The campaign is simply called, “You Are Not An Island”- using the stores (Island Water Sports) good name as a reminder that we have to be involved with people of our community. Partnering with Not Fashionable INC., a Florida based non-profit that works against child starvation, IWS firmly believes that they can play a role in addressing problems like starvation by simply encouraging teenagers and 20-something-year-olds to “look up and around” at what is happening in the world and in their city.

Check out the site at youarenotanisland.com.

Ryan Alexander on iLike - Add iLike to your MySpace

In the middle of booking our next tour. We will be going on tour with some really good friends of ours, Eutopian Accident . It's going to be late November through early December in the Southeast. If you want us to play your town, hit us with a venue or some other bands in the area. :)

All of the recording for the new album ("the other side of symmetry") and song for the Not Fashionable compilation EP ("we've seen dark. we've seen light. Only one has overwhelmed us.") are done!!!! It's been a long time coming. Stoked to have it done. Now, we are planning a tour to follow up the release. Expect the release of the full length in the next 2 months.

Recording 2 new songs today. Brand spanking new. One for the new full length aforementioned yesterday. One for an EP compilation we are doing with Charlie Hall, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Rae Cassidy and others that will feed kids :)

Spending the next 2 days putting all of the final touches on our forthcoming sophomore release, "The Other Side of Symmetry". The new Alexander record should be out sometime before the end of this year. Expect a few new songs on our myspace by the end of the month... myspace.com/alexander

So, Im here in Bogota/ Armenia/ Calarca/ Barcelona, Colombia (not South Carolina, but Colombia the country... you know... guerillas, bananas and cocaine...).  I have been down here for the last few days and will be here until Friday, April 10th.  I have been doing some work with the street kids that live down here.  For clarification, street kids are kids that live... on the... streets.
Just so you cant say that you never knew, here are some things I think you should know about this place...

Drugs are killing kids.  There are kids that start doing cocaine, smoking pot and buzuco when they are not even teenagers.  Bazuco is a combination of cocaine, gasoline, some sort of brick and sometimes cough syrup...  This stuff is relatively cheap and locks kids up for the rest of their lives.  As with other parts of the world, there are a good amount of kids here that smiff glue.  Dont think Elmers, think brain damaging toxic glue (goggle: HB Fuller glue sniffing).  If you think that being in prison is the only thing that can put a person in permanent, think again...

Kids are starving.  Dont be fooled.  If you are anything like me, you have your doubts about kids starving to death.  Know that its happening here (and all over the world).  Turns out about 30,000 kids die everyday of hunger and the preventable diseases that it causes.  I spent some time in a small village yesterday where there were ten year old kids that were only about waist high because they dont have enough food for everyone (or because they dont have enough money for food).  There was a little 2 year old girl with a swollen and twisted stomach from the parasites that were in her tiny little belly... also turns out that a pill that costs 1.3 cents would get rid of all those worms.  (PlantingPeace.org does that)

There are kids that sleep outside and that dont have families.  This is hard to fathom for anyone that was born and raised in the United States.  Imagine a seven year old kid sleeping underneath a light pole with a little dog snuggling up next to him for warmth... thats happening as i write this and as you read this.  Imagine kids pulling food out from trash dumps... thats happening here.  Imagine there being places that not even the police or firemen will go because the neighborhood is so violent.  This is one of those neighborhoods.

Know that with all of these problems, hope isnt lost.  Here is what Im not saying:  Colombia is a terrible place that lets drug lords run the streets and lets kids sleep in the rain and eat out of the trash.  What I AM saying is this:  PEOPLE let drug lords run the streets and lets kids sleep in the rain and eat out of the trash.  Colombia.  The United States.  Africa... BE it fear that helps us turn a blind eye, or the fact that we actually like the idea of other people being inferior to us, know that when we do nothing to combat thes things (starvation, homelessness and violence) we might as well put our stamp of approval on the things that are taking place.  As one of my teachers used to tell me in high school... SILENCE IS APPROVAL.

I get to play some songs in the town that I am in tonight.  I am going to be singing about hope and love and not losing heart to bunch of people that are often times too terrified to drive into the mountains for fear that the guerillas (army, not animal or band) might kill them.  I am pretty excited about it.  They will have no idea what I am saying, but I dont think that really matters.  The point is just that they see that people like you and I love them and that we are not OK with the things that theyare going through... that in some way, their pain is our pain, and their burden is ours to share.

So... from MTVs Real World to the hood of Colombia in a little more than a week..  Who would have thunk it?!?! :)

This should make some good material for some new songs... or maybe a new side project (think the music from the new Conan Obrien beer commercial)...
peace, my friends!

Ryan Alexander

This week, on the latest episode of The Real World: Brooklyn, "Fight What" from our album, "White Flags and Silver Spoons Have to Sleep in Separate Rooms" was featured for a few minutes.

Thanks to everyone who has tuned in as a result of seeing us on the show!  We can't do this without you!

peace.

ryan alexander

we got an early start at Huntington Beach pier. didn't have anything to do with music, but was pretty cool. beats the heck out of Florida beaches. i got a sweet little sunburn right along my v-neck line. the surf was perfect.



After the band played we headed over to a bowl that was behind someones house. there were about 50 of us all around the outside of a waterless pool. i thought this stuff was only on tv and in magazines.



After a few hours at the bowl i got to head over to Skid Row with some of the greatest people around. Skid Row is the hood of the hood for homelessness. i have never seen anything like that. police were out and about. people were shooting heroine and smoking crack with me standing right in front of them. that kind of stuff really breaks my heart. reason being that these people are in serious bondage. they are way past the get-a-job-dude stage. these people have been on the street for so long and have been addicted to drugs for so long that there would need to be a serious intervention. i know that Jesus lives on the urine stained streets of Skid Row. i am sure of it.



we were out and about on Skid Row for a few hours. expect a song soon.

i didn't get in from Skid Row last night until about 4am. i was up at 8:30 with the band. it's weird but i haven't been tired at all and i have been getting no sleep. i have also been laughing a lot when it gets really late. eric, bass player/ cousin, gives me the calm-down-or-i'll-crush-you-look when he see's me getting rambunctious. this is me typing this blog:



freddy always has a way of making me laugh. his latest invention is a bad constructed of chairs. we are spending the night in a church called The Sanctuary tonight. i'm pretty excited about it because i have never slept in a church before. could be creepy. we are all trying to find the best place in the church to sleep. we were supposed to be staying in San Diego tonight, but they wanted us to stick around and play another night. that's why freddy made that bed. eric followed suit (?).



this is a picture of us, the BasketballJones.

LA. the most intimidating town i have ever been in. not only is it way bigger than i thought, but everyone here is a tough guy. the guys with all the tattoos on the tops o their hands, the jesse james patented bent upwards hat, the bandanna under the jesse james hat and lots steroid induced scowls. the people here though are great though. they smile, which is more than can be said for Ft. Lauderdale. everyone seems to think they own this town.

this morning we all woke up really early because of the time change. we walked over to starbucks. and what was on the counter but a flyer for a show we were playing in town tonight. coolest flyer ever.



we then jumped in the car and did the band thing. we are super blessed to have a car out there. it's a yaris. it's smaller than it looks in commercials.



so far, so good.