Musicians for Katrina Relief

[Newbie Brad]

I'm with you.

Here is why I don't want to give money to the salvation army.

Thank you for pointing that out - I was going to point out that they are a homophobic organization, and as a gay musician I find that reprehensible in this day and age. Historically, the 'Arts' comprises a great many gay/lesbian artists; it would be misguided to support an organization, monitarily, which feels compelled to broadcast it's displeasure with our lifestyle.

KEv

[Newbie Brad]

I thought this was emotionally moving. Which, to me, is good.

Here is my first crack at the concept of the song I'm working on. I want to get some feedback as to whether to clean this up a bit, or start from scratch.

Concept:

Katrina refugee finds himself hundreds of miles away, and seeks out a piano. Noodles around on some sad chords and sings this lament to himself.

After a couple of minutes, a guy comes up and says that he noticed the refugee's playing, etc. Eventually invites him to join in with his buddies at an open mic night, takes his cell phone number, etc.

Please have a listen and be honest. I've never ever had anything released to CD, and I don't want this to be an embarrassment to the relief effort.

Originally I tried doing this on guitar and my playing is too crappy to make it work - so piano it is.

Vocals would need re-work, piano fat-fingers and velocity farts need work. Fade in needs work, but I just want to know if the concept works, or if this is too sad (but happier at the end) for the CD.

Home Again

-Scott

[bluedad]

I'm with you.

Here is why I don't want to give money to the salvation army.

Thank you for pointing that out - I was going to point out that they are a homophobic organization, and as a gay musician I find that reprehensible in this day and age. Historically, the 'Arts' comprises a great many gay/lesbian artists; it would be misguided to support an organization, monitarily, which feels compelled to broadcast it's displeasure with our lifestyle.

KEv

isn't the most important thing in this debate
that the funds we raise go to help the most people?

[Newbie Brad]

I love this kind of recording! Sometimes we (my partner and I) do similar work. Really liked it!

Initially I never thought of adding a tune for this CD, but the musician got the better of me. Still though, it is rather lengthy (7.58 mins) and very noisy, plus I am awaiting a return mail from a NY label as I used loops from a 12" vinyl.

Still the track very much expresses my feelings towards all that happened in the past two weeks (and into the future and rebuild of NO). I wouldn't mind if this not be included, as there allready is an abundance of tracks offered.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1373480

[Newbie Brad]

PMing you.

I haven't heard from Totc in a couple days. He must be busy. I will go ahead and post the FTP info. Here goes:

Server: 65.254.59.234
Port: 21
User ID/Login: katrina@audiopedia.org
Password: relief

************NOTE:*******Make sure you upload a full wav file mixdown. If possible AT ALL, don't use mp3 as your upload. Yes, the files are bigger, but that's fine. It helps with the end quality of mastering. Upload AT LEAST 44.1khz and 16 bit*******************

That should be all you need. If you DON'T know how to use FTP, or if you can't get access to it, please PM me and I can give you my address to send me a CD.

Be gentle to the server. If it's going unusually slow in the next couple days, then maybe hold off. That means others are probably trying to upload all at once. It SHOULDN'T slow down too much, as it's a very fast server. But please, don't feel you HAVE to do it by tomorrow. Just find the time in the next four days or so to do so. I'll post here which songs are there and which are still needed after a bit.

PM me if you have any questions.

Koolkeys

[Sicklecell666]

I'm with you.

Here is why I don't want to give money to the salvation army.

Thank you for pointing that out - I was going to point out that they are a homophobic organization, and as a gay musician I find that reprehensible in this day and age. Historically, the 'Arts' comprises a great many gay/lesbian artists; it would be misguided to support an organization, monitarily, which feels compelled to broadcast it's displeasure with our lifestyle.

KEv

isn't the most important thing in this debate
that the funds we raise go to help the most people?

It's a bit disapointing that every charity organization has something grossly wrong with it, eh?

After what I've read about Red Cross the last 2 weeks, I'm pretty sure our efforts would not make it to our intended targets. I'd prefer to keep the thread positive and not reflect on what I've learned, but maybe I'll start a Hyde Park expose thread on charity organizations so we have something to go by.

We really do need to come to terms with this ASAP.

[Newbie Brad]

If it's not too narrow a scope for this project's giving, why not make our profits payable to the AFM relief effort to the region or split it between the ASCAP and BMI relief efforts or some other musician-related group's relief effort?

I'm with you.

Here is why I don't want to give money to the salvation army.

Thank you for pointing that out - I was going to point out that they are a homophobic organization, and as a gay musician I find that reprehensible in this day and age. Historically, the 'Arts' comprises a great many gay/lesbian artists; it would be misguided to support an organization, monitarily, which feels compelled to broadcast it's displeasure with our lifestyle.

KEv

isn't the most important thing in this debate
that the funds we raise go to help the most people?

It's a bit disapointing that every charity organization has something grossly wrong with it, eh?

After what I've read about Red Cross the last 2 weeks, I'm pretty sure our efforts would not make it to our intended targets. I'd prefer to keep the thread positive and not reflect on what I've learned, but maybe I'll start a Hyde Park expose thread on charity organizations so we have something to go by.

We really do need to come to terms with this ASAP.

[kovacs]

We really do need to come to terms with this ASAP.

I agree. Let's face it, we're not going to raise $100,000 here so it would be nice to put the money somewhere were it really matters. But there are SO MANY people raising money now that it is equally valid to support anything at all - every drop counts.

[bluedad]

we can't even agree among ourselves who to give money to.
no wonder the world is the way it is.

[Max el Belga]

Sorry to pop in so late. I started to read this thread but wow, to much...
Maybe time for a conclusion ?
Is there still space for a song ?
Is there a min and max length ?
Do we put it here with direct link (or can I go via The Auditorium) ?
The original in 24 bits and an mp3 to listen ?
When is "closing time" ?
Voting ?
Cheers... .. .

[Glooper]

Is there not an umbrella charity for such disasters in the US, that spread the money to all the charities working in the region? we have one here...

Ben

[Sicklecell666]

I don't know Ben, but the underbelly of Charity Orgs will be discussed here:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 97#1374197

Sorry to monkey-wrench idealistic views, but for what we are doing it's important to make sure the PEOPLE are getting the funds and NOT the organizations, especially crap like FEMA sending funds to Pat f**king Robertson(Operation Blessing)..

[griels]

Sorry to monkey-wrench idealistic views, but for what we are doing it's important to make sure the PEOPLE are getting the funds and NOT the organizations, especially crap like FEMA sending funds to Pat fkucing Robertson(Operation Blessing)..

Gotta agree with that myself...

That said, maybe it would be possible for buyers to specify which charity the money went to? Not sure how easy it would be legistically, but say, you might be able to have 3 versions of the CD (all physically identical) but the proceeds from which went to a different charity, making it easier to tally up how much went where...

P.S. Working on a track for this at the moment, if there's room, here's a quick (v. rough and ready, messed up ending) preview:

http://www.tronam.com/griels/moogthang4.mp3

[rockstar_not]

Is there not an umbrella charity for such disasters in the US, that spread the money to all the charities working in the region? we have one here...

Ben

United Way is one such organization.

However, some will find that they support charities that in the end will offend someone.

No organization, religious, non-religious, governmental, non-governmental, etc. is going to spend money where all may agree the money is best spent.

I still think the Red Cross is reasonable, even with it's warts. But dig back deep enough into it's history, and you will find religious roots.

Here are the stated principles of the Red Cross (and the Red Crescent - since the symbol of the Cross is offensive to some Muslims)
http://www.redcross.ie/about/princ.html

Stated non-religious organization, non-discriminatory, etc. Not to say that this hasn't been violated (find just one organzation that hasn't had some kind of internal rule-breaking), but at least on the surface they claim no discrimination of any kind.

With nearly any benevolent organization, you will find some tenets of religious thought buried within; whether officially stated or not. Take the most secular organization that you can think of and if there are benevolent tendencies in that organization; they will have been inherited from some kind of religious roots or training that is either learned directly, or learned innately through societal cues that again would have their roots in religious thought. I know that many would disagree with this. But being the father of 4 children, I get to see human nature in it's raw sense, and benevolence is not something that just comes natural to little kids. It has to be taught to them. Taught to them by someone who gathered that training at one time. Keep going back generation before generation, and you are likely to see some belief in a higher authority of some kind enter into the fray.

Just my opinion on the matter.

Before I send any links to the CD site, I would like to see the destination organization identified on the site.

I'll take the aforementioned musician organizations, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, United Way, etc.

-Scott

[Glooper]

P.S. Working on a track for this at the moment, if there's room, here's a quick (v. rough and ready, messed up ending) preview:

http://www.tronam.com/griels/moogthang4.mp3

pah... thief... ...



My point about using an umbrella charity is that if we can't agree on a charity then at least that way there will always be some charities that people agree with that get money... as in it's trying to keep everyone happy.

Ben