Editorial

You may notice that this month's "Onstage" listings are shorter than usual, and therein lies this month's editorial.

As mentioned a couple of months ago, the RAG's free listings take an extremely long time to compile from literally hundreds of newsletters, press releases and e-mails. It's always been a tedious job, but I've felt it was necessary to encourage as many readers as possible to attend the very fine musical events happening throughout the world. I find, however, that now I must make some changes in how the "Onstage" section is handled. It's no secret to the RAG's regular readers that I've been facing health challenges for the past three years, so it will probably come as no surprise to know that medical treatments have affected both my energy and my eyesight. This has hampered my ability to extract the necessary information from sometimes densely written and/or incomplete source material.

So, in order to simplify things, I am asking that those who wish to be listed in "Onstage" send me e-mails in the following format by the middle of the month prior to publication:

NAME OF ARTIST
Date: Time, venue, city, state. Contact information. Gig information should be given in chronological order. Include info on the upcoming month and two weeks into the next month if you would like.

Don't direct me to a website. There are hundreds of artist websites and very often the gigs information is provided in a graphic form that cannot easily be copied and pasted into our "Onstage" format. Plus, there is no time to visit all those sites and still get the rest of the RAG ready for release in any sort of timely manner.

If newsletters have easily accessible information, I will continue to pull the information from those, but too many include venue street addresses but not the towns, cities, suburbs or area codes necessary to provide complete information to our readers. This is understandable, considering that most newsletters go to local jazz and ragtime fans, but it would be helpful if newsletter editors could add information for those of us outside their areas. RAG readers have always been travelers, so you never know who might show up at a local gig if they know where it is!

I also encourage readers to check our regional columns. Our columnists are very good about trying to notify readers of upcoming events, some of which don't make it into "Onstage."

Thanks for your help in getting the word out so that as many fans as possible can hear this wonderful music.

Sincerely,

Editor/Publisher

Viewpoints

Editorial