{"id":969,"date":"2009-04-25T19:22:10","date_gmt":"2009-04-25T23:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/?p=969"},"modified":"2009-04-26T13:44:34","modified_gmt":"2009-04-26T17:44:34","slug":"hidden-heroes-hero2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/hidden-heroes-hero2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Heroes \u2014 Hero #2 (Mark Johnson)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you missed the INTRODUCTION to our Hidden Heroes<\/em> series<\/strong>, you can read it by clicking here<\/a>. Otherwise, continue below to read about Hero #2…
\n<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They say that people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that end up doing<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

They also say it takes 10 years to make an overnight success.<\/p>\n

Both are true for this week’s hidden hero, Grammy Award Winning Producer \/ Engineer and Award Winning Film Director Mark Johnson, and his Playing For Change<\/em><\/span><\/strong> movement.<\/p>\n

Mark first got the idea to inspire people to come together as a human race by uniting musicians across continents in 1999…<\/p>\n

Like all great ideas, it came in a seemingly random moment… as he walked through the New York subway during morning rush hour and saw two monks, painted white from head to toe, playing a guitar and singing a foreign language while 200 commuters stopped to watch \u2014 people from all different cultures and backgrounds, who were suddenly no longer consumed with getting to work on time.<\/p>\n

Wow… what an a-ha moment!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suddenly he realized that music was the bridge that could unite all people.<\/p>\n

He also realized that it was his calling to go out and find as many inspiring musical moments as possible.<\/p>\n

= = = = =<\/p>\n

After sharing his idea with the right combination of people, P<\/span><\/strong>laying For Change<\/span><\/strong> <\/em>(a play on words that brings to mind both street buskers and the musical ability to effect change) was born \u2014 a multi-media movement to inspire<\/span>, connect<\/span> and bring peace<\/span> to the world through music \u2014 and travel around the world began.<\/p>\n

They set off with the\u00a0 idea that an open mind and positive intentions would allow them to find ways of uniting people as the human race… and since music is the Universal language that knows no boundaries, that idea traveled with them from California and a post-Katrina New Orleans to Europe, Asia, and Africa; through streets, subways, native Indian reservations, African villages, the Himalayan mountains, and more.<\/p>\n

The musicians involved never met in person, but were brought together by the music, and the belief that we can do a lot more for the world working together than we can apart.<\/p>\n

They created a documentary, Playing For Change: Peace Through Music<\/em><\/span><\/strong>, and several “Songs Around The World”, as well as the Playing For Change Foundation, a non-profit\u00a0dedicated to connecting the world by building music and art schools equipped with cameras and recording studios in communities around the world.<\/p>\n

Mark Johnson and his team can certainly take credit for helping to build a global village, as prophesied by Marshall McLuhan, and taking it to new levels.<\/p>\n

Now, after circulating through friends’ inboxes and being featured on mainstream media, their first “Song Around The World”, the John Lennon version of Stand By Me<\/em>, has received 9 1\/2 million views on YouTube alone (and the video is available for viewing in numerous other places).<\/p>\n

If you haven’t seen it yet, turn up your speakers and watch it here:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/strong> For a higher-quality, full-screen version, click here<\/a><\/strong> *<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Your Partners in the Quest For
\nLiving a Life Without Limits,<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Barry<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(( <\/strong> Life Design Consultants,
\nAgents of Higher Learning &
\nCatalysts For Change ))<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you missed the INTRODUCTION to our Hidden Heroes series, you can read it by clicking here. Otherwise, continue below to read about Hero #2… They say that people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that end up doing it. They also say it takes 10 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[292],"tags":[315,317,319,316,320,318],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hidden-heroes","tag-mark-johnson","tag-music","tag-peace","tag-playing-for-change","tag-unite","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":978,"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwlworldwide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}