This is the last update you'll receive about this project. Your pledges will not be debited from your accounts. We are not going to reach our $5,000 goal, so this project is being cancelled as of 11pm tonight (Sunday, Jan 3).

This project is being replaced by a different project at http://tinyurl.com/ybec2ke. If you have pledged to this project because you want to help Michael DiMartino produce new music videos for the deaf and hard of hearing, you should consider re-pledging at the new Kickstarter project.

The new project is intended to raise cash to start a non-profit organization so that we can ask for grant money from the federal government, foundations, and corporate sponsors.

Once again, if you have pledged money to this project, your account will not be debited. You have not made a donation to this project. You will get another notice explaining that fact from Kickstarter after 11pm tonight.

Again, please make your pledge to http://tinyurl.com/ybec2ke instead. Thank you.

Marck Adrian Fedor

This project will be shutting down, unfunded, in just a couple of days. If you've made a pledge, you will not be debited.
Please consider re-pledging at our new Kickstarter project, which will help start a non-profit organization that can apply for grants from institutions, corporations, and the federal governement so that we can produce many more videos for the deaf and hard of hearing, in a variety of styles, by both Michael DiMartino and other artist-terps we can train to bring vidual musicality to their interpretations of songs ranging from country-western to punk rock.
In the long run, this will be a much more effective mechanism for funding a lot more than the two videos we'll still be working toward producing.
Thank you for your kind efforts. The new Kickstarter project is at http://tinyurl.com/ybec2ke.

As it seems unlikely that we'll reach our goal within the next nine days, I'm going to shut down the project on January 3rd. I've started another Kickstarter project to raise funds to start a non-profit organization so that we might apply for grants from institutions, corporations, and governmental agencies like the NEA and National Endowment for the Humanities.
As your accounts will not be debited for pledges to this project, I hope you'll consider re-pledging at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1045808139/an-organization-to-visually-inerpret-music-for-the -- Handmade Music Group. Thank you for your continued support.

Should we not reach our $5,000 goal by January 10, you will not be debited for your pledge; this project will remain completely unfunded. Of course we'd like to reach our goal and offset the cost of the videos, but if we don't, I've started another project, attempting to raise $2500 to start up a non-profit organization that can apply for grants to produce and distribute similar videos for the deaf and hard of hearing -- and, even more importantly, for the hearing as well, so that we can learn from the singular experiences of the deaf. Please visit the other Kickstarter project at http://tinyurl.com/ybec2ke. If this project does not result in the collection of $5,000, please consider re-pledging to the other project.

Thank you, and have a healthy and prosperous 2010. Marck.

We seem to have miscaculated (I seem to have miscalculated) or underestimated a couple of things... first, the majority of the deaf may not need to hear music... but we all need to share our personal feelings in the best communications media available to us.

we're at "crunch time" and the holiday is intervening. We just need 200 people to give us $10 or more each duing the next 5 days. at $25, that's only 40 people out of the thousands or so who visited the site and see what we do. we grown more creative by the week, but could really use the help to defray the high cost of recording, costumes, editing, etc. and we''re $2000 behind our goal, 4 days before the new year. it's either the full $5000 or we get nothing!

we only have until January 10, so won't you pass this link on to friends who want to help a deaf person participate in th world around him w/choreographed, story-lined videos for the deaf and hard of hearing.

if we don't reach our goal by Jan 10, I'd like to create another project to support Hand Made Music Group, so we can reach the deaf with ASL tranlations of pop songs, like Lady Gaga's, and dvds and downloads. Please be generaous this holiday season, $10 is all we're asking,,, in increments of just $25 per pledge share, buying your video, a dvd recorded song, perhpas one the original 3 music vidoes. please send this link to your friends.

I don't remember exactly when I began to see the trappings of our traditional holidays as evidence that humanity had survived another difficult year. Giving gifts in the dead of Winter and sharing a bit of our wealth with the less fortunate are symbols of what tides our spirits over until the return of the Spring. We send little, personal notes to friends, written on holiday cards. And we sing songs about joy, about hope, and miracles.

That the songs we've had in our heads since childhood are seemingly unavoidable as a hallmark of the season is appropriate to a task I'm asking you to take on before rushing headlong into the new year. Survival, gifts, joy, songs, and personal communication -- they're all embodied in the following chain letter I'd like you to copy and send to each of the friends on your e-mail list today. Once you've read the letter that follows, I'm sure you won't mind spending a small amount of time and money in support of a highly overlooked community. So I'll just thank you for your support, and let the letter speak for itself! Happy Holidays! - Marck

Here's the letter:


December, 2009

Salsa. Soul. The Blues. Rock 'n' Roll. Punk. Classical. Jazz. Jingles. "now I know my ABCs" .... and Christmas Carols! Imagine not knowing what these words really mean because you've never heard music before, like more than a million deaf Americans.

I've recently become aware of a uniquely talented American Sign Language interpreter who is helping to change this situation. He creates "music videos" of popular songs using visual elements that evoke the tone, texture, beat, and mood of the music. His name is Michael DiMartino, and he's already something of a star among deaf communities. Up until now, he has been financing the production of these videos out of his own pocket. He uses a combination of hand signs, body movements, backgrounds, colors, and special effects to bring the music to life -- with or without the volume controls.

Right now, he and Marck Adrian Fedor are raising $5,000 to record two original songs and produce two ASL videos to go along with them. The idea is to create music primarily for the deaf, that people who hear will also enjoy. There are no closed captions -- they speak directly to special listeners. Now imagine never hearing it, but knowing that someone is creating music for everyone including you, and in your own language for a change. What a wonderful holiday gift that would be!

The cash for the project is being collected at a secure website called Kickstarter.com. We've raised about $1,250 so far, in increments ranging from ten to one hundred dollars. The project's Kickstarter web address is http://tinyurl.com/y9h38qc. Anyone can click on the link to sample Michael's work, find out how Kickstarter works, see exactly how the money will be used -- and pledge as little as $10 to help produce the music. And for pledging less than it costs to go to the movies, you'll get a gift as well.

In fact, only 375 people need to do just that: click on the link and donate ten bucks. Unfortunately, if the entire $5,000 is not pledged by January 10, 2010, they won't get anything at all. Zip. Nada. But there is no budget to publicize this fundraiser. Zero. We have to rely on word of mouth. So I've agreed to kick in some cash, and help spread the word. It would mean a lot to me if you would do the same. After making your pledge at Kickstarter, all you need to do is copy this letter to a new e-mail and send it to everyone on your e-mail list. (or at least to as many as you feel comfortable with.)

BUT WE HAVE TO ACT FAST. January 10th will be here way too soon, and if we're just $10 short of the goal, those who have already pledged their ten, twenty five, or fifty dollars will be disappointed, as will everyone who's talked or signed about this project so far. Please do this today. I don't want my money back on January 11th. I want these music videos to reach the deaf and hard of hearing, as I'm sure you will, too.

Thank you for your attention and your action.
http://tinyurl.com/y9h38qc

Michael's interpretation of Lady Gaga's "Beautiful, Dirty RIch" just went up on YouTube four days ago and has already been viewed nearly twelve thousand times! Check out the comments from fans... http://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelDiMartino

I know it's probably because it's the holiday season, and so many people have so many things on their minds, but we're kind of stuck with the circumstances right now, and if we don't raise the $5,000 by January 10, we receive nothing. I hope all of you who have contributed will go just a short distance more for us by composing an e-mail to everyone on your list, telling them why you pledged to this project, including the URL, and asking them to do the same. Send me a note letting me know that you've done so, and I'll make sure your name is added to a "thank you" in the video credits. Thanks again, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all! -- Marck

Does anyone know how to get in touch with her?

Chase just finished interpreting for the 22nd MIX experimental film festival here in New York City. Unfortunately, pledges here have also ground to a virtual halt. Please, please e-mail your firends and families and let them know about your pledge, and ask them to make a small pledge of their own. You know how it goes: you tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on... The deaf are so often overlooked in the numerous charity drives that begin around this time of the year. Please, let's make this year an exception and bring the deaf and hard of hearing the gift of music this holiday season. Thank you so much.

Michael's message to his deaf and hard of hearing followers on www.YouTube.com/user/MichaelDiMartino

Here's another out-take from a current production. Please go to www.YouTube.com/user/MichaelDiMartino to see some finished products and read comments from deaf viewers of the videos.