West of Mars -- the Meet and Greet

It only took ole Chelle here two years to figure it out, but when there's a message taped to her phone, waitin' for her in the morning, and when that message don't say nothin' but "Be at your phone at seven, your time, Wednesday," it means one thing and one thing only.

Time to talk up this year's Musical Hanukkah Celebration over in Riverview.

Yeah, yeah. I know. We don't live nowhere near Riverview. We be two time zones over and at least a thousand miles away. So what's Chelle doin' talkin' this thing up?

You boys and girls who're regulars know the answer to that. The Musical Hanukkah Celebration is the baby of the one and only ShapeShifter. And that means fat ole Chelle gets the skinny from the luscious Mitchell Voss himself. He's probably the only man who could tell Chelle when to get herself by a telephone. He's worth it every time.

Except, luscious Mitchell Voss… he ain't the best with the hellos. Know what Chelle hears when she answers the phone? "We've got our best charity yet for this thing."

No Hello? Where's the How Ya Doing, Chelle?

"It's the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation. Stable. Been around awhile. Famous 'cause of some movie I never saw. And we're moving into the Rocket Theater this time, too," Mr. Luscious said. "It's bigger. The stage is bigger and it holds more people. The backstage area's nicer, too, so we can have a few more guest stars. We're pulling out the stops this year. And wait until you see the t-shirt. We're making more of those, too. People want to buy 'em online and help support the cause. Since it's such a good cause, we're all for that."

There you go, boys and girls. We get t-shirts this year if we ain't gonna make the trek to Riverview. And why would we? We got us some great weather this time of year. Gettin' on an airplane might cost so much, you gotta sell your favorite band t-shirt on eBay, and that's before you get to the airport and they call for a cavity search. No, boys and girls. Let's stay put. There's a great local scene here y'all should be explorin'. Chelle's got a rundown of who to go see later on this week.

That don't mean you shouldn't buy those t-shirts when word gets out that you can. Any donation's sure to make those little kids happy and grateful. It's all about bringin' music to the kids, remember that. A kid who plays the flute now might turn out to be tomorrow's Mitchell Voss. We ain't gonna know until that kid gets the chance to make some precious music.

For now, you heard it here and you heard it first: ShapeShifter's Musical Hanukkah Celebration. Gettin' bigger, getting' better and with t-shirts for all, not just the folk who make it inside. Gotta love that. Chelle sure does.





If you're new around here, this whole Musical Hanukkah Celebration thing has got to seem as though it's from left field. Click here to read the beginnings.

While the characters in this piece aren't real, the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation is. Profits on the upcoming t-shirts and The Demo Tapes will go toward this great effort to keep our kids musical. There will be more details and hoopla to come, I promise. And a lot more fiction, too, building up to this fun event.

You may ask why I'm blurring the line between real life and fiction like this. The answer's easy: Today's clarinet player might be tomorrow's million-selling lead singer. Every child all deserves that dream.

Labels: charity, Chelle LaFleur, creative writing, fiction, Mitchell Voss, Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, Musical Hanukkah Celebration, Sunday Scribblings

Okay, I need to start this post by saying I've yet to read any of Susan Wiggs' fiction.

But this is THE PERFECT time for me and anyone else around to change that.

Susan's publisher, Harlequin, is re-releasing an anthology she contributed to (along with Sharon Sala and Emilie Richards). That would be More than Words: Stories of Courage, and my handy-dandy link will take you to a spot where you can pick up your very own copy.

Woo hoo, right?

Well, here's the kicker: Susan's not making so much as a penny on it. Rather, anything that should come her way is going to go to Cottage Dreams, a charity that allows cancer patients to have a quiet vacation once their treatment is finished.

Read Susan's post here. Kudos to Susan and Harlequin for doing this. (and before you ask, I can't find information as to whether or not the same donation holds true for Sharon and Emilie's parts; I'd love to be enlightened!)

Labels: charity, susan Wiggs, Susan's Book Talk

Thirteen things you need to know leading up to this year's Musical Hanukkah Celebration 1. Our favorite boys in ShapeShifter conceived this idea last year to honor "the religion that was around before Christianity… and [to] celebrate our music scene at the same time," as ShapeShifter guitarist Eric Wallace said in an interview with Chelle LaFleur. (you can read the whole thing here.) 2. Here are the basics: it's held on the Monday during Hanukkah, because Monday is traditionally the slowest night in the entertainment business (yes, that explains why restaurants close on Mondays!). Everything from the food to the stage hands to the club itself is donated to the cause. 3. Tickets last year were $10. You could also chip in another $50 and jam onstage with ShapeShifter. Only fifty people were allowed to do that, but 300 tickets were sold. 4. Because it's a fund-raiser and because of the success, the boys jacked the prices this year. Now, it's $15 to get in and $75 to jam with the band. Still a bargain considering what a ticket to a ShapeShifter concert costs. 5. If you were here on Monday for the Poetry Train, you are still waiting to find out if our new friend, Springer, raises the money he needs to attend this year. Stay tuned; we're not done with his story yet. Read the first part of it here. 6. Notice how he's forgotten to factor in the price of a limited-edition, commemorative t-shirt? 7. I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of having 50 people jam onstage with a rock band. One thing that helps is that this turns into a full two-hour-long ShapeShifter show. I think that means five people on stage for ten songs, and then the band finishes up on their own. Or with surprise friends. 8. Last year, the concert was as fictional as ShapeShifter but the charity that the donations went to wasn't. Music Lives seems to have ... not lived. Thus, the ShapeShifter boys will keep their raised funds closer to home and make sure that the kids of Riverview and the surrounding area have great exposure to music in their schools. 9. Wouldn't it be great to have real-life t-shirts from this? I think so, too. As soon as that awesome graphic chick comes up with a logo for ShapeShifter, I'll see what I can do. 10. It ought to go without saying that any net profits from this dream shirt that may or may not happen will go to a charity that supports music in the schools. 11. Last year, Eric had said he and his father were going to work to get more people involved with the event, particularly people within the religious community. This year, a (still fictional!) Chinese auction will be happening at the show, too. At least one of the prizes is tickets to a VIP box at a Riverview Otters game. (that's the city's baseball team) 12. Last year, the band managed to talk the club's chef into making potato pancakes for 300 people. This year, the latkes are being catered. 13. Once again this year, ShapeShifter will match all monies raised from the tickets and the opportunity to jam onstage with the band. They want to see the take before committing to matching the t-shirt sales and the money raised from the Chinese Auction, but they probably will. After all, it's all for a good cause. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll try to add you here!)

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Big thanks to Headmeister for this week's cool header!

Labels: charity, Musical Hanukkah Celebration, Riverview USA, ShapeShifter, Thursday Thirteen

Now, why aren't other cities' local scenes smart enough to do somethin' like this? I'm talkin' about what my favorite band's got going on in the city of Riverview this time. Don't be sad if you missed the news; they almost snuck this one past yours truly, herself. Almost.

Ready for this? It's brilliant. It's worth copying. They threw a musical Hanukkah party for the members of the local music scene. Anyone involved -- roadies, musicians, promoters, journalists -- could get in for a ten buck ticket that they had to get in advance and buy through KRVR, the radio station that's so high on the Riverview scene that Bobby Bands, himself, is trying to horn in on their turf. (I hear they had the balls to turn his ten bucks away, too.)

For fifty bucks more, you could jam onstage. With the sponsors of the night: ShapeShifter. And since everything from the food to the club to the labor was donated, all the money went to one of those "keep music in our schools" charities that are so hot right now.

Took me two days, but I got hold of ShapeShifter's Mitchell Voss. "It was Eric's idea, really," he said, and handed the phone over. For someone who usually lets his guitar talk for him, ShapeShifter's Eric Wallace had a lot to say. Here's some of it.

"Monday is the quietest day in the entertainment industry, so we picked it, figuring that no one would be committed elsewhere. And since Hanukkah runs for eight days, there's always a Monday during Hanukkah. We can do this for years to come, and I hope we will.

"Why Hanukkah if no one in the band's Jewish? Well, my dad and I were talking about this, wondering if the Jewish kids ever feel bad that Santa doesn't come to their houses--"

He got interrupted here by my favorite blabbermouth. "Look, Chelle. We have Christmas parties out the wazoo. New Year's Eve parties. You can't turn on a fucking radio without hearing Christmas carols until you're blue in the face and stuffing a CD in the player so fast, you break the fucking thing. It's all about Christmas around here."

"So we figured," Eric said. "That we'd honor the religion that was around before Christianity but gets drowned out this time of year. We'd have a Hanukkah party and celebrate our music scene at the same time. After all, Hanukkah's a holiday of rededication. It just seemed to fit with the idea of reminding everyone that we're still into the local scene. It doesn't matter how big we get; it all starts at the local level. Just like the rededication of the Jews' temple."

"And we managed to talk the cook into making potato pancakes for everyone, too," Mitchell laughed in my ear. Ooh, baby. Laugh away.

Focus, Chelle. This was a good thing. Over three hundred people turned out, and they filled the fifty spaces for that big old jam with the superstars themselves. That was an extra fifty bucks for that honor, remember. Once you do the math, you get a pretty nice $5500 for charity.

And then those ShapeShifter boys topped that. They matched the take, making a cool $11,000.

Eric said his father's church was also going to make a donation in the name of the Riverview Musician's Hanukkah Celebration, and is going to work throughout the year toward getting more of the city's religious folk of all denominations and faiths involved for next year. The funds won't stay in Riverview, either, but are going to Music Lives, a foundation that spreads the wealth and the message across the country. This is important, Mitchell told me, "because without music in the schools, some of us won't get to sing in the choir and find out that we can do more than croak. That's what I got out of choir. That and the chance to be around all those girls in their concert best. Man, that alone made being in the choir worth it."

So, c'mon. This is one bandwagon worth jumping on, and go figure that it's ShapeShifter leading the way. Again. Y'all laugh at my face, tellin' me I'm nothin' but a ShapeShifter groupie, but if they're doin' stuff that's this good, why aren't you one, too?

You heard it first and you heard it here: Musical Hanukkah Celebrations are going to be sweeping the country. Get involved now.



(a note from Susan: While Chelle LaFleur, our slightly single-minded journalist, and ShapeShifter are as fake as the Musical Hanukkah Celebration, the Music Lives Foundation isn't. Endorsed by Paul McCartney and Fidelity Investments, they're helping keep music in our community's schools. Check out their website; read the stats about how music helps our children. And if you've got an extra $50, for the price of a jam with ShapeShifter, you can make a positive impact on the world. If you can't do fifty, do what you can; their minimum is five. Go on. Skip that latte and donate instead. And be sure to tell them you heard about them here.)

Labels: challenge, charity, Chelle LaFleur, creative writing, donate, fiction, Hanukkah, music, musicians, rock and roll