Summer Tour Kickoff!!

Rock the Earth’s Education & Outreach Summer Tour kicks off Memorial Day Weekend, May 28, at the Summer Camp Music Festival in Illinois.  The event will feature some of our most talented music partners, including Gov’t. Mule, Umphrey’s McGee, moe., Railroad Earth, and others.  We will be leading a festival-wide mobile phone recycling campaign and have the pleasure of presenting Cornmeal in an intimate conversation and performance in the Soulshine/Vibes Tent. 

The same weekend, our DC /Baltimore Regional team will be at Del Fest in Cumberland, Maryland. Headlined by our friend, the legendary Del McCoury, the music lineup includes Yonder Mountain String Band, David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, The Avett Brothers, Keller Williams, featuring Jeff Austin & Keith Moseley, and Railroad Earth, among others.  Rock the Earth will again be leading a mobile phone recycling drive, so bring those old phones for a chance to win some great prizes, courtesy of SCI Fidelity Records.

From the Midwest, Team Rock will head to New York’s Mountain Jam, hosted by our friends Gov’t Mule and held in the picturesque Catskills Mountains.  This year’s stellar lineup includes Alison Krauss & Union Station, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Band, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Dave Mason, and The Band’s Levon Helm 70th Birthday Jubilee—featuring Steely Dan’s Donald Fagan, Warren Haynes, Ray LaMontagne, Steve Earle and others.

The journey from the Midwest to New York’s Catskills Mountains continues south of the Mason-Dixon Line, with our annual Planet Roo Solar Stage festivities at Bonnaroo, where Rock the Earth will again hold a series of panel discussions and artist question and answer sessions live on the Solar Stage each day. Moderated by Rock the Earth Board President Marc Ross, the theme of the panel discussions will be "Social Change Through Music," and will explore the synergies between the artists that create music and music’s interconnectedness to the environment and the world around us.

Confirmed panelists include Jimmy Cliff, Ulises Bella (Ozomatli), Nick Forster (Hot Rize, eTown), Tim McIllrath (Rise Against), Ben Wilson (Blues Traveler), Raleigh Hoke (Gulf Restoration Network), Shannon Foley (Love Hope Strength), Lindsey Simerly (Dogwood Alliance), Sarah Bush (Bonnaroo Gardens), Justin Levy (Conscious Alliance) and several more to be announced. 

Rock the Earth will also be conducting “storyteller” interviews with musical performances by Danny Barnes, Diane Birch and Julia Nunes, and a special one-on-one interview with Baaba Maal.  

Furthermore, RtE will be hosting Green Screens Presented by Rock the Earth in the Cinema Tent.  We are thrilled to screen Academy Award winner The Cove (Introduced by John Popper of Blues Traveler), Sundance Audience Award winner Gasland, Strange Days on Planet Earth/The Synthetic Sea (Introduced by Ryan Stasik of Umphrey’s McGee), Good Food, and Sacred Earth.  

Following what promises to be another top-notch Bonnaroo with the Dave Matthews Band, Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Jay Z, Conan O’Brien, Jeff Beck, Norah Jones, the Flaming Lips, and many others, RtE Summer Tour will continue on down the road, working shows with Phish, Dave Matthews Band, John Butler Trio, Jack Johnson, Crosby Stills & Nash, and Jackson Browne, as well as the 20th Anniversary of the High Sierra Music Festival, All Good, Floyd Fest and more!

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A Rockin’ Earth Day Thanks!

Thanks to all the fantastic people across country who participated in celebrating and raising awareness with Rock the Earth for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day! This year’s happenings extended into many days of community, sports and music events. Highlights included outreach through the city of Denver’s Greenprint Denver in a successful multi-neighborhood Energy Blitz on Saturday, April 24.  Madison Square Garden’s national music television network, Fuse.TV, went “Green Day” all day in celebration of Earth Day, and featured RtE as a partner organization; Music's leading performance rights organization, ASCAP (American Society Composers, Authors & Publishers) partnered with Rock the Earth and launched a Mobile Phone Recycling Drive in honor of Earth Day;  the professional National Lacrosse League team, the Colorado Mammoth (NLL) partnered with Rock the Earth on a Earth Month mobile phone recycling drive at their season finale (April 23) vs. Calgary at the Pepsi Center—where RtE collected 275 phones for recycling, and awarded the following who donated: Tommy Rivera, Grand Prize winner of season tickets to the 2011 Colorado Mammoth; Jeremy Osega, winner of AEG concert tickets and a Meet and Greet with his favorite player or the Colorado Mammoth; and Skip Van Ardsale, winner of Colorado Mammoth Fan Pack. 

Continuing, Northeast roots-rocker's Barefoot Truth donated 25 cents from each ticket sold from their 21-city record release tour in support of Rock the Earth (Day), raising a total of $650. Tomato’s House of Rock music school hosted an Earth Day fundraiser at New York City’s first fully functioning green venue, Brooklyn Bowl.  Local Merchants Herbs and Arts in Denver, Colorado donated 15% of their sales on Saturday April 24; jewelry bead shop Sparkling Creations in Hood River, Oregon also raised money for RtE; and Inner Vision Yoga, in Tempe and Chandler, Arizona donated 10% of their revenue on Earth Day. 

Rock the Earth volunteers also participated in a city park clean-up in Chicago. Partnering with Friends of the Park, we cleaned and mulched a playground at Montrose beach on the north side of Chicago. RtE also presented an education and outreach platform at Charlottesville, Virginia’s Earth Week Eco-Fair 2010 – helping spread the knowledge about how to repair and conserve the environment.

Also this month, Rock the Earth received donations from The Simon Family Foundation, Pace Butler, Mast Marketing, Tyco, and Susan Pape.  Rock the Earth thanks everyone!

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Plastic Pollution Coalition

You can likely recall the three R’s of recycling: reduce, reuse and recycle.  But in the age where you can get just about anything made of plastic, a fourth R as emerged — refuse!  It’s not quite a boycott, but more a worldwide education campaign by the Plastic Pollution Coalition, on the grounds of reducing the growing burden of plastic pollution. In 2010, Rock the Earth has joined over a hundred other organizations and celebrities to support the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s goal of educating fans about plastic pollution’s toxic impact on humans, the environment and wildlife by refusing single-use disposable plastics. 

If you haven’t noticed lately, plastics have quickly become an integral part of our daily economic diet. Americans currently consume and discard over two million plastic beverage bottles every five minutes, a waste stream roughly the size of eight football fields!  Despite our best efforts, the EPA estimates only 7% of these plastics are actually being recycled or down-cycled. The rest end up in our landfills, oceans, rivers, forests and communities.  Since plastics were made for durability, that’s exactly what they are doing once placed in the environment — sticking around. Many are photodegrading under solar ultraviolet radiation (a much slower process once in water), but the breakdown is leading to ever smaller pieces called microplastics that never really decompose.  

After 50 years of solid use, the burden is beginning to show with floating marine debris, affected wildlife, and increasing concerns over leaching toxins – especially to people. In fact, while pure plastics have relatively low toxicity to people due to their stability in the environment and insolubility in water, additives used to render them useful in different applications and the primary monomer or polymers in the manufacturing of some plastics are known to be toxic to humans. 

For example, plasticizers like phthalates are added to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to make it more pliable but have been found to have potential health impacts linked to early onset puberty, impaired neural development, and metabolic disorders. Similar health impacts are associated with Bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone disruptor that can leach from polycarbonate plastics into foods.

Not all plastics are created equal and it’s good for us to be educated. Perhaps you are familiar with the small imprinted numbers on the bottom or sides of plastic wares, or maybe you have never noticed – either way these numbers tell consumers everything they need to know.  

• 1 - PETE –(Polyethylene Terephthalate) – the true recycled plastic. Often used for soda bottles, water bottles and many food packages. Can easily be recycled into bottles and polyester fibers.
• 2 - HDPE –(High density Polyethylene) – the readily recyclable plastic. Found in packaging for detergents, milk containers, hair care products, and motor oil. Most are recycled into more bottles or bags, or down cycled.
• 3 - PVC –(Polyvinyl Chloride) - the everywhere plastic. Found in piping, toys, furniture and consumer products, among others. Very difficult to recycle and a major environmental health threat.
• 4 - LDPE (Low-density Polyethylene) - grocery bags and sandwich bags.
• 5 - PP (Polypropylene) - Clothing, bottles, tubs and ropes. Can be recycled into fibers.
• 6 - PS (Polystyrene, aka Styrofoam) - Cups, foam food trays and packing peanuts. 
• 7 – Other - Could be a mixture of any and all of the above, or plastics not readily      recyclable such as polyurethane.

As you can see, many of these single use plastics offer only a small convenience in exchange for a long-term burden. Please join Rock the Earth in taking the Single-Use Plastic Emergency Response (S.U.P.E.R) Pledge to follow the “4 Rs” of sustainable living: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Plastic Bags

Recycle the Following Wherever Plastic Bags Are Collected:

• All clean plastic bags labeled #2 (HDPE) or #4 (LLDPE)
• Grocery bags
• Retail bags (remove hard plastic or string handles)
• Plastic newspaper bags
• Dry cleaning bags (remove paper and hangers)
• Bread bags (with crumbs shaken out)
• Sealable food storage bags (with hard parts removed)
• Bags from boxes of cereal and crackers (with crumbs shaken out)
• Plastic wraps from products such as paper towels, bathroom paper, napkins, diapers, and cases of soft drinks http://www.plasticbagfacts.org/Main-Menu/Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.aspx

• Bring your own cloth bags to the store. Tip: keep them in a designated spot near the front door after use, so you will see them on your way out the door and put them back in the car.

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Mimi Fishman Foundation helps Rock the Earth (again)

The Spring 2010 Mimi Fishman Foundation Auction raised almost $5,200 in support of Rock the Earth!  We sincerely thank the Foundation and its Executive Director, David Shulman, as well as all those who bid on the auction items.  Extra special thanks to our very generous partners who donated the fabulous auction items: Superfly Presents, David Welker, Gibson Guitar, Del Fest, String Cheese Incident, Summer Camp, Floyd Fest, Michael Franti, Bobby Weir and Norman Sands.

Now they’ve teamed up with our friends at the WaterWheel Foundation to create a very special on-line charity auction.  All proceeds from the auction will benefit both Foundations and help support WaterWheel’s outreach efforts during Phish’s 2010 Summer Tour.   The on-line auction is currently live with the bidding coming to close on May 25.  The auction consists of 13 ticket/memorabilia packages, each representing a tour stop on the 1st leg of the Phish 2010 Summer Tour. In addition to a pair of reserved tickets per show, the additional items include band signed posters by Phish famed poster artist Jim Pollock, rare David Welker posters, Jon Fishman signed drumsticks, and more.  To view and/or bid on the auction, as well as read about the charities the auction supports, please visit the Mimi Fishman Foundation Auction Page. 

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We want YOUR old cell phones!!

Now in its second year, the Rock the Earth music festival mobile phone recycling campaign kicks off on Memorial Day weekend at Summer Camp (Urbana, Illinois) and Del Fest (Cumberland, Maryland), continuing over the next two weekends at Mountain Jam (Hunter, New York) and Bonnaroo (Manchester, Tennessee).

If you are not attending these festivals, All Good, Floyd Fest, High Sierra and Outside Lands will also be hosting RtE phone drives this summer.  As always, everyone who participates receives free goodies, such as 35 free music downloads from emusic, a 20% discount from Musictoday, and other great freebies courtesy of the festivals.  

In addition, each phone redeemed is worth one entry in a daily drawing, for fantastic prizes like CDs, DVDs, t-shirts, free music downloads, 2011 festival passes and more!!  You can also recycle your old cell phones with RtE at www.rtephonedrive.com.  Free shipping, free music downloads from emusic, a 20% discount from Musictoday…-and each week one lucky winner will also receive a free CD from RCA/Jive Label Group. What are you waiting for?!

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Rock the Earth Member Benefits

Member Benefit: Discount tickets available for High Sierra Music Festival (July 1-4)

Discount tickets are available to RtE members for the 20th annual High Sierra Music Festival  happening 4th of July weekend in the incredible Sierra foothills of California. Featuring Widespread Panic, the Black Crowes, The Avett Brothers, Railroad Earth, and Ozomatli, among others.

Member Benefit: Discount tickets available for Floyd Fest (July 22-25)

Rock the Earth members can purchase discount tickets to this year’s Floyd Fest, enjoying a 10% off membership benefit.  Taking place in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, this year’s stellar music lineup will include The Levon Helm Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Railroad Earth, and Galactic.  

Contact Kyra in the RtE office to purchase discount tickets. For a complete list of benefits go here. 

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Help RtE by Downloading Music! 

eMusic has launched a new Rewards Program that offers discounts, special access to festivals, and chances to meet artists along with its massive library of free or low-priced music downloads. They've named Rock the Earth a nonprofit partner.  Any time someone joins eMusic's digital music club via Rock the Earth’s website or newsletters, eMusic will make a donation to our environmental advocacy and educational campaigns. You can get 35 free songs without obligation from a selection that includes the legacy catalogs of both Sony & Warner Music, among others.  Please check out eMusic and start downloading tunes now.  You can beef up your iPod jukebox selection and help Rock the Earth in the process!

http://www.emusic.com/rte

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In The Key of Green: How hair can fight the oil spill

People from all over the world have found a creative new way to help clean up the devastating oil spill that has consumed the Gulf of Mexico.  The answer came right off the top of their heads — literally!   Barbershops, salons and even pet owners are collectively shipping thousands of pounds of hair to reduce the spill’s impact.  The hair is boxed and sent to volunteers who create “booms” by loading it into nylons; some of it is also felted into mats.  The booms and hair mats do their jobs simply by sitting in polluted water.  

Hair and fur are incredibly effective at absorbing oil, which is the entire reason we have to shampoo on a regular basis.   In fact, an entire quart of oil can be absorbed by a single pound of hair fibers.  Hair works all by itself without needing any additional materials, making it a surprisingly convenient natural remedy.   We can make a huge difference just by saving some of what would normally be thrown away.  The collected oil can even be recycled!  

Based in San Francisco, Matter of Trust is the leading nonprofit behind this hair drive.  So far they have already succeeded in collecting over 400,000 pounds of hair fibers, and continue to accept donations from hair salons, pet groomers and anyone else who wishes to participate.  You can learn more by visiting www.matteroftrust.org.   

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Help Wanted: Summer Interns + PR/Communications Volunteers

Does a summer job spreading the word about defending the environment while attending major music festivals and concert events across the United States sound like fun? See the country, meet interesting people, hear great music and make a difference.  Three-week-long commitment required.  If interested, please send your resume' to: Elycet@RockTheEarth.org

RtE’s Public Relations/Communications committee is looking for volunteers to join with traditional and new media relations experience, and/or graphic design, HTML, and Dreamweaver skills for the RtE newsletter. If interested, please send your resume to: debs@rocktheearth.org.

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 Volunteer Jam

Volunteer Jam provides an outlet to thank non-staff volunteers and supporters who have rocked it big time during the past month, and who have gone above and beyond in generous support of the Rock the Earth cause. 

We want to sincerely thank each of you for giving so generously of your time, and applaud you for your contributions: Barefoot Truth, Cat Bauer, Jamie Bender, Kerry Black, Tad Carpenter, Jonathon Cavitt, Debbie Crockett, Renee Damron, Scott Daniels, Danny Diaz, Del Fest, Robyn Delman, Sarah England, Mimi Fishman Foundation, Floyd Fest, Drew Frankel, Fuse TV, Rich Goodstone, Erika Green, Allie Hamby, High Sierra Music Festival, Brandi Honeycutt, Susan Honig, Kyra Montgomery, RCA / JIVE Label Group, Vanessa Robinson, Laurie Rochardt, Rochester Redwings, Danny Rosen, SCI Fidelity, David Shulman, Rebecca Sparks, Erin Tracey, Elyce Turner, Geoff Watson, Water Street Music Hall, Brother Wease, and David Welker.

What Rocks Your Earth?

Mishka is an authentic musician in an underrepresented genre with an incredible story—from growing up on a boat in Bermuda to having one of film’s most iconic figures, Matthew McConaughey, start a record label exclusively for Mishka’s music.  Mishka's 2009 release, “Above the Bones,” debuted at #1 on the Billboard Reggae Charts and Mishka was named 2009’s Best New Artist by iTunes in the Singer/Songwriter category.

1. What environmental issue(s) do you consider to be the most critical at this time?

The air we breathe, keeping it clean. But this is a multi-faceted issue — preserving the forests, converting to emission-free vehicles or no vehicles, and of course, preserving the ocean where most of our oxygen comes from.

2. What has inspired you to combine environmental activism with your art? 

Conscience. Love. Responsibility.
 
3. Where is your favorite place in nature to go to find solace or inspiration?

Anywhere quiet. I don't favor one environment over the other — mountain, ocean, meadow, it's all Jah.

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Stay Connected

Rock the Earth invites you to follow our musings and up-to-the-minute events and issues coverage at www.Twitter.com/RocktheEarth, and become a fan of Rock the Earth on Facebook to stay updated on the most notable news stories, photos and events in the Rock the Earth realm.

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