Friends of R-Three and organizations I know, believe in and support:

Poplollies.com - My wife's online gift shop. A lot of my creative energy goes into this online store and when you check out how groovy it is, I'm sure you'll agree it's absolutely worth it! Speaking of shiny, there's a Serenity section specifically for Browncoats.

Gustav Bertha - Gustav Bertha makes some of my favorite, music ever! Truly creative and ground breaking stuff. If you must listen to something other than
R-Three, I wholeheartedly recommend Gustav.

Crippled Black Phoenix - As I write this, I believe I am honored to be one of the few people in the world outside of the Invada Records inner circle who have actually heard the as yet unreleased Crippled Black Phoenix album 'A Love of Shared Disasters' and let me just say, it's a beautiful, delicate, powerful temporal trainwreck of an album and sounds like nothing ever recorded. It's early days yet, but if you're interested in a taste of something wonderful, go visit the Crippled Black Phoenix MySpace profile and sample some of their fine music. You will be better for it. Yes indeedy.

Slate Your Name - Whenever I want to remind myself that Iam aquainted with witty people and thus remind myself that I too can be witty AND be entertained at the same time, I go read Kristen Rutherford's Slate Your Name blog. Side splitting in the happy way. God, give this woman a hugely successful tv or film career already!

San Francisco Guitar Works - San Francisco's Premier Guitar Service Center.
Seriously, Geoff at SF Guitar Works does excellent work at affordable rates, doesn't take forever doing it, doesn't give you an attitude and genuinely seems to care about the player and the playing experience. Also, he won the SF Guardian's Best of the Bay award 'cause he deserves it. If you're in the SF Bay Area, do yourself a favor and take your guitars to Geoff. It's like getting the rock star service you want without having to be a rock star.

PrincessYumYum.com - Better living with yum! Where everything is sweet. It isn't Asian porn, it's really dangerously tasty handmade confectionary goodness. You've been warned...

Kevin O'Conner's Tinty Music - On the vanguard of art, style and music. He inspires me still, after all these years.

The Matt Channing Thing - Matt makes the equivilent of modern art with his guitar driven experimental, ambient/avant garde music. He's the real deal. In a way, he reminds me of everything I like best about Van Halen, if Van Halen were more experimental. Think of the avant garde tracks from 'Balance' and you might have an idea. Or not. Anyway, if you have a taste for musical adventure, then you owe it to yourself to go listen.

Staeudtner.com - Speaking of art, Juergen Staeudtner is one of my favorite artists. His photographs, modern and fine art all show a sensitivity to, and unique perspective on, his environments. A few years ago I asked him if he'd be willing to license one of his photos to R-Three for an album cover and although he agreed, that particular project never materialized. I've never forgotten his generosity or his lovely work. Check him out.

The Age of Treason - Jason Tippitt's Live Journal Blog is interesting, intelligent, well reasoned stuff. Which is more than I can say for most things these days. Go spend some minutes reading him. He's good.

Eldritch Boulevard - A friend I met on MySpace who's interests and ambitions are both hip and compelling. This site is part personal, part art, part philosophy. Groovy stuff to be found here.

Street-Flava.com - Boots Brogan from Street Flava designed the shiny "R3" logo you see gracing the top of this site. He doesn't just make fresh and hip designs, he analizes your messaging and your vibe and designs original logos to perfectly compliment your project or company. He's a hugely talented and street savvy, yet surprisingly humble dude. Drop him a line.

Ursa Minor Arts and Media - Audio production, video production, print and web design; all under one roof. These people are the most amazingly talented people I know. Seriously, I hate them for how cool, hip and flat out brilliant they are. You, however, should check them out. Nice, professional and committed to doing the best work they can for the best people.

LotusDog.net - Part rock-tronic project, part creative community. Not unlike the R-Three project conceptually but with a much bigger budget and argueably more talent. Rhett's vocal briefly appears in Lotus Dog's song 'Shadow'. If you're a fan of the R-Three song 'The Wolf I Feed', then you need to check out 'Shadow' by Lotus Dog. Not that you need any excuses, now do you?

Conscious Sound Productions - The studio division of Ursa Minor. I trained there back in the day. Great sounding studio, top notch engineers, excellent customer service. These guys are professional, hip, committed to the successful production of your project and,best of all, affordable.

Sea Lion Records - These cats produced (with their own cash) a CD of really informative and infectious anti-war/anti-Bush songs in the hopes of helping to get the bastard out of the Whitehouse. They invited me to participate and I'm honored that they included 'Something to Believe In' on the CD (Election Day: USA) which they sent out to college stations across the country in the summer of 2004.

Anthony J. Resta's Bopnique Musique - Anthony J. Resta was one of the producers working for Duran Duran's TV Mania who produced Duran Duran's brilliant album 'Medazzaland'. I wrote an Amazon.com customer review of 'Medazzaland' because it's one of my top ten favorite albums and it got under my skin that the newly reformed Duran and their latest album Astronaut was being used by the music pundits as a way to disparage this singular and ground-breaking work. Anthony read my review and sent me an email thanking me for publically appreciating the work he did with Duran Duran and making him feel special. Making him feel special? Anthony J. Resta, more than any other producer, has influenced the sound of R-Three and he sent me an email saying that I made him feel special! Remarkable that there are still such nice and talented people in the music industry. If I could afford him, Anthony is the first producer I would call to produce my next album. As it is, he sends me his newsletters occasionally and he's honored me by putting R-Three in his IPod. Someday, I aspire to the Bopnique musique...

Steven Lester Co. - Steven Lester is an audiophile. In a sense, he is the audiophile. I don't mean some tweaked out sketchy excuse for a man who lives in a hovel with dirty dishes and molding underpants all over the floor and who spends all his money collecting high end audio gear instead of having any semblence of a real life (I'm not making any of this up!), but a true professional. Besides having perfectly acceptable personal hygene habits, Steven has spent years figuring out what makes one thing sound better than another and why. And years more putting it into practice in business. He hears things most people don't, he's incredibly smart, talented and loves music more than anyone I know. Also, he can cook. If the names Mark Levinson, Krell, Cello, Audio Research, Oracle, Thiel or Martin Logan mean anything to you, you know the world Steven lives in. In fact, if you live in that world too, you probably already know Steven Lester.

I owe a debt to Steven Lester, not just for introducing me to the world of high end audio and getting me a job in high end audio (which helped me learn how to be a recording engineer and introduced me to the work of Rush Limbaugh) but for helping me become the tone junkie that I am and helping me take the first steps toward doing this music stuff in a creatively satisfying way. He introduced me to the world in a whole new way, right about when I needed it most. Steven doesn't have friends, but when I thought he did, I was honored to believe I was one of them.

Things you need to know about United States politics - Independently run site featuring some very important and terrifyingly insightful information. Must read!

R3 Design - Robyn R. Raszkowski's graphic designs and fine art are fresh and engaging. Not affiliated with you're friendly neighborhood R-Three music, but that's really our loss. Worth your time and consideration!

1Ricci (aka R-3) Marketing Management Training to win proposals. Back in the day, when I was searching the net for other folks using the R3 name, I could only find Laura Ricci. I sent her a note asking if she had a problem with my using the name for my then band. She was happy to share and gracious (not everyone is). She only expresses a concern that when R-Three became a huge, world famous thing, that we not sue her off the face of the planet at some later date. Kinda sweet, huh? Of course, R-Three isn't big, famous or powerful and even if it was, I like to think I can return kindness with kindness. Thoughout the years Laura's maintained a link to the R-Three site throughout all it's changes. She was cool in the beginning and is cool to this day. You should check her out if you need her marketing mojo. And really, who doesn't?

Places of interest with stuff you should check out:

MusiciansFriend.com - You can get your gear from anywhere, but these guys are the best, most affordable and musician friendly I've found. I buy much of my gear (a few thousand dollars worth each year) from these guys and have never had a problem they weren't happy to resolve quickly and professionally. sure, you should shop your local neighborhood first but if they don't have what you need, Musician's Friend is a good way to go.

Bananas @ Large - Some things you really can't trust to catalog shopping or you need to test drive it first. Rick (and the rest of the staff) at Bananas has been treating me right for more years than either of us would probably want me to say. If you're in Marin County, you probably already shop at Bananas but if you don't, you should.

Marillion.com - Great music. Kinda self explanatory once you get there. Marillion kind of reside in my Top 5.

DuranDuran.com - Duran probably don't need any help getting more promotion and they certaiinly need no introduction, but I think they're great.

Human Rights Campaign - Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Equal Rights.

IndependentMedia.tv - News ignored and under-reported by the corporate media.

CommonDreams.org - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Alternet.org - Independent media. The Mix is the Message.

AdBusters.org - Culturejammer Headquarters. READ: Creeping Fascism

InformationClearingHouse.info - News & Insight you won't find on CNN or FOX "News"

Mother Jones - Independent investigative reporting

Equality Now - Equality Now works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure.

RUSeatedComfortably - rusc.com is about the coolest thing I've found in a long time. For just $7.50 each month, it's an all-you-can-download buffet of old radio plays (The Shadow knows... ha ha ha hahahaha HA..!) and shows ranging from detective fiction, to variety shows, music, history, old news broadcasts (aka more history), early sci-fi and adaptations of films and novels. I don't personally know the folks who run this site, but it's a treasure trove of historical goodies. My only critique is that in some cases, the mp3's are encoded at such a low resolution that the already poor fidelity of some of the very early recordings makes listening a challenge. Still, it's great stuff for enduring a long commute or breaking up the beats in your ipod and most of the recordings sound pretty good. Worried these plays will sound cheesy and dated? Heck yeah they do! That's half the fun! Check out Vincent Price as The Saint! And check out the far-out futuristical world of 2006! Got your own robot? Of course you do, it's the future!

Iraq Body Count - It's not a good time, but you can't begin to appreciate what this war is or what effect it will have on the future, until you face the facts about how many people are losing, and have lost, their lives.