Cyber-Transcendence, New Writing for SolPurpose, Mind Folds, & Festival Announcements

“The present is a freely given canvas.”
– Annie Dillard

New Video – "A Love That We Built"

Watch in 720p on Youtube

Watch a song come together from scratch in this video...the latest in my Rainbows at Night series.

Recorded live while opening for Papadosio at The Granada Theater in Lawrence, KS.  I was lucky enough to play two shows with them, in Austin and Lawrence, two weeks ago...if you don't know who they are yet, look them up, because not only are they redeeming live electronic music, they throw one of the best small festivals of the summer, Rootwire.

In somewhat related news, if you haven't heard it already, please go grab yourself a free download of Yellow Leaves.  People are reporting all manner of numinous open-sky release experiences with it.  :)

My talk with scholar-practitioner Marc Gafni

Download here

Check out this great conversation I had with Marc Gafni, Kabbalah scholar and author of the new book Your Unique Self.  We discussed evolutionary spirituality in The Age of Google; the innate dignity of our unique selfhood and the importance of embracing the ego as part of the spiritual path; what the end of privacy and the encroachment of a universal surveillance society means to the spiritual practitioner; and, ultimately, how to live in a digital world with heart.

Direct listening link is here.  If you'd also like to subscribe to more talks from this series, click here.

"Don’t try to become a Buddha and don’t try to become a Christ.  No imitation is going to help.  Whatsoever you do, try to do it in a new way.  Try to bring some individuality into it, bring some authentic signature.  Even cleaning a floor, you can do it in your own way; even cooking food, you can do it in your own way."

– Osho

Custom Painted Hats & Mind Folds

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I still have a few of my latest Grassroots California Artist Signature flatbills in every size except 7 3/4 and 8.  If you'd like one for $50 (plus s/h), just give me the word – custom painting on the hat's intentional negative space is available on a pay-what-you-like basis.

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My first hat collaboration with painter Alicia Rockafellow.  Very happy with how this came out...

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Alex Grey invented the "Mind Fold" to allow total darkness with your eyes open.  These are all commissioned and sold, but I have more blank Mind Folds ready for painting if you'd like to order one, starting at $75.

New Articles for SolPurpose

Every once in a while I get worked up and write something truly meaningful.  Luckily, I was just appointed the Editor-in-Chief of SolPurpose.com, an amazing website covering festivals and visionary culture, so now I have a good place to publish those inspired rants...

"'Transformational Festivals' Are A Symptom of Dissociation"

"It is my hope in this accelerating age that we all become more comfortable with the discomfort needed to merely keep pace – that we become master transformers, all of us, ever learning, ever discovering, never settled fully into who we think we are. Our idea of doing in the world must move from one of control to one of collaboration in something always-greater-than. It is ironic that we must realize how a-part we are in order to feel complete; but it seems to me here now that this is our only chance at the wholeness we build festivals to seek."

Read more at SolPurpose or join the discussion on Facebook.

"Reviewing Lisa Wimberger's New Beliefs, New Brain"

"Imagine for a moment a world in which our soldiers and emergency first responders are taught to manage their stress so they don’t escalate violent situations or suffer from untreated lifelong trauma.  Imagine a world in which our politicians and judges learn to ground themselves and view their thoughts from a place of neutrality.  Imagine how much healthier this world would be..."

Read more at SolPurpose.  (And if you'd like to write for us, drop me a line with your pitch.)

"Seraphim" Merchandise

Full-Size (24"x36") Archival Giclee Prints

Postage Stamps | Greeting Cards | Laptop Skin

iPhone 4 Case | iPhone 5 Case | Samsung Galaxy S3 Case

You can read about "Seraphim" and its connections to electromagnetism and ancient religions here.

Festival Appearances This Summer

More to be announced!  For now here are the big islands rising from an ocean of summer fun...

Thanks for reading!  I love you.

Too Much Great New Stuff - But What Else Is New?

"We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality."

–  Thich Nhat Hanh

The waters are really flowing, these days, aren't they?  So much to catch up on, and so little time to share it or even read it.  Thank you for sharing your time with me so I can share with you.

(Full as it is, this newsletter came late so I'll send out another next week, on schedule – with new music, my talk and live painting from AURA Festival, and news on my amazingly great gigs this spring!  You can sneak a peek on my web calendar...anyone here into Papadosio or Stuart Davis?)

Let's start with some small, largely studio, paintings my friend Chaeli and I just conjured up.  This year has already fruited so many fantastic collaborations and there are even more to share real soon!

Lioness (Collab w/ Chaeli Cardenas)

Buy 11"x17" Prints – $20

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This piece, like most of our work together, involves layer after layer of working over each other, literally filling in the missing pieces of each other's styles.  Chaeli has a way with cats, obviously – and her brushwork grew so naturally out of her way with pens.  Victory.

"Even though alone in a dark room, be as if you were facing a noble guest. Express your feelings, but become no more expressive than your true nature."

– Zengetsu (T'ang dynasty master)

Chibi Kirin (Collab w/ Chaeli Cardenas)

Buy 11"x17" Prints – $20

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"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."

– Henry Miller

If You Are A Hat, I Will Tattoo You

Here are some of the pay-what-you-want personalized panels I've been painting for the people who tip me when they order my latest embroidered design with Grassroots California:

I still have some in most sizes – if you'd like one, here are some pretty pictures of the hat as well as how to order yours at less than retail price (plus whatever you might spend to customize it).

Meanwhile the painted hat game is going so well that I have to cut down on them to make time for everything else!  I apologize for limiting my availability but in order to work on my music I have to ask that you please only inquire about orders of $130 or greater.  If I haven't put you off, feel free to drop me a line with your ideas...

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Somewhat more affordably, I made these hats below for my friends at The Headspace – they have a lot of great work from my friends on their site as well, so go browse around and be impressed if you've got a minute.  I believe some of these are still available even if they're not pictured on the website, so you might want to write them and ask...

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Mind-Blowing Ideas

I have told many of you in person that I believe one of the main functions of art is to draw each other into inspired and inspiring conversation.  As I see it, I'm just one warp in the global fabric of the planetary bioplasm, exchanging quanta of selfhood with other/selves like how our Last Universal Common Ancestor was basically one giant genetic orgy without any true species boundaries.  Even today it's pretty hard to argue for the concrete reality or temporal continuity of the self with any scientific credibility.  

Now that I have just over 6200 (!) of you getting these emails (supreme gratitude!), I need to make sure I'm not just showing off but showing up and sharing some of my most profound inspirations.  SO:

• Thunderbolts of the Gods - a film about the Electric Universe Theory

This is the most important science link I have ever shared with you all.  Please, just find the time to watch it as soon as you can (if you haven't already).  Seriously.  There's an amazing stream of comments about this film in my the thread on my Facebook profile.  Please feel free to follow my profile and join in with your own science links, crazy space news, etc.

• Last and First Men - the most influential Sci Fi novel of all time

Written in 1930 by the British Olaf Stapledon, this visionary flyover of the next two billion years of human evolution prompted both Arthur C. Clarke to proclaim that, "No other book had a greater influence on my life," and H.P. Lovecraft to call it "the greatest in all the field" of science fiction.  His version of the distant future is uncanny, familiar, prescient:

Each of us is mentally a distinct individual, though his ordinary means of communication with others is 'telepathic.' But frequently he wakes up to be a group-mind. When this communal awakening occurs, each individual experiences all the bodies of the group as 'his own multiple body,' and perceives the world equally from all those bodies. But over and above this simple enlargement of the experienced field, is the awakening into new kinds of experience. Of this obviously, I can tell you nothing, save that it differs from the lowlier state more radically than the infant mind differs from the mind of the individual adult, and that it consists of insight into many unsuspected and previously inconceivable features of the familiar world of men and things.

~ read more and join the conversation ~

...And that's it.  Thanks again for your precious time and attention.  May this newsletter serve all beings!  You know how to get ahold of me if you want to.

NYE Live Painting | Embroidered GRC Hat #2 | Skateboard Design | Evolution & Guitar

"A deeper feeling of care begins with allowing ourselves to move into awe—with all of the different creatures, no matter which ones we’ve picked. If we would attend to them, we would see their colossal grandeur. Abraham Heschel said that awe is the first step into wisdom."
– Brian Swimme

Vote For Me in the Creation Skateboards Design Contest!

"LIKE" to vote for this deck here

Make this dream a reality by voting for my "Every Day Is A New Year" deck at the Creation Skateboards design competition!  One of the coolest skateboard companies ever – judging from the all-star roster of visionary artists who have contributed designs – they'll pick the winner on February 1st by whose skateboard graphic gets the most "likes" on Facebook.

Look, I'm getting tired of competitions too.  I'd rather put your precious energies and attention to a nobler cause.  But success is shared, and I know that it'd make a lot of people happy to skate on this bad boy.  So take a moment if you please!

(If you missed the post about this most-epic-of-my-paintings, you can read it here.)

And now on to the really juicy stuff...

Soaring (The Opposite of Trees in Cages)

Buy 11"x17" Prints Here

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Painted Live At:

2012 12 30 Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom

(Random Rab, Tipper, Ill-Esha, Human Agency, Seied, Cualli)

2012 12 31 City Hall

(Amon Tobin, EPROM, Kastle, Future Simple Project, Seied, Digital Connection)

My last painting of 2012 (and my first painting of 2013) sets the tone for a year of dynamic and reverent animal art...

I saw 67 red-tailed hawks (63 live and four dead) on my drive out to Denver for New Year's Eve...that was a pretty big hint that I had to give this bird its due in my next painting.  The hawk is a powerful animal totem, symbolizing vision, truth, and initiative – all good things to hold in heart while setting out on the new adventures that 2013 is bringing us.

The hawk reminds us to nurture our latent power, to notice what others miss, to view our lives from a higher perspective and move forward with bright eyes and a bold heart...

"When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.”
– Albert Einstein

"I refuse to be enslaved by a single perspective."
– Timothy "Speed" Levitch

Thanks to my design shop at Arts Projekt, you can buy this painting on a number of handy items, ranging from cool to crucial.  I only make about 10% on these sales (most of it goes to the website), but it's such a fun way to offer my art to everyone:

iPhone 5 Case | iPhone 4 Case | iPod Touch Case | Laptop Case

Laptop Skin | iPad Skin | Post Card | US Postal Stamps

Click to view the painting in progress:

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My Next Embroidered Grassroots California Flatbill

PREORDER NOW for $55 (s/h included)

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I'm so honored to have another great hat by Grassroots California coming out in just a few weeks!  The first one was a huge hit and I'm still running into people wearing it everywhere I go.  With this one I wanted a subtler, classier design that would suit more people (the first one was so overtly psychedelic it took a special type to even wear it).  And GRC just got a new mold to make size 8 1/4 hats for all of us with giant heads!

Preorder through me if you'd like to support the artist – I won't profit from any sales made on the GRC website.  I'll also waterproof your hat for you at no extra cost, and I'm happy to paint it up a little too if you'd like.

To preorder, just send $55 to michaelgarfield[at]gmail[dot]com via Paypal as a personal gift, and leave your hat size and mailing address in the note box.  I'll take it from there!  And you'll get your hat in early February, just in time for spring festivals.  :)

Evolution & Guitar:

My Set from Art Outside 2012

FREE DOWNLOAD HERE

What does my training in paleontology have to do with my career as an improvisational musician?

This is my first combination talk/concert, a blend of improvised cyberacoustic guitar loopscapes and the science ideas that inspire my musical experiments.  For a half hour introduction to both my music and ideas, you can't do better than to download this free EP.

In it, I explain why we have a lot to learn about the silver lining of humankind's  current evolutionary crisis by looking back at earlier events – like how algae almost killed off all life on Earth by inventing photosynthesis.  And how, by studying how the fin became the leg, we might be inspired to find creative new uses for old, familiar tools...

Thanks to Art Outside for giving me a stage to inspire people, three years running...!

More Custom-Painted Hats

The latest couple of one-of-a-kind custom designs.  Check out my full gallery for ideas if you'd like to order one of your own...

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Top Mystical Films on Reality Sandwich

I'm a regular contributor to one of the coolest blogs I know, Reality Sandwich – an exploration of consciousness, ecology, culture, relationships, politics...  (And what isn't covered by that list?)  They just published a list of everyone's favorite mystical films, and I chose The Fountain – easily one of the most awe-inspiring films of my life so far:

Darren Aronofsky's epoch-spanning reincarnation love story is about more than the quest for eternal life or the fanatical love that justifies it. Somewhere in the interference pattern between a dizzying braid of worldspaces past, present, and future, Aronofsky shows us the transcultural yearning that defines our human condition, regardless of (or, rather, beyond) space and time.

Read the rest at Reality Sandwich...

(You can read my original 2007 review of the film here.)

And that's all she wrote, for now.  Thanks for reading, stay in touch, and live in health!

Every Day Is A New Year | MGxGRC Hat #2 | Ethereal Underground | Land Without Evil

"There is absolutely nothing to transcend...only all of Creation to unite with."

– Jeffery Wolf Green

"All things are possible once enough human beings realize that everything is at stake."

– Norman Cousins

Well, we all lived through the long-anticipated 2012 Winter Solstice and civilization's first encounter with the cosmic inflection point: on December 21st, our Sun aligned with black hole Sagittarius A* at the heart of our galaxy.  A lot of people thought something crazy was going to happen, myself included...but it seems increasingly clear that the ride is just getting started.

The embrace of this accelerating change is the subject of my latest painting, as well as new musical and theatrical projects that have swept me up into exciting creative collaborations.  Isn't that why we're here?  To trade surfing tricks and astonished eye contact as we try our new lives on for size...

And now, some of my finest work ever.  Thanks for reading and have a blessed holiday!

My New Collaboration With Grassroots California

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Preorder for $55 (including s/h)

The response to my first embroidered and silk-screened design collaboration with Grassroots California was overwhelming – I didn't make it to a single festival this year without seeing at least one person rocking that hat, and it was a huge honor and surprise to get so much positive feedback.

Like the first one, only 420 of these will be made.  Preorder through me and you not only get the satisfaction of supporting the artist directly (thank you!) but I'll be happy to sign or personalize it for you, too.  And every preorder comes with an exclusive live EP of electronic guitar music.

Preorder price is currently less than retail, but that's bound to change before I get the hats in early February.  Interested parties, hit me up soon!

Every Day Is A New Year

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Buy Signed 11"x17" Poster Prints – $20 plus s/h

"Once we abandon this obsessive fanaticism of absolute complete knowledge, we can continue on with our process of discovery without the headache of a deadline.”

– Henry Warwick

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."

– Voltaire

painted live at

• Rootwire Music & Arts Festival, 2012 08 18

Papadosio (electric), Dopapod, Ott, Akara, Papadosio (acoustic)

• The Parish, 2012 09 15

Kaminanda, The Human Experience, Brede

• Art Outside Festival, 2012 10 20/21

Mother Falcon, Russ Liquid, Andreilien, Stephan Jacobs, Brede, ONE4ALL, Pharo, Metranohm, Thriftworks, Henry & The Invisibles, Pyramid, Dimitri's Ascent, Pumpkin

• Texas Music Theater, 2012 11 11

Papadosio, Octopus Nebula, Holding Space

• Cirque Lunaire at La Zona Rosa, 2012 12 01

Bluetech, Phutureprimitive, Ex Stus

• Whompadelic Wednesdays at Club, 606 2012 12 12

KiloWatts, Crazy Fingers, inertG, SoundShaman

Click to view the process:

iPhone Hard Case | iPhone Vibe Case | Laptop Decal | iPad Decal | iPad Sleeve

Ethereal Underground's New Studio Album

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Digital Album + 11"x17" Poster

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"You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path."

– Joseph Campbell

Acoustic and digital, real and imaginary, freestyle and remix, far out and close up, awake and dreaming...  Ethereal Underground is the visionary collaboration between me and beat wizard Tristan Gulliford, aka Dreamcode.  

Between the original sessions and more than a year of Dreamcode's patient sculpting, over 100 hours of studio detail work went into Strangely Familiar – resulting in an ultra juicy 33:33 of...something...not quite witch house, not quite space hop, totally luxuriously weird.  Check us out on FB.

Land Without Evil

I just finished an eight-show run doing live music for this amazing production by Agent Red & Sky Candy, and filmed by PBS for their series, Arts in Context.  A story of colliding cultures in an age of transformation, adapted from the novel by Matthew Pallamary...we got to perform at the historic Stateside at the Paramount Theater in Austin and yes, it totally raised the bar.  Getting to work with such talented dancers, aerialists, video mapping projectionists, actors, live musicians, lighting engineers, and costume designers is just...wow.  This is why I love Austin.

Check out show's teaser trailer:

Watch on Youtube

Custom Painted Hats

I almost hesitate to advertise these, as I'm currently sitting on a huge stack of orders.  Thanks to everyone for your patience!  But if you're in the market for some special way to grace your crown, take a look at my whole gallery for ideas and drop me a line.

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An Inspirational Interview With Ideamensch

Last news but maybe the most interesting:  I recently sat down with Mario Schulke of Ideamensch, a website to inspire your entrepreneurial spirit.  He asked me some big questions, and I answered...  Here's a taste:

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Do what only you can do. There are a thousand people in line behind you except for what critical node in the working body of our species? This is a place where “your deep gladness meets the world’s needs.” (Frederick Buechner)  Go for that.

What is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
I remind myself that my resources are of many kinds, that luck is one of them, that help comes from strange places, and that I’m doing this for love, not money. (Money is just the blood that keeps the body working. I don’t need a basement full of blood.)

Read the whole interview here.

My Talk From Rootwire, Best Hat Yet, & New Live Music Archive

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality

– and then there are those who turn one into the other."

– Douglas Everett

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”

– Albert Einstein

Thank you all for supporting my efforts to make my life an inspiration and example to others, to help people find a way to bring their work and creativity together.  All of us can live a life of passionate and illuminated service.  Here's how I'm doing that, for now:

My Talk From Rootwire Festival

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Free Stream/Download

Just say yes to evolution!  The talk I gave at Rootwire Music & Arts Festival in between awesome offerings by Jamaica Stevens of Tribal Convergence and visionary artist Amanda Sage, and featuring a guest appearance by the awesome electronic producer Evan Skytree Snyder.  May it serve you in your continued growth and learning...

"I think there is a great deal of coming out right now, as we admit ourselves to ourselves.  As we step forward and identify as children of the planet to the parents who may still be identifying with nationalistic or industrial concerns, with specific ideologies or cultural affiliations.  These are things to be celebrated because we no longer rely on them.  They're an art form, now, not a technology of survival.  Terence McKenna said that culture is not your friend, but that's not entirely true; culture is an art project, now.  It can be our friend if we raise it to learn to be our friend, because the choice is ours."

Custom-Painted Hats

Orders for more detailed, time-intensive hats have been coming in, and I've been having a blast with it!  Check out my full gallery of 100+ painted hats if you'd like inspiration for your own custom design.

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New Live Shows, All Free at Archive.org

I put out a lot of music.  A lot.  In order to separate studio-produced or deeply-curated live albums from less epic (but still worth-sharing) recordings, I've decided to launch a page at archive.org's etree Live Music Archive.  These are all partial shows – some more complete than others – free and fun and full of silly banter and strange sonic experiments.

If you like what I'm doing enough to buy some music, here & here are two great albums worth sharing. I'm about to record a long-overdue studio album and can definitely use your help to bring it into being!

Thanks, and enjoy...

download it here

Fifteen minutes of raw, molten basement jams with acoustic & electronic drums.

download it here

Twenty minutes of touchstyle guitar etudes & silly banter from my show in Boulder this summer.

download it here

On sacred land in the desert outside of Albuquerque this summer, I let it get as weird as possible....

download it here

A pretty solid sampling of both my acoustic singer-songwriter music and cyberacoustic improvisations.

A Sneak Peek Of My Coolest Painting Yet

"Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life.  Give freely.  Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving, and full of the desire to serve.  Learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation.  Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all.  Cultivate vigor, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride.  Then, you will achieve your destiny."

– Krishna

Every Day Is A New Year (Unfinished)

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Preorder Prints of the Finished Painting

Click on the picture to get a better look at my anticipatory portrait of 2013, in all of its dragon-UFO-space-buddha glory.  (In an homage to Android Jones' 2011 Burning Man ticket art, yes that is a tiny buddha meditating on the brow of the great dragon.)  I started this piece at Rootwire Festival back in August and have taken it all over Central Texas since, including Art Outside Festival and shows with Papadosio, Octopus Nebula, The Human Experience, and Kaminanda.

I'm taking preorders now for 11"x17" prints of the completed painting (I want to have it finished in time for the Solstice, wink) – as well as accepting bids for the painting itself, which will be professionally scanned and made available on stretched canvas fine art giclée prints for anyone interested.

(Everyone who preorders it gets a free download of my album, Golden Hour: A Cyberacoustic Summer Daydream, which is indeed about as dreamy as I can make it.  Good for writing and yoga, I hear.  Enjoy!)

 Click for a closer view of the process:

Visionary Soundscapes:

A Conversation with Electronic Musician Mystical Sun

My latest article for badass culture blog Reality Sandwich is an in-depth conversation with studio electronic music sculptor Mystical Sun.  Here's a taste.  You can read the entire conversation and album review here...

"The relationship between 'music' and 'noise' is that they're from the same source and everything else is just subtle differences.  I don't distinguish between the two.  Typical music is about relationships, emotions, stories, opinions, politics, etc.  The vision I have for my music is closer to virtual reality:  I'm not writing songs about what's happened in my life; I'm attempting to create music that transports listeners out of the day-in/day-out world, like a good science fiction movie might...each second is unique and not repeated."

- Mystical Sun

The Latest Custom Painted Hats

It continues to amaze me that sometime in the last year I acquired a reputation for "straight killin' it with the dope headwear"...as it were.  ;)  I'm honored and endlessly grateful that you all continue to show your support and offer me these opportunities to bless your heads.  If you'd like your own one-of-a-kind custom hat, or want me to make one for someone you love, just email me and we can talk budget and logistics.  You can check out the hats so far on my FB art page.

This one was for a friend to wear at his wedding:

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This one was a birthday present for a Bassnectar fan, so I worked the logo all subtly into a few places:

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Help Me Win 75 Hours of Studio Recording Time!

Thanks to everyone who has voted so far, I'm pulling a 100-vote lead in a competition by The Recording Conservatory of Austin to win 75 hours of studio recording time...this is the break that would finally enable me to record the pro studio album I've been wanting to make for over a decade.

Please take ten seconds to vote for me (you don't have to sign up for anything) and SHARE THIS LINK with your friends:  http://a.pgtb.me/cG4D  Voting ends December 4th. One vote per IP address and email address. Play fair, now!

And once you've voted, please help yourself to a complimentary copy of Deleted Scenes: Outtakes from Love Scenes & Field Recordings, my latest live EP.  Not to mention all of the other music I've made available as a gift to you...

Thank You

That's all for now.  Thank you so much for reading!  This newsletter is a constant reminder to be grateful for my opportunity to serve and inspire others.  Without you, I would never have learned how doing what I love can have a positive impact on people.  So let me just express my deep gratitude for you, on the other end of this connection.  I wish you a most wonderful day!