Recycling, Chilla and T's...

Hey what's up guys!

We just finished sorting the recycling. It's hard work! We were given boxes upon boxes of cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles. We had to sort them into different plastic garbage bags. I must admit, the work is tedious, but it is a lot of fun to be with my fellow band mates. If anyone ever said recycling is easy they are crazy! It's a vast amount of effort to put in in order to save the planet, but it is so worth it!

Not long ago we had an amazing chilla! For two straight days we camped out, read books (books called "Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things" and "Zen Guitar") and played music. The first book was about how much is put into products like coffee and newspaper. It truly amazed me how immoral these companies are and how they use child labor to create their products. The "Zen Guitar" book was about how the mind set of music practice is one of the most important parts of practicing. You can "practice" all you want but if you do not put your mind into it, it can be worthless.


The recording part of our chilla was just awesome. Since I am a vocalist, I got to use a killer microphone and learn how to use the recording software vaguely. It is really interesting. I really like being up there singing and laying down my vocals. It was a really fun and interesting experience and it opened up my eyes to see how it would be to be a working musician. It really appeals to me to become a performer and to record music. There is something about recording - it is fun to think that your recording could be around for all time - even when we are dead and gone, our recording will live on. It is almost difficult to comprehend. I love recording. I hope to get another opportunity like that again.

Guess what?!! If you have not heard, we have t-shirts! What? I know...how awesome! They are made from 100% pure organic cotton or cotton bamboo mix. The shirts are amazingly soft and are a great bargain. They are great for the environment for all you Earth lovers - there were no poisons like pesticides or other harmful dyes used to make our shirts, keeping our rivers and streams and oceans clean from horrible chemicals. But you must hurry - the t-shirts are going fast. Limited on bamboo, we are mainly taking orders for organic cotton so hurry and buy your very own funk band t-shirt. I promise you will love them!

Thanks for checking in!
Until next time, Groove Green!

Max

Recycling Heaven

Who doesn't love the smell of old recycling stench on a Saturday morning?! I certainly do. The smell of crusty soda cans and slimy beer bottles not only smells like support for the Funk Band, it smells like we are helping the environment.

Instead of sleeping in and being lazy while basically creating more trash and wasting more electricity by sitting on the couch watching TV and eating potato chips, I got up early and went to support my band members by loading my car with recyclables. I even solicited some donations from my Girl Scout leader Maggie.

At first when I asked her on the phone, I thought she was exaggerating or making a joke. But when I walked up the stairs and finally saw the walkway to her corner apartment, I realized I didn't need my empty Volvo station wagon, I needed a semi. She told me to bring some help with me, so I brought my father along. I was able to fill my car completely, drop it off at the school, go back for another completely full car load and she still had about a third of what she had in the beginning crowding her front door.

So I definitely want to take time out of this blog to give a shout out to Maggie and say THANK YOU from the Funk Band!

As soon as I got back with the second load, we all got down and dirty and were able to bag up 40 full garbage bags ready for pickup in about an hour. I was very proud of our work. Especially considering how far we've come since our first recycling Saturday. We were all here today and all prepared to work hard.

I hope we can put this money toward getting more of our super-cool t-shirts. We have started selling our Funk Band t-shirts for 15 dollars and I think we are doing really well. People like them so much they are even starting to take sizes that they didn't ask for. Also, the bamboo-t-shirts are a huge hit. I think we have sold out of most of them.


I would definitely want more t-shirts because seeing everyone wearing them around the school makes me smile. We have accomplished many great things with these t-shirts. We have started a wave of school pride, we have promoted the funk band and we have done all this in a completely environmentally friendly way by raising the money with recyclables and using eco-friendly materials for the t-shirts. Which I think is very cool. So contact any funk band member if you want one!

I'm off,
Claire

A Day of Recycling

Today we recycled to raise money for our t-shirts that we ordered. We made a nice design out of our rock etude #9 and it is really cool. It is a black t-shirt with the rock etude written in white and the shirts are made out of either organic cotton or organic cotton and bamboo. It is so soft compared to a regular t-shirt. Mr. Zorn surprised us with them the night we finished our studio recordings. We each got a shirt - everybody took the bamboo because they were 2 times softer than the all-cotton ones. The thing that is really cool is that when you wash it won't fade like regular t-shirts. And we are selling them for only $15 compared to $45.


Today we made 36 something bags of plastics, cans and bottles. It took us about an hour and a half. I wish that people wouldn't be so lazy. They put all of the breakfast foods and trash in the recycling bins, even when the trash can is 2 or 3 steps away. We found a hot dog on a stick (that they serve for breakfast) in the recycling bin. Disgusting! And people waste so much water, soda and juice - we found a bunch of water bottles, soda bottles and a gatorade bottle all still full!

We were so good - we got through the recycling really fast. There was a lot more compared to last month's load and we finished in about the same amount of time. We all knew what we had to do and how to do it. For example, I would go get all of the recycle bins throughout the campus and dump them all into the main pile with everything else. Claire, Tem, Melissa and Max would start sorting the recyclables into all of the trash bags and Micah would wash out all of the bins that I would bring to him. He would spray it all down with the hose in the back of the cafeteria and it is disgusting what comes out of those bins. Once Micah and I are done with our part we go help everyone else with bagging everything. We put the bags in three bins - one for cans, one for plastic and one for bottles. We keep throwing everything from the big pile into the bins and when they get full, we change the bags. That is just basically what we do and the faster we do it the more time we have to chill and relax - and just wait for the truck to show up and take all the bags.

So that's what we did today!
C ya later.
Kule'a

2009 Funk Band T's

Hey guys!

Recently after a long week-end of hard work recording we received our 2009 funk band t-shirts! But these t-shirts aren't just any old t-shirt, they're special. These t-shirts are made of either a hundred percent organic cotton or seventy percent bamboo and thirty percent organic cotton. They are seriously the softest, most comfortable shirts I have ever worn.

These environmentally friendly t-shirts support the funk band and our idea of Groove Green, which means to help save our environment from getting worse. Regular t-shirts are often made from polyester, which is made from oil. So pretty much at this moment, you are most likely wearing oil! So please, help us support the idea of Groove Green by purchasing one of our awesome t-shirts.


Look for any funk band member and ask us for more information about the t-shirt itself or buying one (or two!). Also, look for a notice to be posted in the school bulletin soon. Please, plan on spending some cash for a good cause!

Thanks,
Melissa

Recycling Drives...

Hello Funk Fans!

Now that we have just had our Homecoming performance, we are gearing up for the next two big events. We are hosting 2 more recycling drives so please come down with your HI-5 bottles and cans and support! Bring your recyclables to the UH Lab School on March 6th or 7th and on April 4th.

Coincidentally, we are also doing some studio time that week-end of March 7th and 8th. Hopefully, we can record all our new songs and some extras for our special friends. Stay tuned for more updates on that - I'm off to practice bass!

Claire