Ric O'Barry to return to the Cove backed by more than 100 events
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/357023
Taiji - With little more than a week to the start of the Taiji dolphin drive season, dolphin advocate Ric O'Barry will return to the Cove backed by more than 100 individual events around the globe.
As he does every year on Sept. 1, the star of The Cove movie will be heading to Japan with volunteer Cove Monitors and international supporters from six continents. Once there, they will join-up with Japanese activists in Tokyo and Taiji, and will be on the Cove beach Sept. 1, calling for an end to the dolphin drive hunts and slaughters.
Accompanying the dolphin advocate and his team this year, will be drummer and singer Matt Sorum, from the rock group Guns N Roses and the supergroup: Kings of Chaos. Backing them from afar will be more than 100 global events hosted by a consortium of dolphin lovers as part of an annual event called Japan Dolphins Day (JDD).
Boasting 102 listed events at its new website: Japan Dolphins Day.net, none is perhaps more poignant than the protest being planned in Tokyo. It is being organized and hosted by Japanese activist group: Action for Marine Mammals.
Taiji's dolphin drives
Japan's dolphin crisis inevitably centers on the small coastal whaling village of Taiji in the Wakayama Prefecture of Japan. Every year between Sept. 1 and March 31, dolphins across several species are driven into a tiny cove by fishermen and either slaughtered for their meat or sold (at great profit), to the captive marine industry.
Last season, according to Ceta Base.com, "1,486 dolphins from six species," were driven into the cove. "Of this total," the database said, "899 were killed, 340 were released and 247 were live-captures."
O'Barry, who is the campaign manager for both Save Japan Dolphins and the Dolphin Project, documented and questioned Japan's dolphin hunting culture in the Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove.
Directed by Louie Psihoyos, the 2009 film is still inspiring activists today after it took the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Planned events
The Save Japan Dolphins Campaign which operates under the umbrella of the Earth Island Institute, has once again partnered with the social media campaign Save Misty the Dolphin, to facilitate and coordinate events.
Japan Dolphins Day (JDD) has attracted more events this year than any other. The majority of events begin towards the end next week with many timed to coincide with O'Barry's visit to Taiji on Sept. 1. The dolphin advocate is also planning to report live from the Cove via live-stream.
Further details on all scheduled events are available through the Save Japan Dolphins Facebook page and Japan Dolphins Day.net.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/357023#ixzz2dW77NOYn
Adopt the Arts Event Sunday September 15, 2013
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Washington Post: Yo-Yo Ma joins rocker Matt Sorum on Capitol Hill to call on Congress to fund arts
By Associated Press, Published: April 9
WASHINGTON — Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum joined cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to increase funding for the arts in a year of deep federal budget cuts.
The rocker and classical musician played a jam session briefly together for a gathering of legislators and arts advocates from across the country who planned to visit congressional offices. They performed with bagpiper Cristina Pato and dancing star Lil Buck.
Sorum said his mother was a music teacher and that his high school classes in orchestra, jazz and marching band were critical in launching his career in music and in business. More recently he has started a charity to support arts education in Los Angeles. Guns N’ Roses was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland last year.
Sorum said he was excited to visit Washington to press Congress for funding.
“This is the coolest thing I’ve done since Madison Square Garden, I’ve got to say. Slash is going to be really jealous,” he said, referring to the lead guitarist from Guns N’ Roses and now the group Velvet Revolver. “If I can navigate the music business, I’m going to have fun navigating Congress.”
The group Americans for the Arts is pushing for funding to be restored to $155 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Last year each agency received about $146 million and lost about $7 million of that due to Congress’ automatic budget cuts.
House Republican budget leaders have called for eliminating the two agencies altogether.
Still, Republican Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey joined advocates Tuesday, saying the arts benefit the entire nation.
Arts programs face a daunting budget environment. With the $7 million in automatic budget cuts, each endowment stands at $139 million for the current fiscal year. Overall, each has lost about $30 million in annual funding since 2010. It’s an even bigger drop since the endowments’ high point of $176 million in arts funding in 1992.
Ma has pressed for greater focus and funding for the arts in education, joining a White House initiative to help turn around failing schools with arts programs. He also called for including the arts with the educational emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math. Creativity connects the other subjects, Ma said, and helps students become self-motivated and innovative.
“It seems to me that many of the skills in terms of what children need in order to succeed ... are actually best modeled through the arts,” Ma said.
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Americans for the Arts: http://www.artsusa.org/
Adopt The Arts: http://adoptthearts.org
Uber Rock UK: MATT SORUM reveals details of new solo album
Matt Sorum, famed for his work on the drum stool with Guns N' Roses, The Cult and Velvet Revolver, has revealed that he is working on a new solo album.
Sorum commented:
"My new solo record will not be a rock record and I am not playing drums on it. [I am] singing and [playing] acoustic [guitar] mainly, [and] using another drummer [for the recording sessions]."
Sorum has revealed that the material to be featured on this new album is "a cross between The Doors, Pink Floyd, Wilco, David Gray, Peter Murphy and Portishead." Sounds thrilling.
Songtitles set to appear on the album are 'The Sea', 'What Ziggy Says', 'Blue Josephine', 'Gone', 'Lady Of The Stone', 'Killers N' Lovers', 'Ode To Nick Drake' and 'Land Of The Pure', the latter of which is "about children of Pakistan," says Sorum.
Sorum's new CD will be the follow-up to 2004's 'Hollywood Zen', his previous solo effort which featured his GN'R/VR bandmates Slash and Duff alongside Giuffria legends Chuck Wright and Lanny Cordola, the latter co-producing with the veteran sticksman.
complete article: http://www.uberrock.co.uk/news-updates/91-january-news-updates/6894-matt-sorum-reveals-details-of-new-solo-album.html
Diamond Baby at the Viper Room 9/5/12 Wednesday 9PM
Come Support Diamond Baby at
Viper Room this Wed Sept. 5th 9pm
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