>Hello All,

> We recieved the worst possible news this morning. As of 9 AM today,
>Thursday October 21st 1999. Stalag 2000 was pronounced a "dead project". What
>this means is the Univ. Of Pennsylvania has decided that, they do not want
>Stalag 2000 to open on or near their campus. For thoose unaware of the
>situation, Univ. of Penn was helping with us attaining the space, legal help,
>licensing help, tax help, etc etc. The University played a very large role in
>this, to say the least. After months and months and months of phone calls,
>negotiations, and meetings, everything appeared finalized. We came up with a
>mutually acceptable plan, which was ready to be signed today. But with 10
>mins to go, a single administrator (yes just one person) decided that Stalag
>2000 was a bad idea for UPENN and aborted the Stalag 2000 project entirely.
>We can not get into specifics right now, but basically it had to do with the
>idea that Stalag 2000 would be bringing negative traits to the neighborhood
>(drugs, junkies, criminals etc etc) This one person has a complete
>misunderstanding of what Stalag 2000 and The First Unitarian Church were
>about. They had no idea what punk/indie/emo/hardcore/hip-hop/whattever was
>about. They think that basically shows were an excuse for kids to go do "bad
>things". That there are no positive aspects to be attained from going to
>shows. That kids didnt come because of the music, but rather to just
>participate in criminal activities. We NEED to prove them wrong.

>This is where we need your help…..

>In the next 24 hr. we need approx. 500 "testimonials" from people who
>attended previous Stalag and First Unitarian Church shows. We need stories,
>ideas, feelings etc., about what you got out of going to shows. What positive
>experiences you got from going to these show, even what you might be doing on
>a weekend if it wasn't for shows, your feelings/attititudes to the DIY scene,
>etc etc. We need to show UPENN that they are making a huge mistake and there
>are so many people and positive stories and feelings that they haven't heard
>or ignored. We have only ONE DAY to present this information. So I ask if you
>have any free time, to just take a few minutes and write what your feelings
>on the positive aspects of DIY church shows and shows at the old Stalag 13
>and e-mail them to us at : DJR5000@aol.com So we can show UPENN who exactly
>they are affecting

>Again we need 500 by tomorrow, so please dont wait a day or two. Do this now
>and help, every single e-mail we get will build our case up tremendously.
>Your story will count and will be read by the executives at PENN, which
>could/should eventually lead to PENN to reconsider what they have done.
>Because if we can not prove that people care tremendously about the "scene",
>we will never be able to have a venue which we can consider our own. Remember
>that Stalag 2000 was going to be the only venue, run with DIY and punk
>ideals, which would let people in and out, no bonehead bouncers, no $10
>tickets etc etc in just a few days of booking we managed to wrestle quite a
>few shows away from the TLA and Trocadero. We need to show that we are strong
>and able to "overcome the man". PENN thinks this issue is done, and doesn't
>think we as a community can provide any counteraction, that we will just sit
>back and take their decision after getting
>everyone hyped up.