We live in a fragile world, and I’m immensely grateful for the opportunities we’re gifted to share ideas about music making and engineering, sound and tools.
I will continue our regular content, but I also want to ask all of our readers to reflect on our friends and colleagues impacted directly and indirectly by the aftermath of Friday’s tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear crisis. It is to date one of the most far-reaching disasters in its connection to the larger audience for this site, though we remain sensitive to loss throughout our community worldwide. I want to specifically send our thoughts to our Japanese readers, and our friends at Korg, Roland, Yamaha, and too many other manufacturers and press outlets to name as they face the challenges ahead.
We rely on electricity and network availability to even be connected to one another via this outlet; recent events in Egypt and Japan correlate to odd silences in countries that otherwise make large showings in server logs. But absent those connections, we can still contribute.
I’m sure there will be musical benefits; one such sound design project is being discussed at the monome forum. But as we as musicians and artists share one larger global community (this site alone registers visits from seven continents, and we’re English-only), here are good ways to give. All are in what I’ve been able to research efficient, generous, and well-respected organizations, and all equip themselves to handle not only these most recent events, but unexpected crises around the world. I’ll be giving on CDM’s behalf.
International Rescue Committee
Global Giving
American Red Cross | International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Tech writer Rick Martin has compiled an excellent list of ways to give sorted by where you are in the world.
Updated: See also the record label 12k online shop who are giving 100% of profits (and are themselves supporters of Japanese music), and, in turn, their beneficiary Japan Society’s relief fund
It’s easy for the other things we do to seem meaningless in the face of tragedy, but I believe that part of why we share with each other, commercially and culturally, with music and with tools, is because it is a gift to do so, to be part of a greater community of people. Wherever you are in the world, I can’t thank you enough for that.