Posted by sublimestitcher on 2005-10-27 11:22:53
Post Subject: Help PUNK PLANET!
Hey good people,
I haven't been posting much these days (reading, just not posting) and wanted to share this info here. Punk Planet is wonderfully supportive of our crafty community. They actively showcases DIY designers.... and they need our help.
Due to hardships with their distributor, they need our support NOW. Please subscribe, advertise your little DIY biz (ads are super cheap!) or read about what you can do to help.....xo Jenny
(ps- I'll have new patterns Nov 1 !!!)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Fellow independent business owner, label runner, band, zinester, etc...
Word is starting to filter out about the situation that we at Punk Planet have found ourselves in in the last week. I've gotten a number of e-mails from some of you asking for more information. I think it's probably easier to just send out a note to our advertiser list so that everyone has the same information.
A week ago we received a letter from the president of the Independent Press Association, the not-for-profit organization that owns the company that distributes the majority of Punk Planet's copies, BigTop Newsstand Services. The letter acknowledged the truth of a rumor that had been running through indie publishing circles for months now: the distributor was having cash flow problems. Payments to publishers for magazines already distributed had been and would continue to be effected for an unknown amount of time. In case you don't operate a magazine, the money coming in from newsstand sales is vital to publishers' bottom line. For a magazine like Punk Planet, where our ad rates remain very low to cater to independent businesses like yours, those distributor payments are even more critical.
This news leaves us in a tight spot: BigTop is the last distributor in the country that specializes in distributing independent press magazines like Punk Planet. When we started 12 years ago, there were close to a half dozen such distributors; each one that has gone belly up dragged a few magazines with it. Because BigTop is owned by the IPA, an organization whose mission is to "amplify" the voice of the independent press, we don't expect that they will go out of business; but we also don't know when we will see the money we are owed.
What does this mean for the future of Punk Planet? The truth is we don't yet know.
But we do know that we can't sit around and wait for that future to simply come to us. And so, on Monday we began the task of getting the word out. We sent out a call to our subscriber list for help: we asked them to renew their subscriptions, buy additional merchandise, and--most importantly--pass the message along. Word has spread and the support has been overwhelming. In fact, we expected to be sending this message to you much earlier in the week, but have been scrambling to fill the mailorder that has flowed in consistently for days.
Now that we have a moment, we wanted to let you know where things stand for Punk Planet, but also let you know that there are ways that you can help too:
1. Please consider buying an ad, subscribing, or purchasing some merchandise from our webstore today. (http://www.ppmerchtable.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv) If you already run ads with us, please consider upgrading your ad size, or just recommitting to running ads regularly. An immediate influx of cash will allow us to pay off back debts--to contributors, printers, web hosts, etc.--and better enable us to weather any coming storm caused by nonpayment from our distributor.
2. Please forward this information--or this whole email--on to your lists and friends, and specifically ask them to advertise, subscribe directly, or buy merchandise from us. The independent music and arts community has always been one of mutual support; now we are forced to request specific financial support. Ask them to consider donating to the Community Supported Journalism Fund. It's a small-fund donations program, made up almost exclusively of donations of less than $20, but it's already allowed us to put out the amazing END OF RADIO cover story of PP69: four full articles on different aspects of radio creation and tons of teeny interviews with audio experts: (http://www.independentsdaymedia.com/csj/). It wouldn't have been possible without support from our readers!
3. Please continue to support independent print media. The payment issues effecting us are not singular--there are others in the same predicament that need your support as well.
4. We are in the process of planning various benefit shows, and will be approaching many of you soon about helping with that as well.
Thanks so much for your work and support over the years; we look forward to working with you for many more years to come.
Posted by stprcsm on 2004-12-02 13:39:32
Post Subject:
I have a harmonica and several "how to" books, I picked them up at the music and arts store. I think the harp was like $10 with a case and cleaning cloth. I never got the hang of reading the music and I usually just jam/copy what I hear on blues songs. There are also alot of site online you can find songs.
there are several types, depending on which key you get. The music is straight forward enough, its basically the number which corresponds to the hole(s) you need to blow into.
