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Saturday January 1 2011 ~ From Projekt's Sam Rosenthal

 
Hi there. Nope, this is not some cheap gimmick to get you to buy CDs! Part of the roof of the Projekt warehouse really collapsed. I was in the building at the time, but fortunately nobody was hurt! People have asked me how they could help, the answer: buy some music! I am putting everything on sale so we can make some money to help us out as well as get some CDs off the shelves before our sudden, unexpected move.
 
The next month is gonna be a bit rough, I appreciate your support.
 
Details on the sale after details on the roof.
 
 
This is a summary of the story on my Facebook page:

You probably heard about the Blizzard that hit Brooklyn last Sunday night? I posted a lot of photos on my Facebook page. The morning after the storm, I went to work at the office. Snow was 3 - 4 feet deep on the short walk over, the city was beautiful, but not functioning. I was working, inventorying Steve Roach CDs, Paypalling a royalty to Android Lust, emailing Tom about the Mira rarities CD cover, and doing the sort of stuff I do every day. Traffic had been at a crawl outside my window; but now I noticed there were no cars. In fact, there was yellow Fireman-tape tied to the light polls. I went out to see what was up.....
 
Wow! 1/6 of the building's roof collapsed under the weight of the snow. Fortunately nobody was in there, just a bunch of cars. But oh man!!! I was in the building!!!! <shudder> -- I'm really happy the rest of it didn't come down. I have some important plans for the rest of my life! : ) There was a gas leak (the gas meters were in the collapsed area) and 20 blocks of 4th Avenue was closed to traffic.
 

 
Now there is a full vacate order on the building and we have to find a new office space within the next couple of week. Usually, I plan 6 months in advance for a move, slowly purging and packing..... and now we need to pack, find a space, and move within just a few weeks !!!
 
 
People have asked how they could help...... and here's how you could help: Buy yourself some music from Projekt.  Shea and I were talking today and agreed to add the incentive of 25% off. Please purchase from our webstore.

The sale has ended. Thanks for your support.
 
 
 
I have received many very kind responses from people. It is very very heart-warming to know that you appreciate what Projekt does, and you are concerned.
 
I am really really happy that the roof didn't fall on me. It could have happened. The building is old and decrepit. Moving is probably a good idea, anyway.
 
The last few days, I have been thinking about the Marc Almond song "But Not Today," off Varieté. He wrote it after his motorcycle accident. He sings about a "you" -- but he is talking about himself.  Watch on Youtube.... @ 2:27:
 
Today the sun will shine a little brighter,  
today's the day my heart begins to fly.
 Today my troubles feel a little lighter,  
today is the day you didn't die.
 
We are all going to have an amazing 2011!
Thank you so much for your love and support.

Sam
 
 



Sunday January 9 2011 ~ From Projekt's Sam Rosenthal
Hi..... here's an update on our situation....
As you might have read, on 12/27/10 part of the roof collapsed in the Projekt building. The Department of Building threatens to arrest anyone who goes into the building; we have to move out. On January 1, I sent out an email list with a request for your help (and a 25% off sale). Your genorisity was amazing! The outpouring of love and support really stunned me. We brought in more money in 3 days then we usually earn in two months!!! That will go a loooooong way towards getting us out of this place and into a new office.
I did an inventory; we have 55,000 Projekt CDs here. We have a large cluttered attic; the 120-count boxes of CDs have multiplied over the years with all the new releases and all the returns from our distributors. The new space will be smaller (rents are high and we had a great deal here) -- new shelving is needed.

My friend said he thinks the roof collapse is the universe's way of telling me it is time for a change. The interesting thing is for the last 6 months, I have been purging. Sending back unsold Darkwave CDs. Putting a lot of other titles on sale to get rid of them. One weekend in September, I spent two days going through all my boxes in the attics, getting a better idea of what could be tossed, what could move with me. At that point, I wasn't consciously planning to move. Maybe I was......(?)
It is time to get out of this dump, and get into a tight, organized office.

Cooper is the guy - along with Shea - who fills your orders. A few days ago he said, "Sam, I don't envy what you're going through right now." Actually, I am very positive about this. First of all, I'm alive! The roof did not fall on my head. You cannot beat that! : ) Second, I love moving. It is a time to purge, reorganize, tidy. I think that's what this is about, moving somewhere new and getting in good shape for the future of the record industry.

Back in 2000, I closed Projekt's office in Chicago and moved it all to my small rented house in Queens. In 2002 I moved to a larger house's basement in Brooklyn. Those years were a time of down-sizing and getting rid of debt. Getting things back on track after a hedonist, and over-spent late 90s. In 2006, we moved out of the basement into our much larger space in Gowanus (the one that just had the collapse). 2011 is time for a positive step up. Lots of storage of CDs we need to slowly sell off (you know about our $6.98 sale page, yes?) and less junk that we no longer need; stuff I have hauled around since I left Chicago. A decade later, time for the dumpster.

I expect we will move in the next two weeks. I looked at a few potential office spaces I like. I was whining to my friend in Florida that one of them is a 14 minute walk from my apartment. She mentioned she drives 45 minutes one-way to work. Ouch ! That puts it in perspective. I am really fortunate that I can walk to Sasha's school, walk to work, walk to the supermarket. Ok, no more complaints from me about that. I will get a bike. That will work!
Every negative can be turned into a positive. An ending is a new beginning. Never problems, just opportunities...........


Shea, Cooper and I really appreciate that so many of you stepped up to help us out with your orders and your $$$$. It really is wonderful to know that Projekt means a lot to you, and in this rough time you chose to help us out! Thank You.

Another update soon.


Sam Rosenthal / facebook


May 16, 2011 | an update from Projekt's Sam Rosenthal:

"Be the change you want to see in the world."
- Mahatma Ghandi

Envision the world as you wish it to be. Can you imagine your world filled with passion, energy & vitality? We sure can! That's why we make art; we want to express the visions we imagine. I appreciate that Projekt fans share this passion for creativity and are spending hard-earned dollars in sync with their values. When you support our art, you are creating and strengthening a world that assigns worth to its artists. Thank you for supporting the reality you envision. -Sam

You can discuss this on the NOTE on my facebook page.


It is sort of hard to imagine that just 4 months ago, Shea and I were in the middle of total chaos resulting from the partial collapse of the roof at the Projekt building (Xmas blizzard!). We were packing, stressing, trying to not kill the landlord, and looking for a new space to move to. Now we're in a wonderful new office that is bright, roomy and organized. It has a big backyard, a really nice wolf-of-a-dog out there named Othello, and a wonderful super named Ricky who is amazingly kind to us.

As I wrote in an email in early January, "Every negative can be turned into a positive. An ending is a new beginning. Never problems, just opportunities." 2011 is the year of renewal for Projekt. And with that in mind, I want to tell you about our newest employee.... Sarah! Except she's not really a "new employee," Sarah somebody you might remember from a few years ago, she was our mail-order shipping person from late 2007 - mid 2010.

One of the thing I have long wanted to address is that there is a lot of work at Projekt that occupies my time, yet it is stuff that I shouldn't be doing. I should be working on new compilations, signing new bands, and of course creating more of my own music. To facilitate that, I brought Sarah back on staff. She will process and fill your orders as well as work with you on questions you might have regarding your orders.

Don't worry, Shea is still here! Having Sarah handling your orders means I can pass some of my work over to Shea. She's now involved with preparing HTML for the website and eList, updating album pages, searching out press, radio & blogs (to send our promos to) and doing many other things that used to take up my day.

This affects you in a very positive way. Not only are there more people working on orders, but I have more time to get new releases together.

Such as?

I am putting the finishing touches on Anada Nidra : Blissful Sleep, a 2-CD spoken-word guided meditation from two renowned Tantra teachers and authors. Their 44-minute meditations have musical accompaniment from Projekt: Mark's track has a floating Black Tape For A Blue Girl instrumental; Patricia's has a Steve Roach track. This will be in stores August 9; it is going to be great !

Another new releases that I am getting together is an album I have been procrastinating on for half a decade. It's the sequel to A Dark Cabaret. Yes, that's right! Dramatic tracks from acts you know and newcomers you will soon know! This will be in stores September 13.

Steve Roach and I are working on something really monumental. It is the Quiet Music complete 3-cd edition. This was originally released in the 80s on 3 cassete tapes, yet has never appeared in its full form on CD. Very thrilling. Hopefully also on September 13.

I am re-pressing a lot of titles we ran low on: A Dark Cabaret, Steve Roach: Immersion 2, Dark Sanctuary: Thoughts, Steve Roach: Early Man, Mira: Debut, Soriah: Atlan, Steve Roach: Immersion 3 (back in stock in a month in a new 3-cd eco-wallet), Steve Roach / Vir Unis: The Body Electric (back next month), and Michael Laird is working on a 2-CD deluxe edition of Unto Ashes' Empty Into White.


And there is another thing I've been working on: Black Tape For A Blue Girl concerts in Europe in June (full details). We were invited to play at the 20th Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, Germany. This became the perfect opportunity to reconnect with two eastern European promoters I know -- for shows in Prague and Bucharest. Wow! Our first European tour. This is thrilling. As the promoters fee only cover plane tickets, ground transportation + hotels, I set up a Kickstarter page to ask for fan backing to cover our expenses. And wow! We met our goal within the first week (pushed over the top by a really large donation from a fan in Brazil, who gets a concert from Black Tape For A Blue Girl at his place!). I set a goal that I thought was realistic, because I had no idea if fans would get into this idea. And Indeed, you DID get into it! I feel so much love for my work! Of course, we are still accepting more backing, you never can have enough in your pocket when you're on the road dealing with expenses. Each backer gets something for their contribution. Give it a look.

One of the things I am giving away is the upcoming release The Rope 25. This is going to be a 25th anniversary 2-CD edition of Black Tape For A Blue Girl's 1986 debut, The Rope; the original album with a bonus disc. That disc contains other artists performing the songs from The Rope + a few remixes + two of the songs re-preformed by the current line-up of Sam, Athan, Valerie + Brian. The new "Memory, Uncaring Friend" is really powerful (youTube from Brooklyn show). We've been using it to close our live set.

We are in the process of adding a few extra songs to the Black Tape For A Blue Girl set for these European concerts, which we will debut at our June 3 show in Gowanus Brooklyn at Littlefield (a 5 minute walk from my apartment!). There are some other great acts on the bill: Jaggery, Copal & Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys.


Thanks for your kindness and support.

Sam

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