Music doesn’t come from a sound studio, as much as the fat cat record execs would have us all believe. No, it comes from the heart-and the loving, hard work that people pour in to the sound that they create.
There is a way for dedicated listeners to become involved in new projects, new songs…and work hand-in-hand with the musicians that are making the melodies of tomorrow.
Become involved in the process. You don’t have to travel to Hollywood to find an artist.
Here are some ways you can have a part with the sounds in your own community:
-Donate.
Get a hold of your local school and see if there is a way for you to be able to fund their musical arts program.
If there is, hold a bake sale, rock a lemonade stand, or sell off last season’s kicks in order to invest money in a child’s musical education.
-Become Involved.
There is music in every town. Find where the local groove is in your city. See if you can become part of a street team that hands out flyers or tweets for a local band in your community. Volunteering can take as little or as much effort as you want to put in. Being part of a grass-roots movement to get the word out about your town’s talent is a great way to get people to open up to new sounds.
-Use Technology.
If Blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking is where you shine, get those thumbs moving for the music that inspires you. If you love a band or artist, shout it out! Start a WordPress blog dedicated to your musical interests, follow your Muse online, or get your friends to open their hearts to a new genre of sound that you have discovered. Music is the universal language, after all.
-Petition.
Vote for the county measures that support arts in school, use your legal voice to vote on propositions that endorse free speech movements. There are broad ways that you can throw your support behind the music that moves you, and making sure that music remains open to all forms of expression, can be played on the radio, and continues to be an unhindered source of joy for future listeners can be done with a single vote.
You don’t have to be a professional singer or artist in order to influence the music industry. You have a voice. Let it be heard in your town.
- Jenn Cobb
Being green is not only the new black, but it keeps our planet clean and helps you save money! So what’s to lose? Here are some super easy tips to keep the planet and your wallet happy this summer:
Bike: With average gas prices approaching $4/gal, quit spending your money on gas and use a greener mode of transportation such as biking. It cuts down on air pollution and it keeps you in shape too!
Visit Your Local Farmers Market: Ditch the banana that traveled 3000 miles to get to your mouth and feast on local goodness that was grown in your area. It tastes better and cuts down on transportation pollution.
BYOB: Bring your own reusable water bottle with you when you’re out and about. You save about $200 a year and 14 lbs of plastic!
Shopping: Bring your own cloth bag to the store, whether its grocery or apparel. If you reduce plastic bag consumption to two per week, you’ll throw away 100 fewer bags per year.
Thank you for making a difference!
- Hannah McMerriman
There are plenty of good causes out there that would love to have your help and support. You don’t have to be a millionaire, or someone with tons of free time on their hands, to uplift your community.
Volunteerism is a sense of communal sharing and responsibility-but it can also be fun! Choose a cause that is dear to your heart, something that you resonate with. A lot of people who donate time and energy to something that they have a strong belief in feel more positive about themselves.
Involving yourself in your neighborhood is a way to meet new people. It opens all kinds of doors for your future, and you become more aware of the needs of people who share your street, your church, your school. There’s tons of things you can do.
Like to cook? Serving food in soup kitchens could be a choice for you. There’s a time-honored sense of happiness and fulfillment when you give out a plate to someone that’s hungry-and the smiles you receive will warm your heart.
Love kids? There’s bound to be an environment that would love a few spare hours of your time in watching over children, whether it be an after-school activities area, or a rec center.
Maybe you’re a person that excels in a specific area, a person with talent that can teach others how to do what you do best. People can offer themselves up for chess lessons, math tutoring, even snowboarding or guitar jam sessions! Just put out a flyer advertising your area of expertise in a place that it’s bound to be noticed-schools, coffee shops, even telephone poles can work as a banner for you.
If you have a fondness for something, don’t keep it to yourself. Start a book club, or join one, if there’s a certain genre of novels that you enjoy reading. If you know a few people that are looking to get in shape, offer to be a work-out buddy to a few friends-you’ll both see results, and will help keep each other fit.
Local libraries are a great resource to see of others are in need of help, or if you are in need of renting a space for yourself and a few of your friends to put on a seminar.
Volunteering can be as simple as helping your kid neighbor practice kicking a soccer ball around every Tuesday, or as complex as starting your own group in the community that unites to help people in times of great need.
The new year is all about change, and exciting new things. There is a world of possibilities that await you when you reach out to others, and uplift those that are close to you. Be a voice, be heard. Make yourself available to people who need help, and you’re well on your way to become a hometown hero in the making.
Moxie is behind everything we do at Miss Moxie! To us Moxie means having that extra something. Being confident, beautiful, a strong character and a desire to change the world for the better. That’s what Moxie means to us but what does it mean to you?
We want to know! We want you to answer one simple question, what does moxie mean to you? i.e tell us what you interpret the word Moxie to mean. Let us know and two pretty awesome things can happen.
You can be featured in the July Digital issue and you could win a prize. Either leave a quick comment after this article or tell us on our facebook page (www.facebook.com/missmoxiemag). Tell us exactly what Moxie means to you in a sentence or two. The best answers will be featured in the July Digital Issue and you will be entered to one a great prize (such as makeup, t-shirts and more).
We are going to use the what moxie means snippets in a page right next to the editors letter so it will be up front. This will also give us a good idea of what you, as our reader really thinks about a word that means so much to the magazine. Please take a few minutes to let us know what Moxie means to you. We will be eternally grateful and you’ll get cool stuff in return. It’s a win, win.
We look forward to receiving your answers.casino online
It rained again today. A slow, gentle rain. Apparently, in this part of India, precipitation in December is almost unheard of, making everyone wonder about the last four days. But to me the rain has a fresh quality, and at the end of the day it clears Bangalore’s polluted skies to reveal a rich blue.
In many ways this is a land of dreams. The women, in their elegant saris and long black braids, have a regal dignity about them; the food is very healthy and, in my opinion, the tastiest in the world; and the art is intricate, elaborate, and exotic. Color is practically worshipped here, and wearing subtle shades is faux-pas (black is believed to attract mosquitoes – the concept of “basic black” is just not applicable). People here create their own rainbows and celebrate life in a way I’ve never seen before.
On the other hand, it is here in India that I’ve been witness to unbelievable desperation. In busy marketplaces, extremely disfigured people, barely recognizable as humans, lay on small plastic platforms with rollers, using one arm to pull themselves along as the rest of their limp bodies drag behind. Small children with ratty hair and dirt-smeared faces knock on car windows at stoplights, peering in with such pained eyes – eyes that you can’t just wave away because they’re too real. These are not just starving children on TV commercials; they’re in front of you, tapping you lightly on your arm with their tiny fingers, begging you quietly to please, please buy their Q-Tips. Sometimes parents will maim their children in order to make them look more pitiful, and the children must bring home a certain quota by the end of the day or be denied food or beaten.
This contradiction of extremes, the sheer intensity wrapped up in everyday Indian life, is what has always mesmerized me about India. Now I am finally here, a frightened and truly overwhelmed but energized 18-year old, volunteering at the Mithra Foundation. A member project of the global humanitarian non-profit Susila Dharma International, Mithra manages everything from micro-credit, women’s empowerment, and vocational training programs to a school for slum children to a statewide human rights education project. I have long admired the work of the Foundation, but here, among these conditions, I feel an exaggerated sense of my smallness and my lack of professional skill.
The day I arrived in Bangalore I attended a human rights competition hosted by Mithra. Schools from all over the Indian state of Karnataka presented their knowledge on the topics of women’s rights, the media, and child labor through speeches, songs, and dances. Special guest The Bornfree Art School, an arts school for street children, also gave a short performance and talk on child labor. These kids are survivors of child labor; one had been trained as a tight-rope walker and thrust into a circus at the age of five, and another had been working on construction sites, carrying a hundred kilos of materials on his head everyday since he was seven. I sank into my seat that day, horrified because I knew the jeans I was wearing had been made in a third world country, most likely by children. The concept of child labor was no longer theoretical, no longer a sad occurrence somewhere else, but instead embodied in the big-cheeked boy who handed me a brochure of the Bornfree Art School and in the nine year-old with calloused feet who came and sat beside me. Their stories, their scars – suddenly they were all tangible, and I (in my jeans) felt somehow responsible for these children’s tragedies.
I understood that the purpose of the program was not to criticize but to make me aware. People all over the world, myself included, shake their heads in disgust at the practice of child labor, yet in reality we continue shopping at Wal-Mart and Old Navy just the same because it’s convenient. And I can continue to do so, if I choose, but I must fully understand the nature of what I am perpetuating.
With that in mind, I have begun working at the Mithra Foundation’s school for slum children, playing with the kids and teaching them spoken English. Although they may not understand me all the time, they are extremely enthusiastic and crave any kind of contact. They crowd around me, chattering about anything and everything that comes to their minds and trying to repeat English words just the way I say them. Although I am a complete novice at teaching and feel like I’m stumbling along, they don’t seem to care, and every time they see me they shout out a thousand Good-Morning-Misses and Good-Afternoon-Misses and Hi-Misses. The teachers-in-training also give me special attention. “I am never talking to a foreigner before,” one of them confessed to me. “It is making us very happy to see you.” They have reached out to me, showing me their town, the best tailor and baker, telling me how much it should cost to have a certain type of dress stitched.
There is so much that can be done here – so many people to get to know, so many children to love – and I regret the feeling that I cannot give enough. But in this process I can also feel myself stretching in new and uncomfortable ways, and hopefully these people will teach me to understand how to help them. It isn’t pleasant to confront my own shortcomings, especially when I want so badly to make a lasting, positive contribution to life here, but I’m doing what I can.
- Alexandra Woodwardcasino online