‘Video’ Category Archive
I’ve seen Mean Girls several times.
I also attended and survived 4 years of high school. This qualifies me to say: some teenagers can be mean. This we know.
In high school I wasn’t the mean kid, but you wouldn’t exactly file me under “productive” or “useful” or “has ability to do anything”. Again and again you people keep sending us stories of teenagers who are changing the world. Here’s one girl. Her name is Madison. She’s in high school. She should be obsessed with herself, overly concerned with appearances and working on her SLAM book . . . but that’s not how Madison rolls.
Madison organized a beauty pageant for young girls with special needs. Her mission was simply to give them a chance to dress up, wear crowns, be told they are beautiful and make sure they had the best day ever. That’s exactly what happened – and then some. She enlisted the help of her friends from school, her entire church youth group and a whole community gathered together to celebrate some beautiful girls.
Today we just wanted to take a moment and celebrate this beautiful moment that happened because of a young girl who went against the norm. May that happen more and may our society grow to celebrate the true beauty.
-Brad
Want to help a group of special needs athletes? Pick up our album ONE FOR THE TEAM. All proceeds go to helping create a unique field just for these kids in Jackson, TN! http://loveinstereo.com/onefortheteam/
Posted in Simple Difference, Video | No Comments »
You may recall our friends Alex and Mark from a post just a few weeks ago here.
Well, they’ve had a bit of a plot twist in their nationwide journey. It seems the Manabago is … well… just please watch this video all the way through.
Today as we give thanks for so many things and as many of us sit down at tables to eat large meals with loved ones – let’s not forget that there are many across the world who are without. Alex and Mark are working with MANA Nutrition to help bring starving children back to health. Let’s help them out!
Posted in Video | No Comments »
Howabout a song for you on this fine November Tuesday? You may know Birdy from her stunning piano version of Bon Iver’s Skinny Love that’s been passed around over the past several months. She is an English musician whose debut album just released last week. The above track is a cover of Cherry Ghost’s People Help The People. We’re loving this song (and this voice). Enjoy.
Posted in Music, Video | No Comments »
Two men. Two mustaches. One mission.
Alex and Mark have been traveling all over the U.S. in a groovy 1971 Winnegego with the mission of spreading the word about MANA Nutrition. We made sure they routed through our neighborhood. Here’s what happened:
MANA envisions a nourished world. They have developed a brilliant RUTF (Ready to Use Therapeutic Food) specially designed to treat children diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition.
Through the RUTF they are bringing children back to life. Check out this powerful photo:
That’s Dominique, in pain and malnourished, just before starting the MANA treatments. He weighed 4.7 kg. In March 2011, after 6 weeks of MANA he weighed in at 6.9 kg.
This is changing lives.
You can see why two guys would go to such great lengths to make sure people heard about this, right? We had a great time hanging out and helping them along their journey. One of our friends, Jud Davis, even loaded Alex and Mark up with plenty of 8-tracks for the road.
Follow their adventures and more (including what 8 tracks they’re listening to) via the links below.
Posted in Big Idea, Inspiration, Video | 1 Comment »
It started as an idiotic conversation between friends about socks. (Like all great things do, you know?) Somehow the word ‘Socktober’ came to exist. What is it? What would it be? As a joke, I then went home and made a video declaring that every week for the month of October I would give away a pair of socks.
Here is that video:
Stupid? Yes.
Funny? Maybe.
I thought it would be fun: make a dumb video, involve people online, see what happens.
The funny thing to me? People entered. Several people. Not just my friends. In addition to the tweets, I got loads of emails. Here is an excerpt from one:
“SOOOOOCCKKS!! I LOVE SOCKS! THIS IS AWESOME. I WANT THEM SO BAD! SOCKTOBER FOREVER!”
Articulate? No.
Passionate? Yes.
It then turned into a social experiment: What if we could use this stupid thing to connect people to something that actually matters?
So this weekend I made a music video:
The above song “How Can I Have Swag If I Ain’t Got My Socks On” and two “less good b-sides” can be purchased for a donation of $5 or more.
All proceeds go directly to a really awesome work we found out about in Little Rock, Arkansas. Aaron Reddin is a man who cares about the homeless. He, along with a team of incredible people, load up vans filled with basic human needs. They then hit the roads in search of their homeless neighbors and try to serve them. I loved every bit of this the moment I heard about it. They’re making great things happen.
Can something stupid be used to do something meaningful? I sure hope so. I think it’d be really easy to post up a few sad photos of homeless men and women. I could even put together a really emotional video or share a few heartbreaking stories of homelessness, but is guilt the best motivator?
We know homelessness isn’t funny. We know there is sadness. Do we know that there can be joy? There is joy in hope. It needs to be amplified. Let’s spread that.
Here’s to hoping stupid things like rap songs about socks can be used for greater things. Happy Socktober!
- Brad
Buy ‘The Socktober Sessions‘
Follow @ItsTheVan on Twitter.
Posted in Email-Newsletter, Get Involved, Music, Video | 2 Comments »
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Stephen Colbert singing the Rebecca Black tune “Friday” with the Roots and several other guests on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. In order for this extravaganza to happen, colbert and Fallon asked to match a $26,000 donation to school projects. They reached their goal and this video was made:
You can still donate to the Fallon-Colbert charity at Donors Choose
Posted in Video | No Comments »
Hey guys. Brad here. On behalf of the whole team I want to say thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and kind messages! As we prepare to launch forward into year 2 of Love In Stereo, it’s fun to look back at all that’s happened.
Here are a few of our favorite videos that, in their own way, help tell our story.
Art + Change. Jennalyn Krulish is an artist and one of the most love-driven people I’ve had the chance to meet. This is her talking about her exhibit, Artifacts of My Calling. She proves that art can bring change and healing and hope.
The Confetti Song The Love In Stereo launch party was a blast. Joel Rakes and Shaky Voices came out, put on a great show and we all pulled together to celebrate the beginning of this new adventure with a few of our friends. The night also served as a pre-release party for the My Heart Is In Haiti album.
Thank You For our first project we wanted to help our friends at a children’s home in Haiti. We were surprised and excited when the two shirts, My Heart Is In Haiti and Haiti? Me Likey!, were actually purchased by people! We were so excited we made a personal video of thanks to the fine folks who bought them. Then Old Spice took our idea and did it better.
10,000 Shoes Arianne Krulish was a girl driven by a dream. She wanted to make an impact and she did. This story is living proof of our mantra “Together, we’re louder.” May stories like this happen daily.
We can’t wait to see what happens next.
Posted in About Us, Video | No Comments »
Taking a break from the studio to play a charity event at Freed-Hardeman University, frontman JT Daly of Paper Route sat down with us to discuss a few topics like living in Nashville, supporting an awesome new non-profit and working on their new album.
Started by a few of Paper Route’s close friends, Red Earth Trading Company works with Global Support Mission and local artisans in Africa to sell unique gifts that gives the money back to the hands that made each and every item.
If you’d like to learn more about Red Earth Trade check out their website
We caught some incredible photos from their show at Freed-Hardeman University last month. Check those out here
Posted in Artist Interviews, Awesome Causes, Music, Photo, Video | 1 Comment »
Last week’s episode of 30 Rock didn’t just have a great title: “Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning” (Wouldn’t that be a great band name? Anyone?). The episode, like most of the series, was brilliantly written even with a ridiculous set up: Jack attempts to pre-tape a benefit for a disaster that hasn’t happened yet.
The episode is a smart send up of celeb endorsed charity work, cleverly showing the results of ratings-driven motives instead of cause or solution driven thinking. The pre-taped song passionately delievered by Jenna “Help The People The Thing That Happened Happened To” shows, in a hilarious way, how empty these proceedings can often be. Not to spoil it for you, but the episode doesn’t end with a solution. This shallow attempt at charity actually ends up being a ratings success. They’ve given the people what they want (and helped no one) – Yay America!
As Love in Stereo launches into our second year we want to be intentional about actually making a difference and not simply raising awareness. We want our motives to be solution-driven and not attention-seeking. We want the art we create to rise out of the needs of people and not be neatly pre-packed or shallow. Our hope is to give voice to those who need it and to bring change. It’s not about us.
This episode made me laugh, but also made me cringe. There’s a lot of noise in the non-profit world. One concern we’ve had with Love In Stereo was that we didn’t want to just create more noise. We want to create change not noise. I’m forced to seriously look at what we’re doing . . . by a sitcom. Gee, thanks 30 Rock! Now I’m paranoid that we’ll be singing empty soulless songs like “Help the People the Thing That Happened Happened To”. It sounds crazy, but because of this ridiculous episode I’m committed to doing, saying and being more.
30 Rock often does what great comedy has always done: make us laugh at the truth and ourselves (especially when it’s painful.)
What say you?
Tags: 30 Rock, Causes, Satire, The Brilliant Satire of 30 Rock
Posted in Video | 1 Comment »
This week, Park City, Utah is packed with film-lovers, filmmakers and industry insiders for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Saturday, several festival goers had the chance to see a special documentary film: Espwa.
Kreyol for hope, the title perfectly captures all the film is about. At first glance it may seem to just be a commercial for Tide, but to break it down as such would be a poor summation. Tide’s Loads of Hope program has become a major force in disaster relief efforts both stateside and elsewhere. The film is a team effort between Loads of Hope and an incredible organization Operation Blessing. The film highlights how availability of basic needs like clean laundry can bring hope as people work to rebuild.
“In the grand scheme of things it’s a tiny drop in the bucket, but we’re happy to be a part of this little drop in the bucket.”
We got to have a quick phone chat with David Darg, who worked on the film. He has his hands full with disaster relief work, filmmaking and more. We’re deeply excited about this film and all that he’s involved with. Stay tuned as we share more of his work and other stories from the team at Operation Blessing.
Please take a few moments to watch and share.
Tags: espwa, film, Haiti, loads of hope, operation blessing, sundance
Posted in Awesome Causes, Video | No Comments »
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