Launch of the Mean Machine: A Forgotten Childhood Dream Realized

[We're on about a 2-3 week back log of content.  It's a little difficult to edit content and get it uploaded from the road.  I had to edit late at night in a hotel laundry room and sneak their free internet (we're not staying at the hotel by the way).  We're leaving Jasper, Alberta today and should be in Alaska this weekend.  Once we get stationed there, we're gonna catch up on our blog content.]

The video above documents the July 8th, 2010 launch of the Mean Machine.  Thanks to all of our 78 Kickstarter backers who have realized this small childhood dream of mine that was once forgotten.  Everything happened perfectly:  The rain and doubting weather calmed shortly before the launch and the sun peaked out afterwards.  My dad won the raffle to launch the rocket, and my nephew Gavin won the rocket after the launch, thanks to the deferment of our friend Bernie.  We successfully blasted the names of all of our 78 backers high into the sky!  I hoped you enjoyed this opportunity to fly!  Boom!

Charlie Slick "You've Got the Job" Music Video

Hey Everyone,

Here's the new music video Kelly and I made!  It's finally up online!  Enjoy!

Charlie Slick - You've Got the Job from LAZER on Vimeo.

Official Music Video for Charlie Slick's "You've Got the Job" off his new album Elron Hubbard.

Produced by The Lazerbolt with the Michigan Film Collective.

Thanks to the artists at Forth From It's Hinges and everyone who came out to the shoot!

charlieslick.com
michiganfilmcollective.org
forthfromitshinges.org

Credits

Producer/Director/DP/Editor: Marty Stano
Production Designer: Kelly Gallagher
Art Director: Joey Ostrander
Choreographer: Marlee Grace Cook-Parrott
Dancers: Marlee Grace Cook-Parrott, Thomas Roltsch, Aidan Feldman
Gaffer: Chris Miller
Key Grip: Josh Ficken
Camera: Geoff George, Drew Dawson
1st AD: Shoshana Hurand
2nd AD: Katie Barkel
Ninjas: Geoff Gilbert, Ariel Nathanson, Meghann Rotary, Fred Reyez, Whitaker Martin, Justin Chrzanowski, Micah Vanderhoof, Pratik Narula, Chris Pratt

Week 1 = Success!

Dear Readers,

We are on the road and beginning to hit a stride!  We've had few opportunities for internet use so we apologize for the delay...

Week 1 was a success!  We officially left Saturday July 10th at 4:37pm- a 4 day delay from our original Tuesday July 6th departure... so we've trimmed things down a bit and have been moving rather fast to make it to the Calgary Stampede this weekend.

We hit Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Badlands, Wall Drug, Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, Grand Teton, and Yellow Stone.  We are currently in Great Falls, MT and heading soon to Glacier NP!  We'll be in Calgary tomorrow night and Sunday.

We've shot a lot of great photos and video that we look forward to sharing with you!  It may be a bit until we have the time to sort through our content and post it... but stay tuned!

As we make our way North, internet and cell phone coverage will be limited to non-existent... so as we leave the internet now and disappear into the shadows for a bit, we'll leave you with a quick photo from Yellow Stone hot springs...

KICKSTARTER = SUCCESS and MEAN MACHINE ROCKET LAUNCH IS TODAY!

 The Estes Mean Machine Model Rocket + A Little Boy

Dear Readers + Dreamers,

We know, we know... it's Thursday and we were suppose to leave Tuesday... 

And there hasn't been a new blog post in a while... is this dream still happening?

YES!

Sorry we didn't post an update on our blog earlier... BUT WE REACHED OUR KICKSTARTER GOAL!  Actually, people supported us way beyond our goal! We raised $7350 towards our original $6000 goal!  Thank you everyone who supported us with a pledge, sharing our links, and believing in us.

Our rafting trip was incredible, by the way, and there will be a future post and video on that.

We've been working hard the past 2 weeks moving out, packing, and starting the rewards for our Kickstarter backers. We entrusted the tandem bicycle a few days ago to Mike and we just finished a commercial for our backers Karl + Cara (post coming soon). And it's 6:24am and Marty hasn't slept yet because he just finished the wings and painted THE MEAN MACHINE!!!

We have some additional gear arriving in the mail today and then we're leaving tomorrow!

SO... The time has come to get this Pan-American Dream going!

We are celebrating the funding of our Kickstarter project by blasting a giant model rocket off into the sky!!! THE MEAN MACHINE!!! RADICAL!

This rocket has some history. Marty's been holding onto it for about 15 years and has NEVER shot it off! The rocket represents a small dream, once lost, from routinely putting it off... this seems to happen to a lot of dreams and it shouldn't be that way.

SO, 15 years later we are making it happen! Realizing this small childhood dream will help us realize the Pan-American Dream!

We will be writing the names of all of our Kickstarter backers on the rocket so that all of you will FLY with us hundreds of feet in the air! We couldn't have done it with out you!

For those in the Ann Arbor area, we invite you to the launch! It doesn't matter if you were able to support us on Kickstarter or not, come watch dreams happen!!!

Arrive 10-15min early to participate in the RAFFLE. We will draw names for who gets to PUSH THE LAUNCH BUTTON and who gets to KEEP the MEAN MACHINE and LAUNCH PAD afterwards!!! Uh-huh, Uh-huh!!!

LAUNCH
THURSDAY JULY 8TH, 7:09PM
ALLMENDINGER PARK (BASEBALL FIELD)
700 PAULINE BLVD (NEAR SEVENTH)
ANN ARBOR, MI 48103

IF YOU CANNOT MAKE IT, WE WILL BE DOCUMENTING THE LAUNCH AND IT WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE NEAR FUTURE ON OUR BLOG FOR YOU TO EXPERIENCE.

Also, if you missed the early Mean Machine video you can see it on our Youtube page at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/thepanamericandream#p/a/u/1/w0kvQ4WfqiY

Hope to see some of you today!!!

Hearts,

-Marty + Kelly