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Monday, February 4, 2008

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You

John F. KennedyWhen all is said and done, what will humanity be remembered for, what will the ages say about you?

[EDIT - 5/15/08: To all those finding this post while on a quest for information regarding JFK's inaugural address and his famous quote, I found out that it was inspired by a line written by Khalil Gibran, the author of "The Prophet". The line can be found in "The New Frontier". It's the 7th paragraph. This isn't to take away from JFK's rephrasing it into a monster of an directive to a nation, though.

Also, the contest described below is over, but I'm hoping I get to do another one! I need your help. I need enough subscribers either by RSS feed or email so that I'll get enough entries. So make it easier on yourself to keep up with my oh-so-neat little blog, and subscribe!]

"No man is an island, he's a peninsula," said Jefferson Airplane. We are all connected and we're the better for embracing that: "Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated," said MLK. I guess my main purpose in creating and promoting Vinyl Art at all is to contribute as I can, seeking my way of bringing people together. So, I'm taking King's first step even though I definitely can't see the rest of the staircase, and starting my contest. Woohoo!

Your Grand Prize: one (1) piece of Vinyl Art of the recording artist of your (reasonable) choice, framed and delivered

The 9 Second Prizes: your entry featured on the sidebar of this blog

Everybody's Deadline: February 29th, 2008

How You Enter: I want to know your story (you feel comfortable enough to share) of when music had the biggest impact on your life, like a concert, or a song you danced to with your future mate, or an important moment in human history that changed you in large part due to music involved. It's gotta be true and about you. The entry can be in any form: you can write the story in a comment here, you can post an image on Flickr and send me a FlickrMail about it, you can make a video to upload to YouTube and send me a message there with it attached, you can create a post on your own blog with a trackback to here, or you can even use regular ol' snail mail (address available on request). Basically, any format, online or off, is acceptable as long as it's your creation and your story. Every entry will be moderated for appropriateness (my blog isn't "adult", ;) ) and listed in the comments to this post for all to see.

How You Become A Winner: On March 1, 2008, I'll start going through all the entries and pick the 10 top ones. By "top", I mean the most successful at communicating your story. I want to really "get" why you've chosen that particular story to tell. I'm not going to judge it based on comparisons of content. I'm going to judge the entries based on the whole package, kind of like how dogs are judged in Best of Show competitions. I know there aren't "breed standards", but I mean I'm going to look at the facts of the story and judge the entry on how well I think it conveys your experience of those facts and the impact it had on you. Then I'll pick one of the top 10 randomly as the Grand Prize winner!

I thought about putting the top 10 up for voting by you to pick the winner, but for this first contest, I want to keep it simple. I don't really know how big my audience is and how many hoops you'd be willing to jump through to win a painting at this point. Also, I'll see how many entries I get before committing to when I'll announce the winners. I'm going to do my best with this, but everybody has told me that contests can go haywire, so let's just make it a good one! You can always ask me questions to clarify before submitting your entry, I'll make important ones public. I don't care if I get all the entries on the last day of this month if you want to keep refining or if you just procrastinate, but if you want more people to see your entries, get them submitted!

If you want inspiration, or if you don't understand the Grand Prize:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and also the more entries, the better a contest will result for us all, so tell your friends! Peace.

5 comments:

Kim said...

your vinyl art is just terrific...
they look so effective in the black and white :)
a really cool idea ....
and your competition sounds great !!!

Paticus said...

Very cool art.
Cool contest too.
here's my entry...It's an entry on a blog of mine from last summer, but i don't think it violates any rules. The link is below.
pjb


http://nothinglefttodobutsmilesmilesmile.blogspot.com/2007/07/it-was-twenty-years-ago-today.html

Daniel Edlen said...

Thanks, Paticus. That is exactly what I'm looking for, man! I love your taste too: The Simpsons, The Dude, and "the Vegas book". Nice.

Unknown said...

Hi,
yes, Music has a huge impact on my life. But in 1989 one song could express the feelings of a whole nation - well, I should say of two nations. It was the 10th November when the Wall of Germany came down and we experienced freedom for the first time of my life. Today, when I listen to Scorpions "Wind of Change" I still get goose bumps and remember my parents sitting in front of the TV, crying! It was a day were we all came closer together and experienced the "Wind of Change".

Liz from Germany

Unknown said...

Cool contest Daniel, here you go:

Imagine A Day For a Day Dream

Back in the mid 70's I worked as an entertainment stage manager at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Unique to the park were the myriad of underground tunnels used to transport food, supplies and employees (e.g., so that a themed Frontierland cavalry soldier wouldn't be seen walking through Tomorrowland, etc.). One day I was walking in the tunnel headed towards the Tomorrowland stage for a sound check. This was a submerged stage on hydraulics that would rise above the ground when a band would begin its set. Pretty cool concept. As I neared the submerged stage(since the band was on break), I noticed a handful of park employees gathered around the stage listening to some guys tinkering with the instruments. Apparently John Lennon and John Sebastian managed to find their way down into the tunnel where they decided to hold an impromptu jam session. It was the best headliner concert I had ever been to with an audience of about 10. The Magic Kingdom for sure.