kelly in kenya

my childhood/family friend kelly orr is doing some amazing work in kenya. and she blogs about it... here she is below with a flock of kids:


"The first project is collaboration with the SOTENI Local Management Committee of Kuria (a group of community leaders and elders) to build an orphanage for small children on land given to SOTENI by the Kenyan government. This project will include income-generating agriculture on about 10 of the 33 acres and will help sustain the project in perpetuity. Eventually, our hope is to also build a rescue center for girls fleeing the FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) ceremonies, which happen in Kuria every December. The land is bordered by the River Migori to the north, which makes it ideal for farming a variety of crops (we are talking about watermelon, maize, beans and eucalyptus) and has a great view of Masai Mara, which is an added bonus for our children."

"The second project involves meeting with and vetting orphans to participate in our sponsorship program. I am using the public schools as my starting point and have been asking administrators to prepare lists of the total orphans in their schools along with their performance records. The numbers of orphans in the communities here are staggering. AIDS and other poverty-related deaths have destroyed many, many families and the children are the most vulnerable to suffer. I have been all over Kehancha and surrounding towns (yesterday we were traveling by motorbike taxi because the roads were unfit for cars) meeting with children and their guardians, which are usually relatives or an especially generous teacher."

also, she notes "If you are interested in sponsoring one of SOTENI’s 12 children or another child in Kuria, please let me know!!!"

Read more...

sound karma dot com?

"more than 10 million of the 13 million music tracks
available on the internet failed to find a single buyer last year.
(On the other hand, for every paid for song there where 20 pirated.)"

via (update: also, is this wrong?)

image: christian marclay

there is a really good idea at the bottom of this post, but first, some backstory:

i pay for music very infrequently... in the last two years, the music i bought we're some records in berlin, some thrift store 45s, some yard sale 45s, l.v. & dandelion's "cctv/dream cargo" & dj ruptures "uproot" mix... that's it. i've been broke, cheap, and flooded by the ocean of sounds.

i steal/i'm given/whatever on average 8 albums a day... easily. the other day i downloaded over 100 archives marked [dbstp] off emule... it's truly post scarcity. i toss most of it, but keep the singles i like and occaisonally the whole release. on the one hand it's great. i love the try-before-you buy possibility, but on the other hand, who ends up buying even when they like it?

that being said, i had a lovely experience recently where i contacted barry lynn (boxcutter) on his myspace page, told him i really loved his music, but had stolen it and wanted to give him some money. he complained that his labels barely pay him (except for planet µ), and happily gave me his paypal account and i sent him $30... which is way more than he would have gotten had i spent that $30 at a record shop, or even at an mp3 site...

*really good idea*

"sound karma dot com"

decentralized patronage in action. make a website that is simply a vehicle to pay artists (and labels) whatever you want. you could give $20 to benga, $1 to lil wayne, $5 to the heirs of miles davis and $6 to dutty artz... etc... no product sold, no frills, just a way to give back to the artists... so now, the challenges...

1. verifying the artist's identity could be tough. someone could pose as richard d. james to snag the money sent by fans of richard d. james... my solution to this is to have it built on artist referalls. i have boxcutter's paypal, he could verify label-mates' paypal, etc...

2. severs/bandwidth cost money. you could take a small cut or sell some ad space so this isn't a big problem, but commercialization could taint the spirit of this endeavor. you could also sell mp3s, etc, but that could invite more problems than it solves....

3. labels might be pissed. i appreciate the role of (especially small) labels as taste arbiters and talent scouts, but even if we don't act to appease the labels, we wouldn't be selling any of their product, just giving venture capital to their employees...

4. legal issues might arise. i'm not that concerned with this because i feel like if it's done in a spirit of service to the musicians no one will really be able to complain, it's not against the law to give people money, and it may just help a lot...

i have people who can build this, and i may, but i invite your wise criticism and input first.

thoughts?

also, any repping/spreading of this idea would be greatly appreciated. i think that the sooner something like this is implemented the better. i guess i'd like credit, but i'd rather have "a centralized site where users can reward their favorite musicians."

Read more...

help me drive people to the polls in pennsylvania!

you might notice this button DOWN ANd TO THE LEFT... while i can always use money and am happy to receive donations, the reason i have it up right now is to raise money to drive people to the polls on november 4th. i live in pennsylvania (pittsburgh specifically) and it is still (despite recent trends) a swing state. since i don't own a car, i am going to rent one for $67 through zipcar (a hybrid, in fact!) please consider donating, especially if you live in somewhere obama or mccain is definitely going to win.

and don't worry, i'll move the button all the way to the bottom after the 4th... in the meantime, go download the obama rap tune on this post... GOBAMA!!!

Read more...

wanna save a life for $10?

nothingbutnets.com is delivering malaria-preventing mosquito nets to poor people and educating them to use them for $10 a net. they've sent over 2 million nets, which is just a start, considering that 1,000,000 kids die each year from malaria. can you swing ten bucks?

here's a video of the founder of nothingbutnets.com on stephen colbert...

Read more...

help a progressive geek!

pictured here is darcy burner. her shirt is xml for "end war". if anyone can find a link to where one could buy the shirt, i'll post it... (UPDATE: here it is, thanks tait!) a brief survey of her positions makes her seem like a really cool lady. anyway, she is standing in front of her smoldering house. her five year old saved the family.

she is running a close campaign against the incumbent republican congressman in her washington district. she needs time to recuperate with her family, but that will hurt her fund-raising. so if people have a little dough to pitch in, she can take some days off. if you have the dough (i don't right now), consider donating here (or here).

UPDATE: here's video...

Read more...

utah phillips - rest on...

goodbye, utah. the legendary folk singer passed away in the night. he was train hopper, activist and a die-hard wobbly.

i listened to this great interview on democracy now today with him from 2004.

four things caught my ear.

1. a song he was singing about how while he might not sail on the ship, he's still gonna build it. 2. they've got the money, but we've got the time, and they'll run out of money before we run out of time. 3. make a living, not a killing. 4. donations can be given to hospitality house shelter in his memory.

Read more...

if you can afford to help disaster victims...

...these people seem to be on it. their shelterboxes have shelter for ten people, tools, water purification for ten people for three months and even kids toys. click on the image to view more details or better yet go read the website, or even better go make a tax-deductable donation and go save some lives!

Read more...

nice idea department

i registered today at marrow.org to become a marrow donator. race is a factor in finding matches, and as i have some unique dna (particularly basque) that might not be in the registry yet, i joined. even if you are a common race, there are still particulars with each individual that might be in demand. it normally costs money, but right now the first 10,000 to sign up it's free, and you just swab your inner cheek at home and send them back the samples. if you are called upon to donate marrow, they just suck it out with a hollow needle under anesthesia.

you could save someone's life, on the real, and how nice would that be?

Read more...

pitsburghers - dance your ass off for a good cause!

dana lee dolney has breast cancer. she is holding a benefit at remedy friday april 25th (tomorrow!). the family friendly entertainment (with phat man dee and jay shields) is 7-9, then the DJs are 10-2.

i'm spinning 11PM - 1AM. i'm gonna play an international heavy bass casserole of jamaican, african, balkan, middle eastern, spanish and latin tunes mashed up with emcees. garunteed to be delicious and floor-filling!

i've been pre-turntabling some mashups for maximum action... this way i can have time to drink some water, pre load the next two tracks, or even layer up to four tracks at once. should be ridiculous... here is an example: goran bregovich's "underground" into kraftwerk's "music non stop":

(mp3) james gyre - "underground non stop"

see you at the party.

Read more...