ARMANDO COMPEAN

Armando Compean, bassist/vocalist/composer and band leader, boasts a career marked with a countless number of collaborations and musical partnerships.  He has had his own voice since the late 1960s when he relocated to Los Angeles.  A native of Houston, Texas, he was born into a musical family and, as a result, was exposed to all types of music and instruments.  His musical journey began with violin lessons at the age of 5 and continued with learning the trumpet, drums and the studying of classical piano for 10 years.  At age 13, he taught himself the guitar, formed his own bands and was fortunate to play with some of the best local blues and jazz musicians in Houston.  After being asked to play the bass in a band, and after hearing bassist Ray Brown with Oscar Peterson and Scott LaFaro with the Bill Evans Trio, Armando completely fell in love with the bass and it became his choice of instrument.  The diversity of his musical background has given him a wide spectrum to draw from for his writing and composing.

Television / Film Credits: Armando has worked with Oscar/Grammy winner T-Bone Burnett playing the bass on such films as WALK THE LINE, starring Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix, ALL THE KING’S MEN, starring Sean Penn, and DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD, starring Sandra Bullock and Ellen Burstyn.  Other film credits include HOPE FLOATS, starring Sandra Bullock; L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, starring Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey; ULEE’S GOLD, starring Peter Fonda; and BECAUSE I SAID SO, starring Diane Keaton.  Television credits include the current TNT show MEMPHIS BEAT, THE DREW CARREY SHOW, 7THHEAVEN, ACCORDING TO JIM, THE JOHNNY CARSON SHOW, and the RICHARD PRYOR SHOW.

Recording / Stage Credits:  Armando can be heard playing the bass on numerous recordings with artists Gillian Welch, A.J. Croce, producer T-Bone Burnett, Taj Mahal, Jennifer Warnes, Coco Montoya, Jon Hartman, M.A.L.T., Pete Snell, Matt Harris, Carmela Rappazzo, Jaye P. Morgan, as well as singing the vocal on jazz guitarist Joe Pass’s C.D. White Stone, to name a few.  Live performances include working with Paul Williams, Cybill Shepherd, Lowell George, Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Scott Ellison, Arnette Cobb, Jimmy Ford, Lanny Morgan, Jaye P. Morgan, Texacali Horns.  Featured documentaries include writing and music supervision for the PBS series Over America and Over California.  As a producer, he has worked with a number of artists on their recordings and projects, and also produced and performed on his own C.D.s, “Texas Brown Soul Zone” and “Just For A Thrill.”

Eleanor Clift is a columnist for the Daily Beast, an online publication. She writes about politics and policy in Washington, and the partisan clashes that make governing almost impossible. Clift has covered every presidential campaign since 1976 and bring her perspective to analyze the dynamics between an unconventional president and his party, and an opposition party still licking its wounds over its loss in 2016. Clift is best known as a panelist on the syndicated talk show, “The McLaughlin Group,” which ended a 34-year run with the death of the host in 2016. She has appeared as herself in several movies, including “Dave,” “Independence Day,” “Murder at 1600,” “Rising Sun,” and the CBS series, “Murphy Brown.” Clift and her late husband, Tom Brazaitis, who was a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote two books together, “War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics” (Scribner, 1996), and “Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling (Scribner, 2000). Madam President is available in paperback (Routledge Press). Clift’s book, “Founding Sisters,” is about the passage of the 19th amendment giving women the vote (John Wiley & Sons, 2003). Her recent book, “Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death and Politics” (Basic Books, 2008) is about the loss of her husband together with an examination of how we deal with death in America. “Selecting a President,” written with Matthew Spieler (Thomas Dunne Books), published in 2012, examines the process that for all its flaws is better than the alternative. Formerly Newsweek’s White House correspondent, Clift also served as congressional and political correspondent for six years. She was a key member of the magazine’s 1992 election team, following the campaign of Bill Clinton from the start to inauguration day. In June 1992 she was named Deputy Washington bureau chief.

As a reporter in Newsweek’s Atlanta bureau, Clift covered Jimmy Carter’s bid for the presidency. She followed Carter to Washington to become Newsweek’s White House correspondent, a position she held until 1985. Clift began her career as a secretary to Newsweek’s National Affairs editor in New York. She was one of the first women at the magazine to move from secretary to reporter. Clift left Newsweek briefly in 1985 to serve as White House correspondent for The Los Angeles Times. She returned to Newsweek the following year to cover the Iran-Contra scandal, which embroiled President Reagan and tarnished his administration. Clift covered every presidential campaign since 1976, and was part of Newsweek’s special project team following the 1984, 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections, each of which resulted in a book. The most recent, “A Long Time Coming,” written by Evan Thomas and based on the Newsweek team’s reporting (Public Affairs, 2009) chronicles the history-making campaign of Barack Obama. Clift lives in Washington, D.C., where she is on the advisory council of the International Women’s Media Foundation, the board of the American News Women’s Club, the Board of Governor’s of the National Hospice Foundation, and the board of Respect Ability, which advocates for people with disabilities.

SUZY PRUDDEN, internationally acclaimed and prize winning speaker and seminar leader, author and TV/radio host and personality, has been inspiring audiences since 1965.  She is a New York Times bestselling author, fitness expert, hypnotherapist, and success and accountability coach. Suzy has written 14 books on physical fitness, weight loss, body/mind technology and mind power, created 4 videos, and dozens of DVD’s and CD’s. She is the co-creator of Itty Bitty® Publishing. You’ve seen Suzy on Oprah, Good Morning America, and The Today Show. Deepak Chopra says, “Based on trusting your inner intelligence, Prudden’s program is logical and straightforward, and most important, it works.” Louise Hay says, “Prudden’s message is both new and simple. Learn to love the body you are in. It feels good and it’s fun. I’ve seen Suzy take a skeptical audience and within three minutes turn this same group into a happy, smiling, eager and enthusiastic gathering.” The New York Times says, “If Suzy is talking about it today, the rest of the country will be talking about it tomorrow.”

Paul Richardson gained his Architecture qualifications in London, England, where he studied natural building, eco-architecture, and holistic Architecture. He studied briefly under Malaysian Architect Ken Yeang (Bio Climatic Skyscraper), and other reputable Green Architects/natural builders, Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till, where he came to further develop his understanding of the principles and workings of sustainable design and natural architecture.

In his final Thesis, Paul focussed on a Holistic approach to Sustainable Architecture, bringing together the unseen elements of the world, the sacred in architecture, and combined with natural materials and renewable sources.

After Graduating Post Grad in Architecture, Paul left the UK, and began his working life as an Architect, in the Northeast of America. Here he found himself struggling to honour his path, and found himself in the regular work world, having to support a growing family, and no way to bring to life his studies in Green Architecture and natural building, in any meaningful way.

Working mostly on residential construction projects, ranging from Post and Beam small dwellings, Eco friendly flat pack homes, all the way to multi-million, dollar mansions and beach homes.

After leaving the US in 2011, Paul worked overseas in Asia and Caucus region, delivering projects for some of the wealthiest families in the world. Which included the design, implementation and management of 5 star hotels, Resorts, and VVIP residences and Penthouses.

Although the money was there, and life was relatively easy, Paul became more and more disenchanted with the world of construction, and started to think that Architecture was not his path at all. He experimented with his other passion, music, in the hopes that he may be able to make a difference here, and share his message, but after 2 years of hard work, with several music groups, Paul realized that this was just a distraction, and at the end of 2015, hit a major juncture on his journey.

It was the beginning of 2016, on his 40th birthday when Paul decided it was time to make some drastic changes, and dedicated himself to daily practice of meditation, and self-reflection, to see if he could find peace at least with his present path, and do much needed healing work.

Meditation was helping, but it was in September 2017, after realizing again that he needed to get on his true path, that Paul was called to go to Peru, to the Amazon Rainforest, to spend time there with the medicine men (Shamans).

From there everything changed, and on returning back to Kazakhstan, where he was Project Managing the fitout of 6 star, Hotel, he started receiving details and downloads and found himself with a deep sense of renewed purpose. The creativity and inspiration that had been drummed out of him through the corporate work world, was now back with force (unlike ever before), and Paul became determined not to let this go to waste, and fall back into the comfortable trap of corporate work.

By the end of October 2017, Paul abruptly left his position, after receiving guidance to go to the United States to view a large parcel of land in New Mexico, where he had visions of building a community there, but not only a community, but a living school, that would be an educational and inspiring platform to educate and teach the tools of self-reliance, natural building, permaculture, etc, and facilitate a shift to sovereign community domains.

He founded the concept of Haven Earth, a company that he felt he needed to bring to life to be able to offer some platform to assist with the transition into a community centric model of living, a self-reliant life.

In February 2018, at a workshop on Natural building in South Africa, Paul had a chance to share his vision and designs, and found great reception, especially from the host of the workshop, Alosha Lynov, and few other’s (Engineers and visionaries), who felt a strong connection between their own visions, and what Paul brought to the table, and together they were drawn to work together to make this dream a reality.

From there, Paul and Alosha partnered up, and were invited to be part of a government conference in Moscow, Russia in May 2018, to brainstorm and develop the concept of sustainable cities of the future. Sharing the stage with the likes, as ‘Venus Project’, where they are still working with the main group in Moscow to develop pilot projects outside the capital city, as part of research into creating large sustainable town and city projects somewhere down the road.

Alongside Alosha, and a growing team, Haven Earth Center (partner Bioveda Academy), began to implement small model projects in South Africa and Turkey, and larger, creatively self-reliant community projects in both the United States and Russia. 

Paul’s driving force, is to create a platform, that can facilitate the co-creation of sovereign, creatively self-reliant communities globally, that would connect and share knowledge and tools via workshops, online forums, etc, to get the information out to the general public.

He feels it is the lack of viable visions in the public consciousness, that are limiting our progress toward this goal, and by fearlessly sharing and living his truth and walking his path, and actively developing the vision, with the team, that will inspire many other’s to see there is another way, and that these ways are not so hard to reach, if we make the choice to move in that direction, and away from our failing dominant system.