Kickstarter

I love this little city, and for those of you who don't know it, I'd like to introduce it to you. I've been living Geneva since I landed (literally) from the Peace Corps 11 years ago, and I grow fonder of it every day. It's got spunk. It's got...character. 

Once the economic powerhouse of the county, now a post-industrial underdog trying to find its way through the most uncertain of waters, Geneva matters. In a similar (though more modest) way that Detroit matters, trying to figure out what to do with 70,000 empty buildings and a precipitous drop in population. They call it the Rust Belt for a reason, and we are all in it together: Geneva, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Cleveland, Milwaukee...Geneva is the smallest of these in terms of population, by far, but I think it can be the mouse that roars. 

There are exciting things happening in Geneva. Production is returning. We have a new sandal factory. And a furniture factory that makes things out of reclaimed wood. And a chocolatier. Geneva is one of the nexuses of the Finger Lakes local food and wine movement, and it's a great place to eat. The arts are flourishing. We have a film festival, and a quarterly zine, just about the city. We have a boxing club poised some of the great fighters of tomorrow, and native sons are at the heart of two popular bands, Gym Class Heroes and Ra Ra Riot. 

Geneva, despite its small size and rural location, is surprisingly urban. In terms of ethnic and class breakdown, Geneva looks like most larger US cities, just scaled down. It has the same problems, again, scaled down, but no less daunting. My daughter is in the public schools, and I see this reality every time I visit her class to do a "special" on Astronomy. I think our society is in crisis. Times are tough. Lots of things seem to be falling apart. Or at least, seriously fraying at the edges. 

Bicycle Astronomy is my response. It's a little voice. It's not going to rock the world or fix all of the problems. It's designed to provide a little perspective and a little inspiration to some people who need it. The people it inspires, well, they might rock the world. They might fix some of the problems. 

As an outsider still after almost a dozen years, I don't always see the fierce feelings Genevans have about their city. But I have to tell you, I saw it the other night, at a small party in the basement of a local wine bar on Linden street. My buddies Joe and Brady, aka Shrimps, were the entertainment. I can't really describe their sound...they play a variety of instruments from recognizable things like guitars and bases (though the sounds that come from them are often distinctly out of the ordinary) to odd blinking boxes and cell phones. It's heady stuff. Shrimps scored on a play I produced last year, and I asked them to provide the music for my kickstarter film. If I ever start producing planetarium shows, I'm going to ask them to score those, too. New age electronica has been the mainstay of astronomy multimedia for generations...but Shrimps rips the bleeding electronica heart from new age and restores it to its edgy glory.  

Shrimps passed the hat around for Bicycle Astronomy, which took me totally by surprise. The crowd donated over $250, which Shrimps then pledged to the project here on Kickstarter. [And today, a few hours after I posted this update originally, Bicycle Astronomy passed the goal line! With four days to spare.]

Without doing a count, I'd say about half of my supporters are local heroes like Brady and Joe, and probably more in terms of share pledged. As it should be, I guess, since the immediate benefit is to this community. It feels great to know how much support there is for Bicycle Astronomy in Geneva. I won't let you down, G-town. 

For those of you who aren't from Geneva, you also have my thanks. Thanks for caring about what happens in this little rust belt city. Or thanks for simply digging an off-beat way of doing astronomy outreach with some environmental consciousness raising thrown in. Whatever your reason for supporting, my thanks to you, and, it matters. 

Attached is a little poor quality video I took of Shrimps playing the theme to John Carpenter's Escape from New York. (RIP Ernest Borgnine, aka "Cabby").