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NEWS August 2010
Tom Ross asked by Arun Gandhi (Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi) to design works for
the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute. All of Ross' design fees are being donated
to the GWEI-AVANI Child Education Residence in Kolhapur India.
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A GenX Renaissance Man

by Michael Goodenow

building an engaged, multinational network of enlightened Xers throughout the 1980s.

By the time he arrived in Los Angeles in the late 80s, EarthPlexus had grown to reach across 13 countries on four continents.

Tom then produced and hosted 33 hours of newscast format programming about the network called EarthPlexus Television (EPTV) in Los Angeles and participating university radio and TV stations including Brown and George Mason Universities.

As Director of HolphonicsTM Research at the Brain/Mind Institute in Los Angeles, CA from 1990 to to 1997 Ross co-produced recordings using this 3D sound technology with inventor Hugo Zuccarelli.

During this period he hosted a new televised program—Unearthed—featuring a wide-range of topics including The Illuminati, The Ethics of Cybernetics and guests including Robert Anton Wilson, Dr. Timothy Leary, Marilyn Ferguson and Charlton Heston among many others.

All along, while producing television, staying active in state and federal public service, and managing an international network of GenXers, Tom developed his artistic talent and, to date has produced five solo albums and two playlist collections of his music. His kindergarten teacher was unavailable for comment. But as Tom continues his work, there's really no guessing where this artist, producer, activist and networker (who still colors outside the lines) is headed next.

Today, Tom Ross is the Creative Director for one of America's largest broadcast companies: Entercom. He has developed identities for dozens of radio stations around America and has written, produced and edited over 300 television commercials and sales videos for this company's broadcast properties.

Before that, as senior designer for a high-tech marketing firm in Southern California, Tom produced campaigns for Microsoft, IBM, Q-Logic and the rock band STYX. Prior to that, Tom earned the 1997 Lycos Editors' Choice Award for Original Website.

While Director of Marketing for a national internet company, Tom's principled decision not to utilize spam techniques for lead generation—but instead to employ strict Permission Marketing practices —drew the attention of the National Foundation for Women Legislators. In chambers at the U.S. Capitol in June 2001, Tom testified to women lawmakers from across the U.S. in support of House Resolution 718 to limit unsolicited commercial e-mail, or "spam."

Always engaged in public service in general and issues relating to Generation X in particular, Tom became one of the youngest gubernatorial appointees to California's Consumer Affairs Department's Board for Geologists and Geophysicists where he focused on environmental issues and public safety.

Born in the Black Forest region of Germany, Tom Ross, son of a U.S. military man, lived

in six different cities before his family settled in the high desert of New Mexico. He now lives, symmetrically, in the Black Forest region of central Colorado with his wife and sons.

His first memories of art didn't portend his creative success. Tom recalls how his kindergarten teacher effectively failed him in coloring for not staying inside the lines. "I was only ever given blank paper and pencils, not coloring books as a child..." But by age 17, Tom had sold dozens of T-Shirt designs and had a comic strip published in both major papers in Albuquerque—the Tribune and Journal.

Along with art and music, Tom found another passion in secondary school, in his New Mexico State Science project on dominant cognitive hemispherical brain function and group problem-solving. In it, he devised a method to segregate a group of students by right or left brain dominance, exercising those faculties toward a problem then a system of re-integrating them for an ultimate, whole-brain solution. The project earned Tom a four-year scholarship to New Mexico Tech and a research scholarship to Eastern New Mexico University.

As the result of research with university students working on the specific problem of US/USSR relations, (1984) EarthPlexus was launched—a networking concept designed to develop and promote new modes of communication between American and Soviet youth. Tom traveled throughout Europe, Australia and the U.S.

Michael Goodenow is the author *Leading America, 1630-2030* [2003] and Visionary Behavior, Creative Intelligence in Action [2007] Primarily as a speech writer, Mike has worked with more than 700 of America’s elected leaders on policy or communications.

“Tom Ross is an incredible and uncanny cultural creative...." Lynnea Bylund Board of Director Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute	"Tom is not only a creative force but extremely professional, fast and responsive...." Phil Harrington CEO at YouBloom
"Simply put, Tom Ross is a creative genius." Andrew Ellenberg Senior Broadcast AE at Entercom Kansas City	“Tom is a true inspiration of creativity. I'm proud to be a friend and associate of his!" Kacy Wainwright Senior Broadcast AE at Entercom New Orleans
"We appreciate your fine work on behalf of the good and right cause that we are both passionate about...." Arun Gandhi President, Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute	"After Katrina...we needed compelling video to illustrate how New Orleans was "on her way back." Tom did this with such effortless precision...." Mark Boudreaux GSM, WWL Radio / Entercom New Orleans

The National Foundation for Women Legislators became interested in my unconventional decision not to utilize
Spam techniques as Director of Marketing for a national Internet company (and to employ only strict Permission
Marketing practices) and asked me to testify about Spam at the US Capitol in June 2001.

house

TOM ROSS INVITED TO TESTIFY BEFORE MEDIA AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE

Washington D.C., June 1, 2001: Today Private Sector Co-Chair Nominee, Tom Ross, testified before the Media
and Information Technology Policy Committee in Washington D.C. on the subject of consumer privacy and, in particular, 'Spam'.
A portion of Mr. Ross' remarks appears below.

Hearing Room 2322, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Friday, 6|1|01, 8:28am Called to Testify: Tom Ross Private Sector Co-Chair Nominee

"Good morning, Madame Chairwoman and thank you for allowing me to address the House Subcommittee on Media and Information Technology. My name is Tom Ross and I am the Director of Marketing for a web infrastructure company in the private sector. As Director of Marketing, it is my job to get our product brands in front of as many consumers as possible, as often as possible, so that when our product offerings match their buying cycle we'll have adequate mind share. I'm here today to talk about Unsolicited Commercial Email or "Spam" and that it works—very well. In fact, the number of leads that such campaigns generate is limited only by the number of emails sent out—the larger the net—the larger the catch. It's an extremely low cost vehicle for any marketing arsenal that can get brand names in front of hundreds of thousands—even millions—of consumers instantly.

Our company has all of the technology and expertise necessary to conduct these massive 'Spam' campaigns. But we don't. Never have. Never will—as long as I am overseeing our marketing efforts. We have made a conscious decision not to Spam and, as the leading educators in the Radio/Internet space, we teach all of our station-clients not to Spam as well. Not only because it's distasteful to consumers—it is—we've all spent too much time deleting this junk email—but, because we've found a better way to generate higher and more qualified leads than Spamming. It's called Permission Marketing. And, because it is personalized, anticipated and relevant to the recipient, it raises the bar on Internet etiquette. Visitors to our site or at our trade shows "Opt-In" to receive communications from us—they give us "Permission" to contact them and consequently, the ratio of turning leads to sales can exceed that of Spamming significantly. Again-Spam works—but it is invasive and there are better, more respectful ways to generate leads for sales.

That's why I'm here to support House Resolution 718—the 'Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act of 2001' which aims to protect individuals and families from Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail - or Spamming. I'm here today to make the committee aware that there are alternative methods of lead generation out there to combat the proponents of Spamming when they rebut in favor of its economic potential to American business. We don't have to sacrifice etiquette, electronic or otherwise to generate revenue in this arena. Thank you."

The Laguna Canyon Crop Circles [1996]

The Laguna Canyon Crop Circle formation was first noticed by Tom Ross, a local resident of Laguna Niguel on the 9th of March as he was driving toward the first 'toll road' overpass on the Laguna Canyon road (route 133) heading to Laguna Beach. Dr. W.C.Levengood, a noted biophysicist and expert in crop circle plant analysis, had this to say about plants sampled from the 1996 Laguna Canyon crop circle formation: As we have seen in the past, this degree of change in the cell wall pit diameters indicates the plants were exposed to a very rapid, high heat input." Signs of internal heating have appeared in other ways too, such as stem node swelling, splitting, and expulsion cavities. These effects have occurred in the stem node areas where water is most concentrated .

http://www.cropcircleanswers.com/laguna.htm http://www.cropcircleresearch.com/articles/e011-laguna.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v1DKiiWEBU

Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Duke City song adds grace note to history
By Melissa Birks

A homesick Tom Ross looked out his living room window at the Pacific Ocean. The words "just kind of flowed." In about 15 minutes, Ross wrote "Albuquerque," one of 12 songs on his album, called "Thirst." "And I'm coming home, Albuquerque," the lyrics say.

On Friday, Ross comes home, this time for an exhibit that features his 1998 song and seven others celebrating the Duke City. The Center for Southwest Research searched its archives and asked for suggestions for this portion of its tricentennial exhibit, which continues through mid-May. Located in the center's gallery inside Zimmerman Library, the exhibit asks visitors to use two of the five senses. They'll see 300 years of history as told through movie posters, newspaper clippings and the handwritten diary of 1850s-era businessman Franz Huning. And they'll hear eight songs. They can't buy the CD; without paying royalties, the center has one-time use of the music for this exhibit. But the collection plays continuously from a portable CD player in the center of the gallery.

"It's a very picturesque song. It invokes the feeling I have for the city - looking at the Sandia Mountains, the volcanoes, the thunderstorms, the beauty I see every day"
— Katherine McCully, UNM Student

The songs have one thing in common: They're about Albuquerque.

They paint images ranging from the poetic (Eddie Gallegos crooning about "the land of romance, where gay se?oritas sing love songs and dance" in 1952) to the silly ("Weird Al" Yankovic's 1999 ballad about traveling to a place "where the sun is always shining and the air smells like warm root beer/And the towels are oh so fluffy").On Friday, Enrique Lamadrid, director of UNM's Chicano Hispano Mexicano studies department, will tell the story of music in Albuquerque through the centuries."We have a reasonable idea of what people were singing and what instruments were being used (through time) and how music evolved," Lamadrid said.

Four hundred years ago, ballads imported from Europe and dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries would have been part of everyday life here. The subject matter: historic events and mythology.

Those evolved into corrido ballads, songs about interesting or significant events, performed at social gatherings such as dances, weddings or baptisms. String instruments, here from the beginning, became popular by the 19th century, Lamadrid said. An Albuquerquean would have danced to the same waltzes and polkas that made the scene overseas.

A distinctive "Albuquerque sound" developed in the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by trumpets, saxophones and electric guitars and familiar to fans of local musician Al Hurricane. "It was a big sound," Lamadrid said.Exhibit curator Nancy Brown Martinez said two of the eight songs came from the center's collection. Both ingeniously titled "Albuquerque," they're among the oldest in the collection. The Gallegos song is one. The other, from the John Donald Robb Collection, was recorded in 1964 in Spanish by Vicente Saucedo.

Katherine McCully, a UNM student and part-time librarian who compiled the collection, found inspiration from other sources."I worked at a truck stop in Moriarty before I was a librarian. I heard that song all the time," McCully said of "Lights of Albuquerque" from Jim Glaser's 1985 album. But don't expect to hear Neil Young's "Albuquerque." "Too melancholy," McCully said.

While Ross recalled being homesick when he wrote "Albuquerque," McCully enjoyed its imagery of the city's lights snaking down the mountains. Ross knows the lights well. He lived in Albuquerque from third grade through high school, where he learned to play the guitar. After graduating from Manzano High School, he attended various colleges and then headed to Europe. In 1998, he was living in Los Angeles when he decided to produce an album to "get it out of my system."He made a "couple of thousand" copies of "Thirst," most of which, he said, his father gave to family friends. Today, he lives in central Colorado and works in marketing for a radio group. He has another album "in my head," but he's also focusing on helping his musician son break into the business.

He's not sure what he'll do at Friday's event, but he's excited to come home.
"I guess I should practice the song," he said.

SOULSTICE 1990 Hollywood, CA [1990]	THE DREAMS of GREANE Hollywood, CA [1989]	INVOGUE Hamburg, Germany [1984]
	THE DIPLOMATS New Mexico [1981-1983]
THE MESSIAH of MALIBU L.A., CA [1992]