I'm always inspired by innocent singing and dancing and this is no different. There's just something about it that causes the strife in this world to fade away in the midst of a simple song.
While Sting recently made an impassioned plea to stop cutting music programs in schools, one fifth-grade teacher at New York City's PS22 is using music to impact students. I could watch these kids all day long. When they sing, they don't care how they look... they just go for it without an ounce of self-consciousness.
The PS22 Chorus was formed in the year 2000. We are an ever-changing group of 5th graders from a public elementary school in New York City, NOT a school for the arts or a magnet program.
I work with the PS22 chorus, an incredible bunch of NYC public school 5th graders! The chorus has performed all over New York, and have gained quite a following on the internet, particularly with Tori Amos fans. They've sung with Tori, Passion Pit, Crowded House, Judy Torres, Lena, and have also performed for Marcia Gay Harden, Matthew Modine, CNN's Paula Zahn, Senator Charles Schumer, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Celebrity fans include Perez Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Rob Dyrdeck, Suzanne Vega, Innocence Mission, Bonnie Hunt, and many more.....
This project collab from Michael Hebb and Chase Jarvis centers around the kind of events we all hunger for. I'm not talking about the music or the context. I'm talking about the raw authenticity of sitting around tables, singing songs, sharing a meal and ultimately sharing our lives. Check it...
Get a bunch of insanely talented musicians together, and let them share songs, food, and drink. Many a musical career starts with small audiences, impromptu performances, late night mutterings; and then the lucky end up on large stages and tucked deep inside recording studios - often vastly disconnected from those that love their music. Our friends in the music industry have bellyached that industry folk hardly ever share food in a meaningful way – or rarely just get together and f’in chill. So we decided to create these evenings for our musician friends built around long tables, remarkable locations, sturdy drinking food, and bottles of wine and whiskey – with the hope that throughout each night songs would rise up from the table.
Check out this mind-blowing video of a performance by Nathan “Flute Man” Lee and Beardyman that took place at Google’s London office. The two performers take the art of beatboxing to a whole new place.
This is one of the most powerful things I've watched in a while.
Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.
Last week, Kanye unofficially released a killer vid for "Welcome to Heartbreak" which uses a technique called "datamoshing". No, nothing is wrong with your internet connection... it's supposed to look that way. Trust me, you'll be seeing this technique everywhere soon. It's just a question of who will do it well and which company will soullessly self-out and launch a marketing campaign simply because the "cool kids think it's dope."
