So in predictable untraditional fashion, fans will get THREE new albums by the band in one six month period. It is a sign of the generally confused state of the music business itself at this time. To make matters more confusing the band was almost finished recording the 24 song two-disc set nicknamed “the girls album” (due to all of the songs being about and having girl’s names in the titles) - the actual title being L’intrigue de Femme and Finding Francesca - but the recording of that album was postponed midway through production in 2007 with no word on when they will resume work on it.

So what to do? Evidently, record another album! Less than a week after meeting with Iran President Ahmadinejad during the United Nations General Assembly Meeting, Hale flew down to Miami, Florida to spend five weeks in the studio with fellow TRANSCENDENCE guitarist Fernando Perdomo - who is also playing the role of producer on this one - to record a new solo album set to be released in early 2009. This will be Hale’s first solo album since 1996’s Acoustic in New York.

It is becoming increasingly more commonplace and acceptable in the music community to see solo and side projects by individual members of bands while the bands still stay and play together (Unless you’re in Metallica that is.) 2007’s favorite ingenue Feist is a member of Broken Social Scene; the Stroke’s Albert Hammond Jr. just released his second solo album; Eagles of Death Metal is a side project of Queens of the Stone Age members; Gnarls Barkley member Danger Mouse releases albums both solo and with his group, and just finished recording a critically acclaimed new album with Beck. Closer to home, TRANSCENDENCE bassist Roger Houdaille’s solo project EX NORWEGIAN just released their second single (Dance Trance Pants, a catchy little number. Check it out here) and just performed at this year’s CMJ Music Marathon in New York.

Ed Hale started his singing career solo, releasing his first album EDDIE at the age of 18, then joined a band for several years, BROKEN SPECTACLES (which also launched the solo career of singer/songwriter Matthew Sabatella), then went solo again, releasing Spectacularly Broken and Acoustic In New York, and then formed a new band, TRANSCENDENCE, who have released six albums to date. So does this mean Hale is going solo again? The band and its label insist not at all, but that instead the album simply affords Hale an opportunity to record and release songs that are not “typical TRANSCENDENCE style material.”

The new album, which is still untitled, will contain 11 songs the singer has written over the last year that are a complete departure from the glam, Brit, alt, indie or modern rock sound of TRANSCENDENCE and instead are said to be “slow, soft, personal, intimate, and primarily acoustic.” The album will not have any electric guitars and very few drums, but instead will feature many makes and models of acoustic guitars (both Hale and Perdomo are avid acoustic guitar collectors) and other stringed instruments such as mandolin, viola, cello, and even balalyka, and piano. Fans of Hale’s YouTube channel will recognize a few of the songs, including “Everywhere she is there,” and “Architect’s Daughter.”

“I wouldn’t call the album folk,” Hale says. “It’s more like singer/songwriter music, or “whisper pop” if there is such a thing. Because the sound of the album is so quiet and intimate.” When pressed for more of what the album will sound like he mentions Nick Drake, Donovan, Kings of Convenience, Jack Johnson, David Grey, and even Bob Dylan. “In TRANSCENDENCE we are really lucky in that we’re all pretty open minded so we are able to get away with recording a wide variety of styles of music. More than most bands are able to get away with. But we’re still essentially a rock band and limited to that TRANSCENDENCE sound, whatever that is. So these are all just songs that would never make it onto a TRANSCENDENCE album, because they wouldn’t fit our sound. And frankly I dig that we’re all doing little side projects like this now. This is an album I’ve wanted to do for years. I’m very happy and excited to be doing this. It’s like I have to pinch myself. It’s the most personal thing I’ve ever done. That’s for sure. A lot of just me and the guitar.”

The band’s label believes the new album may expose Hale to a whole new base of music listeners. Hale says Perdomo was the natural choice to produce the album. “We’ve worked together for six years now. He’s the most brilliant musician I know. He’s crazy and a total fucking pain in the ass. But we all are I guess. But he’s also this organically genius musician on so many levels.” Old bandmate Matthew Sabatella has also been enlisted to sing harmony vocals on the tracks. “Matt and I have been singing together since we were in Junior High. I’ve waited a long time for a project that we could work on together again. I can’t wait to hear what he does on this album. Our voices work really well together. And he’s awesome at coming up with good harmonies. All and all we have the makings of a good little album here.”

Hale is currently blogging about the recording of the album on his Transcendence Diaries blog, and will be posting photos and clips of the songs as they are completed to his website www.edhale.com and Facebook page. Stay tuned for more.

White House Does Not Meet with Iran President Ahmadinejad during UN General Assembly Meeting – But a Small Group of American Citizens Does - Part I of III

By Ed Hale

As United States 2008 presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama bickered over how they would “handle the Iran threat” in their first debate on Friday night, citing erroneous facts and competing with one another on who would hold out the longest from engaging in diplomatic talks with Iran, a small group of one-hundred and fifty American citizens representing fifty of the country’s most prominent peace and human rights groups were busy talking to the world’s media about the two-hour private meeting they held with the Iranian President two days prior.

The meeting – which was not revealed to the media until the next day to assure the safety and security for those in attendance – took place on Wednesday September 24 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City during the 63rd annual United Nations General Assembly Meeting. The goal of the meeting was “to introduce President Ahmadinejad to the peace community in the United States and to illustrate how this sector of civil society works to oppose war and the use of non-violence to resolve differences,” said the meeting’s facilitator, Mark Johnson, Executive Director of the global Fellowship of Reconciliation, the world’s oldest peace organization.

In an exhilarating live experiment in civilian diplomacy in action, the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel was transformed into a veritable who’s who of some of the most outspoken and prominent members of America’s peace, anti-war, and human rights organizations, including Medea Benjamin of A Global Exchange, Jodie Evans of Code Pink and Women for Peace, Brian Becker of the ANSWER Coalition, yours truly representing PeaceWithIran.com, and Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice. There were also representatives from Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Mennonites, the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, American Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, among many others. American citizens flew in from almost all fifty states to hold the private meeting with President Ahmadinejad in an effort to begin the process of what many consider long overdue open dialogues with Iran regarding how our two nations can work together to secure more peaceful relations with one another.

The issues raised during the two-hour plus talk, many considered vital for the future security of both the United States and Iranian citizenry, revolved around how the countries can begin putting aside their mutual distrust of one another in order to move forward in peaceful negotiations; both the US and the Iranian government’s recent crackdown on human rights, freedom of assembly, and dissidents; the current US occupation of Iraq; Iran’s controversially viewed policy toward Israel; their treatment of women and other minorities; the difficulty on both sides of obtaining visas to visit either country. Of course the big issue of the moment, will Iran accept a compromise on its nuclear fuel enrichment program, was also addressed.

Ahmadinejad was joined by his Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, and Iran UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee. After already participating in two full days of talks with leaders from all over the globe, the Iranian President seemed tired, but he spoke eloquently, near poetically, and many of the points he made and the answers he gave to our questions were illuminating and insightful. In response to Iran’s nuclear energy program – a subject that the United States government continues to demonize in unsubstantiated propaganda to the American media though it has the support of one-hundred and eighteen other UN nation-states around the planet – Ahmadinejad reasserted for the umpteenth time that Iran has allowed more IAEA inspections of their nuclear facilities than any other country in the world to date, and that they discontinued pursuing nuclear weapons in 2005. A fact that has been confirmed and reconfirmed by all thirteen US Intelligence Agencies including the NSA, the FBI, and the CIA countless times over the last three years.

Why the White House persists in attempting to publicly frame Iran’s nuclear energy program as “a threat to American security” remains a mystery. As does why the US government continues to refuse to speak with or enter into diplomatic talks with Iran while other countries such as Iraq, Japan, Italy, China, Pakistan, and Russia are now jumping at it. Bear in mind that Iran currently sits on the second largest oil deposit on the planet. He told us that US President George W. Bush missed a historic opportunity when he didn’t respond to the Iran President’s 2006 letter inviting him to talk, an opportunity that could have begun a reconciliation of the two countries’ 28 year cold war of silence. As an American citizen I couldn’t help but feel a sense of bitterness and regret — as if we were indeed a winning team but could still lose the game because we simply suffer from having a bad captain.

Ahmadinejad also commented about how the United States, the UK, France and Canada supported, cooperated with, and even gave nuclear technology information to the pre-1979 regime ruled by the US-installed dictator, the Shah of Iran but now “When there were no elections in Iran, they wanted us to be a nuclear power. As soon as there were elections, they didn’t want us to be a nuclear power.” The room roared with laughter at the obvious irony. As a passionately patriotic American – granted, more of the ideals we talk rather than the missteps our government often walks, especially with our foreign policy over the last fifty years – I felt proud knowing that this might be the first time an Iranian government leader was in a room with living breathing American’s who actually understood and fought for America’s promise and potential of real democracy and liberty for all, rather than feeling bullied, threatened, and manipulated as many smaller countries feel in their dealings with the United States government today.

I was reminded of the shock I felt when I first learned just a few short months ago that in 1950 Iran had their first democratic revolution and in 1953 the CIA and the UK, under Operation Ajax, orchestrated a coup d’etat and ousted Iran’s new democratically elected Prime Minister Mosaddeq sending him into exile and installed a puppet regime that they could control easily in the form of The Shah so both countries could reap giant profits from Iran’s enormous oil supply while that country’s people struggled in poverty and fell behind the rest of the world in technology, social services, and infrastructure for thirty more years. I also contemplated how as children we are taught to honor, respect, and celebrate our own American Revolution while at the same time being advised that we should disrespect, fear, and dishonor the Iranian people’s own Democratic Revolution.

But as important as that little bit of history is for all Americans to have knowledge of, that’s in the past and here we were, twenty-eight years later, American citizens no longer able to bear the archaic bullheaded imperialist system that refuses to practice in real life what it preaches to its children in school, taking matters into our own hands and sitting down in the first ever diplomatic talks with the relatively new democratically-elected Iranian government to help begin to build a bridge of shared values and mutual agreements: mainly, that “we must work together to form a wave of citizens who are dedicated to world peace for all citizens of the world and of all nations.”

Echoing what we heard countless times by many leading government officials when I visited Iran in March of this year, Ahmadinejad told us that Iran is politically and religiously opposed to nuclear weapons, adding: “The time for nuclear weapons has come to an end. Those who want to build a new generation of nuclear bombs are politically backward, period. Those days are over.” Again the room erupted into applause. “Did nuclear weapons help the United States in their Vietnam War? Did they help the former Soviet Union in the Cold War? Are they helping your country in the Iraq War?” Silence in the room. Perhaps it was the fact that Ahmadinejad was fasting for weeks straight due to the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. Perhaps he has just matured over the years. But his mannerisms were cool, his demeanor was calm, and the tone of his answers poetic and philosophical. He then posed the question “Doesn’t it seem odd that we are being economically sanctioned, our people strangled literally to death, and at the same time publicly threatened and attacked almost daily for attempting to harness nuclear energy for our rapidly growing economy with no intention of building nuclear weapons, by the United States who has over 10,000 functional nuclear warheads aimed at half the world? Doesn’t this seem odd and illogical?” Again, more applause.

I was speechless. Perhaps this was a first for me too. The first time that I had heard a high ranking government official, a head of State no less, speaking not only insightfully with moral and ethical undertones, but speaking truths that many of us think to ourselves privately but are afraid to utter aloud for fear of being labeled “unpatriotic” or “treasonous.” Having grown up in America in the latter half of the 20th century I was jaded from one too many politico speeches filled with nothing but empty rhetoric and flip flopping. But Iran is in a different position now than they’ve been in thousand’s of years and different than even we American citizens are. They are quickly gaining allies and support and mammoth deals with countries all over the world. They do not share the same fears that even we here at home face of being attacked for speaking their truth. They are a rapidly growing new country of strong proud people with a seven-thousand year long history, a sovereign nation who are free to say what they wish, economic sanctions and near-constant threats of military strikes be damned. All I could do was transcribe the contents of the meeting as quickly as my illegible handwriting would allow. Something told me that what I was witnessing and listening to was important to share with as many people as I could over the coming weeks and months.

This is not to say that those of us in attendance were able to agree with everything that the conservative Muslim President said during our meeting. There was plenty to take umbrage with and in fact just downright vehemently disagree with. This I will cover in Part II, along with a summary of the dialogue surrounding some of the other issues mentioned earlier in this article. But in the name of peace, which was the reason for the meeting in the first place, perhaps it best to end Part I with Ahmadinejad’s closing remarks to illustrate why many left that room that night inspired by the potential hinted at that there is power in our civil society and in non-violent civilian diplomacy to effect change in the world and to lift up democratic societies despite challenges and obstacles.

“My friends we need to create a wave of all world citizens of all backgrounds and all walks of life to create more peace in the world. We need to practice our values of our various religions and gather ourselves together to work at the pace of light itself to keep up with the pace of the world. Carrying out this mission has certain requirements based on justice and respect for all nations. If we don’t like something for ourselves, then we should not want it for other nations. Yes? What I am saying here is not complicated. These are clear-cut ideas that we need simply to put into practice.”

It is too bad that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama could have been in attendance at this historic meeting. Perhaps the contents of their debate on Friday regarding the country of Iran would have appeared more well informed and enlightened. (Both candidates mistakenly referred to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as “the Republican Guard”) If the United States is going to pull out of the numerous crises both here and abroad that it currently faces, it is going to take real change on many levels – the kind of change hyped and promoted by at least one of this election year’s presidential candidates. And one of those changes absolutely essential to our survival, let alone our thriving in the 21st century is going to be a more open door diplomatic policy towards communication with other countries that we may not see eye to eye on in all matters. But we have to start somewhere for real reconciliation to start taking place.

Ed Hale
September 27th, 2008

Hale visited Iran in March of this year along with 12 others as a Civilian Diplomat to discuss US/Iranian relations with members of the Iranian government including former President Khatami. Hale has been interviewing with the media about the trip over the last six months, as well as giving formal presentations to discuss it with the public. He has also written about it on his blog, The Transcendence Diaries. Photos from the trip can be viewed by visiting Hale’s Flickr page here. This meeting in the US is being held in order to introduce Ahmadinejad to the peace community in the United States and to illustrate how this sector of civil society works to oppose war and the use of violence to resolve differences. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee will also be in attendance.

In response to those who have vocally protested his involvement in meeting with Ahmadinejad, Hale had this to say: “Iran and the United States have not spoken diplomatically in over 25 years. When the governments of these nations do speak to each other it is usually behind closed doors through special envoys in some remote neutral country or they speak AT each other publicly through the media making accusations and threats and bullying each other. Israel is also involved in this childish power struggle. All three countries need to grow up and start representing the people of their nations in a more mature and responsible manner that respects human life. Until the governments of our countries are willing to stop the chest beating and start a real dialogue about the most pressing issues that the people are facing — most importantly peace between our countries — then we the people need to step up and do the talking for them. This is what Civilian Diplomacy is about. It is imperative that someone say something constructive that moves us forward; at the same time we need to start listening to each other more. For me personally I don’t care who I have to meet with if it means that it might potentially save human lives. Our meeting with President Ahmadinejad does not imply that we agree with his Holocaust denial statements anymore than our meeting with Dick Cheney would imply that we support the invasion of Iraq. What is most important is that we get the message out to as many people around the world as possible that peace is possible and that if we have to then we the people will make that happen if the governments of the world are not willing to. We certainly cannot continue in the direction we are headed in now. We need to open the lines of communication in order to assure that we save more lives. That’s what this meeting is about.”

SEVEN YEARS after its recording, rock band TRANSCENDENCE have released the September 11^th tribute song Rebuild America for sale on a new rarities collection album entitled The City of Lost Children. The song Rebuild America was recorded in October of 2001 just after the World Trade Center attacks in New York but never officially released. The song was eventually turned into a music video. Watch it here on YouTube. Now the song is finally being released for sale with all proceeds to benefit September 11^th victims’ families through the Robin Hood Foundation. The album also features 13 other rare and never before released tracks from all five of the band’s previous albums.

 

In anticipation of the two new studio albums being released this year comes first this compilation of unreleased outtakes and rarities from TRANSCENDENCE that offers fans access to many of the band’s most hard to find hidden tracks and studio gems for the first time ever. The City of Lost Children is a compilation of studio outtakes from all five of the band’s officially released albums that spans eight years. The album also includes unreleased favorites such as the R&B flavored Whenever I’m with you — a familiar staple on various MTV shows over the years, and the September 11^th tribute song Rebuild America; as well as two Brazilian-classic covers sung in Portuguese when singer Ed Hale was at the peak of his Tropicalismo obsession. From irresistibly catchy commercial pop (Jacquie) to psychedelic alt-rock (Kill the monkey), raw, urgent indie-rock (All is lost) to Beatlesque Brit-pop (Andrea’s Fault) and avant garde experimental instrumentals (Nothing is cohesive part II) The City of Lost Children offers a revealing glimpse behind the curtain of the creative and prolific musical collective known as TRANSCENDENCE with 14 never before released tracks that is sure to be a treasure chest for those who want a deeper look into the eccentric group’s past musical explorations. As diverse and eclectic as the song selection is, fans should find it a special collection that sounds like it could be an album in and of itself. And indeed now it is.

 

The album features extensive liner notes written personally by the band with song credits, and plenty of details and back-story about each song. To read and download the liner notes and the lyrics to the songs fans should head to the band’s website www.transcendence.com.

The album is available for digital download on Napster, Yahoo Music, iTunes, emusic, Rhapsody, and of course amazon.com.

To listen to or download the songs or the whole album on Amazon.com click here.

 

TRACK LISTING

1. WHENEVER I’M WITH YOU (Outtake Rise and Shine)
2. JACQUIE (Outtake Rise and Shine)
3. ANDREA’S FAULT (Outtake Nothing is Cohesive)
4. REBUILD AMERICA (Single)
5. KILL THE MONKEY (Outtake Rise and Shine)
6. FREE LOVE (Hidden track Sleep with You)
7. EU SEI QUE VOU TE AMAR (Never released)
8. VAMPIRE SONG (Outtake The Great Mistake)
9. ALL IS LOST (Outtake The Great Mistake)
10. ALL OF MY LOVE (Outtake AYHBV)
11. O LEAOZINHO (Rare live track)
12. MORNING IN VENICE (Outtake AYHBV)
13. THE GREAT LEAP INTO THE FOREVER UNKNOWN (Outtake AYHBV)
14. NOTHING IS COHESIVE PART II (Outtake Nothing is Cohesive)

The band’s personal notes about the album:

At first listen The City of Lost Children could be, more than anything else, a testament to how much great talent we have been lucky enough to work with over the last eight years in TRANSCENDENCE. From musicians to songwriters, producers, engineers and singers, we have been very lucky and truly honored by all the brilliant hearts and minds that have worked and played with us. TRANSCENDENCE has always been more of a community rather than simply a band of five guys. It’s a community of music, about music, founded on music, flowing out of music. Music was from the start the spark that ignited the formation of TRASCENDENCE. We came together as strangers attracted to one another because of our shared love and passion for music. Music of all shapes and sizes and styles. We stay together for the same reason. Over the years we have been blessed almost divinely to be open to anyone who wanted to stop by the studios, say hello and talk shop, and ultimately lay down something of their own on whatever project we happened to be working on. This album perhaps owes more to this idea than anything else we have ever released simply because it pulls together 14 songs from various phases of our working together as a group and spans a period of over 8 years.

Stylistically the Lost Children collection also bears witness to the fact that those pesky critics may be more accurate in their assertion that TRANSCENDENCE has been ‘all over the map’ than we ever cared to admit… hence the Nothing is Cohesive album title… but where has it ever been written that artists – of any medium — are supposed to stick with the same style throughout their careers or even within the context of one work? TRANSCENDENCE has always gotten off on exploring different musical territories as a group. In fact the more diverse and eclectic our musical explorations are the more stimulated we as individuals become. Truth be told, writing and recording a song such as Whenever I’m with you, a song which at first listen might appear to be far removed and light years away from “our usual sound,” was no more difficult or challenging than one of our more typical indie rock or brit-pop styled songs. With a few more listens it gets easier and easier to recognize the same five guys in that song. This collection of songs, as disjointed as it may be when gathered all under one roof, does run the gamut from R&B to straight ahead alt-rock to Brasilian pop to avant-garde experiments in sound, and yes it may seem odd that the same group and various other stragglers and fellow explorers found it so appropriate and commonplace to try our hands at so many different styles of music. But luckily for all of us we never questioned this aspect of ourselves. We just forged onwards, critics be damned, and did whatever we wanted to in order to get ourselves off and maintain that high and inspiration that compelled us to come together in the first place.

Because of the general over the top eccentric nature of each member of the band, I have noticed that we have actually found it more difficult to create straight ahead commercially accessible pop and rock at times compared to the more esoteric and experimental stuff that has managed to make its way onto our albums. But that’s TRANSCENDENCE. At times this yearning to branch out and cover as many bases as possible has created problems for the band. With producers, with engineers, with record labels, distributors, DJs especially, critics, other musicians, and perhaps even with fans. Over the years we have had to make sacrifices artistically and cut certain tracks off of albums in order to make them more cohesive and streamlined. Even if we were madly in love with those tracks. At other times it was more of a question of just space or just having too many songs for one disc. And occasionally a single or two has gotten recorded and for whatever reason never found a home and made it to an album.

So more than anything else for us as a group these various reasons make The City of Lost Children a very special album indeed. It was an idea we had been harboring for years and just never had the time to see through. It may seem odd, and perhaps even strategically impractical, to release an album such as this when we have two new albums coming out in the same year. Most artists and labels save projects like this for dormant periods in between recording sessions or when the band is on tour. But as trite as it sounds because so many musicians say the exact same thing about their songs, almost every song we birth and take the time to explore and record as a group does have a very special place in our hearts regardless of whether or not it ever gets released. This makes The City of Lost Children a very very special project to each of us. For the first time we were able to sit down and reflect and reclaim all of our lost children and pool them all together so they had a permanent home and were lost no more. Compiling this album gave us all a sincere feeling of relief and satisfaction and completion. For music fans we hope that some get as much pleasure from being able to have access to all of these rarities for the first time under one roof as we did in putting the album together. As always thank you for listening.

– TRANSCENDENCE

Ed Hale, Ricardo Mazzi, Roger Houdaille, Fernando Perdomo, Bill Sommer, Allan Gabay

Fans and friends can also become friend’s with Hale’s band TRANSCENDENCE on Facebook to stay up to date on the latest news, album releases, songs, photos, and videos. Just click here.  

This year TuneInTurnOnHelpOut.org is celebrating its 10th year. The project was started in 1998 by singer/songwriter Ed Hale of the rock group TRANSCENDENCE. To read more about the project click here.

In the meantime, Transcendence does indeed have three new CDs releasing this year including the band’s official two new albums, The Great Mistake (EMI) and All Your Heroes Become Villains (DVG), and a new rarities and unreleased tracks album called The City of Lost Children. Stay tuned for release dates.

To best stay informed of the latest, head to Facebook and add as a friend or subscribe to this site or the band’s site either through email or RSS Feed.

I’m sending you all an email to a few of my New York friends because many of you were sponsors of my peace delegation trip to Iran last month and/or were awesome email/phone supporters. So I wanted to let you know the details of the official presentation I will be giving about it here in NYC.

The last two months have indeed been insane with almost more work post-trip than the trip itself. A lot of interviews and articles and yes even the obligatory appearance on Muslim TV — (which was quite “candid cameraish’ I must say).

My official presentation about the trip in New York City will be this coming Sunday. I pasted the details below for you in case you have the time to come - and are interested in this subject. It was quite the experience and we learned a lot. More than anything, we were brought there specifically by the Iranian government to bring back a message to the American people…

So that is why we do these interviews and presentations. It isn’t necessarily a “perfect message.” But it is a real message – as opposed to what we hear on the news here in the States… which is just ‘the White House said…” So, that will be the aim of the presentation. To show some pictures, tell some stories, and answer as many questions as possible about the subject.

The presentation will be filmed (so dress sharpJ). By the way, since I have you all on the line at once: Our show Transcendent Television got picked up by Warner Home Video for distribution!!! No, we’re not on traditional TV… YET, but this was a real surprise blast of forward momentum out of nowhere that was very welcomed.

If you want to see the first DVD they are going to officially release you can see it here because there are segments still on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AE689FEEAE0C2E66 It is the “Going to Ghana” series I made last year.

Many of your beautiful faces I have not seen in a long time… I know we’ve all been over the top busy. Such is life in New York. It has been a crazy year or more for many of us. But I would love to see you! If not Sunday, then hopefully soon.

(For you rockers in the bunch, it does begin at 12:45. I know that’s early, so if you don’t show, don’t sweat it. I TOTALLY understand. J)

If you do decide you can attend, let me know, and I will make sure that lunch is reserved for you. if you’re not sure, feel free just to show up. Hey, this is New York. Who knows what we’re even going to do tonight let alone Sunday!!!

Hope all is well with all of you and would love to see you there.

Ed Hale

Below is the description of the Presentation:

Ed Hale will give a talk about his recent Peace Delegation trip to Iran entitled “The Value of a Single Human Being”

Sunday June 1st starting at 12:45 PM

Mark your calendars for Sunday June 1st 2008! Ed Hale who just recently returned from a 15 day peace delegation to the country of Iran with 13 other Americans will give a presentation about his experience. The trip was sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Iranian government. The 14 delegates held formal meetings with leading government officials and religious leaders including former president Mohammad Khatami and three reigning Ayatollahs to discuss how to improve US/Iran relations and foster more peace and harmony between our countries. Ed will share his experience with us, as well as present a slideshow of photos from the trip and also answer questions about this increasingly important issue. He also brought back some delicious samples of traditional Iranian food, tea, and candy to share with the group.

As always the session will offer a valuable opportunity for group sharing and interaction. Lunch and drinks will be provided for all.

“I am very glad to hear about what Ed Hale is doing. It’s of extraordinary importance. The threats by the US against Iran are not only criminal — technically, in violation of the UN Charter — but are also extremely ominous. I don’t think there can be an invasion, but bombing is possible, and a terrible prospect. On the likelihood, no one can say, even the White House. It depends in no small part on our efforts.”
– Noam Chomsky

A personal message from Ed Hale

As many know, I just recently returned from a 15 day peace delegation to the country of Iran. The trip was eye-opening to say the least. It was also exhausting. Hence my absence over the last two months since my return. Had to get my head on straight. I have written hundreds of pages about the experience and yes as always I have gigabytes of video footage and photos to share. This will come in time.

In the intervening weeks since my return I have been more than busy. Besides countless interviews and lectures regarding the recent Iranian trip, the band is in the midst of signing a two album deal with Caroline/EMI Records to release out two new albums this year, so yes to all of your gracious and much-appreciated inquiries, the new albums are going to be released. As soon as we have a release date we will let you know. I have also been finishing a book which we will announce very soon.

I have also been busy with two new non-profit projects, www.TuneInTurnOnHelpOut.org, and www.PeaceWithIran.com. Your presence here is welcomed and appreciated. And it would be greatly appreciated at both or either of these two new sites, which both have noble goals. To speak a bit about the impetus of the peacewithiran.com project, I want to caveat by saying that though “war is imminent” or “military strikes are imminent” may be an idea or thought or belief that many are carrying around today in regards to the United States and Iran and even Israel, I do not personally hold this thought or idea or belief myself.

Yes I certainly see the news being released everyday about the various issues, and I recognize that parties on all sides feel very passionate about these issues; whether it is the threat of a “nuclear Iran” on one side, or a ”bullying America” on the other side, or a “fearful and hostile Israel” on yet another side. I also certainly understand the potential dangers that all three countries pose against the others and truly against all living beings on the planet today. But I believe that what we think about, what we give energy to, is what we create. We have seen it time and time again. As soon as a country starts beating its war drum, it is only a matter of time until it decides it’s time to “go to war.” Regardless of the loss of life, liberty, respect in the world community, or the burden it places upon the rest of the world. Throughout human history, there has always been one country or another “ready to attack” another country.

The truth of the matter is that this is bound to continue until mass human consciousness changes to the point of what might be called “critical mass” in a way that these people who see “war” as the only answer for “peace” simply no longer exist. In time this will be our reality. It might take our total annihilation and extinction and subsequent reincarnation in yet another form for this to happen, but let us hope not. Let us hope that those of us who see “peaceful means” as the only means available to us to achieve “peace” win this historical battle of wits that is being played out on the world stage.

With that said, let us take it for granted that for the next few months or years even we will have ample opportunity to read about “war” and the “threat of war” in regards to Iran and the United States and Israel if we so choose to. There are plenty of people who find the time and enjoy searching for the latest article or report on what “so and so” said bad about “so and so” and of course in the end it is really nothing but talk leading up to more “war” – even if their intentions are good – meaning that they don’t want “war” – but in fact that is exactly what they will create. Some people have just not evolved to the level of understanding of the “mechanisms of consciousness” yet to the degree that they realize that if they spend all their time thinking and reading about it, they will indeed create it. Whether they claim to want it or not. They are creating it simply by focusing so much attention on it.

But that is not what this particular website is concerned with. Our goals with the www.PeaceWithIran.com website is to show an entirely different side of US/Iran relations and to the country of Iran itself, and the Iranian people. The idea is to literally ignore that pink elephant in the room that at various times is called “war” or “threats of war” or worries or concerns about nuclear energy programs or WMDs or any of that lower-mode primitive-minded nonsense. Because God knows we have plenty of people already giving plenty of energy to those ideas in today’s world.

Remember elementary school? There were always those one or two kids in each class who were the bullies, who picked fights for the slightest reason or for no reason at all, who made fun of other kids, who tried to make us laugh at the expense of others, who tried to pit one classmate against another for the sheer wicked enjoyment they got out of it. Though this isn’t elementary school anymore, it sure seems like it sometimes. Those kids have now grown up. And if we aren’t careful and vigilant to our cause - the safety and survival of our species - these grown up kids could blow us all up simply because they haven’t fully matured yet as most of us have, and also because we haven’t done enough to speak up and tell them to back the fuck down.

It’s too bad we weren’t able to do that in regards to the United States Government’s invasion of the sovereign country of Iraq. Lord knows plenty of people from all over the world tried. But no one was brave enough to really stand up and say “no.” And so in the last five years we have watched in horror over one million innocent people die. It is also equally regrettable that we have thus far been unable to stand up against the Chinese government in regards to how they are slowly but steadily killing hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people right before our eyes.

Of course, the issue of Iran is a bit more complex than Iraq or the Sudan. Both countries were radically unstable and not much of a threat nor a strong foe to begin with. But Iran is a very different matter. The people of the United States of America should feel very lucky that the Iranian people are such a strong, busy, and resilient people that up until this time they have not taken the constant beating of the American war drum by the few barbarians in Washington who do not understand the basic principles of diplomacy too seriously. Instead they choose to just continue on with their lives and hope that eventually America finds someone else to bully. For unlike Iraq or the Sudan or Tibet for that matter, Iran does have the potential to pose a serious threat as a formidable enemy if they ever felt so inclined to. Not only do they have a very proud and loyal populace since their own revolution, they also have the backing and allegiance of many other countries around the world. Luckily for all of us, they instead choose to do their best to just keep on trying to move forward with their day to day lives.

So instead of focusing on war and threats of war and who has the biggest army or the biggest guns or who said what about whom each day in the international press, those of us on the light side need to start focusing our energy on Peace and on People. After all, Iranis a country full of people. So is the United States. And in a nutshell, war isn’t good for people. Nor has it ever done much good for “peace”.

It is easy to find ourselves upset at the US Government, just as it is easy to find ourselves upset with the Iranian government or the Israeli government or the various factions within the Palestinian government. But it isn’t going to do us much good to focus on these feelings of upset. Let us instead choose to focus on Peace itself. Let us instead focus on discovering how many millions of Iranian/Americans we already have living here in the United States who still have family “back home” in beautiful Iran. Let us instead develop a curiosity for this rich and ancient and historic land once called Persia, now called Iran.

Let us instead develop a place online and in our hearts where we who care can share photos, films, books, movies, art, and music from the fascinating cultural exchange that is taking place right this very minute between our two great countries. Iranians love Americans. There is much to like about us. And they can see that. And though many don’t yet know it, Americans love many famous Iranians. Iran has contributed much to the planet in its five thousand year history. Our very own Constitution is said to be inspired by the Persian King Cyrus the Great and his drafting of what many believe to be the very first “constitution.”

PeaceWithIran.com is a story of hope. It is a place to learn and to share. The goal being to add some balance to the already nauseating clutter of war-related stories coming out from the hawks and bullies of the world - and the hapless media lapdogs who follow their every step. We made a grave mistake with Iraq. We never bothered to even look these poor people in the eye before we attacked them; because our hearts were heavy from the events of September 11th, and our minds were confused by falsified “intelligence reports” coming out of Washington. But we will not make that same mistake again.

Let us take a look at the face of Iran – since after all, Iran is a country full of 70 million faces. Our goal is that not one of them is touched, hurt, injured, attacked, maimed, deformed, put out of their homes, or killed by anyone. Just as I am sure most would agree that we have that same exact goal for ourselves. Let us hold it for our Iranian neighbors as well. (In fact, why don’t we just presume to hold that same goal for all of our neighbors on the planet… and yeah that might mean demanding that China give Tibet back to the Tibetans and stop murdering Sudanese people before we even think about entertaining their hosting this year’s Olympic Games. Just a thought.)

In the meantime, there is much to learn about that truly fascinating people and country of Iran. Take your time and look around the site. If you have something to share, please feel free to. This site is open to all who have something to contribute, even if it is just a photo, a comment, or a message of hope or inspiration. Most of all, share the space in your hearts that we finally acheive that seemingly ever evasive goal of peace not just in words and rhetoric but in actual practice.

Sincerely,
Ed Hale