if we get sean, they will come

Pat Alley is trying to raise awareness of the Savannah Dance festival. She came to kickstarter with a definite goal: get the funds to bring the Sean Curran Company to town, as the headliner.
Dream big or go home, right?
I don't know much about Sean Curran, except that he was one of the original members of Stomp. That's good enough street cred(entials) for me! I was at their 2005 show when they came to Savannah and consider myself very fortunate. Part of the beauty of the performances was watching the shadows on the walls of the Johnny Mercer Theatre as the dancers leapt and spun and stomped! - it was incredible and I could hardly sit still, dancing my way out into the streets after the show!
So, if the goal was to bring a dance troupe that talented to Savannah for all to enjoy, then sure! I'll put up some cold hard cash for that!
Especially as I'll get two rewards: 1) the posted reward of a T-shirt from the every day i'm shufflin' flash mob event that occured for the 4th of July here, and 2) the reward of being present at the Savannah Dance Festival. Win-win!

cthulhu's house of z

How did I find myself involved in this project?
The same way I became a supporter of this one: as I have discovered, I have several friends who are fans of that mythology.
You know, the mythology of Cthulhu.
For me, my interest was kindled by a fundraiser last year. Two dear friends had opened a new venue for artists of all types to display their creative talents. After that two-night event, Cthulhu was definitely on my radar.
Or should that be "on my sonar"?
(smile)
In either case, whenever I see the name, I read on.
This kickstarter project sounds like something that would be right at home at Muse Arts Warehouse. If it were, I would certainly be there to see it!
As it is not local, I will do the next best thing. I will support it financially, along with a few other folks. BOOM BAT GESTURE is so close to their goal!
My thirty-three bucks will help push them toward that goal... and gain me a DVD of their show! Sah-weet! It'll be as close as I will be able to get to a performance art show in New York City.
Break a leg, y'all!

flying high flutterby

Success! There she is, Andrea Kay, with her cellist and drawings of her father, at the health professions conference in Atlanta, Georgia!
That was April 4th, her first presentation of her work.
I am sure she will travel far, and continuously, with her talk about connecting to her father during his last days. Connecting to the man she loved through the fog in which he lived, the fog known as Alzheimer's Disease.
This kickstarter project is dear to me. I have several friends working in the health professions field and I have shared this young woman's work with them. I will continue to do so as time marches forward, because dementia is widespread and heartbreaking to so many in this world.
Novel approaches are needed. Not only for those stricken with dementia, but for those who love them and those who care for them.
Pictures speak when words fail.

sealed with a lipschtick kiss!

When I had funded this kickstarter project two months ago, I had done so knowing I would not see the show, knowing there would be no video rewards, knowing they were already a "sure thing".
But I did so anyway.
I really like their logo!
I really like the diversity of their group!
I really like the fun they're having in their shows!

Their sense of humor is even readily seen in the thank-you note, with its huge red kiss!
Fliss!
Thanks so much for schticking with us & for your support!
We think you're real peachy!
Lipschtick
As the card says, they are "complicating the norms of feminism, patriotism, and Judaism. Lay on the schmaltz, we're cookin' up some of Babushka's best."
For a look at some of their style of cookin', check here. They are also on youTube, of course, with some bawdier bits.
Happy viewing!

unchained again! rawrf! rawrff!

The Bluebird flies again! Unchained is on the loose!
Run to your nearest coffeehouse for their heart-grown tales and foot-tappin' music!
As you can see, my T-shirt has arrived! You can't tell from the photo above, but the design is on the bottom left portion of the shirt. The front of the bus is on the front, with the bottom of the bus wrapping around to the back. Very nice!
I really like the Georgia hound dog sticker, too! I can just hear him now, baying of their coming as he runs down the back roads of Georgia and South Carolina and Florida! Ar-ROOOO! Ar-ROO-ROO-ROO!
Nice thank-you note, too. I really appreciate those!

a circus burlesque

They had me at "burlesque".
That's one of my magic words, like "adventure".
Even though they're in Texas and I will most likely never get to see a live performance.
But the shows at Club One, here in Savannah, can come pretty close!
Here's how they introduce the Lipschtick Collective:
It wasn’t until their mid-teens that four lonely lipschtick-ers, each of whom had a peculiarly gaudy aesthetic informed by their distinctively Jewish families, finally found each other. Their aesthetic was honed as they grew closer and over the years they attracted a whole collective of people with enough chutzpah to let their freak flags fly.
Bloody marvelous!!!
Apparently, I am not the only one who agrees with that assessment, as they have surpassed their funding goal by 50%. Sah-weet!
I'll look forward to that thank-you letter with its "juicy kiss"!

a "rolling greek temple" of brilliant raconteurs

This project was launched by a group of literary folks - readers, writers, teachers, publishers - right here in Savannah, Georgia. Woohoo! I know of them, even though I have not been to one of their presentations.
They want to bring storytelling back to the front porches of the Southeast.
But no one really sits on front porches and does that anymore. Many folks don't even have front porches on their residences, these days. Oh, sure, nearly everyone in a house or street-level dwelling has some porch-like structure adjacent to the front door, to keep the rain off while they are trying to get the door opened.
But that is not a real porch.
Oh, no.
A genuine porch has room for a few chairs, or a porch swing, and is a place where people can gather and share vignettes of their lives.
Nowadays, the coffeehouses take the place of porches as gathering sites.
To bring more people out of their homes and into the small coffeehouses, Unchained travels around to the smaller towns, bringing stories from life to life.
But their 1975 bus, their rolling Greek temple, called it quits last summer, curtailing their spreading of the joy of tales and tunes. Now, a new motor is needed, as well as a few other odds and ends, to make the Bluebird soar once more.
That's where kickstarter comes in.
Me, too.
I heard about this through a dear friend and immediately sought it out.
I'm really looking forward to seeing a future show - and wearing my new T-shirt, too.
Hope to see you there!

venturing out on the road to rehab

Yesterday, the thirty-nine backers of this project, received good news!

Update #2
Dec 11, 2011
You backed a fantastic event!
Hello Kickstarter backers,
Just wanted to let you know that the Venturing Out event you funded, "The Castle" -- originally called "Road to Rehabilitation" -- was a fantastic hit when it was performed last Thursday evening. I thought you might like to read a little bit of the publicity the event generated, to see the enthusiastic reception to our cause, namely, to help men and women achieve economic independence after incarceration.
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/morning/venturing-out
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/editorspick_mobile/x1285894671/True-Stories-The-Castle-tells-of-life-after-prison
Thank you very much for your visionary support of this project. It is greatly appreciated!
Laura Winig, Executive Director, Venturing Out

The presentation at Babson College, of ex-offenders reading the dramatic monologues of other ex-offenders, had been a success for all involved. Venturing Out, the group that, with the aid of the college, educates soon-to-be-released prisoners on how to be entrepreneurs, gained much positive publicity and, hopefully, more financial support to bring their teachings to hundreds of other prisoners in the Massachusetts. The audience, which included some at-risk youth, gained knowledge from the panel discussion after the dramatic readings.
And all viewers, both at the live reading and of these videos posted on vimeo.com, walk away with a more realistic vision of the bad choices which land people like themselves in prison - and how to better accept the proud new taxpayers back into society... and keep them there.

road to rehabilitation: dramatic monologues by ex-offenders

The good folks at Venturing Out have taken on "The Castle", to perform live on December 8 at the Sorenson Center for the Arts.
Why did I choose to be a backer of this kickstarter project from Massachusetts?
Especially since it had already reached its funding goal, meaning the show would go on?
Well, the theatrical work they are performing was written by four ex-convicts about trying to regain a life in American society, after doing time in New York prisons.
The group which is performing the theatrical work teaches entrepreneurship and business skills to soon-to-be ex-convicts, so they can be self-employed owners of micro-businesses when they leave the prison walls.
The off-Broadway play will be performed at a college which has the #1 MBA program for entrepreneurship in the United States.
All of that is quite impressive, but why did I join in?
My youngest brother is in prison, and has been since 2007. One day in 2020, if not before, he will be released on parole and will need to find employment.
I am concerned about his ability to do so.
This project gives me hope that his future will be brighter than his past.

flutterby

Andrea Kay's father has Alzheimer's Disease, a type of dementia, and he is dying. Her dilemma was how to connect to him, even when he was not aware of who she was.
Connection. Connection to the man he once was, through the man he had become.
Before he was gone forever.
When I was searching out new projects on kickstarter, looking for local ventures, this one came up. But wait! She's in Ohio! That's twelve hours away, by car!
Oh, I see. She is gathering money to take her work on tour, starting with a health professionals conference in Atlanta. Okay, I can definitely relate to this.
After all, my father died in April of 2009, just a few weeks after his birthday.
My stepdad just died in August of this year.
So, when she spoke of trying to keep her relationship to her father intact, even though his relationship to her was not, I could definitely relate and thank God that dementia was not present in either Daddy or Frank. We all knew each other right to the end.
That's a blessing that not all enjoy.
So, I gladly added my money to the funds she was nurturing.
I know her work will, in turn, nurture so many who have not been as blessed as I.