Kickstarter

Hello everyone!

My name is Michael R. Jackson AKA Michael-Living Jackson and I am a musical theater writer. if you're reading this then it is 95% likely that you're one of my Facebook friends, Facebook of course being my nexus of power until my website is unveiled (soon!). If you're not one of the 95%, then all you need to know is that when I'm not social networking or slaving away at my day job, I'm feverishly working on various musical theater projects and looking for ways to get them seen and heard. To date, this has happened primarily at live concerts but I'm eager to move beyond this format and into something more tangible which is why I come to you on my poor, black knees asking for help. I need money, ya'll. 

I want to record a double LP album called Dirty Laundry Good Clean Music, which is a collection of stylistically diverse songs from two concerts I've done in New York that run the gamut from the sacred to the profane. Where Dirty Laundry is unapologetically dark, hilarious, and intimate, Good Clean Music is a satirical response to those who claim to thirst for more "appropriate" material. In tandem, these two bodies of work articulate my mission statement as an artist: To create and promote challenging but accessible musical theater. In an industry that paints by numbers too often, I remain deeply serious and passionate about making music that is unique and meaningful for you to listen to and experience. 

From Dirty Laundry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY4lQmen46Q

From Good Clean Music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWTJMkJPlKo

Though your contribution would be primarily financial, I consider you as much of a valued collaborator as anyone on my team of singers and musicians. Meeting my $5000.00 goal is a crucial ingredient to guarantee the success of this project. I've found creative ways to keep costs low, but there are still a number of expenses I need your help with that include but are not limited to compensation for singers, musicians, studio time, mixing, mastering, etc. With my fundraising goal met by early June, I will begin rehearsals in early July, recording in early August and complete the project in September. 

Anything I earn over my goal will be put toward funding an August 2012 workshop reading of my new musical "A Strange Loop," which is a personal piece about a young, black gay man who is slowly figuring out just how much he doesn't like himself and what to do about it. It contains some songs that started as Dirty Laundry so if you're supportive of the mission statement that guides my impulse to make this album, I would strongly encourage you to consider funding at a higher level so that I might exceed my goal and take A Strange Loop to the next level.  

From "A Strange Loop":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sqFgrUHkX4 

And that's basically it. I'll close on this great line from Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick: "Woe to him who seeks to please rather than appall."

I love that. But I'm greedy. I want to do both. So let's get started. 

Thank you!