Education ALIVE!

Education ALIVE! is a joint venture between Savannah College of Art and Design and Pawn Works (with Chicago artist, Nice-One), for the benefit of a local middle school and a local high school. The goal is to create public art that is both innovative in its approach and instrumental in teaching.
Lofty goals - I like that!
I pledged for the highest backing level this time.
I look forward to the two coloring books and stickers for my nieces and nephews.
For me? The T-shirt with the wolf, of course!
RrrrooooOOooowwww!

assisted loving - complete!

Wow! This is the second time for such a fast turnaround, from dream to polished product!
Good work, Sam Queen!
Today, I received my reward for being one of his forty-three backers. (He may have set a record on kickstarter for surpassing his funding goal by 260%. Perhaps that is a reflection of the belief in his dream.)
I am so very pleased! And since Google allows Bloggers to attach photos to their posts, I can show you what a professional job the writer-director has done on the finished work. Very nice!
The film itself tells a beautiful story of love found, love lost, and love regained - for two residents of an assisted living home. Yeah!!! Not two PYT's, no sirreebob! That places the story heads above a lot of the so-called romances on the big screen. it's so very easy to have a love story between pretty young things, especially as they have the physical lust to drive it along. But, for folks of age and very faded looks, there has to be respect as the driving influence. These characters in this romance far outshine the glossy stereotypes in the mainstream flicks.
I am so very honored to have my name in the closing credits.
So very honored to be part of this venture.
Thanks, Sam, for providing the opportunity to me.

Oh, and before I forget, here's the link to his video for all to enjoy:
http://vimeo.com/35191718

And here is what he wrote in his note to me:
Faustina,
Enclosed is your Kickstarter reward for helping to fund my thesis film, Assisted Loving. I sincerely appreciate your generosity and hope that you enjoy the finished product! May the new year bring you many new adventures and buckets full of laughter!
Cheers,
Sam Queen

I do believe he is one of the most gracious folks I have not yet had the pleasure to meet.
Maybe I'll have the chance to rectify that omission one fine day.
Keep up the good work, Sam J. Queen!

12 shorts of slappinyaface

Call it fate, if it must be called anything.
This video project from Macon, Georgia, reminded me of a local cable access show by my husband and several of his friends. The show was thirty minutes of skits which lambasted local politicians and thugs alike and was hilarious much of the time! Called "Underground Savannah", it laid claim to the airwaves for six years. Sam Johnson, the creator of the show, was working on getting the episodes transferred onto youTube, but he died before the work was completed.
So, on second thought, call this project a memorial to a dear friend.
Let's hope for the best with it.
Then I'll have a new video to bring memories of the good, ol' days.

trek: a spoof musical

Yeah, you read that right. A musical. Oh, yeah!
About Star Trek. I can dig it, man!
I really can!
Written by Lauren Field and Gaetano Rodriguez in the spring and summer of last year, the play is ready for action and Accio Actors have the right stuff to do it!
So... why did they turn to kickstarter?
Well, they needed a place in which the musical could be brought to life.
That costs serious money.
A few props would be nice, too, and maybe sound equipment?
More money.
And seats for the audience...
Hold it! Those come with the venue!
Oh, yeah.
Okay, so money needed for props and mikes and the venue.
Check!
I've joined the party far after their funding goal was met and surpassed.
Surpassed by almost 33%!!!!
So I am not alone in wanting to be part of this, regardless of their not really needing my backing, regardless of their being in Florida, regardless of the distinct possibility - nay, probability - that I will never revel in the antics of this Starship Enterprise.
Regardless.
I still get the program to drool and dream over. I still get the soundtrack to sing along with. And I still get a prop for my hot little hand to hold.
You better believe I'm backing them!

the restaurant job

Now, "The Restaurant Job" is the kind of film I like!
Action, thriller, and... even the ocean!
No, this is not a beach movie. I'm referring to the "Ocean's 11" reward package.
That definitely hooked me. (All puns intended!)
My name in the credits, too? Oh, yeah!

12:15 sunday

Like an earlier kickstarter project I backed last year, this one has a focus on one man's life during the dark days of World War II. Also, like that earlier project, this one is a senior-year film for a student at SCAD.
Unlike the project last year, this one by Taylor Jenkins is based on facts from his grandfather's lips of his experiences after his plane was shot down in 1944.
I can so relate to that. My stepdad has very similar tales.
In fact, my stepdad was in a plane written about in "The Diary of Anne Frank". When he read the book, he was startled to find the description of his very flight on March 22, 1944. He talked of his crew being forced by the German captors to walk through the streets, parachute in hand, with people calling him a "baby killer" because their plane had crashed into a school - an empty school, as it turns out.
My stepdad and his crew-mates spent the rest of the war in various prison camps. He was only 22 years old when captured. His time in the prison camps is documented and on record at The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force.
John Stone Jenkins, the bomber navigator who is the subject of the film, was more fortunate. After parachuting just seconds before the damaged B-17 blew up, he found a place to hide overnight, then made it back to safety. This film combines narration by the man himself with dramatic reenactments of the events.
Wow.
I know my stepdad would be most pleased that I am again thinking of him.
How did I find this project, you ask?
Sheer luck.
I was searching for projects in Georgia. I had already picked one up in Athens, a whimsical bus stop reinvention. Then I spotted this one, right here in my fair city.
Maybe I'll even get to see it on the big screen, if it makes its funding goal next month.
Here's hoping it will succeed!

the love shack bus stop

How incredible! In Athens, Georgia, there will be a public homage to the B-52's! That's close enough that I will be able to drive up there to visit it.
Awesome!
Dana Jo Cooley's bus stop design was the winner of the "You, Me, & the Bus Stop" competition in 2008. Modeled on the B-52's song of the same name, the bus stop will be physically located at the intersection of North Chase Street and Oneta Street. For anyone who will be trying to find it, the bus stop will be inside the Athens Perimeter Highway and southeast of the Athens Country Club. Hope that helps!
I hope to visit it in the near future. I've joined the campaign late (funding will close later today), but I still wanted to be part of the project. No worries of it being unsuccessful, as it is already overfunded by almost 20%, so my little sawbuck is doing little more than giving it a nod of approval.
Still, that is important. Important to me and to Ms. Cooley.
It's good to know another Georgia peach has your back!
And I'm looking forward to having that pretty little birch magnet for my fridge.
I really like magnets!