We change our website a lot. We redesign. We try new content management systems. We put up a blog and then just when we’re all getting good and comfortable with it, we move it into our site, and then we fiddle with it a bit more, and then we tweet off to twitter around on Twitter and Facebook and whatever other cool new thing the kids were trying out last year. We’re easily distracted, and there’s all kinds of new stuff out there to play with, and more every single day.

So why this long semi-explanation? Because after a too-long hiatus, the Barrelhouse online archives are back in full effect.

The move onto this latest platform was necessitated by a full on database flame-out that we couldn’t for the life of us figure out how to fix (open source software is awesome, but it does have it’s drawbacks). So when we moved, it was one of those throwing things into garbage bags and tossing them into the back of the pickup kind of moves. As a result, we never quite got around to moving over all the stuff from the old site, and the one before that, and the one before that, and the old, old, original one, from way back in the day.

That’s all fixed now, I’m happy to say, and shit, there’s some great stuff in there. You’ll find work from people like Mary Miller, Blake Butler, Claire Zulkey, Anne Germanacos, Dan Pope (whose “The Bard Crichton” we at Barrelhouse even kind of forgot about, even though it’s hilarious), and even some work from your humble Barrelhouse editorial squadron, from back in the day when we weren’t getting the kind of submissions we are now.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll touch yourself in a funny way and marvel at the great shit that we’ve been putting online for something like three years now. Head on over and take a look.