The Hanger - Rocket Talk

A View From Cyberspace - PlanetWebSite Review's CDBaby.com

I found some really great words for budding musicians while surfing the Webisphere. As a matter of fact, these words are great for any aspiring artist or craftsman looking to get off the dole and live an independant life brimming with freedom and liberty. His name is Derek Sivers and he is the founder and webmaster of CDBaby.com

"This is my best advice for my fellow musicians, about how to call attention to your music.

A quick bit of background, so you know where I'm coming from:

I started making a living as a musician in 1988, while I was at Berklee College of Music. I got my first paying job playing guitar at a pig show in Vermont. I joined a circus for 10 years. Moved to New York City, and worked at Warner Brothers Music. Played guitar for Ryuichi Sakamoto - (sold-out 10,000 seat auditoriums at the age of 22! whoo-hoo!). Quit my last day job in 1992, and vowed to make a living making music. Produced people's records. Played on people's records. Ran a recording studio. Composed music for TV. Put together a band that got into the well-paying college market. Performed over 1000 shows as the frontman. Learned how to entertain a crowd. I was pretty successful at it. I actually bought a house with the money I made from my music.

In 1997, I built a website to sell my CD. It was so expensive to get a credit card merchant account and build a shopping cart, that, when I was done, a few of my musician friends asked if I could sell their CD on my website, too. (Since I had already done all the work.) I did it as a favor, but soon it became so popular, just by word-of-mouth, that I gave it its own domain name : cdbaby.com

Like a first-time parent, something in my head switched : I had spent my whole life so far putting all my energy into ME. MY music. Me me me me. But now, with CD Baby, I wanted to tell other musicians everything I had learned. I wanted to help them have their “day in the sun” - to make a living making their music. I cared more about their music than mine.

So - I've thrown myself into CD Baby completely, ever since. It's been amazing to watch as many CD Baby artists who used to send me boxes of 10-30 CDs have gone on to huge worldwide multi-platinum success. It's been even MORE amazing to watch the THOUSANDS of musicians who are happier than ever, making money making their own music, without having to sign their life and copyrights over to a big corporation.

So - my advice here is a combination of my advice from my own experience, and my advice from watching the experiences of other successful musicians.

I never intended to sell my advice. I just want musicians to succeed. So - feel free to pass this around to anyone. Email it to your friends. Paste it into your blog or bulletin board.

--
Derek Sivers
CD Baby (cdbaby.com) - sales and distribution for musicians
HostBaby (hostbaby.com) - web hosting for musicians "

Thanks to Derek for his contribution to helping evolve the lives of those who strive for brilliance! Read more of Derek's tips, thoughts and aricles at CDBaby.net

And thanks to my friend and thriving musician John Reno, whose website JohnReno.com I was surfing when I stumbled upon CDBaby.com

Rocket Johnson Reporting
from the Global Webisphere

Well color me blue! Did you all here this? Web giant PalPal is giving themselves a facelift...smile! Well that should be refreshing. Here are the details via my inbox...

PayPal is launching a new logo (althought it sure looks just like the old one...grin) I guess change is hard when your as ancient as PalPay is(another grin), so subtle is how I'll phrase it.

Dear Rocket Johnson,

Soon you'll notice something different: PayPal will adopt a new look in the coming weeks.

As one of our valued PayPal merchants, you are receiving advance notice of our plans. That way, if you have a website, you can prepare to use the new PayPal logos and buttons.

What to do

If your site features hosted buttons and images with PayPal logos, you don't need to take any action. These will update automatically.

If you host buttons and images with PayPal logos, we recommend that you replace the current images on your site with the new ones. In a few weeks when the new images are available, we'll send you instructions on how to download them from our website.

Why it's important

We'll be educating all PayPal customers about the new look. By updating your images soon after the day of launch, you will let your customers know you are a current PayPal merchant and it will help them feel safer making online purchases.

Thank you for your business.

Sincerely,

PayPal

And there you have it folks. The world still keeps on turning. Here it the link to the NEW PayPal logo.

So What Do you Think?
RJ

Hey Mario...

Love the Car...great color! Also REALLY love the skydiving pictures and the movie on your www.CreatedSilly.com site. And Smithfield, Texas looks like a really awesome place to live too. GREAT sunset shots!

I live on a pretty little 10 acre farm over in LA... that's Lower Alabama. We also have chickens :-) and they provide my wife and I with an endless source of entertainment. The organic eggs sure are great too.

Headlight Lens Before CV Headlight Restorer

MAN... the headlight restoration you did on your faded headlights is another great testimonial as to someone who is willing to take a chance (in this case on a product) and have some faith that great results will follow. And there you have it... another satisfied customer!

Headlight Lens After CV Headlight Restorer

I've been involved with Crystal View Chemicals since their very beginning (as their graphic designer and webmaster) and I just really love the feeling that I get when I find people that are willing to give credit and or praise when they are truly satisfied with this product.

Thanks for sharing the good news with the internet. I do try to do the very same thing in my life as well and I just wanted to say THANK YOU!

Just Google or visit PlanetWebSite sometime or visit us at www.GreenEarthMinistries.org

Keep On Smilin' Mario... It a Bright New World Out There!

Oh by the way... the best link for people who want to learn more about the CV retail headlight restoration kit you used for clearing up your yellowed foggy headlights is www.MyHeadlight.com

Loving The Webisphere!
Rocket Johnson

The Religious Freedom Rights of Pastor Rev. Craig X Rubin is being trampled on ...a Messanic Jew, who believes Jesus the Christ is the Messiah, he is a Christian Cannabis Sacrament Minister who burns Cannabis as a sacred incense in Prayer and Supplication in the Name of the Lord Jesus... Cannabis... known as Kaneh Bosem in Hebrew Text and interpreted in our bible as Sweet Cane ...Fragrant Cane an illegal controlled substance according to the D.E.A. but a herbal plant created by God according to scriptures.

This Brother has seven children and a pregnant wife he has a Church in LA on Hollywood Blvd. called the Temple 420 . Yes folks 420 is mentioned in the bible...don't you recall the 4 and 20 elders...

this man is being denied his constitutional rights to practice his faith...his church and church donations were taken from him and his church doors were beated in by state and FBI agents as they held a guns to his head in the middle of raid on his church during service ...he is being denied the freedom to practice his religion in this country and he is being denied by LA superior Court Judge Mary H. Strobel the Right to claim the Federal Religious Freedom Rights Act as a means of his defense. Brother Craig X Rubin desires our Prayers and support...

Please write and file a complaint against this Judge Mary H. Strobel whodenied him his const itutional right .... send your complaint to the First Freedom Project committee..at

FirstFreedom@usdoj.gov

You may also write the Judge Strobel at mstrobel@lasuperiorcourt.org and tell her how you feel about this ruling she is planning to take Brother Rubin away from his pregnant wife and 7 Children for nearly 5 years...please help him now by writing this Judge and tell her to let Brother Craig X Rubin go!!!

A Word from Brother Craig X to the Churches in America

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - "I live in the City of Angels where the Mayor cheats on his wife, the City Attorney cheats the tax payers and I teach the Word of God and the love of Jesus and I am being sent to prison for several years," says Rev. Craig X Rubin. I love my country, but I love God more and I must teach the Truth that Jesus proclaimed a Kingdom not a religion. The Truth is that Jesus is Messiah. He was born of a virgin and rose from the dead. The Law and the prophets spoke the Word of God and all the prophecies of the Bible will come to pass and that is all that our temple taught.

"My name is Rev. Craig X Rubin. I was ordained by the Universal Life Church 17 years ago. A church that will ordain anyone for free, not for a fee as the AP (Associated Press) is reporting. Everyone, the prosecutors and press, seem to be making a big deal out of the fact that anyone can become ordained to marry people in the name of God by this church. I love God; always have and always will. As far as I am concerned I don't need to be ordained by anyone to teach the Word of God. His Law is written in my heart and I have not broken it. Abraham Lincoln was a self-taught lawyer and no one would say he was a bad lawyer. My great-grandfather was a rabbi who founded the first temple in Toronto. It is in my blood to teach God's Word, so it should not be important which church ordained me.

"I don't feel one ounce of remorse for the crime I am about to go to jail for. In fact, I continued to commit my supposed crime for 9 months after my arrest and no person's health or safety in the State of California was compromised. My only crime is wanting to reach people of my community, stoners (the 420 Nation) with the Word of God. I never talked anyone into smoking pot. I taught them that God created this wonderful plant and that they should study the Word of God as known through the Bible to know the will of God. I am now going to be taken from our society and my seven children, all of whom live at home, for many years for my faith that cannabis is the Tree of Life. My wife and I had no presumption of innocence as this country proclaims. We had our life savings seized and lost our house all because we started a church.

"This is my warning to fellow Christians in America. If you didn't stand up for my church when they came in with shotguns and kicked down my church doors, when they took the names of my church members and kept them from us, took our U.S. federal mail, seized my wife's and my life's savings without a conviction of any kind (and we have no criminal record) then I ask you...who will stand up for your church when the federal government comes marching in because you are teaching that God created all the plants on the third day; Or when you teach the Book of Revelation... who will stand up for you? I never changed one word from the Book of Revelation and now I am going to be spending years in jail for my faith that the Book is inspired by Jesus Christ.

"In my case the judge ruled that I was not allowed to mention the federal law or the Constitution to the jury because it might confuse them. I was not allowed to give the jury a copy of the Bible. They might actually think we had rights in this country. The prosecutor, Bob Chen, even objected when I told the jury that inalienable rights were not given to us by the government, but they came from God. I am a Jew who came to know that Jesus was the Messiah, but I am still a Jew. I can no longer make Aliyah, the Jewish right of return, to Israel a land I have prayed for my whole life. It was my prayer and still is that one day I'll live there near Jerusalem and I will be able to visit the Holy City often. Currently, the country of Israel won't accept me anymore because I am a Jew who puts faith in the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. The funny thing is I feel more Jewish than ever now that I believe in Jesus and I know the Law and the prophets more intimately.

"My only request of my fellow followers of Christ is that you pray for my children during this hour of struggle for my family. Lastly, since this will be my last comment for a while is that you recognize I didn't go fishing for Christians in an aquarium when I started my church. I went to Hollywood - a city with more sin than Las Vegas. I reached the homeless, people in the business of pornography, prostitution; I didn't try and steal Christians from other people's churches. I went to people who didn't have God in their lives and I taught them the Bible, the Word of God, according to my mission and because I was successful at it I am now going to jail."

May God Bless Brother Craig X Rubin and his family. I Pray for their peace and comfort during these trying times! Your faith and commitment to the truth will not go in vain!

Revs. Bruce & Brenda Shoop

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