Friday, March 27, 2020

Bon Jovi - Unbroken (Ft. The Invictus Games Choir)

Here it is a special video out now from Bon Jovi named "Unbroken" (Ft. The Invictus Games Choir).

"All proceeds will go to the Invictus Games Foundation, in support of the recovery and rehabilitation of international wounded, injured or sick military personnel".

Bon Jovi - Unbroken ft. The Invictus Games Choir

Published on Mar 27, 2020

Music video by Bon Jovi performing Unbroken. © 2020 Captain Kidd Corp., under exclusive license to Island Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.



Hope you will love this awesome lyric.

Bon Jovi - Unbroken (Ft. The Invictus Games Choir)

I was born to be of service
Basic training felt like home
I had honor, I found purpose

Sir, yes, sir
That's what I know
They sent us to a place I never heard of weeks before
When you're nineteen, it ain't hard to sleep
In the desert on God's floor
Close your eyes, stop counting sheep
You ain't in basic anymore

We were taught to shoot our rifles
Then in one, then side-by-side
Thought we'd be made as liberators
In a thousand year old fight
I got this painful ringing in my ear
From an I.E.D. last night
But no lead light humvee war machine, could save my sargeants life
Three more soldiers, six civilians
Need these words to come out right

God of mercy, God of light
Seek your children from this life
Here these words, this humble plea
For I have seen the suffering
And with this prayer I'm hoping
That we, can be unbroken

It's 18 months that I've been back now
With this medal on my chest
But there are things I can't remember
And there are things I won't forget
I lie awake at night with dreams of devils shouldn't see
I wanna scream, but I can't breathe
And Christ, I'm sweating through these sheets
Where's my brothers? Where's my country?
Where's my how things used to be?

God of mercy, God of light
Seek your children from this life
Here these words, this humble plea
For I have seen the suffering
And with this prayer I'm hoping
That we, can be unbroken

My service dogs done more for me
Than the medication would
There ain't no angel that is coming to save me
But even if they could

Today, 22, would die from suicide
Just like yesterday, they're gone
I live my life for each tomorrow
So their memories will live on
Once we were boys, and we were strangers
Now we're brothers and we're men
Someday you'll ask me, was it worth it to be of service in the end?
Well the blessing and the curses, yeah, I'd do it all again

Whoa-oh
Whoa-oh
Whoa-oh
Whoa-oh
Whoa-oh
Whoa-oh
Whoa-oh
Whoa-oh

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Cristóvam - Andrà Tutto Bene (English and Portuguese)

2 videos by Cristóvam. Subtitles in english on the first video and in portuguese on the second video.

Created thinking about all of us living in this dark moment, staying at home (some can't).

Lovely message. Congrats for everyone who helped making this video.

Cristóvam - Andrà Tutto Bene (English and Portuguese)

Published on Mar 25, 2020

Realizador / Director: Pedro Varela
Musica & letra / Music & Lyrics: Cristóvam
Misturado & Masterizado / Mixed & Mastered: Pedro Villas Silva @ Namouche Studios.
-
Special thanks:
Pedro Varela
Blanche Filmes
Pedro Villas Silva
Cloé Blue
Sophie Cheung
Sara kirby
Aileen Xu
Sam Scheffer
8K Raw Films
Liu Weilong
Elise Marin
Paulo Inês & Light Film
Vitor Mingates & Améba
Pedro Vicente & Musgo Studio
Pedro Giorgianis
Leonor Alexandrino
João Félix
Timothy Lima
Carlos Borba

Cristóvam - Andrà Tutto Bene (English)

Published on Mar 25, 2020



Cristóvam - Andrà Tutto Bene (Português)

Published on Mar 25, 2020



Hope you will love this awesome lyric.

Cristóvam - Andrà Tutto Bene

Cities are vacant like they've never been
Everyone's scared of what blows in the wind
The plans we all had
Have all gone down the drain
Our lives were postponed
But I know in the end we'll be alright
We stand together as one

People are lining in grocery stores
Silence is screaming the fear in their hearts
Don't give up your faith, no
Don't let your light fade
Together we'll get through the dark of these days

Two or three months
They're saying on TV
Be safe in your shelters and soon we'll be free
One day we'll remember the hardest of times
When distance meant love and it kept us alive

Andrà tutto bene
Vai ficar tudo bem
Everything will be alright
Andrà tutto bene
Tout ira bien
Everything will be alright

To doctors and nurses
And all those who fight
The heroes that save us
By risking their lives
We'll give them our love, yeah
We'll shout to the skies
Brothers and sisters
We're here by your side

Take care of our loved ones
Be strong and be brave
Your kindness is something that cannot be paid
And when this is over the memories will shine
Of those who passed on and those who stood in line

A few more months
The anchorman said
Divided we fight but united we stand
One day we'll remember the hardest of times
When distance meant love and it kept us alive

Andrà tutto bene
Vai ficar tudo bem
Everything will be alright
Andrà tutto bene
Tout ira bien
Everything will be alright
Andrà tutto bene
Alles wird gut
Everything will be alright
Andrà tutto bene
Todo irá bien
Everything will be alright

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Bon Jovi 2020-03-24 USA Today Network (app), How Bon Jovi became the rock 'n' roll epicenter in the battle against the coronavirus

https://eu.app.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/03/24/how-bon-jovi-became-rock-n-roll-epicenter-battle-against-coronavirus/2901403001/

How Bon Jovi became the rock 'n' roll epicenter in the battle against the coronavirus


Calling Tommy and Gina.

When a group of Chicagoans wanted to unify the city with a city-wide sing-along from their window as a way of showing solidarity while Illinois is in a “stay at home” order due to the coronavirus outbreak, Bon Jovi's “Livin’ on a Prayer” was the song they chose.

“The song has this ability to make people come together,” said Jenni Spinner, an organizer of the sing-along.

Dozens of videos of the sing-along were posted. Chicago became intimately familiar with the story of Tommy and Gina, a hardscrabble couple with little but a prayer to hold them forth.

In the hours before the sing-along, two related events happened. Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi expressed support for the sing-along and Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan revealed that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, COVID-19.

Bon Jovi has become the rock 'n' roll epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. No band has stirred more empathy, articulated the feelings of uncertainty, and comforted fans with reassurance than the Jersey rockers in the first weeks of the outbreak.

Coronavirus NJ: 3 more Monmouth testing sites open

More: David Bryan, Bon Jovi keyboardist and Broadway composer, tests positive for coronavirus

More: Jon Bon Jovi is writing a song about the coronavirus outbreak and he'd like your help

“These are trying times we're going through, uncharted territory, the great unknown,” said Jon Bon Jovi on a Sunday, March 22, social media posting. “But one thing is for sure, we're going to make it through.”

Bon Jovi is the right band for the moment, fans say.

“It’s because they've always been there,” said fan Lori Franchini O'Leary, 47, of East Brunswick. “They never left no matter what year it is. They’ve always had some type of a song, some type of an album or tour for a connection with the fans. They never really left.”

The first member of the band to be affected by the outbreak was Bryan, who had his new musical, “Diana,” postponed March 12 on Broadway, as were all Broadway shows.

Then, Jon Bon Jovi and sons Jesse Bongiovi and Jake Bongiovi were shown group dancing to Doja Cat's “Say So” on the banks of the Navesink River at his home in Middletown in a March 14 video called “Quarantine Choreography” posted to the Hampton Water TikTok account and shared on a Hampton Water Instagram story.

Hampton Water is the name of the rosé sold by Jon Bon Jovi, Jesse Bongiovi and French winemaker Gérard Bertrand. The video was a fun diversion, but it certainly didn't convey the gravity of what was to come.

“I was watching that, and I was, 'What did I just watch?' " said Franchini O'Leary.

The next post, on Thursday, March 19, had a very different tone. A picture of Jon Bon Jovi, in short sleeves, washing dishes at the Soul Kitchen community restaurant in Red Bank, which he founded with his wife Dorothea Bongiovi. The Soul Kitchen restaurant is now closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, but takeout is still available for those who need it.

“If you can't do what you do ... do what you can,” commented Bon Jovi on the post.

The picture went viral.

“I thought it was very humbling,” Franchini O'Leary said. “He doesn’t just say it, he’s really actually doing it. He's totally in the present all the time. He doesn’t have people or a crew, he’s actually involved.”

Jon Bon Jovi washing dishes at the Soul Kitchen in Red Bank on March 18, 2020.
Jon Bon Jovi/Instagram
 

The rocker has built a long resume of philanthropic and political endeavors. He served on President Obama's White House Council for Community Solutions and worked with Gov. Chris Christie on superstorm Sandy relief for Jersey, including his hometown of Sayreville. His JBJ Soul Foundation teamed with Help USA to build 51 units of affordable housing in Newark in 2008. Fifteen of the units were dedicated solely for HIV/AIDS patients.

He and Dorothea Bongiovi recently opened a Soul Kitchen on the campus of Rutgers-Newark University. It's the third Soul Kitchen location, in addition to Red Bank and Toms River. Diners pay what they can.

“Jon has been very active as a philanthropist for many, many years, and I think people know that and certainly his fans know it,” said Tony Pallagrosi, a former member of the Asbury Jukes and a Jersey Shore-based music promoter. “I think it’s a natural for him to be out in front in a situation like this. It doesn‘t surprise me.”

The appeal of Bon Jovi in this moment is partly due to the fact that Jon Bon Jovi has been a good citizen, Spinner said.

“In the Me Too era, every other day we’re finding out about somebody we’ve looked up to forever who ends up being a racist, or a Trump supporter, or a rapist or there's something about him that turns you off,” Spinner said.

“Jon Bon Jovi’s been married forever. He’s putting his money where other people's mouths are and he’s been doing good stuff and he’s been doing it for while. Not only is he not a Me Too disappointment, he’s actually doing really good stuff.”

Jon Bon Jovi and Bryan, who's also a Tony Award-winning Broadway composer, are imparting positive messages during the outbreak.

“I’ve been sick for a week and feeling better each day,” Bryan said on Saturday, March 21. His wife, Lexi Quaas, also has it. “Please don’t be afraid!!! It’s the flu not the plague. I’ve have been quarantined for a week and will for another week. And when I feel better I’ll get tested again to make sure I’m free of this nasty virus. Please help out each other. This will be over soon... with the help of every American!!”

Bon Jovi asked fans for help writing a verse of a new song, “Do What You Can,” that was partially premiered on the evening of Sunday, March 22, on Bon Jovi's social media sites. Fans were asked to video themselves singing their verse, then post it to the Bon Jovi social media sites with the #DoWhatYouCan hashtag.

“Here's my idea. We write this one together. I'm going to give you the chorus. I'm going to give you the first verse. I'm going to play the second verse, but you tell me your story,” Bon Jovi said. “Tell me what you're going through. Tell me how you're feeling. Tell me if you're hurting. Talk about that high school graduation that's going to be canceled, talk about that prom you just might not have, talk about that baby coming there's nothing you can do about that. Talk about the paycheck that you're losing. Talk about being afraid, looking out your window and wondering what to make about all of this.

“Just remember, we're going to get through it.”

Jon Bon Jovi also appears in a video for First Lady Tammy Murphy's New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund that will assist state organizations in getting resources to vulnerable communities across the state. Bruce Springsteen, Jon Stewart, Danny DeVito, Whoopi Goldberg and Charlie Puth are also in the video, which was released on the morning on Tuesday, March 24.

“I think it's wonderful that Johnny is reaching out to lift people,” said Peter Mantas, who grew up with Jon Bon Jovi in Sayreville and spent many years working with the band. “We got each other, and that's a lot!”

Bon Jovi is scheduled to release the new album, “2020,” on May 15. The band has announced that a U.S. “Bon Jovi 2020 Tour” is scheduled to play the Prudential Center in Newark on July 14. The tour, which begins June 10 in Tacoma, Washington, also includes two shows, July 27 and 28, at Madison Square Garden, which will close the 18-date trip.

The new album promises to be more about topical subjects, the band has said.

“They have families, kids who are in their 20s, and they’re looking at what’s around them,” Franchini O'Leary said. “They're writing about what's currently around them, and it’s soldiers, it’s homelessness, it’s building homes. It's people who are less fortunate and they writing about in their songs.”

Jon Bon Jovi has his guitar at the ready.

“I'm just warming up getting ready to sing along with you. In these trying times, I am with you with all of my heart and my soul,” said Bon Jovi on Instagram prior to the Chicago sing-along. “Sing it out, baby. We're all going to come through this together.”

Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com.

Published 4:50 PM EDT Mar 24, 2020

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Covid-19 2020-03-17 Daily Maverick, Covid-19: Planet Earth fights back

I found this article about what is happening to Planet Earth due to the Covid-19 Virus. I hope it will be useful to you.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-03-17-covid-19-planet-earth-fights-back/

Opinionista Swati Thiyagarajan 17 March 2020

Covid-19: Planet Earth fights back


https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Opinionista-Thiyagarajan-CovidEarthTW-480x480.jpg

Swati Thiyagarajan


Swati Thiyagarajan is an environment journalist, works at Sea Change Project and is consulting environment editor at New Delhi TV, NDTV.

The flip side to Covid-19 is first the understanding that we are not invincible and are just another species on this planet. That the world is round and a crisis in one place can become a crisis in every place. That we are only as strong as our most vulnerable people, and systems put in place to ruthlessly maximise profit while minimising humanity will always lead to disaster.



Patient zero has been around for a while. She is breathless, severely dehydrated, her lungs are compromised, her immunity is compromised, she has a raging high fever with occasional chills. She is 4.5 billion years old and she lived in relative health for 99% of that time. Then this really ghastly virus called the agricultural, and then the industrialised human came along, and she’s been sick pretty ever since.

She, unlike us, self-heals. Over her very long life, she has created life, destroyed it and changed it in order to do only one thing – survive. Her self-healing now, has shut us down. All our arrogance of technological advancement, hyper-capitalism, space travel – and we may as well be hunter-gatherers living in a cave facing down a pride of hungry lions with no weapons, in the face of Covid-19.

A zoonotic disease, it’s not the first and certainly will not be the last. From rabies, to anthrax, to HIV/AIDS, the bubonic plague, the various coronaviruses like Sars, Mers and so on, all zoonotic and all due to our relentless exploitation of the planet and her resources.

While it is not yet clear exactly from which animal this Covid-19 virus originated, it is absolutely fact that it is from a wild animal, poached and trapped against its will, kept and consumed in unhygienic conditions. The original virus could have started in a bat and perhaps came to us through the pangolin, the most trafficked animal on earth. The illegal wildlife trade is worth multiple billions of dollars and scant attention and resources have been allocated to fight it. Poaching has pushed tens of thousands of species to the brink while sanctioned legal development is pushing habitats to the brink. This dangerous combination of both habitat and species loss is exacerbating climate change which in turn is causing damage to our ability to survive as a species.

Biodiversity, or the variety of species in a living ecosystem, is the immune system of the planet. Take the human body. Our bodies have more bacteria than human cells. These microorganisms help keep us alive and healthy. For the human body, the gut or the stomach plus intestines are the most crucial part of our immune system. The greater the biodiversity – or different types of good bacteria in our guts – the better our health and immune response. If an external agent attacks, it’s the immune system that fights it off. Similarly, for planet Earth, it’s her biodiversity that is the immune system. When we, with our exploitative activities, cause issues like climate change, she can cope if her biodiversity stays intact. But we are riddling her precious immune system with holes which adds to the growing ravages of climate change.

This collapse is also forcing people and the wild into closer proximity and forcing poor communities who are hit hardest to turn to poaching and bushmeat and wet markets to supplement their food requirements. It’s easy to point fingers at poor African communities over AIDS and Ebola, and at the Chinese over wet markets and illegal wildlife trade, but unless we acknowledge we are all culpable in this mess, we are in big trouble.

This virus has already forced social isolation on us. We are unable to hug our parents, kiss our grandparents, hold our children. Basic everyday needs that keep us human, that keep us together as a community. There are people dying without being held by their loved ones at the very end. If there are real scars leftover from Covid-19, it would be this. That someone we loved died without a last loving human touch from the person who mattered the most to them.

Biodiversity also is a system of checks and balances. If there are certain species that are prey, there are certain that are predators. If there are species that are parasites, there are also species that feed on them. As biodiversity dwindles, these checks and balances go haywire. Let’s say there’s a herd of deer in the wild. Several predators keep the deer from multiplying too fast and devouring the habitat. The deer also stay alert, fast, fit because of all the running and alertness required to evade the predators. The predators also target the weak, the slow, the sick, keeping the deer population healthy. Without them, the deer will grow in number, out-eat their survivability and get sick.

Sounds familiar? What we do when we get hold of animals is crowd them up, keep them in unhygienic conditions, feed them the wrong foods and sometimes artificially keep them healthy with antibiotics. This has led to a cascade of diseases in humans, adds to making us antibiotic-resistant and then throws up a deadly zoonotic which brings us to our knees.

As omnivores, we pretty much eat anything. While zoonotic diseases come from eating meat raised or housed in unhygienic conditions, it’s not meat per se that’s the problem. It’s factory-farmed meat and illegal wild meat. Both plant-based agriculture and meat farms in the industrialised age cause extensive habitat damage leading to biodiversity loss.

The flip side to Covid-19 is firstly the understanding that we are not invincible and are just another species on this planet. That the world is round and a crisis in one place can become a crisis in every place. That we are only as strong as our most vulnerable people, and systems put in place to ruthlessly maximise profit while minimising humanity will always lead to disaster. Meanwhile, between social distancing, lack of travel and drop in manufacturing and consumption, emissions have dropped, China has seen a blue sky after years, serious concerns are being raised around the wildlife trade and patient zero is feeling better.

If we choose to live on this planet like a breeding prey species that devours like a predator while functioning like a parasite, we will force our host to react more virulently. Hers is an ancient biological intelligence that has powered life for four billion years, It’s honed, it’s extensive and it is a cold intelligence that will do what it takes to survive. As we race to find a vaccine to help us survive viruses, so is she, patient zero, looking for solutions.

If we choose to find the best parts of ourselves, where in lockdown an Italian neighbourhood sang to one another, where young people are going door to door asking older people if they need help in running errands, where the Chinese flew out a whole plane full of experts and helpers and ventilators to Italy, where we learn to live with greater compassion for each other and the living planet, we can hope to cope with and perhaps even thrive in the coming decades.

As the Chinese wrote on their help package, “we are all waves in the same ocean”. DM