Celebrations of the Longest Day of the Year 
First Official Day of Summer
Summer Solstice
all one in the same
are rich in historic and cultural importance.

How are you spending Saturday June 21, 2014; the Summer Solstice?

At approximately 0621 in the morning in the northern hemisphere the earth tilted as close to the sun as it will all year - that's a 23.5 degree angle.

Enjoy more about the science, history and deep cultural connections of the longest day in these additional links. 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/summer-solstice-celebrating-the-longest-day-of-the-year-1.2682538

http://www.weather.com/travel/summer-countdown/summer-solstice-first-day-summer-20140619

If ever you were in doubt that there are still good people in the world . . . fear not.
This is a story about one amazing human being - millionaire Harris Rosen. He adopted an entire community in Florida and changed a lot of lives for the better.
He's a true blue cultural hero in our book.

One friend had just the other day told me this story about his friend. Today I saw it on FB.
I love love love how he saw something different. What a beautiful little melody .

Ah, the power of music ! This is just a beautiful example of a positive vibration catching fire and literally crossing any and every cultural boundary. It proves once again, Love is universal. Happiness is universal. How I caught the wave; first a girlfriend nearly 6,000 miles away writes "Oh, I LOVE that song I've been dancing all over the house!" HMM, I haven't heard the song before. So I pop over to Youtube and check it out.  #Happy is quite a catchy tune. Then another friend posts a video of happy for me with a bunch of college students singing the lyrics & dancing with abandon. What was great about this version is that they shot & danced all over Prague and they totally nailed all of the historical & off the beaten path sites of the city   :  )  Today I happened to see a clip of #PharrelWilliams talking to #Oprah about how this song has swept the globe and he was seeing these videos for the first time. He's got tears in his eyes, just literally overwhelmed by the fact that this song has made more than 35M people happy and prompted tens of thousands to make their own video !

If something is going to go viral online I have an extra special pleasure when it is something that lifts us up, lightens the load, shakes off some of the dust and the rust and shows the best of us. I get that same warm fuzzy feeling listening to #Happy as when I see the postings for the #HumansofNewYork project ( #HONY ). There's something fun about watching people dance. This song touches people in a place that really allows them to let down their guard. It's lovely. It's real. You'll laugh out loud from pure joy of its authenticity. When Pharrel Williams was talking to Oprah about how this song started, he said no one really was interested until his made the video - and noteworthy, it is indeed. It's called Happy - The World's First 24 Hour Music Video. It's just that - 24 hours of that song played out at a gas station and all over with PW and people from everywhere singing it with conviction and dancing with abandon all over their town. This totally peeked my attention because there is only ONE other song in my world that can stand that test - 24hour loop-to-loop playtime. . . .If you're interested, write me a message.

#Happy is really a catchy tune. The videos from around the world show us again how much we're the same inside. Hello Mumbai! Shout out to New York City!  It's not even possible to not dance to or at least tap your foot, snap a finger.  Rarely it seems, is there that special magic in music that happens when the melody really swings, the singer surprises repeatedly with their lightness and sensitivity and then you realize that every word in the lyrics is a truth that reaches across the miles & millennia.  It's like a mantra.

Come along if you feel like a house without a roof
Come along is you feel like happiness is a truth
Come along if you feel you know what happiness is to you
Come along if you'd feel like that's what you want to do

Check out www.24hoursofhappy.com
Enjoy!  Special shout out to Pharrel Williams for sharing this with us all . . . .  peace.
Just a note, for 'gepgraphic' reasons I was not able to post this video from its original source - The #OprahWinfrey Network (OWN), only from FB. Not all content from the USA is available worldwide. There is much randomness in the sharing, but we can still tell the story and share the love . . .Be HAPPY !

This story definitely belongs in the Good News Revue. This is an example of the best of us.

Culture.
Let's  view it as a verb.
CULTURE: - to grow in a prepared medium.

Jose Calderon's TED talk is incredibly moving. He talks about working with your hands and working with your mind, language learning, a life of service, family and sharing with the next generation. He's a fan of actively creating the culture you'd like to see . . .listen in.


Finding Cesar Chavez - a transformative moment: Jose Calderon at TEDxClaremontColleges

This is such a great page on Facebook. Do you know it? It seems there are so few really authentic exchanges between people but every one of these is real and raw and many are truly touching. The comments too from other humans, not only from New York, but from all over the world, are great too !

Enjoy and check it out - there's a website also.

I've said for many years that sometimes we need a dose of humor to have the real conversations necessary to begin to make some adjustments. Here's a comedian that worth his weight in gold.
Introducing . . . . drum roll, Please . . . . Mr. Lee Camp ! He's one of the checks and balances in a democratic system. BTW, so is Russel Brand from the UK and so was Bill Hicks! Check them out on YouTube.

If you are squimish about adult language, please skip this one.

Applause Applause Ben & Jerry's , the super fantastic socially conscious ice cream guys from Vermont!
Their support and voice for raising the #MinimumWage is a good act indeed !

It's Been Over 100 Years Since An Artist Has Done This In America. About Time Someone Did It Again.

More than a century has passed since a photographic journey explored Native Americans with such a broad scope and in this amount of detail. In 1906, photographer Edward S. Curtis was commissioned by J.P. Morgan to capture the “disappearing” race.

In 2014, to change perceptions about Native Americans, photographer Matika Wilbur believes we have to update the kind of imagery we're looking at when we think of her race. It's a beautiful — and important — idea.

Stunningly beautiful work to build new cultural bridges and carry this Native American story on for the next seven generations for all.

Thank You Joseph Lamour & Upworthy :    Things that matter. Pass 'em on.

I love the idea of a #Nudge , a small suggestion to help people make smarter, better changes in behavior that serve all in the end . . . We all know that exercise is healthy and good for us but how to prompt people to exercise more? These folks had a simply brilliant idea . . .make it fun !

The results? I believe they speak for themselves . . .a 66% increase for more exercise ! That's a big win!
Do you know of other good ideas like this elsewhere or have a great idea yourself you'd like to see? SHARE IT !

If you still haven't heard Sixto Rodriguez's story or music, you're either working waaaay too hard, a zombie or just plain old stressed out of your gourd.  I don't say that to make you feel bad, quite the opposite, I'm posting this story again because it's such an amazing, wonderful, unbelievably hardcore rock and roll story with a happy-ending. You're going to smile, I promise. And THAT's the point.

There are so amazing twists and turns to the Rodriguez story it's an example of life truly being stranger than fiction. From a cultural compass point of view, that which guides us not only morally but also thru a cultural lens for all humanity, Rodriguez is a story of Triumph of the Human Spirit.  I'm going to unfold his story on the blog slowly but you can check him out yourself.

He's is one fine human being. Here's just a taste from the London paper recently : Event Info (from the Apollo theater in London site today when we went for tickets)
'After the huge success of the BAFTA and Oscar award-winning film Searching for Sugar Man, Rodriguez returns to the UK for a rare live concert with his band.

'When the main set concluded to rapturous applause, Rodriguez stepped forward to the microphone and simply said: “You’re welcome. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege.” Which is exactly the way we felt. I’ve never experienced anything like it at any gig I’ve ever been to.' London Culture


It's about gratitude, truth and respect.  Rarely do we get blessed like this . . . .so this is for your listening enjoyment.