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Monday, August 15, 2016

I've gotten less than 33.3% of the "things" I should have received for "donating" to Kickstarter projects.



I've paid money to various kickstarter dot com projects over the years. Off the top of my head, I can only think of three. Maybe it was just these three all along, but it feels like I am missing a few more. Anyway. Of the three projects, I did not get anything in return for my contribution for two of them. Only Mission Man sent out the rewards (and extremely promptly, I might add). Still have the t-shirt you see on your left. Thanks, Mission Man.

One project, which I have given up hope on getting my thing, is R. Stevie Moore's tour kickstarter from 2011. I believe I bought the $15 option for a live CD of a show from the tour + a postcard. I received neither. However, given the nature of RSM's existence (pictured, right) in the cultural sphere, I forgive all parties involved in this neglect. The man is––imo––the most under-appreciated genius in music history so who am I to argue?

The third kickstarter, and definitely saddest in many ways, was Claude Coleman's new solo record campaign. (Claude Coleman is the drummer of Ween but he also records and tours as a solo project under the auspices of the monicker, Amandla.) I gave money via the above option because "chatzchi from the studio" was too weird to pass up. If you ask me, "chatzchi from the studio" + a signed photo was way too much for just a $5 donation. As of this past weekend, I got a very dour update via email about this project. I am going to post it here in its entirety:
Hello hello hello -

This is an update, to all our funders and supporters for the making of this record.

First I want to again thank everyone for their patience. This is hardest on me more than anyone, and it' been a painful process doing everything DIY. In fact, it's still ongoing.

What's happening right now - today - is, our CD manufacturer Megalodon located in Oregon, has vanished - for over a month I have not been able to contact anyone, or have I receive any correspondence from them.

It's so heartbreaking at this stage of things, I feel like I just want to collapse. And it's not making any sense to me, aside from Mercury being in retrograde right now which is my ruling planet. But Megalodon has been paid for the job - $3,600 or so for the custom packaging. We've been back and forth with design details for many months now ( an epic struggle there). The date for the start of printing was June 15 and we were told 2-3 weeks. Our last correspondence from them was July 7.

Since then, nothing. A flurry of emails for the last several days have gone unanswered. The company phone is a recording, with no option to leave a message, even though it says to leave a message, but the line just disconnects.

I honestly don't know what to think! if I don't hear anything today I guess I have to pursue some kind of legal/law enforcement action. The company printed my second amandla record, The Full Catastrophe, and they were fine. I think they used to be located in New York City.

At this stage of the process, for having it taken so long, it stings. More like burns. In fact really I'm sort of in a state of shock, and feel helpless. But I'm going to keep on this pursue whatever processes I have deal with. If it does all fall through with Megaladon it will add so many more months on it makes me want to cry. But I will keep everyone posted frequently. Enough is enough!

Outside of this, I really want to thank you for the support. I made a killer record, so maybe the positive will come in equal measure to the struggle of making it and getting it out. We've been building a great team to launch, and expect great things. I'm going to start playing out, I can't wait anymore. Stay tuned.

Also, I've started fulfilling perk orders, that were without the record.

I will continue to fulfill orders, just without the record, until I can settle the printing. They're all right behind me, and 3 went out today.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you again. So much gratitude.

- Claude
Look, this message is kind of all over the place, shuffling from blind optimism to hopelessness, sometimes within the same sentence. But, again, who am I to judge? It's just my money. And all money is trash. Giving money to someone as talented as Claude and receiving nothing in return is not the worst thing in the world. We give money to shit people for shit we don't need every single day. Life goes on. I'm seeing Ween in Philly on Sunday to give some of my money to some good people and probably some bad. None of this matters.