environment: benefit concert
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Singing For The Planet: Songs Against Climate Change
Warren Senders / Toni Lynn Washington / Dean Stevens
Three Of New England’s Most Creative Singers Join Voices Against Climate Change
Friday, April 19 — 7:00 pm
Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston
On Friday, April 19, three singers from diverse musical traditions will join together to draw attention to the global climate crisis. Featured artists are: singer-songwriter Dean Stevens, Hindustani classical vocalist Warren Senders, and Boston’s “Queen of the Blues,” Toni Lynn Washington. The music begins at 7:00 pm, at Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA. Tickets are $20; $15 students/seniors. All proceeds will go to the environmental organization www.350.org. For information, please call 781-396-0734, visit “Singing For The Planet” on Facebook, or go to the event website.
“Singing For The Planet” is the seventh concert in the “Playing For The Planet” series, conceived as a way for creative musicians to contribute to the urgent struggle against global warming. Because the climate problem recognizes no national boundaries, the artists represent musical styles from three different parts of the globe. While Stevens, Senders and Washington sing in different languages and genres, all are virtuoso performers sharing the core values of expression, emotion and honesty. And, of course, all three artists and their accompanists are committed to raising awareness of the potentially devastating effects of global warming. Their choice of beneficiary, 350.org, is focused on building global consensus on reduction of atmospheric CO2 levels — action which climatologists agree is necessary to avoid catastrophic outcomes. It’ll be an evening of great vocal music, full of exquisite melody, rhythm, emotion and expression — from three singers who are genuine masters of their craft.
Purchase tickets online from CCNOW:
Regular admission: $20
Student/Senior Admission: $15
Advance Ticket Orders Are Accepted Until 3 pm on April 19. Orders received after Tuesday, April 16 will be held at the door.
About the Artists
=======================================================
Dean Stevens
“Powerful…moving political performer”
— Boston Globe —
For twenty five years Dean Stevens has delighted audiences of all ages throughout the Americas. An exuberant performer of distinctive style and wit, he combines an intricate, self-taught guitar style with a versatile and expressive singing voice.
“Dean Stevens is a charming entertainer, a musician of great sensitivity and wit. His spirit of joy and sharing shines through his music.”
— Jerry Christen, New Song Coffeehouse —
He has established himself as a formidable creator and interpreter of a wide spectrum of songs in English and Spanish. His own material explores a variety of personal and social topics, paints sketches of people and places, celebrates the Earth, and annoys the narrow minded.
“Dean Stevens will inspire you. Great voice!”
— Pete Seeger —
Born and raised in Costa Rica, Dean is a lifelong student of Latin America. He learned Spanish at an early age, and readily absorbed the musical and topical influences of the region. He travels frequently to Central America, and has become known for his humanitarian efforts on behalf of refugees returning to their homes in El Salvador and Guatemala.
“Seeing and hearing Dean Stevens live on stage is proof that sanity,
literacy, love, hope, and the forces of good are still alive and well and at work in the universe. Every song is offered with immediacy, humanity, and humor underscored by the most articulate and inspired guitar work you’ll hear anywhere on the topical folk circuit….a thinking and compassionate master communicator at the peak of his powers. Losing your faith? Go to a Dean Stevens concert!”
— Geoff Bartley —
Dean Stevens has four highly acclaimed recordings to his credit. His last release, “Eyes of Wonder” (Volcano Records), is a collection of songs in English and Spanish, with guest appearances by Sol y Canto, Randy Sabien, Linda Waterfall, and others.
“A performer with keen vision, tenacity and wisdom to inspire and to entertain”
— Dirty Linen Magazine —
======================================================
Toni Lynn Washington
Boston’s Queen Of The Blues
Born in North Carolina in 1937, Toni Lynn Washington began singing as a child. Over the past four decades she has become one of America’s most widely respected contemporary blues singers, and Boston’s own “Queen of The Blues.” Recipient of the 1999 Boston Blues Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, she currently records for the NorthernBlues label. Her rich, powerful and expressive voice makes her performances memorable and exciting.
Toni Lynn and her ensemble have performed throughout North America and Europe, including the Saratoga Jazz Festival, the Chicago Blues Festival, Memphis in May, and the Newport Jazz Festival at Sea (aboard the QE2) etc. She has received seven WC Handy National Blues Award nominations (including 2003, 2004 and 2005 “Soul-Blues Female Performer of the Year” nominations.), and many other award nominations for her previous albums including “Album of the Year” at the W.C. Handy Awards, “Album of the Year” at the NAIRD Awards, and “Outstanding Blues Album” at the Boston Music Awards, a 2006 BMA nomination, participation in charitable projects like the Respond II CD (with Joan Baez…), and critical acclaim from the media, including Essence Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Sun-Times, Living Blues, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Blues Revue, The Ottawa Citizen, Big City Blues, Boston Magazine, The Boston Herald , Jazziz, Downbeat, The House of Blues Radio Hour, NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’ , Mountain Stage, The Boston Phoenix, Bluestage, WBOS, WGBH, WFNX, etc., and the 1999 Boston Blues Festival Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Washington shows great range, moving from piquant jazz [to] steamy boogie-woogie…The dizzying range feels seamless… Washington(‘s) style and grace are queenly, indeed.”
— Steve Morse, Boston Globe —
Washington’s refined style can be summed up in one word: classic.
— Blues Review —
“Her combination of blues and traditional R&B grooves proved a huge hit…. She was a huge discovery…”
— SF Blues —
“She will make you melt”
— Boston Magazine —
======================================================
Warren Senders and The Raga Ensemble
One of the world’s great improvisational song forms is khyal, the richly ornamented classical singing of North Indian tradition. Accompanied by the tabla of Amit Kavthekar, the harmonium of George Ruckert, and the trance-inducing drone of tamboura, Warren Senders weaves a hypnotic tapestry of sound in his rendition of traditional ragas. Acclaimed as the foremost non-Indian performer of this beautiful idiom, Senders lived in India for many years, learning the khyal style from master teacher Pt. S.G. Devasthali. He has performed throughout the world, enrapturing audiences and critics with a unique combination of authenticity and originality.
“…an amazing man, an amazing artist.” Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, interviewed in Little India, September 2002
“Only an artist of great maturity could successfully balance this unique combination of elements…a level of inventiveness and emotional expression that is extraordinary.”
Teed Rockwell, India Currents, September 1999
He has received grants and fellowships including the Indo-American Fellowship, the Jon B. Higgins Memorial Scholarship for Indian Music, a Senior Research Fellowship and a Performing Arts Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies, support for music composition from Meet the Composer, and travel awards from the Fund for U.S. Artists. His writings on music have been published by Rhythm Magazine, Bansuri, the New England Conservatory Journal for Learning Through Music, and World Rhythm. Also a jazz musician, his original instrumental music can be heard on cds by “Antigravity” and the Jazz Composers’ Alliance Orchestra.
”Warren’s talent of keeping listeners engrossed by his delightful singing…comes from this same attitude of heartily enjoying the process of musical discovery.”
— Chaitanya Kunte, Tarun Bharat —
“Listening to Warren singing a khayal composition in raga
Shivaranjani, one is amazed at his clear diction and his flawless
pronunciation of Urdu words….a musical journey that is beyond
classification or defined boundaries.”
— Satyakam Chowdhury, Times of India —
An internationally recognized educator, Mr. Senders has given hundreds of lecture-demonstrations, master-classes and clinics, for interested learners from kindergartners to elders. He has developed extensive course material on the structure and aesthetics of Hindustani music, and has introduced students at colleges and universities all over the United States, Canada and India to aspects of Indian music. He is a faculty member of Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music.
=============================================
About www.350.org and the number 350:
Co-founded by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, 350.org is the hub of a worldwide network of over two hundred environmental organizations, all with a common target: persuading the world’s countries to unite in an effort to reduce global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million or less. Climatologist Dr. James Hansen says, “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.” (Dr. Hansen heads the NASA Institute for Space Studies in New York City, and is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue.) Activists involved in the 350 movement include Rajendra Pachauri (Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Vandana Shiva (world-renowned environmental leader and thinker), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a global activist on issues pertaining to democracy, freedom and human rights), Van Jones, Bianca Jagger, Dr. James Hansen, Barbara Kingsolver and many more.
Warren Senders is the contact person for “Voices Against Climate Change.” He is one of thousands of concerned global citizens hoping to trigger positive change through social action and the arts. He can be reached at warvij@verizon.net or by telephone at 781-396-0734.
environment Politics: agriculture denialists extreme weather sustainability
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 4, Month 3, Day 4: In Case Of Accident, He Always Took His Mum
More shrill alarmism from the Grey Lady:
DENVER — After enduring last summer’s destructive drought, farmers, ranchers and officials across the country’s parched heartland had hoped that plentiful winter snows would replenish the ground and refill their rivers, breaking the grip of one of the worst dry spells in American history. No such luck.
Across the West, lakes are half full and mountain snows are thin, omens of another summer of drought and wildfire. Complicating matters, many of the worst-hit states now have even less water on hand than a year ago, raising the specter of shortages and rationing that could inflict another year of losses on struggling farms.
Reservoir levels have fallen sharply in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The soil is drier than normal. And while a few recent snowstorms have cheered skiers, the snowpack is so thin in parts of Colorado that the government has declared an “extreme drought” around the ski havens of Vail and Aspen.
“We’re worse off than we were a year ago,” said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center.
But Al Gore uses a private jet. February 22:
Higher temperatures increase evaporation, bringing higher humidity, leading in turn to a steadily-increasing likelihood of extreme precipitation. But this doesn’t mean all that extra rain or snow’s falling where it’s needed — a lesson farmers in the American Midwest are learning painfully as their land parches and cracks under the ravages of extreme drought. This is climate change.
Warmer winters mean that invasive insect pests like the mountain pine beetle are no longer stopped by below-freezing temperatures, which means the likely death of millions of pines. Thousands of acres of dead forest in a land hammered by drought; a superfire waiting to happen. This is climate change.
The subtle and varied edifices of human civilization are built on the foundation of a benign and stable environment — something far more fragile than anyone imagined. As the land loses its ability to support our species’ numbers, this, too, is climate change.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes Barack Obama corporate irresponsibility denialists idiots
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 4, Month 3, Day 3: Let’s Split The Difference Between Catastrophic And Apocalyptic!
U.S. News And World Report gives us a teaser on POTUS’ intentions:
President Barack Obama is tired of waiting for Congress to move on legislation to reduce carbon emissions, and his administration is poised to move forward on actions to do just that—including a move that will effectively eliminate the possibility of any new coal plant opening in the United States, experts say.
“We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence,” Obama said during his State of the Union address. “Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science—and act before it’s too late.”
Climate change has been a controversial public policy issue in recent years, as many conservative Republicans have denied a relationship between carbon emissions and incremental increases in temperatures, which many scientists link to increasingly severe weather events.
But…
…there’s always a but. February 22:
There’s much to cheer in President Obama’s stated intention to push ahead initiatives for combating climate change over the rest of his second term. With American agriculture hammered by drought and extreme weather delivering blow after blow to coastline cities, it’s clear to all but the most willfully ignorant that climate change cannot be wished out of existence. A coherent national and global strategy for addressing the crisis is the need of the hour.
But given Mr. Obama’s desire for common ground, he must recognize that in this struggle, a compromise with his political opponents is no better than abject surrender to natural forces far more powerful than they. His real adversaries are neither the increasingly intransigent GOP or the profit-driven fossil fuel corporations whose executives recently joined him for a round of golf, but the laws of chemistry and physics — immune, alas, to electoral exigencies or soaring oratory.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists idiots Republicans
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 4, Month 3, Day 2: I Smoke Fettucini Alfredo, Myself
In breaking news, Chris Christie is an utter idiot:
Did global warming and rising sea levels trigger Hurricane Sandy?
And does it matter?
Gov. Christie says it doesn’t. Whether environmental changes caused the storm is an “esoteric question,” he said at a news conference at the Shore earlier this month. Victims of the storm don’t “give a damn” either – as confirmed by a group of Sandy survivors who applauded Christie’s remark.
But scientists say they all need to start caring. Because regardless of what caused Sandy, even those skeptical about climate change say a Sandy-like storm will happen again. And so, steps must be taken now to prevent loss of life and property later.
The guy gives douchenozzles a bad name. Sent February 21:
We’ve seen this behavior hundreds of times, perhaps in our own families or neighborhoods. A friend has a heart attack, or a relative develops a malignancy — while rejecting any connection to unhealthy habits. Since there’s no way to link a particular cardiac episode to a daily diet of jelly donuts and cheeseburgers, or a particular tumor to a 3-pack-a-day smoking habit, this makes it easier to deny even an obvious causal relationship.
Chris Christie’s doing the same thing in refusing to consider climate change’s impact on New Jersey’s future. The simple fact is that America has developed some very unhealthy habits over the past century; while no single storm can be definitively linked to our fossil-fuel addiction, we’ve tilted the probabilities in favor of more disastrous weather in the years to come. Governor Christie needs to spend more time in New Jersey, and less in a state of denial.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes Barack Obama corporate irresponsibility
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 4, Month 3, Day 1: Maybe He Was Talking Them Into Taking A Pay Cut?
The San Antonio Express-News runs an AP article on Obama’s seeming readiness to embrace the climate cause:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is talking about climate change like it was 2009.
The president, who rarely uttered the words “climate change” or “global warming” during the second half of his first term and during the re-election campaign, has re-inserted it boldly back into his lexicon. In his latest State of the Union address before Congress, Obama sounded like he did in his first, urging lawmakers to limit gases blamed for global warming “for the sake of our children and our future.” Those words followed his inaugural address, in which he said, “We will respond to the threat of climate change.”
The difference between then and now is that Obama knows Congress is unlikely to agree. He said that if Congress won’t act, he will through executive action. The question is: What will he do?
But then, we read this:
WASHINGTON — On the same weekend that 40,000 people gathered on the Mall in Washington to protest construction of the Keystone Pipeline — to its critics, a monument to carbon-based folly — President Obama was golfing in Florida with a pair of Texans who are key oil, gas and pipeline players.
[snip]
But on his first “guys weekend” away since he was reelected, the president chose to spend his free time with Jim Crane and Milton Carroll, leading figures in the Texas oil and gas industry, along with other men who run companies that deal in the same kinds of carbon-based services that Keystone would enlarge. They hit the links at the Floridian Yacht and Golf Club, which is owned by Crane and located on the Treasure Coast in Palm City, Fla.
Oh, fuck it. Go ahead and have your apocalypse, but don’t expect me to cheer. Sent Feb. 20:
So President Obama finally brought up climate change in his State of the Union address. Given that the rapidly transforming planetary atmosphere has the potential to render all other political concerns irrelevant within a few generations, it’s only appropriate for the leader of the world’s most powerful nation to address the problem.
So far, so good.
But it’s extremely troubling that last Sunday, as 40,000 people filled Washington for the country’s largest-ever environmental demonstration, the President chose to spend his time golfing with Jim Crane and Milton Carroll, leading figures in the Texas oil and gas industries. Fossil-fuel’s grossly disproportionate influence on American politics can’t be nullified with words, no matter how forceful or eloquent, and since policies robust enough to have a positive impact on climate change will certainly hurt the quarterly profits of Big Oil and Big Coal, these corporate actors will fight tooth and nail against meaningful action.
Warren Senders