Gulf Coast Communities Speak Out Six Months Into the BP Disaster
Today marks the 6 month anniversary of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans based environmental organization we have worked closely with this past year, has been following, monitoring, reporting and activating concerned citizens since day one of the disaster. Here is their recent post to mark the anniversary:
October 20th marks six months of BP’s oil drilling disaster in the Gulf. The disaster has taken its toll on the coast, and impacts will be felt by real people for decades. Reforms are urgently needed to prevent future disasters, and the Gulf’s people and places need lasting, continued support to recover. Take action today at http://BPdrillingdisaster.org
OZOMATLI AND NCLR CALL ON LATINOS TO VOTE FOR RESPECT
L.A. based Ozomatli, the Grammy-award winning multicultural band, partnered with National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans, to leverage the release of their bilingual song, “Respeto” and promote the need for Latinos to participate in this year’s midterms:
“The simple act of voting has proven to be an important tool in the shaping of my surroundings,” said Ozomatli’s Raul Pacheco. “As a modern American Latino, it is a meaningful step to counter the specifically hateful and hurtful rhetoric that has been aimed at Latinos throughout this country.” Pacheco adds, “Voting demonstrates self-respect. It is the dream of many that all who are eligible to vote do so on November 2. Vote for your family, vote for Respect!
TWITTER READY LINGO & LINKS FOR ALL THINGS MIDTERMS!
ATC has put together a twitter-ready election list for our artists to help get themselves and their networks registered for the Midterms and ready to vote. The upcoming Midterms, and the outcomes, will effect government and policy for years to come.
Twitter-ready election calls-to-action. Simply cut, (customize) and tweet:
- Voter registration deadlines start Oct 2. If you’ve moved or never registered, you can do it now at http://bit.ly/czbZAi
- We plan to vote on Nov 2. You can too. Pledge to vote here + receive free music + an election reminder from a musician. http://bit.ly/9U7zyl
URGENT ACTION: MIDTERMS + VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINES
Voter registration deadlines are fast approaching for the November Midterm elections.
Here are some quick actions and suggested copy ATC & HeadCount have compiled for musicians and their networks.
Suggested Email/Web + Social Media Copy:
Please share with your networks by Sept 28th.
For Email/Web
Subject/Headline: Register to Vote
Body: A major national election will occur in November, and the deadlines to register to vote are approaching. Some state deadlines start October 2. Have you moved since the last time you voted? Or are you unregistered?
Click here to register online.
Relevant Links: http://bit.ly/czbZAi
DEAR NEW ORLEANS – THE CONCERT!
One Night Only…
The Black Cat – Washington D.C.
October 4, 2010 - 8:00pm - 11:30pm
To mark the five-year anniversary of Katrina and the floods, dozens of musicians have contributed to the critically-acclaimed compilation, Dear New Orleans. The album benefits nonprofits working to support the region’s unique musical and cultural traditions and to protect and restore crucial community resources. This D.C. show pays tribute to the music and musicians of New Orleans with one-of-a-kind collaborations between album artists and celebrated New Orleans musicians with proceeds benefitting
Performing artists include:
URGENT ACTIONS: BP OIL SPILL + NASHVILLE FLOODS
ATC has compiled quick facts and actions for musicians and their fans on how best to direct donations and support to two recent events: the BP oil spill disaster in Louisiana and the recent floods in Nashville.
BP OIL SPILL DISASTER
- British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and caught fire on Tuesday, April 20th, killing eleven workers. When the oil rig sank, the pipe that connected the rig to the well broke and fell 5,000 feet to the ocean’s floor with oil escaping from either end of the pipe and at two other points.
LILITH FAIR: VETTING BENEFICIARY ORGANIZATIONS FOR TICKET SURCHARGE
Lilith Fair will be donating a $1 from every ticket to a local charity in each city the festival stops in.
Vetting the charities can be challenging and Lilith Fair is facing some scrutiny for a few of their choices.
The Chicago Reader reports:
”After becoming a fan of the fest on its official Facebook page, people can vote for which organization in their town they want Lilith’s bucks to benefit. The pulldown menu includes about ten choices for most cities, most of them women’s shelters or health centers for the underserved, with a synopsis of the services each offers.
REVERB LAUNCHES THE GREEN MUSIC GROUP
Reverb recently announced their latest project, Green Music Group, a coalition of musicians, industry leaders and music fans working for environmental change within the music industry and around the globe.
Reverb founder and Guster guitarist, Adam Gardner, recently wrote about the new venture for The Huffington Post and noted the inspiration behind the new organization:
Reverb feels very fortunate to be working with so many great individual talents in the music community and leaders in the non-profit environmental world. We recently realized that we were in the unique position to bring all aspects of the music community together into a powerful coalition.
“HOPE FOR HAITI NOW” IS FIRST DIGITAL ONLY RELEASE TO HIT #1 ON U.S. CHARTS
Hypebot.com reports: The benefit recording of the recent “Hope For Haiti Now” telethon will enter the U.S. album charts at #1 this week with about 175,000 units sold.
You can read the full article here:
“Hope For Haiti Now” Becomes First Digital Only Release To Reach U.S. #1
By Hypebot.com, January 27, 2010.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
From everyone at ATC we wish you all the best for 2010. It’s going to be a good year — we can feel it.
ATC’S RECOMMENDED NON-PROFITS FOR 2009 HOLIDAY GIVING
ATC’s recommended non-profits for giving include: Sweet Home New Orleans, The Roots of Music, Jail Guitar Doors, Energy Action Coalition, Students for a Free Tibet, Innocence Project, DonorsChoose, Future of Music, Heifer International and more…
Below is a list of ATC’s recommended non-profits for the 2009 holiday giving season. Please let us know if you have any questions. Happy Holidays from the ATC staff!
Arts Corps
Arts Corps is Seattle’s largest nonprofit arts organization working to inspire creative habits in young people through a passionate corps of teaching artists. They hire professional teaching artists who work with a variety of art disciplines and place them in school and after-school sites in the area. They have also been picked to lead the MusicianCorps Seattle pilot.
MUSIC SAVES MOUNTAINS
Country singers and other musicians including Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mattea and Big Kenny band together to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.
Music Saves Mountains is an artists’ initiative sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Gibson Foundation intended to help protect the Appalachian mountains from a form of strip mining called mountaintop removal.
The campaigns slogan “Let’s keep the ‘country’ in country music” speaks to the close connection that many country singers have to the songs, both new and old, written about or in the region.
MUSICIANS SOUND CALL FOR LOUISIANA WETLANDS
On Nov. 6th, Vodoo Fest, two NOLA based environment groups sent a letter with 200+ Musicians asking President Obama to commit to Gulf wetlands and urging him to take action to save Louisiana’s coastal wetlands.
Current stats have Louisiana losing a football field of wetlands every 45 minutes, “due to the impacts of levees and jetties built on the Mississippi River and exacerbated by the tens of thousands of miles of oil and gas canals dredged through the coastal zone”.
You can read the letter and more on the issue here: Musicians Letter to President Obama: Sound Call for Louisiana Wetlands
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE APPROVES PERFORMANCE RIGHTS ACT (PRA)
On Oct. 15 the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill that will create fair compensation for artists who perform songs played on terrestrial radio.
This is a major step forward for performers who seek legislation that ensures that they are compensated when a performance of theirs is played on AM and FM radio.
Performance Rights Act Clears Senate Committee
By the Associated Press and posted on Pollstar.com
Posted on Sunday October 18, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Legislation to make radio stations pay royalties to performers when they broadcast their music won the Senate Judiciary Committee’s approval Thursday.
LIVE EARTH + THE TIBETAN FREEDOM CONCERTS: MUSIC’S ABILITY TO INFLUENCE
A recent study on the impact of the 2007 Live Earth concerts may lead some to deduce that large-scale concerts have little influence in social change. ATC’s research and experience shows the opposite: when done right, concerts can be an extremely effective way to build movements.
A recent report on the public opinion impact of Live Earth, the environmental concerts from 2007, drew the conclusion that the event and campaign seemed to have “no immediate impact on American public opinion” on climate change, but that it “did reinforce and amplify attitudes about global warming amongst those watchers who were already concerned”. Cynics are likely to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that mega-concerts or musicians cannot change how people think or act.
FMC’S LOOK AT NEW MUSIC BUSINESS MODELS
FMC posted some interesting and relevant new materials from a presentation they did at the 2009 Future of Music Policy Summit on New Music Business Models and if/how musicians, labels and songwriters are compensated via these new tools.
The 4-part slide show and corresponding pdfs do a great job of breaking down and navigating the new web 2.0 based music business models and provide some great real world examples of digital stores, subscription services, artist-to-fan connections, licensing, and new forms of radio and if/how performers and songwriters are compensated via these new tools.
STUDY SAYS LIVE EARTH HAD NO IMPACT ON PUBLIC OPINION
According to a 2008 study by experts at Yale University, Gallup, and ClearVision Institute, “Live Earth appears to have had no immediate impact on American public opinion as a whole.”
HeadCount recently blogged about the studies results as well as possible reasons why the message was lost amongst the pubic:
Yale University, Gallup, and the ClearVision Institute have now studied the influence of such mega-events on public opinion. In the first such investigation, a thousand adults were surveyed a week before Live Earth and then again two weeks after it. The study’s conclusion:
HOW DOES THE GOVERNMENT SPEND OUR TAX DOLLARS?
We recently came across this interesting breakdown of how the U.S. government spends our tax dollars and how these areas of spending measure up against each other.
The War Resisters League took the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2009, analyzed spending areas and reorganized the government breakdown to more accurately reflect how tax dollars are being spent. They then go on to compare U.S. defense spending to the rest of the world.
Here is how we measure up:
“U.S. military spending – Dept. of Defense plus nuclear weapons (in $billions) – is equal to the military spending of the next 15 countries combined.
