“The best plans of men and mice often go awry”. -- Robert Burns

"Success is going from one failure to the next without a loss of enthusiasm." -- Winston Churchill

------------

EDITOR'S COMMENT:

Well, in case it isn't obvious to all of you, my big plans to divide NHNE into two super-charged mailing lists -- a paid subscribers list (this list) and a free digest list (the NHNE News Brief) -- didn't go accordingly to plan. Fewer folks signed up to become monthly subscribers than I expected and the digest list began hemorrhaging readers as soon as it was born. Over the course of the first 12 issues the News Brief went from 1,450 readers to 1,214.

What happened? Beats me. I was sure a free, colorful, weekly version of NHNE's news -- one that came complete with inspiring quotes, video links and community news -- would be irresistible to millions (OK, thousands) of awakening Earthlings. But, alas, there was barely a yawn. And the News Brief was only one part of my big plan that didn't go as expected. Another part, which is the subject of this email, was a music video that I planned to use to spread the word about NHNE.

A music video?

Briefly, Kathleen Blake's daughter, now an adult musician, contacted me, asking if she could record a song she grew up listening to as a child, which I had recorded. I thought that was a lovely idea, so encouraged her to go for it. Once I heard her first remake of the song I thought I would like to see if I could build a video around it and then send it out to the world, both to inspire people and to create a little buzz for NHNE. The problem? The footage I used to create the video came from the BBC. And they wanted $1,200.00 for every single clip (29 in all), plus $1,500.00 for technical costs associated with preparing the clips. That's $36,300.00. If we striped away all thoughts of burning the footage onto a DVD and broadcasting it, and agreed only to post it on the web, they would grant us permission to use the footage for $16,000.00 ($500.00 per clip plus $1,500.00 technical fee).

$16,000.00 was a wee bit more than NHNE had to spend on anything, let alone a three minute music video. As I told the BBC folks, for that kind of money we would buy our own cameras and film the footage ourselves.

But all is not lost. We're left with a finished song and a demo video. And I thought they might make good Christmas presents.  

It also occurred to me that the song and video might create an irresistible urge to send in a one-time holiday donation to NHNE to help us finish 2007 and begin 2008 with a bang. If so, here's where you can send in a holiday booster shot.

And the song and video? They can be found here.

Adara Blake is the musician. You can find out more about her (and also listen and download a few of her songs) at these locations:

Adara's Page On NHNE's Community Website

Adara's Personal Website

Adara's MySpace Website

Angel

To Sleep To Dream (MP3)

Whispers (MP3)

And, finally, you can find a page with a few old songs I recorded, including the original version of the song Adara tweaked to perfection, posted here.

And with that, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy holiday season. Here's hoping we all find ways to infuse the season with a little less commercialism, a little more meaning, and a few good deeds that lift  the spirits of others.

With Love & Best Wishes,
David Sunfellow

P.S. My sincere thanks to all of you who became Wavemakers. While few in numbers, it feels GREAT to have a list made up of people who are hard core fans of NHNE!