Monthly Archives: September, 2013

SEP 23, 2013 - Farm Aid 2013 was held this weekend, and the first footage to come out of the Saratoga Springs, New York event are out, and it is the founder of Farm Aid, Neil Young; playing a solo set on his acoustic guitar. Farm Aid's work is really important these days, with corporations such as Monsanto trying to buy up the family farms and ruin our food supply. Take Action against Monsanto and help family farms, and Join In at Farm Aid's website here. Below is Farm Aid YouTube Channel's video of Neil Young performing in HD! He opens up with the Bob Dylan classic, "Blowin' in the Wind", then "Early Morning Rain" among other songs.  (photo credit: FarmAid.org)

SEP 23, 2013 - Activist-musician Jason Mraz spoke out against human slavery and played a concert in Burma/Myanmar on March 8, 2013, and the crowd and concert was huge and electrifying. It was all recorded in HD and is now airing on VH1 Palladia, check your local listings. The concert was in one of the most inaccessible places on the planet, near the 2,600-year-old Shwedagon Pagoda, in the People's Park in Burma, or Myanmar. Myanmar's military government does not allow freedom of expression and thought, so this was extraordinary. The concert was meant to be a huge statement against human trafficking, or slavery, which is a terrible scourge in Asia and around the world. Jason Mraz came out on stage with a "Slavery Sucks" t-shirt and also filmed a PSA speaking out against slavery, and is trying to raise awareness on this issue so we can eradicate this horrible practice. MTV has formed "MTV Exit", an organization dedicated to ending slavery; and you can learn more about the concert, their efforts, and even Tweets and Facebook posts from fans in the audience about their memories of that special night, as well as watch Jason's PSA against slavery on their website they created. Check out the MTV Exit website here, also check out the post about the event on MTV News.

Check out Jason Mraz from the concert in the People's Park performing "The Freedom Song"below, and leave a comment on JTMP's Facebook Page here.  (photo credit: Ralf-Andre Lettau/CC)

Russians seize control of Greenpeace ship "Arctic Sunrise" after they attempted to board an Arctic oil drilling rig to protest oil drilling in the Barents Sea. Read more on JTMP Green here.  (photo credit: Greenpeace.org)

SEP 18, 2013 - NBCNews.com has an article up about the growing phenomenon of "copy tracks"; where musical acts in Myanmar copy popular songs note for note, putting their own words to it in their local language. Many of their fans think it is their song and are totally oblivious that some of these songs are from popular groups such as Metallica and Lady Gaga. The article also delves into the "censorship panels" set up by the Myanmar government to censor any entertainment or music they felt was "revolutionary, salacious or even overtly foreign" and how this climate gave rise to the "copy track" genre. The "biggest rock star alive in Myanmar", Lay Phyu, is interviewed about copy tracks and more in a very informative article by Patrick Winn on NBCNews.com here. Watch the copy track "Exits" by Lay Phyu below, (think Metallica's "Sandman") where Neoreborn Swe on YouTube has put some graphics to it using clips of the violent and bloody struggle for freedom against the military junta. Comments? Use our JTMP Facebook Page and start a conversation!

WARNING: This video is very graphic.

SEP 17, 2013 - Madonna has posted a news post on her website announcing her "secretprojectrevolution" (all lowercase), a 17-minute film she co-directs with Steven Klein that will be unveiled on September 24th, 2013. She says the film is an Art For Freedom project; and will be "an online global initiative to further freedom of expression, created by Madonna, curated by VICE, and distributed by BitTorrent."

Madonna says, "My goal is to show by example of secretprojectrevolution my creative commitment to inspire change in the world through artistic expression. I hope my film and other submissions to Art For Freedom will be a call-to-action and give people a place to voice their own creative expression to help fight oppression, intolerance and complacency."

Her website says Art For Freedom is a "global digital initiative, led by Madonna, designed to fuel free speech - to respond, address and protest persecution around the world. It is an online public art project encouraging the world to express their personal meaning of freedom and revolution, in the form of video, music, poetry, and photography." JTMP will post the film when it comes out, for now check out this "Trailer" here, to read more about secretprojectrevolution check out Madonna's website here, and finally to check out the Art For Freedom website go here.