HERE & THERE - PART I
I'm sort of happy to report that with this issue we've used up all the news items for May! If your press release item isn't in this issue - and isn't already on the website in the Cabaret Listings section, you had better send it again! Remember the rule: A flier is not a press release. The same goes if you send me an "invite" - those complicated, multi-column affairs with imbedded photos, etc. I usually cannot use them, since often important information is graphic rather than type. Just look at any of the items in the listings - especially the longer ones - to see what I am looking for.
I received one "listing" the other day about an event coming up over the Memorial Day weekend that was just on sentence! It was very nearly a "tweet" - name of club, date & time and name of performer, and little else! And someone else, from Los Angeles sent me, via regular mail, a release for a show on May 7th & 8th (mailed on April 26th) that didn't arrive in my box until Monday the 10th! This is an internet publication - I do not need a piece of paper with the information. Send everything - including jpg photos as attachments (not imbedded in the document) - by email. Save on postage, save walking to the mailbox (anyone notice about half the mailboxes around town have disappeared?).
One extra caveat: If you are only posting items on the MAC, BACA, CCP group lists instead of sending items to me directly, don't assume that I will catch them and add them the the newsletter & website. And, most importantly, I am not a member of FaceBook. Don't miss out on the free promotion that CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE offers you by forgetting to send me your releases and show information.
Thanks for all who sent in comments and promised to send a card to Margaret Whiting in response to our mention in the last issue - I'm sure your thoughts and prayers will be appreciated. And we remind you all of another friend, Gregory Kennell, who remains at St. Elizabeth Ann's Health Care & Rehabilitation Facility on Staten Island. There was an episode a week or so ago that made it necessary for him to be temporarily moved to a regular hospital, but now he has returned to continue his rehabilitation. For the information of new subscribers, Greg is undergoing the therapeutic process necessary to help him regain motor skills and return to a normal life after almost two months in a coma at St. Vincent's Hospital as a result of demyelinating encephalitis and related consequences. Mr. Kennell is a former member of the MAC Board of Directors, and over the years designed fliers, advertisements and logos (including the logo for CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE) for performers, organizations and clubs. Please continue to remember him in your thoughts and prayers as well.
I've decided not to wait any longer for a show order/song list for the MAC AWARDS event held on May 4th - I've written about 90% and will finish it tomorrow and put it on the website. If I miss (or misspell) anyone's name, or have the order of the show slightly out of kilter, or don't include the name of a song or two, please excuse. I've included some comments about the overall MAC awards system as well. It's not a show review - its a report of the evening. I'll let you know on TWITTER when it is up and running.
The first 65 membership cards were sent out Tuesday - valid through July 5, 2011. I am hoping to get to 200 members by July 6th, which is the "official" 20th Anniversary of CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE (and my 71st birthday as well). As I've recounted so many times, the publication started with a report on my birthday celebration in 1990, sent to a few dozen friends and family. Folks wanted more, so we bagan sending out brief letters (by regular mail, back then, since the internet was just in its infancy). We didn't switch to an email edition until 1997. We now send out over 2700 issues of CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE twice a week, a MEMBERS ONLY issue every Saturday, plus we maintain this CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE website visited by as many as 10,000 a day (average is about 6,000) and a second website ( http://www.CabaretSings.com/ ) where performers can connect with songwriters. Then there's this which is updated daily with news of cabaret, including items taken from the newsletter and the website. There are 4 TWITTER streams, including my personal account http://twitter.com/stuhamstrawhere I make mostly corny comments on the passing scene (and not just cabaret).
Your membership donations help keep this all going (I'm retired now form the 9-to-5 scene) so if you enjoy and appreciate what this is all about, and our efforts to promŒote the art and the artists of cabaret, here's your chance to support our efforts. Just click on the button marked JOIN HERE at the top of every page on the website for details on all the levels and benefits of membership (which start at $5) or click here
I had an unanticipated expense yesterday that took me away from the computer for several hours. I spilled just a few drops of coffee on my computerkeyboard on Tuesday morning - not much but enough to make the letters "s" and "x" inoperable. I actually was able to use a workaround "virtual keyboard" that's on every MAC in order to send out information to the members who joined for the new year, while I waited for some membership or banner payments to come in. So yesterday, around 10:30 am, I headed to the Apple Store at the opposite end of 14th Street (at 10th Avenue) to purchase a new one. It's a simple bus ride that actually takes me from my front door on 10th Street, up Avenue C, and across town. But around 10:15 am, a huge fire broke out in a row of stores on 14th Street at the corner of Avenue A. So we had gone just 1 block on 14th, turned left on B, then to 10th Street (one block from where we started) then across to A, then left to 9th Street and across to First Avenue and back to 14th to go across town! Instead of the usual 45 minutes, it took nearly 90! I was meeting my pal Daniel at the store, and of course we spent some time checking out the new iPads. and then decided to have lunch out before attempting to go back across town on 14th Street. City living can be fun, most of the time, but it certainly is exciting all of the time!
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