fw: anomolous records closing

[john hudak <jhudak@xxxxxxxxx>]

At the end of August 2003, Anomalous Records will CLOSE.

No more mail order.
No more wholesale.

No 'going-out-of-business' sale - if you want it, buy it now before we run
out.

Please get any orders in before August 25th, as we will likely spend
the last week of August packing everything up to put in storage.

Obviously, everything is limited to the stock on hand, once it is
gone, it's gone.

Why are we closing?  Well, there are a lot of reasons.  Probably most
importantly is that Anomalous Records is kept alive by me, Eric
Lanzillotta, putting in a lot of unpaid overtime.  Anomalous Records
is the result of a lot of passion and drive.  I have a lot of passion
for the sounds we sell, and a lot of drive to do things the best I
can.  I pushed myself very hard because I believe very much in what I
do with Anomalous Records.  I am very proud of what I have
accomplished, and it is a great part of my life.  In fact, it has
been most of my life for the last 12 and a half years.  Therein lies
the problem.  In pushing myself forward to make this work, I have
pushed myself too far.  In fact, I probably past my limits several
years ago.  Recently I have begun to notice the negative side effects
of pushing myself so hard for so long.  Basically the stress of doing
this has taken its toll.  I have realized that I need to stop now
while I can, and not just completely burn myself out.  Aside from
this, Anomalous is not all of my life.  As a few of you will know, I
have a son who will be turning 13 in a few months.  If there is one
thing that I regret about Anomalous, it is not having more time to
spend with him.

For those have of you who have been around long enough, you will know
that through a lot of periods of Anomalous' history, the business has
been run entirely by me.  I have had occasional helpers over the
years who I could not have gotten by without (Danielle, Daniel,
Damion, Sara, Jessica, Davey, Drew, Jeph, AJ, Rachael, Isaac,
Jefferson, Matt, Monica, and another Daniel).  Most important of
these is Rachael Jackson, who has been helping me for over 4 years
now and has become the public face of Anomalous Records for most
people.  To her especially, I am indebted for all the time and effort
and without whom Anomalous might have collapsed a while ago.  We did
put forward the idea of Rachael continue to run Anomalous without me,
but it became apparent that she could not handle running the business
(let alone how the numbers were looking).  Getting someone outside to
take over what was so personal is also unappealing.

I owe many people thanks for help in making this dream work for so
long.   To make a list would be impossibly long, and I would fear
leaving out someone important in taking on such a long task.  But I
would like to single out a few people that I have especially high
gratitude for:

KENT RANDOLPH

NORIYASU NOGAI

ROBERT MARZANO

The support and faith these people have had in me over years has been
instrumental.

Likewise, the creative force of JEPH JERMAN has been an important
inspiration through the entire history of Anomalous Records.

Most of all, without TANITH LANZILLOTTA, I probably could have not
kept going through it all.   I thank him for all his patience for dad
having to work late.

But as I allude to above, there are hundreds more people that helped
make this what it was.  Everyone that bought anything and all the
wonderfully talented and underappreciated artists that have made up
the catalog over the years.  Anomalous has mainly been about a
bringing together of people and sounds, and I hope I've helped you on
this journey.

Last, PLEASE do help us sell off the remaining stock by buying.  I
would very much like to keep the label side of Anomalous Records
alive, but that depends on selling off a lot of the stock we have on
hand.  I am going to make one last push to sell things over the next
two weeks, then I must call it quits.  We have a lot of wonderful
things in the works such as releases by:
AMM
Mnemonists / Biota
Andrew Deutsch
Ellen Fullman
RLW
Robert Millis' recordings from SE Asia
and more....
Please help me save at least this part of my dream, and thank again
for all your support over the years!

This is actually a shortened version of everything going through my
head lately.  Maybe at some future point, I will put something more
extended on the web site.  Yes, the web site will stay up on the
internet, but the catalog will disappear.  Also, the PO Box will
remain a valid address.

Eric Lanzillotta