chalk talk, ditdahing in the house

(poster by Wyatt Ramsey)

It's almost musical, isn't it? All percussive, but that's what draws you in.
dit dah dit dah, ditditdit, dit dah, dit dah ditdit, dah dit dah,
dah, dit dah, dit dah ditdit, dah dit dah
Chalk Talk.
As a professor, I am quite familiar with the sounds of chalk striking a slate.
As a former member of the US Navy, I am also familiar with the sounds of Morse code. I used to even play around with it a bit, and one of my favorite expressions whilst stationed in Okinawa was "4 dits, 3 dits, 2 dits, a dah"!
I'll leave you to decipher that one.
When I first found this kickstarter project, I had thought support of it would be a fitting memorial for my recently deceased stepdad, who served this country during World War II. After all, the film was to feature a man from that long-past era, at an elementary school in the company of his young grandson for show-and-tell.
In late May of 2012, I saw the film at the Trustees Theatre, part of those screened for the "16 x 9 Revealed" showcase of senior films. What a treat to see it on the big screen! Even better, the film won two awards: Best Narrative Undergraduate Film, and Best Short Film Screenplay for an Undergraduate Film. Good work, Chris Durenberger!
I was able to see the film larger-than-life one more time, on October 29th, during the 2012 Savannah Film Festival, as one of the student films entered into the competition. How very sweet to see this tale of love lost and found gracing the silver screen once more! And to have that viewing in one of my favorite venues, the beautiful Lucas Theatre!
Soon, I thought, I shall have my reward and have the dvd in my very own home!
Time passed, people graduated and moved on, other film festivals (with other wins!) intervened. You know how life is, right?
In truth, I forgot to keep looking in the mail for it. I would let it be a pleasant surprise one fine day, I must have thought.
Recently, I have been reminded that the responsibility of making sure rewards are sent is partly mine.
When I contacted Chris, he responded right away. Yeah! He assured me he would locate the disks and speed one on its way from his left coast city by the sea to my right coast city by the sea.
Cool beans!
And today I arrived home to find it already in my mailbox!!! Not even a week has elapsed!
What a special pick-me-upper on this rainy, drear day, the second such in a row this week. How wonderful to watch, again, as the old man takes pause when he stumbles upon the faded photo in his box of medals, the photo of his love long lost. The film was as bright and fresh as my memory of the story still was.
Thanks, Chris, for brightening my day yet again!
I wish you much future success!

unchained ear candy

I recently contacted Samita concerning the kickstarter project she created in 2011 for the Bluebird to again take wing.
At the time, when I tossed my fifty bucks into the passing hat, I had selected the lower reward bracket: I wanted to make sure I got a T-shirt, you see.
I didn't want to miss out on that!
And I did not.
In April of 2012, the T-shirt arrived, with the Bluebird coming into view from the back and rounding that righthanded turn!
Woohoo!
It also arrived with rewards from the lower levels. That gave me pause. What if I would have received the T-shirt anyway if I had marked the higher reward level? What if I could be listening to the stories on a cd while I was wearing my new garment?
Well, I would just wait and go to one of the shows and ask.
Only problem was I wasn't able to make my schedule coincide with theirs.
Well, that's okay, I'll see them some other time, right? But time traveled ever farther afield and I let the matter slip my mind.
Until recently.
As I said earlier this month, I've been going through my "Backer history" on kickstarter. When I came to the box for this project, I didn't know whether to check it as fulfilled or not. Maybe I should have chosen the higher reward level...but wasn't it too late to make a change? For almost all of the other projects, the higher reward level includes those rewards at the lower levels. So, maybe...
So I asked, explaining to her that I had really wanted to make sure I received the T-shirt, but now I was wishing I could also have the cd, and was that possible at this time? She had gladly responded that she would make sure my dropbox received them posthaste! Woohoo!
I transferred the five "Front Porch Stories" from the site to a compact disk (cd, y'all!), intending to listen in my car.
That never happened.
I haven't gone anywhere of late that would be far enough that I would be able to listen to all of the tales. So, I brought the disk back into the house and put it into a stack for later perusal.
That finally did happen! Thank God! And I realized, as I listened to the first story, that I was supposed to have this cd, that I was supposed to back this project.
You see, the very first story, titled simply "One In A Million" features the Special Olympics - a project dear to Mama. Since funds from her estate are being used for backing these projects, it's incredible that I stumbled upon one which she would have so loved. Coincidence? No, more likely her hand guided me, wanting me to hear this story in particular, told by Dawn Fraser about her twin brother, Dwight, born with Down Syndrome. The chance of twins being born with one having Down Symdrome is one in a million; this story is about her brother showing her the path of recovery from a sports injury. You should go to her website and listen to it; awesome and funny and definitely uplifting.
In fact, almost all of these tales from a front porch have those attributes.
Edgar Oliver, an odd-voiced man, regales us with his story of misplaced responsibility - and misplaced priorities - as a youth at a local military school for boys. His tale, "Major Oliver", is very funny as it follows an important bookbag. (You can purchase the "Unchained" cd on his personal site, too.)
George Dawes Green, the founder of The Moth, gives a plug to Unchained, as well as all those who make a living from traveling the back roads, sharing songs and tales with small town communities.
Neil Gaiman's tale of fathers and sons, "Hockey Dad", is full of unconditional love. I don't know if that particular story in on his website, but a lot of other "cool stuff" is. (By the way, Neil is an avid kickstarter supporter and is featured here.)
Bringing up the rear, so to speak, and commanding the last track on this cd, is Peter Aguero. "The Keeper", the perfect bookend for this collection, tells the story of the very moment when he knew the woman by his side was meant to be his wife. Trust me, this is no sappy tale of love. Aguero is the frontman of The BTK Band, which bills itself as "NYC's hardest-drinking improvised rock & roll storytelling band". 'Nuff said.
My many thanks to Samita Wolfe - many, many thanks.
May the Bluebird travel happily along!

the dreamer and the devil quickens

I have, at long last, indulged in this tale of two men, both in Chicago in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition.
It had actually arrived at the tail end of November last year - a time of year extraordinarily busy for those of us who grade papers and write tests and coax students for that one last push before semester's end. Then the holidays arrived and piles of received mail and graded papers and unopened magazines all found their way into a different room... and were promptly forgotten until just recently.
Seriously. That is my excuse for not diving into this kickstarter-born fruit prior to now. I have had the disk by the computer, patiently waiting to regale me with the tale woven by Jenny Seidelman and Jonathan Wagner.
The wait ended today!
While I listened to the soaring music, the emotional lyrics, the fabulous vocabulary, I was struck by one thought: I know a theaterical troupe here, right here in my Hostess City of the South, who could bring to life this chiaroscuro musical set in the history of Chicago. Oh, if only they could!!
In my town of ghosts, this cast of characters could truly be released from the page and live once more! The beleaguered, but charming, architect, whose creative partner dies, leaving him the monumental task of creating the White City to celebrate Christopher Columbus' voyage to this country. The psychopathic, but charming, doctor, hellbent on creating his own monstrous monument of gas chambers and murderous chutes, which would pose as a hotel for those coming to the Fair. Add a desperate man who helps the mayor get elected, dreaming a job in his own future, instead becoming a devil and killing the very man he put in office.
Oh, my, yes! Can't you just see it? Can't you hear it?

one in five million, seven hundred eight thousand, five hundred seventy-eight

Yep, that would be me!
According to the email kickstarter sent me today, I am one of 5,708,578 backers who have helped raise funds toward other people's hopes and dreams. As of today, we collectively have given one billion dollars to help others since the birth of kickstarter in April of 2009.
Wow!
Of that great number of backers, there are 4,018,599 backers who only gave to a single project, most likely one started by someone they knew. (As you know, that's how I started, in May of 2011).
That makes me one of 1,689,979 backers who returned to help fund a second project, or third, or even more, after that rush from a successful first funding. Of the many backers in kickstarter's five-year history, I am part of the 30%, roughly, who continued supporting the creative projects of others.
Sah-weet!
I'm also one of 15,932 backers who have funded more than 50 projects. That means I'm one of the 0.3% of people who repeatedly have sought out worthy or interesting projects and backed them. All together, I have backed seventy-six projects. Of those, sixty-two succeeded in attaining their funding goals. Of the fourteen which did not succeed, four tried a second time and were successful funding their dream. (Actually, there were five, but one successfully sought funds outside kickstarter.)
Alright, alright, alright!
One last set of numbers for you, then on to other topics. I promise!
Here's the real doozy: I am one of only 1627 backers who have successfully funded projects in all thirteen categories. In other words, I've completed my pie of colors, lending my financial support (and words of encouragement!) to those seeking funding in theatre, art, comics, dance, design, fashion, film & video, food, games, music, photography, publishing, and technology.
That makes me part of only 0.03% of all kickstarter backers.
Pretty special - at least that's how I feel after that congratulatory email!
I really needed that pat on the back from the site.
You see, late last year, I stumbled upon a page called "Backer history" that I was not aware of in kickstarter. As a backer, this page was designed for me to mark off my rewards as I received them, allowing me to know at a glance which project creators were keeping their end of the deal ...and which were not.
I've been a member of kickstarter since May of 2011 and I had no idea such a page existed. Oops! That means I had been remiss in marking off rewards received!
Tsk tsk.
Even worse, I had failed to remind project creators that I had not yet received a reward. I lend support to quite a few of the local film students, for example, projects which cap off their senior year. After the project is complete, they graduate, move on, move away. Sure, it would be nice if they remembered to make sure the rewards had been given prior to their departure, but sometimes the making of the dvd or cd takes much more time than they had anticipated. Time marches on, we all forget, n'est-ce pas?
Indeed. I am fortunate: when I began receiving my rewards, I purchased one of those protective plastic boxes and made sure all items found their way to that box. That worked very well for the books and postcards and T-shirts! All music cds and film dvds went on shelves which housed other such items.
So, when I tasked myself with checking off the rewards for all of the projects listed in my "Backer history", I at least had a starting point to verify receipt. Thank God! What a process that was! But it was my responsibility to update that list, so I did.
Mostly, I found I had received all that was promised to me. That was good news!
For those projects that had not yet sent rewards, several are still in progress, even though deadlines are long past. That's okay with me. As long as they are still posting updates, I know the creators are still being responsible.
Of the other projects, most of the creators have been quick to respond to my queries. That's good, too!
I only have three that are not responding. I'm going to continue to be patient, but I do have recourse: I can contact kickstarter about them, to see if that site has an alternate means of cajoling folks to do the right thing. I would rather not have to do that; I will continue to try to get those creators to respond to me.
It's not like I had given these three a lot of money. The quantity of money is not the point. We entered into an agreement when the creators listed rewards for different backing levels and I selected a level and backed their project. The very moment that they were in receipt of the funds is the very moment they agreed to uphold their end of the bargain.
I'll give them a little more time.
I had faith in them when I backed their project; I will continue to have faith.

sweet dreams, rip van winkle

This is how the conversation went on fb,
Monday, 24 Feb 2014:

me: Wow! Thanks, Bryan!
What a treat to find it here,
sleeping soundly in my mailbox,
cuddled in the latest issue of "Time"!
Coincidence??? :D

Only later did I find that he had
actually placed the dvd in the mailbox
two days earlier (Saturday evening),
but I had misread his fb nessage
to me at that time.
What dvd, you ask?

Well, the kickstarter reward I wrote of last summer, of course! Savannah Stage Company has been quite busy, with new productions, improv, and fundraising since their project launched in 2012.
I've attended several events they've hosted, but those were improv shows and a fabulously fun fundraiser. Sadly, though, my schedule had not yet allowed me the distinct pleasure of seeing them enact a cohesive performance.
That has now been rectified, as I have watched the troupe perform "Rip Van Winkle: A New Musical", on my own schedule, and will doubtless watch it again and again. You see, it is not quite the same old anti-sloth story we know from reading the works of Washington Irving in our grade-school days.
Oh, no.
For starters, it's been reinvented as a musical. The multi-talented men - and women - of Savannah Stage Company use the musical lyrics to move your toes, as well as the story, along a merry path from the village, up the mountain, and back down again. With only four players, and minimal costume changes, they bring to life more than double that number of distinctive characters.
There are no bowling dwarfs in this version, either. Instead, enter the trickster Diedrich Knickerbocker, the one who will make all of your dreams - whether good or bad - come true. We see the villagers recoil from the mere utterance of his name, as if he is the devil incarnate.
Well, not so to Rip van Winkle, nor to his son, who is growing up listening to his dad weave tales instead of tapestries. In fact, we see that Rip doesn't do much in the way of work, and what little he does is done so poorly that it would have been better left undone. That's just the way he likes it, too. If he had his druthers, he would tell tales in the village square all day, every day.
Washington Irving was quite a tale-teller, too. As a matter of record, he even used several pseudonyms, allowing him to write in different styles, different voices. This musical pays homage to two personae of the prolific writer. Take the trickster, Diedrich Knickerbocker - he was "a Dutch historian", famous for having written "A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty". The "historian" was also credited with the narration of the story of Rip van Winkle as one of 34 pieces collected in "The Sketchbook", by Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Neither Knickerbocker nor Crayon were any more real than van Winkle was - all products of a fertile imagination.
Pretty clever of Irving!
And very clever of the Savannah Stage Company! Thanks for making sure I did my literature research and homework!
Kindly take note, any teachers of the English language.