The Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp and the NoVA Live Music Mingle Fundraiser

2025-11-16T00:00:00-05:00

The Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp is now available online. But I'm more excited about the NoVA Live Music Mingle Meetup fundraiser I participated in last night to benefit disabled adults in Northern Virginia.

16 Nov 2025
Tags: Bazel, Bzlmod, EngFlow, personal, technical

The Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp v1.0.0 that I delivered at the BazelCon Training Day this past November 9 is available online:

The EngFlow-Academy/bzlmod-bootcamp example project is available under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
The slides are available as a PDF asset linked from the v1.0.0 release page.
The Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp session from BazelCon is available on YouTube.

Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp at BazelCon in Atlanta, GA on 2025-11-09

Big thanks to the BazelCon organizers for commissioning this work, and to EngFlow for approving the dedication of my time to the task.

However, as proud as I am of this project, I’m glad it’s over. It was a labor of love, but I’m looking forward to a break from the subject for a little while. And I’m even more excited about the Music for a Cause fundraiser event that I helped organize for the NoVA Live Music Mingle Meetup group.

I’ve been part of the Meetup group for a little over two years now, becoming most active since January 2024. Since that time, I’ve attended dozens and dozens of performances by local and touring bands throughout Northern Virginia. I’ve grown close to the organizers and other regulars, the group has grown substantially, and I’ve stepped up to host a few events. On top of that, several of us have gotten to know quite a few local musicians and venue owners.

Sometime in the past few months, that has led to the group connecting with a couple of local charities. That, in turn, led to us hosting this fundraiser:

StudioRock helps fund music programs, instruments, and lessons for kids who deserve the gift of music. Mark Campayno, guitarist of local band Bad Panda, founded this group fifteen years ago, and has mentored many students who’ve since pursued successful music careers.
Specially Adapted Resource Centers (SPARC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides day programs for disabled adults across Northern Virginia. They also advocate for accessibility accommodations throughout the community on behalf of the disabled adult population. Mark and his wife, Wendy, recently connected with SPARC to explore the possibility of developing a music therapy program as part of SPARC’s offerings.

Jeanette Pagliuco and Ann Ball organized last night’s fundraiser (for which I served as Master of Ceremonies) at Ned Devine’s to benefit SPARC via StudioRock. It was an amazing time, and we raised quite a bit of money (still counting it up).

Four local bands dedicated their time and talent last night, and they sounded good:

5 Cent Lucy
Ken’s Garage Band
Bad Panda (Mark Campayno’s band)
Billy “T” Wilde

Jeanette and Ann put together thirteen themed gift baskets as raffle prizes:

80’s Music
Pickleball
Coffee
Holiday Cheer (x3)
Awesome Autumn
Washington Commanders
Spa (x2)
Dog Lovers
Movie Night
Rock Your Socks Off (as in, literal socks)

Plus, they assembled the following silent auction items:

A guitar signed by every band member that performed in the fundraiser (Jeanette secured the guitar, Ann secured the pens, and I secured the signatures)
A chance to perform a song live on stage at a future performance with each of our fundraiser bands
A chance to perform a song live on stage with local bands Hijynx and Collective
Special concert experiences with Doc Marten and the Flannels and Herr Metal
From our close friends, The Pool Boys: two T-shirts, guitar picks, drumsticks from a gig, an autographed poster, and drinks for two with the band
Four tickets to “An Incidental New Years Eve Bash” in Arlington, VA hosted by Steven TheIncident Castano

As Master of Ceremonies, I finally got to get on stage! Not with a guitar, but you know, baby steps…

Anyway, I had the honor and pleasure talking a little bit about our Meetup group and our fundraiser before introducing each band. Ann had the idea of me “interviewing” the first two bands with fun questions, and then having “band trivia” when they were done. On top of that, Ned’s owner, Gordon Masterson, donated four $25 gift cards that I gave as prizes to the trivia winners.

Of course, as is my nature, I created an online document to prepare for the evening. I used it to clarify the details with Ann, Jeanette, Mark, and members of each band, so folks knew what was happening with no surprises:

A brief outline of when I’d be getting up on stage before and after each band and what I’d be saying
A page of brief details about NoVA Live Music Mingle, StudioRock, SPARC, and the raffle and silent auction prizes
A section to collect information on each band, as well as the “interview” questions, that I validated with each band ahead of time
Notes on when Mark and Wendy would talk about the charities, and when I’d announce the raffle and silent auction results

Of course, I didn’t read my doc like a robot, and things didn’t go exactly according to plan. It wouldn’t be rock 'n' roll if everything did! (See: This is Spinal Tap) But it did go pretty smoothly overall. I ended up telling several folks about one of my favorite quotes, attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

By the way, the Quote Investigator page for that quote has a great summary:

“The details of a plan which was designed years in advance are often incorrect, but the planning process demands the thorough exploration of options and contingencies. The knowledge gained during this probing is crucial to the selection of appropriate actions as future events unfold.”

In this way, the Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp and my NoVA Live Music Mingle fundraiser planning doc share some DNA. Both were a lot of fun in the moment, as my extensive preparation enabled me to execute confidently even when deviating from the plan. I had a role to play in creating a space where people could come together and have a good time—and I loved it!

Sounds a lot like playing guitar in a band and performing live, doesn’t it?

I have played with someone recently, and it went so well we’re planning to do it again soon. (Had to get the Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp and NoVA Live Music Mingle fundraiser out of the way first.) Given that development, and the opportinity to grow into a role in the local music community, maybe my dream is slowly beginning to come true.

Before I forget, I want to thank all the bands and other folks I mentioned already. I’d also like to thank the Ned Devine’s staff for their great service, and Gordon for providing the venue and event support. I’m grateful not only for everyone’s generosity, but for the opportunity to be a part of this effort. We were able to use NoVA Live Music Mingle’s influence to do something genuinely good for people, while having a blast supporting local live music.

And of course, a very special thanks to Ann and Jeanette for entrusting me with so much responsibility to support the wonderful event they organized. I’m already looking forward to helping make it happen again one (or more than one) day!

Bzlmod: Maintaining Compatibility, Part 4

2025-10-09T00:00:00-04:00

My twelfth (and possibly final) EngFlow Bzlmod blog post covers how to write a test to validate compatibility with older Bazels and dependencies. I'm also really excited for the Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp at BazelCon.

09 Oct 2025
Tags: Bazel, Bzlmod, EngFlow, rules_scala, technical

My twelfth blog post for the the EngFlow Bzlmod series is out. It describes how to validate that a Bazel rule set or other reusable module remains compatible with older Bazels and other older dependencies.

Migrating to Bazel Modules (a.k.a. Bzlmod) - Maintaining Compatibility, Part 4

As always, feel free to comment on the LinkedIn announcement corresponding to this post or the Bzlmod Slack announcement in the #bzlmod channel.

In other news, I’m getting more and more excited about leading the Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp at BazelCon in Atlanta, Georgia on November 9. I recently led a early preview/rough demo session in NYC with several folks from EngFlow customers and prospects, and it went really well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and get value out of it, and it reenergized me and yielded extremely helpful feedback on how to streamline it. I’ve been lazer focused on getting both the slides and example project really tight, and I’m super happy with it.

If you aren’t able to attend the BazelCon session, I’m hopeful that we may offer it again sometime soon, in one form or another. Stay tuned!

Bzlmod: Maintaining Compatibility, Part 3

2025-09-03T00:00:00-04:00

My eleventh EngFlow Bzlmod blog post covers Bazel testing strategies and techniques I learned from working on rules_scala. Speaking of which, I've a bit of an announcement to make about that.

03 Sep 2025
Tags: Bazel, Bzlmod, EngFlow, rules_scala, technical

My eleventh blog post for the the EngFlow Bzlmod series is out. It explains how to effectively test Bazel projects, especially Bazel rule sets, in a hybrid Bzlmod and legacy WORKSPACE world. It describes how to test different Bazel versions against the latest dependency versions, and how to run the test suite locally and in continuous integration.

Migrating to Bazel Modules (a.k.a. Bzlmod) - Maintaining Compatibility, Part 3

As always, feel free to comment on the LinkedIn announcement corresponding to this post or the Bzlmod Slack announcement in the #bzlmod channel.

And in other news, Simonas Pinevičius has appointed Wojciech Mazur and myself as new co-maintainers of rules_scala. It’s an honor, and I hope to do well by the community.

Mike Bland

The Bzlmod Migration Bootcamp and the NoVA Live Music Mingle Fundraiser

Bzlmod: Maintaining Compatibility, Part 4

Bzlmod: Maintaining Compatibility, Part 3