October 21st, 2007 Sunday:

        Good news! People Party is available for streaming/download from a separate online site. I compressed it to a .divx file and hosted on the site where I host a lot of my other videos. Please go here to see the People Party DVD online! You can also download it if you'd like. Before you play the video you can click the button next to the Play button on the actual video (it is a narrow button with an arrow pointing down).

        Just to show off, I'm going to embed the video here for you too.

October 17th, 2007 Wednesday:

        I wouldn't have made this option available if I wasn't getting so many requests to do so. For a period of time my Paypal account was unable to receive payments while they worked out the situation on their end. But now my Paypal account is up again. Therefore, if anyone would like to donate money back to the project (not for a DVD, strictly for a donation) they are welcome to. I want to thank everyone in their generosity in this regard. It really isn't needed, yet it helps so, so much. My Paypal address is shlack@gmail.com.

       Take care.

October 11th, 2007 Thursday:

        Thanks to poster BC I now am able to provide people with a definitive way to burn your DVD files to a DVD, quickly, easily, and effectively.

"For everyone that's confused about what to do with the NON .mpg version of the DVD, all you have to do is download ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/) and follow the directions here (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=197087) of cynthia_old's, which is the 12th post down, and then you're set.

ImgBurn is free, so you don't have to worry about paying for Nero or anything. This worked flawlessly for me and took about 10 minutes to install and burn to DVD. Maybe Mike can put this up on his web page..."

        Again, this is only relative for the people who downloaded the non-.mpg version.

October 9th, 2007 Tuesday:

        Hey everyone- I hear a lot of people are getting the DVD now which is awesome and I'm super glad. I just saw now that Pitchfork made an article about it so a lot more people are visiting the site which is great. Please seed the DVD once you are finished with the torrent. This helps IMMENSELY and everyone gets their DVD faster. Also, in regards to my Soulseek account, I am on my college's internet connection and my ports are closed which explains why some can't see my files. Unfortunately, there is no way that I know of that I can change this since I don't have access to the internet settings and you will have to use an alternative way to getting the DVD.

        If anyone wishes to comment on the DVD, share places to find it, have questions etc.. they can shoot over to the Eat Tapes message board and post in the People Party forum.

        Hope everyone is well.
        New Radiohead tomorrow!!!!!!
        

October 7th, 2007 Sunday:

        It looks like people are finally starting to get the DVD which is cool. I hope there isn't anyone running into too many problems. Also, a lot of people are offering to donate their money back to me just to say thanks. This is 100% awesome and greatly appreciated however I am still working out some kinks with Paypal and am not able to receive payments as of yet. I will post back here when it is up and running again. Thanks so much for your support - it's incredible and I never would of imagined, after all of this, the positive response this is getting.

October 6th, 2007 Saturday (late-night update):

        Good evening. A lot of people may be visiting the site looking for answers as to why they were refunded their People Party money. Well you can find the answer two entries down, under EVERYONE PLEASE READ! which makes sense, yes?

        Thank you to everyone who has emailed me responses giving me their well wishes and support even though the project hasn't manifested itself in the way originally had planned. It was very kind of you guys. The torrents are starting to pick up pace and cruise along. I encourage everyone to get on them if they can. The more people seeding the better and quicker this will all go. I'm heading to bed soon but I wanted to let everyone know that I do appreciate their emails and the DVD is slowly making its way to the public eye.

October 6th, 2007 Saturday (dinnertime update):

        I updated the Download page where you can find out how to get the files off of me from Soulseek. Also I am investigating how to refund Paypal payments. Its looking like I might have to do each one individually. If this is the case I will start from the oldest order from August 9th and work my way forward in time. I'll be in touch soon.

        Take care.

October 6th, 2007 Saturday:
EVERYONE PLEASE READ!

        Hey,

        Finally, we have reached the point when I am able to make this DVD available to the masses. To our regret, it isn't going to be available in the way we all had originally planned. I'll explain the situation in a bit more detail (some of this I have already said so bear with me for the sake of continuity) ...

        When Noah and I had first planned to create this DVD we were thinking that only a select group of Panda Bear fans not only would know about it, but be interested in it as well. We were honestly expecting to do maybe around 100 copies or so and that is when I was able to guarantee its $0 price tag. Once the story broke to major music news outlets I got a bit worried but figured, "Maybe people will just opt to get the bonus disk and donate some money and everything will be ok and I can still release this DVD for free." When ordering was open, my idea of 100 orders was crushed probably within the first hour. Over the next two weeks orders came pouring in (and they have still been trickling in to this day). I do not know the exact amount but I can tell you its in the thousands. We all know that when this began I was forced to charge $5 per DVD in order to cover my expenses. There simply wasn't enough donations to cover everything, however a lot of people were very generous and I thank them for it. Luckily, a lot of people were understanding, giving $5 in order to receive the once free DVD. Once this started to occur, however, Panda Bear's publicist started to raise some eyebrows and told his manager Brian of the concern of me charging money. At this point Noah was on tour with Animal Collective, I had moved down to college, and Brian was busy with other things so our communication was stretched so thin it was near impossible to discuss anything in a timely manor. This is why everything has taken so long - not because any of us are lazy or don't care. That isn't the case at all. In fact it was because we wanted to make sure this got done right and in the most satisfactory way that we took care in discussing it and it wound up occupying so much time.

    Everything has been talked out and the final decision is that I will not be able to release this DVD and charge money for it. And since there is no way to release to the masses the physical DVD for free, we are offering it on the internet in every way possible for free. I will be refunding all Paypal money if not today, tomorrow. And all mailed in money will be refunded ASAP. I will be sending emails to everyone who I mail money back so you know it's on the way.

     Noah and I would like to apologize a thousand times over for all of the inconvenience this may have caused people and the promise we had to break. I'm truly as sorry as you are. The amount of work I put into creating the artwork, budgeting the money to make the DVDs, ordering and making them, etc.. was all for nothing now. As unfortunate as it is, I really don't care because the DVD is out and I'm stoked for that but I want people to know this wasn't an easy thing for me to hear either. I will leave you with a quote from Noah on the situation and afterwards will address how this is all going to go down..

    "mike and i massively underestimated the interest in this thing. once mike (understandably) decided to charge for the video things got very complicated and weve spent a minute trying to sort it all out. weve decided to put the thing up as a free download. this way it remains free (the reason i was so pumped on it in the first place)--people who couldnt come to the few shows i did get to see and hear the shows if theyd like--and mike gets to show his work to everyone. i gather paypal never let mike take anyones money so nobody should get screwed there and im very glad for that. im very sorry that it all got so messed up and i hope that no harm has been done. if youre angry i understand and im very sorry for that. i hope you all have a good time watching and listening and take good care always."

    This whole thing was totally new to me and such a good learning experience. I wanted to thank everyone one last time who has stuck it out and has given me their support to the end. This DVD is for you and I hope you enjoy. Please follow the Download link to get the video.

September 21st, 2007 Friday:

        Thankfully most people have exercised an honorable amount of patience in this whole ordeal. Understandably, however, some are wondering about their DVDs. So here is whats going on:

        I figured this situation would at least be resolved right now but it has not and I've been trying to get some information for a week or so.

         Noah messaged me little while ago telling me that now his publisher is upset with this whole DVD business and putting pressure on his manager Brian about the whole situation. It looks like it may be something we can work out by simply giving money to the publisher. Brian emailed me and I responded and haven't gotten anything in return. Noah is on tour so its near impossible to get in touch with him. And if I begin sending these DVDs out (the pile that I do have ready to ship) I run the risk of having some charges brought against me by the publisher or something. How this came about I don't know, I promise you I did have Noah's full approval to go ahead and do this project. Had I known this was going to be a problem I would have worked this out earlier. Apparently the publisher just started speaking up now... which is fine, we just need to work this out quickly though.

       I've honestly have been stressing out about this entire thing for months now. I just want to start mailing these DVDs and I feel super bad and now I have all of these people calling me a fake and a scammer. And for some reason a lot of people are calling me a business? I am not a business. I'm a single person who owns nothing and is doing this out of his dorm room. There isn't an assembly line of workers all getting this done. Its just me. Also, no money has been taken out of the Paypal account. It's still frozen in there and I can't even touch it until the publisher gives me the go-ahead. The one thing I can do is give a refund so if you can't wait for this DVD and rather not get it all then file a Paypal complaint and I will give you a refund.

       The fact that it has to come down to this is really frustrating to me. I'm not asking for pity - I'm just asking for patience. If you want a refund that's fine - I'll refund you. But please don't call me a scammer or something. I'm trying my best to handle this and not screw up in college. I'm sure some can understand.

Take care everyone.

September 9th, 2007 Sunday:

        Here comes a big and much needed update:

        I'm so sorry to everyone to keep them in the dark for so long. As I've mentioned on the site elsewhere, as soon as I got back from vacation I moved down to college and my life has been non-stop since then. To make it all worse the internet wasn't ready by the time the students got here so I wasn't able to give an update for the longest time either. But here I am and I apologize.

        I haven't sent any DVDs out yet however there is a pile in my room waiting to ship. I'll get to the reason why they haven't been ready to ship in a moment. PLEASE do not send any emails regarding your order. I promise you no orders have been lost or anything I just have not yet sent any out. When I do send your order out you will be receiving a confirmation email from me telling you that it has been shipped so you can look forward to it. I'm so sorry in the delay with all of this but it has just been one thing after the other and I'm working on it. I want to thank everyone for their kind patients.

        Now, why these DVDs haven't shipped: After seeing the sudden influx of money into my account, Paypal, in their infinite wisdom decided to limit my account until they investigated the case further. This means that the money is basically frozen there and I can't get to it. I completed all of the security checks that Paypal asked of me and then I received an email telling me I need to get Noah to sign write a letter telling Paypal that it is ok for me to sell a DVD for him. Why this matters to Paypal and how this works, I have no idea but Noah is definitely willing to do it and I am just trying to figure out where he needs to send this letter since they never told me.  In the mean time, I'm going to be using my grocery money to ship these DVDs out and hope that the Paypal issue gets resolved soon because I am getting hungry.

        So now you guys are all up to date. Again, I can't apologize enough for how long this is all taking but I'm trying my best.

        Thanks so much.

August 26th, 2007 Sunday:

        Hey everyone. It's been a long long time since an update and I'm really really sorry. Like I said, I was on vacation from the 10th to the 21st and I had two days to pack, and move down to college. Now I'm here in college and the internet has been down for days and I can only access it right now from specific spots on campus. They tell us the 31st we should all be up and running but we'll see about that. My schedule has been packed with orientation shit and I've been trying my very best to get orders out. You will be receiving a confirmation email when I ship your order so look out for that. I'm really really sorry to everyone who has been waiting but I just ask your patients I'm trying my very best. I hope everyone is having a good rest of the summer. I'm off to another workshop.

        Update w/ pictures soon.

August 11th, 2007 Saturday: PLEASE READ!

        As I begin my all-night burning/packaging marathon before I leave I'm going to have to break some good/bad news.

        The good news? People Party is apparently very popular and in high demand!!
        The bad news? People Party is apparently very popular and in high demand!!

        I feel like I need to stress that what you'll read is absolutely absolutely absolutely in no way an angry statement or resentful in the least. It is truly just an examination of the facts and then working out an answer. I never intended to lie to anyone. The only thing I've done wrong with this project is severely underestimated its popularity. I'm so grateful for everyone who has sent their kind words my way and their generous donations.

        When I first had the idea for People Party I really didn't ever consider this much of a response and interest. I figured "Hey, I got a good deal on this 100 pack of DVDs. I'll just release this thing for free!" Yea, I was going to loose out on shipping costs but I figured it would be worth it to make people happy. Well this  would have worked if I stopped accepting orders after about the first hour I opened them up. Here are a few numbers:

        To date, the number of DVDs that have been ordered is approximately 1500
        The number of bonus disks that have been ordered is approximately 500
        Paypal donations consist of roughly 90% of what I've seen so far.
        My Paypal account now has around $4200 in donations.
        If you work this all out, it means I've made around $2.50 per DVD.
        Between a case, the DVD, and shipping, each DVD costs around $6-$7 to make and ship.
        That is a loss of about $3.50-$4 per DVD.
        In total, all of these orders would cost me around $5250.
        And this is disregarding the donation I promised Paw Tracks.
        Lastly, keep in mind these are only the numbers of two days worth of orders.
       
        I needed a solution. And here it is: To my great dismay and sincerest apologies, the People Party DVD now will cost $5 and international orders are $7 and the DVD w/ bonus disk will be a solid $10. These aren't arbitrary numbers but ones I've tried my best to figure out and bring to the lowest possible cost. Shipping is going to be around $2-$3 in the US and a bit more internationally. Paypal costs usually deduct around a $1 so that leaves about $1-$2 leeway for other costs like packaging and the DVDs themselves. Another way I am saying "I'm sorry" to everyone is that I will be packaging any where between $1-$7 in random DVDs. This is me giving back for people's generosity and understanding. Now you still have the opportunity to get it for free!

         I promised this would be free and I intend to keep it that way.. sort of. You see, when you buy the DVD from me, you're paying for how you view it... not what you view. For this reason there will be two means of getting these DVDs for free over the internet! yay! I will make two separate torrents and upload them to popular torrent sites. The two torrents will be either the exact ISO files of the DVD so people can literally watch the DVD on their computer, OR, if you don't know what an ISO file is, you will be able to download the DVD as an mpeg. I realize and completely understand that not everyone knows how to use torrents. For those people who don't know how to use torrents, don't wish to learn, and still want the DVD 100% free, keep posted because I will post more methods on how to obtain the DVD over the internet when I return home from vacation.

        Here is how this payment thing is going to go down:
        (Note: This is only for people who have ordered Option 1 while it was still free.)
       
        If you still wish to receive the DVD in the mail I'd ask you to please send either $5 or $7 (if you're outside of the US). The payment options are the same that are available in Option 2. You will be able to send money via Paypal (which is greatly preferred), send a Money Order, or concealed cash (at your own risk). After deciding how you are going to pay you need to send me a new email to a different address. That address is iamsorry@eattapes.com. The email will have a specific format that you will need to copy/paste into the body of the email and fill in. Once you have emailed me and I receive the payment I will send the DVD as soon as possible. Please click here for more simple-to-follow instructions.

        To the people who have already ordered the DVD w/ bonus disk: No matter how much you donated, you will still receive the DVD. The $10 cost will apply only to everyone from now on. I realize this isn't exactly the most fair thing in the world.

        Finally, I can't apologize enough that this has to happen but I was faced with two options: Loose literally thousands of dollars on this project or charge a small amount for each DVD. And as an 18 year old, just out of high school, I really can't afford the former.

        I understand this will probably raise a few questions so please email them to questions@eattapes.com

        Thank you all so much for your continued support.

August 9th, 2007 Thursday:

        Why are nearly all of my updates on Thursdays or Tuesdays!?!?!?! Anyway....

            ORDERS ARE OPEN!!!!!

        The DVD is completely ready except for one small thing which will hopefully be resolved between today and tomorrow and I will be able to ship out a sizeable batch before I leave. I've put so much work into this and I hope everyone enjoys it. Please continue to the Order page to take the next step.

        I will leave you with some images of all of this craziness coming together.

People Party


People Party w/ Bonus Disk


Art


Gold Panda stencil


The DVDs

July 19th, 2007 Thursday:

        So I became aware yesterday at work how close I am to the end of summer. Thus, I've set something like a release date for this DVD. August 10th I'm going to California and then I come home and there are two days before I move down to college and there is no way I'm going to have time to do any work on the DVD for a while after that starts. Therefore I'm doing everything in my power to have this DVD completed and shipping before August 10th. I'm 95% sure this is do-able so you can pretty much count on this happening.

July 14th, 2007 Saturday:

        A small update regarding some more graphics.
Here are what the title cards of the DVD will look like with each band being introduced. (Obviously I'll draw out their own picture and not use Panda's).

And a hi-res check to make sure everything looks clear and OK.

 

        Things are definitely progressing at a good pace.

July 12th, 2007 Thursday:

        Well the confirmation check has been complete and my girlfriend agrees. I decided on a name/basic design for the DVD. The name, as you can see, will be People Party. I like it for a few different reasons. One, it carries on the theme of 2 short, 2 syllable P words (i.e.. Panda Bear, Person Pitch). Also it plays with the whole Animal dynamic of Panda Bear/Animal Collective as if the DVD needs to specify that people were involved and not just all of these animals. Lastly, it's just a downright party! The logo will not differ much from what you see at the top of the page, if at all. And the DVD will have the little panda dude you see on the splash page. I don't know, I hope people dig it.

        Also in the news, I created a People Party forum on my message board. If you'd like, you're more than welcome to use this as a place to ask questions and get more information on the DVD. Since I don't have direct contact with a lot of you, this will hopefully prove beneficial. 

July 10th, 2007 Tuesday:
Updated 1:03pm w/ Additional Press
Updated 2:02pm w/ Additional Press
Updated 7:47am July 11th w/ Additional Press
Updated 1:58pm July 12th w/ Additional Press
Updated 1:16am July 14th w/ Additional Press

        Huge news today! It all sort of unfolded last night after I came home from work. My friend had tipped me off that the reputable/cool music blog Gorilla Vs. Bear had done a story on my DVD! This was enough to make me a giddy mess but it was only a preview for what was to come next! I began reading the comments page and someone had posted a link to a Pitchfork Media page. I followed the link only to find that my DVD was featured on Pitchfork Media!!! I went nuts and my girlfriend was trying to calm me down by making fun of me saying "Great, now you'll have all of these new internet friends." After further investigation I found that my DVD was being talked about all over. It was such a nice feeling. Not to sound egotistical at all but to get recognition for something you're put a lot of work into is a really good feeling and I'm really thankful for everyone who made an article about my DVD. Now so many more people are going to be able to see it and that's the only reason why I was doing this thing in the first place.

        Here are the places that I could find that made a story of my DVD. If anyone finds any more please email me and I will add them to the list of thanks!

                                      
  
 Gorilla Vs. Bear (The original story-breaker(?))   Pitchfork Media   (!!!)                                    

 
Hypeful (Super nice dude who emailed me)   The Music Slut

 
Judy (International Awesomeness!!)            Panda Toes (Very kind write-up!)

 
Skank Your Art (scroll down a bit)                Panda Bear's Myspace (Good dude.)

 
CMJ                                                          Little Radio

BlogoWogo                                                Thecultureofme.com

 
ShoutMouth (Thanks to NeutralMilk for posting)  Gaffa (More international stuff!)

 
Drowned in Sound (yes!)                              Lesinrocks (More international news!)

  
Exoduster (Every bit counts!)                       Ship the Majestic Suffix (Psyched Blog. Thanks!)

               
Brooklyn Vegan (Awesome! But I don't get the LSD connection. haha)        Tiny Mix Tapes (More huge indie-hype)

           
Make Out Club (Don't get the site but it rules I'm there.)     Pretty Paws

Thanks so much to everyone for their stories and articles. It really is overwhelming and a great feeling to be making a difference. Again, if I'm missing anything please email me and I'll throw it up.

        In other news, I just returned from the end-all 77 Boadrum show. You can read about more of it over at Eat Tapes. Because of my absence literally nothing has been accomplished this weekend. And a lot of my day today will be spent doing chores around the house and replying to emails and hanging with the girlfriend. I hope to kick back in full-DVD gear by tomorrow.

        Oh yes, I read a few questions on Panda's Myspace regarding this and to make it clear: I will ship anywhere in the world. Literally. Anywhere. If you want your DVD to go to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I'll get it there. I know especially after living in Portugal Panda has amassed some friends overseas and there is no way I would think of depriving them of this.

        Alright, take care everyone.

July 5th, 2007 Thursday:

        Sorry its been a while since a true update. I am 45 minutes into the Panda Bear performance. Once I finish the whole 70 minutes or so the rest of the DVD will go by fairly quickly.

        Here is what a little bit of work reaaally looks like.
       

        and here is a short, compressed clip to help tide you guys over. Keep in mind the quality will be much better than this.
        (You will need the Divx Web player in order to view it. You may download the small, simple, and free player here for Windows or Mac.)
       

June 29th, 2007 Friday:
       
        Website created. HA!