Before I forget, because of the MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY, there will be no CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE newsletter on Monday, May 31st. Also, we will be publishing our MEMBERS ONLY newsletter on Friday (tomorrow) this week, instead of Saturday.
Good news: PIZZA ON THE PARK in London, scheduled to close this week, has been given a reprieve and now will continue with performances until September. No details - this was an item that came in via TWITTER.
Once again we're publishing a little late today, mainly due the the many press releases received that were designed more as "puff" than giving real content. Many are filled with press quotes from other publications, which have to be stripped away, sometimes leaving only a few sentences of actual facts and figures. And some so called "press releases" come in all formatted and blocked out with fancy type and titles, when I convert the item to text for the newsletter, everything becomes a jumble.
There's a problem if I take some of the items verbatim. A few years back I found a flier at DON'T TELL MAMA that had a terrific quote from me. Problem was, I had never seen this performer ever. I even went back into my previous issues and through the website pages, and the only reference I ever made to this performer was in a news item prior to their previous show, in which I lazily used some of the flowery phrasing from their press release. The performer had clipped this out with the preface: Stu Hamstra of CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE says....and repeated the words he had sent me in his release! Lesson learned. I trim adjectives from nearly every release unless I've actually seen the performer and agree with the description.
I have also started to stop using information from the various cabaret user group mailings I'm subscribed to, since they tend to be written as invitations in a conversational style rather than press releases style. The vital information (venue address, date, time, etc.) is usually left to the very end of the item (with some items overlooked), whereas I prefer to give as much information in the first sentence or two on the newsletter item as possible.
So, in spite of the fact that we began constructing the newsletter yesterday afternoon, we just began this "HERE & THERE" section around noon - even after skipping a number of news items for further rewriting for next issue!
You know, it doesn't pay to worry. Looking forward to the long weekend, the rent payment due, and the fact that only one sponsor had come forward to help with our 25th Anniversary show, I must admit I was a bit discouraged this week (and sort of under "house arrest" due to low bank/wallet balance). And minutes ago, I received a generous CRYSTAL membership donation from someone in Australia who has been following on Twitter - not even a subscriber to the newsletter yet! And within 5 minutes there was a second sponsor signing on! Plus a 3rd one who will send a PayPal payment after the holiday weekend. The sparrow is flying again! If you wish to be a sponsor, please seen one of the items below.
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