(Yes, I still owe you one last skydiving post. Suck it up, people. It’s coming.)
So, you’re a cancer blamer but you’re not sure what this whole Blame a-Thon thing is about? Never fear – we’re here with answers to all of your questions (and, by “we” I mean me talking about myself in the third person). Continue reading ›
Some links I’ve been meaning to share for a while that don’t quite merit their own posts, but work well traveling as a pack.
Last week Ad Age ran a great article on Social Media taking cues from indie music. They highlight four artists taking the lead in connecting to their fans on the web, and the #1 example is my personal fav Amanda Palmer, about whom they gush, “[She is] more sophisticated than almost anyone on the internet — musician, brand or otherwise — when it comes to gathering her audience around her and keeping the conversation going.”
In a not-dissimilar topic, NYT ran an article highlighting how bands are increasingly eschewing labels in favor of self-releasing or seeking alternate funding. Fluffy on content, but features Metric, whose self-released Fantasies is killer. Metric is my Garbage replacement while Shirl and the boys chill out. Metric’s manager just detailed the funding behind the record in an open letter; dense, but a fascinating peek into the Canandian indie industry.
Nerd Boyfriend is a photo blog that posts modern and vintage photos of well-dressed nerds you’d probably like to date, and offers suggestions of how to match their look. Their Scott Walker post is one of my recent favorites, both for fashion and photography.
“How to decide if you have a good job” is a fantastic post about start-ups, stress, and loving your life. It also give a bit of background inside into Alice.com, a novel start-up that regularly delivers all of your household necessities to your home at a discount over big box stores.
On the flipside, big box corporations are co-opting the “buy local” movement, the same way they’ve all undertaken “green-washing” their businesses. Disappointing on the surface, but there is certain a local element to chains with e-tailing encouraging people to continue to hit their brick and mortar locations or customizing their sales to a regional audience. Neither are bad things.
Um, the melting arctic has released a torrent of “biological goo” on the Alaskan coast and we are not alarmed why? Sounds like the beginning of a terrifying episode of X-Files to me. (via Cecily of Uppercase Woman).
September is a month dedicated to raising awareness of cancer in children. I’ll be busy planning Blame-a-Thon, followed by my corporate charity campaign. If your month isn’t so insane, you could host your own Alex’s Lemonade stand. If you don’t know much about Alex’s history, check out how Alex’s little stand can teach big marketing lessons.
That should be enough to keep you occupied on your lunch break.
It is Saturday, at 2:30 in the afternoon. After a brief flight, our plane has reached its apex.
Now it is time to dive out of it.
The friendly chatter of the BlameDrewsCancer team falls away as the tiny cabin bustles with activity. Each of our tandem partners checks to make sure we’re completely winched together.
Then, before I realize it is happening, the plexiglass door over the hatch is slid entirely open, and Chris and his partner are duckwalking to the very edge of the floor. They tip out, into the blue, quickly disappearing from sight.
Drew is sitting next to me. I look him in the eyes, but I don’t think it registers. He will be the next to jump.
I find that, unexpectedly, I am completely calm.
.
On Monday, June 29, I met Britt outside of our office, and we took off for New Jersey to meet with Drew.
I had read up on the BlameDrewsCancer phenomenon, but I couldn’t say I completely understood the point of it. All I knew was that Britt was in charge of this mysterious Blame-a-Thon event, and that I had volunteered to take notes for her so she could stay focused on her dialog with Drew.
Otherwise, I was in the dark. Blame Drew’s Cancer was just a meme to me. I had never even sent an @-reply to Drew.
We converged on Applebees for our meeting. Me being me, I had never been inside of one before, and wasn’t entirely sure what sort of food they sold. I advertised the fact to Drew, a stocky, tattooed, slightly-imposing man in a baseball jersey.
Great, I thought. Way to endear yourself to the intimidating guy with cancer by advertising your never-ending weirdness.
Thirty minutes later the five of us – Drew, his friends Chris and Mikey, and Britt and I – were seated and eating. The following exchange kicked-off our meeting:
Britt: I brought charts!
Drew: I brought cancer!
This, I learned quickly, was par for the course with Drew – and a running theme of BlameDrewsCancer. Drew was sick of cancer being an unspoken “c-word.” He talked about his cancer loudly and without reservation, and welcomed questions.
Drew was fresh from chemotherapy, and Britt quizzed him on the details over salad. Yes, he had a permanent port in his body for the chemo, so the drugs wouldn’t burn his skin. No, it wasn’t too uncomfortable, but he wasn’t allowed to get any more tattoos while he was in treatment.
As we got into the thick of the meeting I took furious notes on the scope of the event. It would be huge. 24 hours of party, half of it at Philly’s venerable North Star Bar. We would need to coordinate live video streaming of the entire event. The band Stroke 9 was reportedly working on a Blame Drew’s Cancer theme song. Drew was now an official partner of LiveStrong, in a story set to break later that week on outlets like AOL and CNN – until then the news was embargoed.
In Drew’s words, we should “Think big.” When Mikey jokingly fired back, “Big like Tom Hanks,” Drew responded, “Sure, if you think you can get in touch with him.”
It was at that moment that I began to understand what Drew – and, by extension, BlameDrewsCancer – was actually about. It was about a no-holds-barred rebranding of cancer as something you could talk about, get support for, and live through. Really live.
Drew was only intimidating in that he had ideas with no boundaries, and he was looking for people to help realize them. By the time we headed back to our cars, I knew that I wanted to be one of those people; I had to be involved with Blame-a-Thon in a capacity more meaningful than just taking notes.
I did not suspect that “involved” would involve jumping out of a plane.
It is just shy of 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, and I am sitting on the floor of an airplane small enough that – sans wings – could fit into my living room. There is a parachute-bearing man named Rob strapped to my back.
Around me sit four other twenty-somethings, each with a parachute-equipped man affixed to their person. Together, we watch through the open hatch on the side of the plane as first the airport slips away, then trees, then clouds.
Suddenly, we are in unmitigated blue.
I’ve known these people for less than three weeks, but in just a few minutes I’ll be jumping out of a plane with them to Blame Drew’s Cancer.
I momentarily debate my sanity.
.
This story starts in my cubicle at work, of all places.
I had just exited a meeting about social media with Britt, a colleague, but not a direct co-worker. Back in my cube, we had a rapid-fire conversation.
“So,” Britt interrogated, “You blog, but you aren’t on Twitter?”
“I grabbed my username, but I’m not using it for anything.”
“I think you would like it.”
“But it’s just a never-ending Facebook status.”
“Try it. Try it for a week.”
“Britt, I don’t do anything halfway. If I try Twitter I’m going to insist on being the best at Twitter. That’s how I am.”
“Good.” She left me with a wink. “Try it.”
I’ve already unfolded the story of my Twitter addiction, as well as my visit to a meeting of the Social Media Club of Philadelphia. However, neither could prepare me for my next plunge.
It started innocently enough – I received via a Twitter acquaintance an invite to an event charmingly titled “Blame-a-Thon.” 24-hours of live blaming and live music on 9/9/9, all for charity? I didn’t really understand what it was about, but I love charity events, and I love live music.
I shot off a quick message to the organizer to see if he needed any help connecting with bands, and I got a prompt reply – that I should connect with the director of the event: Britt at BlameDrewsCancer.
Britt? Like, my work Britt? The same Britt?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Another rapid-fire conversation with Britt ensued. (As it turns out, all of our conversations are rapid-fire). The Blame-a-Thon was being thrown by BlameDrewsCancer. Had I seen that hash tag on Twitter? I had, but hadn’t completely understood it … dozens of people blaming things, both serious and ironic, on someone’s cancer? Seemed a little cheeky.
Britt said I ought to read up on BlameDrewsCancer, and invited me to tag along to her first meeting with the eponymous Drew to discuss the event.
I read up. Drew is a true digital native – a plugged-in, gagdet-wielding dude who hosted The Best Damn Tech Show. Period, blogs, twitters, and works at a tech startup. Just a month prior, his doctor diagnosed him with Stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
A lot of people would go to a negative, frightened place with this news – especially in the first month of their diagnosis. Not Drew. Drew decided that in order to beat cancer, he had to beat up on cancer. He had to make it the bad guy, the loser, the asshole. In his own words:
I’ve been blaming my cancer for everything. Lost keys, wallet, Phillies losing. Sixers picking a bad coach. Twitter going down and/or being slow.
Surely cancer can’t withstand that type of beatdown. But why do it alone? I wanted to welcome ANYONE to blame ANYTHING on MY cancer. … I have cancer, but cancer doesn’t have me
Less than 60 days later, close to 10,000 unique Twitter users had blamed something on Drew’s Cancer. That evening, I watched the number creep up on BlameDrewsCancer.com.
I was amazed by Drew’s story, and intrigued to hear about his upcoming Blame-a-Thon. I called Britt back and told her I was in for the meeting.
Little did I know what I was truly “in” for.
My best and most-interesting tweets of the last week (including extensive skydiving coverage).
Read my tweets they happen by following me on Twitter.
The internet had the chance to see and hear the first ever live web concert of my original songs and familiar covers, plus help to raise donations for Unicef’s Believe in Zero campaign for 12for12k
My 12for12k Setlist with demo downloads (if available)…
Like a Virgin – Madonna
Small & Lonely
Icy Cold
Saving Grace (w/Paris monologue)
Shake It Off (w/ “Shake Your Body” outro)
Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
Something Real
High & Dry – Radiohead (per Danny Brown’s request of Fake Plastic Trees)
Bucket Seat (an Arcati Crisis song)
Real You
Man In the Mirror – Michael Jackson (cried on every chorus – WTG, rock star)
Granted
Love Me Love Me Not (an Arcati Crisis song)
Space Oddity – David Bowie
Also, a few I planned to play but cut (or just forgot)…
What It Is
Unengaged
Gone Baby Gone
For people who watched and said they’d be interested in buying a CD (a) you are wonderful, and (b) download what you will and make a donation to this month’s charity, Unicef’s Believe in Zero. As a bonus, you can also grab my duo’s most recent Live @ Rehearsal album.
Also, we had a high of 40 unique users in the room at one time, so that’s what I donated ;)
If you aren’t the sort of person who masochistically books their Mondays right down to the last minute you might want to drop in on some 12for12k video events prior to my big video streaming debut tonight at midnight EST.
Just visit tinychat.com/12for12k to catch the following:
7.00pm est – Charity Panel with John Haydon, Joe Waters, Nicole D’Alonzo, Stacey Monk, Gabe O’Neill, and Danny Brown.
8.00pm est – Live music from special guest (TBA).
9.00pm est – Special section with the Looking Glass Lane girls.
10.00pm est – Comedy hour with Amanda Beals and New York comedy troupe, with an appearance from Wendy Liebman!
11.00pm est – Special adult hour with Avatar Koo reading short stories of erotic fiction.
Midnight est – Live music from me!
Midnight to 4.00am est – Special hosting from Iggy Pintado, author of Connection Generation.
TinyChat is a simple, old-school style web chatroom with the added bonus of audio/video chat from those who have it enabled. You can still watch and chat even if you don’t have a cam.
12for12k is effectively a charity of the month club – they seek out worthy organization with low administrative costs every month, and then spend the entire month spreading the word to raise donations.
Social networking makes this not only possible, but plausible. Instead of evangelizing to the web at least every month, 12for12k can aspire to having 12,000 (or more!) subscribers who chip in a $1 via paypal every month. It’s small change for one person, but $12,000 makes a big difference for the charity of the month.
I hope you’ll support 12for12k’s virgin videothon by dropping in for a few minutes, and follow them on Twitter to keep up with the charities they select for the rest of the year.
