Editor’s note: The views expressed in I Am So Popular are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the outlook or beliefs of anyone else in the IST network.

Because I am so popular, it is not only my right but my duty to namedrop. And so I am happy to report that yesterday, as I strolled the aisles of Whole Paycheck in search of some homeopathic means to help tame my desire to rip people’s heads off during my monthly stigmata, I ran into none other than my pal, Kacy Crowley .

Oh boy I love Kacy. Have you ever heard her sing? She actually sang at one of my weddings. Though that marriage didn’t work out (do they ever?!) it was totally worth every miserable month of being hitched (my marriages tend to weigh in at < a year) just to have had the excuse to get Kacy to play the reception.

The first time I met Kacy was via the phone. I remember it well. I was at Lake Austin Spa because, being so popular, I used to be invited out there to teach the rich ladies how to knit for relaxation. I was lounging around in my ten thousand dollar bed, leaning up against my five thousand dollar pillows, and I said to Kacy, this:

“So, will you get naked for me?”

Kacy hesitated and then asked for more details. So I explained. Jon Dee Graham was a friend of my friendsMatt the Electrician Matt the Electrician and Kathie the Ramonsterwear Designer. Jon Dee’s son, Willie, needed some help with medical bills. So I borrowed an idea from some naked old ladies in England and decided to do a fundraiser calendar featuring naked musicians to help out. That was back in 2005.

Not only did Kacy ultimately agree, she (rightfully) wound up on the cover with members of a trio she belonged to at the time.

That first calendar, Naked 2006, was a smash hit, if I do say so for myself. And it was fun asking a bunch of strangers to strip for me. People like Shawn Colvin and Eliza Gilkyson and Guy Forsyth (boy does that guy know how to wear a ukulele).

Such a hit was the calendar, and so much fun that I did it again the following year, this time to raise money for ACMAWF, a little non-profit Jon Dee’s wife, Gretchen, suggested we start up to raise money for other kids of other musicians and artists and writers.

So I got on the horn that year and got another round of musicians to take it all off. Then I did it again, scoring Kinky Friedman for the 2008 Calendar. That was the last calendar I’ll be doing (and by the way, I have a surplus so if you want a case, email me and I’ll cut you a great deal) because I have given up volunteer work as my New Year’s resolution.

Which brings us to this week’s topic—Good Deeds in Austin— cleverly embedded, what, ten paragraphs in?

So why in the hell would someone give up volunteering? Because I was volunteering so much that I didn’t have time for my paying work, my dogs, my knitting, my boyfriend, and my sleep needs.

And why was I volunteering so much? Let’s skip the theory we came up with in therapy and look toward the more obvious answer: because Austin is a city of volunteers. Volunteers and benefits. Benefits for which I am asked to host or contribute silent auction items to or, at the very least attend about forty times a week.

Years ago, I went to hear my pal Molly Ivins give what would be her last public speech in Austin. (Aside, today is the one-year anniversary of Moll’s death and I miss her dearly and I ask you all to take a moment to google some of her stuff and read it and laugh.) After the presentation, four of us wandered over from Hogg Auditorium to Madam Mam’s. Our group was comprised of two writers, a tap dancer and a lobbyist.

One of us, a transplant from another city, was noting how hard it is to make a genuine living as an artist in Austin. The rest of us concurred but another of us countered that, while you might not be able to make a fortune yelling poetry while smearing monkey poop on the wall, or even doing something more conventional like singing beautiful songs, well, still, if you are an artist in Austin, there’s a pretty darn good chance that if/when, god forbid, you need help, you will be helped.

And it’s true. You can’t swing an injured cat in this town without hitting someone who is putting together a benefit for a writer, musician, artist, or even an injured cat. A pessimist might say, “Yeah, that’s because the insurance industry blows and healthcare is out of reach.” And optimist might respond, “Shut your piehole and be grateful for the safety net of love.”

I’ve been on both sides of that safety net. I’ve helped hold it for others with my volunteer work and also through a little side project I have, one I’ve neglected of late to be honest, but one that exists still on an as-needed basis.

That endeavor is known as The Office of Good Deeds. I started it a couple of years ago, back when those little Amish girls were murdered in Pennsylvania. I sent out an email to a couple of hundred friends (because I am so popular I have this many friends) asking them to please think a good thought or do a good deed in honor of the girls and as a yoga-style counter-pose to the devastation wrought by the murderer.

That email made it around the world and thus began the mostly virtual, occasionally real life OGD. Initially I tried to set up a meeting with Will Wynn to try to make OGD an official City of Austin thing. Like, wouldn’t it be so cool if we could say that City Hall actually designated space for The Office of Good Deeds?

But Will blew off our scheduled meeting at the last minute and so I thought, fuck it, I’ll do this myself. I set up a website and laid out the goals. I would send out an occasional email reporting any good deeds sent in by members of OGD. These could be good deeds witnessed or performed, it didn’t matter. The idea was to inspire others to do good deeds. Also, I reported when someone was in need of a good deed so that good deed doers could do their thing and help out.

This has worked out nicely and some of OGD’s more memorable achievements include hooking up an economically challenged widow with five kids with a year’s worth of free health care and helping to replace the stolen camera equipment of a photographer whose insurance company would not cover her claim.

As for being on the receiving end of the safety net—in 2005, a Chicago podiatrist, a friend of a friend, heard that I could not walk without a cane and that every step I took was agony. He also knew I had no insurance. He offered to fix my foot for free. I had only to come up with money to pay for related expenses—travel, surgical suite, doctor’s assistants. So my friend Chris threw a Foot the Bill party and lots of folks played including Adam Garner and Southpaw Jones and my own kid's band. They raised the necessary dough and now I can walk again, unaided. Amen and thank you all so much.

Don’t you just love this town?

So when I ran into Kacy and asked her what was up, of course she mentioned that her next gig is a benefit, this one for the Sims Foundation. It’ll be this Saturday, February 2 at the Continental Club.

And I heard from another naked musician, this week, Will Taylor, he of Strings Attached fame. (I actually asked Will to get naked when I met him while he way playing music for a wedding I was performing. I love asking men at weddings to get naked.) Will is playing another benefit this Sunday, February 3rd, for Ally David, who owns Bend Studio in Dallas, a place that often hosts Austin’s best acts. Joining Will will be Guy Forsyth, Bruce Robison, and Adam Carroll for a very intimate evening of incredible music—only 75 tickets are available.

So that’s what I got for you this week—a big fat smoochie for everyone who has ever played a benefit, attended one, bought a Naked Calendar or a KGSR Broadcast CD or taken advantage of all the other myriad opportunities to help out fellow Austinites like me.

If you want to be on the Office of Good Deeds mailing list— I only send out updates and requests on an as needed basis so you won’t get a flood of notes—just drop me a line.
http://www.jondeegraham.com/

Spike Gillespie puts on The Dick Monologues and blogs for LaunchPad Coworking and for her own amusement at http://www.spikeg.com. She knows who you are.