BOWIELIVE TO CLOSE
	BowieLive.com is to close its doors later this year. BowieLive.com began life in 2002 during the Heathen tour. Having taken a lot of photographs of Bowie in Europe, I wanted a place to make them available, share them with friends and like-minded concertgoers. This place quickly expanded and as the Reality tour kicked in, it was already a large site with exhaustive info on Bowie's most recent tours. As the Reality tour progressed, so did the site. Every concert was added as it happened, people sent pictures and reviews. There was a monthly newsletter, a magazine in PDF form where fans were interviewed and their contributions showcased. There was a Bowie collaborator of the month, we would look at someone who had worked with Bowie. Oh the joy, there was more but it escapes me as I write this. As the Reality tour came to a close, Bowie-mania if you can call it that, did too. I was already focusing on other things and so were the fans. So was Bowie for that matter as he hasn't done anything in the two years since, bar one mediocre Internet-single and an interview with a(n undoubtedly hip) band. I do want to make it absolutely clear that BowieLive is not going off the air because of anything Bowie did or did not do. It's my fault. As I got into that other thing, see OK, my spare time vanished. One Monthly Magazine slipped and another. Before long, it was obvious that BowieLive had a bit of a problem. Not an uncommon problem on the Internet, the updates didn't come, it became a cobweb and the glass spider was long gone. The people kept coming, it has maintained a steady stream of visitors to this day. All the info that was collected at the time is still on the site, making it just as useful as it ever was. And so it is. BowieLive is doomed. The plug will be pulled in the autumn. I have put a counter on the front page that is set on the beginning of October. This gives you a good idea how much is left. Should you be reading this after the counter has reached zero, it is probably late-ish 2006 and the site is living on borrowed times. If this text disappears in front of your eyes, you know why it happened. No, the Earth was not destroyed to make way for an intergalactic bypass. It's just the site that made way for another American Idol fan page. So what should you do and why should you care? Short answer is nothing and no reason. Long answer is too long, but here is the intermediate version. There are certain things you could do. You could contact me and send me money through PayPal begging for the site to remain alive, becoming the commissioner, the protector, the one we thank. You could contact me and say you want to have the site and keep developing it. I might see it in my heart to give it a second life like that. You could copy the Monthlies and keep them as souvenirs. Then you could read this, shrug and go check the world news to see what W is up to and if he's found a new country to attack or is just feeling bored. Or you could go and read about what is happening in the world and see if there is something really worthy of your attention. And should you care? Not really. This is a website about to be ditched, not a massive Icelandic highlands wilderness filled with delicate fauna and breeding ground for hundred of animal species, including falcons and hawks, about to be flooded in the name of corporate greed. Believe me, there are more important things in the world than BowieLive. Thank you to all the contributors. Enjoy the site for as long as you can, the END IS NIGH! Villi Asgeirsson 22 April 2006