Two Egg Harbor Businesses Closed / Closing

I was really sad to see the Harbor Landing close for business. I know the two owners worked hard to try and develop a business with something of a unique marketing prospect, but it clearly didn't pick up sufficient momentum to justify another season. I feel bad for them, I know how hard it's been for us on many levels, and it sometimes takes more courage to walk away than to stick it out.

I'm also sad to see John Henry's moving, though at least he appears to be staying in business and simply relocating. It's still sad for Egg Harbor though, losing two businesses and having two more empty spaces going into next season (assuming they are not re-occupied).

I wonder what it would take to make Egg Harbor more successful, more like Fish Creek?

What if businesses remained open into the evenings during peak season?....That certainly seems to work well for business owners in Fish Creek. What would it take to do that? Well, some business owners would argue that there aren't enough people on the streets after 5pm to justify a longer work-day. But isn't it the old cart and horse syndrome, or "build it and they will come". A concerted effort by ALL Egg Harbor businesses might eventually trigger the kind of post 5pm foot-traffic that Fish Creek enjoys, but it would undoubtedly take time. Would business owners be prepared to make the investment?

Anyway, I hope the blood-letting is over and we don't lose anyone else before the start of the 2010 tourist season.

JJ's is back....well almost!

JJ's in Sister Bay held their annual party yesterday and showed us a glimpse of the newly styled post-fire interior.
Nice.

Great Margarita, great band - place was packed, people dancing and carrying on.

Welcome back, hope to be eating good TexMex before the year-end.

A COLD yet jolly Pumpkin Patch!

So last years PP was t-shirt weather with a beautiful 75 degrees and clear blue skies. 'Course this year we gotta follow that up with snow!

Well since it's only Sunday I guess it's still technically Pumpkin Patch, so it could warm up a bit and surprise us all. But it won't :)

Had a good time though. Fun crowd on the 10am wine tour, a few wine tastings in the PM, and a couple cold ones kept me going through 'til 'Happy Hour'.

Cheers!

More musings with a musical theme....

I received an email about an hour ago asking me what I thought about the direction of music in Door County and what are my motives in writing about it here. An interesting email, I wish the sender had posted it as a blog.

Door County is a great place to visit for people turned on by art and music. For me personally, music has been a big part of my life for as far back as I can remember. As well as enjoying music in the same way that most people do, I've long been passionate about the art and science of music reproduction. I've developed what I think is a critical ear when it comes to music and I've been fortunate enough to have found myself in a community where music and art is really at the core of everything. However, I've never had an urge to be involved in a music venue, that came to be as something of an accident. Though I'm passionate about music, one needs a different kind of motivation to turn it into something commercial. Maybe that is at the center of what is going on in Door County right now, and maybe it's the tussle between the creative and artistic element and the desire by some people to capitalize on it for self gain, that's causing an itch in me that I cannot seem to scratch.

There's a wind if change blowing through the Door County music scene and as with most change it's slow and unpredictable in taking on a shape. It's still very much in a form which can be influenced and I'd like to do my part in giving it a shove here and a prod there, to try to help steer it in a general direction that's in the interests of those who make music and those who listen to it.
If you focus your attention too much on either the makers or the consumers, you start to slant the whole thing in a unhealthy direction and I think there's a little bit of that going on in Door County right now. There are a few venue's that are taking a somewhat aggressive stance in their claim on the Door County music scene. Not just venues but the occasional would-be Harvey Goldsmith have stepped up and tried to make a claim on something that cannot and should not be owned for material gain.
Keep music alive and fresh and growing. You can't do that when you try to over-commercialize it and ignore the very reason why it exists in the first instance. A little cryptic?, yes, I guess so.

It relates in some ways, but not entirely, to the impact of larger non-profit music venues emerging in an area renowned for its eclectic music scene and wide array of locally grown talent. The local talent has been nurtured through smaller, independently owned music venues, some of which are being jeopardized by the emergence of the musical Goliath(s). If the smaller venues start to disappear, as it seems some are, how will the new local talent be nurtured and where will they find an outlet and a stage to develop their creativity?

Support your local venues by doing as much as you can to ensure their continued existence.
Joe Joe's Pizza
Ladder House
Mojo Rosa's
Husby's
Gordon Lodge
FishStock (Camp David)
Hitching Post
....are a few of the one's still alive, I think.

Cheers

Kudos to Melissa for bringing this to the public....

**Letter sent to to Melissa Ripp and the PPulse in response to recent article**

I'm a music venue owner in Egg Harbor and my music program has suffered this season in part due to the presence of the PE PAC. It has, both by its existence and by the way in which it promotes itself, created a very uneven playing field for music in Door County.
I have blogged about this subject (prior to Melissa's excellent article) here www.doorcountyoutpost.com/blog/ and encourage people with an opinion to post their views. The only point in Melissa's article that I disagree with is that the music program at the PE impacts (negatively) any venue with a music program on a Sunday night. It, in my opinion, negatively impacts any venue with a music program on any night of the week, and I've explained this at length on my blog post at the above link.
Kudos to Melissa for presenting the facts behind what is going on with live music in DC, and I encourage her to dig deeper, the smaller, family funded and family operated venues, need this to be brought out into the open.

Sincerely,

Highlights of the Music Program 2009 - It is what it isn't.

Hmm...very subjective I know, and potentially problematic should I fail to recognize a particular talent.
However, I was asked a couple days ago "what do you think were the highlights of the 2009 music program?"....so -

Highlights of 2009 music program, in no particular order -

Michael Johnson - an amazing guitarist schooled in the classical style of playing guitar.... and using nylon strings!, quite rare for a 'folk' musician - loved him!

Cedarwell - kudos to the Hollands for allowing these two guys to open for them. The Hollands are great but Cedarwell managed to create a vibe that I just haven't seen before in the Outpost. Different. Different. Talent.

Squeaky Clean Cretins - I loved their music, upbeat, a little bit of Stray Cat Strut on steroids, maybe. Just a cool bunch of talented lads....great to have you at the Outpost and thanks for the Saturday lunchtime GIG!

Corey Carlson - a class act. He didn't play a gig at the Outpost but he came back after the Peg Egan gig and enthralled us with a couple of songs, as did Pat Macdonald...thanks Pat and Corey.

Victoria Vox - wow, I almost wrote you off when I heard that you played Uke, but what a great performance...the Talking Heads track was so, so cool.

Hans Christian - a cool dude. I owned a CD by Hans a few years before I ever got to meet him at the Outpost and have such respect for what he does for the local music community.

Bill and Kate Isles, and really, everyone who came and played for our Talent Night. We were blessed with the presence of some truly outstanding musical talents and all-round great people.

Thanks to everyone who played at and visited the Door County Outpost in 2009.

Carl

Music and Door County

Well its been an interesting year for music around the DC Peninsula. For certain there's a good deal of activity, new venues for live music springing up around us, many of them being existing taverns, restaurants etc, adding a music program to help entice people through the doors.
But where is it all leading?
I think there will be some pretty big changes in the coming season or two, particularly when more and more of the music venues have to adjust their sights and basically be able to compete with 'free' music offered around the Peninsula by organizations such as the Peg Egan center. Free music doesn't sound so bad in principle (excuse the pun), but in reality I personally feel it will have a longer term damaging effect on live music in the area. If places like the Peg Egan can pull 1000+ people to see a quality performance from the likes of Ritchie Havens and Tab Benoit, what does that leave behind for the rest of the music venue owners and program operators? Well, it isn't too clear at the moment but it doesn't feel good. To say that other places don't have music programs on a Sunday night, so how can the Peg Egan's Sunday night program impact them, is quite frankly, missing the point.
People coming to the area typically stay 4 or 5 nights, they plan their stays to take in various events and activities, one of which might be attending a live concert. Wouldn't you think they'd pick a Sunday night concert to see Ritchie Havens for free, ahead of a Thursday night program to see Eric Lewis for $10, given that they're here both nights? Also, what ultimately is achieved when a large venue like the Peg Egan can use their financial might to attract quality acts, and present them at no cost to the public? Well, it means that smaller venue owners are pushed into waiving a cover charge and in doing so need to book musicians who demand a smaller fee. This puts us on a downward spiral where the integrity and quality of our programs are negatively impacted and our reputations as music venues are downgraded. Fewer people in attendance is the harsh reality.
My prediction is that we're heading for a music scene dominated by a few larger venues, delivering quality acts at little or no cost to the public, and maybe a handful of smaller venues like the Hitching Post who'll need to downgrade the quality of their music to stay open. The many taverns/restaurants jumping on the music bandwagon will soon learn the true cost of staging a music program and in many cases realize that it wasn't all that it was made out to be.

So that's the venue owners, now what about the local musicians? We have quality musicians right here in Door County and they're probably going to have to play for less in DC, which means they may need to travel more to sustain a living. How is that going to play out in the longer term? Shouldn't we put our locals first? Why isn't there a space for more of our local musicians at the Peg Egan Center? Well if I asked that question of the organizers I'm sure I'd hear the answer that local musicians wouldn't be such a big draw so there wouldn't be the benefit to the local business community who feed off of the crowds on a Sunday night. That of course would be a BS answer (I've already heard it said). What's wrong with Seth Raddetz opening for Tab Benoit? - it's a community program isn't it?

The bottom line is that if places like the Peg Egan center are truly built on the principals of giving back to the local community, then they really need to take a close look at the impact of their operation on people who live and work here, and not just the traveling tourist. Musicians, venue owners, tavern owners are all being impacted by what they do, shouldn't a community driven performing arts center take them into account too, and I mean beyond the fast-fix influx of extra revenue that a half dozen or so business see on Sunday nights?
Stop being so bloody insular and protective! - This facility was donated to the Village, let the Village have more of a voice in how it is used.

I don't want to end this on a negative note, so here's my take on some of the more groovy goings on around Door County.
Hans Christian has a recording studio in Sturgeon Bay that can only help in putting Door County on the music map, kudos to Hans for the time and energy he puts into the local music scene.
The Hitching Post is kind of a neat place to experience raw, down and dirty local music performed by some of the area's raging talents, Seth Raddetz hosts their open mic every Thursday with his pop Mark.
Gordon Lodge continues with their outdoor music program and focuses more on the jazz genre, which frankly I find quite refreshing. They have the benefit of being a destination for good food in a nice setting, it troubles me a little that the music seems to be secondary to many of the people in attendance, but that's just a fact of life I guess.
The Holiday Motel has opened recently in Sturgeon Bay, they have a head start on the local music scene with the involvement from music legend Pat Macdonald. It will be interesting to see where that goes in the future.
Joe Joe's Pizza runs a live program through the Winter, and though I haven't been there I respect what the owner is trying to do very much.
Local bars like the AC Tap, Husby's and Mojo's do their part too, I'm never sure what the real motivation is but it's live music so you have to thank them for supporting it.
The Ladder House in Sturgeon Bay too, they house the Art of Music program through the Winter and it's good to keep music alive after the tourists have split.

I don't have a solution to the problems and I probably haven't articulated them very well either. The Peg Egan Center and the free concerts in the park are set to stay, the rest of us will have to find a way to deal with it.

CH

PS - Please comment if you have an opinion on this, I'm sure many will disagree with some or all of what I've said, but I'd like your opinion anyway!!