Thursday, May 04, 2017

Willard's Wormholes 2007-2017

The greatest download site in the history of the intertubes...


...is no more.

If, like me, you were worried that Willard had either had some kind of personal crisis, or had been shut down by the Intertube Police, not to fear: I e-mailed him yesterday and he said that, no, it had been ten years and he figured it was time for him to retire and do other things. I think I speak for many when I say -- good luck with that. You're a mensch, and our music collections would be much the poorer if not for your work over the years.

I'm still pissed that I never got around to downloading the soundtrack to the original Outer Limits, however.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

The demise of Willard has been like a death in the family. No, it's actually worse ... there are none of them I couldn't wait to see and spend time with every day (not that crazy about my family)
Anyway Willard, keep well and thanks for all the fish.

nemo said...

Seconded. Very thoroughly seconded.

Anonymous said...

I think I have a copy of that Dominic Frontiere release here right next to the jar with the aborted fetus of Bertram Cabot Jr.

You need the single or triple? Amazon and ebay and youtube usually have both.

VR riding the whelming brine of space, where every port is a shining one, and none are beyond our reach.

buzzbabyjesus said...

I too emailed Willard and received a similar response. I'm just glad nothing bad happened. I thanked him and said it would take years to wade through all the stuff I've downloaded.

FD13NYC said...

I'm very disappointed in the retirement of The Wormhole, but I do wish him well. Am grateful for the treasure trove of material I downloaded from the site.

Kim Dixon said...

Steve - thanks so much for the info.

When WWs went dark, I had the same dark thoughts as you did. It's good to know that Willard's OK, and that the site was not ruined by the corporate greedheads that have ruined so much else in entertainment.

I'll especially miss his "Drive-in" movies and his commentary.

Thanks again, Steve. You're the best - since Stereo Review!

Anonymous said...

For all the garbage, mis-information, sensationalism, scary politics, etc. the internet has brought us...

I celebrate the community of music geeks that Messrs Willard and Simels have allowed me to link to. Going back to Stereo Review. I owe at least half of my musical obsessions to you both.

So thanks. Thanks. And THANKS.

It does matter a lot in the end.

Be well Willard. You made a difference here.

sluggo said...

I get it, gonna miss it but hey the guy did us all a huge favour for a long time thanks Willard.

Unknown said...

I am also glad that he is well and safe. I just wish that he had warned us, or at least left a page that said something like "It's been 10 years, thanks, but I need to go do other things". someone with his email addr should send him a note saying "You got fanz, and you should put up an index.html note saying what happened."
I really dug the Wormhole. It was an important source of music for me. Now I got the sads....

M_Sharp said...

Thanks for the info, I han't been there in about a week and suddenly it's gone. He was always a very knowledgable and entertaining writer and I got a lot of great music there. I would have been a fan even without the downloads, I hope he continues to write about music.

Unknown said...

Such a shame :(
Thank you Willard! RIP WW!

roberto Heijmans said...

Thanks very much Captain Willard.. I have learned so much of new (old) music thanks to you.
Hope you will live long and healthy and enjoy your life with all the beautiful music that you have learned me and us about... MANY THANKS

From Roberto Heijmans in the Netherlands...

slr in tx said...

Relieved to hear that Willard is well. I, too, feared something sinister was afoot. I went on a massive downloading binge about 3 weeks ago and just *knew* that all the traffic had drawn unwelcome scrutiny. Happily, my first-line paranoid response proved false. Happily, I made a good run at it just in time. But i'm still paranoid...

Thanks for everything, you splendid soul!

Anonymous said...

He couldn't have left it up?

Brian said...

Willard's was the BEST! Sad that he is gone, but I wish him all the best....

S D Joe said...

Thank God he's in good health, and chose to leave (unescorted by the online Gestapo).

The first few weeks of no-Willard was a cold and scary place, as the drop-off to whoever holds the #2 slot is a watch-that-first-step steep one. It's still a dust bowl w/o him, but now at least it's a sepia-tinted dust bowl, and more importantly, the Legend of Willard can be told without anyone shivering round the campfire anticipating some awful denouement. As endings go, give me bittersweet over tragic every time.

God bless you, Willard! Your legend will live on!

Anonymous said...

Here it is. The soundtrack to the original Outer Limits;

http://www43.zippyshare.com/v/16zkZA7q/file.html

steve simels said...

Thanks. But Willard already sent it to me.
:-)

hrockstar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hrockstar said...

That man did the Lord's work and never let us down.

I feel luck I had a year with it.

Anonymous said...

I miss the community who were active on the site. Amazing to see all those garage band postings as well as the generous people who helped out those searching for obscurities. I hope the community can gather again somewhere. I'm sorry Willard didn't see it that way.

S D Joe said...

To the gentleman mourning the loss of the Ol' Wormhole Gang...never say never. (But don't hold your breath, either.)

And of course mille grazie to Steve Simels for giving the rest of us a sense of closure, however melancholy, which still beats months of chasing shadows and peeping round corners while calling out "Willard? Izzat you?"

WmPerry said...

Thanks- I can stop reloading to see if its returned (not every 5 minutes- every couple days - i'm not mental) I'm also relieved it was his decision. It was so large and helpful and explorable that it really was a library or idiosyncratic museum. And you start to think of it as a public resource organization rather than a guy typing on a computer. And it wasn't even his job. How the hell do you get that accomplished without it consuming the rest of your life? Powers of organizatio and focus i cant imagine.
Don't let Ride Your Pony from TwilightZone know that this is an option though, there'd be endless weeping. A respectful nod to 2 other retired blogs: SirCharliePalmer and YoungMossTongue

Taylor said...

Willard kicked ass on his blog for a decade and we all benefited from it. Like others above, I too kept refreshing the URL every day in hopes I was missing it or it was a late April Fool's joke.

Willard, (If you might read all of this), we wish you well, and thank you for your catholic tastes and great commentary. Long may you ride.

The explorer said...

Man, and I had some stuff I was going to ask if he was interested in, oh well, he will be missed.

RicksterVC said...

Glad it was the good Cap'n's choice to go, but it was my first stop when I opened my computer for so long, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Good luck to Willard, you will be missed!

Anonymous said...

Music is no longer a stock for me. It is a flow. And the greatest source, the Ganges of my music world, was Willard. I miss it like I miss being a teenager.

WmPerry said...

And man, eand itarlier tonight in the sidebar blogroll, there's Willards wormholes and it says it posted freshly 3 hrs ago = Some sleaze4 greedfuck squattiing his klickbait movie site in willards domain.
Everyday the internet shows me reasons for a visceral dislike of people And that a majority of humans lack even the ability to understand who they are or what they do beyond the imaginary 'thumbs up' they're getting from their messed-up caricature role models.
Maybe someone has the tools to curtail at least this ugly development