14 days left and we are still in nail-biting mode. I know a lot of people procrastinate, wait until the last minute or two to make the lifesaving pledge, but in the meantime it’s downright scary.
Scary because all this time, ever since the idea of preserving history and Popular Culture and making it available on a website, there has been really no way of knowing if this is important to most people – or any people at all or not.
The biggest problem with our current state of technology; our embrace of the Internet, is the isolation that comes along with it. I work roughly 12-14 hours a day, putting posts together, preserving and digitizing sound and making it available. I never know for sure if anyone is listening, reading or caring. It’s all relegated to numbers; traffic that shows up and spends time looking and listening. Sometimes you respond. Sometimes you flame. Sometimes you spam. And that’s about the only way I really know if what I’m doing is actually getting to someone. Maybe one person out of millions. Not great or even respectable odds. But the way I look at it – if one person gets something out of what I’m trying to do, then it’s worth it; all the hours and all the nail-biting will not have been for nothing.
But much of the time, particularly now during our emergency fundraiser, there are times I don’t feel as though I’m making much dent to anyone, anywhere. And that can get frustrating – especially when landlords and banks and creditors are holding the proverbial gun to your head, wanting what’s owed them.
I don’t know if I’m making a complete pain-in-the-ass out of myself or I’m really appealing to the uninterested. I know a lot of you aren’t interested in the day-to-day news events of the past, and a lot of you don’t care for some of the Music I put up – or wonder why I don’t focus exclusively on one thing rather than the several things I do each day.
I have come to realize People are not all about one thing – we are a complicated tapestry of a lot of things – a lot which we respond to and appreciate. It’s that inherent eclectic nature in all people. We all like a lot of different things and respond in different ways to those things. It’s what makes life unpredictable and interesting and what separates us from being chairs and brick walls.
When I first came up with the idea for Past Daily I wondered what sort of direction this presentation of history should take; what would make this site interesting and not one of the many dull-as-dishwater sites which give an antiseptic and dimly-lit aura of Education and Antiquity to them.
As a kid, I remembered radio being something of a grab-bag of moments. Sometimes it talked, sometimes it reported and sometimes it played music, and often all in the same place. Radio stations really didn’t have formats when I was growing up. There was Top-40, but even then, the Music they played was all over the map – Beatles, Rolling Stones, Buck Owens, Andy Williams, Sam Cooke – all in the same hour. Some of it was great. Some of it was cringeworthy. But all of it gave me an education in Music and an introduction to styles I may not have had otherwise. And the bottom line was – my horizons expanded as a result.
I decided, why not do the same thing with a website?
So Past Daily came about to be your favorite imaginary eclectic radio station – appealing to the complicated nature of people and turning you on to as much variety as possible.
I still don’t know if it’s successful or not. Like most work on the Internet, it’s all done by hunches and guessing.
So when it comes time to appeal for your support and contributions, that’s when all the doubts surface and that’s when the stomach churns.
I’m not saying that none of you are supporting what I’m doing here – a lot of you are. And by the contributions you’ve made so far, a lot of you want to see this continue – as do I.
I’m committed to making this archive of eclectic history and music available to everyone. So you can make discoveries, be turned-on to parts of history you may be unfamiliar with – music you previously didn’t know about. All things you can use – all things you can benefit from.
So when I ask and appeal, like I’m doing now and will be doing for the next 14 days, for your support and your tax-deductible contribution to help keep the Archive from being evicted and Past Daily from going away, I’m not asking for no reason. I am asking you to help me continue to give you all that I can, the best that I can, for as long as I can.
I’m not asking for a lot – chip in as much or as little you can afford. A lot of people have made contributions of 5.00 and 10.00 and that’s been wonderful – every amount helps. I also know that times are tough – contrary to what you may read and hear, a lot of us are struggling to keep lives afloat.
If you can help, I need you. If you can tell your friends, I need you. If you can chip in a little to keep us going, I need you. Click on the link below and give what you can. There’s not much time left and every little bit helps.
As hunches go, I think we’ll get there. I have been encouraged by your comments and e-mails. You give me hope and tons of faith.
And sometimes that’s all we have to go on.
Till next time . . .
