Have you heard of Playing For Change? Their goal is bring peace to the world through music. Below is one example of the powerful message they are sending out by uniting artist all over the world to create a cohesive whole from many distinct parts.
As you watch one of the videos, you can see and hear each individual’s contribution to the song. It is very interesting to listen to how the musicians play off of each other even though they are entire continents away.
We all need to unite to solve many of the problems facing us today. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did and find encouragement in the message.
One Love, One Heart
Let’s get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying (One Love)
Hear the children crying (One Heart)
Sayin’ give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Sayin’ let’s get together and feel all right
They currently have over 500 members and a waiting list of commuters who want to be able to park their bikes. The facility makes it very easy to:
Ride to the garage
Park your bike in a double-tier rack
Shower
Use locker rooms to dress
Go to work
The bike parking garage cost just over $3 million to build and is proving to be extremely popular. The roof features solar panels that power the building. There is also a bike repair shop on site to provide a tune-up while you are at work or emergency repair by their staff mechanics.
Commuters share the facility with the 400 plus members of the lakefront police bike patrol. This is great base for the police and really provides an extra level of security for bike riders. The facility also has bikes for rent and guided tours of different parts of the city.
I hope the success of this operation provides inspiration for other cities. This addresses many of the major concerns of bike commuters including parking, locker room access and security. Maybe this will become a growing trend and provide commuters everywhere with a very workable option for bike commuting.
Earth Day was started almost 40 years ago as a wake up call to our environmental problems. There is an interesting story on Newsweek entitled “Every Day is Earth Day?” that argues it is time to give up the one-day-a-year celebration:
The first Earth Day was like the sounding of a bullhorn for the people to unite and get moving, which worked. But this year, 39 years later, the original intent has long eroded. The one-day demonstration that started a movement lost most of its luster decades ago. Yet we still have it—and that has alarming implications for our environmental progress. What was originally intended as a sounding alarm has been reproduced each year in the exact same way. The problem is, it’s hard to be motivated by a screeching alarm when you’ve been hitting the snooze button for the last four decades.
The last line of this quote makes me crazy; we’ve been hitting the snooze button since 1970! When will we wake up to the reality that we can not continue to consume the earth resources like we are at an all you can eat buffet?
I agree that people need to make this a priority every day, not just a once a year celebration. We also observed Earth Hour last month to increase awareness of our energy consumption. One day, one hour is just not enough. We all need to do our part each and every day before it is too late.
I missed posting this week’s song over the weekend, so I am putting one up tonight. My blogging during the whole month of March was seriously lacking. I have been swamped with work and struggling to find the time to write here. It is not for lack of inspiration, just lack of energy right now, which seems kind of ironic. Anyway, I will try to do a better job this month and catch up on the backlog of posts that I have accumulated.
My good friend Scott runs a live music venue in Asbury Park called The Saint. So last night he booked a band from Ireland, Guggenheim Grotto. I have heard a few of their songs on the radio, watched a couple of videos on YouTube and like their sound. Well they greatly exceeded my expectations with a brilliant live performance.
You see, I typically work on this blog at night, once my kids go to sleep. It can take me a few hours to catch up on my news feeds and find a story that I want to write about. Next thing I know it is after one in the morning and I need to sleep or I will never get up in the morning. So the line in the chorus of this song, “I just can’t seem to get out of bed anymore”, seems very appropriate.
Well, I hope you enjoy this video by my favorite new band. I picked up their cd at the show last night and it has been on heavy rotation all day. Thanks again Scott for bringing great original music to the Jersey shore.
she used to say about love,
that it should come from above
and it should come from below
she used to say my love
wear the lips of a saint
and the hips of a whore
and when we’d walk along the street she’d say
if it rains now, I hope to God it pours
and with her beautiful ideas,
she’d cut me in half, clean this broad sword.
and now I~
I just cant seem to get out of bed anymore..
yeah and now my~
my heart hangs worn and weak like an old wire door
and now I~
I just cant seem to get out of bed anymore~
This is a long clip (12 minutes) from Live Aid and it is a little spotty during a few points, but a very powerful performance. To continue the celebration of Earth Hour I wanted to feature a song that shows the spirit of people coming together. If you watch the clip, let me know what you think.
To let it go! And so to fade away
To let it go! And so to fade away
I’m wide awake
I’m wide awake
Wide awake
I’m not sleeping, oh no, no, no
Well since I picked one of my son’s favorite bands last week, he is back this week with another selection. He recently downloaded this song from iTunes and it is now on heavy rotation on his iPod.
This song seems like a good fit considering there is so much fear and uncertainty going around right now. The passage of the new stimulus package earlier this week brings with it much hope for an economic recovery. We’ll look back in a few years to judge the wisdom of this decision.
I’m waking up at the start of the end of the world,
But its feeling just like every other morning before,
Now I wonder what my life is going to mean if it’s gone.
The cars are moving like a half a mile an hour and I,
Started staring at the passengers waving goodbye,
Can you tell me what was ever really special about me all this time?
But I believe the world is burning to the ground,
Oh well I guess we’re gonna find out,
Let’s see how far we’ve come
Let’s see how far we’ve come
Well I, believe, it all, is coming to an end
Oh well, I guess, we’re gonna pretend,
Let’s see how far we’ve come
Let’s see how far we’ve come
With Bruce Springsteen playing the Superbowl halftime show, I thought; why not feature one of his songs this week. I have been fortunate enough to see Bruce play live a dozen or so times and he always puts on a tremendous show. In searching for a song to feature, I found this acoustic version of “Reason to Believe”
Struck me kinda funny
Seem kinda funny sir to me
Still at the end of every hard earned day
People find some reason to believe
It is interesting to see how Bruce re-interrupts his own music. This version is close to the original, although he added some nice slide guitar for spice. When I saw him on the Magic tour, this song was transformed into an all out rocker complete with Bruce playing harmonica on a bullet microphone and guitars that sounded like ZZ Top.
You see, there are many ways to perform the same song and it just takes some vision, desire and work. For me, there is reason to believe that we can redesign the way most of us commute. As we struggle through our current difficulties, what do you find at the end of your hard earned day?
This song by John Mayer has recently been associated with President Obama and his inauguration. The lyrics are very representative of how powerless many of us feel with our elected officials. Here, take a listen:
Me and all my friends
We’re all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There’s no way we ever could
Now we see everything that’s going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don’t have the means
To rise above and beat it
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
Hopefully with a new administration, people will lose some of their past apathy and get energized. There is a strong feeling that President Obama has a certain amount of political capital and goodwill behind his initiatives. I hope this translates into active participation to ensure good decisions are made by our leaders.
On Monday, we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This became a federal holiday when President Regan signed a bill in 1983. It was then observed for the first time in 1986.
In 1994, this holiday transformed into a national day of community service. This is not a day to just pause and reflect, but a day to act. In Dr. King’s spirit of service to others, we need to make this more than just a single day of service. I hope we all feel compelled to volunteer and try to contribute every day.
President-elect Obama is now calling on all Americans to make an ongoing commitment to our communities. This is a huge opportunity for us to confront many of the problems we face and come together in a shared purpose. They have created a web site call Renew America Together where you can make commitments and share results with others.
I believe Pay4Rides could evolve into an incredible opening for all of us to give back. By providing or accepting rides, we would be conserving our vital energy resources and helping our environment. Many small sacrifices could have an enormous positive effect on our daily lives. What do you think?
On Tuesday President Obama will be sworn in with the promise of bringing about real change. This is a great opportunity for this country and I am hopeful that he can fulfill this promise.
For this week, I went looking for a song about change and I think I found the perfect one. More than 10 years ago I picked up the album Tall Blonde Helicopter by Francis Dunnery which includes this wonderful song. I could not find a video for just this song, but the one below features Francis Dunnery talking about his music with the track “I Believe I Can Change My World” playing throughout:
I believed in Mahatma Gandhi when nonviolence was his faith
I believed in Martin Luther when he said “I have a dream”
I believed in Winston Churchill when he said “we stand together”
I believed in Muhammad Ali when he said “it’s not my war”
And I believe in a miracle
And I believe you can be my girl
And I believe how much I love you
And I believe I can change my world
I believe in all the Seth books and the freeing of the mind
I believe in Mother Nature and the spirit of mankind
I believe in Betty Friedan, Gertrude Lawrence and Rosa Parks
I believe in Margaret Sanger, May Magdalene and Joan of Arc
And I believe in a miracle
And I believe you can be my girl
And I believe how much I love you
And I believe I can change my world
I believed in Malcolm X when he said “Brotherhood for all”
I believed in Neville Chamberlain when he said “peace for our time”
I believed in Michael Jordan when he said “whatever it takes”
I believed in all religions untwisted by mankind
I believed in Johnny Lennon when he said “give peace a chance”
I believed in Tonya Harding when she said “I’ll take the blame”
I believed in Abraham Lincoln’s “better angels of our nature”
I believed in Cat Stevens when he said he had to go
I believed in Saint Francis preaching hatred to love
I believe I can change my world
I hope you enjoy this song and embrace the message of change with our new president. I just have one question, do YOU believe YOU can your world?
