Salutations

Hello all-  As the November elections draw near, and all  the scream engines start their rising pitch for the big one in 2012,  and we're surrounded by fingers pointing to what hasn't worked, what isn't right, what we don't have, etc, it's good to remember how magic it is just to be alive.  That's all about what IS right, and an unfathomable list of what DID work!

During the past several months I've been focusing on "interior work," and moving to our new location in San Anselmo.  Up on the site now is my new song "Salutations To The Sun," with some nice flute work by Schawkie Roth, and piano by the illustrious John R Burr.  Both  played on 'Information," on my last CD.  Woodacre multi musician Duncan Draper provided great drums and stand up bass as well.

My wife and I are also teaming up with a small group of great folks in the rebirth of L.A. based EverSound Music. It's a small label, somewhat comparable to Windham Hill, and we're talking about expanding the repertoire to include more world music and uptempo stuff.  More on that later.  New music forthcoming.

A new year

Well, well, another year of existence, of 4 million of breaths coming and going from my body, of all those thoughts and emotions, and motions of action, plans & phone calls, hopes and dreams, tears and laughter, and moments of deep gratitude for simply having the chance to be a human being. Rounded up and celebratively stickered "PAST" by one special evening we call Dec. 31st.

The rain has come, big time, but now the days are noticeably getting longer, and Valentines stuff is already showing up in stores. Whoa, wait wait wait a second! The Bioneers conference was great, as always, and I just finished watching "The 11th Hour," Leonardo Decaprio's environmental documentary. It's easy to collect just enough scary information on the latest view of the collapse of our world ecosystems and imminent meltdown, but there is yet great hope to be found. Hope. Slippery, ain't it?

I am working to finish a song written for Jes Richardson's "Bridge of Hearts" project. A love song from the US to the children of Iran, which Jes will take across the country this summer, with his portable peace train, from which kids in several communities will sing to the children of Iran. Hopefully Jes will succeed in his vision to take his huge Gandhi puppet and the song to the David Letterman show. May you all have a fantastic year! Tedwin

unBILLievable

I met Bill McCarthy in the late 70's, and we liked jammin' and songs of peace & love, and since the days of the Dead and Starship & Quicksilver and free concerts in GG Park, he's been at the helm of his creation The Unity Foundation, and cranking out their monthly cable show Positive Spin on local cable access.

It was Bill and a handful of others that designed and got out the www.peaceday.tv/ livestream broadcast that got picked up by 2,000 websites (last count) including the U.N.'s official website. He encouraged me to make a video of Where There's A Will, and offered to post it on both the peaceday broadcast and Positive Spin (Nov). I visited him in Santa Monica, and we did some open mic, and checked out the John Lennon birthday celebration (30 years since his passing), in front of the Capitol Records tower, with Beatle stars on the sidewalk, and enjoyed all the lovely people.

fall equinox and peaceday 2010 music video

Wow. I'm trying not to feel too bad about being such a negligent website manager/updater/blogger etc while working on the next CD and many other things, including a music video, just completed, of the title cut off the last one, "Where There's A Will." I've teamed up with my friends Damon Malloy, of Dirksen-Malloy productions, and Bill McCarthy who runs the Unity Foundation, to get this video onto the www.peaceday.tv/ global live stream broadcast currently running (9/17 thru 9/21).

Damon is a film maker & videographer, and among other things, does the tech part of Unity Foundation's monthly cable show "Positive Spin." Bill started Unity foundation, and his own production company years ago. He's one of San Francisco's humble heros,and an ongoing tour de force of peace, culture awareness and charity. He'll show the video on an upcoming Positive Spin. After this event, I'll have a You Tube link on this website where it can be watched.

DO check out the Peaceday broadcast, and see all the wonderfull people and organizations involved in this ten year celebration of The Millenium Campaign and it's 8 development goals. Bioneers gathering coming up in San Rafael, Calif., mid Oct. I'll get back with more on that later.

Peace & best wishes to you all!

Tedwin

Bridge of Hearts

This past summer I met Jes Richardson at a local festival in San Geronimo, with his amazing Gandhi puppet, and he told me about the bridge he's building between the hearts of Americans and the hearts of Iranians, and the film that he and film maker Scott Calhoun have in the works. I simply had to lay the latest CD on him, since one of the better lines in the title cut is a nod to Gandhi's amazing contribution to India (and the world, for that matter). Months later, when he and Scott contacted me asking to use some of the music for their film in progress, I was delighted, and the rest is history unfolding. He hopes to get to Iran later this year. Don't you love it? People NOT mired in politics and hand-me-down baggage of agendas and prejudices.

Fall Update

The equinox has come, a half moon plus is waxing, and 2011 rumbles like the falls just ahead in a narrowing canyon river.  Every few months, newly revised and daunting reports of polar melt rates hit the news, and yet we're still locked up in the nuclear adversary issue.  In some ways so much has changed, at least technologically. Yet, in the most fundamental way, we really need a paradigm shift on the planet.  Impossible?  If necessity is truly the mother of invention, as the saying goes, then maybe the needs that are rising right now from such unprecedented climate change, will inspire not only the creativity to cope, but the global unity as well, needed to implement those solutions.   Exciting times!  Then again, if life truly is a miracle, I wonder if there really is any such thing as "ordinary times."  There IS a lot of cool stuff happening, in spite of the abundance of gloom and doom, and all the shifts I see and read about, that herald the shift from fossil fuel based energy to other natural sustainable sources, are gardens of hope.

Late summer update

What flies without any wings or propulsion?  Time, of course, and oh how it has.  Well, the new CD, which originally was originally to be called "Kindred Spirit," is done and available through itunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, E music, In Demand,  etc.  The Bioneers fall conference will be happening in San Rafael this October, and I will be there soaking up all the info and inspiration I can from the great speakers and classes they have, that relate to all the topics in the songs on "Where There's a Will."  Take a moment to google 'em!  My wife April and I recently watched the incredibly filmed dvd "HOME," narrated by Glen Close.   What a heads up about how we've arrived at this point in Earth's history.  Don't miss it. I will see Age of  Stupid this next week.  I'm working on some new songs, and hope to perform with our band, "The Quarks" at various green fests and environmental forums.  Tedwin