Hello People!
As many of you know I run a small non-profit called Rock Love Peace Yes One that helps to raise awareness about youth and teenage suicide. I wanted to repost a blog that a friend of mine Denny wrote about what we are trying to do. Denny has given so much of her time and talents to the movement.
She created some custom jewelry that I have been able to give to lots of those that support what we are trying to do. I personally wear a bracelet she made everyday that says simply 'I Choose Life'. The pieces have been a wonderful expression of love and hope to many that are involved.
Denny also runs her own custom jewelry business in her spare time. Make sure to stop by his website and see all the wonderful things she creates. Tell her thank you as well for her support of finding a way to help end suicide.
Help Be the Difference!
http://www.dmachettejewelry.com/index.html
RLPY1 is the acronym for Rock-Love-Peace-Yes-1, a movement that was begun by Andy Jones (bassist for Third Grade Haters), in response to the rising problem of teen suicide in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Andy is just a young guy with a vision and a purpose. I want you to know that I have never met Andy, but I have been visited by the tragedy of suicide and I have been altered by it. So, when Andy began to post information about his desire to raise awareness about this critical issue, it resonated with me. I wanted to help him.
When I first saw Andy's posts about suicide, I was reading a book by David Lipsky and there was a quote that I could not stop rereading. I felt like Lipsky had plumbed my soul and managed to put into words the wreckage that suicide had deposited there. He had given voice to a fierce truth that I had been unable to articulate. In his book, “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself : A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace, he wrote, "Suicide is such a powerful end, it reaches back and scrambles the beginning. It has an event gravity: Eventually every memory and impression gets tugged in its direction." Those words and the story of David Wallace Foster stirred the feelings of loss that I have harbored for nearly 30 years.
I wanted to be involved in Andy's efforts. I wanted to lend support in a practical way. He wasn’t asking for money, he wasn’t starting an organization; his purpose was to help raise awareness. As I thought about a way for me to be involved, I thought about using jewelry to make a statement. I floated the idea about donating some silver and some of my time to design some jewelry with a message of hope, as well as a method for getting help. I originally thought he could sell them at shows to raise funds for local organizations or to raise awareness in some way. The message stamped on each piece was: I Choose Life, RLPY1 and 800 SUICIDE (the 24-hour suicide hotline).
Andy has decided to keep his efforts local with his emphasis on the Knoxville area and the youth in his community. That is where his heart is and that is where he has the most influence. If you’d like to find out more about this movement or if you’d like to find a way to support his efforts, I recommend that you contact him at http://twitter.com/thirdgradehater or facebook.com/thirdgradehaters
Denny (Machette) Pizarro
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Is the Internet dead or just dead to some of us?
I thought I would go ahead and follow up on the very question I asked myself at the first of my last blog: is the Internet dead or just dead to some of us.
I have been getting a lot of feedback to my recent blogs about the current state of the Internet from an artist’s perspective. Positive feedback, I would like to add, and some really great points to go on top of what I had written. It has become apparent from your comments that many of you see the Internet through the same lens as me.
So my question is, do we all think the Internet is dead from an artist’s perspective? Or are we just looking at it the wrong way?
Let's a take a look at the future of the social media world, maybe our answer lies there.
Just like the past, new technologies start to become apart of our daily lives, soon lose their buzz over time, and we move on to the next big thing. Just like cell phones, email, the Internet itself and many other recent techno-marvels that were all the rage at some point over the last 10 to 15 years. So what makes social media different and thus giving life to the Internet?
In just the past few weeks all of the major social media sites have undergone huge revisions, implemented new polices, given their sites face lifts and now shifted towards on demand content and marketing services to reach new potential users and customers. Would they being doing this if they were going out of business or are they doing this to stay in business?
Marketing departments for companies in the past never put a plan into place to develop their email department or their own website departments. These things were just adsorbed into their way of doing business. They never thought about focusing more time on how to email better or how to Google search better, these tools just made their jobs easier. Now though, companies are spending lots of time and resources to build their own social media departments. There are some that believe that social media will become its own stand alone discipline in the marketing world.
That's a lot to take in isn't it? The idea that some college kids got together and created a handful of websites that let people interact with each other, to the idea that these very sites are so influential in our lives, that kids will now be getting college degrees in social media is breath taking! It also answers our question.
Social media is evolving. It's finding its place in our lives, how we work and how we work with it. There are going to be up's and downs. New advancements and technology. Some sites will grow to take on a larger market share then others, while a few will fall by the wayside.
Just like the music industry itself, artists are going to have to wade through all of the progress and turmoil of this social media revolution. Myspace was a successful outlet for many artists in the past, and who knows, it may be again in the future. Right now there is no 'best place to be' for artists trying to find a foothold in the music business. Using social media can be aggravating and difficult to say the least. It can also be rewarding. Don't give up though, keep blogging and tweeting, keep your profiles up to date, post those status updates and maybe, just maybe, success will find you!
I have been getting a lot of feedback to my recent blogs about the current state of the Internet from an artist’s perspective. Positive feedback, I would like to add, and some really great points to go on top of what I had written. It has become apparent from your comments that many of you see the Internet through the same lens as me.
So my question is, do we all think the Internet is dead from an artist’s perspective? Or are we just looking at it the wrong way?
Let's a take a look at the future of the social media world, maybe our answer lies there.
Just like the past, new technologies start to become apart of our daily lives, soon lose their buzz over time, and we move on to the next big thing. Just like cell phones, email, the Internet itself and many other recent techno-marvels that were all the rage at some point over the last 10 to 15 years. So what makes social media different and thus giving life to the Internet?
In just the past few weeks all of the major social media sites have undergone huge revisions, implemented new polices, given their sites face lifts and now shifted towards on demand content and marketing services to reach new potential users and customers. Would they being doing this if they were going out of business or are they doing this to stay in business?
Marketing departments for companies in the past never put a plan into place to develop their email department or their own website departments. These things were just adsorbed into their way of doing business. They never thought about focusing more time on how to email better or how to Google search better, these tools just made their jobs easier. Now though, companies are spending lots of time and resources to build their own social media departments. There are some that believe that social media will become its own stand alone discipline in the marketing world.
That's a lot to take in isn't it? The idea that some college kids got together and created a handful of websites that let people interact with each other, to the idea that these very sites are so influential in our lives, that kids will now be getting college degrees in social media is breath taking! It also answers our question.
Social media is evolving. It's finding its place in our lives, how we work and how we work with it. There are going to be up's and downs. New advancements and technology. Some sites will grow to take on a larger market share then others, while a few will fall by the wayside.
Just like the music industry itself, artists are going to have to wade through all of the progress and turmoil of this social media revolution. Myspace was a successful outlet for many artists in the past, and who knows, it may be again in the future. Right now there is no 'best place to be' for artists trying to find a foothold in the music business. Using social media can be aggravating and difficult to say the least. It can also be rewarding. Don't give up though, keep blogging and tweeting, keep your profiles up to date, post those status updates and maybe, just maybe, success will find you!
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