Friends and fans from around the world speak up about the Bush reelection and the ongoing war in Iraq

Written by news on November 17, 2004 – 1:39 am -

In the week after the American presidential election, Ed set out to contact friends from around the world to get a general idea of people’s feelings in various countries about the reelection of George W. Bush in America . The responses were varied, but heated and passionate among many in that first week.

“From the project I noticed that although almost in any circle you can just as easily find a conservative as you can a democrat in America, because the country is so split today; but it seems that in the world of music, art, and entertainment, of which the large majority of the people that I know come from, the general sentiment is so overwhelmingly liberal that I don’t think I received one voice of support for the Bush reelection from anywhere in the world,” Ed commented. “I myself have my own opinions, and have been quite vocal about them, but still I was very surprised.”

The comments were posted to the Guestmap of the site: http://ourmessagetotheworld.com/ Post your own comments here.


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Ed Hale interviewed in New York Metro about Bush Reelection.

Written by news on November 4, 2004 – 1:44 am -

Read article here.


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The General Sightings at anti-war protests

Written by news on September 7, 2004 – 1:58 am -

A character known simply by the name of “The General” has been making rounds at various events the last few weeks who looks a lot like Transcendence lead singer Ed Hale . Dressed in a military uniform and carrying a sign that reads “PEACE NOW” and “WORLD WE’RE SORRY”, the General has created quite a buzz, first at the MTV VMAs in Miami, and then a few days later at the Republican National Convention in New York City. See pictures below:


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New comments section added to www.ourmessagetotheworld.com website

Written by news on August 27, 2004 – 2:03 am -

Last year as America invaded Iraq, Ed Hale and friends created a simple website designed to send a simple message to the rest of the world: that it wasn’t all of America that was invading Iraq. Ed Hale commented, “Basically it was something my friend Sebastian had said one night as we watched in horror as bombs dropped on the Iraqi towns. He said something like ‘I just wish there was something we could do to let other people around the world know that we’re not doing this and that our government is doing it without our consent. I hate the way the media makes it look like this is something that all of America is doing…’ So that’s where I got the idea; to have a website that voiced the feelings of the rest of us here who were against the invasion and feel trapped by the regime that has taken over our country. Originally the idea was just to post our own message. It was very homogeneous at first. Just me and Sebastian reacting to our own shock and dismay at the administration. But now we have received so many emails from other people who want to post their own comments that we have added that feature to the site. Now people from anywhere in the world can post their own comments for the world to see.” The website can be accessed here: www.ourmessagetotheworld.com and post your own comments.


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Singer Ed Hale opened his space to FTAA protesters, and really connected. Read the article from Street Magazine.

Written by news on November 28, 2003 – 2:16 am -

BY GREG BAKER
originally printed in Street Magazine

Ed Hale first showed his skill as a musician and songwriter with the Broken Spectacles and has in the new millennium reaffirmed his status as a thoughtful, progressive, top-notch musician fronting culture-blending rock outfit Transcendence. Thanks to him, some FTAA demonstrators enjoyed the use of a media center any politician would be proud to call campaign headquarters.

Unbeknownst to police and media, many groups of protesters set up shop in Transcendence headquarters, a two-story building in the Design District. Phone lines were installed, cubicles erected, and laptops were ported after a local musician who knew a protester told Hale that the demonstrators needed housing space. The media liaisons for the various protest groups, whose main purpose was disseminating info to the mainstream media, had been operating out of a downtown ”convergence center,” where space was at a premium.

After seeing this pathetically bare-bones arrangement — a note on one wall listed pens as a necessity — Hale opened his doors. He met and talked with reps from some of the groups — including steelworkers, ecologists, lawyers, and publicists — who would soon be conducting secret meetings to, among other things, prepare for a Wednesday afternoon press conference at Miami City Hall.

Hale’s biggest contribution to the preparations was probably the hammering he gave the phone company after being told it would take five days for phone lines to be installed in his building. After explaining the purpose of the phones — to create a real media center for people demonstrating — Transcendence HQ had, within a few hours, all the phone lines necessary. And a DSL to boot. (”The lady was so nice. She even gave me her cell number in case I had trouble installing the DSL,” Hale said with a touch of awe.)

Their operation up-and-running, the protesters’ City Hall strategy worked. All sorts of media showed up at the event: English- and Spanish-language, print and TV, mainstream and not so. But there were no cops and no problems, even when protesters went into the City Hall building itself, demanding to see a ghost: The invisible Mayor Manny Diaz had supposedly left his office after meeting with Commissioner Angel Gonzalez. (Side note: Has anyone ever actually seen Manny Diaz?)

Transcendence just released a new CD, Sleep With You, and has been working to make it a success. ”Fourteen hour days,” Hale said, describing his recent schedule. ‘Talking to station people, sending out press kits. On Tuesday [November 18] I got an e-mail telling me that we’d [begun receiving airplay] on 100 stations. But I was so absorbed by `The Matrix’ — people putting their lives on the line for what they believe in, people taking action, the way the [demonstrators] worked together, like one person working the phones while another goes to buy food for everyone else, while someone else takes the phone — that I hardly had time to notice.”

‘Spending time with these people and listening to them really opened my eyes. The AFL-CIO guys were so cool, and they were thanking me for letting them use the space, and I’m saying, `No, no, thanks for coming and talking with me.’ Long after the demonstrations, the indie media guys were still here disseminating info. The cops try to spin the media, so it becomes necessary to defend the truth.”

If all the protest groups in the Matrix combined forces — as many did here — the organization would be too much for cops, too much for cities, too much maybe even for George W. If The Matrix were real (and who’s to say it isn’t?), America could become a nation of high moral standards and beneficent behavior.

Adam Hurter, a demonstrator who traveled from Massachusetts specifically to denounce the FTAA, said, “The key thing is people coming together and working co-operatively for a world not run by corporations; people who come together with a spirit of hope that we can change the corporate system and who try to build communities to replace the corporate power structure. And we were really interested in connecting with the people of Miami.”

Ed Hale made the connection. In more ways than one. And The Matrix grows.


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Transcendence donates their TMG Records headquarters to be used as the “stop the FTAA” International Media Convergence Center.

Written by news on November 19, 2003 – 2:20 am -

Too many details to go into but the FTAA is meeting in Miami this week, 34 countries in all. Protestors and demonstrators from all over the world are flying, driving, hiking, and bussing in to converge on Miami to protest the meetings in a mass effort to stop this free trade agreement to go through. This will be the WTO/Seattle on overdrive as the thousands of protestors try to stop the leaders of the 34 countries from their planned meetings on Thursday and Friday. Ed met with a group known as the ’stop the FTAA media alert coalition’ who were working out of a small cramped back office in the official convergence center for direct action. They are a compendium of different international groups such as the peoples united for peace and justice, the citizens trade council, public citizen, action for social and ecological justice, and many others from around the globe. Their job is to stay in constant contact with the world media to raise awareness of the cause and to alert the media on a minute by minute basis as to the goings on of the day to day events and demonstrations. They needed phones, Internet, and a large and clean space. The boys in Transcendence decided to donate the TMG Records HQ to the groups to use as the new Media Convergence Center for the week. Doyle Cannon, a member of the Center from Vermont told Ed, “We are here to make sure people understand what is really going on because the corporations’ spin is so strong that its hard for normal people out there to even know why NAFTA and other Free Trade agreements have been so bad for people. We can’t win in the street, because they have guns and tanks and smoke bombs. But we can win the argument because we just have to tell the truth. We are winning in the ideas arena because of how corrupt and debilitating free trade has been so far. We just have to continue to get the word out.”


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