State of the Website

[DRR]

What a very nice tribute!

[DRR]

Thanks for all the hard work. I've really enjoyed this site and continue to share with my old friends from Cleveland.

[Raspberrybelle]

Ever since I started attending my voice class I wanted to sing some of Eric's songs in class but couldn't find any accompaniment to his songs.

Does anyone know of any Carmen music to accompany a singer?

I will sing without help if necessary.

It would be great to share some of his less known beautiful songs with my classmates. I'm sure everyone knows and loves ABM.

I can't help but hope some of the others might be acquainted with his music but don't know about this site.

Perhaps sone new folks will be inspired to come online here and share thier insights.

Belle

[Aventurine]

Wow! Bell!!!

Are you are voice teacher?

That's so great!!!!

I didn't know 

[MAM]

And a wonderful site this has always been. Yeah, I used to post a lot more often back in the day, but my life got incredibily busy and hasn't stopped since. I might get a chance to stop by once a month if I'm lucky. But that doesn't mean I've stopped spreading the gospel of Eric/Berries music as often as I can. I speak about him/them consistantly on line on my FB page, in my studio, on stage with my band (we do two of his songs), on the Rickenbacker, Power Pop and Vox FB pages, on the Groovy Reflections FB page. I also host an all night show on an AMFM oldies station in Erie and all of my show openings have either Beatles/Berries or Eric music as the music bed. Our station plays GATW, IWBWY, Let's Pretend, and we have, but yet to play,Overnight Sensation. Forever a fan since the VERY beginning and always will be ... Little old me. Thanks for the GREAT website Bernie, and Eric ... Well, you already know how I feel about your music since Hulabaloo in Erie, Pa. Rock on Mr. Carmen, rock on.

[LobsterLvr]

Yesterday I had of rush of Raspberries Pride.

I've been doing some freelance copywriting at a local ad agency. When I connected with the agency's intranet I was able to tap into other people's iTunes. One of those folks had almost as many Raspberries and Eric Carmen songs on his playlist as I did!! (He also had Badfinger, Guster, and every other equally talented and similar band on there too.) I mentioned my connection to the Eric, the band, and this site to him. So don't be surprised if you get a new EC.com member from the Great Garden State this week.

Dave

[Raspbernie]

Dave,

Good to hear you're still pushing your pencil to make advertising magic!

Bernie

[LobsterLvr]

I'm 'pushing the pencil'...but it's definitely not 'magic'!!! But it's good to be working!!! Thanks, Bernie. Dave

[Lew Bundles]

Bump...

[Raspyrock]

Yes, more music creation is good thing.

[James]

"Debate-gasms" ....(see Wendy's post)

....!!!!

[James]

A lot of the bs that was going on 2, 3, 4 months ago seems to have disipated.  That.s a good thing.  I was going to exit (I mentioned it) but I saw that Lew, Aventurine, Wendy, Eric etc were back posting, I figured I.d pitch in and do my part (pissing people off)..   to help liven it up here.  But it hasn´t come to life.  I feel I am talking to the wind pretty much when I post.  That's ok, but not sustainable ...for me at least.

This is really a better forum than facebook in many ways....I had a good time on facebook for a couple years but in the end I deleted my account as the negatives caught up with the positives.  But though facebook has a lot to offer, I'm surprised that it seems to have sucked the life out of this site.  I don't completely understand that.  I think there is something about this site that makes it a lot more fun and fullfilling than facebook.

Like I said in the post from last year, I think the site needs to promote a real community that talks about a variety of things in order to flourish.  I was only active on one other website (Status Quo) and it's message board was one that did flourish.  Status is a band that regularly puts out new music and regularly tours, but even given their flurry of activity their website flourished not from Status Quo talk, but from topics outside of Status Quo.  I think the same dynamic applies here.   There is only so much we can talk about a finite amount of music from our favorite artist.  In order for this place to flourish we need to get into other stuff, other music, politics, religion etc.  When we were into that stuff this place was hopping.  And when this place hopped, more Eric Carmen music discussion took place too.  It was win-win-win.

Having said that, I think the site could flourish from music discussions only, if the music discussions were not limited to talk about one artist.  This is clear as several years ago there were many really knowledgable people posting on a variety of music subjects and these music discussions were hopping.  But the site was at its best when ALL subjects were in play, not just music.

It's kinda like my friends and me in high school.  We all loved the Eagles.  We talked Eagles music a lot. But if the only thing we could do was talk Eagles music when we'd get together, we would cease hanging out as there is only so much time a gang can spend discussing Eagles music.  Same goes here, IMHO.

The Ec.com members  were a great subset of society overall...smart, respectful, fun people with strong opinions.  Who better to discuss/debate a variety of subjects with?...especially the serious issues of the day?  I learned a ton reading others´ posts here on religion, politics, history, weight loss endeavors etc etc etc.  Those days were great.  And it was fun!

Again, there is only so many times I (we) can say (I) we love "All By Myself".  Discussing "All By Myself" is important here, it's everything...but not enough to sustain an active community that keeps the message board hopping.

Though maybe a hopping message board isn't as important a goal here as I am thinking, and that's ok too of course if that is the case. 

But if we want an active hopping message board, we need to open up the field a bit.

IMHO,

James

[AnneNR]

I really knew not much more than a recognition of Mr. Carmen as a solo artist before the Mike Doulglas Show video back in March of this year, so, THANK YOU BIG TIME BERNIE for such a wonderful source of information about the Raspberries and Mr. Carmen!!!!   And KButch, just finished watching your presentation --- what a GEM!!!   Thanks for sharing your positive enthusiasm for the Raspberries and Eric Carmen with the younger generations . . . and those of us here on EC.com.

 

AnneNR 

[stacymom2]

I would've enjoyed being part of many different topics, mostly by "liking" them. I may have even jumped in from time to time. I'm just not much into "debate-gasms" as Wendy and others may be, but I've been known not to be shy. Religion though, I would've stepped away from.

[Kirk]

I don't know, James...I come here for anything related to Raspberries and Eric.  For me, this is mostly an oasis from everyday stuff.  I come here to get away from politics, religion, and everyday b.s.  Oh sure, it was interesting and stimulating when Eric was involved in these topics, but otherwise, it's predominately about the music for me.  I hope you'll keep posting, though- your voice needs to be heard!    

[James]

That's the great thing about an internet message board.  If someone doesn't like certain subjects, they don't have to look at the threads or the section where those threads are located  If I only want to read/post on Eric Carmen/Raspberries threads, I can choose to go only to those sections of the website.  If someone comes here to get away from politics, religion etc,, they can ignore Cartoon World.  It's great.  I didn't understand back in the day when some members here seemed to want to put a wet blanket over those who posted on subjects non-Eric Carmen related.  That baffled me.

Having said that, I do understand that the site represents Eric Carmen and so what is going on on the message board does affect the character of the website and how it portrays Eric Carmen to the world.  But  to me, the discussions outside of music actually were a credit to the character of the website.

Again, maybe a hopping message board is not the goal here.  I would understand that.  But the board will never hop if the discussions are not over a wider range of stuff. 

IM (very) HO, of course,

[Lew Bundles]

“the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same”...

[LC]

You know it, Lew.

[Michelle]

Kevin, loved your Raspberries tutorial.  Very well done and clever. 

[KButch]

Thank you, Michelle.

At the time I created that Prezi and wrote the post that goes with it,  I hadn't posted anything online (of a non-professional nature, anyway) in about fifteen years. This is the first thing I've posted in the eight years since.

Since Michelle's kind words have bumped this thread close to the top of the Activity list, though, I've decided to pop back in for three reasons. First, I want to thank Bernie for starting this Message Board up again. I'm convinced that without Bernie and Ken Sharp, there would have been no Raspberries reunion. If there had been no Raspberries reunion, I wouldn't have had one of the greatest nights of my life.  

Second, I want to thank those of you who DO continue to post. If it weren't for you, even our man Bernie couldn't keep this going. I've been to this site thousands of times as a reader, but hardly ever as a contributor. I feel pretty guilty that I've enjoyed the benefits of the site without ever adding anything to it beyond my status as a supporter. Even so, the benefit of never posting is that I never have to regret anything I've written. (I hope that's still true after this!)

I have, however, come to regret something I did NOT say eight years ago. I don't know if any or all of these former posters are still around, but I'd like to apologize to Wendy-Ann, okstevens, LatetotheParty, marlene, plain jane, DRR, and Anne NR for their interest in the Prezi. (Please forgive me if I've missed anyone.) I was putting in some pretty long days at the time and I kept wanting to respond to their comments, but by the time I finally found time for it, the moment felt lost. Reading through the thread tonight, though, my silence at the time feels downright rude. I'm truly sorry about that. Short version of what I would have said: The kids loved it. At that time I taught in a big school that had six fifth-grade classrooms. The other teachers all used the Raspberries Prezi as an example of how it worked. The kids got a huge kick out of it, and as you can imagine, knowing who the Raspberries were became an even a bigger deal for them after "Guardians of the Galaxy" came out the next year! That was pretty cool.

So thanks again, Michelle (and LC!), for creating the opportunity for me to finally atone for that. Have a great night, everybody!

Kevin

(By the way, by pure coincidence, I checked out that Prezi a week or so ago just to see if it was still around. I never made another one, and I just assumed it would have gone away by now. I was happy to see it was still there and that it had been viewed something like 378 times over the years. Apparently, though, by messing around in there, I must have somehow reset the counter. I believe it's now back up to 5 hits. Oh, well. )

 

[LC]

Glad you found your way back. You have a lot of posting to catch up on! 

[Captain Harlock]

Glad to see the website is still going. Lots of good friends I've made here over the years.