Today Ray Sawhill (alias "Michael Blowhard") announced that the 2Blowhards blog was ending its eight-year run.

I was not one of the original Blowhards who gave the blog most of the charm and challenge that made it beloved by many. I signed on in 2005 after "Friedrich von Blowhard" found steady blogging too much of a distraction from time better spent on his family and business. My role was that of Second Banana to Ray, one that suited me just fine.

After Ray retired from the blog, I did my best to carry on. But there's only one Ray, and I could never hope to fill his shoes. Plus, I didn't want to post at a nearly daily pace, so letting 2Blowhards pass from the scene seemed a reasonable solution following the Great System Crash of 2010.

Art Contrarian will continue much of my style of 2Blowhards posting. That's because I've basically written to please myself, with the idea that a few others might also enjoy what I have to say. Political posting will be sparse or non-existent here and there might be a bit less in the way of historical and general cultural material than I produced at 2Blowhards -- this in deference to the theme of this blog.

Posting will be on the order of two posts per week plus or minus one or two. I notice that there are art blogs that do just fine at that pace, which means that readers learn to drop by a few times a week rather than daily.

Let me close by stating my profound gratitude to Ray Sawhill for giving me the opportunity to be a junior blogger on a blog I truly loved.