In the midst of my preparations for Durban and other exciting life plans, I occasionally look for distractions. This morning I turned to Hulu to see if there were any shows that I felt a need to catch up on. Then I noticed a new channel: FOKN Bois.

I mean, it’s just four videos, all of which have been available for some time, but pretty cool nonetheless! Here’s hoping Coz Ov Moni shows up there soon…

I’ve liked the MC5 for years. When you’re just getting into rock, the MC5 are one of the bands that many books and bands reference as trailblazers, rabble-rousers, forefathers, and a bunch of other stuff. So I dove in. Even bought an MC5 hoodie (which I still wear on occasion). They are always one of the first bands to come up in the “origins of punk” discussions… and they certainly had the attitude.

That’s why it makes me so happy to see Wayne Kramer doing something amazing all these years later. Using music to empower. And in this case, it’s the musicians who are empowered, not the listeners… check it out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

They’re a little more traditional than most the musicians that Humanitarian Notes focuses on, but it’s hard not to like the ten man Zulu singing and dancing group Thula Sizwe. But there’s plenty of music that is lovely to listen to, these guys make it even better by tackling all sorts of worthwhile causes from helping the ecomically disadvantaged, supports AIDS awareness efforts and even raising money for Hurricane Katrina relief. There doing gigs throughout the east coast right now, check ‘em out if you get a chance… I think it’ll be worth your time.

A big thank you to Todd for alerting me to this amazing group.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With the great success of our fundraiser (and a huge thanks to wedidit and everyone who took part), I’ll be on a plane to Durban in a little over a month to start up our next project. It might be a little while before I can deliver anyone some music, but it’s definitely time to get the ball rolling.

Spoiler alert: It’s me.

The fundraising effort was a huge, huge success. Our goal of $5000 was met with a couple days remaining and within those couple of days we made it all the way up to a grand total of $6765! Amazing!

I’m still really excited about this, and I’ll be reaching out to donors in the next couple of days and will start getting people their (well-deserved) rewards ASAP.

Thank you to all who donated, shared or supported the effort!

We’re almost there! Four days to go! Get your donations in now!

A bit of behind the scenes info for the fundraising via the crowd-sourcing method we’re employing:

• For one thing, it is quite stressful. In a way that I am not at all used to.
• You have to bug people, remind people, pester people… and hope that they’ll give you money and still love you. Or at least give you money.
• We were at 40% just a day ago! Which is nerve-wracking and apparently completely normal.

Anyway, we’re on the final push. We just have this weekend left to get a measly 30%… no problem, right? Please chip in… great rewards await…

A huge thank you to all who have chipped in. Get your friends to join the fun… at this stage, you can be pretty confident you’ll be getting whatever cool reward you’re putting in money for. What are you waiting for? Do it!

In what might be the fastest turn-around time I’ve ever heard of in the world of African music, Mr. Benjamin Lebrave has managed to hear Burkina Faso’s Waga 3000 and a few short weeks later release an album on his (always reliable and amazing) Akwaaba Records. This is thrilling. Get into it now. This is music the whole world should hear:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Are you as regularly exhausted by mash-ups as I am? But then someone does something cool again and you think, “maybe mash-ups can be good and fun”…

Watch this video (and no other mash-ups) so you can sit comfortably in that “good and fun” world.

And if you’re in New York, see more Fela/Beatles fun tonight at Drom.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Is that how you go viral? Did we do enough exploiting in the video to get the right amount of sympathy?

I kid…

But we are working hard to get funding for our newest campaign and start up a project in Durban. If you haven’t checked out the description and rewards yet, please do… the sooner the better:

http://wediditfundraising.com/campaigns/12-humanitarian-notes-campaign

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Humanitarian Notes fundraising campaign has passed the $1000 mark! We’re already almost a quarter of the way there! That’s a reason to dance!

Also this song helps.