As part of his Kickstarter project, Berlin Reed (aka, our pal the The Ethical Butcher) offered backers a chance to create and name their own, unique bacon flavors. “Sky’s the limit!” he promised, which had us pretty excited for the results. Luckily, our hopes we’re not in vain. Berlin just posted the final list of backer-made flavors — and we get hungry just looking at it! Delicious stuff.
Check out the complete list below. My personal faves are “Back Cove,” “Monty Python” (triple ginger and Bailey’s? yum!) and “What a Piaga!”
iheartbacon————- tamari, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, wasabi Back Cove—————- pine, juniper, rosemary, lavender, maple YaYa’s———————- tapenade, apricot, herbs on lamb Fat Apple Rum——-pineapple, honey, rum, jalepeno & serrano peppers Oma’s Kitchen———dill, mustard, B sugar, onion, bay leaf, caraway seed Diego Special———-honey, clove, lemon Super Delicious De Luxe—maple, cinnamon, strawberry, honey Ready Times————cocoa, strawberry, lemon, honey, cinnamon tea Orangevale—————apricots and preserved blood oranges, bergamot and clementines w/aleppo peppers, cardamom & fennel pollen Troublemaker———-marionberry, 5 spice Monty Python————-triple ginger, cocoa, rubbed with bailey’s What a Piaga!———-rosemary, sage, thyme, fennel, garlic, sun-dried tomato
“Dragons is a TV show about two beat up old skateboard buddies named Bruce and Vince. They call themselves Dragons, an identity that falls somewhere between hippies and pirates… Their quest leads them to the top of Mountain Lion Mountain. Once there, they plan to skate down it, turn into balls of fire, and fly away as Dragons.”
So begins the project description for Dragons, an awesome new Kickstarter project that’s best encapsulated by their project video:
How can you argue with lines like, “Do you like climbing trees high on PCP, blindfolded?”
The project went live yesterday, and is off to a strong start: 22% of its funding in its first day. We’re big fans.
Cassie and I began this morning like we do every other, going through every project that launched overnight. But today something special happened. The first four projects we came across were all so amazing I backed each of them. Four newly launched projects, each one as great as the one before.
Matthew Buckley’s novel about a child who discovers he has superpowers is amazingly pitched with a dramatic, handmade video of still drawings and voiceovers. It sets the scene perfectly, and whet my appetite for more. I also thought this reward was clever:
Beetle Queen is a documentary from Jessica Oreck about Japan’s fascination and celebration of insects. The trailer is pretty incredible and vaguely psychedelic. It also includes this:
I wasn’t as psyched about the rewards, so I pledged the minimum $3 to show my appreciation for the film. But I am keeping my eye on the $50 reward, which is a 39” x 27” film poster. Love that aesthetic. We’ll see!
William Bridges is a filmmaker from the UK who created the anonymous phone line (see the image above) where Britons could call in and unload their secrets. Now he wants to do the same in the US.
This might sound like little more than a clever conceit (it did to me at first) until you begin watching the video. As (moving) still-lifes of loneliness and despair beautifully roll across the screen, we hear heartbreaking admissions: lovers cheated on, money stolen, lifetimes of guilt laid bare. I watched all ten minutes of it, and was rapt the entire time.
I opted for the $10 reward: someone’s apology emailed to me. I’m not really sure what to expect, or even if that’s something I want to have arrive in my inbox. But listening to these people tell their stories — huddled in their bathrooms, voices hushed, in the middle of the night — it felt like a respectful way to acknowledge their honesty and pain.
To be honest I’m still not entirely sure what this project is. I only know that:
The video was pleasantly, mysteriously weird (always a good thing).
Josh Wise and Nick Stumpf from a great NYC band called the French Kicks are involved.
Apparently they’re making short video pieces accompanied by music and other mixed media. Which could mean pretty much anything, but considering the aesthetic and who’s involved, I’m in.
We’re thrilled to have all of these projects, and I’m hoping for their success!
Who doesn’t love an awesome movie title sequence? In reading some project updates today, we came across two title-related updates that we had to share.
The first is a beautifully Hitchcockian trailer from Randy Nargi’s thriller The Hike. He originally posted it in a backer-only project update, and he was gracious enough to share it with the Kickstarter community. Fantastic stuff:
“It’s a really interesting project, but I’ll be completely honest and say that anthologies are extremely difficult to make work unless you have major writers (ie., proven bestsellers or those with literary cachet) signed up. It’s also very difficult to sell material that has already been published online unless it’s combined with a majority of new, never-before-published material.
“Thanks for the chance to take a sneak peak at what you’re working on. Should you embark on anything else, I’d be interested to hear about it. In the meantime, best of luck finding the right home for this project.”
We just had a nice surprise. Matt Kliegman of the recently successful Yestadt Millinery project (and our upstairs neighbor) dropped by bearing gifts!
Here’s Matt presenting Perry with the same Yestadt piece that Rihanna once wore.
Of course we all decided that Cassie should wear it, but she got all Shy Ronnie on us, and now it sits perched on her monitor:
Also you might notice that our office seems pretty full today. That’s because the whole team is here in NYC for the very first time! Expect lots of group silliness this week. Good times.
The site has been getting flooded with amazing projects recently, so Cassie and I thought we’d run through some of our recent faves:
James Kochalka + Pixeljam = Glorkian Warrior: A comic artist and a beloved retro gaming team collaborate on a creative new 2D game. The project got off to a fast start (even Adult Swim has been promoting it!), and we’re hoping it continues.
Brooklyn Soda Works: Caroline and Antonio are crafting unique, artisanal sodas from all-natural ingredients. Our favorites so far are Maple-Bacon and Glögg (really, we’re not making this up).
Everglades Multi-Media Art Book: Jules Jones spent last year as the Artist in Residence at Everglades National Park (how cool that such a thing exists!), and his project will turn his work into a collection. His artwork — which you can view in his project video or on his website — is amazing. Here’s a great example:
For $50 (I backed it) backers get a copy of the final book and an audio CD of Everglades field recordings.
Feiffer Dancer Films: Feiffer Dancer Films are turning the cartoons of legendary artist Jules Feiffer into interpretative dance pieces. The resulting short films will be free, but you can pledge for fun stuff like ice cream and a coffee date with the producers.
Ladies Rooms Around the World: Maxi Cohen has spent over three decades traveling and documenting women’s restrooms around the world. Her photographs and films cover everything from a Miami hotel bathroom in 1972 to a modern-day discoteca in Brazil. Truly arresting material.
Here’s an example of a past work of hers that we loved:
Release the Next Inpassing Album: We’re always happy to come across a creatively constructed music project, and the Inpassing’s is definitely that. Though the goal is simple — make a record — they did a great job with their video, and the rewards are great. An example:
Well-priced, creative, and really fun for their fans. Nicely done!
Meaghan O’Connell and Melissa Gira Grant of Coming & Crying are the guests on the third Kickstarter podcast, which went up on iTunes this morning. (You can subscribe on iTunes or download/stream from the web.) From the beginning of Coming & Crying, we were struck by what an amazing job Meaghan and Melissa did of putting themselves into their project. Being a backer was far more than a financial transaction; you really felt a part of their vision.
We invited Meaghan and Melissa down to the Kickstarter offices a few weeks ago to discuss their success, the origins of their project, and whether their parents knew what they were up to. Unsurprisingly it was an awesome conversation, and we came away inspired by their passion and excited to see how their project would grow.
The project itself has just four days to go, with nearly $12,000 raised on a $3,000 goal. Amazing stuff. Be sure to tune into our conversation and to back their project if you haven’t already.
The folks behind Brooklyn Soda Works are giving us a peek at the specially themed mixtapes they’re offering as rewards. Each has been inspired by one of their unique soda flavors, and they are all totally awesome. My favorite is the Maple Bacon, and not just because that’d be my soda of choice (yummm, bacon):
“Maple Bacon - Smoky, Sweet, Sexy Soul. A mix of soulful, funky, meaty cuts from the 60’s til now. Bonus- guaranteed to include at least one Canadian”
For the adventurous among us, a recipe for the actual soda is available at their blog. But for the rest, a full rundown of mix CD flavors can be found at their project blog. Support the project here.
I’ve come to think of pitch videos and project descriptions as first dates. The most idealized versions of ourselves. A little stiff, maybe laughs a little too hard at jokes. It’s often endearing, occasionally awkward, but we all understand how it works.
Project updates are relationships. You get a feel for who someone actually is, how they think, what motivates them. It humanizes the project, and I’ve increasingly found that that human element is exactly what sparks me to pledge. I love reading about a project’s struggles — the more mundane the better.
When done right, project updates highlight the narrative of a project perfectly. It’s like a mini reality TV show where we love the whole cast and we know the drama is real. That’s what it’s like following Allison Weiss or watching Emily Richmond’s updates from sea. It’s a privilege to share in those stories and to bask in their warm glow. It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever had the pleasure to do on the web.
All of this struck me today as I read through some of the recent updates to hit the site. Watching the Quiet’s genius cat video, which had the office laughing hard. Or even stumbling across a classical music project I hadn’t seen before and seeing this beautiful photo:
Forget dating — let’s marry these projects, raise some kids, and grow old together. As backers, that’s what it sometimes feels like. It’s intimate and real. We’ll soon make it easier to uncover updates and their stories. Maybe you can fall in love too.
The Museum Proper is a contemporary performance company putting on free, public puppet shows, and they’re planning to create a giant (over twelve feet tall!) puppet for their upcoming festival debut. Blame our curiosity on a lasting affinity for Jim Henson, but we just had to know: how exactly does one build a giant puppet?! Lucky us, founding puppeteer Dax Tran-Caffee was happy to provide a glimpse of the creative process. Check out the creature’s evolution from diagram (above) to full-color illustration to working prototype. Very cool stuff!
You can see more puppets-in-the-making here. Support the project here.
Watch the complete prototype demonstration at his project blog here.
