Bloomberg, 11/23/09

Mexico’s government laid down rules for an auction next year of mobile-phone airwaves that could introduce new competition forAmerica Movil SAB, the country’s leading carrier.

Full technical guidelines for the auction will be available in early January and bidders must win approval from Mexico’s antitrust agency to participate, according to rules published today in the nation’s federal gazette. Participants will bid on airwaves suitable for third-generation mobile services, which can include Web browsing and video downloads.

The auction may give Grupo Televisa SA, Megacable Holdings SAB and Axtel SAB the chance to enter the wireless industry in Mexico, where America Movil has about 72 percent of subscribers.

Read more…

Environment … boy what a catch phrase that doesn’t mean anything anymore, eh? “Save the environment?” What does that mean? I have a magnet that says “support our environment,” but what does that mean? When someone looks at the back of my vehicle, I am instantly stereotyped as a tree hugging sissy who doesn’t understand how the world works and who is overly conscientious. At least, every time I turn on the TV, that’s how I feel.

I was watching Mind of Mencia last night, and well, I have to admit, I find that he has a lot of truth to spray across the airwaves and/or cable-waves and a lot of humor to go with it. But he said it himself … right and wrong is only based on one’s perspective. That is true, right and wrong is very heavily based on perspective, but it seems to me, that perspective can and is often used irresponsibly or without good logic. Still, how could you prove that if it is based on perspective? But that is not even my point. Last night on his show, Carlos Mencia made his round of attacking people including: Whites, blacks, Asians, vegetatrians … there were others I am sure … but then he went on to attack what he called the people that really piss him off. Last night … it was Prius owners.

Apparently, Prius owners think they are better than everyone else because they are helping their environment and no one else is. Honestly I don’t even remember his exact words (Forgive me, it was early in the morning), but the basic gist was: Prius owners are tree hugging MF’s that need to STF up and stop looking down on everyone.  I could look for the transcript of the show, but … it’s not that important to me. My purpose is not to criticize Carlos Mencia, my purpose is to show that he difined what I already feel is a problem especially in the American South where I live blessed with beauty but plagued misinformation.

First of all, I don’t own a Prius. I would like to own one someday, but that day is not today. However, if I had the money, I would have a Prius. And I would buy it because in some little way it would help the environment (whatever that means anymore) and I would also buy it because it would help me save money on gas. I would not buy it,however, so I could drive around and make everyone think I was better than them because I drive a Prius, and I think I am helping the environment and no one else is. That would be the same as me joining the Peace Corps and proceeding to think I am better than other people who are not a part of the Peace Corps. Now I will admit, I am not perfect. I have a dislike for the way society functions a lot of times, but that is because I am naturally cynical. I still don’t think that means I think that I am better than anyone else either because most of the time, I gripe, because I am good at it and it makes me and my friends laugh.

Nevertheless, I find nature to be a terribly important commodity that i wish more people would learn to enjoy and appreciate. At the same time, I hope that they don’t learn to enjoy it, so that it stays more well preserved with less visitors to national parks and such. And yes, a selfish part of me doesn’t want them there when I go, but the honest side of me knows that I always have good experiences with people when I get out in nature. Maybe that has something to do with nature’s positive affect on people, and I’m not talking about tree hugging either. Getting back to the point, I don’t think I am better than other people because I believe in helping the environment, and i don’t think people who drive Priuses are any different. What scares me about this entire statement about Prius owners is this: not that Carlos Mencia decided to pick on Prius owners, but that after his statement there was a strong applause from the audience. It was one of those hearty applauses that implies that they agreed with what he was saying. To me, the scary part is, whether Carlos really meant it or not (and I hope that he did not and was merely trying to be funny), a lot of other people really do feel that way. They just don’t like environmentalists.

“Why is that” I ask? Is it because all envrionmentlists look down on everyone else and think they are better than everyone else? Is it because they think that all we want to do is stand around and tell them they can’t drive their SUV’s and farmers can’t use their giant gas guzzling trucks? It saddens me to see this. I don’t want to do that. I am not here to tell everyone else I am better than them. If anything, nature helps you realize how much you need to depend on each other and work together. All the same, I do believe we are falling behind in an issue that is very serious. For too long, we have lived away from the land and off of it, but not in and among it. I do not think we should drop everything and go back to the woods, but I do think we need to recognize the dangers of excvessive living both from an environmental perspective, and from a spiritual or psychological perspective.

Is it your right and perspective to say, “Environmentalists want to take everything away from us.”? Absolutely it is your right, does that make it true? No. Does it help to solve problems? Well I guess that depends on what your perspective is. But I can tell you that ignoring dangers because you refuse to understand them can be detrimental. Besides, what is so terrible about nature? Nature is the Earth. Earth is Nature. Man is only a part of that. Man, alone, is not the Earth, and Man, alone, certainly is not Nature. You can’t take up a lead pencil and expect it to write in blue ink. It just won’t happen. You can’t ignore the warning signs of the earth and act surprised when the shit hits the fan. You can’t build up a concrete and air conditioned society and ignore the fact that nature was here first and is what were are. You can’t eat rocks and you’ll be breathing air conditioned carbon if you don’t start hugging a few trees here and there.

So again, it saddens me to see all these people mocking Prius owners as if they are some inferior breed, when in fact they are embracing our future while everyone else is desperately clinging to the past. It saddens me that I have to sit in a job and listen to people rattle on about how Global Warming is a hoax and blah, blah blah … come on people … even if Global Warming was a hoax … there is no denying that pollution exists and it is only getting worse. Who cares what the immediate affects are or are not? The environment, that is the air we breathe and the food we eat, and the animals that help keep the food chain going and the trees that give us oxygen as they open their arms to hug us because ,come on, we give them the carbon they need; the environment still needs to be preserved and protected from human overconsumption and irresponsibility.

So, it saddens me to see the earth fading into oblivion right under the eyes of those who refuse to believe the truth. You know, people refused to believe Hitler was capable of genocide until it was much, too late.

Epiddemix feat Energy Touch

Number 1 DJ

Contact Information – Email: epiddemix@gmail.com

Phone: +44 7737 143 181

Coming to London this fall… The club track that has been taking the summer by storm. “Number 1  DJ” by Epiddemix. Now features an exclusive remix by Kevin ‘K-Boy’ Brooks!

Epiddemix feat Energy Touch: Number 1 DJ

1- Club mix – Remix by Kevin Brooks

Listen to the track here:

myspace.com/epiddemixmusic

“Number 1 DJ” is the first official single by Epiddemix, a London-based collective of eclectic producers mixing latest house trends with R&B flavours and a hint of French grooves. The collective is currently working on “The Album”, fusing house tracks with R&B, Hip-Hop and Reggae artists.

“Number 1 DJ” features the guest vocals of the talented Energy Touch, a Jamaican reggae artist, recently settled in the UK and currently working on his own reggae project with the Epiddemix collective.

The single also features an exclusive remix by Kevin ‘K-Boy’ Brooks, who has already produced club mixes for: Kylie Minoque, Liberty X and Jamiroquai among many others and worked alongside Dave Lee to produce several top ten hits including Jakatta – “American Dream” and 911 – “More than a woman“.

“The response to this track has been phenomenal,” says Epiddemix founder David Dixon. “DJs around the world have taken the track to their decks! It’s been a privilege to work withKevin ‘K-Boy’ Brooks. This is part of the Epiddemix ethic: mixing raw underground talent with some uplifting party beats.”

This huge club track, guaranteed to get your party jumping, has been gaining massive airplay across the clubs this summer from Aya Napa to Miami and is now set to take London by storm. The track is already in heavy rotation across the airwaves, play listed on Kiss fm – Portugal, Rinse.fm, Touch fm, Forcefm.net, Phatbeats.net; Livefmuk.com and Dejavu.fm.

For more details, please email: epiddemix@gmail.com

He needs a public option!

I just got cable! While in the throes of joy having entered the Garden of CableLand, I still didn’t forget to ask Ronaldo, the cable installer if he had health insurance. You’d think Time Warner of all people would pay their cable guys good money and benefits. It seems to me that they are the most public face of the company. But no, Time Warner in its bottom-line corporationist wisdom outsources cable installation to small businesses. Well, that’s nice of Time Warner you might say, but these subcontractors don’t have to offer health insurance, and so they don’t. But hey! The shareholders are happy, and if the shareholders are happy, then everybody’s happy!

There are a few problems with this scenario :

• Poor wages & bene’s attract less qualified workers
• Only those less qualified stay on, others leave for better jobs
• Poor wages & bene’s cause resentment in the workforce
• This resentment leads to poor public relations
• This resentment may even lead to criminal behavior?

Alone in a house, the cable guy looks around at the incredible wealth of a middle class family. The temptation must be unbearable. We all watch as the bankers get billions thrown at them. The stock brokers get the same treatment. Then the neocons complain that Obama’s healthcare plan is Socialism. When the Federal dollars are flying, theirs are the hands snatching up the Ben Franklins that dance in the breeze. Why shouldn’t cable guy get a few of those bucks that are being cranked out of Washington, D.C.? Why shouldn’t I? From 1976, at the age of fourteen until November 2007 at the age of forty five, I’ve worked steadily. Why can’t I have a sliver of the trillion dollar pie? Without a public option, healthcare reform will be a joke. Like Bill Maher said about Max Baucus sucking off the drug companies.

I’ve had the misfortune of rubbing elbows with the kind of people who make this machine work. They are sociopaths. They have no concept of responsibility to America, the land that made them wealthy. The concept of guilt is alien. Forget about “Please pass the mashed potatoes.” They take the mash potatoes and let everybody else starve. They don’t need to rationalize their behavior. Ultimately nothing matters in the world to them except getting what they want. Please don’t get in their way, or you’ll be sorry! Just ask Madame Plame, whose husband wrote an opinion piece that ran counter to Dick Cheney’s will. No matter that the man spoke the truth, it was time for Dick to drop the axe. He outted the man’s wife as a CIA officer. Who knows how many people died because of this? People don’t matter to sociopaths. Only the achievement of personal goals matter.

Evil Corporation

Yeah, Time Warner, I’ll watch your fucking cable because I have no other choice. They’ve taken the airwaves away from the people; that is, the American people. Under the guise of digitalization, they stole something that was free to everyone. Now you have to pay, just for the honor of watching their stupid commercials, interspersed with news and entertainment. No other cable company is available where I live. How is that not a monopoly? That’s a question we should be asking of all the people who run this City, this County, this State and this Country.

Obama, bless his heart, wants to givea $250 check to all of the elderly and crippled (like me) because we aren’t getting our COLA. COLA stands for Cost of Living Adjustment. While I don’t see the cost of my drugs going down or food and my rent went up the small rent-controlled amount that saves us from homelessness. My wee check from Social Security will remain the unliveable amount that it currently is.

Location: Launch pad in Reykjavik, Iceland

Universe—we’re ready for countdown…8…7…6…5…4…3….2…..1—BLAST OFF! We’re shootnUP via spacecraft Style Crack.  I welcome you to this visceral ride with me, Nitsirk, on a surreal trip around the planet where I’ll bring to you shots from out of this world moments that transcend space and time.

My aim is to reach new dimensions—the sky in not the limit! On this trip expect to see human’s street style in a new light, uplifting art, music that taps into your soul and Mother Nature illuminated.

Icelandic sky

steam from the ground meets the sky

Our first stop is the Blue Lagoon, just outside of Reykjavik, a geothermal pool that’s a natural wonder and catalyst for nirvana. It features hot crystal blue water with white silica mud that gives you glowing skin.

heaven on earth portal

Nitsirk at Blue Lagoon in Norma Kamali sleeping bag coat

Reykjavik is hosting one of the best music festivals in Europe, Iceland Airwaves, and I kicked it off with some Icelandic hip-hop at Batteriid. My favorite band was Spaceman (of course) featuring the only black man I’ve spotted around these parts.

Iclandic Hip-hop

Spaceman

I stopped off for a preview of the new shop of Mundi—the brightest of the esoteric fashion designers in Iceland, where I was honored to get to create a new planet for the ceiling instillation.

stellar designer, Mundi

antigravity jumpsuits

tubular jacket

space cowboy details

outer space installation

Now it’s time to refuel our energy supply. Stay tuned in for more fantastical rides. I’ll leave you with a genuine Icelandic rockstar and new friend—Hildur.

rockstar Icelander, Hildur

ready for takeoff

Fellow explorers—Keep It Futuristic!

Peace Out,

Nitsirk

….’till you take your head out and sort the mess.

I have been floating around the target for days now… application to the important things perhaps and thats fantastic, but there are still obligations. Some things are seamless.. you don’t know where one thing starts and the other ends. But now i know that there must be structure to most things in order for them to work the way you want. Perhaps a compromise will make the goal easier to reach… I may want one thing… but i wont have that opportunity until i try another thing.. and now it seems like a mess. Perhaps because it is all slower, perhaps because it is all up in the air and i don’t know what i am doing exactly. I have all the tools sitting there and looking at me.. but i fail to apply what is needed… as if my body has given up.

Put the pieces together and sort it out, its that simple.

So lets sort it out – right here and now… what is there to consider..

The Life – and all Six parts of it…

The Book – and the hours that must be committed

The Occupation – And the Deadlines

The Airwaves – That open my eyes

The Words – To which this will go a long way

The Noises – that are everywhere and i am missing at every opportunity

The New Music – that has a new face, one that i have yet to say hello to

The Images – That forever will be lost

The Old Music – That feeds the veins

And i wonder if it is at all possible… we will knock off one in three short weeks.. the others as time passes.. but there is nothing stopping the on going practice… the ongoing ideals and ideas.

Dont listen to them, this time its just you – it’s just you, and you have to do it…. you have to sort out the mess – This is where you like to be.

In the black – between lightbulbs that shine on nothing within your walls.. blank canvas – double guarded.. not obliged to be or do anything – let loose and free to be free. They say it is inferior – they say they are superior… what they dont understand is the liberation of it all – no longer involved in it.. it doesn’t matter who you know and what you said and did with who and where.. its not about this or that event any more… its not about the involvement, it’s not about that time we will meet…

… it’s just a number between 1 and 100.  Its just another percentage, just another average, just another one.

It’s not the difference you will point out.

And why did it start here? Why in this way, so subtle.. i returned to this, left it for so long and wondered why it had not reared it’s head before.. and i am thankful for what i have.. and the 13 that i never even noticed coming and going. The other 12 had seemed so substantial… but now its just another number… and i rejoice in reaching the point when it is just another number before 24….36….48…. and whenever else…

There is nothing better.. and smiles will shine from the black, as i dip my head in different waves, some older and some more contemporary. This is not just about the best new vibrations any more… must take time to sort it out and lift the roof up higher.

Expansion… development… enhance and perfect. .. perfect… and be proud.

While I give him credit, the President is really becoming over exposed. I see and hear from him way more than I want to. It’s like he just doesn’t want to make his mark on the banks, the auto industry, the insurance industry, now he is actively taking over the airwaves. This is ridiculous.

It’s even worse by his bigotry against truth and balance by not choosing to be on Fox but instead chose Univision? I have never heard of Univision. It’s like this Mr. President, you want me to watch, you had been be on Fox, because I don’t trust the others to ask you hard questions. The other networks have proven beyond all reason that they are in the tank for you.

Local news notwithstanding, the three other main news agencies are all fluff. I am all for entertainment, but the people on Fox News act like real people. They say things that I can get my head around. They act as though I could sit down and visit with them and discuss the issues of the day and leave feeling like I am important.

The other networks talk down to me. They filter everything through the “what I say is important” filter. They make remarks that make me feel like I am a weak person. Which I am not. I may not be the brightest bulb in the sockets, but I am very real and have an opinion as this website reveals.

So Mr. President, stay in the office and quit making the half that didn’t vote for you suffer your rhetoric and give us a break. You are the President on my country. You are selling us down the river of economic and logistical mayhem.

One last thing. Quit trying to make everything about race. Even some of your own members are not too happy with you as a result. You make it a hostile living environment for the rest of us. So to prove I am not bigoted, two of my daughters are married to black men and my grand-kids are just like you of mixed origin.

Here’s another thing. Those that have a differing opinion of things are not stupid or out of touch with reality. The reality is that I have to work three jobs just to keep things going. What I do have I make the best of and hope that I can help others in need.

So there ya go Mr. President. You want to talk, I will listen if your willing to not talk down to me or call me names. As one sage said, the pen is mightier than the sword. There is another principle that I will apply here, I will not cast my perils before those that are foolish in there speech and actions.

I will wait for your call or return email.
And that’s the way I see it today!

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What Beck, Dobbs and Limbaugh are really afraid of

by Timothy Karr – campaign director, Free Press, and SaveTheInternet.com

Posted: September 16, 2009 10:47 AM

Can you smell the fear? Switch on cable news or tune in to talk radio and it comes wafting in.

Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck has bottled his own scent. Lou Dobbs’ fear gives off a distinct undertone of racial intolerance. And Rush Limbaugh takes to the air to spread an odor that’s designed to make Americans angry at, well, other Americans.

It’s a fear that’s laced with paranoia, stoked by misinformation and prejudice and fed to millions of people via powerful media. But most of all, it’s a fear of the changes that an overwhelming majority of Americans called for when they stepped into voting booths last November.

Since then, the old guard has fallen into alignment with old media to hijack the public debate over reform, and vilify reformers as anti-American. And to them the most anti-American notion of the lot is the idea that we need to reform the media itself.

“Part of the strategy of this fundamental ‘transformation’ of America is to silence dissent,” Glenn Beck said on Fox last month. The “most diabolical, hidden parts of this plan,” according to Beck, are efforts to reform media through “localism and diversity” — two principles that have grounded modern communications policy for decades.

Beck was later joined on the program by Rush Limbaugh, who called localism and diversity part of the growing tyranny of the left. This issue is “simply un-American,” Limbaugh crowed. “They’re trying to do this back-door route with diversity… to shut you up by shutting us down.”

Not to be outdone, Lou Dobbs stated falsely: “When you talk about diversity, [you aren't] talking about ethnic, racial or religious diversity, [you’re] talking about more liberals on the air.”

The cloud of media hysteria could have been waved off by more sensible voices on cable’s evening news roster. But few have stepped forward to challenge Beck, Limbaugh and Dobbs, to replace their fomenting with facts. More worrisome, voices of reason seem to be absent from the media “pundocracy” altogether.

While Beck and his ilk want to portray diversity and localism as a dangerous conspiracy to censor, the fact remains that these ideas have been staples of communications policy since the beginning. The central mandate of the Federal Communications Commission — as enshrined in the Communications Act of 1934 — is to promote localism, diversity and competition in the media. This same principle of localism has been a rallying cry for several generations of true conservatives.

Broadcasters get hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of subsidies and the right to use our airwaves in exchange for a basic commitment to be responsive to the interests of local communities.

Moreover, the Supreme Court recognized that “safeguarding the public’s right to receive a diversity of views and information over the airwaves is … an integral component of the FCC’s mission.”

Sadly, the FCC has failed to live up to this standard. And what mainstream media’s fear-merchants are most afraid of is not censorship, but an FCC that actually does its job — creating more opportunities for people like you and me to participate in media.

We don’t have that now. Washington bureaucrats have allowed powerful media corporations to control the public airwaves and dominate local cable networks. We have reached a nadir where the free press that Thomas Jefferson hoped would open “all the avenues to truth” has devolved into a media system that’s a megaphone for the few.

Beck and Limbaugh, in particular, are two corporate welfare babies who owe much of their existence to this regulatory failure, which handed control of our airwaves to massive conglomerates like Clear Channel and ABC Radio to broadcast their fear agenda via a syndicated network of centrally owned radio stations.

The cable sector that carries Beck and Dobbs’ nightly paranoia is itself a gigantic bundle of government handouts, having built invaluable local monopolies via granted rights-of-way that beam these two into nearly every den in America.

Try calculating what it would cost to get your content across America without a local or federal government clearing your path, and you quickly realize that blowhards like Beck, Dobbs and Limbaugh are three of the nation’s biggest beneficiaries of public largesse.

And while they’re raking in millions in salaries via their government-granted fiefdoms, you, the owner of the airwaves and roads and telephone poles over which they transmit, are getting nothing in exchange.

The ultimate irony of Beck, Dobbs and Limbaugh is that they couch in populist rhetoric a message that, in its very essence, is anti-populist — designed to protect the swindle at the core of our media system’s failure.

And that is why the media’s old guard is targeting the idea that this system needs to change.

In his media and technology agenda, President Obama took up the cause of reform by committing to “diversity in the ownership of broadcast media,” and pledging to “promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints.”

Obama is right, but he needs to get started on fulfilling that commitment.

Winning real change and giving more people a media voice is ultimately the best response we have to fear campaigns.

Follow Timothy Karr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TimKarr

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/what-beck-dobbs-and-limba_b_288480.html

My comment: I don’t listen to the ‘toxic air’ of the three media performers mentioned in this article. I figure there is enough illness in our air without my catching some of it from those guys.

The ‘media owners’ who have licensed the public airwaves (owned by all Americans and doled out [licensed] by the FCC) will put ANYONE on the air who can draw a crowd. That’s the way it has been since before the days when I was a little guy listening to radio and watching TV programs blatantly sponsored by ‘people-killing’ cigarette companies and other toxic bastards.

As it turns out, sponsors are the key to this poisonous media circus. As has been shown with Glenn Beck’s little TV show, when the advertisers (corporations) are merely threatened with an organized boycott of their products for sponsoring such blatant bullshit, they quickly drop hucksters of fear like Beck was, and put their money in front of another crowd on another channel. They don’t care where the ad dollars go as long as they reach a sizable crowd of eyeballs. Mr. Beck has now lost over 60 advertising sponsors from his little show, and no one has actually been boycotted yet, as far as I know.

And, here is the really silly part of the ’scare shows”. I don’t believe that Beck (or Dobbs, or even Limbaugh, who has the most convincing delivery style) actually are believing what they read on their shows. I think their performances could be bought by anyone who writes the biggest checks to them.

That, to me, is one of the scariest aspects of our 1st amendment ‘bill of rights’ that protects freedom of speech. Political propaganda can be bought easily and can actually make large sums of money for those who spread it, which leads to more of the same. That situation is due to our somewhat unregulated ethics-free system of capitalism and to the ‘free’ (read, ‘bought’) airwaves. Fear always sells pretty well. What ultimately matters is whether you (yes, little independent ‘you’!) believe it… or not.

Did Joseph Goebbels have corporate sponsors? Did they hire professional spokesmen? I’m looking that up right now.

Ticket for the airwaves festival are on sale.

The line-up sounds really interesting among them : Metronomy, The Drums, Kings of convenience, Golden filter, and some gems to discover live.

I’ll be at airwaves. Hope to see some cool people !

and think about, send positive healing or loving thoughts through the airwaves, I have read they really do go from one to another. Think about that special person you always have meant to find, or to write to, to have coffee with or to visit…..and HAVE NOT, but they are moved from page to page, day in day out on “your to-do  list”.

Tomorrow may be too late, to say the things that have been in  your heart for what seems eons. Perhaps to remind them of their welcoming smile, or maybe to recant a fond story from “back in the day”. Our lives are treasures, very short lived treasures in the scope of things. I think God designed friendships, families, school classmates, co workers, neighbors past and present, any one who touched our lives and left footprints on our hearts, to do so to become more conscious of the value of “people”, not “stuff”.

It seems so appropriate today, to let our minds remember those we lost in the 9/11  Tragedy of the New York Twin Towers…..a senseless and horrifying beginning of changes in America, who could forget? Many of us did NOT know the people who lost their lives that day there and in Pennsylvania and the replay of the shout “Let’s Roll”….will long ring within our ears. Lives were changed, people young and old mourned, prayed, sent donations, united and were merely trying to grasp the scope, the dynamics of it all….strangers most, who became known to us through the media coverages. The firefighters, the emergency workers, the people who worked in the towers, their families and loved ones, the shopkeepers, the residents, all of us were touched to our very souls in one way or another. My life changed in a quick second of disaster. My attitude toward life and the precious gift it truly is…..what my life might mean to someone else …or theirs to me.

Since that tragic day, I have made it a simple thing whenever I meet or talk to anyone who’s been in the military, emergency services, police, firefighters to personally “thank them for their choice in careers and service, the risk of losing their very lives so that the rest of us may live in peace, freedom and safety.”  It’s the very least I CAN do….to REMEMBER and pay tribute to those who were all led by bravery, faith and love to be where they were that day in 2001. May we NEVER FORGET the sacrifices made, the unity of this country at that time, the unselfish acts of expressions of gratitude we felt for each and everyone who bravely risked their lives, for us, for our country.

On September 9th of this year, I received unsettling news of a fellow classmate who is fighting for his life as many are, Michael Scott Taylor from Lansing, MI, my hometown. Scott and I have kept in touch throughout the past few years, reunited our friendship from a distance, walked through other losses and sadness with our classmates at the deaths of Linda Schertzing Slucter and famed Michael Lynch, the illness of Ron Spedoske through his recovery,  to only name a few. God bless their souls. It has been Scott, working with Linda that reunited the spirit of our graduating class spread all about the world. We lifted prayers, sent emails, made phone calls, it was Scott who kept us in the loop with her son John and family. I got an opportunity to know Scott on a deeper plane then our time in school. He has a smile that would light up any room. A warm welcoming personality and a heart as big as the Grand Canyon, he’s one of those men you don’t have to ask twice for help, he’s there at the first sign of need. He’s bright, educated, loves people and family is more important to him then anything else, as it should be. He has been an inspiration to all of us, to have faith, to exemplify compassion and love with all we meet. I am not able to fly to MI to help him or his family, but I am doing my part in lifting prayers to our Lord for him at this crucial time and sending positive, healing thoughts through the universe to his ears. Most of the class will be notified and prayers will multiply and cards will be sent and emails and positive thoughts and special stories that will make him laugh….we will unite as one to show our love and respect for one special man.

Why do we wait so long? Why do we not listen to that whisper in our heart when someone walks gently through our minds? Why don’t we make that time to pick up the phone, to meet that special person for coffee, to write a letter, to tell them how important they are to us? Why do we procrastinate until it’s much too late to let them know? Maybe human nature, maybe the busyness of the world in which we live, maybe we think there’s always tomorrow….when in truth no one really knows if tomorrow will ever come.

Take a moment today….of  gratitude for the people you have lost touch with. With the family that you haven’t seen in a while. With the teachers of your past, neighbors, co-workers, friends, classmates and brighten their lives, because YOU took a moment to remember them. Express one important thing about them that you hold dear, then smile, knowing just maybe you too made a difference in their lives. It’s a gift that only you can give to people who have walked with you on this journey called life.

It’s never the stuff, the toys, the possessions that bring us true happiness and joy, it’s giving of ourselves, our time, our smiles to another human being. Let’s always remember 9/11 and the sacrifices, but especially the good that touched all our lives and to remember those around us, some that have gone before us, that have made loving, deep footprints upon our hearts. Thank you Lord for all those that give love, light and joy to our days in Jesus’ name, Amen.

“Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.”

-E. Y. Harburg

This is an excellent quote and it reminded me of an idea I had last week. I was spacing out while writing (big surprise, I know) and The Gift by Angels & Airwaves came up on my iTunes. Immediately my mind went to a scene that takes place later in the novel.

My main character, Paige, has a Titanic-sized crush on this guy Terrance (who may or may not be an alien) and they finally kiss at an end-of-the-semester party. Let me just set up the scene(MAJOR SPOILER WARNING): After writing an expose’ that sends a friend to jail, Paige feels terrible. She doesn’t even want to go to the newspaper’s bi-annual Black&White party. But her BFF Gage convinces her to go and she has a terrible time. Until she runs into T, that is.

They go off to talk and she spills her guts. She vents to him about everything that has happened in the semester and admits her fear of becoming a cold, do-anything-for-a-story journalist. In the heat of her freak-out, they kiss. I mean–BOY do they kiss! It’s an epic one.

That’s where the song comes in. I can vividly see the scene in my head–every single detail–once the chorus starts. And now, I’ll stop the storm when it rains. I’ll light a path far from here. I’ll make your fear melt away. And the world we know will disappear. Even the damn words fit the situation perfectly!

So why am I rambling about this?

Well I think this could be a good exercise–coming up with a soundtrack to my novel (or the inevitable big-screen adaptation). I mean, yeah I have a writing playlist that features a lot of creativity-boosting songs but not one specifically for HEADLINE (my novel, if you didn’t know the title). If I go chapter by chapter, I think it could open up some new ideas and help with editing once I finish the first draft! If anybody else reading this is a writer (if there is ANYONE reading this)  I challenge you to do the same. I’ll try to go chapter by chapter and pick at least 2 or 3 songs that I think fit.

This should be fun.

And now I’m off to write. Hopefully. Until next time!

Peace, Love and Jazz Hands

The Rainbow Writer

This might more accurately be titled the first a/b/c/d/e split.

In website parlance, a/b splits are an extremely common way of testing two versions of a page or design and testing which one better produces the desired result.

Back in 1982, Thomas Dolby may have unintentionally performed one of the first known music a/b splits – and on what I consider to be one of the greatest albums ever made (not top 10 or anything, but certainly higher on my list).

The original version of Thomas Dolby’s first album – Golden Age of Wireless – which is best known for the songs “She Blinded Me With Science” and “One of Our Submarines,” didn’t even contain either one of those songs. In fact, there were three songs on the original pressing which didn’t even make it on to the second.

The first pressing, in England, contained the song “The Wreck of the Fairchild,” but neither of the two hits. In fact, the second release (and first U.S. release) also didn’t include the two hits, though it included two different songs – “Urges” and “Leipzig.”

However, after the single for “Science,” with the “Submarines” B-side became hits in the UK. They pressed a third version of the album with those two songs, but dropping “Fairchild,” “Urges” and “Leipzig.”

With every pressing, the albums sold more copies and received more positive buzz. But that wasn’t the end. Dolby released another version of the song “Radio Silence,” that went on to the next pressing. This version also ended up on the first CD release.

Finally, there was one more version with the same 10 songs, but another new version in the mix.

I’ve never really heard of a case where an album was continually tweaked and re-released with this frequency. But I’m more fascinated that it worked so well.

And it ended in a culmination of all the songs involved with a recent, 2009 deluxe release of the album with all of the songs included.

As mentioned above, I really think this is one fantastic album, when considered holistically. It was groundbreaking when it came out. It certainly stands the test of time. It creates fantastic atmospheres and sound scapes, and it straddles the line of great music and great pop.

Take a listen to one of my favorite songs from the album (which for me is hard to pick). “Airwaves”

As an aside, Dolby toured a few years back, and it was one of the most fascinating performances of music combined with art that I’ve ever seen. He filmed everything he was doing with a series of cameras that really involved the audience in a clever and unusual way.

You can see what I mean with this video performance of his song “Leipzig”

Well well,

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Hello All!

I received this e-mail this morning and it just made me sick. We must take a stand against this kind of action and stop it!!!

We are looking at the possible removal of Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer,Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah and other pastors from the airwaves.

An organization has been granted a Federal Hearing on the same subject by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington , D.C. Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, on the airwaves of America. They got 287,000 signatures to back their stand.

If this attempt is successful, all Sunday worship services being broadcast on the radio or by television will be stopped. This group is also campaigning to remove all Christmas programs and Christmas carols from public schools! You as a Christian can help.

We are praying for at least 1 million signatures. This would defeat their effort and show that there are many Christians alive, well and concerned about our country. As Christians, we must unite on this.

Please don’t take this lightly. We ignored one lady once and lost prayer in our schools and in offices across the nation. Please stand up for your religious freedom and let your voice be heard. Together we can make a difference in our country while creating an opportunity for the lost to know the Lord.

Dr. Dobson is going on CNBC to urge every Christian to get involved.

I deleted the parts about signing and sending on. If you would like a copy e-mailed to you, please leave your e-mail address in the comments section and I will be sure and send it to you. Otherwise, my suggestion is to get a hold of whoever you can and let them know we will not stand for this. And most important of all, let’s start a prayer vigil on this matter. We can not let them continue to destroy what our country was founded on. Let’s let God know how precious we believe He is and ask Him to come down and save us! Some programs have already been removed from some schools which is very disturbing. NO MORE!!! Thank you and God Bless