" than so-and-so's, or whether Klingon is more similar to Vulcan or to Ewok, or if a fourth Jurassic Park movie is going to have the same plot line as the rest (you know, dinosaurs come to life, eat a bunch of people, people escape).  If you asked me to name one other use for social media, however, I may blank for a moment....

I am sorry to admit, but I have posted remarks on social media that I later regretted. I hastily put my (what I call) "first glance opinion" under the picture of a stupid cat doing something stupid, and it accidentally went public and then there is an outcry directed at me.  Oops.

Now comes the apology.  Something a little bit like the dreaded foot-in-mouth disease strikes me cold.  Well actually, its exactly like it.  One giant, size 11 foot coming right up. Open wide!!

I hope you won't misunderstand me: I'm not telling you to stop standing up for what you believe in.  Take a stand! Stand firm!  I'm only suggesting that you might want to think before you post.  Consider saying "I don't agree because: x,y,z" Instead of "What wagon load of dumbbells did YOU fall off of, scatter brain?!?"
See the difference?

The moral of this blog post is whenever you find yourself utilizing the social medias for what they are used best for, always remember to think before you act like a blithering, inconsiderate, stupid moron!

I'll probably regret publishing this blog post later...good thing I have a mouth to match my foot.