Greetings, all,
I’d like to announce the formation of the Blues Society on Taiwan, an affiliate of the Blues Foundation wwwblues.org.
As a new organization dedicated to promoting an appreciation of the Blues, we are looking to enroll members. The primary goal of the Society is to foster a spirit of community among fans of the Blues.
If you like the Blues or any of the many musical variants, off-shoots and chips-off-the-old-block, you’re elegible for membership.
You can sign up by visiting and registering at http://www.bsot.org or by sending your name and email address to me at dcr@thebluespowerhour.com
There are no fees or dues for memberships.
Our membership list is private and will not be shared, sold, leased or traded for sexual favors.
Choose the Blues,
DCRapier
nice web site.
2 important questions:
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Can you list the places in Taiwan (esp Taipei) that we can currently listen to live Blues music? Apologies if that is in your web site, but I could not find this info.
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Why is it called Blues Society ON Taiwan (BSOT) as opposed to Blues Society IN Taiwan (BSIT)?
Trapper
Is the Blues Show (“Blues Power Hour”) still on ICRT? It got shuffled around a lot, and I kind of lost track of it. If I am correct, you were the host, DCR.
That ‘on’ Taiwan, really gets to me too. Is it misguided political statement, or just bad English?
Brian
… neither. The acronym BSoT is an allusion to besot or besotted, if I remember Doug’s reasoning …
Do join, I’m a member, and from Doug’s e-mails it looks as if BSoT will be organizing some very fine events in the future, which will be all the more likely/easy to achieve the more members there are as potential sponsors are always intrested in the scope or “market” … Xpet.
Well wouldn’t ‘Blues Society of Taiwan’ be better then.
In my experience, when people use ‘on Taiwan’ it is usually to makle a political statement, in the (mistaken) belief that, you can only use ‘in’ with countries (ie, they’re saying Taiwan is not a country).
Do you want people like me making that assumption?
Brian
… you do have a point, seeing as the official name of Taiwan is “Republic of China on Taiwan”, I had always assumed this name was chosen for the very reason that the KMT intended to reunify the “two Chinas” (if necessary by force 
), i.e. going into your line of reasing …
I dare say though that there were no political intentions at play here, … Doug, any comments??
Sheeess! There’s certainly been a lot of palaver about that pesky little mono-syllable. It’s not a statement of politics. It’s an apolitical preposition.
However, since Xpet was nice enough to ask for the reasoning behind the choice of using the word ‘on’ instead of 'of or ‘in’, and since he was also nice enough to come to my defense in the matter, I’ll explain.
In the very early days of the nascent Blues Society, I asked the dozen or so members what they thought the official name of the society should be. There were about 8 or 9 suggestions. Some rather strained and obtuse, some rather bland. Bland won out for the sake of simplicity.
As Xpet correctly recalled, the acronym ‘bsot’ was the clincher - ‘besot by the Blues’… get it?
Anyway, now enters the weighty decision whether to use ‘on’ or ‘of’ in the name of the society. I chose ‘on’ because, as you may have noticed, Taiwan is an island. We live on an island. The island is called Taiwan. It used to be called Ilha Formosa. Now, it’s called Taiwan. The official name of the country is ‘the Republic of China’. Maybe some day when all the old geezers die off, the place will be renamed the Republic of Taiwan or some such officious appellation, but, for the time being, the country is called the Republic of China.
As further support for the controversial use of a preposition of place (i.e.‘on’) as opposed to one of possession (i.e.‘of’), I offer this additional line of reasoning: I wanted to infer that the genre of music known as ‘the Blues’ is appreciated by people all 'round the globe regardless of nationality, race, language or culture. The music is international and cross-cultural in its appeal. By extension then, the society of Blues fans who live on this island - by choice or by birth - should not be considered collectively as a possession or as an attribute of the government which presides here. Members of the Society are Blues fans no matter where they reside. While we are here, on this island, we are members of the Blues Society on Taiwan.
If you’d like to become a member of the Blues Society on/of/in Taiwan, you can register at http://www.bsot.org or write me at dcr@thebluespowerhour.com. We also have a forum for members at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/bsot
In answer to another question regarding the Blues Power Hour on ICRT, I halted production of the program. It was my own choice to stop. I was spending upwards of 20 hours a week writing, researching, voicing, producing and engineering each show. It simply became too time-consuming and too expensive to continue in light of the fact that I was compensated only by a feeling of personal satisfaction. In short, The Blues Power Hour was a labor of love that became a job for which I wasn’t getting paid. Nuff said.
Choose the Blues,
DCRapier