Two really important causes

Times are crappy economically, but, but, but if you can spare a few bucks here or there, you should really consider donating to these two super-important causes that are near and dear to my heart.

1. If you're reading this blog you are probably a fan of music, maybe even music criticism. Paul Williams the founder of Crawdaddy Magazine has long been considered the godfather of music criticism. Well, he is in dire need of your help. Here are a few words on his situation from Jocelyn Hoppa, current Crawdaddy Editor-in-Chief.

Back in 1995, Paul suffered a traumatic brain injury from a bicycle accident that has led to an early onset of Alzheimer's, not to mention a steady decline in speech and comprehension to where he now requires full-time care. The emotional hardship and financial burden this has put on his wife, folkster Cindy Lee Berryhill, and their seven-year-old son has been immense. As a freelancer, Paul lived his life without any structure of institutional support.

Understandably, this is a crazy time to be asking for money, but the time is now to share Paul's story with his fans in the hope that the word gets around enough where those with a little money to spare can give back to a living legend and slice of Americana, a person who's given so much to all of us lovers of music, science fiction, and/or philosophical meanderings.

Please visit http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://paulwilliams.com to learn more about Paul's extraordinary life and works, and where you can send a donation. And please pass this note around to others you know who might be interested in Paul's condition. We here at Wolfgang's Vault/Crawdaddy! will be doing all we can to help and get the word out.

Much love to Paul and his family and friends,
Jocelyn, Editor-in-Chief

2. Help fund autism research AND my friend Thom will cover a song of your choice!

He recently took his fundraising efforts to the Mountain Goats forums, here's what he has to say:

Hey guys,

so, every year i participate in a fundraising walk for autism research. this year, i thought i would take my fundraising efforts to the internet. and, since mountain goats fans have been documented by me to be such cool people, i thought, why not start here on the forums?

but! before you make up your mind either way, you should know about the two deal-sweetening campaigns i am running. there’s kind of something for everyone: those who love to hear songs covered poorly by awkward amateur musicians, and one for those who like to make people pay more than they can afford to out of spite. (those ARE the two kinds of people in this world, yes?)

first, the “put your money where your mouth is” campaign: i am withholding my own donation to the fundraiser until the day of the walk, at which point i will match the largest SINGLE donation i receive from an individual. (note the key words single and individual; 6 donations of $50 will not count as $300. also, an employer-matching program does not double your donation amount for purposes of this campaign). this campaign ends at 12:00am eastern time on 6/13/09.

the other campaign is the “For a Song” campaign. in this campaign, i will accept cover requests, record my version of the song, and compile all of the cover versions onto a cd which will be shipped in September to all who donate over $20. this is my third year running a campaign similar to this; songs requested in the past include Justin Timberlake’s “sexyback,” the cure’s “fire in cairo,” “the most unwanted song,” *nsync’s “gone,” shearwater’s “nobody,” phil ochs’s “i ain’t marching anymore,” bob dylan’s “if you see her, say hello,” lou reed’s “dirty blvd.,” and patrick swayze’s “she’s like the wind,” among others. there is a bit of a sliding scale here - a particularly difficult or embarrassing song may call for a larger donation than $20, for example. also, if you donate a large amount, i may consider taking multiple requests from you. of course, multiple donations for multiple requests are welcome (and even encouraged!) it’ll be fun. it’s like yo la tengo when they slaughter the classics for wfmu, except that this is for autism research. oh, and also yo la tengo is actually a group of talented musicians. but other than that, exactly the same.

i can accept donations via check (made out to autism speaks,) but the easiest way is to donate through my online donation center, which is secure and run by kintera.org (link below). if you have an employer that matches charitable donations and need information concerning that, please let me know.

anyway, thanks in advance and i look forward to hopefully receiving lots of ridiculous song requests!

My autism walk fundraising page

Thanks in advance to everyone, even the smallest contributions are greatly appreciated.