Gaia Community: Soundjourney's Blog

Dancing in Starlight is Way More Fun than Flinging Shit...

Fri, 09 May 2008 05:18:12 -0000

... is posted at http://soundjourney.wordpress.com. : )

Thank you for stopping by!

Much love,

sM

What does "prosperity for all" mean to you?

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:39:43 -0000

I've answered this question in song - and here's a video. Note: the last two minutes are entirely improvised. ; )

Enjoy, and please post your responses: what does prosperity for all mean to YOU? : )

What do food riots and economic collapse have to do with you?

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:22:04 -0000

You may or may not be aware yet that I am a Partner in a project called Prosperity For All 2008.

I am participating in this event because I am clear that the future of humanity depends upon those of us who are willing to stand up and declare ourselves its architects and builders, and I am not willing to wait for lawmakers, politicians, and heads of corporations to lead the way. They won't.

If you haven't visited the site yet, I am inviting you to click the link above and poke around - and if you're inspired, get involved. You'll find a video I recorded the other day of a song I began writing, as well as a podcast with Michael Skye, founder of VisionForce, and some other goodies.

If you've been paying attention to what's happening in the world - even where you are - you'll notice that things are starting to look pretty precarious, and you may have even already started feeling the impact in your own life.

The good news is that with conscious intent and the right actions, you can put yourself into the groove with folks who are connecting and joining forces to create a future that inspires and calls forth the best that humanity has to offer.

Go visit www.prosperityforall2008.com and start creating YOUR prosperous future!

This could be the most important blog post you read today...

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:29:33 -0000

Are you ready to STAND?

What if we could sing and dance our way into a prosperous future?

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:35:56 -0000

I say we can.

Check out: www.prosperityforall2008.com

I just posted a video there with the beginnings of a brand-new song, and today I did a podcast with Michael Skye where I talk about the One Prosperous World Tour 2008, Conscious Celebrations, and how we can work together to create a future that inspires us and calls forth the best that we have to offer.

Enjoy!

sM

Hey Gaia! Are you ready to Party your way to Prosperity?

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:30:41 -0000

Announcing the One Prosperous World Tour 2008:

A series of Conscious Celebrations created by and for those who are standing and working to create prosperity for all in our lifetime – co-created, facilitated, and marinated in the musical magic of Shawn Madden, a dynamic and versatile performer who puts the party in prosperity!

This tour is all about celebration of collaboration and collective transformation; individuals, groups, communities and organizations all over the world are right now creating a peaceful and prosperous global civilization, building the foundation for a sustainable human presence which honors all life on planet earth.

You don’t see this on the nightly news, but it’s happening – and I am inviting those who hear this call to join with me in creating events to celebrate, invigorate, and accelerate this movement.

I bring performance skills as a singer-songwriter, DJ, emcee and host, and I am fully prepared with the equipment and the know-how to create an event that will rock your community, energize your people, and vitalize your projects. We are catalyzing the movement with dancing and commemorating it in song; we are giving it a voice – the voice of humanity singing together, hearts open wide!

The first event of this tour will be Prosperity For All 2008 the week of June 10-15 in Austin, Texas, where I am providing audio equipment and the soundtrack for an alliance-building event where fifty visionary leaders from around the world are uniting to face everything, avoid nothing, and stand together for prosperity for all in our lifetime. From there, I will go for a loop through the central United States, creating magic and celebration, leaving joy and gratitude in my wake!

Here is the itinerary as it stands today (dates for unconfirmed events are approximate):

June 10-15 Austin, TX – Prosperity For All 2008
June 18 Dallas, TX – Looking for partners, sponsors, and co-creators
June 19 Tulsa, OK – Looking for partners, sponsors, and co-creators
June 20-22 St. Louis, MO - Indie Buzz Bootcamp, a weekend workshop for musicians passionate about being a part of the creation of the future of the music business. Musicians and music business professionals looking for new pathways to success must be at this event. Discounted registration until April 30th. Only 150 seats. For more information, contact me using the information below.
June 23-25 Cedar Rapids, IA – Performance / celebration at the Matyk building in the New Bohemia section of town, where as we speak a community of creative visionary entrepreneurs, artists, and others are creating a prosperous culture in the heart of the midwest!
June 26-27 Omaha, NE – A celebration in the early stages of planning
June 28-29 Boulder, CO - Looking for partners, sponsors, and co-creators
June 30 Denver, CO - Looking for partners, sponsors, and co-creators
June 31 Taos, NM - Looking for partners, sponsors, and co-creators
July 1 Amarillo, TX – A visit to Lovelock, an eco-village that is in the early stages of being built
July 4 Austin, TX – Prosperity For Austin! Homecoming Celebration

This is the first of three legs of this tour; the second leg will begin in late August, after we’ve had a chance to integrate the learning and the expanded resources of the first.

I am looking for short-term and long-term partners and sponsors. If you are inspired by what you have seen here, I am inviting you to contact me ASAP and let me know what you would like to do to help.

Want to help? Here are some of the things that you can do:

Host an event - at your home, church, place of business, community center, theater, or wherever works
Sponsor an event - these events are intended to raise awareness of ventures that are creating prosperity for all, so invest in them!
Sponsor the tour - the tour is also an excellent vehicle for raising awareness of your venture; this is only the first of three legs for 2008, with more miles on the road planned for 2009!
Attend an event - of course! The simplest, easiest, most fun way to participate for a fraction of the cost of sponsorship or hosting
Spread word about the tour and about the event(s) in your town - TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, podcast coverage are all beautiful!

Musicians - let’s collaborate on an event!

All of the above! : )

To participate in this series of events, please contact me as soon as possible at 617.320.5880 or by email at soundjourney@netzero.net.

Let’s DANCE!!!

Shawn Madden
shawn-madden.gaia.com
myspace.com/shawndavidmadden

Looking for something to sink your teeth into?

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:59:49 -0000

Here are a few of the projects I'm working on. Check them out. Comment. Get involved. Enjoy!

Prosperity For All 2008 - This June 10-15, fifty visionary leaders from all over the world will gather in Austin, Texas to launch a global movement to create prosperity for all human beings on the planet. Will you be among them?

The Affluent Artist Alliance - A blog for musicians and other artists who are on the leading edge of the movement to empower independent artists

Indie Buzz Bootcamp - June 20-22, 2008 - a groundbreaking event for 150 of the world's leading independent musicmakers and music business people. Seats are going fast, so register today!

sM

Profile update - for a piece of the action, check it out...

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:13:45 -0000

I updated my profile today, with HOT information.

This is who I am evolving as, and it's happening even as I write this.

If you are looking for a way to grow your business or community initiative,
and you want to have an absolute BLAST doing it, contact me and let's create.

sM

Merrily but a dream . . .

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:52:49 -0000

This morning I am deeply present to how beautiful it is to be human.

I'm grateful because I often have this experience; yet, this morning, there's something even more special about it.

This past weekend I had an opportunity to witness and participate in the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium produced by the Pachamama Alliance. If you have not yet participated in this event, I urge you to find the one nearest you and go.

I have taken part in many workshops and consciousness-raising events, and this one was the gentlest, sweetest powerhouse punch to the gut I have ever been a part of.

Essentially, it's a call to awakening. Its message is timely, heart-centered, and urgent. The Pachamama mission is stated clearly:

To bring forth an environmentally sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling human presence on the planet as the guiding principle of our time.

Wow. Doesn't that hit it on the head? Isn't that what Zaadz is about? Gaiam? VISIONFORCE? Isn't that what we're all standing for?

I'd like to hear from folks about this. What are your thoughts? Have you participated in the Symposium? What did you think? How has it impacted your life?

Please comment.

Conscious Celebration

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:58:26 -0000

Imagine:

Events where people gather, artists perform, films are viewed, vendors share their creations - arts, technologies, philosophies, techniques and methods for solving the problems that we face as a unified humanity …

Imagine a global celebration of the human spirit: a main event, somewhere beautiful, with a million people participating, and hundreds of thousands at satellite events occurring simultaneously all over the planet; and imagine that the performances and happenings are also broadcast online, such that millions of people are tuning in from their bedrooms, living rooms, and cafes.

Imagine events that *create* more energy than they consume; events which leave the local economies in which they take place in better shape for the long-term than before the event - events which turn the idea of “leaving no trace” into “leave the site better than you found it” …

Imagine the human race united in song, dance, celebration, innovation, and the creation of a truly sustainable planetary culture …

Imagine a combination of the best elements of the Green Festivals, Peak Experience Productions events, the Sustainable Planet and Elevate Film Festivals, WOMAD, the Entheos Gathering, Sunrise Celebration, and many other gatherings around the world that are awakening humankind to the very real possibility of living peacefully and in beauty and grace on earth.

That is my vision, and that is what I am working to create. I'm on a mission to create life on earth as a sustainable system, powered by love, and fueled by Conscious Celebration. Won't you join me?

Please visit my music store to hear - and purchase - some of my music for a buck-a-song. Each dollar you contribute allows me to continue pursuing this vision.

I look forward to creating with you!

Much love,

Shawn

Healing the Heart of Humanity - one heart at a time

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 06:16:10 -0000

This is a long post, and it just might move you to action in a way you've never gone before, so proceed with caution. Know that my intention is to move you as I have been moved today.

I watched the first part of a video today about the "Endgame" in the creation of a "New World Order" through economic, political, and military strategies and actions put into motion by a small group of the world's most wealthy and powerful people.

It began with a vision of the future as a tightly controlled hellhole, where 80% of the human race has been eliminated, the remaining populations live in tightly controlled megacities connected by giant superhighways, all human activity is monitored, and this small elite group runs the show.

The film ran through some background, telling the story of banking cartels who have grown to be enormous by funding both sides of wars, which I found useful; even if it is 80% accurate, it's helpful to know how the power structures of the world work.

And then it veered into a virulent demonization of the people who make up this group, who meet in secret every four years behind closed doors guarded by armed private guards . . .

That was when I stopped watching. It's too to get swept up in the fear and the righteous anger that these kinds of films intend to ignite.

Then tonight, I did a breathing meditation with a gracious and beautiful healer-woman who brought us on a journey with dolphins, and the work released a TON of guilt and shame. I was left with my heart wide open and raw. I sang songs, and the music was so sweet . . .

I came to a place of clarity and peace that is deeper than any I have known before.

I am clear that the true warriors of the world are those of us who are doing whatever it takes to keep our hearts open - in the face of all of the evidence for why we should be guarded, protected, suspicious, fearful, angry, vengeful, and greedy.

I know a man in New York City, goes by the name of LipBone Redding. He plays guitar, sings, and "plays a trombone" using only his lips - it sounds so good, you would swear he's playing a real horn. He has a song called "Love is the Answer (for world peace)", and it is so perfect. Love really is the answer.

I'm not talking about hippy-dippy, let's-get-high-and-love-everybody love, or love as a concept.

I'm not talking about love as a lukewarm tolerance of people who you'd love to hate if it weren't so un-PC in spiritual circles.

I'm talking about love as the willingness to feel the pain in the hearts of every human being who has ever walked the earth.

I'm talking about love as in going into your own heart, and finding the pain there, and feeling it, letting it take you over, and releasing it - leaving you with an empty ache, a longing to serve and to help others find relief from their pain.

I'm talking about love as in really getting that there's no such thing as evil - knowing in every cell of your being that evil is an illusion created by our collective ego to protect us from that which we do not understand - and therefore fear.

When you encounter a person behaving in a way that could be described as greedy, violent, cold, mean-spirited - can you feel through all of that and experience the pain in the person's heart?

Have you forgiven your parents? I mean REALLY forgiven them for all of their shortcomings, all the ways in which you feel like they fell short in raising you?

How much suffering can you feel when you put yourself in Hitler's shoes?

We're at a time and place in our evolution as a human race when to demonize ANYONE is to perpetuate the spiritual disease that plagues us. And the only way out of the vicious cycle is to heal the heart of humanity - one heart at a time - with forgiveness, compassion, kindness, and the willingness to see God (whatever your version) everywhere - and in everyone.

Now . . .

Before you go looking for someone else's heart to heal, consider that it is YOUR heart that is aching for your attention. It is YOUR desire for love, relationship, community, and the expression of your joy - and your pain - that needs to be unleashed. It is YOUR heart that needs your forgiveness, compassion, kindness, and the willingness to see God in yourself.

It's time.

This is a clarion call to the warriors of the world. Many are already engaged in this work. Thank you for being the bold and the brave and the courageous. Thank you for being willing to sacrifice your comfort for the sake of humanity's heart. Thank you for being willing to love yourself enough to give yourself - and the rest of us - the gift of your healing.

Whether you are just getting started, or you've been doing the work for thirty, forty, fifty years - I acknowledge you and thank you for your gift, and I invite you to get into communication with me. Share with me your story, let me in on your world, and let me know what you need to go deeper into your heart.

The deeper you go, the deeper we all go. REM said it clearly and succinctly: everybody hurts, and the more we awaken to our own pain, the brighter our light becomes.

Come. Open your heart. Join the evolution.

Much love,

Shawn

Nothing Spectacular

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 05:55:16 -0000

Usually I only "blog" if I have something that I think is profound to say. It is so deeply ingrained in my psyche that I *must* gain the attention of as many people as possible in as short a time as possible that the thought of simply posting a blog entry for fun never occurs to me.

I've been thinking about the blog thing the past day or two, and I realized (I think) a little more about how it works - people post stuff, and then it gets read based on how relevant it is to people's lives. Like, if I put thoughts out here on the web, and you vibe with it, then you're likely to pass it on to others or reference it, and then others read it, and it grows like that.

Which is all fine and well . . .

. . . except when my intention is to get as much attention as possible. Then the whole game gets spoiled by this desperate need to post just the right thing, and it ends up being forced and inauthentic.

Well . . .

This blog entry is nothing spectacular; it is not an event, it is not the launch of some crazy marketing campaign to draw the world's attention to my profile. It is a regular ol', run-of-the-mill blog entry; a public rumination, if you will.

Here's something I learned this week:

I am the current Boot Camp Registrar for VisionForce, and as such I've been doing some email broadcasts and interacting with folks in the Vision Cafe pod, which has been incredible fun. What these interactions have taught me is that it is better to share what I've got and then to simply be interested in what others are up to than it is to try and get anything. It's certainly much more fun, and the getting happens automatically.

Thank god for zaadz; I get to train myself in how to serve, give, and love unconditionally, without expecting anything in return - and so far, I'm enjoying tremendous fruits in the form of new connections, people taking an interest in Conscious Celebration, etc. It's fun!

Even as I write this, though, putting it out there for *someone* to read, I half-expect (and fear) that noone will read it, and I hope that someone does. Very strange, this blogging thing. It's like having an open-ended conversation with humanity, who may or may not respond.

Well . . . C'est la vie. If no one responds, I'll get to find out whether or not it hurts when I'm not out to have people respond.

I think you will, though. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has encountered this strange paradox of blogging, which occurs to me like journaling - only in a public diary . . .

I guess we'll see.

Thoughts?

Much love,

Shawn

New Video

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 05:45:25 -0000

"Rocket Ship" - live at the Paradise Lounge in Boston, Massachusetts on Friday June 1st, 2007:

A question for musicians, and a call to action

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:02:15 -0000

Why do you play music?

If your answer sounds anything like the following:

- To uplift the human spirit and bring people to new levels of consciousness . . .
- To celebrate being alive and be a conduit for the conscious evolution of humanity . . .
- To provide an outlet for people to access parts of themselves that under ordinary circumstances they do not have access to . . .
- When I perform, I experience spiritual surrender, and I become a vessel for divine energy to communicate with those for whom I am performing . . .
- I see my musical inclinations and skills as gifts from a divine source of love, healing, and light, and I consider it an honor to serve people in discovering their own connection to that source . . .

. . . then this message is for you:

This is a very exciting time. There are many, many of us who are consciously using our musical gifts for the purpose of celebrating the highest potential of humanity and inspiring our audiences to take action on behalf of a bright and prosperous future for themselves, their families, and their communities. We are approaching critical mass, and it is time for us to come together and create some kick-ass music and events that bring people together in conscious celebration.

If you are at all moved, inspired, intrigued, or otherwise touched by the notion that you and your music can make a difference on a deep, deep level, please reply to this post with identifying information and links to your music. There will be a gathering at some point in the next few months for all who desire to participate in healing the heart of the world and transforming humanity with their music, and your response will indicate you are interested in receiving an invitation.

This is a call to action; do not hesitate - you have nothing to lose, and heaven on earth to gain.

Much love,

Shawn

The Starving Artist is Dead

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 14:12:52 -0000

How many times have you considered pursuing your passion - writing, music, dance, theatre, film, crochet, or underwater basket-weaving - only to find yourself smack up against the conversation that goes something like this:

You: I'm going to be a ... <insert the title given to those who pursue your passion here>!

Conversation: Hey, that's great! It's a tough way to make a living, though...
or
Conversation: Hey, that's great! But what are you going to do to make money?
or
Conversation: Fabulous! You're not going to quit your day job, though, are you?

You get the picture. There is a persistent conversation that occurs in our culture that as a creative, passionate person, it's HARD to make money, and on a deeper level, there's a belief that to be an Artist means to be poor and to struggle.

In the face of this conversation, I stand for being the one to say:

*H*O*G*W*A*S*H* ! ! ! ! ! !

It's time that we, the artists, musicians, and passionate creators of the world, stand up and claim our affluence. We are the ones who reflect humanity to humanity - good, bad, ugly, and indifferent. We are the guardians of humanity's soul, and it's time we own our place.

And be compensated for it - handsomely.

I'm not coming from the position of a victim, saying that others need to recognize our worth.

No, actually, I'm coming from the opposite place - it's time for us to recognize our own.

If this is a topic that interests you, then pop on over to a new pod called The Affluent Artist, and let's get the conversation started.

Cheers,

Shawn