Insectavora, Lady Gaga, and Respect for Mick Jagger

Hi! David Myers here, back reporting on my friend Insectavora's charity project. She and two filmmakers, Jim Riffel and Mark Zobian, are donating the worldwide rights to a bunch of feature films and music. The one I'll be writing about today is Insectavora's CD/DVD collection of music and music videos. She's made an interesting offer to some music big shots: review my work and you can have the worldwide rights, including the publishing rights, to sell to any company you want as long as you take the money from that sale and donate it to the charity of your choice. This offer was made on March 23, 2011, to Paul McCartney, Bono, Madonna, Prince and Mick Jagger. As of May 21, no one has responded. I met Insectavora at the wonderful and super cool Coney Island Sideshow and, when she wasn't eating fire, she answered some questions.

Me: So you haven't had any contact from any of the music people you named?

Insectavora: From them personally, no. Jim Riffel is doing all the contacting of the big shots. He has all the contacts for their lawyers, agents, managers, publicists, cooks, maids, house painters, limo drivers, pool cleaners, blah, blah, blah. He's talked to some of those employees but he hasn't heard a "sure, why not!' or "hell no, and don't call here again!" as of yet.

Me: So that's the process? You just call up and ask if they'll get involved?

Insectavora: Not exactly. From what I understand, and this is all hearsay because Mr. Riffel, or as I like to call him, "El Presidente," is a very mysterious man. But the way I understand it is that he writes a very professional letter on expensive stationery, pops a copy of the ready to sell CD/DVD in the padded US Postal Service designed envelope, and sends it off to the above mentioned folks. Then he does the traditional follow-up call. Then begins the maze of call-backs, new names to talk to, more call backs, more new names, repeat process a few dozen times. It's time consuming. But it's better than sitting on the couch watching reruns of "Three's Company."

Me: It sounds like a lot of work.

Insectavora: Yeah, I'm glad "El Presidente" is handling that end. He's probably got a big phone bill. Doing charity work can make you bankrupt.

Me: But why do you think it takes so long to get answers?

Insectavora: Probably because we're coming out of nowhere with this thing. It's a strange idea, giving away the rights to your work. I don't know anybody who's done this before. So the people who are hearing about it probably think it's a joke or is just too weird to take seriously. Plus, we don't have a manager, agent, lawyer, publicist, etc., handling the project. We can't really afford any of those because if we were going to hire one we'd have to hire one that has a relationship with the agencies that Bono and Madonna and Mick Jagger and the rest are hooked up with. And that's extremely expensive. This way will take a little longer but it's the only way we can go.

Me: Maybe you should go with more current music stars like Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. You might have a better shot of getting this in the news and that way it might speed it up a little.

Insectavora: Nah. I mean, you might be right. Lady Gaga gets a lot more coverage than Mick Jagger but out of respect to someone's career I'd rather go with some icons who have been around and have a body of work. Nothing against Lady Gaga and her suit of meat but Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney and Bono and the rest have a respected history. So out of respect to that I gotta send it out that way.

Me: Is there any way to fast track this whole thing? Some charities may go out of business by the time you get this done.

Insectavora: That was kind of rude and I should break this beer bottle on your face but it still has a couple gulps in it so I'll just ignore your trite comment. Anyway, I do have a plan which I told you about the last time we spoke.

Me: The fan mail?

Insectavora: Yeah. Sometimes the idea of doing something good must be coupled with a bit of flattery. So I must put my love and admiration for all these wonderful individuals down on paper. Maybe when they realize what a true fan I am they may be more willing to lend a helping hand. Then again, maybe not. All we can do is try. And drink. In fact, my shift is over and I'm going to get a beer. You wanna join me?

I leave with Insectavora and hit a nearby bar. She beats me at pool 3 out of four games. I'll report on her progress in a couple weeks. If you want to find out more about about Insectavora and the charity project log onto www.NightOfTheDayOfTheDawn.org