What makes Music for a Better World Legacy So Special
There are a number of sites that feature Music for a Better World, but what makes this one special is I'm introducing a project that is going to be a unique meeting place where fine musicians can work together in a spirit of cooperation and unselfish zeal for the improvement of the legacy we are creating for the generations of kids to be born in the future decades.My Musical Background
I've been a music aficionado all my life, and since age 9 I've had formal and informal music lessons, years of choral work as a Catholic monk in schools, and as a composer for NYU's Educational Theater Program, the US Army Chapels in Germany under Bishop (former Colonel)Roque. Like by role model, Kris Kristofferson, I did one-man shows with my 12-string guitar and my harmonica at US Army Officers Clubs and Enlisted Clubs in Bavaria. I composed an anthem for the Office of the President, Assumption University of Thailand (http://www.au.edu), and, after spending January to May enrolled in a course on Global Climate Change at Harvard, and editing for Penn State's climateethics.org blog on the human rights issues involved in Global Warming, I'm now continuing my hours of work in support of a young Cambodian woman who was my student in Thailand (she in in the silk trade in Boston), continuing my manufacture and publication of science education materials marketed by WVR Scientific of New York, and singing and songwriter in Greater Boston (http://that-hands-on-music-guy.com).
I've been a music aficionado all my life, and since age 9 I've had formal and informal music lessons, years of choral work as a Catholic monk in schools, and as a composer for NYU's Educational Theater Program, the US Army Chapels in Germany under Bishop (former Colonel)Roque. Like by role model, Kris Kristofferson, I did one-man shows with my 12-string guitar and my harmonica at US Army Officers Clubs and Enlisted Clubs in Bavaria. I composed an anthem for the Office of the President, Assumption University of Thailand (http://www.au.edu), and, after spending January to May enrolled in a course on Global Climate Change at Harvard, and editing for Penn State's climateethics.org blog on the human rights issues involved in Global Warming, I'm now continuing my hours of work in support of a young Cambodian woman who was my student in Thailand (she in in the silk trade in Boston), continuing my manufacture and publication of science education materials marketed by WVR Scientific of New York, and singing and songwriter in Greater Boston (http://that-hands-on-music-guy.com).
Experiences that Prompted My Concern for Future Generations
I lived on edge of the Louisiana wetlands, in the high desert of Northern New Mexico, and on the small island of Manhattan (New York) from 1937 to 1974. I lived in Germany from 1974 to 1994, and back near the Louisiana Gulf Coast from 1995 to 2005. I moved to Bangkok in July, 2005. There I edited a number of major learned presentations, speeches, and other university documents, but also edited student theses and doctoral dissertations. As a public service, I wrote weekly education articles for kingdom's leading English newspaper, The Bangkok Post. In my work as an editor, faculty member, and newspaper writer I became acutely aware that the planet Earth is in serious trouble. I had inklings of that in 1993 and 1994 when I spent my summers researching the relative risk of coal versus nuclear energy produced by a unique experimental sodium-cooled "Integral Fast Reactor" that was in its last stages of development at the Argonne National Energy Laboratory - West, part of the 900 sq. mile Idaho National Engery and Environmental Laboratory near Idaho Falls. It was a sobering experience.
I lived on edge of the Louisiana wetlands, in the high desert of Northern New Mexico, and on the small island of Manhattan (New York) from 1937 to 1974. I lived in Germany from 1974 to 1994, and back near the Louisiana Gulf Coast from 1995 to 2005. I moved to Bangkok in July, 2005. There I edited a number of major learned presentations, speeches, and other university documents, but also edited student theses and doctoral dissertations. As a public service, I wrote weekly education articles for kingdom's leading English newspaper, The Bangkok Post. In my work as an editor, faculty member, and newspaper writer I became acutely aware that the planet Earth is in serious trouble. I had inklings of that in 1993 and 1994 when I spent my summers researching the relative risk of coal versus nuclear energy produced by a unique experimental sodium-cooled "Integral Fast Reactor" that was in its last stages of development at the Argonne National Energy Laboratory - West, part of the 900 sq. mile Idaho National Engery and Environmental Laboratory near Idaho Falls. It was a sobering experience.
At Assumption University, my friend, a former Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, attended a conference that led up to the 2007 Bali meeting of the IPCC, and we shared our concerns about the need for inter-generational communication.
In editing the dissertation of my Cambodian student and friend, I was alarmed at her findings reference three serious problems that will create major havoc for future generations.
- Terrorism,
- Economic Turmoil, and
- Earth's Environmental Problems
I spent most of my 50 years of teaching as a science teacher, teaching Environmental Science, Earth Science, physics, chemistry and biology at the secondary level and in colleges and universities. I was eager to accompany my former student to Harvard, where I was a guest of the professors as she studied the science, human impact, and diplomacy involved in Global Climate Change. I read all I could, attended presentations by four Nobel laureates, and helped her prepare for her tests and papers.
My last academic publication came when Professor Donald A. Brown, esq., Nobel laureate with the IPCC, asked me to condense a lengthy chapter of a book for publicatio on the Penn State climateethics.org blog, July, 2008. Since then I've followed the news feeds regarding climate change and subscribed to Science News to stay up to date. I've decided to dedicate my remaining years. Because I'm already 72 years old, I'm not assuming I'll be a functioning activist for more than one or two more decades - (wink).
I think I've hit on a brilliant idea: Because
- I want to do something about the unfairness that leads to Terrorism, the Selfishness that causes economic turmoil, and the abuse of the planet that is causing Climate Change and pollution.
- I have seen first hand the power of music to lift minds and hearts above everyday concerns is music.
I have decided to use blogs like this one, and a brand new one that's coming in September, 2009, to bring together musicians, known and unknown, where they can share their ideas freely, work together as volunteer individuals or partners to compost, write lyrics, play instruments, sing, record, produce, manage, publicize and market music that will make do things better so that we leave a better legacy for coming generations:
1. Our music will inspire us to treat one another with more respect,
and
2. Our music will encourage us to treat the planet with more respect.
