Michael Monroe’s Wintersong
MINNEAPOLIS-Michael Monroe, a noted Minnesota guitarist and vocalist, celebrates winter on his latest CD collection of vocal and instrumental music, Wintersong, with a performance at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, at The Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Ave. S, Minneapolis. tickets are $18 in advance [612-338-2674 or www.thecedar.org] or $20 at the door.
Monroe is in his fourth decade of performing his original music, blending rich vocals, guitars, bamboo and glass flutes…music and technology working together powered by creativity…recycling his music "live" on stage to deliver a powerful style of acoustic folk, reggae and jazz. He brings compelling energy and his music is as much fun as it is innovative. A fixture in the Twin Cities music scene in variations from solo to six-piece bands, Monroe moved to the North Shore in the mid-90s and created his first solar-powered MisTree Studio recording.
The musical artist, whose work can be heard at Edgelife.net [click on Edge Life Expo] continues to perform in concert, festival, club and educational settings. His portable solar-powered set up provides electricity for his summer shows from Minnesota to the California Capitol Steps for "Clean Power Day" and serves to educate audiences about renewable resources. He is a member of the Minnesota State Arts Board and Young Audiences of Minnesota Performance Rosters since 2000, which allow him to create musical residencies with students and their communities.
For more information, visit www.michaelmonroe.info or www.myspace.com/michaelmonroemusic.
Qigong and relaxation
BLOOMINGTON, Minn.-Experience Qigong and how this form of meditation and energy work can bring relaxation into your life at an upcoming seminar on the campus of Northwestern Health Sciences University from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6. The Wellness Wave Series seminar will be held in Room L1 on campus at 2501 W. 84th St. in Bloomington. No reservations are needed. Parking is available in the East lot and enter through door #4. Paul Magee, LAc., an alumnus of Northwestern Health Sciences University and teacher of Taiji and Qigong will lead the December seminar.
Qigong is a form of meditation and energy work stemming from China. The seminar will cover history of different Qigong systems and introduce a few exercises that will help you learn how to work this relaxation technique into your life.
For more information on the Wellness Wave Series and other community events, visit www.nwhealth.edu/wellnesswave/wws.html.
Northwestern Health Sciences University offers a wide array of choices in natural health care education including chiropractic, Oriental medicine, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, human biology, and integrative health and wellness. The University has more than 900 full-time students on a 25-acre campus.
Green videos go worldwide
NORTH LIMA, Ohio-GreenEnergyTV.com, the leader in online green television that allows people to watch, upload and share green videos is quickly spreading around the globe. The free site is attracting viewers from 81 countries and six continents who are showing and sharing with the world what they are doing to be green.
"This is an exciting and historical time to be involved in the Green Movement," said Craig Zamary, Green Energy TV’s founder. "We need to move at a rapid pace to extinguish Global Warming forever. This can be achieved by allowing people to show their videos and share what they are doing to be green. People from around the world can connect online, and learn how to switch over to using cleaner alternatives in their home, workplace, schools, and their everyday environment immediately."
Green Energy TV will develop revenue streams through advertising opportunities and sponsorship. Zamary said the company will use some of its revenue to install solar/wind energy projects in Third World countries. "These energies can pump clean, fresh drinking water from deep below the earth’s surface and provide many other benefits to impoverished people."
Participants can upload videos at no cost at www.greenenergytv.com/uploadvideo.html.
Spiritual networking
KarmaCaffe has launched a new online social networking site dedicated entirely to spiritually minded individuals and businesses. Its purpose is to create an online community of healers, mystics, seekers, musicians, artists, teachers, saints, yogis and environmentalists to elevate the consciousness of humanity and to connect with others who share their passion for self-awareness.
Social networks like myspace, facebook and friendster are very popular," says Chandi Devi, editor-in-chief of KarmaCaffe and author of From OM to Orgasm: The Tantra Primer for Living in Bliss. "However there is a void for spiritually conscious people who are interested in yoga, meditation, tantra, prosperity and healing exclusively. We feature many unique features on our site such as events, clubs, classifieds, blogs, ecards, book reviews, forums, music and videos. Our intention is to harmonize and heal body, mind and spirit in the individual and manifest wealth, health, love and bliss in all."
For additional information on KarmaCaffe, visit karmacaffe.com
Album to benefit world entrepreneurs
LOS ANGELES-A digital CD compilation of 16 songs from the musicians of Zaadz Visionary Music, a community of artists committed to re-imagining the relationship between art, business, and loving effort, is now available and all proceeds will fund microloans through Kiva.org to help developing-world entrepreneurs lift themselves out of poverty. The recording, The Dream Is Valid, recently was announced at the social networking site Zaadz.com.
The Dream Is Valid includes a spectrum of music from ambient to chants, contemporary rhythms and world music. It is available only at www.omstream.com, and is sold as a "name your price" album to encourage sales. The album’s broad range of socially conscious music allows the purchaser’s entertainment money to make a difference to an entrepreneur in the developing world. All profits go directly into Zaadz Visionary Music’s Kiva Lender account, viewable at www.kiva.org/lender/zaadzvisionarymusic, where it will be continuously and repeatedly loaned as microloans are repaid and additional albums are sold.
"Everyone involved, including our kind hosts at Omstream, has relinquished their profit from the sale of this album so it can go directly to empowering sustainable business practices in local economies all over the planet," said Michael Garfield, founder of Zaadz Visionary Music and one of the compilation’s contributing artists. "This CD will generate funds not just once, but over and over; as our microloans are repaid and album sales continue, this compilation will be the center of an ever-expanding wave of global support."
Kiva.org is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, enabling individuals to make loans starting at $25 to entrepreneurs such as goat herders in Uganda, carpet weavers in Afghanistan, and rice farmers in Ecuador. Currently Kiva.org connects lenders in more than 50 countries with entrepreneurs in 39 developing countries through 62 microfinance partners. To date more than $14 million has been loaned to more than 20,000 entrepreneurs worldwide.
Omstream.com was created out of a need to locate music that elevates consciousness amid the clutter of more than two million songs available on iTunes and other download services. Omstream sells new and exclusive music from popular artists such as Krishna Das, Deva Premal and Robert Gass. World music takes center stage, including Tibetan, traditional Kirtan, Native American and Pan-African music. Omstream also offers thousands of songs for the practice of massage, relaxation, meditation and yoga, including instructor playlists, as well as nature sounds. Downloads are available in multiple formats for the iPod or other MP3 players, and individual songs cost only 99 cents. The Omstream Preview Channel streams a free playlist of Omstream selections 24 hours a day.
