But don’t give up.Give me The Roots How I Got Over.

From the band who has consciously or otherwise taken on the job of “rescuing” hip hop’s inner monologue for the past decade, comes their latest effort that is not only broad in it’s lyrical scope, but monstrous in it’s sound. With How I Got Over, The Roots prove once again that they are indeed the progressive saviors of hip hop and it’s soul.

Life is fiction, competition and contradiction
Petty perceptions, window dressing for misdirection
Love is a lotto, I know I know you know what I know
Hope is so hollow, that’s why winos follow the bottle
And people pressure, make death a hidden treasure
A girly pleasure, lonely language inside a letter
It’s now or never, move it, move it, love it or lose it
‘Fore it’s recruited, then included inside the stupid
It’s things of nature, paid a player and say your prayers
Naysayers, the haters, the major players, the beggars
You ’bout it, ’bout it, don’t allow it to pow without it
Then those who doubt it, do or die to death are cowards
The world is yours, and the world we can’t afford
So ignore the law; start a fire, then start a war
If you’re sick and tired of your access denied
Free will died long before Glydes and iPod – Radio Daze

In 2001, with the release of Jay-Z’s “Unplugged” album, The Roots were anointed hip hop’s unofficial “house band”. Almost ten years and five albums later, as they reprise that role on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, they have translated the day-in-day-out rehearsal atmosphere of a late night TV show into a record that showcases an already tight ensemble. One that is as comfortable with itself as it is with accompanying it’s many, musically-diverse guests. As usual, ringleader ?uestlove makes sure that everything is driven by hip hop’s dominant instrument: the drum. But unlike many current hip hop records, melody is always front and center. Whether it’s John Legend crooning on “Doin’ It Again”, the sampling of Joanna Newsom’s inimitable “The Book of Right On” on “Right On”, or Black Thought simply singing, “I feel different today, I don’t know what else to say” on “Now Or Never”, I double-dare you to listen to this record, and not find something that you’re humming later. The confidence of this music comes from the ultimate assurance of their craft. The Roots are modern masters, to be sure. Despite being based in New York, beholden to their current gig with Fallon, the Roots remain a Philly band, and that’s important, because it brings to the table a different vibe. Suffering the same constant comparisons to NYC that other major American cities often receive, Philly tends to be a little more aware than most of even the smallest slights. It’s famously passionate (and loveably obnoxious) sports fans take their city as seriously as a heart attack brought on by a Geno’s (or Pat’s) ‘wit whiz.’ So to, underestimating the city’s influence on The Roots (and vice versa) is to discount their musicianship, the latest example of which is indeed their greatest. Clocking in at 42 minutes of near perfect hip hop, How I Got Over, is this generation’s “What’s Going On”, or today’s “Innervisons”. The Grammy Awards of 2011 will take place on February 13th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. That will be the time and place to put The Roots latest and greatest where it belongs: at the top. That’s right, it’s that good.

Listen now via their MySpace stream
Additional material provided by Russell Gustave Ochoa from Everybody Gets 15 Minutes

Imagine: A live debate between two of the most well-known political commentators on television today. All in the name of charity. On one side sits FOX News host Glenn Beck; and on the other, comedian and Daily Show host Jon Stewart.
Crazy idea? Not at all. In 1969, William F. Buckley debated Gore Vidal, and more recently, Bill Maher debated Ann Coulter in the 2009 Speaker Series.

A debate between Beck and Stewart could prove to be the most exciting ideological battles we’ve seen in years.

Glenn Beck, an American conservative radio and television host, political commentator, author and host of the FOX News “The Glenn Beck Program.” As an author, Beck has gained success with five #1 New York Times Best Sellers. Beck has become a well-known and polarizing public figure whose provocative views have afforded him media recognition and popularity, along with controversy and criticism. His supporters see him as a patriotic stalwart defending traditional American values from the destruction of progressivism.

Stewart has also gained significant acclaim as an acerbic satirical critic of personality-driven media shows, in particular, Glenn Beck’s show. Critics say Stewart benefits from a double standard: he critiques other news shows from the safe, removed position of his “fake news” desk. Stewart agrees, countering that neither his show nor his channel purports to be anything other than satire and comedy. In spite of its self-professed entertainment mandate, The Daily Show has been nominated for a number of news and journalism awards.

Fifty percent of the event proceeds can be donated to one of Beck’s favorite causes: Special Operation Warrior Foundation (SOWF). SOWF provides full scholarship grants and educational and family counseling to the surviving children of special operations personnel who die in operational or training missions along with immediate financial assistance to severely wounded special operations personnel and their families.

The other fifty percent can be donated to a cause that Stewart believes in, such as Autism Speaks, an organization dedicated to funding global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatment and cure for autism; to raising public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society; and to bringing hope to all who deal with the hardships of the disorder.

By accepting an invitation to debate, Stewart and Beck can defend their ideology while supporting causes they believe in. Please join me in supporting the higher calling to bring these two men together for a passionate debate on the future of our nation.

Date and Time – To be determined
Location – To be determined
Host – To be determined
Sponsors – To be determined
Benefiting - Autism Speaks and SOWF
To follow the progress of this event, visit the official Beck vs. Stewart Debate website -

But despite these hard times, a few companies who have chosen to swim against the current by actually giving back some of what they earn are recording record profits. But these aren’t the corporate donations carefully orchestrated by a clever PR department looking to bolster the company image.

This seldom-used business model, referred to as “Not-Only-For-Profit”, sets aside a percentage of a company’s sales that automatically go to the charities and causes that need them the most. Instead of the inconsistency of giving money when it’s convenient, or funds that never find their way into the hands of the hardest hit individuals, these companies have preemptively committed themselves to helping out. And their methods, while unorthodox in the business community, have produced some surprising results.

KIND Snacks, a healthy snack company based in NYC has seen nothing but growth in the last 2 years. KIND was conceived in 2003 by Daniel Lubetzky, a social entrepreneur that TIME Magazine recognized in 2009 among “25 Responsibility Pioneers” and BusinessWeek named among “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs.”

“The path to KIND began 15 years ago when I started PeaceWorks, Inc., a ‘not-only-for-profit’ company that fosters economic cooperation among neighbors striving to co-exist in conflict regions worldwide. After launching several successful food products with PeaceWorks, I still found myself in search of a snack that was wholesome, tasty and healthy – all at the same time. So in 2003 I conceived KIND as a brand of snacks that are ‘KIND to your body, your taste buds, & the world,’” Lubetzky claims.

“What we like to do is to build models where business and social interests are totally aligned and reinforce one another. It is not easy to do,” Lubetzky says. “A lot of the area of ‘corporate social responsibility’ is structured around perceived sacrifices to the bottom line in order to address other important societal objectives. The fun stuff comes when you are able to innovate through ventures whose financial and social objectives reinforce one another.”

Another shining example is Stubbs BBQ out of Austin Texas. Stubbs is making headlines around the U.S. with it’s “Feed the World” tour. Instead of setting up tents and trailers in shopping centers and town squares, Stubbs CEO Kurt Koegler instead chose to set up shop in homeless shelters. He explains, “It’s significantly improved morale by providing an authentic purpose that all of our employees have identified with. It’s also provided a way to differentiate Stubbs from the competition in a real and authentic way…primarily because of who Stubbs was and his love of people and love of feeding them”. At first, the tour idea didn’t resonate with all of Stubbs’ board members. According to Koegler, “The majority of the Board did not support a project that they viewed as a reduction of profits with no business purpose, however that soon changed when consumers responded with it all over the country with the result being record levels of revenue month after month.”

According to the American Association of Fundraising Counsel (AAFRC), the sum of gifts by individuals and charitable bequests in 2008 was $251.94 billion, a full 82% of the total philanthropic giving in 2008. “The sobering reality is that corporate America contributes only 5% of total giving annually to non-profits,” says non-profit consultant and organizer Michael Clearman. “What that says about the heart of corporations is, in my opinion, a question that only their leaders can answer. In my years as a professional fundraising consultant, I have learned that the greatest source of philanthropic resources is the individual human heart.”

Wall Street, are you listening?

Self-esteem: “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”

Life’s choices: “You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.”

Achievment: “It’s not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It’s the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.”

Parenting: “When we treat children’s play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that’s to be found in the creative spirit. It’s the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.”

Responsibility: “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes”

Mentoring: “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”

Imperfection: “Some days, doing the best we can do may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect on any front, and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else. “

Peace: “What really matters is whether the alphabet is used for the declaration of war or for the description of a sunrise.”

Love and Trust: “Love and trust, in the space between what’s said and what’s heard in our life, can make all the difference in the world.”

Over the 33 years of his broadcast, there have been so many children in need of mentors who had no one but Mister Rogers to turn to. Maybe (chances are) you also grew up watching Mister Rogers. Sadly, since his death, there have been fewer and fewer PBS affiliates airing the show. But there is hope: If your local PBS affiliate is no longer airing Mister Rogers Neighborhood, I encourage you to let them know how you feel about their decision to remove the show from their syndicated weekday lineup.

Here’s another photo of Francis that was preserved very well. The date on the back is 9-3-74, so it was taken just a few months before she disappeared. I found it in an box marked “women”. I think this one was shot with a Polaroid SX-70, which was pretty high end at that time.

She looks so vibrant in the picture above and if you compare it with her last photo (below), the emotional contrast is  obvious.