 
Delivered fresh on April 4th, 2011
Greetings!
If I only had a dime for every time that exhausted, I had to entertain the power of HOPE. Waiting for its deliverance, resenting the need to have to summon up its promise, struggling to find the strength to trust in it again -- if I had a dime for every time - I would indeed be rich. HOPE is the lonely man's companion; the faithful man's best friend and it is, without a doubt, the luxury that no man can afford to do without. We need it when it is all we've got, and although merciful, HOPE refuses to offer a guarantee and it rarely, if ever, provides the easy way out... When there is no obvious solution; when something must be created that has not yet been conceived; when the mission seems impossible and the odds aren't on your side, will you resist the temptation to just surrender and call it a day? It's the hardest thing to do when it's the only thing you've got. When absolutely everything around you suggests it can't be done, it won't work out, there is no way, HOPE looms as its own most difficult challenge and the thing on which you must depend. Trading on HOPE is a courageous proposition and not something that everybody will choose to do. Courage is the currency of HOPE and HOPE is the fuel that will get us through to the other side of "it can not be done". It takes guts and the willingness to put everything you know, everything you have and everything you are -- on the line for the profound and unique opportunity to invoke the companionship of - HOPE. Dana DANA DELIVERED! User's Guide: 1) Open up your Dana Delivered! email. 2) Choose an article from the menu on the left hand side or just start from the beginning and read all the way through. 3) If you are reading an article and want to finish, Click on "Read More..." and you will be taken to our website. You can finish reading and while there, have a look around. Note: Dana's Dailies changes, well, daily so come back often. 4) Click on any of the words highlighted in red and you will be taken right to our site, DanaRoc.com. In INSPIRING PEOPLE: Dana talks with DJ Spooky - That Subliminal Kid. DJ Spooky continues to be a fresh voice challenging the notion of what absolutely "is, while breaking" new ground as an artist, writer and musician. Read Dana's EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with DJ Spooky and confront the boundaries of your self imposed limitations! Take a minute to read DANA'S WEEKLY INSIGHT and make sure that you listen to the AUDIO VERSION as well. There may be someone who needs you to pass that along. Check out DANA'S DAILIES for no other reason than to hopefully smile. And come back and visit the blog all week at www.danaroc.com/dailies. The special article FROM DANA'S GUESTS: this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop", Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. Check out AUGUSTE ROC'S MY TWO CENTS (For Whatever It Is Worth). There is something in it for YOU! While it may be "Two Cents" but you'll find it's worth a whole lot more. Feel free to email your comments to Auguste at auguste@danaroc.com. This week's THE GOOD LIFE : BOOKS selection is American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country by Katrina Fried (Author), Paul Mobley (Photographer). Captivating photos, simple yet powerful words, celebrate the spirit of hard work, hope and endurance! Something useful in THE GOOD LIFE : WEB SITES this week is TED.com. Check it out! And there's more so sit back, grab a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy. As always, thanks for reading! Stay cool. Be hungry. Never look back. Always reach back. Fear not. Believe always, Dana Learning Curve
Have you ever wished that you had something, that you didn't know exactly how you were going to get, and then as if by magic, somehow you just got it? I remember lying there on Julie Rich's front lawn staring at the stars sprinkled so generously across the autumn sky, and feeling lucky. I was six years old and the world, as far as I was concerned, was created for me and my best friend. Curled up on a cozy wool blanket, we each had our own box of cracker jacks. We were in heaven as we munched, and naïve as we tried to count all of those beautiful stars. Then, as if divinely orchestrated just for us, a shooting star cruised across our autumn sky -- beckoning. And so, we made a wish. That night - I learned how to hope. I learned how to hope that night because waiting for me the next morning when I got home, were my grandparents with the Easy Bake oven that I had secretly wished for when I responded to that shooting star. I was surprised and yet it was exactly as it should have been. When you are six years old you are free to expect beyond reason that what you want you will get, without ever having to figure out how. The world still yields itself to you on demand and so it's easy to just expect. But then, you grow up and the world expands and wishing on a shooting star almost never gets you what you want. So you dare to dream while you privately pray for things that you are secretly convinced you will never ever get... She was about 50 years old when she started dreaming about something that she had no reason to believe would ever come true. She was 82 years old the day the high school band in her little hometown of Eskridge, Kansas, along with the entire town, came out to honor her one woman crusade. It was the biggest and most exciting day of Maisie Devore's entire life and even the people who had named her "Crazy Maisie" had no choice now but to concede because -- Once a month for thirty years, Maisie traveled a forty mile loop around the Kansas country side, collecting aluminum cans and reselling them to the local recycling center so that she could build a swimming pool for the kids in her home town. As a mother of four young children, Maisie DeVore was frustrated that the kids in her community didn't have a way to play and cool off during those long hot summer days. She dreamed of what it would be like for the children in Eskridge to be able to swim and have fun but the town could not afford to build a pool. So, rather than just sitting around merely wishing for the day; simply hoping, Maisie decided that she would raise the money and pay for the pool herself. One can after another and for three decades, Maisie Devore earned a nickel at a time, and even though it made no sense to anybody else, she kept on collecting cans until she had earned a total of $83,000 and the town built Maisie that pool. That commitment - it taught a lot of people what it means to believe. Imagine. Sometimes having what you want will require nothing more from you than making a wish that you keep to yourself, but most of the time you will be required to dream your dream out loud. Sometimes prayers get answered overnight but if and when yours don't, just how long will you dare to believe? I have often had to wrestle with my resentment of the reality that we live in a world where inconsequential wishes seem to magically and effortlessly come true while many a considerable dream will take what seems like a lifetime to fulfill. So, I have had to resolve for myself that I will faithfully fight my way back to a place beyond my temptation to just give up and settle for what I don't have to pursue. And you? Believing that you can have what you want isn't something that everybody is willing to do because there are no guarantees. Wishing on a shooting star - that alone might get you a good parking space but it probably won't get you THE PRIZE. These days the people of Eskridge, Kansas refer to Maisie Devore as "Amazing Maisie" and she responds -- "I just really couldn't comprehend that it actually was gonna come to pass. Even though I thought it was, it still gives me a funny feeling to realize that it has. If you want something and pursue it with all of your mind, you'll get it done one way or another. I had a lot of set backs along the way but I still kept plugging along and I got it finally." We need those magical moments like the one I had with my best friend Julie Rich because they teach us how to hope, but we all learn by being tested, what it really means to believe. Little kids just accept, without really having to be concerned with how they will get the things that they want. Adults almost always have to put up a fight. But, when you are willing to do whatever it takes; when you are faithful in continuing to put one foot in front of the other in order to follow your dream, day after day, nickel by nickel, the people who once referred to you as crazy, will have no choice one day but - to concede. Dana Have a great week!
 Writer, Artist and Musician, DJ Spooky - That Subliminal Kid
DJ SPOOKY is a composer, multimedia artist and writer. His written work has appeared in The Village Voice, The Source, Artforum and Rapgun amongst other publications. Miller's work as a media artist has appeared in a wide variety of contexts such as the Whitney Biennial; The Venice Biennial for Architecture (2000); the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany; Kunsthalle, Vienna; The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and many other museums and galleries. His work New York Is Now has been exhibited in the Africa Pavilion of the 52 Venice Biennial 2007, and the Miami/Art Basel fair of 2007. Miller's first collection of essays, entitled Rhythm Science came out on MIT Press 2004. His book Sound Unbound, an anthology of writings on electronic music and digital media was recently released by MIT Press. Miller's deep interest in reggae and dub has resulted in a series of compilations, remixes and collections of material from the vaults of the legendary Jamaican label, Trojan Records. Other releases include Optometry (2002), a jazz project featuring some of the best players in the downtown NYC jazz scene, and Dubtometry (2003) featuring Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Mad Professor. Miller's latest collaborative release, Drums of Death, features Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Chuck D of Public Enemy among others. He also produced material on Yoko Ono's new album Yes, I'm a Witch.
DR: Tell me about your life and your work. PM: It's 2008, almost 2009, here in the beginning of the 21st century... As a writer and an artist and a musician, I am someone who is fascinated with transience. Things are not permanent. Life is always in flux. Music is one element that seems to be a liquid mirror and something that we can hold up to all of these kinds of moving and transforming qualities of life in the 21st century. I am obsessed and fascinated with that. I have a new book out called Sound Unbound. It's about sound art and digital media looking at the creative act in the 21st century. It's thirty six essays by the way, and when I was getting it together, one of the questions that I asked myself is "How am I as an artist looking at all of these kinds of people", whether it be Moby or Chuck D or Saul Williams who is a really interesting poet. It was hard to get everybody to be simultaneous. We had to track people down for interviews with all of their difficult schedules. We had to clear rights for the tracks for the CD in the back of the book.... As an artist right now, I am fascinated with how we live in an era where the idea of law and the way the law is written and the way we live, is parting ways. Bootleg culture, remixes, sampling, all of that is about people being creative way past the norms of the law. I am just trying to put challenges to myself, like not looking at the obvious. Let's look at how artists, creatives and writers respond to a rapidly changing world. This is a very new time. You have a daughter and I am sure that she is growing up not thinking about record players and 8 track cassettes. She is thinking about her iPod playlist and her video games and her social networks - YouTube wasn't even around in 2004. I am really interested in how art is responding to this rapidly changing hyper accelerated world. DR: And so what conclusions have you drawn about how art is responding to such a rapidly changing and hyper accelerated world? PM: Because I DJ all over the world I am always looking at...
  Martin Luthur King, Jr., "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop", Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike
...Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy." Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding. Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same: "We want to be free." And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today...
 Beauty Secret
In my opinion, the key to leaving people inspired: Elegance and authenticity Keep it simple. Tell the truth. That's my two cents (for whatever it's worth), Auguste Roc
 100 Years From Now... Eddie Davis
Name: Eddie Davis Age: 57 years old Where are you from: Panama Where do you live: Rutland and 51st Street in Brooklyn Occupation: I work for the NYPD Traffic Enforcement Agency 100 Years from now what do you want to be remembered for: First of all give God thanks for 100 Years from now and for our health and for our strength. For helping out people. That’s what I want to be remembered for. Yeah. For helping people.  Ted.com
Why I am recommending TED.com: I love learning about new and inspired ideas. The world's greatest minds gathered in one spot to inform and to share is what this site is all about. Fresh thinking. TED.com is a great place to hang out.
Browse the web sites archive! Click here.  American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country
Because, although farmers and farming are the subject of this book, it is ultimately a book about hard work, hope, determination and the ability to endure. The photographs are captivating and truly capture the grit and spirit of each subject and the interviews tell an elegant story of a great American Institution. Click here to purchase this book.
Click here to purchase this book.
 
Miracles do happen... ...especially when you are willing to keep moving forward, no matter what.
 
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