Texas Music Legend Joe Ely Sends His DNA and Nobel Laureate Insights into Space
Planet Make-Over’s Musical Director Stephen Bruton Adds Joe Ely and Film “Nobelity” to NCsoft’s Operation Immortality to Reverse Global Warming
Operation Immortality, the project to create a digital time capsule of the human race, has again joined forces with Planet Make-Over, an entertainment driven social network designed to demonstrably reverse the effects of Global Warming. This alliance aims to unite and mobilize the worldwide gaming community with Planet Make-Over’s mission by sending the digitized DNA of Texas Music Legend Joe Ely and Planet Make-Over’s Musical Director, Stephen Bruton into space with video gaming luminary Richard Garriott as he travels to the International Space Station (ISS) on October 12, 2008.
Visitors to the website can submit their suggestions for humanity’s greatest achievements, leave their immortalized message for future generations, and may even have their DNA selected to join Planet Make-Over and the rock stars on an out of this world trip to possibly become the future of mankind.
Garriott is a game developer at NCsoft and creator of the Ultima series of games and the recently released Tabula Rasa(R). The goal of Operation Immortality(TM) is to have a space-borne record of human DNA and humanity’s achievements in the event a global calamity dooms the human species, like what happens in the Tabula Rasa video game.
Planet Make-Over and Operation Immortality have a shared goal of the preservation of the human species, and both believe that the power of online social networking is crucial to uniting the world towards taking action; Garriott has millions of loyal online gaming fans demonstrating the proof of this power.
In partnership with Planet Make-Over, Joe Ely has agreed to include his DNA and key Nobel laureate insights from The Nobelity Project (www.nobelity.org) on Garriott’s Immortality Drive. This addition will carry excerpts from the film Nobelity into space on a Soyuz rocket and in orbit around earth where Garriott will be observing global environmental changes and conducting science lab work of his own. Nobelity is a feature documentary by filmmaker Turk Pipkin, which looks at solutions to global problems through the eyes of Nobel Peace and science laureates Desmond Tutu, Rick Smalley, and others.
In Nobelity, Nobel Chemistry laureate Rick Smalley takes the vantage point of looking at earth from space and considers the top ten problems we face on earth. By solving the energy challenge through solar and other renewable energies, says Smalley, we create the tools to solve the problems of water, food, the environment and more. Garriott’s Immortality Drive will carry the insights of all nine Nobel laureates in Nobelity. They are: Desmond Tutu, Steve Weinberg, Jody Williams, Ahmed Zewail, Rick Smalley, Wangari Maathai, Sir Joseph Rotblat, Dr. Harold Varmus, and Amartya Sen.
“There’s nothing magic about change.
Every act you take contributes in one way or another to an outcome.”
– Jody Williams
Nobel Peace Prize, from the film, Nobelity
“When I left home, I took three things; a guitar, something to write with and a map of the stars. I have always been an avid supporter of environmental issues and efforts to make the world a better place for all mankind. When Stephen Bruton asked me to support his involvement with Planet Make-Over, I thought including the Nobel Laureates from Turk Pipkin’s film, ‘Nobelity’ was a perfect addition to Richard Garriott’s voyage. We will all be traveling with him in our dreams,” said Joe Ely.
“Planet Make-Over is about securing the planet for our children and having fun in the process, said Gary Fortin, Creator and Executive Producer of Planet Make-Over. “Combining the sage wisdom of 9 Nobel Laureates with the world renowned artistry of Joe Ely, and Richard Garriott’s games and cosmic mission is a giant step in the right direction.”
“As a resident of Texas, I am thrilled to be in the company of Joe Ely; as a member of the human race, I am humbled to be carrying the messages of some of our greatest minds,” said NCsoft executive producer, Richard Garriott.
About Joe Ely
Joe Ely (born February 9, 1947 in Amarillo, Texas) is a Grammy Award winning American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music touches on honky-tonk, country and rock and roll. He has had a genre-crossing career, performing with Bruce Springsteen, Los Super Seven, The Clancy Brothers and James McMurtry in addition to his early work with The Clash and more recent acoustic tours with Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, and Guy Clark. Joe’s varied career has included being a member of the legendary Texas band the Flatlanders, with Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Throughout his career, Ely has issued a steady stream of albums and his energetic live performances have become legendary. In the late 1990s Ely was asked to write songs for the soundtrack of Robert Redford’s movie The Horse Whisperer. A book of Ely’s writings, Bonfire of Roadmaps, was published in early 2007 by the University of Texas Press. In early 2008, Ely released a new live album featuring Joel Guzman on accordion recorded at the Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas. To find out more about Ely and to find current images, please go to: www.ely.com/
About Stephen Bruton
Stephen Bruton is the music director at Planet Make-Over and a Grammy nominated producer. Bruton is also a successful recording artist and singer/songwriter. He has also amassed a daunting resume, having served as a sideman/guitarist, songwriter, or producer for such industry notables as Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Hal Ketchum, Christine McVie, T-Bone Burnett, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Patty Loveless, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Alejandro Escovedo. Bruton grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas, the son of a jazz musician and record-store owner. He got his first big break when Kris Kristofferson tapped him to fill a vacant band slot in the early ’70s. After working with an impressive array of artists for over 20 years, Bruton released his first solo album in the early ’90s. Bruton’s fourth release, “Spirit World,” a mixture of blues, country, and rock & roll, came out in early 2002, followed in 2005 by From the Five. For more information on Bruton go to: www.stephenbruton.com.
About “Nobelity” and the Nobelity Project
The Nobelity Project is a certified 501(c)(3) education and action non-profit working towards a better future of all our children. One of our principal goals is to connect people all over the world with reliable information and innovative thinking on pressing global problems like global warming, the energy challenge, global health, economic disparity and development, cultural understanding, nuclear proliferation and general question of war and peace.
For more information about The Nobelity Project, go to: www.nobelity.org
About Operation Immortality
For information about Operation Immortality, including full terms and conditions, go to http://www.OperationImmortality.com. For information on Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa go to http://www.rgtr.com. Currently NCsoft is offering free trials of Tabula Rasa. The game is rated Teen by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
About NCsoft Corporation
NCsoft North America is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with other NCsoft subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company has successfully launched multiple online titles in the last three years and continues to support its franchises, which include Lineage(R)/Lineage II, City of Heroes(R)/City of Villains(R), Guild Wars(R)/Guild Wars Factions(R)/Guild Wars Nightfall(R)/Guild Wars: Eye of the North(TM), Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa(R), Dungeon Runners(TM) and Exteel(TM). More information about NCsoft can be found at www.PlayNC.com.
About Planet Make-Over
Planet Make-Over(R) is an interactive, entertainment driven, musician/celebrity-led, global movement to reverse the effects of global warming though social networking. The Planet Make-Over endowment for the arts is a pending 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to convert climate concerned people’s awareness into measurable action that enables the reversal of global warming through the efforts of Artists worldwide.
Planet Make-Over is designed to deliver compelling and dynamic information to millions of people via the Internet and virally spread it across social media networks through the impact of celebrity driven entertainment content beginning in January 2009.
Because Planet Make-Over relies so heavily on the artist community around the world to ignite action and increase membership, Planet Make-Over has created an endowment to assist and support artists in their efforts to contribute to the Planet Make-Over mission. These non-profit funds will be used to further their ability to reach larger audiences and continually grow the membership base of the Planet Make-Over community.
For more information go to www.planetmake-over.com
Contact:
NCsoft, Austin David Swofford, 512-623-8002 dswofford@ncsoft.com or Janna Bureson, 512-623-8051 jbureson@ncsoft.com or Mike Crouch, 512-531-1615 mcrouch@ncsoft.com
