Email this article | Printer friendly page OffBeat NEEDS YOUR HELP!By Jan Ramsey |
OffBeat’s staff safely evacuated the city of New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit. Publisher Jan Ramsey and Managing Editor Joseph Irrera are in Baton Rouge until the city is open again. Listings Editor Craig Guillot is back in his home in River Ridge. Associate Editor Michael Jastroch is in Austin. Bunny Matthews is happy in Abita Springs. Robin, our receptionist, is safe, as are our sales reps, Annie and JC.
Our office did not flood, but suffered damage to a plate glass window that was blown out. It's still not repaired, but we covered the office as best we could with tarps and hope that Hurricane Rita doesn't get into the New Orleans metro area.
We salvaged some of our computers last week and they're with us in Baton Rouge. The September issue of OffBeat was printed and ready to be distributed on August 29 ("Day of Katrina"). Currently we are trying to mail out this issue to our subscribers outside New Orleans, and we are attempting to distribute the September issue to spots in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Obviously, our offices are closed pending the ability to get back into our beautiful, ravaged city.
I read yesterday (9/20/05) that the City of New Orleans will not have potable water for about two months. God knows when we will have electricity and internet access again. So for the time being, we're stuck in Baton Rouge, using friends' internet access. OffBeat also hasn't received any mail for the past month, so the magazine is virtually penniless at this point.
OffBeat was never a business that made much money; it existed from month to month, and we were always trying to keep our music and culture editorial alive via advertising.
So we don't know what will happen to the magazine at this point. Right now, just to cover taxes and to make sure all of our staff, writers and photographers have been paid for their services), we need $3,000.00. This doesn't cover what we will owe our printer, not nearly.
We are going to attempt to keep OffBeat and the Louisiana Music Directory alive via the web for the time being. Our wonderful webhosters and webmaster have been very kind to us, but they can't support us forever.
So we're appealing to our readers for financial support.
We're looking for partners, investors, financial aid, volunteer writers, graphics and web people. We're hurtin', folks!
But only our livelihood--our business--is hurting. I feel guilty asking for anything, knowing how much heartache so many others are experiencing who lost love ones, their homes, their jobs--everything. When we went back to the city, we were so saddened by what we saw that we almost cried: there is damage on virtually every single building, some worse than others. You can see the water lines on buildings and on the hundreds and hundreds of abandoned cars parked on the neutral ground and in the streets. There are orange "Xs" painted on houses everywhere. Beautiful old trees, tree limbs, bushes, debris, garbage and twisted metal covers a lot of the streets. Everything is a gray-brown because the standing water killed everything. And this is just in the areas where the water was drained out. There are no people. Just the military, cops and FEMA workers, and a very few people who sneaked into the city to try to start to clean up the mess.
Please pray for all of us, and if you can see fit to help us out financially, please contact me or Joseph We will offer a LIFETIME subscription to anyone in the U.S. who donates $200 to OffBeat during this difficult time or $350 for anyone outside the U.S. who helps keep OffBeat afloat. You can also purchase copies of the September issue for $5 each. All of this will help us get back on our feet. Just email us at the contact emails below and let us know if you are interested.
Also, if you know of something that everyone needs to know, please post in our forum.
To get in touch with us, contact jan_v_ramsey@hotmail.com or jl_irrera@hotmail.com. Sign up for updates from OffBeat at offbeat.com via OffBeat's newsletter, the "Weekly Beat.
The Louisiana Music Collective
Authentic New Orleans and Louisiana roots music resources.
