EDITORIAL
WRITTEN BY JOE COMPTON
Written on August 12th, 2022
It's very hard to say goodbye and I also recognize that we don't always get that chance. So I need to take full advantage of the opportunity. Obviously Joe's Bar isn't really a bar but make no mistake about it, it was a love of mine, and I tried to let it die a slow death. I really did. Alas though it cannot sustain the direction we are going as a network in Go Indie Now. So as I write this we are a mere 7 hours away from it's final opening and then final closing.
This is not a spur of the moment decision though. When Randy McCharles approached me earlier in the year to nail me down for this live stream tonight as part of his incredible Writer's Conference, WHEN WORDS COLLIDE I knew that we would then be heading to the last broadcasts of it. I of course could not say no to Randy, nor did I want too, even though the Conference is not the same being in person as its been online. I love having Go Indie Now and myself personally involved with my friends from Calgary and this event in particular. I look forward to many, many more years of being involved there.
This has been a part of the many WWC traditions that have been created through this Festival, us going live that first night of the Conference. We have done it now for the past 4 WWC's and we will keep that alive in the future too, we just won't be doing it as "Joe's Bar".
I realize that this is a name as it is anything. It's socially loose format can be renamed just about anything and in fact if you know Go Indie Now history you know that Joe's Bar existed before it was even called Joe's Bar, more on that in a moment. However, it's more of the what it represents that we are shedding and saying goodbye too and thus anything we were to do that has a remote resemblance to Joe's Bar is not the same idea, show, or live presentation.
So this is truly ending on August 12th at around 11:15ish PM EDT. Maybe I should make that 9:15 PM MDT for our friends at the WWC, since i am doing this as part of that.
It's been a fun ride, a fun show to host, and that's because of all of you out there. Those of you who hung out and watched live in the chat. Those of you who sat in the VIP seats to be on air with me at Joe's Bar. Those of you who watched after we were live. I am sure I will see some of you tonight or as you watch later on and comment.
Just on that note, please feel free to come into the chat or comment your favorite Joe's Bar memory tonight.
I had lofty ambitions for the show. It actually did have a format and aim once upon a time, believe or not, but then I quickly realized that this could be the one show that would be more hurt by that then helped. So we chucked all that out, and yes some of it was tough to watch, some of it was out of control, and some of it was just...wrong. This was not a broadcast for everybody.
And you know what, so what. If we tried to broadcast for everybody we would not be living in the spirit we truly intended our mission statement to be in, which is to love and be Indie. This show got a little Punk Rock and it was the only one on the network that got to be that, so I actually kind of liked that about it.
I also understand though when it just stops working right...and Joe's Bar, while still a lot of fun was just not working right. It lost its way and a little bit of its initial spirit. Look that happens and again that's all on me, it wasn't anything anybody did or didn't do other than myself. Sometimes things just loose their luster and you can polish it and reformat it all you want but it sometimes is like putting lipstick on a pig.
Joe's Bar was born from my attempt at broadcasting live for 72 hours straight at another Online Writer's Conference called Brains to Books. It wasn't called Joe's Bar that first year but it was coined that (and forgive me to the person who did just that, I don't remember to whom the credit for that goes too, so I am sorry) and then I took it on the road to Calgary and then we made it a permeant member of the programming that fall after the 1st WWC Live Broadcast we did in 2018.
Like I said I attempted to have a format. I made a drink specials list and those names were associated to topics to discuss about writing that I would try to interject as the discussion died down (which of course it never did and we usually never finished a list of specials). I also tried to incorporate an Indie Brew into the show every episode (that was a lot harder than I thought it would be). Those things didn't quite stick but what did was comradery and place to let loose for us writers who just work so damn hard to be seen and heard from and so I ran with that idea instead.
In the last couple "seasons" this was more of social circle then anything we had and it became a beautiful way to just blow off some steam. Some of us a little more than others (not naming names here today though or ever, so don't ask).
While that format shift happened I have to admit we might jumped the shark a little. Okay, okay, I think we were at least getting on the Fonz' bike heading toward the jump site for sure.
So why did it survive season after season? Some things are harder to let go of than others. I think I needed to step back and see that for myself a little and I did.
I knew after Erik's passing, because he was so awesome on this show especially, and then by a few of the regulars dropping out that we were headed for a slow descent. The only reason we didn't fall off the cliff is we picked up so new faces and they quickly became regulars and then people started coming back. So I was grateful as always to everyone for keeping it going.
It became a nice place to be during the Pandemic too but as soon as life started to hit us all in the face, myself included, I just knew Joe's Bar wasn't going to make it through.
I loved every minute I got to host, I loved all of you for being on it and being there with it. We did 55 broadcasts officially labeled Joe's Bar. That's a pretty good place to stop but I have to say the little boy in me kind of wishes tonight's was 69, which of course would have been much more poetic and apropos for this show in particular. ;)
I still love all of you and I hope you enjoy what is to come for Go Indie Now because we have an amazing Fall Season ahead. This is ONE show and its time has run the course, as does everything eventually.
So like I said I hope to see a lot of familiar names tonight, I hope to see them as you get a chance to watch it if you can't be there, and I hope you share your incredible memories with us when you do watch. I want to read them.
We start at 10P EDT if you read this on August 12th but just know the above video will be available to watch if you are reading this after too.
I love you all and hey THIS IS LAST CALL!!
Still It's Always Time to Go Indie Now.
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