Entrepreneurship

Good folk music is able to convey centuries of history, tracing the path of a culture from its roots to its modern form. Whether it’s by sticking to the past with time-honored song structures or embracing the present by mixing unique regional instruments with new technology, folk is able to show the essence of a people in an unparalleled manner. This week’s featured Kickstarter project, Music in Mali: Life is Hard, Music is Good, embraces this tradition of musicial storytelling.

Mali, one of Africa’s poorest countries, enjoys a rich musical tradition that combines (usually parable-style) folk storytelling with instantly recognizable West African instruments. Blending continental sounds and writing methods with genres (like blues, hip-hop and jazz) that went on to further develop through the nation’s relationship with American slaves, Mali’s music is some of the most captivating in the world. Despite continued national hardship (in the form of political, economic and social troubles) Mali’s citizens still actively carry on crafting and performing songs that celebrate their history. Music in Mali, a full-length documentary film, seeks to tell the story of these artists.

The project is spearheaded by Kanaga System Krush (or KSK), an indie label that focuses primarily on releasing music from West African artists. KSK has been documenting its work with these musicians, filming scenes of the country while the singers, dancers and instrumentalists themselves share their stories of life in Mali and the inspiration behind their craft. Shots of the country’s landscape mix with interviews and, of course, live performances to make Music in Mali a true portrait of a nation and its population.

Listeners already hip to KSK’s releases will recognize some of the artists that appear in the film (like Toumani Diabate, Djeneba Seck, Djeli Mady Tounkara and more) while many others will notice familiar faces from the rest of the world (such as Blur and Gorillaz’ Damon Albarn, Ry Cooder or Bonnie Raitt).

Music in Mali is an exciting project that aims to provide international viewers with a look into Africa that goes beyond the violence and disease that so often characterizes the continent. The filmmakers have taken a look into the spirit of a culture that, despite overwhelming problems, continues to create beautiful music. As the nation continues to change, KSK wants to preserve elements of Mali that could very well disappear in the near future. Donating to the production of the film works to not only fund a unique and entertaining project but also to shed light on aspects of Africa that transcend the gloom of war and stifling living conditions and, instead, promote the fundamental good made possible through human creativity, joy and perserverence.

Want to donate? Then do it by visiting the Music in Mali Kickstarter page. Need more convincing? Check out a hi-def video trailer for the project by clicking here or visit KSK Records’ official page for information and audio samples from some of the West African groups represented by the record label.

Music in Mali: Life is Hard, Music is Good will be funded on Saturday, July 23rd at 2.00am EST if the $20,000 goal is met on time.

Let’s stop being so egotistical about Earth for a second. I mean, sure, we all enjoy living on the planet best capable of sustaining carbon-based life forms and, yeah, our ecosystem is varied and beautiful, providing us with aesthetic wonder and myriad, incredible species to admire but — do we ever stop to appreciate other neighbors in this vast cosmic suburb we call the Milky Way?

No, we don’t. Or not often enough at least. And what a shame that is.

Luckily for all of us the Kickstarter campaign for Orbit(Film) Astronaut Appreciation Society is giving everyone chance to demonstrate our love for those planets we don’t spend quite so much time thinking about.

Orbit(Film) is a collection of short films, dedicated to the different planets that make up our solar system. It takes the form of a single movie, split into a total of thirteen chapters, and is helmed by producers Mike Plante and Mark Elijah Rosenberg. Plante and Rosenberg, working with Cinemad and Rooftop Films, have drawn up an impressive list of talent, curating (and taking part themselves in) a unified selection of short movies that are all tied together through a united goal: the celebration of the Milky Way.

Drawing from disciplines like documentary, live-action fiction, archival footage and animation, the minds behind Orbit(Film) hope to capture the majesty of outer space while bringing everything back down to Earth (hee-hee) by relating each of the shorts to decidedly human interests in the cosmic. The project’s hope is to revel in the universe’s unique ability to inspire wonder and urge others (artists and scients alike) to continue exploring the unknown that lies just beyond our atmosphere.

There’s some serious cred behind Orbit(Film) that should help to get appropriate attention directed toward the project — some of the filmmakers involved include well-known indie names like Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatsky, Kelly Sears, Travis Wilkerson and Brent Hoff — and some of the pieces selected have already appeared in prestigious film fests like The New York Film Festival and Sundance.

The modest amount of money that Cinemad and Rooftop Films is hoping to raise (only $5,000!) will go toward getting the (nearly complete) group of shorts ready for proper screenings and more. Rooftop Films, creators of the Kickstarter campign, need some extra dough to help finance the rights to NASA’s archival footage, the mastering of the final film and the creation of promotional posters, DVDs and exhibition copies.

Interested Kickstarter-ers can cough up a bit of dosh to become a member of the (wonderfully named) Astronaut Appreciation Society, earning cool swag and other rewards depending on their donation tier. These range from the modest (t-shirts, posters, tickets to advanced screenings) to the immense (free consultation with film co-producers, special credit on screen, a phone message from Neptune and more).

Like space? Like film? Like contributing to the arts? Well then, head over to Orbit(Film) Astronaut Appreciation Society on Kickstarter, the official webpage or Rooftop Films’ homepage to learn more. The project will be funded on Tuesday, July 19th at 5.00pm EST if the $5,000 goal is met.

In a spin on the immortal words of the Killers, enterprising metal scultor, Zac Shavrick, asks “Are we human, or are we monster?”. An important question, that — and one that, luckily, you can mull over for yourself by commissioning Shavrick to create your very own, personalized sculpture through the artist’s current Kickstarter campaign.

Shavrick’s Toys Are Us, the project in question, allows interested contributors to submit a photo of themselves (preferably in a ridiculous pose) and have the artist craft a sculpture based on their likeness. The catch is that these sculptures, made of metal, can be either monstrous or realistic (that is, realistic as long as you look like a human).

Once enough commissions have been offered to Shavrick he aims to create a miniature world of these personalized monster and human caricatures. The ultimate tableau could consist of you shooting the breeze with your monstrous pals, battling another creature or just hanging out, observing the rest of the scene.

I don’t know about you but, for me at least, the idea of a personalized sculpture is the perfect mix of vanity and hilarity. And Zac Shavrick is certainly talented enough to pull off his project, having worked as a metal scultor since childhood.

Because this is Kickstarter, there are a wide range of tiers for contributors to choose from. Smaller donations net prizes like a small, 2-inch sculpture while larger funding amounts get you full-size portrait busts and more.

Toys Are Us will be funded on Thursday, July 14th at 11.56am EST if the $8,000 goal is raised on time. Want to learn more about Zac Shavrick and his work? Take an internet stroll through his personal website, blog or Kickstarter page.

There isn’t much time left before we reach the point of total zombie saturation. Maybe, just maybe though, you’ll be able to find room in your heart for at least one more undead centered romp with this week’s featured Kickstarter project, Safe Zone.

Blind Eye Games, the small New York City indie developer behind the title, is attempting to blend the hopelessness and practicality of The Oregon Trail‘s cross-country trekking with traditional, zombie genre tropes. Mixing various combat modes with survival-based travel and exploration, Safe Zone is intended to be a deep simulation of how the years after a zombie apocalypse play out.

While the early build of the game shown on the web does look a bit rough, the ambitious scope of the project definitely warrants notice. Blind Eye Games’ tiny staff currently work on the project in spare time outside of their day job and, despite this time handicap, have managed to build a foundation for what looks like it could be a fantastic indie title.

Contributions to Safe Zone will help Blind Eye Games to meet their fall 2011 release date while maximizing production values and, possibly, creating ports for non-PC gamers to enjoy. Most impressively, anything over the project’s $5,500 goal will be diverted toward the creation of a custom map editor that allows players to craft their very own campaigns.

Want to fill your tasty, tasty brain with more knowledge on Safe Zone? Check out the Blind Eye Games website, Facebook page or Twitter. The project will be funded on Thursday, July 21st at 12.25pm EST if the $5,500 goal is raised on time.

When we think of cities we usually picture concrete and steel — not exactly the kind of environment where anyone expects nature to find a place. This duo behind this week’s featured Kickstarter project, Seeing Green: The Value of Urban Farms, want to change our expectations about what the typically barren landscape of a modern city is capable of producing.

Seeing Green is a research project that’s been designed in order to set out a template for how we can adjust to urban life without leaving nature behind. It’s the result of Brooklyn, NY based Tyler Caruso and Erik Facteau’s studies and experiments in rooftop gardening, a long-practiced tradition that has become increasingly relevant in light of our current environmental crisis.

The project will take place over one full year and will see the two men measuring the potential of two pre-existing sites, Brooklyn Grange and Added Value. Seeing Green‘s ultimate goal is the establishment of a scientific basis by which future rooftop gardens could be built and, hopefully, supported by municipal policies.

Caruso and Faceteau need help to see their research through. The $12,000 goal of their Kickstarter project is required in order for the pair to purchase the equipment used in their research (a full list of the gear, broken down by price, is available through the project page).

For more information on Seeing Green: The Value of Urban Farming, head over to its Kickstarter page or see an example of the project in action at Brooklyn Grange. Funding will take place on Sunday, June 12th at 12.34am EST if the $12,000 goal is met.

I still have CDs. I even go out and buy them — even though it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a decent selection at places other than second-hand record stores. That’s why the death of Tower Records is interesting to me. And, as this week’s featured Kickstart project shows, the end of an icon in physical music retailers has warranted the attention of many others as well.

All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records tracks, well, the rise and fall of Tower Records. It’s a documentary by Colin Hanks that focuses on Russ Solomon, the entrepreneur responsible for building one of the most recognizable record stores in the world.

The film follows Solomon’s rise, from the opening of the first Tower Records in 1960, to the creation of a unique corporate empire that somehow, despite the odds, managed to be both profitable and a unique haven for employees and customers alike. Although the company was massively successful (in the year 2000, Tower Records reported a billion dollar fiscal year) it soon began to feel the effects of a changing marketplace brought about by digital music distribution. In 2004 Tower Records filed for bankruptcy and by the end of 2006 almost every one of its stores had closed. Pretty striking, what can happen in only six years.

Hanks and co. are looking to track the cultural, technological and economic changes of more than forty years of the music business with the film — something that could result in a fascinating artifact of our rapidly changing world and ever increasing devotion to digitization. In much the same way that one of our previously featured Kickstarter docs, Arcade: The Last Night in Chinatown Fair, sought to remember a little piece of our culture’s history, so too does All Things Must Pass. With our current, brisk level of technological advancement threatening to turn almost anyone’s passions into antiquity over the span of a handful of years, it’s worth taking the time to document our past as we hurtle into the future and it looks like that’s exactly what the movie is intending to do.

While seed money and initial resource gathering is already underway, financing the whole documentary can’t be done entirely without assistance. Money raised through the Kickstarter drive will be put toward equipment rental, production and travel expenses, all necessary costs involved with getting the film to see the light of day. There’s some neat swag set up as rewards for helping out as well. Contributers to All Things Must Pass can receive items that range from a signed (by Russ Solomon and Colin Hanks) copy of the eventual DVD, their name listed in the credits, a special 7″ vinyl recording of film interviews, trips to the Los Angeles screening and more.

To learn more about the documentary check out its Facebook page, Twitter, Colin Hanks’ blog and, of course, its Kickstarter page. All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records will be funded on Friday, July 15th at 12.07am EST if the goal of $50,000 is met on time.

When asked in a recent interview with YoungEntrepreneur.com for a piece of advice for young entrepreneurs, I answered “dream big but act lean”. This is critical advice.

Wikipedia defines an entrepreneur as “a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and is accountable for the inherent risks and the outcome”. An entrepreneur is someone who is better served without the shackles that come with a traditional job, without a boss, without top-down imposed key performance indicators, etcetera.

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When I was in high school a friend of mine introduced me to one block of our city — the extremely little Little Vietnam — that redefined how we spent our lunchtime. While everyone else was off huffing McDonalds we were sampling what was, in that time and place, a little known cuisine. As time went on, more and more of our friends caught on to it and soon most everyone was hip to these new, interesting flavours. King of the discoveries was banh mi (what we called the “Vietnamese Sub”).

As Thu Nguyen and Michael Gordon’s current Kickstarter campaign, My Quest for Yummy Banh Mi, demonstrates, we’re not the only ones that have been entranced by the unassuming sandwich.

Banh mi is simple food and, in many ways, encapsulates the history and culture of Vietnam. It’s a blend of French and local cooking that is a staple of national street food, home cooking and restaurants. Nguyen and Gordon (the former having developed foodie blog YouCook.ca) are seeking to catalog the roots of the beloved sandwich by tracing local ingredients, regional interpretations and more through a trip to the heart of banh mi country — Vietnam.

My Quest for Yummy Banh Mi sees Nguyen documenting her banh mi experiences throughout the country and laying out the groundwork for a cook/travel book that compiles the photos, recipes and writings made during this time.

Bringing banh mi secrets to the masses is a bit expensive though. That’s why Nguyen and Gordon are looking to raise a bit of cash to help offset travel costs involved in the project. Rewards for doing so include copies of the finished book (in PDF and/or hard copy), recipe cards, personalized “thank you” post cards and much more.

Check out My Quest for Yummy Banh Mi on Kickstarter, Nguyen’s specialized YouCook page, or Facebook. The project will be funded on Tuesday, May 31 at 9.46pm EST (if the $2,500 goal is met) so, if you’re donating, make sure to do so ASAP.

Each day of our lives we interact with technology that lets us instantly communicate with others, quickly access information or simply make our lives a bit more convenient. With every massive leap forward we make in each of these sectors, however, we seem to forget the real reason why the human race works so hard to forge innovative new solutions. That is, of course, finally fulfilling the dream of being able to wave our hands around like maniacs to summon a marching band.

Scott Peterman’s Imaginary Marching Band is, within that (obviously correct) viewpoint, the most important development of the 21st century. And looky here — it has a Kickstarter page.

Peterman’s Marching Band is an open-sourced project that allows users to emulate the sound of various instruments with pantomimed gestures. Through a number of gloves kitted out with MIDI-producing sensors and USB output points, Imaginary Marching Band is currently capable of reproducing a selection of common instruments (tuba, trombone, bass or snare drum and cymbals).

The technology is capable of aiding in the creation of actual music in (on?) the hands of musicians and can be fed into a variety of production/editing software tools (like GarageBand, Logic and Pro Tools), making it much more than just idle amusement. Since Imaginary Marching Band is open-source (all discoveries and research results have been public domain) it’s also a tool that can be experimented with in any number of ways by any number of interested parties.

Peterman’s vision is one that can go a long way toward, not just innovating with electronic sound, but also in the democratization of musicianship itself.

While we’re accustomed to a wide range of practical, technological tools that make previously impossible tasks possible, the playing and writing of music still remains something that requires a significant time investment to explore. Imaginary Marching Band, the embryo of what could be a revolutionary mixture of tech and music, represents a new way to consider how we interact with instruments. And that’s something worth supporting.

Although prototype models exist, actually making more of the hardware — and getting the word out about the technology — is where the project gets tricky. That’s why Peterman is requesting donations through Kickstarter. Any money raised for Imaginary Marching Band goes toward funding the creation of further gloves along with providing assistance in searching out new methods for developing more Imaginary instruments. Scott Peterman is also hoping to debut his invention in New York and Europe this fall and hopes to use some of the money for backing this push for public visibility.

Rewards for donations are, appropriately, geared toward the sort of people that will be drawn to the project in the first place. These range from simple fare like DIY creation videos or a package containing necessary hardware and instructions to being sent actual Imaginary instruments (fully constructed and ready to use).

To learn more about Imaginary Marching Band check out the Kickstarter page, visit the official website, follow Scott Peterman on Twitter or visit his homepage. The project will be funded on Wednesday, June 8th at 11.18am EST (if the goal of $10,000 is met) so head to Kickstarter and toss a few bucks over to help out.

Believe it or not, there are still voids left on the internet. For every niche-fulfilling service that caters to the whims of, say, obsessive insect collectors or Lionel Richie superfans, there are still gaps that leave certain demographics — like the myriad artists and businesses that require their talents — out in the cold. Luckily, Ardist, a social network designed for the arts community, aptly fills this curiously empty space.

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