Yesterday at this time we were at, um, ~$2800. Since then we've moved past $3k (which is a magic #) and we're just a hair away from $4k. We're closing strong and, dammit, we're gonna get there or die trying.
Last night, several of us (Rufus de Rhan, David Branin, Karen Worden, Phil Holbrook, Jeanne Bowerman, and Kevin Fox...among others) staged a Sleep Strike and picked up something like 11 new backers. I think we'll be going again tonight. At least some of us will.
As I type this, someone just pledged $1, which is awesome. No, really. Roughly 30k people a day are seeing tweets about this campaign. 30,000! Imagine if they all gave $1.
Yesterday, I got a wee bit riled up when someone emailed me that I was crazy or this was impossible or something, and I went off on this little rant on twitter, which people seemed to like. There's a little bit of cursing (gasp!)
I'm going to ramble for just a minute about this campaign. Apologies in advance.
We're under 25% with fewer than 3 days left on @YearWithoutRent's campaign. Yes, it looks to be pretty much impossible. I don't buy it.
Then again, you're talking to a filmmaker who made a french film without speaking french...for $15. Then made a 23 minute nearly silent film
about a pregnant woman attempting to seduce some poor sap w/o telling him. That nearly beat a film starring Rainn Wilson in INTERNET voting
It's been viewed around, I dunno, 125000 times online. Again, a 23 minute nearly silent film about a pregnant woman
Then I shot and edited a feature film in 2 WEEKS (#2wkfilm) with just a script outline. An outline I wrote in days and re-wrote as shooting
like, while the camera was actually running. @loopmovie called it "a masterpiece". A producer called it the film of the year.
then this summer I shot a feature in the northern Maine woods--for $4k--with a cast & crew that had never met before the first day
of filming. A cast & crew that came from all over the country, none of them local. Our electricity all came from cars idling
as close as we could get them. Often a mile or so away through dense woods. It looks fantastic.
So this, getting a crowdfunding campaign over the hump that's been endorsed by a who's who of indie film?
Fuck, that ain't impossible. That ain't nothing. Impossible is what indie filmmakers live for.
This is just the second act in the movie where it looks bad. The third act is coming. The happy ending is coming.
So get on board. You don't want to miss wild ride at the end. http://kck.st/dExFQg
(thanks for listening)
Anyway, that was the rant. It felt good to type that yesterday. We've had a ton of support from lots of really great, tireless people. I'm truly humbled.
But enough about me, we want music, dammit!
14. California Stars
Artist: Billy Bragg & Wilco
Album: Mermaid Avenue
I think this album won a Grammy, but I'm not sure. Anyway, British folk singer Billy Bragg teamed up with Wilco to do an album of unpublished Woody Guthrie songs. It's a pretty great album, but I think pretty much everyone agrees that this is the best song. Hell, Wilco still plays it over 10 years later.
The video is from 1999, which is pre-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, before all that craziness with the record label (check out the documentary I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART). It also features the lineup that a lot of people associate as "true" Wilco. So there's LeRoy Bach and the late Jay Bennett, plus a very young Jeff Tweedy. RIP, Jay.
