To give you all a clear understanding that Schmoonews is about the Creative Process and holds nothing back–I’m about to peel away the curtin into some of the questions you all have been asking me about how we’ve gotten this thing together and what’s the deal with BECKMANN and his seemingly illustrious life of travel and mystery. More than anything this post documents our PRE HISTORY in creating SCHMOO.
Exactly one year ago today, Barack Obama was elected president–and that’s a critical moment in the history not just for the world, but for us. You see, I started my self-imposed exile from my place in San Francisco at the end of July 2008 to move to Chicago and join the New Media part of that campaign. When we won–and then a week later, Current TV laid off the division I had been working for, I decided in those cold dark days of November, to start something SCHMOO–although not even the name had surfaced yet.
All I knew was that so many of you who had done work for us and so many of the talented people I’d worked with were now all of sudden out in the cold–whilst I felt like I had won the lottery. Finding myself in the midst of a historic and winning presidential campaign.
Fast forwarding to now–we will get to the parts in between at another point–I never went back home. I continued to go about the country and put together the pieces that at first became our parent company, IB5k and then later our subset for the creative types, Schmooru.com.
How did I do this? As you can recall–after Obama got elected, the sky was literally falling. The economy was in shambles and people thought the banks were going to fail. Schmooru, I’m proud to say has received no investment in these early stages which means there are no strings attached while firmly developing our foundation. We control our own house and from there we can dream unbeholden.
It did cost money–and I’m happy to report, my savings are mostly intact. The first thing that’s been mysterious to me and I hope no one from the MGM Mirage corporation is reading this–but every time I’ve needed the money for something, I’ve gotten it in a casino. In a sense MGM and a few other names are investors in this company. Same way FEDEX started.
I don’t believe in gambling–but I’ve only lost one time this year. I’ve never gotten more than I needed to get me past the next post. Before Obama called in July of 2008, I had won a HUGE take in Detroit which made me feel comfortable taking the drastic pay cut to sign up–because it was so mysteriously large, I thought it meant something larger than me.
There are your curators who worked on a HOPE and a DREAM who basically did this stuff for future pay, but beyond that they deeply care in what we’re all trying to do there. Primarily, to have a lawyer, a webmaster, a business builder, a powerful DC power broker, an impeccably capable renaissance video man–but also, the girl I called one week after the election and said “I don’t know what it is, but we’re going to go out there and do something’–the most networked girl in video production–cause this thing always was conceived and lives within community–without these people–there would be no SCHMOO.
But that’s not all. It took a village. A global one–in order to build this thing. And primarily–its not having paid rent for an entire year that has really gotten this thing off the ground. By my count I’ve stayed in over 47 different spots this year, and never slept in the street unless it was on purpose(There was the one night in Chicago when I wanted to go home and my hosts were partying all night but that was good for me;). I would say a word to the wisest is you have to keep on moving every three days in order to not overstay a welcome–but below, I’ve chronicled every place I’ve stayed in the last year–and many of them were repeats.
These people all contributed to the possibility, that creative people like all of you could band together–do projects bigger than oneself–and in doing so, help to preserve a creative lifestyle and profession that’s necessary to ensure our happy futures.
CHI
Caitlin Dorsey
Mike Debonis
The New Media Mansion people
STL
The Rev. Ben Schartman
NYC
Katie Beckmann
LA
Lauren Cerre & Tyler Manson-
SF
John Reed & Sarah McKinney
Omaha
Paul Tulipana & Megan Malone
Louisville
Tom Green
Birmingham
Mark Nugent & Jessica Kerley
Miami
Mark Steiner
St. Louis
Harrahs;)
Toledo
David & Esther Beckmann
Washington, DC Inauguration
Allison Archaubault
NYC
Holly Ecker and Christopher Smith
Washington DC/Manassas, VA
Mathew Taylor
David Bychkov & Nadia Madjid
SF
Richie Zevin
Bozeman, MT
Michael J. “mini” Noogent
Michael and Naomi Nugent
LA
Sarah Evershed & Julian Robinson
Dylan Ris
SF
Danny Debonis
Chicago,
Zac Witte & Goeff Domeracki
SF
Tori Taylor & Dave McMillan
LA
Saskia Wilson Brown
Wyoming
The Eversheds
NYC
John F. Brunner
Jory Cunningham
Sam Reiff-Pasarew
DC
Max Harper
Amsterdam
Dennis DeLange
Mike Glennon
NYC
Clare Sullivan & Thomas Hallaran
Great Barrington, MA
Nathanial Kerksick
CHI
Caitlin Dorsey
Mike Debonis
The New Media Mansion people
STL
The Rev. Ben Schartman
NYC
Katie Beckmann
LA
Lauren Cerre & Tyler Manson-
SF
John Reed & Sarah McKinney
Omaha
Paul Tulipana & Megan Malone
Louisville
Tom Green
Birmingham
Mark Nugent & Jessica Kerley
Miami
Mark Steiner
St. Louis
Harrahs;)
Toledo
David & Esther Beckmann
Washington, DC Inauguration
Allison Archaubault
NYC
Holly Ecker and Christopher Smith
Washington DC/Manassas, VA
Mathew Taylor
David Bychkov & Nadia Madjid
SF
Richie Zevin
Bozeman, MT
Michael J. “mini” Noogent
Michael and Naomi Nugent
LA
Sarah Evershed & Julian Robinson
Dylan Ris
SF
Danny Debonis
Chicago,
Zac Witte & Goeff Domeracki
SF
Tori Taylor & Dave McMillan
LA
Saskia Wilson Brown
Wyoming
The Eversheds
NYC
John F. Brunner
Jory Cunningham
Sam Reiff-Pasarew
DC
Max Harper
Amsterdam
Dennis DeLange
Mike Glennon
NYC
Clare Sullivan & Thomas Hallaran
Great Barrington, MA
Nathanial Kerksick
