Usually I don’t post any political articles on this blog. But free speech is integral to all art and nurtures the creative development of individuals, while repression and censorship are the hallmarks of totalitarian regimes.

We have to protect freedom everywhere, especially on the internet. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would seriously affect free speech on the internet. Do you want corporate interests to decide what you can say and when? Please consider an internet blackout this coming Wednesday.

“If you oppose the USA’s attempts to censor the internet, join Blackout day. Its simple.

1. Change your profile picture to a black square
2. Change the images in the About section [to black squares or simply remove the pictures - you can add them back later].
3. Post ONE comment simply saying “Offline for 24 hours in support of those opposing SOPA”

If you have other sites/profiles, do the same to those.

A global Blackout … Wednesday January 18th your local time zone date … no posting for 24 hours.

Remember – if SOPA [and PIPA] are approved by the US Government, it will affect everyone worldwide.

And finally, spread the word. Share this post if you support STOP SOPA.”

I just love this spoken song. I am convinced that the idiom “footloose and fancy free” was the inspiration for the whole thing. Many artists work this way, starting with an idea and working backwards. Here is a great animated short, “Aging Young Rebel” by Jonathan McCallum.

The Aging Young Rebel Gentle Cruelty” by Dj Food

An Aging Young Rebel
Called What’s His Name
Wanted to be different
while he stayed the same

Then he couldn’t
he just couldn’t
No matter what he would try
Told be his mother

An aging old thing
You better go see clever
You give clever a ring
Which he did
Called him up

Just so Mommy wouldn’t cry
Clever hear his story
About different and the same
You crazy
This some silly game

Oh no
Like Mommy said
I gotta straighten up my head
Clever is so clever
Is cleverness enough

Can you help this ageing rebel
Do you really have the stuff
Bet you don’t have
Bet the bread that you’ll pass the buck instead

Clever sends our hero
To a funny darkened room
Where a crowd of cunning listens
Giggles in the gloom

That’s your problem aging rebel
Don’t you really know the score
You crazy think you’re going to change this crazy world
Better see your self a shrink

Cunningly the argue about our boy
Who’s breaking down the door
Now he’s running down the dark
Diabolical awaits

Grabs him by the ankle
Ani’t it just like fate
Diabolical laughs
In an alley full of suit

Forget the same
you’ll be different now
Somewhat shorter on one side
Let go
Oh no

Would you diabolical inside
Panic in his brain pulls and gets away
Loses him a foot it’s a dark and evil day
See him running limping blood

Something soft is just ahead
Something soft is gentle
He’s fallen at her side
She comforts him with kisses
He dreams of suicide

Gentle is so gentle
Grabs the trouble by its root
Bandages his stump
Cuts off his other foot

So you see it seems to me a gentle kind of cruelty
Ageing rebels older a little wiser maybe too
Gentleness has fixed him
Does he look like me and you

Footless and fancy free
Think how happy Mom will be
Footless and fancy free
Think how happy Mom will be

Just released; a book on professional social media.

If you are pursued by a growing mob of Facebook friends whom you have never met…

If you are deluged with double opt-in messages when you can’t remember a single opt…

If you find yourself confused by application upgrades that downgrade your experience…

If you are unable to see the social media forest for all the meaningless trees of content…

If you are afraid that your last precious half-hour of free time may be on the chopping block of Twitter…

If you bemoan the disappearance of time, depth, and real meaning…

If you find it sad that your iPhone has replaced your dog as your constant companion…

If you suspect your wife has left you for her blog…
…then this book may be for you.

Ebook edition, soon in print.

Discover how to brand without marketing, how to promote without advertising, and how to advance your cause, yourself, or your business with professional social media.

See more here: http://parallelmindzz.com/birdseed.html

Paperback book $12.98

Kindle Edition $4.99

All other Ebook formats (pdf, epub, etc) $4.99

I started writing this book yesterday. I bet I can finish the entire book by midnight next Thursday. For me to win, the book will have to be finished and ready to be emailed by Thursday midnight. I won’t have time to have it copy-edited, but all the text will be finished. The cover is already designed.

If I lose, I owe everyone who participated in my bet a free copy of my last ebook, The Way of Love. If I win, then anyone who participates in the bet will have the opportunity to buy the advance copy of my new book for $4.99 (a 50% discount). The book will be available on Amazon’s Kindle, B&N’s Nook, and as a beautiful PDF.

This bet is one I placed with myself: I put together an outline and started writing it on Friday, so the book is due on Thursday, July 21st. I decided to make my bet public and see if the bet will make my deadline more real to me.

THE BOOK

This will be an ebook; it is modeled on the style and brevity of Seth Godin’s book, “the dip.” It is about how to brand, market and work on social media. It’s a how-to, but it is not a technical book. I call it the “anti-social guide to social media;” it is quirky, and easy to read. I won’t disclose the title to you but the subtitle is:

“a really short, easy-to-read book that shows how to use social media to advance your cause, yourself or your business”

Here is the intro/backcover:

“If you feel victimized by nonsensical Ebay ads in your search sidebar; if you are pursued by a growing mob of Facebook friends whom you could have never met; if you are daily deluged with double opt-in messages when you can’t remember even a single opt; if you find yourself confused by application upgrades that downgrade your experience; if you are unable to see the social media forest for all the meaningless trees of content; if you are afraid that your last precious half-hour of free time may be on the chopping block of Twitter; if you bemoan the disappearance of time, depth, and real meaning; if you find it sad that your iPhone has replaced your dog as your constant companion; and if you suspect your wife has left you for her blog…

…then this book may be for you.”

——-

To see my books, including your possible free copy of “The Way of Love,” go to:

http://www.parallelmindzz.com

To participate, send me an email with the header, “BOOK ME!” to:

(fill in my name below)@gmail.com
aliyahmarr

That ought to build a real fire under me!

Following the success of our 2010 International, all-medium juried art show and award of the top prize of our “Artists Exhibition Package”, FilmsOnArtists is proud to announce our 2011 competition.

40 artists will be juried by our judge David Masello for a show at the FilmsOnArtists Gallery | Chelsea.

From that show one artist will be selected to have a solo show, reception and a screening of the documentary we create about their art.

FilmsOnArtists (FOA) is a new media production company based in the Chelsea district, NYC that creates enlightening and inspirational documentaries about artists around the globe.

—–

Current artist in focus

Assemblage Artist, Bill Georgenes, Santa Fe, NM

“I’m a happy chappy all the time.   I can’t walk.  I can’t run.  I can’t dance.  I can’t hike.  I just stay here and work, maybe 15 hours a day.”

This year we are asking artists to contribute 10% of sales from the show as a contribution to FOA’s Haitian Childrens Art Project

at the Maranatha School and Orphanage in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

How do I know this? Because I see it in my fellow artists work; I hear echos of that freedom in the lyrics of the music I hear. I know it because personal freedom is the touchstone of my work, because the very wind whispers of it to me.

Belong by R.E.M.

(Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe)

Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She got up from the kitchen table
Folded the newspaper and silenced the radio
Those creatures jumped the barricades
And have headed for the sea, sea

Those creatures jumped the barricades
And have headed for the sea
She began to breathe
To breathe at the thought of such freedom
Stood and whispered to her child: belong
She held the child and whispered
With calm, calm: belong

Stood and whispered to her child; belong
She held the child and whispered
With calm, calm: belong

These barricades can only hold for so long
Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She took the child held tight
Opened the window
A breath, this song, how long
And knew, knew: belong

Moby has teamed up with MoveOn.org by starring in and lending his new single “The Day” off of the forthcoming album “Destroyed” to a hard-hitting video that protests attacks on America’s most needy. In the “The Day — Moby and MoveOn Protest Budget Cuts on the Poor”, the artist explains why he joined over 30,000 Americans in a fast to protest against the budget cuts that could disproportionately hurt the most vulnerable in America.

The effort comes as the President and Republicans in Congress agreed to a budget that could severely impact the lives of the poor. Republicans are preparing even steeper cuts in their upcoming 2012 budget, including a proposal that would hand Medicare over to the insurance companies. The Republican 2012 budget is expected to come up for a vote in the House by the end of this week.

The fast was first launched by Reverend Jim Wallis of the Sojournors, and Ambassador Tony Hall. As word spread, more than 30,000 Americans joined thefast, as well as 28 members of Congress.

Do you dare to dream your biggest dream?

Aliyah will be offering group and individual Creative Caffeine brainstorming sessions at this meeting. Come with your thinking hat on! She will sign copies of her books “Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity” and “Pocket Parallel Mind” for attendees.

http://www.meetup.com/carlsbad-village-cooperative-network/events/17237974/

Monday, April 18, 2011
11:30 AM

Fresco Traoria
264 Carlsbad Village Drive Carlsbad, CA

Copyright Aliyah Marr