POLL - Artistic Grant to Alizée

[Tiwaz]

I like the idea with the scholarship for her old school. If this idea evolves to something concrete, I'll gladly support it.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Where is that great ml motivator? Says on the bottom: 200 Francs Can I has it? That is funny, and would be great here!

[sumi1]

@Bigdan: ROFL.

Anyways, about the scholarship idea:

I think we should leave choosing the student who benefits in their hands alone. Perhaps we might only ask for a name and photo we could post on our Web site, assuming the student's parents had no privacy objections.

If the school just selected a student and we gave them the money, don't you think that the whole idea of publicizing Alizee will be defeated? The student will be enrolled in the school and we will pay the fees. That's it. Second, I assume people in Corsica already know a lot about Alizee. After Napolean, she is probably the most popular (internationally) Corsican

One cannot be sure if the school would play it up in the manner I imagine in my proposal, and if Alizée's team would see it as the same type of publicity opportunity for her I have suggested. I have not really scoped the school out at all! Do they have other scholarship funds? Is there some practical angle I am missing in my naivety?

It is very possible that Alizee's team may not like this idea at all. Many people might feel that all this is being done as a publicity stunt because her album is not performing well. So, it might have a very negative impact on her image in France. We should make sure that our actions will not result in any possible negative consequences for her.

[FanDeAliFee]

<big><big><big>
THIS POLL IS VOID AND ALL PLEDGES ARE MORALLY RELEASED
A scholarship funding <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5631">pledge poll</a> has taken its place. Please pledge there!</big></big></big>

I discovered Alizée in early 2006 and have been enjoying that ever since. Early last year, disappointed with the sales of her third studio album, I decided to publish an Internet fan <a href="http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/docdtv/Alizée/2009April.htm">page</a> to expose her work to people of my acquaintance. While I knew that several million recordings of her voice had sold in the early part of the decade, and supposed that she had not spent all of the compensation she received for that work and the related concerts, nonetheless I did not think it insulted her artistry to donate services which might sell a few more copies of her work, rather than simply allow her to buy any professional promotional services to accomplish that same thing.

In the course of last year, I added additional pages to my fan blog, and by the end of last year, I had joined multiple large fan sites, including this one.

In recent months, I have tried to help Alizée by designing a product she might sell and polling price-point research here, by leasing AlizeeRadio.com to point at her online radio station, by encouraging Ben to have Alizée America divert some of its substantial Web traffic to Web-based vendors of her products via linking to same, by editing her Wikipedia articles, and by yet other small gestures of substantive (rather than autistic) support.

Recently, Ben asked three of us to work together on promoting Alizée and Alizée America, offering prospective powers, but leaving open the exact character and meaning of his charge. One among us declined the opportunity, and the other has not copied me on any reply he gave Ben.

Having for many years worked to staff, recruit and fundraise for various local cultural and philanthropic projects, it was natural for me to transfer methods I have used before into the enterprise of support for which I was solicited by Alizée America.

As I explained in another post, when we do local fundraising, we use the extensive profiling of households already in place by for-profit database aggregators to approach potential donors without bothering unlikely donors, not only out of courtesy, but mainly just for the operational economy. We might only mail solicitation letters to 10% of the households in our area, and then be pleased when only 10% or 20% of these in turn result in donations.

We use an arithmetic some of the people who have posted here might find strange. We do not say that we have failed by 98% to 2% because only 2% of the people in the area thought our cause worthwhile. We simply total up all the money we have been given and honestly put it to the use to which it had been promised.

You may have learned from my previous posting here that giant cultural enterprises might be led by executives who make over a million dollars a year, and yet still solicit donations for their activities from people who live on a tiny fraction of their income. Strangely enough, there really are people who send in $10, $50, or even $500, if they can afford the sum and want to support the cause, even though their single contribution isn't even a rounding error in the total funds raised.

I think Roman did an outstanding job in this thread of <a href="http://Alizéeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=163181&postcount=79">explaining</a> how this logic applies to the creation of new art by Alizée and her many partners and their helpers.

I am extremely pleased the simple poll I set here has now raised pledges exceeding the goal of €1000+ which I set. More than one person has noted my lengthy posts over the few months I've been here, but yet I'm also pleased I could write so LITTLE and yet still reach the poll's funding goal.

While you always hope to do better, you accept what you can get. Actually, the most surprising thing to me is not the amount pledged, but the numbers of people pledging. I never expected half the people to pledge money, being accustomed to participation rates which are MUCH smaller, as I related above. It's hard enough to get half of a group to approve anything free, let alone something which takes money out of their own pocket in very hard times.

Even if the celestial mothership arrives to rescue Alizée and family, taking them back to <a href="http://Alizéeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=159631&postcount=5">Remulak</a> in "France" (on the other side of the galaxy) and we never hear from her ever again, the problem which Naspterism poses to the recorded audio and video businesses will not go away. It is not a problem I can hope to solve here. And actually, <b>the threat posed to journalism is of so much greater importance</b> than that posed to entertainment and fine art, perhaps worrying about the latter at all is not something we can collectively afford much attention.

When I solicited poll participation of autographed CD recipients, a young member here privately wrote me back. I will now quote my reply to him, protecting his anonymity. <blockquote><b>DOC I just want to say how thankful I am that you got this whole thing going. You were the one that started this life changing experience for me and I am forever in debt to you. Thank you so much and hope you have fun with that free CD from Scruff and Ben</b>

I hope some important good can yet come to Alizée's career from this little adventure, beyond the good it has done us. You are correct that Ben and the staff wanted to give me a free CD for my efforts, but he will be happy to tell you I refused and quietly paid just like everyone else.

And I would gladly throw the CD into the fire if it could help Alizée have a long and happy career in music. Maybe you feel the same way!

<b>But sorry to say that I sort of disagreed with that POLL you posted and my points are mixed up in that thread. I would love to help but I don't think money would help her. Money for an artist is sort of an insult since that is a sign of if she doesn't make a lot of money. I don't know it is hard to explain. But yes I voted.</b>

People can still be friends even if they disagree about something.

One might argue that 20 or 30 people cannot alone provide a living for someone creating a complicated product like a professional music CD, requiring a lot of hard work from a large staff. But if no one ever paid for work, no work could get done. Napsterism will shortly destroy the business model that has allowed so much wonderful recorded music to be created over the last century. We need to find new ways to support artists and their staffs. Bach and Beethoven never sold CDs or gave performances at which people paid an admission fee. They had state and church sponsors in whose employ they served. I am trying to encourage people to do something like that again, but I have no power to send people to prison or hell if they refuse.

<b>Yah I meant to say in the last part of that message that I already had to put a lot of work into being able to get that CD since I am only 16 and don't have a good way of transferring money easily. SO I went through a lot to get that CD from you which you went through alot to get.</b>

I think everyone understands different fans have different financial and logistical means to contribute. That is why some people pledged € 120+, some pledged only € 5 and some pledged nothing at all. Supporting new art will be more of a problem during your young life than my old one. I hope that when you can step up to the plate yourself, you will remember the old guys who tried to do what they could before they were gone!</blockquote>By the way, for uncounted decades, it has been easy for Americans to buy a postal money order to transmit funds through the US mails.

The discussion accompanying the poll here raised great passion at times, but I still think that the celebrity I never met, Katherine Hepburn, would feel the boys here placed nice - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbzcFbhPV-o&feature=player_embedded">nicer</a> anyway than her own "sons." And the discussion brought forth not only the heat of many incompatible views, but the light of much practical information on newly emerging ways to support the arts or improve the original idea proposed.

As I hope you know, I now favor having us endow a small scholarship fund at Alizée's hometown performing arts school in France's deeply impoverished province of Corsica, to honor her imminent ten-year anniversary in showbiz. Even many who did not like the original Art Grant proposal have encouraged me to pursue this new quest. People write things such as: <i>I like the idea with the scholarship for her old school. If this idea evolves to something concrete, I'll gladly support it.</i>

I have no power to close this poll, and as I write, some CD recipients are only today seeing the Private Message I sent asking them to vote in it. For me, the poll has demonstrated that the motivation and financial ability exists at Alizée America to provide an honorably large remunerative thank-you, and the discussion has generated a new proposal about which I have only the least doubt.

This mooted thread remains open, but I have created a <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5643">new one</a> at which the details of the scholarship fund can be addressed among those members of Alizée America interested in funding it. Perhaps you and I will talk about it there! I don't know how Ben feels, but I think those who contribute much more to the scholarship should have much more to say about its character. Maybe one vote per Euro donated is just?

[FanDeAliFee]

<big><big><big><big>Great news! The proposal for an Art Scholarship (which succeeds this moot Art Grant idea) is now ready to collect donations, pledged and otherwise. Read how to take part <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=165928&postcount=104">here</a></big></big></big></big>.

[C-4]

I am sorry for being late to the poll party, but I just found these email messages.
YES, I would contribute what i am able.
Stephen