Back in the saddle. (Patreon)
Content
Sorry for the delay in updates. I have been incredibly busy since getting back from the symposium in Wyoming. Some of that is the usual "I took two weeks away from work, so it will take 4 to get things right," but there are other exciting distractions worth mentioning.
1. In case you missed it. Ian filmed Logan Metesh's interesting exploration of new media and old museums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqJTRmOtiXM
This does include my "anti boomer" rant, meant to represent the youngest generation's frustration with the old ways. I don't believe it is in this particular video, but the greatest take away, for me, from "Gen Z" is to be willing to be challenged on any given fact. The internet is a big place and history is constantly being re-explored. What we "know" one day can change the next and it is best to be cautious enough to hear new theories.
2. Thanks to a tangential conversation at Cody with another creator, I'm going to be filming a piece I did not think we would get for the series at the end of this month. That means another 16+ hour road trip I was not expecting and more schedule shenanigans... but it's a narrow window for a wonderful surprise for all of you. Unfortunately we're just shooting the gun, I have no time to do the research and it will likely be no sooner than the end of this year that I can get to one of the museums that has a non-firing example I can use to finish producing the episode later. I will, however, get you patrons a preview of the firing footage if and when in hand (you never know what can go wrong).
3. The Shotgun series is progressing. We only really have one piece that keeps us from doing "American Centerfire Repeating Shotguns through 1918." Once it turns up we'll be locked in nicely. One other piece, sadly much rarer, is halting us from doing "Centerfire Repeating Shotguns through 1918," a global approach. Mind you, there are more than these two left on the list, but the rest turn up fairly regularly and won't challenge an early 2020 show launch. Recall, the reason we cannot start this series until everything is in hand is because we want to, for the first time, do one in chronological order.
If you would like to help in the hunt, our Discord server has a private group going. You just have to promise not to compete to purchase what is on the remaining list, until after the show has an example. Otherwise we'd be sort of encouraging people to raise the prices on ourselves.
4. Due to some conversations at Cody I've reinvested in a website idea I had long ago. The concept is to aggregate all the "old gun content" in one place for people to keep up with. Videos, text, images, museum announcements, book releases, etc. The hope is that the larger shows would draw in a general audience who could then more easily find and enjoy the articles or be exposed to upcoming books, researcher notes, and the like. Basically a way to put the researchers and authors back up at the front of the community.
I'm currently testing the site in alpha, so it's entirely unreliable as I intentionally break things. But I'll let you all know when it is ready. It's not meant to host anything or make any money (except possibly some ad space to later pay a neutral administrator) and it is not branded under C&Rsenal. It's meant to be for the community and will only serve as a central hub to link to content wherever it is hosted already. This has actually been a big chunk of my free time.
5. I did an interview btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3xtCnf3KTU
6. I got all this ready on Tuesday, saved it as a draft, and now it's 4am on Monday. Go me. I guess you'll get two this week!