Etsy has Regretsy. Pinterest has WTF, Pinterest? With Kickstopper, the Daily Dot highlights the most bombastic and absurd projects seeking support through the popular crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter.
Could Muddy Waters have played the blues so well if he’d never been through Mississippi? Could Bob Dylan have written so poignantly about 4th Street if he’d never set foot in Greenwich Village?
The answer to those questions is a definitive “no,” a truth that poses an interesting dilemma for Jim MacKenzie and Sarah Giavedoni, the wildly inventive duo behind comedic blog Stuff Monsters Like.
That’s because the tandem wants to record the first-ever space folk album, a collection of songs that’s indigenous to the interstellar universe and all the planets, stars, and objects therein.
But in order to do this, MacKenzie and Giavedoni have to go to the moon. The two say it’s absolutely necessary in order to make Lunar Aid 1985 the truest representation of space’s native sound.
“We still don’t know what space folk music actually is,” MacKenzie told the Daily Dot from his home in Asheville, N.C.
“But we do know that we want to be the Bob Dylans of space. We just haven’t made it there yet.”
MacKenzie insists that the duo is “dead serious about this,” though the cost of sending two citizens to the moon to record an album of folk music is certainly more than what two can make on a blog’s payroll.
MacKenzie and Giavedoni ultimately decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign, Space Folk Album: Lunar Aid 1985. The total funding that they set out to raise: $21,474,836—the greatest sum that a project creator is allowed to raise on the crowdfunding platform.
“We tried to raise $578 billion, but they wouldn’t let us,” Giavedoni said. “I put in five, seven, eight, comma, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, and it said that you cannot put in more than ‘this amount.’ So we put in this amount.”
Now, wait. I know what you’re thinking: A Kickstarter campaign to raise $21 million so that two jokers from North Carolina can launch into space, land on the moon, and then record an album of space folk music… and Kickstarter approved it? Turns out getting that approval was easier than you think.
“This is a creative project,” Giovedoni explained. “Our goal is to get to the moon so that we can properly make this album. We went through the rules very carefully and that met all of their guidelines. We had to adjust our goal, but once we did, Kickstarter sent us an email that said, ‘Good luck to you.’”
OK, so it’s on. And with eight days left in the campaign, MacKenzie and Giovedoni are sitting pretty. With $4,533 raised, the two are just $21,470,303 away from reaching their funding goal and blasting. We’re thinking they have a chance, if only some great visionary would lend a helping hand.
“We’re trying to get this in front of Richard Branson,” MacKenzie said. “We think he’d love it.
“The thing about Richard Branson is that he could write a check for $21 million this afternoon and not even miss it. He’d miss dinner. I would be happy to take $21 million from Richard Branson—Sir Richard Branson.”
Richard Branson, if you’re out there, quit grooming your perfectly flowing coif for a minute and help these people out! They need $21 million.
Kickstopper: Space Folk Album: Lunar Aid 1985
- Location: Asheville, N.C.
- Summary: Two songwriters in Asheville, N.C., want to fly to the moon to record the first-ever space folk album.
- Goal: $21,474,836
- Amount raised of press time: $4,533
- Days left: 8
- Best buy: For $500, MacKenzie and Giovedoni will build a statue of you on a moon crater.
Photo via Kickstarter
