Hello Mixters,

These past few months have seen the slowest period for uploads and reviews from me since the site started and I wanted to let folks know what’s going on because I think we’ve reached a point where avoiding the topic could have a worse connotation than running the risk of saying something too personal.

There are a couple of major milestones in a lifetime and my family and I are going through one of those right now. Having empty nested last year, my wife and I have decided to sell the nest and take to the skies. We’ve been a somewhat nomadic family (8 major moves, 5 cities in 20 years) but now we are making it official. The house is sold and we start living out of a suitcase in a few days.

As it turns out, relinquishing half a century’s worth of stuff is no trivial task. If you’ve been paying a little attention you might have noticed that we gave away 400 books, 1,000 albums, threw away a bunch of stuff, dumped a life’s worth of furniture onto Craigslist and the Salvation Army and sold a truly beautiful, comfortable house in the city that has proved to be the most suited for me I have ever known.

The only inanimate possessions I held on to were the guitars and DAW, however, I don’t plan to travel with them so they were packed away and put into storage a few months ago. Since then I have been relegated to laptop and iPhone for music listening/making. At first I tried working and listening in headphones but, you know, my ears aren’t what they used to be and after 30 minutes they were ringing like church bells on Easter.

The other unresolved issue is that when you live on the road the idea of “routine” becomes a challenge. The extent to which I would have to fight to stay disciplined has taken me by surprise.

Now the good news: with a tremendous amount of help from teru and spin and several who shall remain nameless, all this tumult in my personal lifes seems to have no effect on the smooth and continuing operation of the site. Here are some of the highlights:

There is a really cool new ‘Artist’ Spotlight’ in the works with a slew of ridiculously cool pells coming in early Sept.

July had the highest number of uploads in several years (since the Fort Minor contest).

While there is no official word and I don’t know anything specific, the RFP process is progressing with several proposals in the hopper. Remember that the initial phase of this process took over a year so I stand by my original prediction that the final verdict won’t be arriving until Oct.

Work on ccHost 5 is nearly at an end as we are preparing for a major release in a few weeks (we still could use some skins so if any CSS gurus are out there, we have tasks for you ;))

Did I mention we were mentioned in a really cool book?

So I’m sorry to all the folks that deserve their material remixed, reviewed, recommended and edpicked by me in the last few months and to everbody else: let’s get together in the UK in Sept! (more dates to follow…)

Peace,
VS

What an exciting time! I can’t imagine, but reading your post helps me to imagine, just a bit.

Such a liberation—to de-clutter. Kudos.