Yesterday I noticed the Robert B. Parker fansite Bullets & Beer had gone offline. It's been two years since proprietor Bob Ames announced his shift had changed at work and he'd lost interest in the research needed to maintain the site. Founded in the mid-1990s by Mike Loux, who moved on to other projects himself, for many years Bullets & Beer was the single best Robert B. Parker resource on the Web.
Eschewing the Internet as long as he could, Parker developed his own web presence an eternity later than peers such as Lawrence Block. While it's great to have his official blog and website, the possibly permanent darkening of Bullets & Beer leaves a void in fanspace that ought to be filled. We're discussing possibilities on my Parker mailing list, Spenser's Sneakers.
8 comments:
Yes, I noticed the absence of the B&B website about two weeks ago. I hope it will reincarnate somewhere.
I started thinking about what would become of all that knowledge when Bob's updates started slowing down. My idea was a wiki that everyone could add to, closely modeled on Wikipedia. I threw together a proof-of-concept at:
http://parkerpedia.jacobsconyers.com/index.php
If the interest is out there, I could buy another URL and host it on my existing server...
I have substantially all of it, courtesy of some archive-ripper college project I don't recall the name of. I have a Wikia up to put it into, I've just been alternately unemployed and too busy to get it accomplished.
Now that I've had to stick my head above the ground to let everyone know the content's not gone (and yes, I got the Shorts collection, too), I guess I'd better get my tucchas in gear and start reformatting it, huh?
And I don't, actually, remember seeing this discussed in any great detail on spensneak; did I fall off the list?
I thought I had seen it being discussed but my inbox was jammed with facebook notifications, and - being webmail, I was not able to filter it. Then again, I wouldn't have much to add.
I was actually wondering, tonight, about that comment on Shatner and Avery Brooks and wouldn't it be pretty to think so, and I googled to find the site was gone (something I didn't even catch when Jay asked if Pensive was gone - no, I must have it somewhere; I've read it at least 6 times, I love it so) and ended up here.
as for the list, there's a chance I finally gave up and hurled myself off, bodily. (but probably, like everything, I set it to web only, cause I'm sure I'll want to return someday :-) Maybe when I get back from the 60s... (Mad Men DVDs) )
Jay and Pamela,
You're both still on Spenser's Sneakers. Note this blog entry is from 2010. There was some discussion then, but not much.
It breaks mt heart that all traces of Bob and Joan are quickly vanishing. Where or was Bob buried? I understand family privacy etc.... but so many of us miss Bob and would feel some closure if there were a grave to visit or whatnot.
Thanks to Loux and Ames for their work on the vanished website, it just really saddens me to see everything wash away. All good things,.........Right? God bless Daniel and David. My condolences to you and yours.
We're in the process of restoring Bullets and Beer to the web on Wiki, picking up the project where Baylink left off. More than half of the book entries have been posted as well as a lot of other material. You can find it at bulletsandbeer.wikia.com.
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