FEB 3, 2012 - Miley Cyrus is once again delving into her musical activism, this time writing an essay for Glamour magazine explaining why she got her equal tattoo that started a Twitter controversy and talks about why she supports same-sex marriage and civil rights for our LBGT community. She writes, " I believe every American should be allowed the same rights and civil liberties. Without legalized same-sex marriage, most of the time you cannot share the same health benefits, you are not considered next of kin and you are not granted the same securities as a heterosexual couple. How is this different than having someone sit in the back of the bus because of their skin color?" Read her whole essay on Glamour here.
(Photo credit: calmdownlove/Wiki)

FEB 3, 2012 - SanLuisObispo.com has a great article up on one of the best musical activists ever, Peter Yarrow, who is playing a concert in the Arroya Grande area on February 10 at the Clark Center. Speaking on Occupy he says, “The Occupy movement is about the heart of America, not just the policies.” Speaking of his longtime group Peter, Paul and Mary and their activism he said, “It’s what kept us together. We had a sense of purpose.” Read more on SanLuisObispo.com here.
(Photo credit: Philkon/Wiki)

FEB 3, 2012 - Pink Martini, a band started in 1994 to perform at progressive events to raise awareness and funds for issues, will be playing the 2012 Savannah Music Festival. In a SavannahNow.com interview, founder Thomas Lauderdale says, “The Occupy movement is interesting and complicated because a lot of their talking points are issues which actually most Americans are thinking about. Entertainment is one of the few ways of reaching Americans. It’s not an activist sort of thing. If anything, it’s sort of subtle, more diplomatic than political. ” The 2012 Savannah Music Festival takes place from March 22 through April 7, 2012. Numerous bands are scheduled, check out the whole lineup here. Pink Martini is scheduled for March 29 at the Lucas Theater.
(Photo credit: Ryan Harvey/Wiki)

FEB 2, 2012 - Christopher Cristwell, a musician who eventually wrote 2 "Starbucks Rant Songs", was fired from working at Starbucks after the first video eventually went viral on the Internet. In a fast paced and very catchy tune, he details the blues of working at Starbucks and dealing with the customers, but Starbucks management was not pleased. He has lost his barista position, and no word yet on a recording contract but we will keep an ear out for that. Meanwhile, watch this highly talented musician and his hilarious "Starbucks Rant Song" below, and if you are curious as to what happened to him after the song, be sure to check out Part 2 (link at end).

Feb 1, 2012 - Neil Young was working with Steve Jobs shortly before his death on the possible type of music file to be used on the next generation iPod musical device. Young was trying to convince Steve Jobs that High Resolution Audio files, instead of MP3 or even the iTunes AAC files, sounded more real and life-like, and sounded as close as possible as it it did to the artist in the studio and should be used in the digital world. The issue is those files are much larger, and portable devices are limited by their storage size. Perhaps Young was urging Jobs to concentrate on getting the largest storage device possible in the next models of iPods to come out. Read more on FoxNews.com here.

Meanwhile, if you are like me and get dizzy trying to figure all this audio file technogeek stuff, here is a good article on PC Magazine that explains it all nicely.
(Photo credit Matt Yohe/Wiki)

FEB 1, 2012 - Justice Through Music wants to give a big shout out to Deering Banjos for making a great product here in in the good old USA and supporting American artists and workers with much-needed jobs here at home.  Their banjos are leading a wave of new artists to bring this instrument and its sound to the masses, with recent smash hits by Mumford and Sons (watch video here) and Taylor Swift (watch video below).

So make sure to visit the Deering Banjo website and show some love and support American jobs and workers!

FEB 1, 2012 - A group of 10 socially-conscious artists inside Syria are using art to help Syrians cope with the violent and hard struggle they are going through in trying to secure a democratic government and push for more freedoms, and they call for President Assad to step down. They use puppets and humor, and videos on the Internet, which allows them a little anonymity to avoid detection and arrest by Assad's security forces. Watch a video of one of the puppet shows below, and there is a great story with awesome pictures over at MSNBC.com here.

JAN 31, 2012 - JTMP supports the civilian Syrian opposition and calls for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Assad's security forces have used brutal tactics on peaceful civilians, that have called for major reforms and more freedom. Assad has been widely accused of major human rights violations in trying to hold on to power. JTMP believes that the only way to peace is for Assad to step down, and the people of Syria form a new government that represents them and secures their human and civil rights. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended a UN debate on a resolution calling for President Assad to step down, Josha Hersh on HuffPo has a great post up about it here.

For more news and information on the Syrian opposition and current events, check out The Syria Monitor, a site ran by CLIME, an organization supporting individuals and civic groups spreading democratic values of liberty and tolerance in the Middle East. Check out the Center for Liberty in the Middle East website here.
(photo credit Maggie Osama/Flickr)