Look out! Another Pezzettino fundraiser!

A few weeks ago The A.V. Club posted a story about local accordion-playing songstress Margaret Stutt of Pezzettino and her online fundraising campaign to secure money for tour-related car repairs. We didn’t feel one way or the other about her efforts—we just thought it was sort of a funny idea worth reporting on. After that, well, we’re still surprised by all the gnashing of teeth our cute lil’ story inspired. But maybe we shouldn’t be surprised—Milwaukee is a thoroughly blue-collar community, and that includes our blessed artistes. “Begging” for money to make your little record, film, or play just ain’t very cool in this town, where people are expected to work hard during the day and drink themselves into oblivion at night, whether you work in a mill, bar, or quasi-Socialist theater co-op.

If you do manage to pull something creative together, actually promoting it with any degree of competence or aggressiveness probably won’t win you any coolness points, either. We’re not saying these attitudes are bad necessarily—though, as some of the more vitriolic comments show, they can be pretty overbearing at times—just very Milwaukeean.

Which brings us to another Pezzettino fundraiser! Seemingly undeterred by the negative reaction her initial campaign received—or, perhaps, emboldened by it—Stutt is now soliciting fans for donations in exchange for personalized song requests posted on YouTube. Says Stutt: “The fundraiser continues until Aug. 4, [and is] an exclusive opportunity for people to get their personalized song request on video for any donation starting at $10.  When a pledge is made, I email the supporter and ask them what song they would like to hear, and the video is loaded to YouTube within a week.”

So there you have it. If a song video from Pezzettino is worth giving up some cash, take out your checkbook. If not, feel free to complain about it here. Here’s a sample video.