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"It sort of
takes the edge off a humdrum day. My internal pursuit is in music and words.
"As
a writer, I am a prolific polymath. I have never drawn much distinction between
my various writing interests, though legion are those who have suggested I
should. (We often encourage others to limit themselves.) The arc of my creative
life has been that I started writing in grade school, first with short stories and fictional narratives,
then as a songwriter after becoming a musician, then as a journalist, a
novelist, a critic, a writer of non-fiction, a playwright. There have been
crossovers from avocation to vocation, but more often than not I have found that
the re-gearing required to turn inspiration into filthy lucre just hasn’t been
worth it. One finds oneself making compromises, trying to squeeze into molds to
fit current styles, regurgitating the ideas of others. The people I admire –
Faulkner, Poe, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Dylan Thomas, Thomas Wolfe, Thomas Pynchon,
Sam Shepherd, Robert Altman, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and others – didn’t do
that, and they created works of lasting value. Besides, the world has changed.
As markets have become more segmented and niche-oriented big returns on
compromise just aren’t there – so let’s not do it! Rather, let us look
within, find and trust in ourselves."
As
the site has evolved, that spirit of independence has become its
organizing concept, most typified by "The Links at RARWRITER," the
part of the site that has become popular for its artists profiles.
This
site has always been about the individual pursuit of artistry that has a
capacity to effect positive change in the world. All of the artists profiled on
The Links are emissaries to this higher calling.
The
creative people profiled on this site have grown from a community of friends and
associates, with a shared history, to become a confederation of like minded
spirits from all over the planet who are trying to give voice to this brave new
technological world we have made for ourselves - the world of the Internet,
which at least for now re-levels the creative playing field and gives talented
people of every stripe an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution for the
betterment of us all. This is the purpose of The Links.
VISIT
RAR'S PERSONAL PAGES FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON YOUR HOST
Amid
all of this altruism you may still find information on your humble host. While
the site has been reorganized the original pages are still here. Click on the
links below for the information provided.
BIO
A
brief biography of RAR's early years is provided.
MUSIC
On
this page are demo versions of original music compositions. They are
provided in their complete versions and while they are subject to all
appropriate copyright protections you are welcome to download them for your own
enjoyment and share them with others. The vocals, guitar performances,
arrangements, production, engineering, and notations for midi instrumentation
are my own. This page is updated regularly to feature new material, or new
recordings of old original material.
LITERATURE
This
page provides an overview of the long and short fiction, screenplays, and
non-fiction that I have written, and provides links to excerpts for some works.
Again, all material on this site is copyrighted and cannot be
reproduced without my written consent.
VERSE
This
page offers stuff that rhymes -- original poetry and lyrics. The material is copyrighted.
ESSAY
I
have never been short on opinions and this page is dedicated to ruminations and
viewpoints on politics, social issues, life, and popular culture.
PROJECTS
I
am always working on publishing projects of one kind or another, and on this
page is information on what is currently in the works.
LINKS
What
started out to be a standard listing of Links to the websites of friends and
associates has become a "virtual" magazine. Over 140 artists from
across the nation are profiled on separate pages dedicated to the Los
Angeles, San Francisco,
Nashville, Austin, Colorado, Louisiana and "at large" creative
communities. There are special features, great photographs and many of the
"linked" offer MP3s of their work for on line streaming. All the
people presented share personal experiences in their creative communities, which
include music, literature and fine art. It is "Six Degrees of Kevin
Bacon" played audio-visually. The Links at RARWRITER re-defines the
standard links page and takes it to a whole other level.
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 Year
Two Report______________________
Interesting RARWRITER
Stats (April 15, 2008)
As
we come upon the end of two years with RARWRITER.com, it seems like an
appropriate time to offer a State of the Site report.
OVERVIEW:
RARWRITER.com has exhibited steady growth since its inception in May 2006,
particularly on the eastern coast of the U.S. and internationally. The
redesign of the site that created the Artist News homepage has been
extremely successful; it is the page on the site that commands the highest
per reader "loyalty" level. Certain of the Artist Features show
strong continued support. There is an obvious connection between the
frequency of updates to a page and RARWRITER.com's capacity to attract
readers to that page. For this reason, the site's long term success
depends upon the publisher's ability to maintain site content in a manner
that is timely and current, and to expand the enterprise through the
addition of artist profiles and features, as well as new pages focusing on
other important cultural centers (markets). It is also important to the
continued growth of the site that innovations are introduced to emphasize
the vitality of the enterprise. It is important that RARWRITER.com attract
contributors who can help develop the site, and whose involvement will
help further establish the site's street credibility. RARWRITER.com would
be helped by developing a reputation for spotting and providing early
reporting on cultural trends. This will be particularly useful as the site
expands into commercial promotional, publishing and advertising markets.
*
* * * *
Below are selected stats from RARWRITER.com
traffic reports over the past 3 months.
MOST
REQUESTED PAGE: The Colorado Links continue to
represent a core group, second only to the large west coast markets in
L.A. and San Francisco.
MOST
REQUESTED FEATURE: The Johnny Vernazza feature is
the most requested feature over the past 3 months, which is impressive
because that feature first ran in June, 2007. The feature on Tamra
Spivey, which first ran in February, 2008, is the second most
requested feature over the past 3 months. The feature on Gretchen
Peters, which first ran in May, 2007, continues to draw the third most
feature page requests.
PAGES
WITH MOMENTUM:
The recently premiered Minnesota Links are the fastest growing page
on RARWRITER.com over the past 3 months, followed by the Austin Links.
The international readership is growing, with particular strength in
Australia, Canada, Sweden and the U.K.
MOST
COMMON ENTRY PAGE:
Here is a factoid that speaks to the power of the search engines,
particularly Google (the search engine champ where RARWRITER is
concerned). Most RARWRITER
readers enter the site through some page other than the home page, i.e.,
the Artist News page. Apparently people are "Googling" names,
find a RARWRITER.com reference, and find the site that way. We also get a
tremendous number of referrals from MySpace pages.
MOST
INTENSE READS: Readers spend more time on the Artist News
page than on any other, on average more than 6 minutes per request. The
recent Angie Mattson feature commands the second longest reader
attention span, and the Minnesota Links the third longest per
reader over the past 3 months. Interesting to RAR is that the feature on Richard
Dean, which was written by Sam Broussard, is the fourth most
"intensely" read page on the site based on average time on that
page per request. The Dean feature has been running since May 2007.
REFERRING
DOMAINS: What is MUNAX? The company website (www.munax.com)
says it is "the next generation of Search," and they may be on
to something. Since debuting in 2007, they have established a position in
the search engine field. More than 10% of the visitors to RARWRITER.com
come through MUNAX. On the other hand, we get an incredible number of
referrals from The Jonas Brothers website, too, so go figure. Possibly
more curious, but extraordinarily encouraging, is that we get the third
largest number of referrals from image.soso.com. Check out that site, it's
in Japanese.
CITIES:
Reading the "city" stats can be a little confusing as they tend
to indicate where server farms, rather than readers, are located.
RARWRITER's Top 10 Cities: 1)
Sunnyvale, CA, 2) New York City, NY, 3)
Mountain View, CA, 4) Miami, FL, 5)
Minneapolis, MN, 6) Reston, VA, 7)
London, England, 8)
Houston, TX, 9) Denver, CO, 10),
Stockholm, Sweden. In and out of the Top 10, depending upon the month, are
Los Angeles, CA; Montreal, CA; Paris, France; and San Francisco, CA. Of
course, the San Francisco Bay Area traffic references also to Sunnyvale
and Mountain View. RAR NOTE: I am always a little nervous
about the amount of traffic coming to RARWRITER.com from Reston and
Herndon, Virginia. You suppose the CIA is watching?
REGIONS:
The RARWRITER Top 10 Region list by number of readers: 1)
California, 2) New York, 3)
Texas, 4) Florida, 5)
Colorado, 6) Virginia,
7) Minnesota, 8) England,
9) Ontario, Canada, 10) New
Jersey.
COUNTRIES:
The RARWRITER Top 10 Country list by number of readers: 1)
United States, 2) Canada, 3)
United Kingdom, 4) Sweden, 5)
Germany, 6) France,
7) Brazil, 8) China,
9) Australia, 10)
Netherlands.
MOST
POPULAR DAY:
This is fairly flat, but Sunday and Tuesdays see the most traffic.
MOST
POPULAR HOUR:
1 p.m. Apparently RARWRITER readers have lunch and then surf...the
web. Probably not surprising is that most RARWRITER readers check the site
between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., but the "weird hours" from 9 p.m. to
5 a.m. show remarkably strong and consistent readership through the night,
which probably reflects the lifestyles of our readers, i.e., musicians who
stay up all hours.
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