Thanks Reddit.

Call to Action

On August 21st and 22nd, commit to these 11 actions!

1. Walk or ride your bike: Avoid using cars and if you must, always try to carpool. Transportation accounts for 40 percent of our petroleum consumption and is easily one of the biggest areas we need to improve upon.
2. Enjoy the outdoors: Avoid buying new sporting equipment, since oil makes up nearly 25% of rubber. Footballs or basketballs, for example, can last for many years and used equipment is often just as good and will reduce demand for oil needed to make new rubber.
3. Use reusable bags: Avoid disposable plastic. Plastic bags are a huge waste for very little benefit. Nearly 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption, approximately 2 million barrels a day, is used to make plastic products alone.
4. Be conscious about what you eat that weekend: You can reduce oil demand by changing your diet to eat less meat, more local foods that require less transportation and organic food, which doesn't use petro-based fertilizers.
5. Don't buy new make-up that weekend: The majority of cosmetics are petroleum-based, including lip gloss, face powder, nail polish, and more. So avoid buying new make-up products this weekend and research the brands when you purchase in the future.
6. Drink tap water: Avoid beverages bottled in disposable plastic, they make up nearly 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year, so get a reusable bottle and fill it up.
7. Make your electronic gadgets last: Avoid buying new electronics. Electronics take a lot of oil to produce and the gadgets you already have can last much longer than the rate at which new ones are released.
8. Go to the movies or stream them on Hulu: Avoid buying new DVDs/Blu-Rays, as oil is a key ingredient in their production, packaging and shipping.
9. Skip buying new clothes that weekend: Swap clothes with friends or check out the local vintage store. The less new clothes you buy the less oil is used in the manufacturing process and transportation.
10. Head to your local library or read online: Avoid using a printer and buying printed material including daily newspapers. Printing doesn't just waste paper, nearly 100,000 gallons of ink each day is used on daily newspapers alone.
11. Spread the word! Get 3 friends to sign the pledge and help raise awareness on ways they can help reduce their dependence on oil-related products.

Pledge your commitment here: http://weekendwithoutoil.org/

The recent oil spill in the Gulf is truly a disaster. It has been estimated that over 140 million gallons of oil have been released into the Gulf as a result of this catastrophe. The amount of damage is incalculable, and the impact on associated ecosystems will last many years into the future.

This disaster is particularly salient for us at Grooveshark.  Our office lies less than an hour’s drive from the Gulf Coast of Florida.  In fact, many of us are Florida natives and have been visiting the Gulf since before we can remember. 

We want to help, and we encourage you to do the same.  We have created a special theme and a sidebar ad to encourage our users to visit the Save Our Gulf homepage and donate to the protection and restoration efforts. 

Please take some time to check out what you can do.  Every little bit helps.

The text on top is going to change a little bit, but even with that minor error, it is a pretty awesome theme! Share it with your friends:  http://bit.ly/aLGox7

Save Our Gulf is a Waterkeeper Alliance initiative aimed at minimizing the impact of the Gulf oil disaster.  You can find more information here:

http://www.saveourgulf.org/
http://www.waterkeeper.org/

As I sit here writing this, up to 100 million gallons of oil has spewed into the gulf and as it continues to do so, it is destroying our fragile ecosystem and people's livelihoods. We cannot just sit, watch the news and continue to say, "This is horrible!" and, "How could this happen?" without some action to back it up. This problem is our problem now and we need to stand up and help where ever and however we can.

Who Is Helping the Gulf Coast Region?

There are so many groups doing amazing work along the Gulf coastlines. After days of due diligence and research, our co-producer Sloane Berrent came back to the group with multiple nonprofits to partner with and options but we all narrowed in on the Gulf Restoration Network's new initiative, Gulf Future, because we all thought it reflected our mission. Support the coastal and fishing communities, restore the marine and costal environments and, maybe most important, make people aware and responsible for what has happened in the Gulf so history does not repeat itself in the future.

How are we raising money?

Naturally owning The Roxy in Los Angeles, I thought we should throw a benefit concert, but then wondering how to make it really have an impact, it came to me, what if we reached out to our neighbor businesses to see if we could all work together and really take something as simple as a benefit concert and turn it into a wave of action. I then reached out to Casey Phillips, who I knew as a true New Orleans man and someone who had a real "on the ground" pulse of what was happening. Not only was he a native of the area but also the talent buyer for multiple clubs including our own Sunset Strip neighbor, The Viper Room. Casey echoed my same thoughts and went into action immediately bringing in Sloane Berrent and The Roxy's Megan Jacobs along with a team of people who knew something had to be done now. Three weeks and a couple of thousands emails later, we now have over 50 independent music venues and over 100 bands fighting for the cause.

All the venues will send their gate revenues from these shows directly to Gulf Restoration Network within 72 hours of our shows. Also, our donation widget send funds directly to the Gulf Restoration Network's account so we don't ever touch the donations and they all go directly to the nonprofit partner. We're making sure it gets into the hands of community groups like Bayou Grace and St. Bernard Community Center within weeks and we'll be sharing that with those who made donations both online and through attending events through social networks and follow up blog posts with our partners.

We Have Venues, Now We Need Talent...

The Roxy, The Viper Room, The Comedy Store and Tipitinas are among dozens of the nations best clubs and music venues that are coming together in solidarity to fundraise for gulf oil spill communities on July, 1st. Plus individuals have planned smaller events to support our efforts across 11 countries, it's pretty incredible!

This is our call to action as it is for all the bands that our participating in this national one day event and we've gotten such incredible talent including:

Rebelution / Galactic / Kaki King / Mickey Avalon / Ben Lee / Guitar Shorty / Iglu & Hartly / Ivan Neville / Cisco & Shwayze / Walter Wolfman Washington / Sarah Borges / Coco Robicheaux / Beardo / Wicker / Lost Bayou Ramblers / Rotary Downs / Daryl Hannah / Dave Faustino/ Ed Begley Jr

Although I'm unsatisfied with the clean up and the support that the fisherman have received so far, I am inspired to know that all over the world people are signing up and either giving their time and effort or donating money to make a difference in the spill zone. That gives me great hope that when we look to our neighbors, no matter how close or far away they may be, we will always come together to help the ones in need, that is what our great country is best at. What we have put together is only the beginning of a long line of projects that others will continue to do until every drop of oil is cleaned up, every bird and fish healthy and every person who has been directly affected by this has been compensated. We can only accept yelling at the TV after we have done something to make difference so please get involved anyway you can. The time is now!

As part of a series of coast to coast benefit shows, the reggae sounds of Santa Barbara’s own Rebelution will be resonating across the walls of The Roxy this Thursday, July 1st.  100% of the proceeds from this (and all the day’s benefit shows) go toward victims of the Gulf Coast oil spill.

Check out what you can expect from Rebelution and learn more about the Coast to Coast Concerts by clicking more.

Rebelution has been spreading their positive, socially conscious lyrics all around the U.S. lately, most notably at this years Bonaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee.

You can check out the guys doing Outta Control live at Bonaroo here.

Fortunately for the victims of the Gulf Coast spill (but unfortunately for you) tickets to their Roxy benefit show are sold out. But feel free to check back here in case any tickets free up. Or you know, just hang out around the Roxy on Thursday night and see if you can get friendly with the bouncer.

But this Rebelution show isn’t the only local Gulf Coast benefit show taking place that day.  The Mint, The Comedy Store, and the Viper Room (who will be hosting Mickey Avalon) will all be throwing benefit events that night.  Check out all the shows that are part of the Coast to Coast Concerts and learn how you can donate to the cause on the Gulf Coast Benefit website here.

In addition to the environmental devastation that BP’s oil disaster has caused, the spill has also destroyed the livelihoods of countless people who live on the southeastern coast of the United States who depend on jobs based along the Gulf of Mexico. Florida’s Capitol News Service reports today that food stamp applications have “soared” along the Florida coast following the spill:

Applications for food stamps in Panhandle counties have soared since oil began gushing from the broken BP pipe leak. Since May 1st application are up 15 percent. The Department of Children and Families is keeping separate data to track people who qualify for food stamps because the oil has destroyed their careers. Don Winstead is the Welfare Advisor for DCF. He says along with the growing need for food assistance is a growing need for councilors to help families going through hard times.

“Being not only in the food stamp program and other benefit programs but also seen through our mental health program also. One of the things we typically do after disaster is increase our counseling capacity because people are going to be affected in a variety of ways,” said Winstead.

The number of people seeking assistance in coastal Louisiana has reportedly gone up as well. Second Harvest Food Bank in New Orleans tells McClatchy newspapers that it has seen “at least a 15 percent jump in new families requesting services.” Additional funding for food stamps benefits was originally in the Senate’s unemployment “extenders” legislation, but it was removed in the hopes of getting conservative votes — a tactic that didn’t work as the bill once again failed to advance today.

ABOUT     NONPROFIT PARTNER     VENUES    TAKE ACTION!     CONTACT

On July 1st, 2010, in the spirit of Independence Day, a nationwide effort on behalf of independent music venues will take place to benefit those directly affected by the Gulf Coast Oil Spill.

See you there Los Angeles.