July 2, 2008

Ian Curtis’ Gravestone Stolen

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mojo-photo-iancurtisgrave.jpgNews of the Weird: The gravestone marking the final resting place of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis has been stolen, reports the BBC. The singer committed suicide in 1980. Officials say that the memorial, inscribed with the words “Ian Curtis 18-5-80 Love Will Tear Us Apart,” was taken from Macclessfield Cemetery in Cheshire, England sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday. A police spokesman told the BBC that the lack of area security cameras means they have “no apparent leads.” Okay, stop just a minute. This is a singer whose stature just keeps rising, with two movies about him in the last couple years, and whose short, troubled life and self-inflicted death means he’s one of the great cult figures of our time; his gravestone features the title of his band’s biggest hit, and nobody was watching it? Plus, doesn’t England have CCTV cameras trained on everybody at all times? Where are they when you need them? Boy, this is making me depressed. I need to watch a Joy Division video. Join me in despair, won’t you, after the jump.

“Shadowplay” (live on Granada Television, 1978)

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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