City Of Pain

My buddy Richard Klotz put this video up of our old band Rogue Alley. He was the bass player in the band, and I was the singer. Roger, my brother was on keys, Mark Cerneka was lead guitar, Jim Alden on drums. This is a snapshot of the times, and I had the time of my life. Richard directed and produced this film. It would not have existed without him.

Thoughts From A Viewing

The mother of a friend of mine died on March 19. She was a lovely lady and I was quite fond of her. I went to her viewing last night and I began to think of the nature of things, knowing that one day I would be the one being laid to rest.

These were a few of my thoughts…

Don’t be so identified with present form that you forget what your true nature is. You are spirit. Go beyond language into deep knowing which words cannot express. It is impossible to put the infinite into words. Once we try to conceptualize the eternal nature we lose touch with it. The answer only comes when we’re not trying.

These forms are dynamic. All that we see will crumble. Energy remains but does not sustain structures perpetually. Energy is a creative force. It seems restless.

Always remember that there is more to life than what we can taste, touch, smell, hear and see. That life that pulses through us and programmed our brains to beat our hearts has no beginning and no end. Honor that life force in the stillness without words, and without thought. Peace, be still….

Today is CREATE South Donate/Social Media Day

CREATE South is coming to town for our second annual conference. It was a blast last year, and I highly recommend it. It'll be bigger and better this time....

This is recopied from an email from my buddy Dave Slusher, who is co-chair of CREATE South....

Thanks to everyone for expressing interest in the CREATE South
conference. This year it will be held April 25, 2009 in Myrtle Beach,
South Carolina. We are expanding from our first year in both
programming options and in the space we'll have available to us. The
conference will be held at the Horry-Georgetown Technical College
facilities on the old Air Force Base - a few blocks from Market
Commons and about half a mile from the beach. More information is
always available at http://www.createsouth.org/

The conference registration is free for the attendees and we plan to
always keep it that way. If you haven't already registered for this
year, please do at http://www.createsouth.org/register.php so that we
can accurately plan for the size of the turnout.

That said we have set aside today, March 19th 2009 as "Donate Day."
We are still looking for donors and sponsors to help us meet the costs
of presenting it. If you can spare a few dollars, there is a donate
button in the sidebar of every page on our website. If your company
would be interested in sponsoring the conference or you know of one
that might, please drop a note to sponsors@createsouth.org .

Also, today in honor of March Madness we are putting on the "full
court press" for getting the word out about the conference. If you
have a blog, we'd appreciate greatly if you'd post a short note
referencing the conference. Likewise, for those of you who are users
of Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or any other social media sites,
please make a quick post about the conference. Our goal is to get as
many interested people in the room for mutual education and
edification. We'd love it if no interested party misses out just
because they didn't know about it.

Thanks to everyone for making 2008 a great conference and we expect
even better for 2009. Over the next few days we'll be posting
information about our programming. Keep watching the main site and our
blog at http://blog.createsouth.org/ for more updated information.

Best to everyone in 2009.

Dave Slusher, co-chair, dslusher@gmail.com

CREATE South

The second annual CREATE South is coming up April 25th.

This is the official communication from Andre Pope of CREATE South....

Calling all friends of CREATE South – www.createsouth.org – Today is the day that you get to play a major part in CREATE South 2009! We are launching a donation drive and social media blitz for the continuing success of CREATE South. We are asking for you to take a moment and donate whatever you can towards preserving the tradition of our grassroots art and technology conference.

We have set-up a donation button on the front of the website ( www.createsouth.org ) to make it easy to donate! Whatever you can afford to give will be of great service. After your donation, if you could help spread the word that would be even better. Pass along this email to all your contacts in your address book. Blog, Twitter, FaceBook, FriendFeed whatever it is that you do to help get the word out. The more people we can get involved the better. To make it a little easier there is even a little Twitter donate button to help you pass the word!

If you haven’t done so take the time to register for this year’s conference. Just go to http://www.createsouth.org/register.php and fill out the form!

We look forward to seeing you April 25, 2009!

What's with Irish Rock Icons and Shades?