There was a tremendous response to the “I Am #3” Skafish holiday contest, and I am so happy to be able to have the contest and offer the prizes.

Here are the 10 winners who each won an autographed copy of my first ever holiday jazz album, “Tidings Of Comfort And Joy – A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas”:

Diane Brennan of Germany

“Boris” Boden of Illinois

Wayne Mitchell of New Jersey

Mark Medley of Missouri

Melissa Brewer of Georgia

Mary Rizzo of Italy

Ressie Richards of Indiana

Gabriella Hanstein of Georgia

Jim Dvorak of Illinois

Kasper Mussche of Belgium

Ron McPeak of California is this year’s grand prize winner. Ron won a $100.00 Amazon.com gift certificate, an autographed copy of “Tidings Of Comfort And Joy – A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas,” and an autographed “Tidings” poster, which has never been sold.

To everyone who won, I hope you enjoy your prizes. If you haven’t won yet, there will be more contests in the future, and I’d love to give you a prize. To a prosperous and magical season for you! — Skafish

It’s that time of year again, and this time around, I wanted to try something a little bit different. Since this is my third annual holiday giveaway contest, I dubbed it “I Am #3,” where I’m giving away these three items to the grand prize winner:

*A $100.00 Amazon.com gift certificate (which the winner can spend any way they wish),

*An autographed copy of my first ever holiday jazz album: “Tidings Of Comfort And Joy – A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas,” and

*A never-before-sold autographed poster for the album!

In addition to the grand prize, ten other lucky winners will each receive an autographed copy of the “Tidings” CD sent to their door, completely on me, completely for FREE — and everyone throughout the world is eligible to enter!

Here is something else that makes this contest special: When the album was originally recorded at Chicago Recording Company (CRC Studios) in Chicago Illinois, we filmed a 30 second promo clip on December 3, 2005. This video has never been seen before, and it will be first unveiled for this contest.

Featuring a medley of my arrangements to “Deck The Halls” and “Joy To The World,” I didn’t edit it from the existing album recordings. My rhythm section and I just sat down and recorded the music for the spot as its own new piece, so that is also something everyone will be experiencing for the first time. To complete the video clip, I recently recorded a new voice-over on September 7, 2011 at Thunderclap Recording Studios in Hammond, Indiana. 

Here’s the video:

Here are the ways to enter the contest and its rules:
If you want to enter the contest, it is mandatory that you leave a comment on this contest post that features the video. Your comment will count for one entry.

The contest will run from November 15, 2011 through December 1, 2011. The winners will be randomly selected by December 3, 2011, and will be announced as soon as all winners have confirmed their prize. For this contest, each contestant is eligible to only win once.

In addition to the mandatory comment required, here are additional ways for you to enter the contest where you can gain more entries. First, for any of these additional entry options to count, you must leave a comment on this contest post which indicates all of the additional places and ways that you have entered, and the link(s) for your entry/entries to be verified.

Video:
You can leave a comment on any or all of these sites in response to the posted video. Each of these places that you leave a comment on will count for one more entry:

*You Tube: YouTube.com/Skafish YouTube.com/LaBefanaRecords

*Facebook: Facebook.com/Skafish – Facebook.com/SkafishHoliday – Facebook.com/JimSkafish

*MySpace: MySpace.com/Skafish – MySpace.com/LabefanaRecords 

*Google+: Google+ Skafish – Google+ JimSkafish – Google+ Skafish Holiday  Google+ LaBefanaRecords  

*Twitter: You can post a link to the video and tweet a comment from your Twitter account. You will be able to post the video to Twitter via: YouTube – Vimeo – Ustream – Justin.tv – Twitlens – Twitvid

Follow and Like:
You can Follow and/or Like “Skafish” as indicated below, and each of these options will count for one more entry:

*Faceboook: You can Like these Facebook pages: Facebook.com/SkafishHoliday – Facebook.com/Skafish

*Google+: You can Follow me at: Google+SkafishHoliday – Google+Skafish Google+LaBefanaRecords

*Twitter: You can Follow me at: Twitter.com/Skafish – Twitter.com/LaBefanaRecords

Sign up for my newsletter:
You can sign up for my newsletter at any or all of the addresses below, and you will gain one entry by doing so:

*Skafish.com

*SkafishChristmas

*SkafishWhatsThis

*La Befana Records

*829 Records

Embed the Video and write a post about it:
NOTE: THIS ADDITIONAL ENTRY OPTION WILL COUNT FOR FIVE ENTRIES:

*You can embed the video and write a post about it on your website, on your blog, and on your Facebook pages as many times as you wish. By doing so, you will gain a total of five entries.

I am thrilled to be able to offer this contest to all of you, and I deeply appreciate everyone who has bought the CD and the digital album. If you haven’t already done so, please make sure to leave a positive review for “Tidings” on such sites as iTunes, Amazon.com, cdbaby.com, and anywhere else you feel moved to. I hope you enjoy the contest, and the best of luck to everyone.

To a fantastic holiday season for all! – Skafish

(FYI, Amazon.com ships to practically every country in the world, but if you’re concerned over whether they would ship to your country or not, you can click hereto make sure.) 

To all of my disgraced family: Here are two winners from two Skafish contests!

First, we have Jim Ryan from Chicago,  who is proudly wearing his “WHAT’S THIS FREAKIN’ $%&!?” Skafish T-Shirt which he won in that giveaway contest. Jim, who loves music that defiles the straight and narrow, attended his first Skafish show in the mid 1970’s, and has been a fan ever since!

In this pic, we see Jim sporting his conversation starting, (or ending, depending on how squared-pegged one is) Skafish T-Shirt in Record Breakers, a FAB independent record store located in Chicago that is selling the Skafish “What’s This? 1976-1979″ CD.

Second, we have Skafish contest winner Gabriella Hanstein from Kennesaw, Georgia, who won a personally autographed promo copy of the Skafish CD “Wha’t This? 1976-1979″ in the ”No Liberation Here Day and a Giveaway” contest of July 2010. 

Along with her husband Scotty, they recently found the Skafish IRS Records Debut LP (recorded in 1979), for just a single dollar at American Thrift in Kennesaw, Georgia. In this picture, Scotty is holding the inner sleeve to that subversive classic LP. As Scotty posted on my Skafish Facebook Fan Page, “Every other album was Christian worship music. Truly an amazing find.”  Now I just think that’s a divine act of God Almighty!

To everyone who won, send in pics of you with all of your Skafish prizes, and they will get posted here. To being an utter social outcast and compete disgrace, Skafish

I love and appreciate all of you and the connection we share (and that’s no show-biz shtick) and want all of you to win. To make sure the contest is fair, a random number generator is used to select winners so everyone has an equal chance of winning!

The winners for the “No Liberation Here Day” (formerly known as Independence Day) contest are:

Steve Mendel of Illinois via Twitter,

Sarah Wilson Andrews of Illinois via Skafish Blog,

Gerard-John Boissy of Minnesota via Facebook,

Marc Versini of France via Skafish Blog,

Bambi Held of New Jersey via Facebook,

Boris Boden of Illinois via MySpace,

Dana Zwerling of Illinois via Facebook,

Bob Prescott of Indiana via Skafish Blog,

Wayne Aitken of Illinois via MySpace,

Gabriella Hanstein of Georgia via Facebook.

Since I started the Skafish Giveaway contests during the holiday season of 2009, this current contest has had the strongest response so far, and I plan on continuing to offer gifts and prizes to everyone in my disgraced family. — Jim Skafish

The 4^th of July is supposed to celebrate America’s independence as a country. Some take it as a symbol of their own personal liberty and freedom as well.

But for those of us who are alienated, ostracized, and outcasts, it’s nothing more than an obnoxious day of ear shattering fireworks and a reminder of how we don’t belong or fit in.

Beginning with my early childhood, I’ve experienced not belonging every day of my life – and it has been more painful than any bombastic adjectives I can muster. Growing up I was harassed daily, called every name in the book, and lived under the constant threat of attack from classmates, kids in the neighborhood, my family, and shockingly, even my teachers in school. 

It certainly inspired me to rebel, and I wrote protests songs, flaunted my oddness, my unusual physical appearance, my otherworldly energies, and threw it all back in everyone’s face as MY statement in return. And thankfully, it brought about tremendous new innovations in music, art and performance as I waged war on the mediocre, conformist, and hateful world that tried to throw me out of it. The way I felt was that no one’s gonna stop me unless they kill me.

One of my favorite protest songs I wrote was created in the mid 1970s and called No Liberation Here – and it reflected the social and personal degradation that many of us on the outside experience. And to this day, I cherish that song as it speaks an intensely clear message that is more relevant today than when it was first written over 30 years ago.

At that time in the mid 1970s, alienation was a freaky fringe kind of a thing and not a mainstream phenomenon at all. So there I was for the whole world to see: the freak show to be mocked, attacked, laughed at, and sometimes celebrated. And as usual, I was well ahead of the times of where society and the world were at.

When I wrote No Liberation Here, I not only reflected quite graphically my own personal experiences of hell on earth, I also foretold the future of where society was going.

Back then, no one thought that the whole world was going to end up feeling alienated, but now, everyone does. Whether it’s due to race, sexual orientation, religion, political preferences, physical appearance, social standing, harassment and violence, career, money, etc., the world at large feels quite alienated and disconnected.

In fact, mediocre artists now have to play up their own generic form of alienation and act out foolishly in public, get arrested, shoot others or get shot at, have predictable drug and alcohol problems, just to get noticed. Now, alienation is one’s obligatory calling card in pop culture.

So with all of my battle scars, it’s most fitting for me to rename Independence Day to No Liberation Here Day. To everyone who doesn’t belong, you have a home with me, C’mon right in, and let’s celebrate who we are!

And instead of meaningless phallic-orgasmic-symbolic-fireworks, I have a gift for you!

For 10 lucky winners, I am giving away a great Skafish collector’s item that has never been sold. It is a special limited edition promo CD for my most recent album, “What’s This? 1976-1979.” This is not just the retail CD simply marked promo, but a unique piece that has its own design.

I am really excited to be able to offer this gift to you which I will be happy to personally autograph, and I would love for all of you to enter to win. Whether you’ve known me from back in the day or just connected with me recently, to everyone: enter now!

To be eligible to be a contest winner, do the following:

1-Leave a comment here on www.skafishblog.com with the exact phrase No Liberation Here Day in it

2-Leave a comment with the exact phrase No Liberation Here Day in it on my Facebook pages

3-Leave a comment with the exact phrase No Liberation Here Day in it on my MySpace pages

4-On Twitter, Tweet this: @skafish No Liberation Here Day

You can enter once on each site, up to 4 total entries per person and everyone worldwide is eligible to enter and win!

The contest ends on Tuesday July 6, 2010 at Midnight Eastern Time. Then, we’ll announce the winners on Thursday July 8, 2010.

To wearing our alienation proudly and defiantly! – Jim Skafish

I’ve been called the king of rejection and alienation (lucky me, lol), and with my complete ostracization from society, I wrote about it, sang about it, and presented it to the world – and got even more rejected in the process. So with my ongoing lifetime of continuous rejection, I think I have something quite appropriate to give to you.

Courtesy of Crown Publishers, I have two copies of a new book to give away to two lucky winners. It is by Bill Shapiro and called Other People’s Rejection Letters, and it contains a history of actual rejection letters received from: The United States Marines, The White House, Various Network Television Shows, Nasa, Playboy, the New York Times, and much more. You’ll even find those classic plain old “I’m dumping you, loser” rejection letters included for your voyeuristic pleasures.

This is a very well put together hardcover book that is visually like a surreal kaleidoscope of rejection after rejection. Thick paper, accurate reproduction of the letters, and the diversity of being dissed, make this book a real treat for any of us who have been thrown under the bus.

To be eligible to be a contest winner, do the following:

1-Leave a comment here on www.skafishblog.com with the exact phrase I been rejected in it
2-Leave a comment with the exact phrase I been rejected in it on my Facebook pages
3-Leave a comment with the exact phrase I been rejected in it on my MySpace pages
4-On Twitter, Tweet this: @skafish, I been rejected

You can enter once on each site, up to 4 total entries per person!

The contest will run for one solid week from Thursday, 6-17-10, through Thursday 6-24-10 at Midnight Eastern Standard Time. Then, two winners will be randomly selected and two copies of the book will be sent out to the winners to cathartically cleanse their own feelings of rejection in the process.

To our continuing connection through rejection! Jim Skafish

Please note: Due to publishing territories, the contest is only open to residents from the United States and Canada.