HellKat Holiday Bash & Spinal Surgery Fundraiser
Jennifer "Jersey" Mittl has long been the bay areas "Rock Mom". In 1996, at height of the music indusrty's boom in SF, the 1st band she managed was "SourPuss". They played at the Paradise Lounge along with "GirlFest" the following night in conjuntion with the Gresers Ball at Slim's.
When it comes to live music festivals, she has worked with countless Northern California events; SF Jazz Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, Stage Monkeys, Sol Fest, Harmoney Fest, New Living expo, Hardley Strickley Bluegrass, Scion events, KFog Kaboom, Another Planet- The Independent, Cafe DuNord, Slims, Fleet Week, DNA LOUNGE, Toronado, Cat Club, Power exchange, The Exotic Ertic Ball, The CW Saloon, Sunset Promotions, Paradise lounge in the 90's and again at the Lounge's rebirth in 2007.
Independently, with her own production company "HellKat Productions", some of her clients have included Mary J Blige, Poison, Motorhead, Metallice, Monster Magnet, Clutch, Corrision of Conformity, BackYard Babies and yes, even Vanillia Ice. Going as far back in time as 1992 the countless bars and music venues are way too many to list.
Every Year for the last 5/6 years she has dedicated every moment of her available time promoting and helping a very special event in her life called Scarlett Fever, every year at the DNA lounge on the 2nd sunday in march for an amazing Little Girl suffering from Retts Syndrom named Scarlett. This wonderful girl is the reason I keep my hopes up about my surgery because if she can do this NONE of have it that bad! her every thought blesses each of us as we cross her path, My endearing and eternal love is with her!
http://www.myspace.com/missscarlett13
Jersey has worked tirelessly as a Production Manager, Production Assistant, Stage Manager, Tour Consultant, Tour Manger, Artist Liaison, Booker & Personal Assistant. She has even worked many hours doing security on the late night door shifts of most of San Francisco's premier music venues. Many know Jersey to be the music industry's hardest worker from the 1990's up until recently. Jersey made it seem easy to pull a 20 hour shift without complaining, especially when she would wake up 3 hours later to do it all over again the following day. She's the loud, feisty "OCD queen" when she needs to be, but always with a heart of gold. She keeps the club, as well as the artist's best interests, in mind while consistently evoking a "show must go on" attitude where ever it is needed.
She would say...
"The show must go on... perfectly!"
On the other hand, when the fire marshall shows up at 3:28 am to shut down a never-ending Parliament Funkadelic show, it is her hand that is forced to literally "pull the plug" on the power for the stage. Nobody wants that job. When Reverand Horton Heat want's to play just one more song, he asks Jersey for permission. One night she and her team booked a Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks) show at the Paradise Lounge. A giant group of drunken thugs tried to "bum rush the show" so to speak. And for the sake of the club and the artist's security she stood her ground. This was not her being a martyr, it was her being Jersey.
From doing the job of 3-4 people while pulling a 16 hours shift in 107 degrees weather in the high sierras to telling Flavor Flav that his contract does not include a free stay at the W for the exotic erotic ball, and she was sorry she couldn't accommodate him, he then threatened to cancel his show so she eloquently apologized for the inconvenience and made sure he was was safely escorted out the gate. Jersey has paid her dues and pulled her weight. Now the weight is too heavy and the wait for the surgery date is way too long.
On 10/10/2010 Jersey was was on her way, like she always is, to help a friend in need... but she never made it. While driving she struck by a man in a Lexus trying to merge lanes without signaling, while driving over the speed limit down Fulton Street. During the accident he hit her three times. 2 times he was attempting to get away form the accident. After coming to a stop, before she could even feel what had happened to her body, she exclaimed "Are you f%#king kidding me?! I have to work tomorrow for the Navy! It's FLEET WEEK!". It wasn't until the paramedics from the ambulance touched her neck that she realized how serious her injury was. After a very loud, peircing scream of agony she was taken to UCSF Parnassus Hospital immediately and rushed into x-rays because she was in and out of consciences
Many X-rays later, Cat scans and MRI Scans they found her condition to be very serious. Before the accident Jersey already had a prognosis of degenerative disks in her neck which renders her neck straight instead of curved like most of us as well as her mid to lower back. When the impact took it's toll those same troublesome bones did not bend as they should have but instead bruised and swoll her spinal chord and left her left arm paralyzed. In a normal hit you have a decent gap between your spinal cord and your spin, she had none, the impact of the the hit threw her head in 3 diff directions causing the swelling to block the nervous system more then it had been normally and instantly caused her life threatening swelling that could have caused brain damage.
Every day is even more pain now on top of the years of pain she has already constintantly endured from this disease in her neck and mid to lower back { which is not as far along as her neck} and thru the 5 years of pain and disomfort she never mised a shift , a tour or a load in/out that she was schedual for.
NEVER complained when she had complete loss of feeling in her hands and arms,unable to hold a pen at times much less her phone or a cup of tea, not to mention the swelling in her legs and feet, she ALWAYS powered thru.
She can't work (which is KILLING her), think straight, eat, sleep, walk or even cry like she used to. After many weeks on steroids to be able to do the surgery, she has gained more movement on her left side and has now been scheduled to have emergencey spinal surgery once the steroids have taken the swelling down to a manageable level that they can opperate on her this is 2 months of steroids and complete bed rest, her operation is scheduled on the day that her and her fience were to calebrate their 6 year anniversery & one day before her birthday. The day after that is Christmas, Jersey's favorite day of the year. {next to Dia De Los Muertos :}
Her operation consists of the doctors going in thru the front of her neck, cutting spinal bones 3-7, opening them like a door, fusing those bones together and the placing a metal disk in the "spinal openings" of her spinal cord to give her more room for her spinal cord the have room the "be normal" and not suffer as much swelling as she has. Occurring to her doctors, she has a 30% percent chance of Living when they perform this procedure and even if she makes it through that she has a 30-40% chance of being paralyzed for life, Possibly loose her voice or brain function, and a 40-60% chance of losing movement in her arms, she will defiantly loose loss of movement in her shoulders for a min of 4 months but supposedly will be able to bend at the elbow and she will have to maintain bed restriction for 6-8 months and a liquid diet of 4 months.{she's actually happy about the liquid diet in her east coast sarcastic way :) she says yeaa more weight loss"
On top of all this her neighbor called 2 days after her release from the hospital to tell her that her cat of 3 years was stuck dead by a car in the night, and her hard drive on her Mac had COMPLETLY fried clean!
Could it get any worse? Not if the music community of the San Francisco Bay Area has anything to say about it.
After some 23 years of Jersey helping California party it is now time for us to help her. She was and alwasy will be there for us to the best of her ability. She would never ask for help normally since she is fiercely independent and is only used to helping others.
This time the Calvary includes The Lords of Altamonte{pending}, DJ Thomas Diablo from Strangelove, DJ melting Girl, DJ Vic Vega, The Jazz Mafia 50 piece hip hop orchestra, The Hubba Hubba Review Burlesque show {hopefully with the Rose Harden Tribal Fusion Belly Dance & Rosehips Design, Members of the Living Legends and many other Bay Area A-Listers in the SF Bay Area music scene to be announced soon.
"HellKat's Holiday Bash and Spinal Surgery Fund Raiser and a variety show like no other w/ raffle" is not only to raise money for Jersey since she needs to pay the medical bills for her surgery, it is also set to raise a sense of unity and compassion that has been missing from the bay for too long. Please join us in helping raise the funds that are needed to cover medical bills and living expenses while she is out of work.
The night promises to be a beautiful melting pot of art, music and culture from the best that the bay has to offer. It will be a variety show like none other that you will experience!
Donations can currently be made @
www.PayPal.com
with the email address: JerseysSpinalSurgery@gmail.com
Thank You one and all! for the deepest of our hearts!http://www.myspace.com/missscarlett13
