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on September 8
Fred Bals
backed a project
An Evening With Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer by Amanda Palmer
Be a part of "An Evening with Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer…" whether you want to attend the shows, or live a million miles away…
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666% funded $133,341 pledged
- 3,873 backers
- Funded Oct 03, 2011
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on June 3, 2011
Fred Bals
backed a project
JANIS MARTIN " The Female Elvis", Final Recording Sessions by rosie flores
Final recording sessions for legendary rockabilly artist, Janis Martin. Her dying wish was to see these recordings released.
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110% funded $16,571 pledged
- 332 backers
- Funded Jun 17, 2011
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on March 10, 2011
Fred Bals
backed a project
Replacing the "N-word" with "Robot" in Huck Finn by Diani&Devine
We want to take the word "N-word" and replace it with "Robot" in Mark Twain's classic "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
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500% funded $30,030 pledged
- 1,108 backers
- Funded Mar 11, 2011
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on November 8, 2010
Fred Bals
commented on a project updateReceived an email back in September implying the DVD would soon be on its way, but haven't heard anything since.
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on May 21, 2010
Fred Bals
backed a project
Who'll Rock The Cradle, Who'll Sing The Song: The Harry Smith "Anthology" Project (Canceled) by Alexander Stern
I am writing what I hope will be the definitive work on the Folkways box set, "The Anthology of American Folk Music," edited by Harry Smith.
Funding Canceled (05/28/2010) -
on March 12, 2010
Fred Bals
Posted project update #10Project Cancellation
I'm sorry to inform my backers that I'm canceling the "Night Time in the Big City" book publication Kickstarter project. As noted in the Kickstarter FAQ, your pledge will be canceled, you won't pay anything and that's that.
There's obviously a lot of interest in a book about Theme Time Radio Hour. I hope to see one some day, whether it's by me or not.
I can't tell you all how much I've appreciated all the support, personal messages and pledges over the past month-and-a-half. To paraphrase the words of the immortal Barbara Bain, there are a lot of people I'd like to thank. And there a couple of people I'd like not to thank. And both groups know who they are.
That's all I have to say. Thanks again.
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on March 8, 2010
Fred Bals
backed a project
The Eventful Life of Al Hawkes by Rockhouse Mountain Productions
The Eventful Life of Al Hawkes is a documentary film about New England country music, told through the story of a Maine record label and its founder.
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145% funded $1,455 pledged
- 36 backers
- Funded Apr 22, 2010
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on March 5, 2010
Fred Bals
Posted project update #9The Word from Studio B and Tex Carbone Speaks
Post Comment"With a crime such as this - one that produced equal parts awe and conjecture to the degree that it has achieved mythical proportions - it's fitting that there remains some mystery as to precisely how it was pulled off. Only a small group of men know for sure, and to date not one of them has provided a full and credible explanation, if they've spoken about it at all."
That's from the Author Notes to "Flawless," a book about the legendary Antwerp Diamond Center heist of 2003, but it's also a fitting epigram for Theme Time Radio Hour in many ways. The "small group of men", and at least one woman, who composed the TTRH team have always maintained an air of mystery about precisely how they pulled it off, and undoubtedly will never provide a full and credible explanation.
It's not their way. There's a reason why the group of TTRH guest commentators included such purveyors of hokum as Penn Jillette and Ricky Jay, both close friends of Eddie G. and Mr. D. There's a reason why the mysterious associate producer, the person who called him/herself Sonny Webster, Ben Rollins and Nina Fitzgerald-Washington over the three seasons was adamant about protecting his (or was it her?) identity, only breaking cover once in March 2007 on the "Trains" episode.
One of the things that's become important to me is to keep the mystique of the Abernathy Building and Studio B intact, not least because the people who created the Big City put so much effort into developing that mystique. In some ways, it's always night. There's always a woman in red smoking a cigarette on a balcony with the city spread below her. Soon she'll walk into the lobby of the Abernathy Building, take the elevator up, go into Studio B.
The real Studio B exists only in the theater of the mind. You can probably see it as well as I can. Unchanged since the `50s, mike dangling down from the ceiling, two turntables framing the deejay's chair. Tex Carbone behind the glass, working at his sound panel. The lady in red in a separate sound booth, leaning into the microphone, huskily whispering out...
"It's Night Time in the Big City." And it begins again.
That's the real Studio B. Below you'll see a photo of its more mundane counterpoint, the "Studio B" where most of the shows were final-edited and tweaked. The XM Radio Studios at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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"I have a degree in jazz composition orchestration. I used to write Big Band and a lot of jazz. I have a huge appreciation for jazz. I got into production and mixing 20 years ago. Every week we'd always end up talking about jazz. And here we are mixing the show at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Phil Woods Quartet or somebody would be down the hall and we'd be mixing and Sonny Rollins would walk by. It was totally a trip.
"Everything I learned, all the music I was exposed to that I had never heard… it was great. I'd stop and I'd turn around and I'd call Eddie and I'd be going, "Dude! This is great! I can't believe that!" [One thing] would line up with [another], and things would tie together. It was harder at the beginning, it was a new show to Bob. But as Bob got into it, it really got better and better. To me, every show was just fabulous." ~ Tex Carbone in an interview for "Night Time in the Big City"
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Thanks to the supporters who boarded the "Night Time in the Big City" Desert Bus this week, including the person who made the incredibly generous pledge of $1,000. If we reach our funding goal, I'm determined to deliver a book to you all that equals your faith in me and this project.
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on February 26, 2010
Fred Bals
Posted project update #8This Week's Update Postponed Due to Weather
Post CommentThanks to the eight people who joined the Night Time in the Big City project this week, joining the 54 others who have pledged to the project. Every one of your contributions is much appreciated.
I've you've read my bio, you know I live in Southern New Hampshire, an area that got whacked heartily by weather last evening, as did much of New England. Peggy, I and the Top Cats are fine, although we're without power and as usual when we lose power and get heavy rains, our basement is flooded. So, we're going to be spending the next several days in clean-up after power is restored, which we're hoping will be soon.
The Night Time in the Big City book project continues. As have several of my backers already, the next best thing you can do after contributing is to contact other Bob Dylan/TTRH fans about the book. As much as Karl Erik at Expecting Rain and Sean over at RightWing Bob have gone out of their respective ways to publicize the project on the web (as have others. My apologies if I don't mention you directly), I'm always surprised by how many new contributors weren't aware of Night Time in the Big City until someone else sent them an email about it.
The remaining $2,180 isn't much, especially when you consider that we raised more than that in the space of 30 days. I'm confident we can do it together. Excelsior and all that. Back to the mop-up.
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on February 19, 2010
Fred Bals
Posted project update #7$20 away from $2,500 and a Special Offer
A dozen new supporters joined the Never-Ending Pledge Drive (NEPD) this past week and, as always, thank you. $20 more and we'll have crossed the halfway point.
I was trying to think of something to offer my backers this week, and have decided that you get to pick the next TTRH show I transcribe with commentary over at Dreamtime, and possibly to be included in Nighttime in the Big City (I'm planning on transcriptions of at least one show from each season, just haven't decided which shows yet).
So far I've done "Weather," "Flowers" and "Days of the Week." What show would you like to see transcribed next? What's your favorite? What pithy comment from Mr. D. had you going, "I want to know more about that?"
Add your comment here and I'll pick either the show that gets the most votes or - in the case of a tie - have the Top Cats randomly select one.
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Jennifer in Seattle on February 19, 2010
I love "Young and Old". Maybe because I love Charlie Poole. I sent one of my many e-mails to Theme Time after this episode, mainly to mention that I once owned the album called "Old and in the Way", featuring Jerry Garcia, named after the Charlie Poole song featured here.
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hudson duncan roper on February 21, 2010
Suicide notes from above and beyond the wasteland of wonderland part 3 revisted quite fortunately:;)
friends, coffee, spring, fall
would all be fantastic
thanks Bob
thanks for keeping the faith all these years.
mankind owes you a great debt
especially for hating hippes
and not going to the stock in 1969the whole world would have exploded and never existed again, right?:)
love, Jim Jones
Einstein disguised as robin Hood with his memory in a trunk
Who passed this way an hour ago with his friend a jealous monk
Who went off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet
you would not think to look at me that i was famous long ago
for playing the electric pipe organ on DOS Elation RoVVBut, Praise be to Nero's Neptune, the titantic sails again at Dawn
P.S.Eliot And Ezra Bang Bang are fighting over titbits in the captains tower
While calypso singers from Acura laught at them and fisher's of men are eating corn flour (true story that...Zol surface)
And Andrew Adolphus hookers between the windows of the Tasman sea haven't even heard of 32a Gordon Street, Lansdowne, Masterton 5810, Wairarapa_Bush, Wellington, New Zealand, Aeotearoa. Terra Australis (the man not the great south land you Mats) Although they always thought they lived with ME. Now I know its you who belong with me.(c) The mother of the stereotheistic God. YHVVH. I am what I will be. and that is all
by the way would like to see Desiree Denise Dylan one day Soon all those nights they will be ended sooooooon. before the break of nooooooon. this cow already jumped over the man in the moooooooon.
Love ya DAD (Dylan AIL dON)
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Fred Bals
East Merrimack, NH
Fred Bals is a writer, researcher and podcaster living in Merrimack, NH. Among other adventures, he once saved Tom Waits from arrest and told Johnny Rotten that his wedding ring was not for sale.
I am shocked and dismayed to read this. Your sincere enthusiasm for this project was clear to me and it seemed so close to fruition. I was really looking forward to reading this book. So sorry.
Bummer! :-(
I am so sorry to hear this news, Fred!
It seems you're reaching your goal - I can't imagine what stopped you but I am sure it is significant and that this is a big disappointment to you as well. Great effort though - I hope to see something good come of your efforts. See you on Dreamtime!
This sudden turn seems hard to fathom. Really weird!
I certainly hope it doesn’t mean sudden severe personal misfortune that makes the project impossible, Fred. But don’t exactly relish imagining that those few folks you’d “like not to thank” are powerful insiders capable of abruptly nixing the whole (or folks with a sure path to such power). Not exactly a situation that encourages Kickstarter backing.
Too bad the scene couldn't remain thoroughly blueskiesandsunshine.