Anyone use facebook here? I haven't heard it mentioned on the site much. I just started using it for a work-related project.

I created a Morrissey-solo group, join here if interested:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2451516394

Just a little play on words. No, I don't think so. Since the tone of the whole statement was serious and the fact that he used it twice. I appreciate those who came out in support of the site. I don't think anyone can really say what his career would look like if this site never existed. Maybe it would be the same but maybe not, but that doesn't mean all the hours I put into creating and maintaining the site and all the visitors who contribute should go without acknowledgment. So I think this this is what many of the visitors picked up on with this apparently harmless pun.

My opinion is that Morrissey has worked very hard for his success that he has achieved and he does not get the credit he deserves. I just think it's hypocritical to feel credit should be given in fairness if he is not going to do that himself.

I think this is the first time he has voluntarily mentioned the site, the other time on Janice Long he was asked about it directly. In the past I wished that he had mentioned the site but now it doesn't matter, the site will continue on until I feel like stopping or lose interest, no matter what he says or doesn't say.

Actually I have seen the "So Low" pun in the past, here's one reference from the general board from Jan. 2005 by "chairman of the bored" (link).

Saw them play in LA after hearing about them recommended several times on this site's boards. They are starting to get more press now. I was surprised, the place was packed and lots of people knew the songs, even though they have not released anything in the US yet. It must be the mp3's made available for download. Good show.

I've been so busy the last few months, finally some free time to rest. The site upgrade was a big effort, I had grown comfortable with how it was going so that makes it harder. But it's important to keep pushing forward. I had it all planned out, it would be all ready before the big Isle of Wight show.

So it was announced on Janice Long's show but Benton mentioned that he had heard it but thought it was sorted out since it was still promoted on the official site. I had seen a few anonymous comments saying he wouldn't play but no one actually submitted a story or emailed me about it, so I assumed it was happening even though it seemed strange no other shows were announced.

Shortly after the site release was a big project at work, the Yahoo! Music Engine beta (download here). It's a full featured music player/organizer and subscription service. I don't use these things too often and I hardly ever hear this stuff mentioned on the site. Does anyone use these services? Morrissey fans are not the most tecnically savvy in general but I know there are some who are. I wouldn't normally but now that I have I see it has some very cool features. I only had some small involvement with it, the guys that did the bulk of the work are a team of amazing programmers. It's been kept low key, but it should be publicized more later this year.

All of the latest Sanctuary / Attack releases are available, such as Nancy Sinatra, James Maker and Remma. Stuff I hadn't picked up. I used to go out and buy everything Morrissey related but nowadays find that cd shopping is low on the list of priorities. Anyway, I can see how this could be the future. I saw a glimpse of it in the past - when Napster was at its height if there were any song you wanted to hear you could pretty much find it. Like listening to the radio and being able to have the song right away by choosing it. And you can listen to other people's collections through instant messenger.

Other than that I have been working on a huge promotion which was just released called Pepsi Smash. Remember the show that Morrissey cancelled last year? It all ties together.

With the new code people's friends and foes will be public to all. This is not the case currently when you add friends but there is a warning when a person adds a friend.

Any objections to carrying over the current friends list? Or should we start from scratch?

Morrissey is burrito boy

Link from an anonymous person

School mistakes huge burrito for a weapon

All my spare time in the last month has been going towards upgrading the site code. It's taking some effort because I hadn't touched the code in about 3 years, so I had a lot to catch up with. The new hardware is in place also, this server is about 5 years old and although reliable, it's time to move on. I'm targeting end of april / early may for the new code to go into place. The site will be down at least a day as I move everything over.

It's a bit ironic, about 3 years ago is when my job shifted to more website programming, so I actually have learned a huge amount since then. But doing it all day at work, coming home and working on the same thing at night wasn't attractive. Now things are a little more stable and the Morrissey news has slowed a bit, I look forward to the evenings and weekends when I can work on this site.

Most of the changes are functional, better searching, abuse prevention /administration so the new site will not look too different from the current one. The journals will be a little different, there will be more options for the comments. There will be expanded use of the 'friends' feature - 'foes' will be added too. In the journal you can allow comments from only friends, or one option is 'no foes', which also closes off comments from anonymous people.

Yahoo! is celebrating it's 10th birthday on Wednesday. There is a link to what the homepage looked like 10 years ago. It's really come a long way and it's been great to be along for the ride -- technically I've been with Yahoo! 3 years but I started at my company 10 years ago, in June 1995. Shortly after that in July 1995 I started my journey into the Morrissey internet world by putting up a page for the fanzine I was working on at the time, "Sing Your Life". I really had no idea what I was doing but it started out as a news update site and then eventually grew into Morrissey-solo. I think I have the 1st page archived but I'll have to do some searching, that will be cool to put up in July.

So it is all sort of tied together. I mentioned work a while ago and someone asked what I do for fun. This is pretty much it -- there hasn't been much beyond work and this website in the last 10 years. It's been so crazy, especially the early years, and there is always so much to learn, it's been the greatest thrill for me to be involved in this industry and also with all the interaction with people on the Morrissey site. But I'm starting to do some other stuff now. I just got back from an actual vacation, something I have not done for as long as I can remember. There has always been some task when I travel - usually a Morrissey show. This time I traveled to Argentina with a friend, with the only goal to relax / get away and learn about the culture. I spent most of the time in Buenos Aires but also went to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, the southern most city of the world.

In order to win these online voting awards the site has to really push itself onto its visitors which is not something I really like doing. The other sites - Libertines, Muse and U2 all have prominent links to the voting page on their main pages or boards. I should learn to promote, I certainly think the site deserves to win. Realistically though, the U2 site gets more visitors in one day than this site does in 2 months. If the competition were just Muse and The Libertines then there would be a chance. I'm not counting the NME site as that would make no sense if it won.

I appreciate the comments that people left after the nomination came out. Just like it was when it first started (8 years ago on Feb. 12), the people that visit and contribute to the site make the site what it is. I know the other sites can't say the same thing, there isn't anything that special about them apart from the flashy design. I am surprised at the nomination though, that is cool on NME's part to include it.

I will have worked at the same place for 10 years this coming June. LAUNCH started out publishing CD-ROMs with music content and then later focused on delivering the content on the website. It was bought by Yahoo! in 2001. There have been a lot of ups and downs and it's always been hectic.

I work with the coolest and smartest people in the business, that's been the best part of it. I really can't say enough about the fellow engineers I've worked with, it's really been a great honor and I'm always learning something new.

Main responsibilities have been backend UNIX programming to integrate with Yahoo!'s technology and some site pages but everything once again is being changed since Yahoo! recently bought another music related company, MusicMatch. So look for some big changes and exciting things from Yahoo! music this year. Here are some recent pages I've worked on / currently maintain:

Who's Next?

Year In Music 2004

Official Dixie Chicks site