May 2003 Newsletter from didjshop.com

Editorial

I am writing part of this newsletter in a plane 30,000 feet over Russia. My trip to Europe came a lot faster than intended, which is why this newsletter is a bit shorter than usual. Sorry folks, but I have to go and see my family. It's been ten years since I saw them last and it will be nice to catch up even though it's only for three weeks. This is the downside of having your own business...holidays are rare and short.

While on the plane I just watched the movie "The Truth about Charlie" and noticed that they used didj music in it (during the race to get to the postage stamps). It's great to see or rather hear the didj going mainstream and being used in major films.

If you know any other movies where didj music is used, please let me know (please specify the scenes).

Not only did the didj make it into mainstream movies, but also to the international space station.

Don Pettit, a US nuclear physicist, took a didj up with him in November 2002 and had to leave it on the space station when he came back in a Soyuz capsule recently. He used it to play to his kids at home and even played Jingle Bells on the didj last Christmas. This is what Petit said about his didj: "It's one of the few things that they [his 2 year old twin kids] really associate with Daddy. When I come home from work, they come running up and want me to play the didgeridoo ... They can see me up there playing the didge for them."

Cool hey. The didj is not only one of the oldest instruments but also one of the very few instruments which made it into outer space - spanning eons and joining cultures...

Here is something else you might find interesting: we know that the didj is a really cool instrument but when we heard that recently one single didj was sold in Kuranda for A$11,000. We thought that to be over the top. It was apparently a nice looking didj, but nowhere near as nice as some didjes we have for sale. In our opinion no didj deserves that sort of price and it shows the sort of rip-off going on in parts of the didgeridoo industry. We do wonder how much the merchant actually paid for that didj and I would guess it was less than five percent... Makes me wonder whether we are just too honest and sell our didjes far to cheap...

PS: Please mark 21st June 2003 on your calendar for you to take part in the next Worldwide Didgeridoo Meditation... I will be at the Laura Aboriginal Festival (www.laura-festival.com) that weekend and hope to get the meditation organised there.

Svargo

New Didjes, Shields and Paintings

We did add new didjes and canvas paintings last month and are working on lots more again. Before I left for Germany I sound-graded about 300 didjes. Most of them were for wholesales, but a few of them are already online and more will be added over the next few weeks

So keep checking Didjshop.com for all the new additions. There will be many forks going up soon and some awesome bells as well as many great learners and players.

We also have added new small shields which proved to be very popular.

The new paintings are mainly small and medium paintings of the Peckham family with lots of Kangaroos, which seem to be everyone's favourite as well as some large ones. They all come with the story of what the artwork means.

Didjeridoo buying guide

This month I have written a new web page which tells you a few things to look out for when buying a didj. Sure we want you to buy your didj from us, but we know that there are a lot of other didj sellers out there and we would not want you to spend your hard earned money on something which you might have trouble with in the future.

So I have put together a checklist for you to consider when buying any didj whether online or in person. Since I am in Germany at present I can only provide the text. Once I get back to OZ I intend to add a fair few images to this page illustrating some of the issues. Check it out

Monthly Updated News, Comments and Monthly Winner...

• Our Aboriginal Australia news web logs have grown again and this time have a couple of stories about the didj in the space station and a story about the didj and alien sounds, too.
• The lucky winner of our A$50.- May Gift Voucher is Dirk Van der Herten from Turnhout in Belgium. Dirk was automatically allocated his winning ticket when he bought a very nice didj from us in March.
  Congratulations Dirk, we hope you find good use for your shopping voucher.
• And like every month I look forward to browsing through the hundreds of great comments about Didjshop.com. It gives me the strength to keep going no matter what. I hope you enjoy these April comments as much as I do.
• Last not least we have added more Sound Healing Comments online. I do find these fascinating reading and want to thank those people for sharing their experiences with all of us.

Happy didjing
from Svargo and the DIDJSHOP.COM team