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Help A Brother Out



Thanks to recent changes in the interwebs (Google’s re-organization of it’s page-ranking algorithm in the past couple months, basically), my monthly take-home on advertising revenue has been slipping. It’s by no means at emergency levels, but I would like to make up the difference this month in reader donations. Should be a total snap: if 10 people contributed $33, then we’d be all set.

On the right hand side of this page, you’ll see a red donation widget which says “MAGIC POWER”. This automated agent of darkness will assist you in lightening your wallet in my general direction. You’ll need a PayPal account to play the game.

Special bonus: anyone who contributes $75 or over will receive a free volume of Verbal Supplements. Just include a shipping address with your donation and allow 3-6 weeks, depending on how many other takers we have.

If you’ve been enjoying works such as my Carnival Culture series, your donations will help me keep it going, along with lots of other cool projects I have in the works. Thanking you in advance!

Yours truly,
The One, The Only, Tim Boucher.

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PS. Keep on rockin in the Free World!







8 Reader Responses

  1. Ted Heistman Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 11:25 am

    So what do you plan to do next month? Not trying to be a dick or anything, just wondering. I think Carnival culture would make a cool book.

    Ever consider doing a piece on mountian men? Those were some “on the fringe” characters.

  2. Tim Boucher Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    Mountain men is a great idea. I will definitely do that, probably combined with pioneers/settlers and maybe with a tangent about colonialism.

    Carnival Culture would make a great book, I agree. As you know, all of my writing is now in the public domain, so as it stands, anyone is free to make and sell books using it or any content from my website - free of charge, and without my express permission. Beyond that, I would definitely entertain reasonable offers from editors, publishers and literary agents to develop this content into a more “saleable” mainstream format.

    Plans for this next month are already underway: I have been writing and recording poetry and music. There’s a chance I may “go on tour” with an associate of mine, though that may take a little bit longer. Once I’m on the move again and rolling, I essentially want to catalyze carnivals in my wake. Seems like a good goal!

  3. Ted Heistman Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    The carnivals that the mountian men went to were called “fur rondevous” just so you know. They would trap all winter and come to town and celebrate in the spring and sell their furs.

    Good luck.

    Ted

  4. Tim Boucher Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 3:45 pm

    Yeah, there is a bar called “The Rendezvous” here in town. It’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy - in the nicest possible way. I think those kinds of seasonal trading-celebrations are pretty much universal around the world.

    Incidentally, I’m interested in coming up with a master list of marginal figures in modern culture and history which I can shoe-horn into this series.

    Some of my other ideas, which I’d love to have other people expand on:

    - Merchants, travelling salesmen {see also: snake oil medicine shows}
    - Hospitality industry: waiters, waitresses, hotels, maids
    - Healers & hospitals: country doctors, apothecaries, druggists, drug dealers
    - Sex workers: strippers, prostitutes, escorts, marriage law, cultural taboos and imprinting around sex and genetics
    - Missionaries: priests, pastors and so on
    - Soldiers & sailors: mercenaries, army followers, pirates, privateers, the rules of war, martial law
    - Pioneers, settlers, mountain-men
    - Messengers & diplomats
    - Teamsters, truckers, delivery, livery

    Just off the top of my head. Please please give me other good ideas. I feel like we’re beginning to be on a roll here… And I personally see this subject matter as becoming more and more important as economic conditions shift downward (at least in the US), and people begin to suddenly have the wool pulled out of their eyes - or whatever the proper expression would be here.

  5. Julia Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 pm

    marriage law

    My coworker turned herself into an expert in Creole geneology just by researching her own family. (Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and near Catholic Saint Henriette Delille share an ancestor with my coworker.) The history of Black people in America is usually obscure but the history of Black people in territories ruled by the French (Napoleonic Law) is obscure to most Black people too. This is a good place to start.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pla%C3%A7age

  6. Tim Boucher Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 4:40 pm

    Thanks for the reference. That’s a good one. I’m reading a book right now about the French-Indian War as well, so the point is useful there as well.

    - Convicts, prisoners is another good one

  7. Crystal Says:
    January 24th, 2008 at 11:44 am

    If you want to catalyze carnivals in Minnesota, I have a spare futon and a couch.

  8. Tim Boucher Says:
    January 24th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    “Fair” enough! May just take you up on that.



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