Songs Of The Season
As the last of the leaves fall to the ground, folks in our part of the world move from backyard bonfire season to indoor fireplace season. In our family, that also means cleaning the s’more residue off the guitar and changing songbooks.
No more five little ghosts flying two by two. Now, it’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and, if my brothers are around, a rousing rendition of Weird Al Yankovic’s “12 Pains of Christmas,” chock full of classic, good-natured laments like “oh-geez look at this, one light goes out they all go out…”
Each year, my family’s seasonal songbooks are unconsciously modified and updated so that they’ve become an interesting reflection of where we are today as well as where we’ve been. That doesn’t mean we don’t still trot out fun, pre-school songs like “Diving in my Car, Driving in my Car, I’m a Movie Star,” because our six-year-old loves that song, but we’ve moved beyond just singing pre-school favorites.
The same thing has happened with PRB.
If you look back at the 77 issues we’ve published since our launch, you’ll discover an amazing story, a timeline of editorial decisions, topics and design ideas that have all coalesced into the magazine you now hold in your hands.
PRB has grown and changed each year – adding writers, experimenting with new layouts and design, adding products (ie: Digital Editions) and working to dig deeper to provide you with the information you need to excel.
And, like my family’s songbooks, PRB has also moved way beyond pre-school favorites. Sure, we keep publishing those oldies, but goodies (A Step Ahead by Ron Ciancutti comes to mind), but we’ve also started publishing hard-core, practical information on things like Swimming Pool Filtration complete with an in-magazine and online test you can take (or give to your employees to keep them sharp).
As we move forward, the monthly songbook that is PRB will continue to evolve and grow in ways both planned and accidental. Some of those changes will be brilliant (which I’ll take credit for of course) and some of them will be not-so brilliant (I’m pretty sure those will be Al’s ideas).
In the end, our hope is, as always, that you find our magazine both entertaining and practical.
From all of us here at PRB, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Rodney J. Auth
Publisher