COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL

So earlier this week I got a phone call from Compassion International asking me to be an artist advocate for their fight against poverty, disease, famine, and AIDS in the Third World. I'm excited to announce that I accepted and will be booking solo concerts in the months to come that will focus on bringing awareness to the issues Compassion International fights for.

Click the link to find out more about CI...





-Ross

Love, War, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman

its been weeks of emotions, thoughts, and contemplations since i last posted. and well, i'm a new dad. i think i'm looking at the world a little differently now. and as i take in what my little mind can, i find myself focused on the middle east, africa, the presidential primaries, and fatherhood in the tumultuous times here and ahead. oh yeah, i'm also getting very little sleep.

coffee is good!

i always bounce my ideas off of kate regarding the noted subjects. sometimes it leads us to agreement, other times debate. but we always end thinking more and deeper about ourselves and our response to the tough topics and decisions of our day.

you can't pass cnn or fox news without being inundated by the smear campaigns of both parties. "barak worked with slum lords," "hillary is a racist," "mccain-feingold," huckabee really is a racist, and mitt's name is mitt...those last 2 were my own commentaries.

we hear them debate the economy and health care and the war in iraq. each promising change but no one actually giving any details.

and then to contrast these heavy hitters, kate and i get a break and go see CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR. if you haven't already seen it, you should. i'm a huge hanks and roberts fan, but the movie was owned by hoffman!

my opinion: hoffman is one of the greatest actors of this era! everything he does is golden. not every movie...but his acting always shines. from CHARLIE WILSON to CAPOTE to ALMOST FAMOUS to TWISTER (and yes he was actually in twister), he out performs everyone else.

seeing this movie shed a comical light on the history of our current situation in iraq and afghanistan. it should be no surprise to learn that in the past we fought for the here and now and cared not about the future implications.

check the movie out. but until then, here's some more poetic quandaries/commentary on the subject...enjoy and we'll chat again soon:

"love coup"
by ross christopher donaldson

because our here and now
protect or die minds
wind up drenched in the blood
of the war we didn't see

we say

could we please fight another fight
and kill another life
just to do it all again
and find we've died inside

maybe i'm a decade or two late
but the rage is overdue
and we end up drenched in the blood
from the past friends of fight

could we please fight another fight
and kill another life
just to do it all again
and find we've died inside

then we figure it out and all goes quiet
because we've killed everyone and everything -
the different ideas and colors and lands
so we dream of the change that could have been

and we wish for a love coup

Perfect Sound

i wrote this 10 weeks before Cora Adair was born...

we're only 10 weeks away
from seeing our perfect sound
a life and her beautiful name

its all about to change
as we learn again
what love can be like
with a new name

because she's our Cora -
our most perfect sound

maybe someday she'll know
just how I felt
the first time I saw
the smallest glimpse
of her perfect sound

because she's our Cora -
our most perfect sound

its all about to change
as we learn again
what love can be like
with a new name

because she's our Cora -
our most perfect sound

"perfect sound" by ross

why qt is the best ever...

kate and i tend to write only about things that are really close to our hearts. well...this is no exception.

be it resolved that qt is the best ever:
first of all, if you're not from the midwest (primarily missouri), then you may not know what i mean by qt. qt is a gas station. scratch that. qt is a convenience store. scratch that too. qt is a restaurant that happens to have gas and other products commonly seen in convenience stores.

behind the counters of a qt are always smiling faces of two or three employees. and i believe that they smile because they're proud of the services that they can grant. on any given day - and by that i mean four to five days each week, i can walk into a local qt and pick up a quarter pound hot dog. the quarter pound hot dog is actually the meal that led me to fall in love with qt. a warm bun gently toasted in a plastic container, moistened with condensation from nearly boiling water accompanied with your choice of regular and specialty mustards, regular and jalapeño relish, and soirée of additional sauces to make the taste buds dance completes the entree.

but alas, the meal is not over. no, no my dear friends, the adventure has just begun.

qt serves delicious spicy beef and spicy chicken taquito's. i used to be a beef man, but thanks to my best friend and culinary guru, brandon, i have seen the light. the spicy chicken taquito, wrapped in a hard corn tortilla is a force to be reckoned with.

in recent months qt has introduced corn dogs, egg rolls, and mozzerella-filled bread sticks to the menu. i will speak only of what i know. i know the mozzerella-filled bread sticks to be a true delight. crisp breaded cheese. can you ask for more?

i think you can.

once you engorge yourself its only appropriate and necessary to wash everything down with a delicious beverage. i go back and forth between the 32 ounce diet mt. dew and the rooster booster light (for that quick pick-me-up).

so after a taquito or two (two is preferable), one mozzerella-filled bread stick, a hot dog topped with all the appropriate accoutrement, and a caffeine charged beverage, what completes the meal out better than a glazed donut or chocolate long john? nothing.

its six dollars of pure genius. its a meal fit for the gods.

so next time you pass the beautiful red, black and white sign. allow yourself to be beckoned and follow your heart inside where your life will never be the same.

-ross

mission, direction, focus - JUST DO SOMETHING!

Its a new year and I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk about how blessed we are: Ever watch the news and feel overwhelmed? Darfur…check, AIDS pandemic…check, extreme poverty…check, war-torn displacement…check; the list goes on and on. All the while, my list of "complaints" and/or "unfairness" looks more like long lines at Target, not getting my Netflix as soon as I'd have liked, and rush hour (the traffic cluster, not the Jackie Chan movie). So I ask myself, what in the world can I do? It all seems too huge to really make a difference. I ask myself what really gets me fired up, what do I think is intrinsically wrong…and I arrive at my conclusion that I have been blessed and it is my opportunity to indeed make a difference for these that are marginalized, the forgotten, the social write-offs. I would even go so far to say that if we can name what's wrong with the world, and we do nothing to remedy it, we will lack peace, and we actually further the problem(s). I heard a great quote, "God did not create poverty, rather, man has not yet learned to truly love." So substitute "poverty" with whatever your "it" is and do something about it. Don't feel like YOU have to solve all of the world's problems, but if we all did our parts, imagine what could be done. We really do have it pretty good.

Think GLOBAL...Act LOCAL...

JUST DO SOMETHING!

-Ross

gsp

as i'm looking into new organizations to get involved with here in the st louis area, i wanted to take the time to appreciate the good samaritan project of kansas city. gsp has been working in the hiv/aids community of kansas city since 1985 and are involved with basically every facet of hiv/aids. gsp does community education and outreach, client assistance, case management, etc. ross and i volunteered with gsp over the past year and hated to move away from such a great organization that is really doing some great work. so, if you are from the kc area, you should check out gsp and get involved. if you are from the st louis area and have a recommendation for a similar organization - send it our way. and no matter where you are from, find your local hiv/aids service organization and get involved.

Good Samaritan Project
www.gspkc.org