Franklin Furnace Proposal: 29 FOREVER

Dear Franklin Furnace, thanks for letting me submit my grant proposal in URL format. Below is a description of what I'd like to do. I could really benefit from your assistance. Thanks for your consideration.

The less-than-one-hundred-words description:
In a video blog called “29 Forever,” I will document twenty-nine singing lessons, taken on the occasion of my turning twenty-nine. The vlog will chart my ongoing efforts to be “heard” and will be a time-based performance: taking a chronological format, revolving around my aging, and preserving my voice for a time when we no longer hear each other’s voices. (Which will probably be next year: another reason to stay 29 Forever...)

The longer proposal:
I need singing lessons. Big time. My current work is all about the voice, but mine stinks. How long can I go on making art about the relationship between fame and talent when I have neither? I’m about to turn 29. I won’t be young and blonde forever. Every day I wake up and see that I’m aging faster than the ephemeral media on my blogs. I’m wrinkled, they aren’t. My vision’s failing, so my hopes of being a visionary artist are also diminishing. This is a crisis. Clearly voice lessons are the only thing that will help.

I propose that Franklin Furnace help fund twenty-nine voice lessons. This will be an important step in my career, one that might even help me become the "vocal" artist I’ve always dreamed of becoming. I’d like to document these lessons on a video blog so that my future fans can watch me work. Perhaps, in the course of the twenty-nine lessons, my voice will become more tolerable. The blog will not only be a diary of my ups and downs (emotionally and on the scales!), it will also be a way to preserve my voice for the future.
You see, in this world of highly-mediated communication, I feel like no one ever hears my voice. Who knows what things will be like when I’m 30 or 35? On the blog, I’ll be “29 Forever.” I’ve always liked the idea of blogs being spaces for time-based performances—spaces where everything has a time-date stamp and is ordered chronologically. In this project, time would determine not only the form but also the content of the work. In fact, perhaps the subtitle of the blog should be “It’s About Time.” Afterall, I’m sure I’ll hear that refrain when I tell people I’m taking singing lessons…

I’d like to thank Franklin Furnace for considering supporting my work and my descent towards geriatry in this way. To help in your decision-making process, please consider these other blog-based art projects that offer proof of my need for singing lessons:

Marisa's American Idol Audition Training Blog
Abe & Mo Sing the Blogs
Universal Acid (see especially Across the Universe & Landslide--or the original green screen versions, if you dare! Ouch!)

I also do a bit of "singing" in this fictional reenactment of my American Idol audition.
And in my moiMovies...

Please let me know if you'd like to hear more about these projects or my proposal, in general. Also, I've got a bio online, here.

Budget:
I would like to request $2,929.29 for this project. This would be $100 per lesson, for professional fees, video editing time, maintenance of the blog, and hosting fees. The remaining $29.29 would be used to purchase a small cup of tea before each lesson. I hear that’s very helpful.

Thanks!