Nonsequitor post - promoting a friend's fundraiser

One of my friends and fellow community organizers, Mai Li, is doing a fundraiser in order to be able to professionally produce one of her songs.   I think this is totally awesome and hope that you consider supporting her.  The full details of the fundraiser are listed behind the "read on..."

It's finally happening-- a a full scale (tho low budget) professional production and release of "Xmas Time for Jews." (listen to the rough home recording here: http://www.myspace.com/mailigoessolo ) I've talked to a lot of people over the past week about my steps to make this actually happen-- and enough people believe in it-- in this albeit silly project, and in me-- that I think I may be able to get enough money to make this happen and not get evicted. I'm overwhelmed. But I really can't do it without all of you. So, as lovely Debs suggested, I'm having a fundraiser! There's not enough time to throw an event for this, so I'm kickin it old school with a link to my (formerly cobwebbed) Paypal account. Please help me get the show on the road, so to speak, and pass your friends my way. I came up with incentives, and if every one of my FB friends chipped in $3.50, I'd have the double the production budget I need, covering things like food for artists/ extras, CD reproduction costs, and possibly extra toward Taste of Honey (my next theatre score, opening Feb), and the album slated for this summer (officially!). Read all the info below about where the money's going, the donation incentives, and how this all came to be in the last week. Or skip to donating if you're so inclined! Regardless, I'll keep you all posted with the progress of the project and the fundraiser as it happens. I'm so excited to be attempting my first major launch as an artist, and I appreciate that it's going to happen because of all of you! Thanks oodles... ? M ? Donate via paypal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9958996 *Important: If you want to be recognized on the CD and receive the appropriate level incentive, I need you to contact me with the date/time/amount of your donation so I can make sure to match it to paypal receipts! Don't forget! ______________________________________________________________ WHAT I'M DOING Of course I have a master plan! Here's the overview: 1. Recording and releasing "Xmas Time for Jews"-- It's going to sound big. Full symphony (partially digital), church bells, sleigh bells, choir, everything sickeningly saccharine-happy... except for some unhinged vocals, of course. Then release it digitally, hopefully the first or second week of December. 2. Meanwhile, do a photo shoot that's related and release it to designer/animator friend Aaron Gaponoff (another Jew), who is doing the animated music video. There is also discussion of pulling in a frined of his, a videographer with a greenscreen (also Jewish!). 3. Then, hopefully finish getting up my personal website with Nicol. This will ensure a place for the publicity to travel, and will promote the next theatre score that goes up in February, as well as my album, which I'm officially slating for a summer release (but hoping for earlier!). Also arrange for physical CD production, mostly for promotion and donor gifts, but also for sale. 4. Release the music video on 12/15. Watch track sales trickle in as people hopefully want it for their christmas parties, and watch my website gain traffic and email list signups. And thus, my solo artist career is born with a small cult following, hopefully among Jews, Seattlites, and sarcastic/funny christmas song lovers nationwide. Donate via paypal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9958996 MONEY! (or, the bane of the artist's existence) I've gotten new students and started bouncing back from where I was. If I continue at my current rate, by this time next month, I may be able to get my head back above water and buy food at the grocery store like normal people! (not that I can't appreciate a good cooking challenge, or the irony of Food Bank Perrier, but really... it's been a rough summer and fall.) But a full scale production takes a lot of work to put together, and a lot of resources besides... and that's the part I'm still struggling with. I'm rich with talented artists to collaborate with, and talented engineers, photographers, videographers, animators and graphic artists. But I can't ask them to work for free! And even if they're willing to do me favors as far as price is concerned, all those numbers add up really quickly. BREAKDOWN The total budget I need to produce Xmas Time for Jews is $700. $400-- studio time to record live drums, guitar, string section, and vocals. $300-- session artists (2), animator, photographer, and videographer thank-you stipends. Ask anyone in the business of any of these, and they will tell you that is not a lot to go around. But since I'm literally scraping the money together from every available source, and they're all people who enjoy working with me, they've graciously agreed to do me a favor-- one that I hope you will reward by helping me with resources to reward them out of! Donate via paypal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9958996 INCENTIVES I want to say thanks for what you're giving me. It means a lot! So I've come up with a few ways I can appreciate your contribution more concretely. Thankfully, later in the month, I also plan on actually physically duplicating the single professionally to sell (only a very limited number!), hopefully to help recoup costs I'm not advertising (transportation, feeding musicians or music video extras, digital distribution licensing fees, etc)... plus they'll make cute gifts for the holidays for Jews and disgrunted retail workers. So, since I'm going to have physical CDs: * Every non-anonymous donor will be listed as a producer. You gave, let me give you credit! *Every donation of $15 or more gets a copy of the CD (signed of course, on the offchance I'm famous someday, so you have my first ever limited edition single, produced on a shoestring-- how romantic!) *Every donation of $50 or more will appear under a separate heading, labeled "Executive Producers." *Every donation of $100 or more will get a live performance of their choosing, in any medium I have performed professionally, to be scheduled at a later date. This includes any of my top 6 instruments (vocals, violin, viola, guitar, piano, bass guitar), theatre, cabaret, burlesque, or dance, and up to 2 hours of material, depending on the event. (Some restrictions may apply-- inquire for details!) That's gotta be more bang for your buck than an NPR tote bag, right? Donate via paypal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9958996 THE WHOLE STORY The last week has been a flurry of activity. Let me take you back to Tuesday-- Coffeehouse at the Ravenna Kibbutz. I took the stage warily. I was not in an emotional place to performed-- I'd had a mild breakdown at an ill-timed (statistically improbable!) flurry of minorly bad personal news and wasn't entirely human again... but a good friend of mine, and the new coffeehouse organizer, asked me. I wanted to do her a favor. So I told the Kibbutzniks they had to request something, and help me pretend to be happy enough to perform it, like the end of Peter Pan and clapping for Tinkerbell-- it's like audience participation! (They like this. A lot.) The winning request was Xmas Time for Jews. I gave a particularly edgily unhinged rendidtion to an audience that eagerly devoured it. "You should release that for Christmas time," Said one. "People will buy that." "I love that song!" cooed another. "I can't get it out of my head!" "It's hilarious!" "That one's always been my favorite." And so on. I stopped the compliment train: "Hey guys, that's awesome, but it would cost a lot to really do that justice with full production." "How much?" I did a quick tally-- studio fees, 2 session artists (cello and drums, which I don't play), and came up with $300-500. That I'd have to come up with in about 2 weeks. (On further research, of course, the figure turned out to be $700.) Debs nodded sagely. "You should do a fundraiser." A couple people chimed in agreement. Then I started thinking. Could I _actually_ do this? In 3 weeks? The next morning I became a flurry of fingers and emails, which has continued around my teaching schedule through today. In that time I have read blogs about digital distribution, fundraising and investment models of capital in the music industry, and lined up my studio engineer (Bret Phillips of Wax Poetic Studios on Bainbridge) and graphic designer, and some early potential donors/investors. Suddenly, this has all starting to seem possible and take shape. I've gotten people on board, an amazing drummer, and came up with great concepts with the animator. I'll be polishing off the orchestral scoring over the next two days, and going into the studio for the first time this weekend. I have meetings lined up, sessions ready to go; I'm putting in late nights scoring and penciling in practice time for my guitar parts wherever I find it. (I found a better chord voicing yesterday and I was SO EXCITED about it!) I'm stoked, I'm working hard, and I'm ready to go. The only piece missing is all of you. Help me get this together so I can get my artistic career really, finally, launched. I couldn't ask for a finer gift from any of you for the holidays. (Especially since this music has a lot to do with holiday angst... this will get me through the holidays saner than most other years!) Thank you all for all of your continued beleif, love and support ...including tough the love and arguements. (I consider a good debate a sign of respect.) And whatever happens... wish me luck. I start here and now, and I'll do my damndest to make you all proud. ? Mai Li ___________________________________ Donate via paypal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9958996