Dana Brass - the blog

Million Download Campaign – Join Us and Make History!

danabrass — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:12:14 +0000

The year 2012 has begun with a flourish of some pretty interesting things for me. I have gotten involved in a couple of projects one of which I want to turn my friends and family on to here and now. It’s near and dear to me and I am honoured to have been asked to participate.

Here’s a little back story on how I became involved:

About a year ago I started listening to a radio program on Satellite XM – the Oprah channel. The show was called the Derrick Ashong Experience. I LOVED it. This guy made sense and spoke to me on a personal level. He summed up how I felt about the dismal situation in the USA, world issues and the like. I looked forward to my Saturdays in the car when I would nod my head and speak out loud saying YES! Fast forward one year and this brilliant radio show is now ending. My Saturday staple, my weekly dose of sanity will be gone! Derrick has moved to the East Coast and is now involved in another project. He is now host of The Stream on Al Jazeera. It’s a really great news network (IMHO) and his show is terrific. Cutting edge, intelligent and up to speed on the real things happening on our planet. I rarely get to watch though, as Maxim normally has command of the television during this time. I do have a firm commitment to listen to the podcasts!

When Derrick’s radio show ended, I found the only way to keep up with his wit, sense of humor and common sense was to follow him on Twitter. His coverage of the GOP debates is hilarious and right on the money. After a few tweets to him, telling him how much I liked his show and missed his radio show, he actually answered me a few times and voila, a connection was made. Social Media can be an interesting thing indeed. Then just over a week ago, his fiancee contacted me via this very blog asking me to get in touch with her about a project that may interest me. Suffice it to say I am very interested and very involved.

Derrick has a band called Soulfege and their album, AFropolitan is terrific. Diverse sounds, different genres, soulful vocals and great beats all in one album. They are on a mission to change the music industry and in order to do so have launched a campaign to get One Million downloads of their music.

Check out his website at www.derrickashong.com – you will learn more about the campaign, the band and the man there.

As well, here is the first blog entry about the campaign, and a big button to click on for an instant download of the music!

“I’m spending this MLK Day at Emory & Henry College in Emory, VA giving a keynote & a workshop looking at the “power of music in times of social unrest.” I love that I was asked to give a talk about artistry on a day when people are commemorating an icon of the Civil Rights Movement, because I think too often music and other forms of art are relegated to a kind of sideshow in discussions of societal change. Music is fun, it’s cool to kick it with at the club, but when we’re talking about serious economic, political and social challenges, there’s no room for that sort of “frivolous” thing.

To that I say there’s always room for Jell-O. And there’s even more room for creatives to take a place at the table in any discussion of where society is going. I was asked today before I began my talk about what has happened to “real music” or “music with meaning” in our culture. I know artists who are making meaningful statements in beautiful and impactful fashion on a regular basis, but who are not necessarily the ones you hear. The reality is, the consolidation of the Recording Industry has arguably constricted the breadth of traditional outlets for development and promotion of talent – if the best Indie labels are gobbled up by majors, the economics of running a multinational corporation will more often than not trump the kind of risk required to develop, launch and ultimately “break” truly groundbreaking voices. The very risk that was historically taken by those Indies.

This is not to say that there isn’t amazing music being made in the world today, even in the mainstream industry. But when you peer past the initial veneer of artistic success, you start to wonder how many of today’s major acts are actually doing something new, and how many are revisiting and reinventing sounds & styles of the past?

In the end, it may indeed be true that there is nothing new under the sun; as artists we are all discovering, interpreting and building upon those who played before us. But if we truly want to reframe the kind of music we hear, we need to start by reforming or replacing the systems that deliver that music to us.

The voices of change may not be perceived as profitable by the Major labels, but they’ve never mattered more than in these times of global upheaval. I want to hear songs that speak to my heart & soul, as well as those that stimulate the swaying of savory hips. In the end, we will vote with our feet, our tweets, our pocketbooks and word on the street, for the music that ultimately matters most to us.

D.N.A

THE MILLION DOWNLOAD CAMPAIGN

You wanna be down? DOWNLOAD!”

I hope you will all join in this great campaign and help us achieve the goal!

Love, Laughter, Happiness and Health everyone ~

Dana

Ready for 2012

danabrass — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:42:23 +0000

As we are entering the final hours of 2011, I reflect back on a year that has left me at a loss for words. I will try to put some thoughts together here to sum up this strange and roller coaster-esque 2011, but more importantly to convey my wishes for a better 2012. This past year I predicted the start of the Occupy protests across this country and lo and behold, they happened. I have long had strong opinions about the crash of the US housing market and economy and have wondered why it has taken so long for the 99% to get fed up and insist on change. To insist on a system where every person has some semblance of a chance to get ahead, to have some stability, to work a normal and fair work week and to have some quality of life. It has started, but the changes will be slow and the progress limited, I do believe. I suppose being in an underwater mortgage has left me a wee bit cynical.

But I have a lot of good in my life, a great deal for which to be grateful and that is what I will focus on for my final post of 2011.

A happy and healthy three and a half year old, is at the top of my list. He makes my day, each and every day. His love, ridiculous sense of humor and infectious laugh are priceless gems. His ability to “rescue” Gramma via skype in his virtual helicopter is the best entertainment one could wish for. He is a true child of this millennium!

A warm home (cool in summer), a nice car, a steady job for my husband, food on the table, presents under the tree, internet access and good health is really all pretty darned good. Let’s keep it this way for 2012 and life will be grand.

I’m not big on resolutions – particularly when stats show that most people never keep them. So I often like to do a list of wishes and dreams from the cosmic waitress (thankyou Dr. Laura Berman for that term) :

For 2012 I wish that our unsettled future becomes clear and stable. I wish that my family and friends remain in good health. I wish that Maxim continues to grow, learn, be happy and funny and remain in perfect health. I wish that I have chances to visit my family in Canada and our family from France will visit us as planned. I wish that we will receive some good news in dealing with this underwater mortgage – bankers, it’s time to pay up. I wish that I find the time and inspiration to write as much as I truly want to. I wish that the world shifts just a little to take better care of ALL people. I wish that I won’t have to hear any more nonsense about Kardashians, Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and the like (getting rid of cable and satellite TV has helped with that). I wish for peace and understanding on this planet – just a little bit, please.

I don’t believe that the Mayan calendar really indicates that the end of the world is near. But I do believe that we are on the verge of a colossal, global shift in our awareness and our raison d’etre. We need to be. We need to just do better. Oprah’s wise words stick with me always – “when you know better, you do better”. I think by now we all know better. Take care of our planet and each other. Empathy and kindness are in for 2012. Greed and narcissism are out.

Peace on earth.

Dana

2011 in review

danabrass — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:51:37 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 18 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

danabrass — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:16:33 +0000

Make a free digital slideshow

Black Friday – Simple Abundance

danabrass — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:24:20 +0000

I’m writing now for Tweetthestreets.com so will now post those articles on my blog after they appear in TTS.

Black Friday – Still looking for that light at the end of the tunnel

Saturday, 26 November 2011 15:54 Dana L Brass

USA 26 November 2011 Yesterday was Thanksgiving – the day when we dine on too much tryptophan infused food with our nearest and dearest and give thanks for all the abundance that we have in our lives. Today we hit the malls, big box stores and the streets looking to one up that abundance – with even more stuff we don’t need and that will add basically nothing of true value to our lives. It seems almost blasphemy to have “Black Friday” following this day of thanks and celebration. But here we have it – People lined up for hours (days) in advance outside big box stores with promises of massive flat screen TVs, the latest must have toys for our tots and a multitude of other “stuff” that we don’t really need. The temptation is raw, even in these tough economic times when we should really be tightening our belts like our parents did. Shouldn’t we be saving money and not living on credit as we are all too accustomed to nowadays? Why are we all on this never ending quest for material enlightenment?

Years ago, when I was young and on a quest for happiness, Oprah Winfrey introduced me to the book and conceptSimple Abundance. I read it, bought into it and tried. I really did but I can’t say it worked for me. I tried to search for beauty in things around me, notice and treasure the small things. But for me it was just not as easy as it sounds. The concept and ideas are great, but beware of your connections and surroundings. Your best laid intentions and plans can just simply be foiled by those in your life who may have a different idea altogether.

The part of “Simple Abundance” that stuck with me was the gratitude journal, of which I was reminded just the other day while listening to an Oprah re-broadcast while driving. The idea is to write down five things each day for which you are grateful. Seems easy enough right? I have started and stopped this journal several times throughout the years, always hitting a point that I felt like a young kid in a catholic confessional – making things up to tell the priest. (Catholics out there know what I mean – at 10 years old you are finding “sins” to tell the father and just making it up as you go along – I hit my brother, I told a fib, I said a swear word)

I felt embarrassed to be writing the same thing down, night after night and not elaborating further – why, exactly, was I grateful for my dog’s affection, or my job or my friends? I was writing the same things down, night after night and not really meaning it or meaning it with enough depth to make it worthwhile and to reap the riches of Simple Abundance. I had to dig deeper.

So today I pledge to start this idea again and do it better. As Oprah says “when you know better, you do better” and I think in this messed up economy, with a few decades of wisdom strapped to my back, I do finally know better. Find a way to write this down every night and not in just five simple sentences, but maybe add some flavour to them. I am going to find a way to do this myself and to teach this to my son. Our lives are filled with riches, whether we have a new flying saucer toy or not. And finding the joy in every day things is now more important than ever. Today I did not shop. Not only do I want to appreciate the small things more, I want to live a life closer to voluntary simplicity. Stay tuned for my next story on that!

The Happiest Place on the Sea – Cruise Disney!

danabrass — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:46:23 +0000

Happiest Place on the Sea!

Whew, we’re back! It was both a looong and whirlwind trip. Both peaceful and chaotic, relaxing and frenetic. We did it, survived it and are now back home. Since internet service on the high seas is more costly than Apple shares, I am writing and posting this blog, post cruise. There was no point to bring the laptop, and I haven’t warmed up to serious writing on the iPad yet. Thus, I am finally writing this a couple days after arrival back home.

Getting ready to blast off!

Flying high!

We left Vegas early Sunday morning, arrived in Long Beach California and headed straight to the ship. It was a fairly painless effort to get to the ship and on board. It was quite thrilling (for first time cruisers) to experience the royal treatment of Disney Cruise Lines. They leave nothing to the imagination and every whim seems to be attended to. After the exciting embarkation process, a wander around the ship, a deluxe lunch buffet we were spent and ready for a nap. Maxim’s first in months!

Sleeping Beauty

Disney really knows how to treat their guests. From the superb service – they learn your names instantly and greet you warmly daily, to the fantastic meals, round the clock room service (I am proud to say we didn’t order room service once), impeccably clean rooms, gleaming banisters, festive decorations and excellent entertainment – they have it down to a science. We simply loved it. But it wasn’t cheap!

Trip schedule:

November 6 departure

November 7th at sea

November 8th at sea (unscheduled stop in Cabo to drop off an ill passenger that needed medical treatment)

November 9th Puerto Vallarta

November 10th Cabo

November 11th Cabo

November 12th At sea

November 13th Arrival in LA – day at Downtown Disney, California Adventure Park and flight home – PHEW!

Fancy Schmancy!

Dinner!

Each night we rotated to a different of three restaurants. Maxim is in Triton’s, our favourite, and before dinner we stopped in the lobby for a photo-op.

Food was marvelous – Fred and I enjoyed everything from Tuna Tartare to Lobster to Prime Rib with amazing appetizers of Oysters Rockefeller and Shrimp every evening. Maxim of course dined on “Roni Cheese” and a sundae each night.

Ah, life at sea.

Characters all around us.

Although there were not enough character photo ops, there were a few and did our best to make sure Maxim met as many as possible.

Couple of rodents we met

Couple of jackasses

Sand, Sun and Surf!

At the pool in Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta was as gorgeous as I remembered it. Beautiful weather, brilliant blue skies and warm tropical air. But the poverty is still omnipresent everywhere you look. And we only traveled to a resort so actually saw minimal evidence of it on our way.

At the Oceaneer's Club with Denise

Minnie Max!

A highlight for Maxim was the abundance of “friends” everywhere you looked. From the dance floor at the Promenade Lounge, where he cut a rug every night, to the Oceaneer’s Club (read babysitting service for moms and dads) to our dinner seating arrangements, kids were always near by. We were paired with a family from LA and thus had dinner with them each night. Well each night they made it to dinner. Their little girl, Denise, was sick and spent most meals she attended coughing like a maniac. Poor kid. Poor me – I got it now!

Fred's best meal

Maxim's best meal.

There was something for everyone! Fred enjoyed a few of these beverages (and brought home the mug). The desserts were aplenty and Maxim enjoyed this immensely. Me, well, I was moved to pieces to have lattes on board (for a fee of course)!

The cupcakes are actually from the Pirates IN the Carribean Party held on the top deck on Thursday night. A dessert buffet, huge party, everyone in Pirate attire (well most people) all culminating in a huge fireworks display was a blast!

Pirate Party!

Getting ready for the party!

Although he was exhausted from a day in Cabo, this party was a must according to our faithful servers. And they were right. It really was a blast and our little pirate who had little interest in pirates prior to this party is now officially enamoured with the Pirate life now.

Ice cold pirates

Watch out while on the high seas, Matey Max might just show up!

Pirate in Training at the Oceaneer's Club.

The Oceaneer’s Club was Maxim’s favourite place. The Pirate Ship provided him literally hours of climbing and sliding adventure fun. The staff was amazing, the multitude of “friends” unlimited! One happy boy!

CABO!

Aboard the Tender Boat - one scared Astronaut

Swimming in Cabo

Poor little Maxim, who so desperately believes he is an Astronaut, about crapped himself aboard the small boats that took us back and forth from ship to port. How he will survive blastoff and re-entry to earth is beyond me…

Blizzard time in Cabo - Margaritas for the adults!

Walking in Cabo

Life is rough....

Sunset over Cabo

We visited Cabo twice – one day just walking around the harbor and town, where we enjoyed margaritas, chips, guac and salsa, and a Blizzard and his first orange Fanta for Maxim. I love Mexico and the peaceful laid back pace of Cabo makes it my new favourite place in this country. The second day we did a little visit to the Finisterra resort. Simply beautiful, but the surf was too dangerous – red flag on the beach – so we were limited to three gorgeous pools, a delicious Mexican buffet and a quiet peaceful setting. Our visits to Cabo entailed 4 rides on the Tender boats – something Maxim detested. He was absolutely terrified of the speed and the noise of the boat. Fred and I thought it was quite nice however. I hope he gets over this fear!

Victor!

Same picture, one year later....

Too much for this pirate!

We ended the trip with our friend Victor meeting the ship and taking us to Disneyland for a visit before our flight back to Vegas. Thank you again Dear Victor – we had a great visit and enjoyed the memories of visiting the same restaurant and shops of exactly one year ago. Maxim was exhausted and fell asleep as we walked through California Adventure Park.

But there has to be a glitch right? Well, there was….comfortably seated in the last row on the JetBlue flight back to Vegas, we taxied out to the runway, the pilot prepared for take off building speed and then…Urch! He hit the brakes, aborted the take off and we were on our way back to the airport in Long Beach. After problem diagnosed and repaired, new pilot in the cockpit and a 2 hour delay, we were off again. Not the perfect end to our perfect vacation, but hey, I’d rather the pilot figure out the problem BEFORE take off, right?

Living Vicariously Through Rick

danabrass — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:16:41 +0000

My friend Rick is in Tokyo. He takes a lot of good natured ribbing from his Saskatoon friends about his homeless status. It’s a small mystery and source of much wonder that Rick, although not gainfully employed in the traditional sense, still jets around the globe to exotic locales. His work is all of the contract nature – scouting with Cirque du Soleil (I take credit for that one) and coaching education seminars all over the planet. He is a minimalist in the pure sense of the word. Has only what he needs, eats when the need arises and the opportunity presents and lives within his means entirely. I am immensely proud of him for the way he lives his life and I admit to shamelessly living vicariously through him. I read his blog daily – both the Rickmccharles.com one and his gymnasticscoaching.com site. Both are superb.
As mentioned earlier, Rick is in Tokyo. He is there for the World Gymnastics Championships where he has a media pass and is blogging the event. His Tweets for help in finding accommodation and high tech gadget info have caused me to reminisce about my year in Japan and thus live vicariously through his tweets and blogs.
Many of my friends will remember that in 2001 I was in Japan – living in 5 different cities over the course of the year. As the Chinese Poles and Bungee Coach for the Cirque show Saltimbanco I was one of the lucky ones to take advantage of a sweet contract that would put us in Japan for 14 months (me only 12) earning a lot of money and living an extraordinary adventure.
As I think about Rick in Tokyo, I am transported back to these memories:
- Shopping at Tokyo Hands – a veritable Japanese version of Canadian Tire and MEC.
- Sitting at the Starbucks in Shibuya – just moments from our site – and drinking a miniature latte while overlooking the most intensely busy pedestrian intersection on the planet.
- Walking through the Meiji Shrine – most days I liked to walk to the site and enjoy the green space
- Browsing along Takeshita, across the road from Harajukuuuuuu station. How we all loved to sing that name…
- The Sunday Harajuku “costume party”. All the teens dressed in goth makeup and clothing – what a sight that was.
- Being squashed into the subway cars by uniformed men in white gloves. How they actually got us all in there is still a source of wonder to me.
- Girls tottering along in sky high platform shoes.
- The food! The tiny hamburgers at the fast food joints, the fabulous and inexpensive sushi delivered on the conveyor belts, the tiny version of coffees at Starbucks, Pocari Sweat and C1000 lemon drink from Lawson, sukiyaki Sunday nights, Pocky (which I still buy!), $15 peaches, and the best part of all – the plastic versions of meals displayed in the windows of restaurants.
- Finally, the misuse of the English language causing us much mirth and laughter.
Ah, Japan. I miss it. The safety of the streets at night, knowing if you lost your wallet, it would be returned is something of a distant dream now as I live in Las Vegas.
I miss it and the extraordinary people I spent that year with. Some I have never seen again, and some have become life long friends.
Arigato Gozaimashita Japan

Steve Jobs R.I.P. « RickMcCharles.com

danabrass — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:16:47 +0000

Steve Jobs R.I.P. « RickMcCharles.com.

Pre-school!

danabrass — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:42:24 +0000

First Day of Pre-school

I have always believed that there was a reason that kids begin kindergarten at age 5. I was an early starter. Having an end of the year birthday, meant that I turned 5 just one day before the cut off and thus, off I went to “kiddiegarter”. I remember it with traumatic fondness. Although there were things I loved about it, I always remember being the littlest. My memories are mostly of my inability to keep up and cope. I couldn’t open the door – it was too heavy. I took a bit of my sandwich before we had finished our prayer (and Helena Chase pointed it out for the entire class to gasp in horror at my faux pas). I couldn’t remember the words at our recital – “I think mice are rather nice” is embedded in my brain for eternity now though!

So with great reluctance, I bought into the notion of Pre-school for my wee one. Maxim turned 3 in April and everyone – I mean everyone – I have spoken to here in Vegas (the academic capital of the world – NOT), puts their offspring into some form of Pre-school. I did my research and found some interesting alternatives:

Challenger School – a highly reputable institution located minutes from our house and in a new campus was at the top of my list. Pristine class rooms, Valet pick up service (not as glamorous as it sounds, I assure you), excellent curriculum, highly structured with an excellent staff. For two mornings per week, 8:30 – 11:30 the bill would be in the neighborhood of $275/month.

Merry Hill Academy – all the bells and whistles as above though a bit a drive for us. Highly reputable and attended by several our acquaintances kids, this is an excellent institution. If you can afford it. For two mornings per week, the tab would run us over $500 per month.

Schenker Academy is a Hebrew school with excellent references as well.We didn’t like the facility as much as the other two and the concept of Maxim adding Hebrew to his repertoire of languages was less than appealing. I mean, how I can justify this for a non-Jewish faith child? He is already being raised in French and English. The tab for this was over $300/ month for the two morning per week schedule.

In the end we settled on “Home Sweet Home”. Maxim has been attending Toddler Express at Mirabelli Community Center for the past year. He has had two terrific friends in his class for the past year and a teacher he adores. Miss Theresa is wonderful with him and has the patience of a saint. So we enrolled him the ABC Academy, Monday and Wednesday from 2 – 4 PM at good old Mirabelli. I can exercise in the fitness room while I wait for him, or coffee with Monique and Amanda if I please. All for the bargain price of $55 per month! Although money wasn’t a motivator really for us, I can’t complain about the savings knowing that he is in a good program, with his two best pals, and a teacher who he knows and trusts.

The Three Amigos!

The first day was great. Miss Theresa placed all three boys sitting together, Maxim couldn’t care less when I left the room, and he came home happy as a clam with projects in tow. We love Mirabelli!

Good Bye TV!

danabrass — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:34:04 +0000

It has taken me months to figure it out and finally make the leap, but I did it. We will – effective immediately – be an internet TV family.

For months now I have been waffling on stopping our satellite service, and switching to a different internet/phone provider. It’s been at least three years since I have been irritated by the choices available for TV service. I am yearning for “a la carte” service to emerge, but this seems like a pipe dream. There is no clear winner – all providers expect you to purchase an enormous package which in our case is around 300 channels. This service (Dish Network) bundled with our phone and internet has been costing us around $170 per month, for terribly slow internet. Of those 300 channels, we use perhaps a maximum of 15 of them. I have no use for Spanish channels, no use for the Fishing Channel, the Shopping Network, the Underwater Basket Weaving Channel and other such useless programming. To add fuel to the already raging fire, when I called Dish Network to cancel, they advised me that I am responsible to package up all of their equipment and send it back to them at my expense. If I want to have the dish taken down and removed, they will send someone out for the bargain price of $99! I asked the friendly telephone technician who I spoke with, if I could just take the equipment over to them myself and drop it off. No, she advised me, that would not be possible, as they were located in El Paso, Texas. My reply was of course “you mean to tell me that when I signed on with DISH some three years ago, a technician drove to my house with this equipment, ALL THE WAY from El Paso?” Of course there is a warehouse and location here in Las Vegas, but one cannot drop off THEIR equipment at the DISH Las Vegas location. Brilliant. They charge you to stop service! Another reason to BOYCOTT satellite providers!

I made the leap and bought a ROKU. It’s brilliant.

The majority of what we will watch is free and the fee for the other stuff, we spend anyway on movies at RedBox. In addition, switching to a better internet provider will allow for high speed everything. So it’s official – done with traditional cable/satellite TV. Perhaps I’ll update in six months or so to see how we have fared without the old systems for channel surfing. But I am betting I won’t miss it and will love not flushing money down the crapper. (PS – no, I don’t work for ROKU)