International Day of Peace: 9/21/09

I rarely use this blog space to talk about upcoming shows; you can already see my show calendar in about 50 different places on the Interwebz (like in the side column of my official blog, or here, or here, and so on). But this time, there's a reason beyond my overly-inflated ego for me to tell you about a show that's important for reasons beyond my participation.

Monday, September 21 2009 is the United Nations International Day of Peace, and I was asked by one of SL's finest venue owner/managers, Harrie Skjellerup, to perform at the event. I am completely honored to be involved. To explain why, I want to quote something something from the event's website:

The United Nations' International Day of Peace - marked every year on September 21 - is a global holiday when individuals, communities, nations and governments highlight efforts to end conflict and promote peace.

Those of you who know me pretty well are aware that I'm not much of a hippie, or at least not an obvious one. But I am fundamentally opposed to war -- ALL war. I optimistically believe that a time will come that war is a distant memory of an earlier, barbaric era of mankind. This probably won't happen in my lifetime, or my son's, or his son's, or maybe many generations of people. But I do believe it will happen. And, unlike many of the other woes that affect humanity, I think that war is something that can be affected through cultural change.

Music has been an important part of our cultural heritage going back to prehistory. While I don't think anyone can write a pop tune and change the world, I believe that taking one day to be aware of the power of peace is a great use of time. It is, after all just one day. You can get back to killing and hatred the following day, if that's what floats your boat. But on September 21, it would be great if people around the world could reflect on how far they could progress if they weren't hampered by the horrors of war.

Enough preaching on that topic. Come on out to the Jester Inn on Monday. It's a great lineup of musicians, and it's bound to be a fun show. Oh, and by the way: I was inspired to write a new, original tune for this event. I may only play it once, for all I know, so please come by for my 2:00PM SLT slot. I promise not to preach at you very much, and let's have some fun and promote peace, just for one day.