Kickstarter Week 4

We’re into week four of our 35th anniversary Kickstarter and it’s looking great! We have passed the initial goal of $25,000, are presently over $38,000, and we are trying to get to our stretch goal of $50,000 by the end of the campaign: Thursday, July 10, at 11:59PM Pacific time.

Why do we need so much? Because web programming is expensive. It is particularly susceptible to “mission creep.” You have an objective, so you build the site. Then you realize it could be so much better with just a few tweaks. But each tweak brings up a host of other problems. So now you’re buying more plug-ins, which require more programming, and debugging, and discovering new things to add...and on and on. It’s just the nature of it.

We’re facing this right now, in a small way, as we move our used CDs store, FSMCDs, over to our new server. We will have it back up and running by Wednesday along with some 500 new listings. But it’s whack-a-mole with a lot of little nuisances.

One of the truths of FSM is that it was always underfunded. From day one, it was this sort of accidental thing that I stumbled into as a high school student. I took in a certain amount of subscription money, and used it to print an issue. Then more subscribers came and I used that money to pay for the next issue.

But there was never a business plan, let alone investors, let alone a cash reserve. This is, needless to say, not how you’re supposed to do things!

So it’s sort of a miracle I was able to keep it going as long as I did; and then, after me, Jon Kaplan with FSMOnline, our subscription website. For most of the life of our label, we were financed by Screen Archives, who were (and still are) distributing our FSM Classics titles, and truly have them to thank for our continued existence.

But really, the only thing that has sustained us for 35 years is that there is a core audience of film music fans and collectors who love this stuff and are happy to spend money to support it. That is something I take very seriously, and I have always made sure that our productions are on-time, fairly priced, and quality-controlled. THANK YOU!

So, on that note...probably everybody reading this is aware that there was a Jerry Goldsmith two-volume book set that raised a ton of money on Kickstarter two years ago. While the book is finished and has been distributed as pdfs, and other perks mailed as well (I know because I mailed some of them, as a favor), the books themselves have yet to be printed.

THIS IS NOT MY PROJECT!!!

However, my good friend and one of our longtime writers at FSM, Jeff Bond, is the author.

Long story short of what happened, the publisher had business problems and no longer has the money to print the books. Needless to say, people are rightfully outraged.

Have I known this? Yes, but only well after the money was raised. I laid low for a long time hoping the publisher would fix his problems, and even put in free labor to help sort out the printing arrangements.

With no explanation forthcoming, I printed what I did on my blog...and unfortunately I have no meaningful updates.

I just want to say: there was never a master plan to defraud people. Nobody is jetskiing in Italy laughing at Jerry Goldsmith fans. It’s an incredibly sad situation of a longtime collectibles business that meant well and did a lot of good but just hit the end of the road from a lack of planning.

I know some people are trying to organize to take legal action, and I understand the anger, but I don’t think it would do any good. If the publisher had the funds, he would print the book. A very old expression: you can’t get blood from a stone.

I’m not even sure why I’m publishing this update in my updates, since it is, again, NOT MY PROJECT. Maybe it’s just the fact that for 35 years I’ve spoken to the community: what we like, what we don’t like, what is meaningful to us, what we want to see and hear.

The Goldsmith books are a huge matter of concern and I feel obliged to address it, and live up to FSM’s reputation as a place you go to get updates on what matters to us—people who love film music.

Finally, today, I can’t resist sharing one of my favorite obscure Lalo Schifrin themes. We lost Lalo last week—but as sad as this is, it has been heartwarming to see the various tributes online.

Lalo wrote the theme and a few scores for the 1969 TV movie and short-lived 1970–71 legal series, The Young Lawyers. I have never actually seen the show, but I stumbled across the title sequence at some point, and adore the tune and its orchestration:

I was born in 1974 so I dimly remember the ’70s, and as much (or as little) as I remember the actual fashions, AM radio, Star Wars toys and ubiquitous cigarette smoke, a lot of what I experienced was being a little kid on an island whose window to the world was what I glimpsed on television.

So this music, and its title sequence, is how I used to perceive cities and adulthood—and wow, nostalgia overload.

But in all seriousness, beyond the nostalgia...I really love the melody!

Finally, it occurs to me how different everything is today from 35 years ago. If I wanted to watch The Young Lawyers in 1990 (let alone share it with friends), first I’d have to somehow know about it, and then track down a videotape from a network of pen-pal collectors (and sleazy convention dealers).

Today, it’s a two-second search on YouTube. Crazy!

Thanks to everybody for listening, and for your ongoing support!