More rain coming. Thunder outside. They've suspended sandbagging work down at the U.
Thinking maybe I could try to do something in another way. I had a show scheduled for The Mill in Iowa City next Thursday, June 19, and I've decided to try to expand it into a bigger benefit show for flood relief funds and could use tips, contacts, resources. For all our locals on the Kos, I know this seems frivolous in the face of all this shit, and kind of ad hoc — I've never tried to do something like this — but there doesn't seem a point to our playing a show right now without trying to use the venue and the our meager talents to try to get some dough to people who need it.
I'm realistic enough to not try to be too ambitious with this, I'm just a goddamn musician, and I most likely can get together a great line-up of A-list local artists and stage the show and all, but I'm not particularly skilled at more fundraise-y event planning. I'm just thinking some kind of "official" sanction would help optimize the use of the venue, which is pretty big, to sort of "retail" both fundraising and relief information.
I've got an email in to the local United Way, to see if they'd like to sanction it, and will try the Red Cross too, but I know full well they've got better things to do than think about stuff like this. I've also thought of maybe trying to get hold of the local Obama campaign folks, maybe to see if they could help coordinate, but if anybody here knows anybody there, or at Loebsack's office or something, I'd appreciate any introductions or email addresses or whatever.
I'd just like to do something substantive with this. Just playing a regular old show right now would seem like fiddling while Rome floods.