Call for Prayers

UPDATE – 4 April 2012 – Jimmy is home with his dear wife Ruby and family close by. Thanks for the prayers!

 

In case you had not heard, Jimmy Seals was admitted to the hospital and has been in intensive care for a yet-to-be-identified viral infection. Please say Healing prayers for Jimmy Seals and for the patience and fortitude of his wife Ruby, and the whole extended family.

Thanks.

///Darrell

February Greetings!

Happy  Black History Month, Ground Hog Day, St Valentine’s Day, President’s Day and Ayyam-i-Ha too.  Not to mention the big dates already passed in January (like New Year’s day and Martin Luther King Day)

So much has transpired in the month and a half since my last post, i’m not sure where to begin, and I am sure I will omit something. But I’ll do my best with the aging gray cells I have left.

Robert Gillies won another Songdoor songwriting contest. And he won a TopBlip contest and opened for Andy Grammer.
Tyler Thompson is on the road with Up With People
Chris Ruhe played with Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul and Mary)
On a visit with Chris, Chuck Thrapp met and sang with Pete Seeger.  Chuck and his wife Roz toured the Eastern USA and had a great time
Several alumni are back in School.  Faraz Ghoddusi is almost a doctor.
Kelly Snook went around the world with Imogen Heap for shows in India and China.
Katherine Key went into the studio and recorded an album.
Alan James has been hanging out at the Hideaway and will come perform in Tucson in March.
Ali Youssefi moved to Haifa (back in October) and has done some shows there.
Angela Owens is moving to JAPAN at the end of February!
Jon and Auntieclaire Rezin have added a BABY SON Anis to their family repertoire!
JB Eckl and Katie, and kids, relocated to Chattanooga, TN where JB has teamed up with Eric Dozier to set some hearts aflame with their new Badasht II album (with production work by Jon Rezin)
Chris Miller moved to Sacramento.
Devon Gundry and wife Golriz are becoming TV producer-stars – SoulPancake TV on the OWN – and they are producing a baby soon!
Elika Mahony produced an instrumental piano album called “Glimmerings”.
Gustaff Besungu is touring with Munireh Sparrow.
Russ Salton, now visiting Peru, has been performing around the Seattle area and recorded some tracks with Kyra Cash.
Kyra Cash and husband David are going to have a baby! (no, not from recording with Russ.  stop that)
And Chana Rae Johnson is ENGAGED!
Van Gilmer announced the new SACRED SONGS V CD recorded “Live” at the 5th Annual Baha’i Choral Festival held in May 2011 at the Baha’i House of Worship for the North American Continent.
As for me, I’ve been real busy putting to use some of the knowledge I gained at our last Music Industry Weekend.

For instance, I finished my funny video “ROTFLMAO – the facebook song” but after talking with Robert Gillies, established revenue sharing for YouTube Advertising. Then, before publishing it, I took Jon Rezin’s advice and established a Vibedeck Digital Download site for selling digital downloads of my music. Vibedeck links easily with Facebook and Youtube and Soundcloud and provides html code for embedding players into webpages – And It’s FREE. All sales are transacted through Paypal.  After a little research, I discovered that Paypal will offer business accounts a “micro-payments” option that reduces the fees on small purchases to 5% + 5-cents on each transaction.  So the “overhead” cost of a 99-cent download is only a dime.   Now, I have links to my Vibedeck “Music Store” on my Website, my YouTube videos and my new Facebook Musician/Band page.

And I learned all of this at Music Industry Weekend!

Of course, my biggest news is that on New Year’s Day, I became an official Grandpa (after having looked like one for years).  Here’s Emily Rae Langness.  She weighed in at 7-lbs and has grown now to 9-lbs which at her age is a good thing.

Send me any news you’d like to share, or just post a comment.  And tell your musician friends about Music Industry Weekend !

///Darrell

Darrell Elmer Rodgers – Coordinator, Music Industry Weekend

Singer, Songwriter, Performer, Humorist

http://darrellsongs.com

Thanks for a great Year

I wanted to take a moment and thank all of our Music Industry Weekend family for making 2011 a great year musically. You have all enriched my musical life in one way or another and I thank you.

Special thanks again to Chris Miller for helping launch or Scholarship fund (see previous post) and offering proceeds from the sale of prints like the one of me shown here.  If you find a special shot of yourself in the “Chris Miller Gallery” on Flickr, Chris could probably work up an art print of you as well.  Check out his gallery on Fine Art America

I just paid a visit (Sunday) to friends at the Grand Canyon Bah’i Conference in Phoenix.  Although I don’t attend the conference, I like to visit there to see old friends who do. This year it was good to see JB Eckl & Eric Dozier - a dynamic duo called “Moanin’ Sons“, who performed at the conference Saturday evening.  They sold their “Badasht Vol 1” CDs all day long.  JB says “Badasht Vol.2″ will be available this week, so watch for it!

I also visited briefly with Yosi Mesbah who was serving in the bookstore.  After meeting Yosi, and hearing her wonderful songs at this year’s Music Inductry Weekend, it was delightful to see her again.  Sarah Danielle Taraz, who is a fine singer herself, was there also with her “Morse Code Spirit” jewelry.  And while we didn’t  see each other, I know drummer Michael Parker was there supporting his bride, Margueritte Sears (Granddaughter of Bill), with sales of “Stories from the Dawnbreakers” CDs.  Also lurking somewhere there was Eric Harper but I missed him somehow. Welcome to AZ Eric!

Others of you, scattered far and wide, have advised, inspired and entertained me throughout the year.

Loving greetings to Roz and Chuck Thrapp in California who celebrated Roz’s retirement from teaching with a road trip down the East coast. Chuck visited Chris Ruhe in Beacon NY and got to play and sing with the immortal Pete Seeger. Chris later sent me a nice photo of himself playing with Peter Yarrow (of Peter paul and Mary fame).

And kudos to Tyler Thompson of New Mexico who secured a spot in the 2011 world tour of “Up With People” and is, as far as I know, still out there performing.

Over in China, Elika Mahony has just released an album of instrumental piano pieces.  I think these will make for some great mood-setting before and during our devotional readings

Kelly Snook who has just toured India and China with internationally known, independent Grammy winner, Imogen Heap seems to be having the time of her life.  Kelly’s inspiring contribution to our weekend this year was much appreciated.

Speaking of China, and inspiration, hats off to producer Jarome Matthew and wife Felisha who are pioneering with a recording studio in Beijing.  Last December, they sufferd a great loss in a fire that destroyed their home and possesions and Jarome’s new studio.  But they perservered, and with the help of their friends there, emerged from the ashes this with a new, even better studio and high hopes for the future.

Also in China, is Mr. Kim Bowers, singer and founder of  “Workshop for the Arts”. Kim just opened what I believe is China’s first Tex-Mex Restaurant.  How’s THAT for PIONEERING!?

Other “survivors” among us are Russ Salton and his wife Roberta. They run a business in Gig Harbor, WA that was destroyed by an arsonist.  But they too are emerging victoriously from the ashes (with a SMILE!).

Robert Gillies continues to delight.  His most recent video, “Older” from his new album “Astronaut“  (which we heard at Bosch this tear, is a masterpiece of sweetness.  Robert’s currently in Scotland with girlfriend Rezal Martinez visiting Robert’s mother, Carolyn Fox, and a number of friends and relatives. They appear to having a great time!

Katharine Key has just started recording her second album with help from Andy Sperandeo.  She’s written a great BLOG piece called “what happens in the studio” that might help you explain to your fans why you can’t quickly answer the question: ”when will the album be finished?”

It has been an eventful year and I’m looking forward to hearing of all your activities in the coming months. I’m getting ready for a show at Old Tucson Studios on March 17th called “Playing for Unity in Diversity” that will include several MIW alumni including Robert Gillies, Angela Owens, and Alan James.  I’m also preparing to launch some digital downloads using ideas I learned from producer Jon Rezin at our last weekend event. And most importantly, any day now, I will become a GrandPa.  Pretty cool.

///Darrell

Darrell Elmer Rodgers – Coordinator, Music Industry Weekend

Singer, Songwriter, Performer, Humorist

http://darrellsongs.com

Annoucing the Scholarship Fund

Sunday Morning group photo by Mitko Gerensky

Greetings Music Industry Weekend Alumni and Friends!

 I am still “floating” after our marvelous weekend at Bosch last month.  And I am excited about the prospects for next year.  Our colleague Chris Miller (aka “mystici9″) took an idea he had and ran with it, spurring me and Jordan Rager (Deputy Administrator at Bosch) to spring into action.  We had for some time considered establishing a scholarship fund to provide tuition assistance to youth and full-time students whose career focus includes the Music Industry as a profession. 

 We are pleased to announce that such a scholarship fund has been established with the National Baha’i Fund Treasurer’s office. Contributors must be Baha’i and can, with a valid Baha’i ID number, earmark a contribution to the National Baha’i Fund as being for the “Bosch Music Industry Scholarship” by writing that in the memo section of the check.

A confidential committee will review and appraise applicants in the coming year. The available funds will applied as discounts to the Bosch fees.  It is not applicable to transportation or other individual costs, only to Bosch Baha’i School fees.

This means that Baha’i artists can now be creative and help grow this scholarship fund. For instance, I plan to establish a music download website of a few selected tracks and use the revenue I gain from the site to support the scholarship. That way, my meager download income from selected tracks will help some young musician in the future to tap into the energy and spirit of Music Industry Weekend and thereby learn that he or she won’t have to relinquish Baha’i principles to find friends in the music industry.

 We can follow the lead of Chris Miller, who turns out to be not only a fine musician, but a capable visual artist as well.

Chris writes:    “Well, my dear friends, paintings of performers from the recent 2011 music weekend are available at  http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/2-chris-miller.html  Proceeds to go towards a scholarship fund for next year.  These pictures can be used personally and for any of your fans to purchase as well. Please DO NOT use commercially without additional arrangements with me, i.e.; performance posters, album covers, etc. Hope you all enjoy!

                PS If you would like a picture of yourself or of someone you don’t see posted, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. If it’s from the weekend, ALL profits will go towards the Scholarship Fund.”

You can contact Chris by email at chris@mystictracks.com .

I hope you’ll have a look at Chris’s artwork and consider a purchase to help our scholarship fund.  Perhaps you’ll even consider doing something similar with your own talents as I plan to do.

Thanks Chris for leading the way!

 Now briefly some other stuff:

Robert Gillies is about to release his first album called “Astronaut” and from the tracks we heard at Bosch this year, it’s going to be stellar!  Robert was wondering if you would like to be on his fan mailing list. Just send your name and e-mail address to: robert@robertgillies.com

Jon Rezin, who gave us a great presentation (or three actually) on the business side of the Music business, is about to launch another venture called “9 Star Distribution”. 

Jon says:  “The Best in Baha’i Inspired Media is Launching Soon…9 Star Media Distribution is prepping for a launch around the 1st of the year.”

You can sign-up to learn more about  9 Star Distribution  by clicking on the 9-Star Logo.   Those of us who signed up for Jon’s mailing list have already received a link to some very useful internet resources.

Here’s something different, as one might expect from our brother Brian Taraz.  Brian has produced a series of YouTube videos called “Occupy God”.  These aren’t for everyone, but there are folks who quite enjoy them. 

Brian writes: “Check out - Occupy God on YouTube - Start with “The Messenger” and let it roll.  Give it 5 minutes (into Episode 1), If you hate it – move on.  – Brian”

And one more item:
yours truly, Darrell Elmer Rodgers, just released a Music Web Log video of a new song I wrote at Music Industry Weekend. I think it’s cute if I do say so myself.  Check out “Snuggle Up to My Good Side Baby” on YouTube .

Please share the weekend news with your fellow musicians and producer and make plans to join in the fun at Bosch Baha’i School, October 25-28, 2012!

 

///Darrell

 

Darrell Elmer Rodgers – Coordinator, Music Industry Weekend 

Singer, Songwriter, Performer, Humorist

http://darrellsongs.com

Another Fantastic Weekend!

Well dear friends, we did it again!  What fun we had at Bosch this year, and what springtime-like weather we enjoyed! (almost makes up for some previous year’s rain)

I made a video this morning – a VLOG for my own website (http://darrellsongs.com/ ) – but since it’s all about Music Industry weekend, here it is for you.

I’d like to point out that my “VLOGGING” skills were acquired at Last Year’s Music Industry Weekend and I just might present some video tips myself at NEXT Year’s event, scheduled tentatively for 25-28 October 2012.  MARK YOUR CALENDAR!!! 

Below are some photos that Deb took. 

You can see more photos on our Scrapbook 6 page  and on our new MIW_2011FLICKR page .

 

///Darrell

Darrell Elmer Rodgers- Coordinator, Music Industry Weekend 

Singer, Songwriter, Performer, Humorist

http://darrellsongs.com

Robert Gillies and Darrell Elmer Rodgers radio for help.

 

 

Mitko Gerensky and John Armour hatch their blackmail plot!

 

Drummers like Irwin Anolik don't grow on trees, but IN them perhaps...

 

Friday night Open Mic was eclectic!

 

 

Sunday Morning group photo by Mitko Gerensky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see more photos on our Scrapbook 6 page  and on our new MIW_2011FLICKR page  

 

Just a few days away!

For travelers, Here’s some news you can use.  The UCSC campus is just about 10 miles from Bosch (25 minutes).  Their website offers suggestions on how to get to UCSC via public transportation from area airports.  It would be possible for someone to come and pick you up at UCSC if you chose this method (there is also cab service). Please see http://taps.ucsc.edu/airports.html for information.

ALSO, almost as close as UCSC, there is a shared-ride shuttle that runs every 2 hours from the San Jose Airport to Scotts Valley.  It is called “Santa Cruz Airport Flyer”.  Their phone number is 831-423-5937.  Reservations must still be made in advance and they drop people off at the Hilton Hotel near Highway 17 (35 minutes from Bosch).  The cost is $40 plus tip (one way, per person).  The pickup times and other details may be viewed here:  www.santacruzflyer.com

I hope this is helpful.  Remember, you can contact me until Saturday to match up with someone else traveling to Bosch.  I may not be reachable after that.

 

///Darrell

Darrell Elmer Rodgers

Singer, Songwriter, Performer, Humorist

http://darrellsongs.com