Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

Dear Listen & Be Heard,

I am so sorry that the print edition will no longer be available. It was my favorite medium for your publication. I understand, however, why you had to quit printing. The arts community that you so enthusiastically embrace and support in every issue has ignored Listen & Be Heard almost entirely. I kept thinking, ?What a great service we provide! What a wonderful thing we do by publishing LBH monthly (weekly until May 2006). The arts community will LOVE this!?

But month after month, I waited for any one of the community to say, ?Thanks,? with their advertising dollars, and support us in return. With very few exceptions (notably VAG/VMT) arts organizations, dance companies, and theatre groups from Oakland to Vacaville continued to advertise elsewhere, while ignoring us. They supported the mainstream papers that ignored their art openings, theatre productions and music concerts (and if, at minimum, they even tried to list events: good luck getting them to print correct dates or show times!). LBH may not be perfect (and if mistakes were made in the calendars, I accept full responsibility), but at least we did everything humanly possible to list events, and get the word out to the community about who was doing what, when and where.

Beyond that, the magazine extensively reviewed local plays, music, restaurants, authors, and a wide variety of other entertainment offerings. Rarely did any of these reviews receive feedback of any kind, let alone support for our continued efforts.

I just don?t get it. They support the media that ignore them and ignore the media that supports them.

I know that you will continue to support the arts community through your website and will continue to publish fresh words and pictures every Wednesday, but I am going to miss the hard copy. And I am going to miss the best job I ever had. I loved working for LBH and loved being of service to the arts community in Vallejo and beyond.

Keep up the good work. Many of us appreciate what you do.

Cyndi Combs

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