Top 5 reasons to Donate To Past Daily by the end of 2015:
Here we are – coming up to the end of another roller-coaster year. During all that time, Past Daily has been around, giving you news, Pop Culture, information, interviews, concerts, rare recordings – those things to help create a better understanding, and maybe a little tolerance, of the world around us.
But because Past Daily doesn’t charge you anything for this all day-every day service, we have to make our presence known to you, and to ask your help, especially now during the last few days of 2015, when your donations can be the source of a much-needed write-off on your taxes and some much-needed help for our site.
Since Past Daily is a direct service of my archive (The Gordon Skene Sound Collection) – we’re a non-profit organization, and we’ve enlisted the wonderful aid of Fractured Atlas, the Arts Funding foundation based out of New York, to help us out and to help keep us running.
We can’t do it without your support – and throughout the year, during our Quarterly Fundraisers, we’ve been able to help stay afloat and to try and expand what we’re doing, so we can be bigger and better in the coming years.
And that’s where this appeal comes in. As you know – December 31st is the cut-off date for donations and contributions – any money you give before then qualifies for a write-off on your taxes for 2015. On January 1st, it’s a whole new deal.
So here are 5 reasons you should give to keep Past Daily up and running before the end of the year:
1. News – Every day something happens – maybe not huge and maybe not huge at the time, but everything that happens shows up somewhere in history. Sometimes those events are pretty cataclysmic and take us all by surprise – like this one:
2. Rarities You Won’t Hear Anywhere Else On The Planet – A few years ago I ran a concert from the Hollywood on one of my regular Backstage Weekend features. It featured, among many others, an appearance by The Buffalo Springfield where they did the first public performance of their newly complete single Mr. Soul – Up until I ran it, nobody had heard it, not even Neil Young, who was delighted it survived. That’s just a small part of the rarities that show up all the time on Past Daily. In case you missed it, here it is:
3. Popular Culture You Probably Forgot About – If you were a teenager, and you lived in Los Angeles and it was March 10, 1968 you would be very upset. Because March 10, 1968 was the last day fabled KFWB played records and, at midnight became All-News KFWB. Gone was Channel 98 and all the disc jockey’s you listened to day after day and trusted. That was it – and that was 1968. A year a lot of things changed and never became the same again. If you were around, or maybe if you heard about it, but never actually heard it – here is that last hour of KFWB with Gene Weede at the helm. It sounded just like this:
4. Concerts – Old and New. Every weekend, one of the features we run without fail are the concerts. Saturday it’s Rock, World Music, Classic concerts from the deep-dark past – everything from the Popular Music world. On Sundays it’s Jazz and on Wednesdays it’s Classical – classical music concerts from as far back as the 1930s all the way up to the day before yesterday. Everything live and everything at your fingertips – most everything comes from the Archive (although we get a little help from time to time from colleagues and friends) and everything in the best possible sound. We dig through all the junk so you don’t have to. We also discover things you may not be all that familiar with, or forgot about, or never knew existed – and it includes everything – just as long as it’s good and it sounds great. Here’s a taste of another concert from The Hollywood Bowl – this one is from 1962 and it features a new star on the horizon then; Miriam Makeba – she’s one of the many World Artists who show up on Past Daily. And if you’ve never heard her before, check it out:
5. Voices And Spokespeople – There is no shortage of iconic and legendary voices throughout our history. Some are notorious and some are inspirational – they run the gamut and they are all on Past Daily. Some of those voices were commentators we came to trust and respect and looked to for guidance. In the worst of times, where cool heads needed to prevail, we had them to turn to. There have been many over the years – some are instantly recognizable while others are less so. Here’s an exchange between the great Edward R. Murrow and Eric Severeid as they talk about the coming year of 1956 and what lay ahead for us:
And that’s just 5 reasons to support and donate to Past Daily – I could run at least 10 more. But you get the idea. We run a lot of stuff here and it runs the whole spectrum of history and culture. Because we feel it’s important that you know what went on in your world before you got here, or what happened while you were here that you don’t remember.
And that’s why we’re asking for your support, these last few days of December 2015 – to ask you to donate and support our site and our Archive into 2016, and be able to write it off while you’re making a huge difference. I can’t do it alone, and I need your help. Tell your friends and make your contributions by click on the Past Daily Fractured Atlas Donation button down here and up there:
I’ll be here as long as you are, so please make your donation today, or before Midnight on the 31st?
I know you can do it – honest, I’ve seen you do it before . . . .
