Hey everyone, 

I was involved in something awesome that aired on ABC last weekend. 

Last November I was asked by the TV show, Extreme Makeovers Home Edition to help out with a family in Kentucky. If you're not familiar with the show, it airs Sunday nights. You can view this week's episode here: http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP Select "The Hughes Family" (this should be online until May 2nd.)

Each week Extreme Makeovers Home Edition helps out a family who is coping with very unfortunate circumstances. The family usually lives in extreme poverty, dangerous situations, or a combination of both. To compound matters the families they help are also often times burdened with physical disabilities or illnesses as well. Besides helping the families they often also do something for the communities in which the families live. They really do great things to help people.

The show has won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality Program, plus the People's Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show/Makeover and the Family Television Award for Best Alternative/Reality Program. It is the 1 show in its time slot seen by 14 million people each week. I love it, my wife and I watch it every week.

In October, they had an episode where the daughters were musical, and they got the girls new guitars. I turned to my Cheryl and said "wouldn't it be great if I could help some of these families out through my work with Cakewalk?"

I couldn't believe it when less than a month later I recieved an email from one of the design producers for the show. Because of SONAR's (my company's recording software) accessibility features for the vision impaired, we were asked to help build a recording studio for a talented young man who was born without eyes. They had originally contacted Dancing Dots (A company who makes software that allows SONAR to work faster if you are blind by grouping together multiple tasks that would be hard to do if you couldn't see), who told the show if they needed a full recording studio for the vision impaired they should contact Cakewalk.  We had previously worked together with Ray Charles.

Patrick was also confined to a wheelchair and could not extend his arms or legs fully. Despite this he played trumpet in the local college's marching band. His dad would wheel him around in formation during practice and games. The house the family was living in was too small for his wheelchair, so when home he would need to crawl (and remember he had no eyes) or get carried by the parents. The father worked nights to support the family and to care for Patrick and allow him to go to school.

I asked Roland, Audio-Technica, Allen & Heath, Auralex, and Microsoft to donate gear for the studio. Gibson was also involved. They  Every single person I contacted immediately said "yes," no questions asked when I called them up looking for help.  I was floored by the generosity

Roland donated a PCR-800 and Edirol Speakers, Audio Technica donated all the mics for the piano, vocals and trumpet, Allen & Heath donated a ZED mixer, Auralex donated Studio foam, Microsoft donated Vista, Encarta and Office, Gibson donated a Baldwin baby grand (!) and guitars for the other son's room.

Cakewalk donated SONAR 7 Producer Edition, Rapture, Dimension Pro, an SPS-250 from Power Studio, and our time to set it all up.

Bryan Smart & Carl Jacobson

I flew out to Louisville with an employee from Dancing Dots to help set up. Bryan Smart and I configured everything so that Patrick Henry could be empowered to record his own music. This was a daunting experience right down to the last minute. JAWS was still in beta for Vista, CakeTalking was in beta for Vista, and the scripts for SONAR 7 were still in beta...we got it all to work though. This never would have happened without Bryan's help. He's a brilliant individual. I then installed everything in the studio, I even drilled holes to hide the cabling and hung the studio foam... which is a scary thing, ask my wife about my handyman abilities :)

Ty was an amazing individual to get to work with. He really cares. It was awesome to watch him give such lucid direction to people, and then to make people feel appreciated for their volunteer work.

And they really do everything in a week. I was still in the house installing extension pedals so Patrick could reach the pedals on the grand piano when ABC began filming. I got out in the nick of time to join in the thousands of people outside shouting "Move that bus!"

It was such an amazing experience to be part of everything that they were doing for this family. I felt blessed to be part of it all. It felt so good to be helping out such a deserving family, with such a talented musician. The kid is an inspiration. Watch the episode, you'll see why:

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP  Select "The Hughes Family" (this should be online until May 2nd.)

If you'd like more information on Patrick Henry Hughes, you can visit his website.

And don't forget to support the other companies who were so generous in their donations for the show.   

Allen & Heath

Auralex

AudioTechnica

Dancing Dots

Gibson

Microsoft

Roland

I received an email from a friend earlier asking:

"How do you deal with friends/acquaintances/newly introduced people who say all the sudden that they used to be vegetarian/vegan and aren't anymore?"

This individual asking the question felt puzzled, indignant or offended by the statement by the former vegetarians.

I am a vegetarian, and the way she felt was in line with some feelings I had when I was younger when people did not align with my own values. So in the past I grappled with the issue myself. I liked where I went with the response and decided to blog it. I removed the more personal details from teh email.

Please let me know your thoughts.

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This is something I have thought alot about, In fact I would say I grappled with similar issues when I was younger.

The reasons why people make their decisions are complex, and they may not really know why. They might think they are deciding to do something for one reason, but if analyzed their decisions are really coming from somewhere else.

For instance, during the Vietnam War era, there was alot of protesting against the war, government etc. You might think that people were very morally developed, worldcentric if you will, for their protesting the war. However, something more interesting was actually taking place. There were psychological studies done at the time, and when examined the largest percentage of these individuals were coming from an egocentric level of values, not worldcentric. So they while they were in fact protesting the war, which was a good thing, they were actually doing it from a "nobody tells me what to do" core attitude.

Ken Wilber often uses that example to describe what he calls a Pre/Trans Fallacy. There are Pre-rational values, rational values, and post rational values. Many times people of Pre values, and people of post values will want the same things but they will be coming at it from completely different places.

This makes a good example of why it seems that our parents generation failed, or lost their way, or became so materialistic in the 80s. They didn't really lose their lofty values, the reality is that most of them didn't truly have those high values in the first place. Even if they may have been paroting them. Shifting from where they actually were to the sixties/seventies to being driven and business oriented in the 80s was actually a stage up in psychological development (believe it or not).

Ok, it may have seemed that I drifted of course here so let's bring this back to your original question. The reason why I brought that up is because I see a lot of parallels between the examples I just gave you and the examples you were describing with "friends" who were not true to their values.

These individuals may have originally thought they were choosing Vegetarianism for the compassionate or moral reasons, but if analyzed there could be completely egocentric or narcisistic reasons why they were doing it before. These were probably an unconscious motivations, or if conscious, definitely not ones that anyone would admit out loud:

> Being a vegetarian is a way of rebelling against my parents traditional values.

> Being a vegetarian is my way of being different from societies values and standing out.

> Being a vegetarian will make me seem cool.

> Being a vegetarian will make me seem more sensitive to ladies.

> Being a vegetarian is a way for me to be skinny, and more attractive to guys.

I'd like to stress, that even if that is where people are coming from, it's still a good thing for the planet. And while many people might start there, and if vegetarianism becomes a habit they could stick with it while they develop psychologically and spiritually. Fake it till we make it if you will.

On the other hand, it's no surprise to me that if they were not firmly grounded in and coming from a place of compassion when they started being a vegetarian, that as they developed psychologically they could have let their ideals go, and abandon vegetarianism and move to a diet that is more convenient, or that is more suitable to their tastes or lifestyles.

People make their decisions for various reasons, and until you walk in their shoes you never really know. There are also people that could have been vegetarians, at a compassionate level, then had to switch back. It's not always easy for a young person to sustain something with that level of dedication. A well balanced vegetarian diet is more expensive (in the short term). Being a vegetarian is still not well supported in restaurants, grocery stores, and socially in non-metropolitan areas (and in some metropolitan areas too, trust me I was just in Louisville, KY). If a person can't afford to nourish themselves, what serves the greater good: living malnourished and not hitting your potentials, or not eating to your moral convictions, living to your potential, and being able to contribute to life more? I would suggest the later. And it can be worse than not just living to your potential, there could be health concerns like anemia, b12 deficiency, etc. And people could choose not to be vegetarian anymore for health reasons.

It's all a spectrum, not black and white. I've mellowed a little over the years and what I have learned is that if on the balance sheet people are more in line with your morals and values than against them, it is probably worth your while to be their friend.

Even if they are not, if you can get along with them, you can provide a good example for them to perhaps sway them back, or get them on the balance sheet to be vegetarian part of the time when hanging out with you (with care to not be too preachy or judgmental which people will automatically kneejerk resist without even thinking about it).

If someone really needs a friend... I implore you to be their friend. Compassion is compassion, no matter if you are extending it to animals or people. Buddha didn't discriminate. If a person needs compassion you should be compassionate, otherwise you could be guilty of being hypocritical yourself.

Anyway, I think I'm tapped out on this. I'm interested to see how you feel about this response.

Hey everyone. I've contributed music to the Zaadz Visionary Music Compilation: The Dream is Valid. It's a benefit for a great organization called Kiva, which provides zero interest microloans to people in developing countries.

There's a lot of great music on this compilation, the proceeds go to help people who really need it. Best of all, you can get teh entire album for whatever you want to pay. Name your price. So even if you only can donate a dollar or two you can feel like you're doing a a good thing and get some awesome new music in exchange..

Download The Dream Is Valid here..

Thanks for your support,

Carl

Unawareness that we are all connected

"you can't take me with you"

Mainstream news provides a means for people to feel connected.  It gives them something to care about.  It gives some people meaning to their life by providing others to follow and live vicariously through.  It adds drama to reality.

The better news organizations out there make us aware that there is a much bigger world than our day to day and very fortunate existence.  Hearing about the tourble in Burma or  Pakistan, or the many places in Africa make me appreciate the circumstances I am in, and cencourage me to live my life to be teh best person I can be.

By definition, creativity is a deviation from the norm.   When you share your creativity, you are putting yourself out there. You are baring your soul, opening up and inviting people to see within you.  You are exposing yourself and by that act you are vulnerable. That vulnerability is a big part of what makes a great work of art so beautiful.

For me music is an outlet of my creativity, just like my art, or my writing, or my work.  The inspiration all comes from the same place, it just materializes in a different medium.  The processes I use for composing music or creating art are very similar, even though the tools are different. Sometimes I'll have a concept I am trying to convey and that piece will have more meaning, and sometimes it's just a raging storm of ascending creative energy that needs to be released.

My creative work could be grouped into three types:

1. Many times things will come to me fully formed (or at least the architecture of their inherent logic will be fully present) and in those instances the challenge for me is to effectively translate it.

2. Other times I will be in the flow, and simply follow the muse where she takes me.  The key in those instances is to know where to stop, or at least where to take snapshots along the way.

3. The third type for me is my favorite, and it can be an extension of number one or two.  This type has to do with mystery, romance, and discovery.  There is something magical about it and my relationship with the creative work will last days, weeks, or even years.  You keep exploring the idea, developing it, or peeling back it's layers, and you continue to be brought to new levels of understanding, depth, or realization of the concept.  You come to a place where you think the work is finished, then the next time you sit down to create it pulls you in again and you are taken to a new place.

I don't feel like I am putting this idea into words well, but I have a quote by John Coltrane hanging in my studio that describes it perfectly:

There is never any end
There are always new sounds to imagine
New feelings to get at
And always there is a need to keep purifying these needs and sounds
So that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state
So we can see more clearly what we are
In that way, we can give those who listen to the essence
The best of what we are

True leadership is to be of service.  To provide an environment where your employees can be empowered and effective.  To provide vision so they have a clear understanding of what is expected and alignment so that they get back on track when they veer from the course.

Here's a new piece I've been working on for a couple days.  It's the conclusion of an idea I had but did not fully realize 3-1/2 years ago.  I was listening to BT's piece "1.618" off of This Binary Universe.  That's a musical piece that he did with elements based off of the Fibonacci Sequence. You should listen to it if you haven't heard it.  As I was listening, I started thinking of a piece of art I did a few years ago called Fibonacci Sunset.  Something never sat right with me on that piece of art, and I realized where I was blocked with it.  So I sat down and decided to create this new piece based on the insights I had into the flaws of the old piece.  I hope you like it

I watched an inspiring PBS show about Marc Rotho this morning.  It inspired the image below.