Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

Sept. 18, 2006
To: Tony Mims
From: Joan Brann

I attended your program ?exploring metaphysical arts? on Thursday September 14th. Your lecture was interesting and your knowledge of the subject stimulating and most informative.

The readings you did on me and my daughter were right on target. I have listened to and read much in the field of Astrology and never have I heard someone do readings just using the date and year of one?s birth. Most Astrologers need time and place of birth to do what you so easily did with much less information.

I hope that you will do more such programs in the future.

I also attended the Raga music performance on Saturday morning. Loved it!

What a lovely place to have for those of us who live in Vallejo!

Many Thanks.
Joan

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The details:
Picnic in the Park
Saturday, September 23rd at Noon
City Park (Louisiana and Marin St)

We’ll be providing free burgers, sides and drinks. Our purpose is to come up with creative ideas to increase positive usage of the park. We’ll be discussing ongoing crime control, finding a use for the building that is currently boarded up, and looking for activities or improvements that would get people to make more use of the park.

Everyone welcome, kids and dogs encouraged.

More information available at www.preservecitypark.org.

Thanks,

Thom Howard
649-8244

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Dear L&BH,

Being a writer myself, one of the easiest tasks a writer can do when tackling a story, is to get a name spelled right – especially when the writer has specifically asked ?can you spell your name for me?.

So when I read Martha Mims? blurb on the [tag]Mira Theatre Guild[/tag] in the September L&BH issue, which I was interviewed for, and noticed that not one, but both parts of my name were spelled incorrectly, I knew she she couldn?t possibly get the story right.

And she didn?t.

Elements were correct, but Ms. Mims claims ?this committee seems to have little regard for the history or the mission of the Mira Theatre Guild, and a whole lot of concern for the value of the property that this small and run down theatre is standing on…..?

That is not true. I have not been embroiled, personally, in the on-going legal battle with the former Mira president since April, for the property. I have been involved in the battle because I want to see the theatre return to the theatre community and a Board of Directors whom, for one thing, pay bills. What this reviewer seems to be more interested in herself is the amount of money raised at our ?party?. Frankly, that?s none of her business.

What was asked of me at the time of the interview, but was omitted from her story, was the message I wanted to convey to the readers. My message is this: Be patient and supportive. We, the 2005-2006 Board of Directors, hope to get Mira Theatre up and running soon. Unfortunately, we were locked out of the theatre building before the court case by the former president, and we now are restricted, as is the former president, by the Solano Court. Our involvement in Mira is for Mira to operate as a Guild again, as it was intended. We want Mira to return to the theatre it once was. We have no other agenda.

Sincerely, Stacey Loew

editor?s note: the editor regrets her spelling error and has corrected it in the archives. she stands by the rest of her story.

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Artists in the News

Congrats 2006 [tag]JPF Music Awards A Cappella Nominees[/tag]

Hey Everyone,

We were nominated for Best Acappella Album for Bridges and Best Acappella Performance for Boom Baby!

This is a grassroots organization (just plain folks) I am gonna see about attending the awards show.

Please share this with all your fans, family and friends, the public can?t vote, but can spread the word.

In the music,

From: JPFolksPro@aol.com
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:43:45 EDT
Subject: Congrats 2006 JPF Music Awards A Cappella Nominees

Hi 2006 A Cappella Nominees,

I wanted to send notes to each of the A Cappella category nominees to make sure you didn?t miss the announcement earlier this week. Email and spam filters sometimes gobble up stuff like this, so in case you missed it, congrats on your 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards Nominations. If you?re reading this you (or someone you represent) were nominated this year!

We added A Cappella as a new Genre this year because of the combined talent of all of you blew us away so much we had to give you your own categories for Performance and Albums. (A few of you got additional songwriting and cover nominations as well).

We?re looking forward to meeting some of you at the awards show in November. If you missed the announcements, please take a moment to read the info I included below. It has links to the nominee lists, awards show info and other answers to questions you might have. If I can be of any assistance, don?t hesitate to email me directly at .

We?ll be sending additional emails/updates between now and the awards show on November 4th. And if you can?t make the show, we?ll post the winners on the website and in the newsletter.

Congrats again!

Brian

Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks

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Hi 2006 Just Plain Folks Award Nominees!

I want to congratulate all of you on receiving nominations in this years JPF Music Awards. In case you missed the announcement earlier this week, we had 25,500+ albums and 350,000+ songs entered for the awards this year (including yours) and we announced nominees in 81 album and 67 song categories. This year?s nominees come from over 70 countries around the world and include seasoned well known veterans and some of the best up and coming artists and writers in the music community. We spent 13 months screening all the music 1 song at a time and we couldn?t be more proud of and impressed with this year?s slate of nominees.

The [tag]Just Plain Folks Music Awards[/tag] are entirely volunteer run but are already the largest and most diverse music awards of any kind in the world. If you?d like to read a great article on the last awards show/process, here?s a link to an Article from Singer Magazine that summarizes what it?s all about very well:

Some of you reading this may not be familiar with JPF because a representative or manager entered your music on your behalf. [tag]JPF[/tag] is a 40,000+ member grassroots music organization for artists, songwriters and industry professionals, focused on networking, education, support and the inspiration of our community peers. We?re completely free and 100% volunteer run. We started in 1998 with 60 members and have grown to become one of the largest music organizations in the world. We welcome all genres of music, all levels of experience and if you scroll through the categories you?ll see we leave practically no stone unturned. Our primary directive to all judges in every round is ?Does It Move You?? All music is blind screened and judged solely on it?s own merit. Every song and album is listened to throughout each of the 6 rounds it went through to get nominated (Yes, that?s a LOT of screening!). The folks nominated this year obviously moved a lot of people! Congrats to all of you again.

Here?s some important information for those of you who didn?t see our general member email on Monday and may just now be learning about your nomination(s):

1. Nominations are linked on our home page for Songs, Albums, Videos and Lyrics.

Note: If you think it looks like we had a LOT of nominations, consider that less than 1 in 300 songs got a nomination. In larger categories the number was less than 1 in 1000.

2. The awards show is scheduled for Saturday, November 4th in Santa Ana, CA. (Near Disneyland). This is the same location we used for the last awards and they treated us all great. Here?s a link to ticket info and the schedule:

Note: There?s no requirement to attend the awards show to win an award. If you win something and aren?t present, we will send your trophy to you after the show. That said, it?s more fun if you?re there and we?d love to meet as many of you in person as possible.

3. We are starting to book performers for the show. If you are planning to attend and would like to be considered to perform, please email me directly at . In your email please place ?Awards Performance? in the subject and include the following:

1. Your name and your band/artist name (in case their different)
2. Your phone number
3. Your website
4. What categories you were nominated in (some artists/writers got multiple nominations)
5. What type of performance did you have in mind? (Full band, solo, stage theatrics, full orchestra and choir, exotic mammals juggling nerf balls… you know.. whatever it is that makes you special! = ) )

We know you?re all talented or you wouldn?t be nominated. So we?re looking to schedule a lot of fun and diversity with some emotion and passion and of course we want everyone to be show stoppers. We?ve been fortunate enough to present that level of talent each year and we?re confident this year will be amazing as well. We plan to schedule 25 artists to perform a song each during the show. We?ll be supplying a full backline. So if you?re interested in performing, email me and let me know what you?d like to do on the live show.

4. We are also getting ready to start the final round judging process. We use 3 groups to judge: Industry Professionals, Artist/Songwriter Peers and Music Fans. We welcome all nominees to get involved in the judging process (of categories you?re not nominated in of course). We have a few simply guidelines if you?d like to get involved. Here?s a link: We had over 4000 judges involved in the last JPF Awards.

That?s enough info to dump on you for now. If you have any questions like ?how in the heck did this happen?? I am happy to answer them personally. Just email me at and make sure you tell me who you are so I know who I am corresponding with.

Congrats again!

Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks
www.jpfolks.com