"Are you doing it to make a No. 1 record...?"

"Are you doing it to make a No. 1 record, or are you doing it to invoke conversation, to make art, to push the culture? That’s way more important than a No. 1 record.” -Jay-Z

Somalia...still a humanitarian crisis

Though seldom found on the American front page anymore, the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is still desperate. This photo essay a msnbc.com gives a brief, engaging glimpse into the dangerous ocean journey attempted by thousands of refugees each year, from choas in Somalia to poverty in Yemen. Click here to view.

According to the photo essay, "The refugees are given first aid, food, water and a complete medical examination by Doctors Without Borders when they reach the Yemeni shore." Learn more or contribute at http://doctorswithoutborders.org.

The Wolf and the Lamb at Crittenden

Got to visit the Crittenden Summer Opera Workshop this past Thursday for a rehearsal of my children's opera The Wolf and the Lamb. It was great fun to work with all the singers, see another director's take on the staging, and especially to encourage the singers and the pianist to explore all different styles--especially styles of vocal production--in performing the music (blues, rock, funky, speech-like, caricature-operatic, etc.). It looks like rehearsing my music is often going to involve giving the performers permission to have fun with their instruments/voices in ways they are not used to, even in ways they may think aren't "proper."... and that's fine with me! My thanks go to Richard Crittenden and Elizabeth Vrenios for choosing my opera as part of their workshop and to the staff and singers for helping it come to life.

The new Iranian Revolution

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/world/middleeast/17media.html

Wyclef Jean's Hopes For Haiti

How one musician is trying to make a difference in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4713518n

Don't forget Haiti

The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere needs us just as much (maybe more) during the global recession. Click here for video.

Global conscience

It's time to make a difference.

This is what I've wanted to do for a while -- make a difference. I have long wanted to make a difference through music, and through the way I interact with the people I meet.

The more I learn about people in desperate need around the world (including in the U.S.A.), the more I feel obligated to help -- to make a difference. So many are in desperate need, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When I came back from Mexico (the first mission trip I ever went on), I felt that the USA was a third world country, spiritually, more so than I felt that the Baja California peninsula of Mexico was poor. Though some Americans are desperately materially poor, millions of Americans live with material riches that are almost unimaginable in many parts of the world.

Our poverty is in our capacity to ignore a needy person and to ignore God (which, according to one famous parable, can sometimes be one and the same) and continue in our mediocre, materially comfortable existence.

I want to stop ignoring those who can be all too easy to temporarily ignore -- God, starving children, those living under violent oppression. I want to break out of my comfortable mediocrity.