June 15, 2007

Ripened Yet Rocking: Young @ Heart Chorus Keeps it Real

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I thought my grandma was cool because she uses e-mail. Little did I know the only reason she uses it is because my parents tricked her into thinking Web TV isn’t the real Internet.

But Internet-using grandmas aside, there exists a set of elderly folks in their 70s to 90s that are possibly cooler than that. Not only do they go on tour and dance choreographed routines, they have the musical taste of hip 25-year-olds.

Singing songs by Radiohead, Coldplay, the Clash and Outkast, the group, called Young@Heart, has been around since 1982. The members range from once-professional musicians and actors to those with virtually no experience.

Check out the group’s heart-wrenching live version of Coldplay’s “Fix You”.

—Anna Weggel

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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