Something someone got me thinking about yesterday. . .

I have a lot on my plate.
I'm the lead on a Native American drum, I dance at pow wows, I'm teaching someone to dance Jingle, I am studying for my GED, I'm involved with The Shawl Circle.
And a lot more as well. . .However someone who I really do care about and see them as someone to learn from said some things yesterday that got me thinking. . .He said that used to before people were money hungry they would just randomly buy things at a pow wow auction, then turn around and donate the item back just to help the pow wow, he said he would love to see us young people put together an association and sponsor a pow wow. . . He wants to see us learn and make things they way they used to be. . .I agree with him.
Young people need to do this. We need to get off our butts and do something for our Native American community. We need to teach each other and learn from each other.
We need to take care of each other.

I am not saying this is something that will happen imdiantly or soon, but it is something I would love to see happen. You have no idea how many seeds this same man has planet in my life. He is the same person who made me rethink my career choices. He made me realize that maybe I am good with computers and technology but I know for a fact I can do more to help my people, and all the people in this world.
And that is something that is really in my heart. I want to help all of these Native kids who get away from their heritage because they get distracted by other things, like alcohol, drugs, boys/girls, things going on in school, and everything else this crazy world throws at them.
I've been lucky the way I was raised, I haven't had to deal with a lot of those things.
But I am fully aware they are out there, but I know well enough to leave them alone.

I would love to have some kind of orginazation or group that does this for Native Youth.
I have said this a million times, if we don't teach the young ones who will?
And where will our traditions go if we don't?

That's almost funny that I say that now because me and one of the guys at the pow wow this past weekend were talking about that. . .He had asked me if I would help his daughter out some with her fancy shawl dancing and I said of course and that is the exact same thing I told him.

Teaching the young ones has always been one of my favorite things at pow wows. . .
Yes I LOVE dancing and I LOVE drumming but nothing touches my heart and makes me more happy than teaching those girls how to fancy shawl or how to womens traditional. . .It's unexplainable.

Thinking about it now, recently we've been talking about trying to get a dance/drum practice up once a month. To try and start teaching again. . .Maybe that is a good place to start.

I will definitely be updating about this.
I want to start teaching these dances and traditions again. We need to.

Love & [World] Peace
Brandi <333

Help TWLOHA Founder Jamie Tworkowski Win A Woodie!!

Happy National Day of Stupidity.

WARNING: If you get easily offended, support Christopher Columbus, believe what they wrote in history books are true, don't like Native American's or have it set in your mind that this is going to be a raging rant about how stupid today is. . .You might not want to read this blog. If you do all that and still read it, I don't care. You have been warned.

Where to begin? Columbus Day.
Oh, what an amazingly happy holiday. . .Their celebrating a man who lied and stole.
Yeah, that's a good role model for your kids. Way to go parents.

I have seen enough "Happy Columbus Day" tweets and it's kind of getting on my nerves. . .Hell, Columbus Day is a frickin trending topic on Twitter.

First off, you can't "discover" any place if there are PEOPLE ALREADY LIVING THERE!!!

"Columbus himself was responsible for the deaths of millions of Native Americans (estimates range between 1 and 3 million) in the first 15 years of his colonization of the Caribbean"

These weren't just men, this was women, children, elders. He didn't have mercy on them.
He didn't care. He wanted wealth, he wanted power, he wanted it to be ALL ABOUT HIM.
And if you don't know, THAT GETS YOU NOWHERE IN LIFE!!!

People don't recognize the loss that Native American's had that was caused by Christopher Columbus. . . He was greedy and that got a lot of people killed.

Like I said, you can't "discover" a place if there are people already living there. . .
So, to celebrate the idiocity of Christopher Columbus. I will forever call today "The National Day of Stupidity"
I am done.

Love & [World] Peace
Brandi <3

A good example as to why anything your passionate about & money doesn't mix. . .

So, I'm about to get off Twitter to watch Sons of Anarchy tonight and Varsity Fanclub tweets: "Check out our latest blog, it is very very VERY important for you all to know this myspace.com/varsityfanclub ...Thank you!"

Okay. A million thinks pop in my mind.
The first being "Oh my god, are THEY breaking up TOO?"
If so, that would of been horrible. All of those guys are extremely talented and I know what this means to them. . .Especially Drew, I can tell by the way he talks about this as his dream.
As something he's willing to do anything for.

Okay, so there was a delay with the blog being posted so I'm like worried and then I was worried I'd have to wait an hour before I read it, because I didn't want to miss SOA but thankfully they posted it up. . .

The blog, to make a long story short explains "The reason why things have been slow! Things you need to know!". They tell us about how they were made by a production company and that production company controls everything they do, good or bad. To make it a lot shorter than their blog was, basically they had been treated like crap and haven't gotten the money they've worked so hard to earn. They are trying to get out of their contract right now, and have been fighting that battle for almost 6 months.

So, I was very relieved to hear they weren't breaking up. 3 boybands in 1 year =\
That would suck, really badly.

So they ended their blog on this note, which made me smile:

"We're trying to do the best we can while we're in this situation. We are always here for all of you. We will never go anywhere. We glued our feet to the ground. We just need your support through this rough time. We have the heart to stay the course and make this happen. Do you?
- Varsity Fanclub"

My answer to that. Hell yes.
I'll be right here supporting you guys.
You guys are awesome, your amazingly talented and I don't care what anyone else says about you being a bunch of untalented guys. . .You guys rock and will ALWAYS rock.

Keep your heads high boys, good things come to those who wait <3

Love & [World] Peace <3
Brandi

New SocialVibe Site

So, SocialVibe has totally redone their website.
It looks nice, there are more ways to earn points for your cause, which I like.

However, it's different.
It's going to take some getting used to and I'm not sure yet if I will like this version better than the old version or not.
But none-the-less I will continue to support TWLOHA & SocialVibe.
What they do is amazing.

So go join,
www.socialvibe.com

and support a great cause!

Love & [World] Peace
Brandi <3

"Our Voice Is A Weapon. . ."

I have to say, at 7:00 PM tonight when I logged on to To Write Love On Her Arms website to watch the live webcast, I had no idea who Andy Zipf or Damion Suomi were.
I had never heard their music, let alone heard of them.

Then they come on and Damion insists that Andy play the first song.
He explained the meaning behind it, and then he began to play "Our Voice Is A Weapon"

From the moment he started playing I knew he was talented with a guitar.
Then he began singing and I listened to his lyrics, I listened to the way he sang.
You could tell he enjoyed it, and the song wasn't something you could find a million of on iTunes or off a record store shelf. The song meant something, something more than saying "I love you" or "We'll get through this".
I got more out of all of their songs than I ever expected.

It has been a while since I've heard songs with true meaning.
I'm not dissing the other artists I listen to, I love all of their music.
Don't get me wrong, I love the catchy boyband songs, the old country songs, the songs you can just rock out to. . .But when you can keep your deep attention on two guys with acoustic guitars for an hour and a half and with each song gain something, that's something special.

I was sad that the webcast had to end.
It's almost hard to explain.

I knew when I heard TWLOHA was having a webcast from their office in Cocoa, FL that it was going to be special, every TWLOHA event is special. I always get something out of it. Whether it be a live chat on the street team, the Heavy & Light event they broadcasted earlier this year, or tonight during the webcast. . .It might be something simple but I always gain something special from it.

The world needs more musicians like Andy Zipf and Damion Suomi.
They are true musicians who do what they do because they love to, not because they want to make a million dollars doing it.

I want to extend a thank you to Andy & Damion simply for being themselves.
Keep doing what your doing, you have no idea how appreciated it is.

Love & [World] Peace,
Brandi <3

Damn those boybands and their catchy songs. . .

Their too damn awesome. lol

The newest edition to my collection of obsessions =)

The EastWest Boys.
I've seen people adding #eastwestboys to their twitter's for like the past week or so and I figured, oh boy another one. haha
Then I finally asked Prima, a fellow One Call/Menudo/NLT/MaddHouse (Oh you get the point) fan. . .I started talkin' to her back in the kyte days with Menudo.
Anyways, I asked her who they were and of course, she sent me to their Twitter and told me to look up "Yesterday's Hero" on YouTube.
So I did, and I watched it and imdiantly knew it get stuck in my head.
Of course, about an hour or so later I caught myself humming the tune lol

But I like them.
They sound pretty awesome to me, they seem nice.
Todd, one of the guys briefly talked to me when I mentioned him in a tweet.
He seemed nice. . .Prima says their all "really cute and nice. or at least most of them are" so I dunno. . .But yeah, check them out.

www.myspace.com/eastwestboys
www.twitter.com/eastwestboys

and here is their music video for "Yesterday's Hero"


Oh and I just want to mention: I think that A.J. Holyfield, is kinda sorta adorable =) Just look at him. He's sooo cute.

Anyways yeah, that's the latest boyband added to the bunch.

Course, One Call is my favorite. . .
Never really thought about who was my favorite until now, but yeah. . .Since NLT & Menudo (2007) isn't together anymore. . .One Call has to be my favorite.
After One Call it's Varsity Fanclub, MaddHouse, WOW. . .those are my top favorites right now....

Anyways. . .Off to bed now =)

Love, peace and chicken grease,
Brandi <3

Filled Tank from TWLOHA

TWLOHA Live Webcast - October 5th 2009

To Write Love On Her Arms is having a live webcast from their office in Cocoa, FL on October 5th! Tune in and tell all your friends!!