THE SERIOUS STICKS DIDJERIDU FORUM

Where has the US didj scene gone these days? I did check out the didgeridootribe forum the other day for the first time in a looooong while. There are 33 subscribers on the forum?! Very, very low traffic on the Mills list too. What happened? Did I miss the latest en vogue didj hang-out spot on the internet for the US scene? Has the entire US scene dwindled away completely?

Let's hear it from our US fellows.

I wouldn't say the didj scene has dwindled, but the web scene sure has. Both tribe.net and didgeridoo tribes used to be pretty active, but tribe.net became quite unreliable a couple years ago. Folks gravitated to didgeridoo tribe for a while, but that had even more problems, often going down for weeks at a time, then coming back missing all the files with a new layout and changed URL. It's back up now but there seems to be very little enthusiasm or trust going for it.

I have been traveling like crazy for my new job with Trek bikes. Have not had much time for posting or crafting these days. Our music jams are still drawing plenty of old and new Didj players. Will be interesting to see how the festival scene changes this year with the loss of the JT fest. We are planning on attending Chad's and Chuck's events this summer. Hopefully they will both see an increase in attendance.

After having written what feels like several books worth of information on the US forum only to have it all vanish, I must say I am hesitant to commit the same level of energy to my participation there. I still check in to this fine forum, Ididj, and the didgeridootribe regularly. More of a lurker these days though!

Hi Chris and everyone! Well, the didgeridootribe.com website is active, but was re-done a few times after crashes. I think every time something like that goes down with all the valuable posts that everyone contributed to, it's a bit rough to get started again. To be honest, anything of interest on an online forum can at any time go "poof". Even with backups, etc. Best to copy and paste the "best of" stuff to an offline document for future (or offline) reading.

And hey Jeff... I do have several large posts of yours I kept like this! Hit me up if you want me to send it!!!

2009 was the last year (AFAIK) for the JT Didgefest. But there is still:
InDidjInUs (Chad Butler): http://bhumsiva.com/indidjinus-gathering
Tree Man Gathering (Chuck Wilson/CCat): http://www.treemangathering.com/
Rocky Mountain Didj Festival (Oregon)

Perhaps a "Serious Sticks US Tour" would be a decent idea for the festival season this summer!!!

Allan

Defiantly slow on the boards- after the initial crash and then a failed relaunch with software that just wasn't working out it was restarted again. A lot of folks have not come back. Lots of activity here in San Diego, Ca.- we just hosted a concert/workshop/jam/potluck for Ondrej and William Thoren. Trying to set up another concert, etc. in late spring with Dubravko if we can put it together.

I thought the mills lists went years ago!

How many didjes are people in the US buying right now? I would assume that sales are probably a more accurate indicator of the status of the didj community over there.

I think that something else which has happened is that Facebook has become a social networking site that serves to connect us in many of the ways that our online didge forums had in the past. Now instead of sharing didge related info we learn what each other had for dinner, and after dinner, and about their trip to the dentist....yawn. Apprentice asks how many didges are being sold? My sales have been steadily increasing. Hits to my website are double what they were on a daily average last year. I haven't done anything to increase it, in fact I ignored to update it for something like 5 months because I never had anything to post, they would get sold previous to posting. That lack of attention to my site seems like it should have sunk it, but often when I update, sales will happen within the first hour. The scene is growing and dissipating. In the early days of every new culture it is easy to see the center and fully embrace the potency it contains, but as it is shared it becomes more difficult to focus on what is really happening. The festivals will continue to grow and become a serious focus of the community aspect. This year there will be the Tree Man Gathering in Ithica New York July 16-18, In-Didj-In-Us gathering in Oregon August 6-8, and Brad Evans is putting something together in Arizona the weekend of August 20-22 (I think). The Rocky Mountain didge festival has no site or organizer this year, but this summer Ondrej Smeykal will be in the U.S. from middle of June until middle of September, and will be traveling extensively. I think Jeremy Donovan will be joining Ondrej and I for a few weeks of shows in August. At that same time Gauthier will be here from France and Stephen Kent will be on tour as well. Lewis Burns just contacted me also wanting to come over and be active, so there will be a plethora of activity. It's too difficult to put on several shows showcasing all of these performers all in one place at one time, but we will be doing that at the festivals, and at a show in L.A., and maybe a few more. The time for scheduling and organizing is now so if anyone would hope to host a show please contact me (chadbutler@bhumsiva.com) and we'll see what we can do. Even house concerts work out great for filling in days on tours like these.

Hi Chad

Nice to hear from you again! Must be a few years now...

Good to see that some of the many performers from Europe are slowly making it out to the US as well. Which reminds me, do you still plan to come over some time?

As far as mailing lists and forums are concerned, I can't help having the feeling that almost every topic concerning the didgeridoo has been discussed so many times from so many angles and it's all out there on the web somewhere - and trivialities can be exchanged in countless ways these days for anyone who just wants to socialise. For some reason our forum has a reputation for being serious and only for traddies, so it's been pretty quiet recently here too.

John - agreed!

The internet has reached saturation point for information. What with Randin's site and the high availability of decent sticks and stick sellers - the people who want to learn are learning IRL, and those people that didn't want to learn badly enough, have quit and gone home! It's so easy to get good information now that those that don't practice might as well quit.....

IMHO!