Today is Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers around the world post about the same issue in order to spark discussion about it. This year, the issue is climate change. I thought it might be a fun challenge to take part in this event while sticking to my philosophy of only writing about free, legally downloadable music that I like. For a while I didn't think I would be able to pull it off, but I'm happy to say that yesterday I managed to find something that fits every one of these criteria.
tck tck tck
tck tck tck: Time for Climate Justice is a campaign created for people who care about climate change to have their voices heard by those who have the power to do something about it; namely, the nearly 200 world leaders who will be meeting in Copenhagen in December for the 2009 United Nations Climate Conference. This is where the next big international climate change agreement will be decided. The main features of the tck tck tck website are a video of people saying "tck", a map of the world showing where each of these "tcks" come from, and a countdown to the start of Copenhagen 09. There is also an upload your 'tck' button which allows you to upload a one second "tck" video of your own (or a picture or a text message if you choose). The intent here is that the "collective power of millions of tcks will be used to exert pressure on the political leaders attending the Copenhagen talks in order to secure a strong, just and binding agreement to resolve the climate crisis." I think this is a really cool idea, and I'll be uploading my own "tck" shortly.
("tck", by the way, is meant to imitate the sound of a clock ticking down, both towards Copenhagen 09 and for the world in general)
Beds Are Burning - free download
Now, this is still a music blog, and that is something that will never change. In fact, what brought me to the tck tck tck website in the first place was music, in the form of a reworked version of Midnight Oil's 1980s hit "Beds Are Burning", which can be downloaded for free. This is a big, "We Are the World"-style version featuring dozens of musicians and celebrities, including Duran Duran, Fergie, Scorpions, Paul Shaeffer, the All American Rejects, and of course Midnight Oil themselves. I have to confess that I am not familiar with the original version of this song, but I really like this version. There is also an excellent video on the site which identifies each performer by name - very helpful if, like me, you don't automatically recognize each of the dozens of voices (the video is actually very stylish and goes far beyond just listing names - I particularly like the last half-minute or so, in which a photomosaic of a world map is created, using pictures of the performers as source images).
So go check the song out, and while you're listening to it, please take some time to look around the tck tck tck website to find out more about the campaign, including how you can contribute. Happy listening!
URLs:
http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org/home/ (for more information about the tck tck tck campaign)
http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org/ (for the free MP3 download of "Beds Are Burning")
1 comment:
I hadn't noticed Blog Action Day - but great post! A brilliant free download and an important topic.
I'm old enough to remember the Midnight Oil original and really liked it (although I never got around to buying any of Midnight Oil's stuff). I think the music in this version is more powerful (I'm guessing more time and effort was spent on the production here), the vocals are more bland. I guess it must be difficult to blend a group of very different artists without smoothing everybody down to the lowest common denominator. (Although the original Band Aid single is an honourable example where the distinctiveness of the vocalists was maintained and used effectively.)
Having said all that. I like this version and it will definitely going to get plays on my iPod.
Post a Comment