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Kristen Bell in Veronica Mars (CP)

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Jon Hamm in Mad Men. (CP)

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Ten cool Kickstarters (that need much less than $2M)

óè bit.ly/cool_kickstarters

WHILE Kickstarter has been used by a range of artists, entrepreneurs, inventors, creators and filmmakers to fund their projects, fans of the TV show Veronica Mars surprised everyone when they opened up their wallets and donated more than US$2 million in less than 10 hours on the popular crowdsource funding site. It's already the largest Kickstarter-funded project of all time and may signal a move by Hollywood to look to the crowdsourcing site to finance movies, TV shows and video games.

Kickstarter co-founder and head of communications Yancey Strickler quickly brushed aside any notions that mainstream projects like the reboot of Veronica Mars as a movie (it was cancelled in 2007) would impact the indie cred of the site.

"We're excited that people responded to that project, and it'll be interesting to see how it works out," he says. Plenty of movies have been funded by the site, in fact, "10 per cent of the films at Sundance (this year) raised money on Kickstarter," Strickler notes, adding that 63 Kickstarter-funded films have made it into theatres, including Academy Award-winning documentary short Inocente.

While that's great for filmmakers, what about other projects on the site that need cash? Pop Candy's Whitney Matheson takes a look at 10 other projects that could use your hard-earned money.

March Madness TV Show Tournament

óè bit.ly/marchmadness_tv

IT'S March and that means that brackets are being filled in for everything from the big NCAA basketball tournament in the United States to more pop culture-driven elimination contests, such as the one Virgin Radio here in Winnipeg has created. If hoops aren't your thing, but you spend a lot of time on the couch in front on the television, Virgin's March Madness TV Show Tournament will be right up your alley. With four categories and Facebook-enabled voting, you can root for your favourite shows and hope you don't get your bracket busted early on because you are a huge fan of Joey on Full House.

Stream of the Week: Meat Puppets -- Down

óè bit.ly/meat_puppets

WITH a new album called Rat out on April 16, the Kirkwood brothers, Cris and Kurt, have released a stream of the first single from their 15th studio album. Known for their weird, psychedelic folk-country-rock hybrid and for their contribution to Nirvana's Unplugged session for MTV back in the '90s, the brothers seem to have found a renewed sense of creativity and purpose here.

Video of the Week: Cannon Bros. -- Soft View

óè bit.ly/soft_view

DISINTEGRATION Records' lo-fi pop duo Cannon Bros. will be headlining a fundraiser for the Harvest Moon Society on March 23 at The Windsor. The society is raising money to help in the construction of three environmentally friendly cabins that will be build in Clearwater. The town is also the annual host of the Harvest Moon Festival. Tickets are $10 in advance at Organic Planet and Mondragon or $15 at the door. Local folk/jazz/funk/spaghetti western outfit Mariachi Ghost and turntable rocker Mama Cutsworth are also on the bill. Visit harvestmoonsociety.org for more information.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 21, 2013 C17