RockOm

Musician Glen Hansard of The Swell Season spins a poignant story about decision and expectation that’s really inspiring. Regarding writing the soundtrack for the movie Once and the song “Falling Slowly,” which won the Academy Award for Best Song this year, Glen says:

"A couple years ago, we decided to kick our ball as hard as we could, and see how far it would go. We were hoping it would reach the end of the garden, but we watched it go . . . across the street, over the next town, into a place we'd never even heard of before."

"And the great thing about (success) is that it sort of quiets the 1% of you that wishes you could have your ball back."

This story gives me hope that a wild dream whose time seems to be ripe can be propelled farther than the imagination can conceive.

www.rockom.net

Three partners and I will soon be launching the first phase of a new world-music website called RockOm. RockOm will be a crossroad for spirituality in its many and various expressions and faith. Each partner is madly in love with music and recognizes this passion as emanating from a sacred source that's inside each and every human being. This ‘always- already’ space paradoxically is clarified by an absence of any need of explanation, is best understood from the heart center in place of the mind, and resonates to the language of rhythm and sound. Every sort of barrier is broken and cultural divides are bridged when music takes the place of conventional forms of communication.

RockOm will feature compelling top- down information and inspiration in the form of exclusive interviews and features with award winning professional musicians. It will also offer harbor for amateurs and not yet established musicians and music lovers who wish to make a home at the first of its kind, music website through:

* User-uploaded songs and profiles, lyrics and "song stories" with room for reader feedback

* Featured user track of the week

* Contemplative practices based on music, music-themed meditations and spiritual disciplines for the music-centered individual

* Album reviews, inspiring podcasts and much, much more

We hope you’ll join us at RockOm and that our “ball will reach the end of the garden,” even “into a place we’ve never even heard of.” We know that if we are successful to a degree where we can play a small part in music changing one person's opinion of who they are and what they can accomplish then we will have succeeded in changing the entire world... and that is a blessing for everyone.

Coming June 2008