Hello everyone,
I wanted to let you know we will be shutting down cvilleMUSE in a week or two. It was a hard decision to make, but we think the arts and music community will be better served by making it a subset of cVillain.
Shaun came to us in March 2008 and had a vision for covering local music. We wanted to make MUSE into something bigger than just music and worked with Shaun and many other writers including NewMan, Pinky, Esther, Cortney, Allie, Colton and Nick to cover as many types of local art forms that we could.
Why did we decide to shut down cvilleMUSE? Several reasons, actually. We didn’t ever reach enough website traffic to make cvilleMUSE a viable standalone media source for local arts. I am not sure if this was due to lack of promotion, a small arts community or too many other sources of information. Secondly, with the changing face of media, we decided that Shaun should focus his efforts into creating his own, personal brand. Shaun is decidedly the go-to music expert in town and his passion and devotion to bringing music journalism to the Charlottesville community is something that I know will continue. Shaun will be starting his own independent project which we will support as much as we can. Thirdly, we don’t think that the site could thrive without someone as committed as Shaun.
We’ll be doing some reorganization with cVillain so that we can bring the arts to a larger audience. If you have any suggestions or questions, please let me know in the comments.
Again, thanks so much for everyone involved in cvilleMUSE. It was an awesome experience and your love for arts and music really shined. There are a lot of people behind the scenes-the readers, the technical support folks, the dude who ran the calendar, the commenters-who also deserve a lot of thanks for contributing. Thanks again everyone and I hope you look forward to continued arts and music coverage on cVillain.
Related posts:
Tagged as: cvillemuse
I have a Boys-to-Men song in my head now. Bye bye Muse. Hopefully we can integrate art and music and theater coverage into cVillain.
Good move. How many blogs can you visit in a day, and the people interested in these two blogs largely overlap.
We could have our very own special OD section where he goes on about obscure music and HM art controversies.
To be honest couldn’t a lot of what they did be used here for weekend previews and what to do this week?
eh? tragic loss. i doubt much of local art can stand up to Cvillain snark. we’ve already seen how humorless local artists tend to be, e.g. Matt Rosenberg and his loudmouthed self-entitled legalitarian coterie. Alas Muse posts will probably vanish here unless they happen to turn into long chains of unrelated snatch-blather and tuff-gurl badinage.
/sweater-pop rules and my how insignificant poor HM seems to have become.
OD, this is all because you were screaming from the living room.
aw. hell. i’m so sorry. kids always blame themselves, and should.
Odd that Muse should fall and Style remain.
Does this mean Charlottesville is shallow and lacks real substance?
@7 Is that rhetorical?
/wink wink
were Piedmont Council for the Arts capable of performing any useful function,
or had any vision, they would offer to assume and run Muse.
@9 – PCA has a vision to be THE arts information resource for central virginia and I think this makes more sense than us trying to do it. They have more resources, the ability to raise money through grants and other non-profit means and have a much longer history in the community. I just attended a round-table run by Maggie and Kate and there is a strong community who support this vision. I was waiting for Sean Tubbs to put up the podcast so everyone could listen to that meeting.
I am indeed humorless and soulless but Shaun put a lot of work and good articles into CvilleMuse. I will miss his entries there but will continue to read them wherever he chooses to post. If you’ve lived here for any length of time you’d know that the arts community here is very self important. I don’t particularly understand why Muse ceased to be – I don’t know if it had any overhead. I never wrote that much but I loved the articles that others did. Nailgunmedia does show announcements and stuff but CvilleMuse had more content and usually announced stuff with more advance notice than Nailgun. I still miss Cripsy Duck.
/out
@10
I’d love to see PCA take it over, or make a similar one of their own.
In spite of my low opinion of that organization in the past for its inactivity,
i have heard GREAT things about the new director and staff and this
would be an excellent way to wow us with their new vision in action.
So wait…. was Muse shut down because of pressure from PCA? If this is true, it’s sort of depressing. I’ll support the PCA’s music blog (or whatever they choose to imitate Muse with) if they write articles about the rock scene, Dust, Tea Bazaar, The Bridge, The Box, and small gallery art shows and dont just focus on the Coran empire and which big bands are coming to the Jefferson/Pavilion. We see so much shit written up in the Hook and C-ville. It is cool to read about things you wouldn’t know is going on.
@13 – No, not at all. I just think they are better suited to cover just the arts.
@13: No no no…Muse is shutting down because there’s not enough traffic
@9, @10
heck, Kyle. i didn’t mean to let the cat out of the bag—i didn’t realize there was a cat OR a bag.
a wise choice– PCA is the right organization if they can live up to what the new management of it seems to promise. Isn’t Kate D. of The Garage involved with it now? That bodes very well.
I guess I should actually chime in here. While traffic at cvilleMUSE in no way reached the levels achieved at cvillain I believe we were reaching and sustaining a consistent core audience. It was entirely my decision to step away from cvilleMUSE and to that end, Kyle was extremely supportive of my decision. And as Kyle mentioned above it takes a lot of commitment to keep something like MUSE going and I felt it was time to move on. It also seems to be an issue of dollars and cents. Finding someone who was as equally committed to the business side as I was to providing content was a constant struggle, meaning it was not always easy to find the right person to handle the ad sales, etc. Kyle has his own business to run and I had to look forward beyond MUSE to some next step, whatever that my be. Neither one of us had the time or energy to juggle two businesses on his part and content and business on my end.
I just wanted to add that I appreciate the chance that Kyle and the rest of the SpicyBear team took on letting me take on cvilleMUSE in the first place. I was definitely a somewhat unknown at the time and they just let me do my thing as I wanted to do it. For that I am grateful. As for people to thank, I’d miss someone if I tried to list them all, but a big thank you goes out to all the writers, contributors, readers, and active participants who made MUSE a sweet little community spot. I’m grateful to you all. I’ll still be around and I’ll be trying to figure out what’s next. Hopefully whatever comes next sees me building on the relationships I’ve already established and serving the music community in whatever way I can best serve. In the meantime you guys can find me here: http://www.thisvelvetlinedrut.blogspot.com
Over and out.
where will all the Cville Muse online content (and comments) go? will it still be out on the Web, or does disssolving the Muse Portal eliminate all the archives? Any way PCA could keep this stuff on their server, so that we don’t lose a year of Shaun’s excellent articles, other ones and comments, tracking the arts-scene?
Sad to hear that Cville Muse is coming to a close. Shaun, kudos to a job well done for close to a year. It’s been a great experience seeing your genius on the site, and although some of us have come and gone, we still are tuned in to what’s going on.
Another reason behind most of the difficulty in “finding someone who’s equally committed to the business side,” I can almost guarantee that the economy in Charlottesville has something to do with. Many businesses aren’t doing so good and as much as they would love to support MUSe and cVillain as well, they are trying to keep their dollars and cents to maintain open doors. Hopefully in the new endeavor, a breeze of success will blow your way.
Good luck Shaun, and look forward to staying in touch.
hi five!
@20. Hi five Orchid. What’s up. Long time huh?
wow…very sad! I LOVED cvillemuse and will forever miss the great commentary, snippits of music, introduction of bands …and mostly Shaun. Good luck to you as you make your next move.
Best wishes Shaun. You did a great job and it was always fun getting introduced to new music.
I never posted on Muse, but that’s because Shaun paid me $100 a week to stay away.
I reiterate the recommendation that PCA be the go-to spot for event listings. For those that don’t know, Maggie G has done an excellent job of bringing PCA out of the dark ages. Check out the site at http://www.charlottesvillearts.org.
For those of you craving an ongoing discussion of the visual arts, take a look at http://www.artPark.typepad.com. I don’t necessarily cover only Cville exhibits and artists (although there is plenty of that). Instead, I discuss relevant visual arts subjects in general and give exposure to artists from around the nation. Chime in. Share your thoughts.
I resurrected my little music blog too, and transferred over a bunch of stuff I wrote for CvilleMuse over the last year. I will also pay Floozy $100 to stay away. The check is in the mail Flooz, just don’t cash it till Monday. Thanks!
http://www.squid-tank.com
i think there is great value in PCA keeping the Cvillain-Muse format. If it’s just a list of events or a few lines from one in-house writer, one or two staffers, then it will be useless. the staff will be vested only in promoting the art-function, that’s PCA’s job (though I’m certainly aware of many organizations-individuals they routinely FAIL to support in any way, despite pleas). They will not be unbiased, can’t afford to be.
this town has always suffered tremendously the near-total lack of competent and disinterested reviewers of materials, willing to be caustic and stick their necks out, and snark does more to refine sensibilities than a print-media reviewer scratching the back of the reviewed for free tickets and favors.
assuming PCA does take over and stick to a comment-based format, any chance they could get a link here, the way Muse has always had one?
Steve Barling of Cville Review was one of the best, most daring critics we’ve had—one of the only ones willing to get popped in the mazzer for saying a band sucked. and saying it in exotic and amusing ways, straying far from NYT or New Yorker bullshit. Gonzo is the right tone, snark is the right tone. The print-media will do polite reviews for the blue-hairs who make up 99% of Live Arts and Paramount patronage, etc.
@28 I agree… though comparing shit here to NYT or New Yorker is one of the fundamental flaws and biggest frustrations I have with Charlottesville. Why can’t we be proud of what we have and exist in our own quirky way without constantly trying to be New York? This town has changed a lot in the past couple of years but I still appreciate the core of what Charlottesville is to me. Cripsy definitely had a sharp tongue for bands he thought sucked but I can tell you – it’s much harder to write a good review about bands you like than ones you don’t. This is what I always dug about him – his knack for digging deep into a performance and finding the good shit. It’s much easier to complain than praise.
http://www.squid-tank.com/2008/05/cripsys-genius-and-old-cville/
I know you just make it up as you go along, but do you even remember two weeks ago reading Barbara Rich in the Daily Progress shred a local novel…
http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/lifestyles/columnists/article/elizabeth_elizabeth_just_too_too_repetitive/33921/
It was on the TUI YOU BITHCES thread, you were there.
@27 I’m guessing you haven’t followed any of my reviews. I think it is just as important to point out the exhibits that fail as it is to point out the ones that excel. From my experience, artists tend to appreciate an honest criticism – warts and all – over fake hugs and air kisses. There is, of course, an intelligent way to do it. I’d like to believe Obama’s inauguration marked the end of snark.
@29 You are absolutely right. Cville is not NYC. Not even close. It never has been and never will be.
Stay tuned to artPark. As I did last year, I’ll be reviewing the UVa student shows this spring – warts and all.
As part of the terms of my release, I am not allowed to review visual art.
@30
i saw that one by Rich. Yes, true. She has slammed a lot of Offstage Theater Stuff too. But then again she also writes a ton of fluff about godawful things. when she does that, there is nobody else to do the contrary. It’d be impossible to print two reviews of every show or band, but….
local novels need to be shredded. but of course the chance of anyone local reading a local novel is VERY slim. I can’t name five people who have read Casey’s, Gehman’s, Sidney Blair’s. A novel requires some effort. To sit in Live Arts requires only that you have 40 bucks for the ticket. To see a local band requires only that you have a free evening and beer-money.
good to you two reviewers. keep at it, chums. i’ll bookmark your blogs.
$40? You’re thinking of Paramount. The great price increase at LA was to go over $10.
@31 Wow, artpark….you really are something! you publicize that you raised your middle finger at Bush as he left the white house on your site then mention here that you’d “like to believe that Obama’s inauguration marked the end of snark”…. I guess you’re not really listening to Obama’s message…
I’m glad all it took was the demise of a local site for the arts to get artBark over here self-promoting. Bored because your gallery is gone?
whoa. harsh toke, dude.
IS artBark an ass, Anonymous & reader/writer?
i like the trend of these attack-comments.
please you two, go on.
and artPark, defend yourself vigorously!
/reaching for popcorn.
@35 Thanks for reading.
@36 Gallery is closing, but business continues.
@36: I’m glad all it took was being Anonymous to trash someone who’s spent the last few years promoting the arts in this town. Bored because you have nothing constructive to add?
CvilleMuse writers, come on over and ignore the snarkers. Unless they tell the truth.
@40 aren’t we mostly, hereon, anonymous?
‘Anonymous’ is a regular commenter here, under that moniker, for quite some time.
I did glance at artPark’s website—it is very slick and msotly local–i admire both. It does tilt largely to ‘praising famous men’, celebrating the already celebrated–but that of course is choice and awareness.
Self-promotion here is certainly worthy a snarky comment. And the text decribed in @35 certainly has nothing to do with art or locality—and is well-worth mocking. An earnest lefty and his wife drivelling on about silly-ass and crass acts of juvenile civil disrespect has no rational place within a blog allegedly devoted to the promotion and assessment of local art; that sort of thing diminishes its value and its credibility.
@43 relax, his snark is worse than his bite.
The only thing artBark promotes is snobbery. “…coffee shops and restaurants aren’t REAL galleries” and the like.
@45
“…coffee shops and restaurants aren’t REAL galleries”
/galleries that are out-of-business aren’t real galleries….
Good point OD.
You can ignore all that.
So if I don’t buy art in a real gallery it isn’t really art or is it just a Duchamp?
Ceci n’est pas une pipe…
@46 See 39.
@50 now we getting down to the nitty Margritte
So if I don’t buy art in a real gallery it isn’t really art
Depends on how Mucha Monet is exchanged. Manet pieces VanGogh for big bucks when galleries do for the big Warhol. Wyeth I dont know. I Kandinsky Hockney my art from Dali ving room and thend Much on some snacks. Sure I dont Kleen up, but I do Chagall right.
“…go for the…
“…then Munch.. on snacks
/sigh. where is my edit button.
@53 hahahahahahahaha De Kooning turn of phrase B-yo . But don’t Gauguin all punny on me. Go look in a Miro. Go look, don’t Dali
@50 Magritte even.
Bauhuas that dieter? Punning is a Classical way of getting your Expression across. I learned that from my Dada. Sure its not Hyper Real, but in a Pure sense it can be be both Conceptual and Constructional. But perhaps I take too many Opportunities to Pop in with a pun. Is it your Impression that my sense of humor is Baroque. Should I Dutch it and throw it in the Ash Can? It is my Fauverite type of post, especially when I am stuck here in my Cube…. but am I being Naive?
This has gotten quite Surreal. I feel like Im going Rococo for coco puffs.
ceci est bien mon cul.
You guys are all Fricking MOMA’s boys.
@58 What’s new, you show us that all the time
as a local musician, I actually understand ending the Muse. Whenever my band or a friend’s band was featured there, I always kinda wished that the articles would generate the discussion that the cVillain proper site generates. Even though I know the comments would tend toward the harsh or uncaring (i mean if a missing person can’t get editorial sympathy, then no one will.) My hope is that the articles by Shaun, Estherbunny et al will continue but will get space on cVillain. Then I’ll get some real feedback on my playing. Or…my playing will be compared to feedback.