Volume 25 Issue 7 - April 2020

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN
When a Virus Goes Viral
11.30am, Sunday March 22 2020
At first, about two weeks ago, when the
postponements and cancellations of events in March
and April and beyond started to trickle in, we thought
the best thing to do would be to take them out, as though
they had never been planned. But as the trickle turned
into a tide, we changed our minds about that. We have
an explanation for why, and I’ll get to that. But with
“Flattening the Curve” rapidly taking on the weight of an
Eleventh Commandment, you will I hope forgive me my
mild moment of rebellion in meandering a bit on my way
to the point.
Ruth Vellis
I don’t remember when exactly Ruth Vellis’ first phone call to me
was, but I can call to mind even now her bright clarity on the phone,
every time we spoke thereafter: “Hello, this is Ruth Vellis speaking. I
have read your magazine forever. I used to pick it up at St. Stephen-inthe-Fields,
right across the road from here, if I got there before they
were all gone.”
“Here,” across the road from St. Stephen’s, as she explained, was
Kensington Gardens retirement home. “I am 96 and not going to
concerts right now, but I still love to read about them, so I can decide
which ones I would have chosen to go to. I enjoy doing that.”
From that moment on, without fail, Chris Malcolm our circulation
manager made a point of dropping off Ruth Vellis’ personal copy
at Kensington Gardens. And every time, over the ensuing years, Ruth
would call me (most often, I suspect, at times when she could just
leave a message) to say thank you, and the message would be the
same: “I am 97, 98, 99, … going to be a hundred soon, I am a hundred
now … And I still love to read about the concerts I am not going to,
because I enjoy choosing which ones I would have gone to if I could.”
Just as I cannot remember clearly when that first phone call was, I
cannot (or perhaps choose not to) remember when they stopped.
But in this singular moment in time, we offer you, our readers, this
magazine in the same spirit. Here are, to the best of our ability, the
concerts none of us of us will be going to right now, so that you can
enjoy deciding which ones you would have chosen to go to, and so
that you can, if you so choose, reach out to the artists and presenters
in question to express your sense of connection to them, in whatever
way you best can.
It is our hope that for the community that this issue (our 240th in
an unbroken chain stretching back to September 1995) will serve a
specific purpose – as a record of what the bright normal would have
been, and therefore a useful starting point for compiling an inventory
of what has been lost in the April that would have been.
Red Tide
As soon as word of cancellations and postponements started
trickling in, we implemented a “cancelled/postponed” filter for
our online listings. It is important for readers to note that the
CANCELLED/POSTPONED notices in the listings in this print issue
are just a snapshot – a frozen moment in a fluid situation, reflecting
information received by us only up to Friday March 20. Do not
assume that because something listed here doesn’t say cancelled that
it is happening.
We will continue, to the best of our ability, to keep updating our
listings information on a daily basis, including, whenever that may be,
the moment when among the “cancelled” and “postponed” notices,
we start to see signs that the tide has turned as things are rescheduled
and new dates are announced.
Staying in Print, But Not Only in Print
As you know, if you are turning pages as you read this, we are staying
in print, but matching the number of copies to the distribution points
(many forced to shutter temporarily) still available to us and to you. But
we have a vigorous online, e-letter and social media existence as well,
and I urge you, if you haven’t already done so, to avail yourself of these.
A print publication that lumbers into existence nine times a year is illequipped
to deal with the ever-changing, fast-moving pace of things,
as a resourceful community in danger acts and reacts in the face of this
unprecedented challenge, finding hope and beauty in hard times. Cues
and clues to this digital realm, for artists and readers alike are dotted
throughout this issue. I daresay most of you have time for a more-thanusual
amount of reading and re-reading, so please seek them out.
continued
Upcoming Dates & Deadlines for our May 2020 edition
Free Event Listings Deadline
Midnight, Wednesday April 8
Display Ad Reservations Deadline
6pm Wednesday April 15
Advertising Materials Due
6pm Friday April 17
Classifieds Deadline
6pm Saturday April 25
Publication Date
Tuesday April 28 (online)
Thursday April 30 (print)
Volume 25 No 8 “MAY 2020”
will list events
May 1, 2020 to June 7, 2020
AND INCLUDE
The 18th Annual CANARY PAGES
Canary Pages deadline:Tuesday April 7
WholeNote Media Inc. accepts
no responsibility or liability for
claims made for any product or
service reported on or advertised
in this issue
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MARCH 2020
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