Money & music together create a fascinating union, like love in war, like Mars and Venus.  They are not separate universes.  In fact, they meet in our heart and mind.  They intersect in what it is to be human. 

financialrocknroll is a gathering spot.  A gathering of passions, a gathering of joy, a gathering of poison and medicine.  A gathering spot of story. 

Ours is a time of imbalance, the lords of materialism prevail, and there is loss of meaning for too many who have so much.  Our social self has died, the culture war rages on, and day after day technology has us by the throat.  Wisdom and compassion have become ego's adornment. 

Culture and beauty, though not ends in themselves, are powerful and enthusiastic sorts of medicine—for the heart and for society.  Amid our political and economic tumult, America holds treasure in its shadow.  It is a music renaissance, and it is upon us.  Upon the land.  It is rising up from the earth, like water in springtime.    This Spring / Summer 2006 there are 119 music festivals on the calendar.  This is a great story.  I believe it is the compelling feel-good story of our time.

Money, money, money.  Let's face it:  most of the time, reading about money is boring.  In truth, the initial inspiration for financialrocknroll was purely selfish—kind of a "spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" approach—for writing strictly about money was...yes, boring.  My "day job" is as financial counselor and investment adviser, and after 12 years in the biz there are a few things on my mind.  To begin with, money is of the earth.  It's like breakfast—we gotta have it.  It's a necessary condition for living the rest of our day.  We can deify it, we can demonize it, or we can put it in its rightful place and thereby meet the broader challenge at hand—living our life.  All easier said than done.  No "one size fits all".   Hence the money contemplations—and the riffs, the grooves that go along with them.  Hence the "financial" aspect of financialrocknroll.

I love stories.  Love the oral tradition.  Stories are instructive, in more ways than the author intends, in different ways than the author concludes.  They are the news of today and, sometimes more importantly, they are the news of yesterday—re-news, renewal, reminders of the ancestors and the heroes and the tragedians who walked this earth and breathed this air and made a go of things.

Your stories (200-500 words, photos are great) are welcomed for editorial review and (ideally) publication.  Advance query is  best.  See "contact us" for narrative bent and submission guidelines.  What a fortunate time to be alive.

--butler