United We Stand Festival (Occupy.com) FREE!

Pat Macpherson (occupy.com), CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; United We Stand Festival

A series of college campus concerts kicks off today at UCLA with Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, and more independent candidates than the mind can easily contemplate (The Festival)

"One movement" -- 99% against criminal banks, Occupy LA (srilankanguardian.org)

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Tickets, tickets, I need tickets! - It's free now.

NOW FREE OF CHARGE! The Woodstock United We Stand Festival show has neither been rescheduled nor cancelled. It is relocated! Check for new venue. Ticketmaster has issued refunds, and anyone who got tickets through a non-refundable donation to Free & Equal will get priority seating. We'll see everyone today unless the LA Weekly is right.

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United We Stand Music Fest Calls on Youth to Seize Politics – and Power

(Occupy.com, May 8, 2014)

Recognized names in American media, music, politics, and activism will assemble today -- Saturday, May 10th -- for the inaugural United We Stand Festival. Then the show moves to a state near you.

Today's show is at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion -- kicking off a 10-campus bus tour that aims to educate and empower youth to assert a new electoral force in politics.

(N.W.A. the West Coast Public Enemy) "Express Yourself" - I'm expressing with my full capabilities/ And now I'm living in correctional facilities/ Cuz some don't agree with how I do this/ I get straight and meditate like a Buddhist..." Dr. Dre (the First Billionaire of Hip Hop) was going to come, but he is too busy counting Apple, Inc. money.
 

Solutions: Back to the land to garden but this time with organic permaculture (Occupy)

 

"...with liberty and justice for sale."

Organized by Christina Tobin and the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, the festival features TV host Larry King, former U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, author and congressional candidate Marianne Williamson, David Bronner of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, former Green presidential candidate Jill Stein, and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

In Tobin's words, the unique brand of politics, activism, and music coming together into a single festival is "designed to inspire America’s youth to educate themselves and exercise their civil liberties to become true advocates for change.”

Awake the Nation! See all UWS Festival details at Wisdom Quarterly

 

Media makers from RT (Russia Today)'s Abby Martin to Ben Swann, Lee Camp, David Swanson, Amber Lyon, Josh Tolley, Brad Friedman (KPFK 90.7 FM), and Occupy.com's Michael Levitin will also be speaking at the festival.

Music will include performances by Public Enemy, Immortal Technique, Wu-Tang Clan, Playing for Change, Cynic, Rooftop Revolutionaries, Sounds of Solidarity, The Siren, Luminaries, and A-Alikes, among others. More

Pussy Riot's Nadia visits Cecily McMillan after first NYC O.W.S. conviction (Occupy)

I am the 1%. Don't go to UWSF!

We are the 99%. Go to the Fest!

The United We Stand Festival (concert)

Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; UnitedWeStandFest.com; UCLA (tickets)

Awake the Nation! Free & Equal sets out to unite us as We the People, May 10 (UWSF)

Coming to a University Near You!
The United We Stand Festival will kick off at UCLA on May 10th for a University Bus Tour across America, combining music and education to awaken the nation!
 
Inspiring young and old alike to help elect principled leaders who are not swayed by special interests, we can restore a world of peace, liberty, harmony, justice, ecology, prosperity, and happiness for all.

Musical headliners at UCLA include Public Enemy, members of Wu-Tang Clan, Immortal Technique, The Siren, Cynic, Tatiana Moroz, Rooftop Revolutionaries, A-Alikes, Luminaries, Jon Goodhue, Sounds of Solidarity, and more.

Speakers include media legend Larry King, Ben & Jerry, Marianne Williamson (NY Times bestselling author and independent congressional candidate for CA-33), David Bronner (CEO of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps), and Sean Stone (son of Hollywood bigwig Oliver Stone, who created) host of Buzzsaw.


Other notable figures include Dr. Jill Stein (our 2012 Green choice for president), Gov. Gary Johnson, Amber Lyon (Emmy-winning journalist/whistleblower), Ben Swann (Emmy-winning journalist), Diane Goldstein (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), Mnar Muhawesh (Mint Press News), and many more.

TICKETS are on sale now at the revolutionary price of $17.76 (but use promo code WETHEPEOPLE for a 50% discount at checkout!) at UCLA's Central Ticket Office and online through TicketMaster.

Free & Equal Elections Foundation is an election reform organization dedicated to the idea that all enjoy an equal share of the rights and responsibilities of our nation's governance. We strive to create a system in which all citizens are equal in ability to participate.



Immortal Technique appears on Abby Martin’s "Breaking the Set" on RT discussing the United We Stand Fest
LOS ANGELES, California - Immortal Technique, the legendary independent hip-hop artist, appeared on "Breaking the Set" with Abby Martin on RT America on May 1st to discuss Free & Equal’s United We Stand...

MoreBus tour kicks off at UCLA to strengthen America’s commitment to free and equal elections
BUS TOUR KICKS OFF AT UCLA TO STRENGTHEN AMERICA’S COMMITMENT TO FREE AND EQUAL ELECTIONS with a music rally at the UCLA campus in Westwood, Los Angeles, California to empower voters and inspire youth featuring Public Enemy, Immortal Technique...

Ben & Jerry’s sponsor United We Stand Festival

Hippie dairy product full of deadly sugar and good intentions? Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is now a proud sponsor of the Free & Equal Elections Foundation's United We Stand Festival at UCLA on May 10th. Ben & Jerry’s is proud to stand...

Dennis Kucinich will speak at United We Stand Fest UCLA
Former U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich -- one of the precious few honest politicians gerrymandered out of office and reduced to working for Fox News -- is a confirmed speaker at Free and Equal’s United We Stand Festival at UCLA on May 10th. During his 16 years in Congress, Kucinich...
 

The Moon over the University of Los Angeles's Westwood campus (ucla.edu)

Coachella begins: Weekend 2, 2014 (video)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; YouTube/Coachella; Buzzfeed; 98.7; Randall Roberts (LA Times)

Coachella bikini-clad bhumi-devas go on display (Naomi Zeichner/buzzfeed.com)

Eat your hearts out as I do my best Miley acid... She's in the hospital OD'ing on antibiotics?

LA has a $10 alternative in Brokechella but, "Space is far out, man!" (alt987fm.com)

(Coachella) See highlights of Weekend 1. Fan photos. Watch VIDEO

  

Coachella is a one horse polo field in desert

It's a once-in-a-lifetime show like Woodstock '69, but it happens every year, twice. Never mind all that; it's Coac-hell-aaaaaaa! Get in the carpool, and shut up. Here we go again -- the lawn, the price gouging, the sun damage, and the wooooo!

Katy Perry in the audience

INDIO, California - As a giant impenetrable scrum of attendees waited for New Zealand singer Lorde, 17, to take the Outdoor stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, nearby, MGMT played the main stage, and the chorus of its song "The Youth" gusted in toward Lorde's crowd like a portent.
 
"The youth is starting to change," offered singer Andrew VanWyngarden as the band's psychedelic disco slow jam drifted in. "Are you starting to change? Are you, together?"

No one much smiles unless one holds up a camera or until the music whisks a concertgoer away for a moment in an overheated tent or a massive mosh pit (latimes.com).

When I was 17, Wknd 1

A few minutes later, as if conjured by MGMT's query, arrived Lorde. Dressed in white and seeming every bit a future figurehead, she took the stage just after the distant song had arrived at its ethereal ending mantra: "the youth… the youth… the youth." It felt like a clarion call.

• LINEUP: Celebs and Coachella set list
• PHOTOS: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
• Visit Coachella Fest by air ($1,500)

Call it coincidence or a mystical accident of fate, but that moment on Saturday seemed to capture this year's festival for me: a musical event firmly listing away from past glory and toward a synthesized future. More

Locals left out when world comes to party
Josie Huang (KPCC/SCPR.org, April 18, 2014)

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been a fixture in Indio [Spanish for "Indian"] for 15 years -- or, in the parlance of some city teenagers, “forever.” And that comes with perks and drawbacks. Big perk: The marching band at Indio’s Shadow Hills High School was invited to perform with the electronica duo Big Gigantic when the festival opened last weekend. More

Sobriety is one of the best things about Coachella Music and Arts Festival (buzzfeed.com)

After 100 Years of Solitude, then what?

• 100 Years of Solitude Latin author and icon Gabriel Garcia Marquez dies Thursday 
• Jay Z's "Made in America Fest" is coming to downtown Los Angeles
• Will rapper Jay Z ruin LA's Grand Park?
• VIDEO: Will Beyonce and Timberlake be there?
• Gas prices: Excuses made but oil companies getting richer
• Hey, slob, you should be as fit as me, Ivanka Trump
• "I love you," student texts mom from sinking South Korea ferry
• Official survivor in Korea hangs himself
• Gwyneth Paltrow is sad post conscious-decoupling
• Painting maybe tossed in trash after selling for millions
• Mother of brain-dead Jahi says daughter is "still sleeping"
• Pot-loving 420 Rally this weekend, but beware at airports
• John Oliver on the Luxurious "Freedom" of HBO, His Complicated Relationship With NYC 

Hollywood Reporter's 35 Most Powerful People in NY Media 2014



Taking L.A.'s traffic woes east into the desert

Los Angeles, World's Music Capital (webcast)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seven, Pat Macpherson, Dev, Wisdom Quarterly; KROQ.com

Acoustic X-mas weekend, FREE WEBCAST, Dec. 7-8, 2013 beginning at 5:00 pm PST

(Cage the Elephant) "Come a Little Closer" from Melophobia (I. Rentz/S. Buchanan)

Lost City of Angels rocks! (Occupy LA)

Living in Tinsel Town has its advantages. Among them is the variety of music concentrated into a smoggy basin girded by a mountain sign, golden coastline, and a smoggy desert expanse mostly covered by asphalt.
 
The intermittent heat makes artists half baked. As previously noted, America is like a box of cereal with its seams split, shaking out on both ends, littering coasts east and west with flakes, fruits, and nuts. Los Angeles has more than its share of nuts. And many of them occupy positions of influence in the music industry.

Frenzy of excitement at a big KROQ rock show in Los Angeles (craveonline.com)

 

Miley Cyrus in L.A. twerked for the holidays

The monopolistic corporate media powers that be have assembled numerous mega-concerts for the holiday season: (CBS, Inc.) KROQ's alternative "Acoustic X-mas," KPWR (Power 106)'s hip hop/gangsta rap "Cali Christmas" (to be live streamed Dec. 14, 2013), Ryan Seacrest's pop/rap KISS FM's giant Jingle Ball. Who's playing? Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Robin Thicke, Selena Gomez... went on last night in an enormous downtown concert stadium.

24th Annual show (kroq.cbslocal.com)

But tonight and tomorrow, all for charity, KROQ will be live webcasting a more spectacular alt-rock-pop show featuring Lorde, Cage the Elephant, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Grouplove, The Neighbourhood, Queens of the Stone Age, AFI (A Fire Inside), Kings of Leon, New Politics, Fitz and the Tantrums, Portugal. The Man, Bastille, Atlas Genius, Foals, Arcade Fire, and Phoenix (plus a special surprise guest).

(JK) Arctic Monkeys "Do I Wanna Know" on former KROQ DJ Jimmy Kimmel's late night show

Rap for the holidays (Power106.com)

Macklemore, Ryan Lewis on Buddhism (video)

Seven and Boo, Wisdom Quarterly; Macklemore featuring Ryan Lewis; RapGenius.com

Fans of Macklemore show the artists love (soundonthesound.com)

Macklemore strikes a meditation pose in his Batman PJs (blog.designedgood.com)

Neo-hippies (elelphantjournal.com)

Vipassana is a Buddhist term. It means "insight" and implies insight meditation. It has been further popularized by S.N. Goenka, an Indian-American teacher from Burma. He and his Burmese teacher, U Ba Khin, conceived of free 10-day retreats to teach Westerners and others a powerful Buddhist practice -- available to all regardless of faith, tradition, or belief system. People are so moved by the experience that they often begin to quote the Buddha, Theravada texts, and Goenka talks (all taped for students) as they suddenly experience more calm and life-transformations than they ever imagined. 

Mrs. and Mr. S.N. Goenka (Dhamma.org)

Curt Cobain was so interested in Buddhism and "the end of all suffering," translated from Sanskrit as nirvana, that he named his band after the goal. The path to enlightenment often strikes artists. Apparently, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were similarly moved by their experience of the first blush of insight that ultimately leads to nirvana. In 2009 they released the song Vipassana or "Insight." They would later become famous for such hits as "Thrift Shop," "Same Love," and their second-best song ever, "Can't Hold Us," their very best song being:

  

Vipassana
Macklemore, Ryan Lewis

[Tape recording of Goenka:] "Vipassana is science of mind and matter: how the mind is influencing the body and later how the body is influencing the mind, the mind, the mind..."

Business insight? (executive.dhamma.org)

Yesterday? Forget it. Tomorrow is? Nada. The present is? Right here, through the breath. Watch it. Atheist Jesus peace, hangin' on a cross. We sit and discuss God on lawn chairs about how we got here: What it is, what it isn't, sh-t. Fate versus faith, scrimmaging with coincidence. Leave out the marketing; hold up on the business end. Focus on the genuine. With everything else, you can shed the skin. I was a couple moves away from being dead -- in that ER overdosing, eyes bleeding red. I fell in love, made an album, got a buzz, lost it all, sobered up, and guess what?

Macklemore surfs the crowd as Ryan Lewis works the stage (flickr com)

 

Now we meet again. And I'm back, finally just laughing. Expectations are resentments waiting to happen. Studying the Dharma, karma of vipassana [meditation] practice, Bah'u'llah, Buddha, God, to the mountaintop, and I'm traveling, learning, yes, reflecting on what matters: People, impermanence, lack of attachments. It's space and time, a couple man-made distractions, the measure of a spirit that no human can ever capture. Church, ha, this booth is my Vatican. I don't control life, but I can control how I react to it. Student of the breath, break beats, and balancing. Desire versus Truth until I finally find happiness [the ultimate, the highest happiness, being nirvana].

Prof. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

CHORUS: I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. Passing through space and time, passing through space and time, oh, passing through space and time, space and time, space and time...

I was put here to do something before I'm lying in that casket. I'd be lying on the beat if I said I didn't know what that is. The world's a stage, and we play a character. I found him. It took me 20 something years and a bunch of sh-tty sound checks. I'm not going to be content until I find gratitude regardless of my sales or the record deals that they're handing you. If the next generation takes our legacy and samples you, we'll have a bunch of MP3s and misled kids to pass them to.

 

I use my veins to create the color I paint from. Delve into something till my heart becomes my paint brush. I told my mama, "I'm not stopping till my name's up." Thinking those comments on that blog is gonna save us. Searching for everything but Gods and validation. Get insecure and then we start blaming the haters. Used to look to women to fill a part of me that was vacant. Truth, the only thing that I ever used in moderation. 

 

So I stare into this paper instead of sitting at a cubicle. Take all ugly sh-t inside and try to make it beautiful. Use the cement from rock bottom and make it musical so the people can relate to where I've been, where I'm going, what I've seen, what I've heard. From the guts, f-ck the glory, just a person on a porch putting it all into recording. Many in my past and many that came before me. I just keep walking my path and blessed to share my story.

• PHOTOS: Flashback to "Dawson's Creek"
• VIDEO: Greenwald on Obama's Neo-conservatism

More on insight (vipassana) in the Art of Living (Dhamma.org)