Up to now, I've written only commentaries on this website. From now on, I'll also treat this website more like a newspaper. I'll post updates on my own news about myself, my career, and what I'm doing-to keep you up to date. Starting now!
Since November, I've been doing my "Gene On The Scene" BlogTalkRadio.com shows online the first Friday of each month at 2 PM EST, and because I had a guest on Friday, June 13th, I did two shows that month on the first and second Fridays at 2 PM EST. But this month, the first Friday fell on July 4th-Independence Day-here in America. On that day, I covered the AMERICANA PARADE in Centerville, Ohio for the local public access television, where I've been a volunteer producer, and was inducted into the MVCC Hall Of Fame in 2009. I've been working the parade, carried live on local television, since the late 1990s on their TV crew as a videographer, and the past several years as a photographer. After the parade, we broke down the set, then went back to the MVCC studio to eat.
So I wasn't able to do a show that day, but instead did the show the next day, on Saturday, July 5th, at 4 PM EST. I had a similar time slot in the 1990s when I did "The Gene Dakin Show" on local television at the MVCC studio. I realize now that in order to keep you more up to date on what I'm covering, I'll have my "Gene On The Scene" BlogTalkRadio online shows at different times, and I'll let you know in advance either here, on Facebook, or Twitter, etc. when I'll have my next show.
As always, you can listen to any of my podcast shows on archive at BlogTalkRadio.com.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Monday, November 11, 2013
When I'm 64
Lately, I've been listening to the Beatles song "When I'm 64" because I'm 64 this month, and the Beatles became world famous in 1964. After conquering Europe, these four young musicians led the British Invasion of America, first landing in New York City on the Ed Sullivan TV show.
Who's Ed Sullivan? I'll get to that at another time, but in this post, let me tell you a bit about myself.
I'm Gene Dakin, better known as Gene On The Scene, and a Baby Boomer born in 1949 in Lebanon, Ohio. Baby Boomers never really retire; we just change careers. And we're the first generation to whole heartedly do that, although we have our models who preceded, or are, preceding us, into a glorious later period of life. Or maturity, if you want to call it that. But never old age, because Baby Boomers don't get old. So never call a Baby Boomer old-that's an obscenity to us. We're mature. We're seasoned. We're experienced. But never old.
Why not old? Because Baby Boomers don't believe in old age. We take to heart George Burns' words to a national TV audience when he was 95-"We can't help getting older-but we don't have to get old." When the Beatles penned "When I'm 64", I was a teenager-and 64 WAS old because the average life span was 65 to 70. Now I'm 64 and the average life span is around 80. People are living longer-thanks to advances in longevity science, also called biogerontology. And when I'm 80, the average life span will be 90...and so on.
That's why Baby Boomers don't believe in old age. We're the first generation who can afford to NOT-and WILL NOT automatically assume that we'll be dead in ten to twenty years due to old age! With scientific advances in lengthening our HEALTH SPAN-hence our LIFE SPAN-(just look at Suzanne Somers, who's at least 65 but looks 3 decades younger-does anyone doubt she'll reach the century mark before looking 65?)-we Baby Boomers can now make plans to LIVE! Including plans to start new careers.
Paul McCartney of the Beatles, who wrote "When I'm 64" when he was 24 years old, couldn't have known then that he wouldn't have been a decrepit old man in a rocking chair when he was 64. Now he's in his 70s, still creative, still productive, still rocking onstage. So are the Rolling Stones. So is Bob Dylan. And so is the Downtown Girl-Petula Clark, who's 81 this month. And lots of others, which I'll talk about in my posts along with greats of the past...
And young greats of today! Like Raven-Symone, one of America's most beloved young entertainers, whom I interviewed on my public access TV show when she was 11, and is still only in her late 20s.
That's the girl who played Olivia on "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s, played Nichole on "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" in the 1990s, and starred in the Disney Channel TV series "That's So Raven" in the 2000s. She's also done two "Dr. Doolittle" movies with Eddie Murphy, worked in Alex Haley's "Queen" TV mini-series, was one of the young stars of "The Little Rascals" movie remake in 1994...and made her first record album when she was 5-as she was telling me when I interviewed her.
Eventually, Raven wants to have her own stable of acting talent as a talent agent because they're the behind the scenes power brokers of Hollywood.
As I said, Raven was on my public access TV show in the 1990s, and by then my show had garnered two local TV award nominations. But more about that later, after I tell you my story from the beginning.
I was born in the 1940s after World War Two ended. The soldiers came home to their wives, married their girl friends, and after all those war years, there was GREAT JUBILATION! So you know what happened next-the Baby Boomer generation, which started in 1946. I came along in 1949, and according to my mother, I started trying to talk when I was only five days old-to an audience of visiting relatives-my first audience-and I haven't stopped talking since, which eventually led to my television show in the 1990s, then to my BlogTalkRadio series, "Gene On The Scene", and to Toastmasters International-where I'm in my fourth term as Vice President of Public Relations.
So back to my story. When I was six months old, my father recorded me on one side of a record. He was playing drums to music on the other side. He had a recording machine with a microphone and blank disks one would cut while recording just as we burn CDs today-only this was with REAL NEEDLES, and one played those records with real needles, too. Styluses came later in the 1960s, and CD burning in the 1990s.
My father was a drummer-an excellent one, according to my uncle. Growing up, I remember my father at breakfast hitting the table, the toaster, cups, glasses, and the walls in rhythm. When he was young, before he got married, he was on the road in my uncle's band for awhile, as a drummer and a vocalist.
My uncle, who lived to nearly 93, knew many band greats during his career-Glenn Miller, Glen Gray, the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, and Lawrence Welk. My uncle gave Henry Cuesta his first job as a clarinet player before he joined Mr. Welk's "Champagne Music Makers" as his longtime clarinet player.
My uncle's favorite musical instrument was the saxophone-the tenor sax I believe-which was played at my uncle's 1995 funeral, at the end of which we heard a tape of my uncle at a friend's birthday party-singing "Stardust" when he was 89 years old! Singing it well, my uncle hit that high note at the end-and held it!
Besides sharing musical talents, my father and uncle also shared as favorite singers jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday-and a belief-"To be really good at something, you don't have to be crazy-but it helps." I believe it too. I've seen it in a lot of successful people.
After I finished my studies at Miami University, Ohio's only Ivy League school, I authored and self published stories on gifted and talented youth in the 1970s and 1980s. I followed that with a public access TV series on gifted and talented youth in the 1990s. It was nominated for three local TV awards-Best Informational Documentary Series in 1995, Best Performing Arts Single Program in 1996, and Best Talk Show in 2000. And my show came within a hair of a fourth TV nomination for my televised telephone interview with Raven-Symone. In the 2000s, I started doing my "Gene On The Scene" shows on public access television at the Miami Valley Communications Council or http://mvcc.net, then switched to BlogTalkRadio at http://www.blogtalkradio.com in 2008.
Now I'm starting to do my "Gene On The Scene" series on BlogTalkRadio in a regular time slot on the first Friday each month at 2:00 PM Eastern USA Time as a 15 minute commentary program.
Who's Ed Sullivan? I'll get to that at another time, but in this post, let me tell you a bit about myself.
I'm Gene Dakin, better known as Gene On The Scene, and a Baby Boomer born in 1949 in Lebanon, Ohio. Baby Boomers never really retire; we just change careers. And we're the first generation to whole heartedly do that, although we have our models who preceded, or are, preceding us, into a glorious later period of life. Or maturity, if you want to call it that. But never old age, because Baby Boomers don't get old. So never call a Baby Boomer old-that's an obscenity to us. We're mature. We're seasoned. We're experienced. But never old.
Why not old? Because Baby Boomers don't believe in old age. We take to heart George Burns' words to a national TV audience when he was 95-"We can't help getting older-but we don't have to get old." When the Beatles penned "When I'm 64", I was a teenager-and 64 WAS old because the average life span was 65 to 70. Now I'm 64 and the average life span is around 80. People are living longer-thanks to advances in longevity science, also called biogerontology. And when I'm 80, the average life span will be 90...and so on.
That's why Baby Boomers don't believe in old age. We're the first generation who can afford to NOT-and WILL NOT automatically assume that we'll be dead in ten to twenty years due to old age! With scientific advances in lengthening our HEALTH SPAN-hence our LIFE SPAN-(just look at Suzanne Somers, who's at least 65 but looks 3 decades younger-does anyone doubt she'll reach the century mark before looking 65?)-we Baby Boomers can now make plans to LIVE! Including plans to start new careers.
Paul McCartney of the Beatles, who wrote "When I'm 64" when he was 24 years old, couldn't have known then that he wouldn't have been a decrepit old man in a rocking chair when he was 64. Now he's in his 70s, still creative, still productive, still rocking onstage. So are the Rolling Stones. So is Bob Dylan. And so is the Downtown Girl-Petula Clark, who's 81 this month. And lots of others, which I'll talk about in my posts along with greats of the past...
And young greats of today! Like Raven-Symone, one of America's most beloved young entertainers, whom I interviewed on my public access TV show when she was 11, and is still only in her late 20s.
That's the girl who played Olivia on "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s, played Nichole on "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" in the 1990s, and starred in the Disney Channel TV series "That's So Raven" in the 2000s. She's also done two "Dr. Doolittle" movies with Eddie Murphy, worked in Alex Haley's "Queen" TV mini-series, was one of the young stars of "The Little Rascals" movie remake in 1994...and made her first record album when she was 5-as she was telling me when I interviewed her.
Eventually, Raven wants to have her own stable of acting talent as a talent agent because they're the behind the scenes power brokers of Hollywood.
As I said, Raven was on my public access TV show in the 1990s, and by then my show had garnered two local TV award nominations. But more about that later, after I tell you my story from the beginning.
I was born in the 1940s after World War Two ended. The soldiers came home to their wives, married their girl friends, and after all those war years, there was GREAT JUBILATION! So you know what happened next-the Baby Boomer generation, which started in 1946. I came along in 1949, and according to my mother, I started trying to talk when I was only five days old-to an audience of visiting relatives-my first audience-and I haven't stopped talking since, which eventually led to my television show in the 1990s, then to my BlogTalkRadio series, "Gene On The Scene", and to Toastmasters International-where I'm in my fourth term as Vice President of Public Relations.
So back to my story. When I was six months old, my father recorded me on one side of a record. He was playing drums to music on the other side. He had a recording machine with a microphone and blank disks one would cut while recording just as we burn CDs today-only this was with REAL NEEDLES, and one played those records with real needles, too. Styluses came later in the 1960s, and CD burning in the 1990s.
My father was a drummer-an excellent one, according to my uncle. Growing up, I remember my father at breakfast hitting the table, the toaster, cups, glasses, and the walls in rhythm. When he was young, before he got married, he was on the road in my uncle's band for awhile, as a drummer and a vocalist.
My uncle, who lived to nearly 93, knew many band greats during his career-Glenn Miller, Glen Gray, the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, and Lawrence Welk. My uncle gave Henry Cuesta his first job as a clarinet player before he joined Mr. Welk's "Champagne Music Makers" as his longtime clarinet player.
My uncle's favorite musical instrument was the saxophone-the tenor sax I believe-which was played at my uncle's 1995 funeral, at the end of which we heard a tape of my uncle at a friend's birthday party-singing "Stardust" when he was 89 years old! Singing it well, my uncle hit that high note at the end-and held it!
Besides sharing musical talents, my father and uncle also shared as favorite singers jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday-and a belief-"To be really good at something, you don't have to be crazy-but it helps." I believe it too. I've seen it in a lot of successful people.
After I finished my studies at Miami University, Ohio's only Ivy League school, I authored and self published stories on gifted and talented youth in the 1970s and 1980s. I followed that with a public access TV series on gifted and talented youth in the 1990s. It was nominated for three local TV awards-Best Informational Documentary Series in 1995, Best Performing Arts Single Program in 1996, and Best Talk Show in 2000. And my show came within a hair of a fourth TV nomination for my televised telephone interview with Raven-Symone. In the 2000s, I started doing my "Gene On The Scene" shows on public access television at the Miami Valley Communications Council or http://mvcc.net, then switched to BlogTalkRadio at http://www.blogtalkradio.com in 2008.
Now I'm starting to do my "Gene On The Scene" series on BlogTalkRadio in a regular time slot on the first Friday each month at 2:00 PM Eastern USA Time as a 15 minute commentary program.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Last Blast of Winter While in Homestead
Last Tuesday night, we had the last blast of winter here in Ohio. Driving home from Starbucks, I was scared to death driving 20-25 miles per hour on a major road where I couldn't tell one lane from the other. I was constantly afraid that I might slide off the road at any time from the snow that was coming down in buckets.
After I got home, I found out that there was more to come that night, up to a foot of snow in some places. It reminded me of a similar early March final winter blast five years ago when there was 12-16 inches of snow falling to the ground all over Ohio.
Only that time, I was lucky. I wasn't in Ohio. In early March 2008, I was basking in 76 degree heat in Homestead, Florida while the snow was flying here. I had just found out about BlogTalkRadio, and started writing commentaries for my "Gene On The Scene" BlogTalkRadio show while still in Florida. So naturally I did one on Homestead. Here's how it went:
"This is 'Gene On The Scene' in a tropical climate in the middle of the winter, while absorbing rich Florida history and culture...from Homestead, Florida between Miami and the Keys, where the average daytime temperature in February is 77 degrees. It's been in the 80s since I've been here. For a couple of days, it's been as high as 89 degrees. After the coming rain, it's due to fall into the upper 60s by day and the 40s by night-cold by South Florida standards. But even on a hot and humid day, the sea breezes are blowing from the Atlantic Ocean. So the effect is a perfect climate. It feels balmy here.
"I'm staying at the Everglades Motel, the most reasonably priced accommodations I can find in an area where most motels and hotels charge as much as they can get away with. The owners, Amit and Arti Patel, are hard working and nice people, and so's the motel. Most importantly, it has Internet access in my room, so I can work. There's a Walmart store nearby where I can buy my groceries.
"But the most interesting places are in the historic district of Homestead, which is just a walk down the street. That street is Krome Avenue. From Everglades Motel, here at 605 South Krome Avenue, I take a good walk down to 806 North Krome Avenue, where I can have breakfast at Royal Palm Grill and Deli, and take home a turkey sandwich for lunch or dinner. It's country cookin', reasonably priced, and friendly service, seven days a week from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon. On my way back, I usually stop by a little Haitian grocery called La Sagesse Food Market at 281 South Krome, where its friendly owner, Jacobo La Sagesse, is from Haiti, and whose native language is French, once sold me vanilla juice. Not the extract, but the juice, which he recommended I use for making cookies...
"But today, I also meet Ruth Campbell, who served on Homestead's City Council for 24 years, off and on, from 1963 to 1997, and now works as a hostess and reference person at the historic Homestead Town Hall Museum on 41North Krome Avenue. At a healthy and athletic-looking 87, she moves with an easy grace, while telling me that she knew Everglades legend Marjory Stoneman Douglas from her years on the city council-and shows me books written by Douglas and others. She also reveals that John Rothchild, who helped Douglas write her autobiography, lived with the Everglades legend for three years to compile his notes and observations into her life story.
"I sit at one of the tables at the town hall museum, taking notes on one of their white paper pads, while reading through the books there that are part and parcel of local Floridian history and culture. One was the 1947 national bestseller "The Everglades: River of Grass" by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who remained active as the foremost Everglades conservation activist until her death at the age of 108 in 1998. There are others by Douglas, and by Seminoles author Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, and by Patty West, among others."
In her 1959 children's book, "Alligator Crossing", Marjory Stoneman Douglas "describes the plethora of inhabitants of the Everglades: the snowy egrets, the brown pelican..., cormorants, green herons, the great white heron, the American egret, the blue and white heron, the roseate spoonbills (those are pink birds). And a bird called a stilt, which has red legs..."
"Although I drove through the Everglades so I couldn't see these birds from the road, I did see some of these birds at other places. I saw a pelican at a gas station in Okeechobee. And of course, I saw pelicans diving into the crashing waves of Daytona Beach...I also saw a lot of pelicans in Everglades City-in a boatyard. While I was staying in Everglades Motel in Homestead, I saw a green heron fly out of a tree in front of the motel."
All the Florida authors I learned about were very interesting, and I resolved to read their books at my local public library, or though Inter-Library Loan when I returned home to Ohio. You can find out about them at www.worldcat.org too.
After I got home, I found out that there was more to come that night, up to a foot of snow in some places. It reminded me of a similar early March final winter blast five years ago when there was 12-16 inches of snow falling to the ground all over Ohio.
Only that time, I was lucky. I wasn't in Ohio. In early March 2008, I was basking in 76 degree heat in Homestead, Florida while the snow was flying here. I had just found out about BlogTalkRadio, and started writing commentaries for my "Gene On The Scene" BlogTalkRadio show while still in Florida. So naturally I did one on Homestead. Here's how it went:
"This is 'Gene On The Scene' in a tropical climate in the middle of the winter, while absorbing rich Florida history and culture...from Homestead, Florida between Miami and the Keys, where the average daytime temperature in February is 77 degrees. It's been in the 80s since I've been here. For a couple of days, it's been as high as 89 degrees. After the coming rain, it's due to fall into the upper 60s by day and the 40s by night-cold by South Florida standards. But even on a hot and humid day, the sea breezes are blowing from the Atlantic Ocean. So the effect is a perfect climate. It feels balmy here.
"I'm staying at the Everglades Motel, the most reasonably priced accommodations I can find in an area where most motels and hotels charge as much as they can get away with. The owners, Amit and Arti Patel, are hard working and nice people, and so's the motel. Most importantly, it has Internet access in my room, so I can work. There's a Walmart store nearby where I can buy my groceries.
"But the most interesting places are in the historic district of Homestead, which is just a walk down the street. That street is Krome Avenue. From Everglades Motel, here at 605 South Krome Avenue, I take a good walk down to 806 North Krome Avenue, where I can have breakfast at Royal Palm Grill and Deli, and take home a turkey sandwich for lunch or dinner. It's country cookin', reasonably priced, and friendly service, seven days a week from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon. On my way back, I usually stop by a little Haitian grocery called La Sagesse Food Market at 281 South Krome, where its friendly owner, Jacobo La Sagesse, is from Haiti, and whose native language is French, once sold me vanilla juice. Not the extract, but the juice, which he recommended I use for making cookies...
"But today, I also meet Ruth Campbell, who served on Homestead's City Council for 24 years, off and on, from 1963 to 1997, and now works as a hostess and reference person at the historic Homestead Town Hall Museum on 41North Krome Avenue. At a healthy and athletic-looking 87, she moves with an easy grace, while telling me that she knew Everglades legend Marjory Stoneman Douglas from her years on the city council-and shows me books written by Douglas and others. She also reveals that John Rothchild, who helped Douglas write her autobiography, lived with the Everglades legend for three years to compile his notes and observations into her life story.
"I sit at one of the tables at the town hall museum, taking notes on one of their white paper pads, while reading through the books there that are part and parcel of local Floridian history and culture. One was the 1947 national bestseller "The Everglades: River of Grass" by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who remained active as the foremost Everglades conservation activist until her death at the age of 108 in 1998. There are others by Douglas, and by Seminoles author Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, and by Patty West, among others."
In her 1959 children's book, "Alligator Crossing", Marjory Stoneman Douglas "describes the plethora of inhabitants of the Everglades: the snowy egrets, the brown pelican..., cormorants, green herons, the great white heron, the American egret, the blue and white heron, the roseate spoonbills (those are pink birds). And a bird called a stilt, which has red legs..."
"Although I drove through the Everglades so I couldn't see these birds from the road, I did see some of these birds at other places. I saw a pelican at a gas station in Okeechobee. And of course, I saw pelicans diving into the crashing waves of Daytona Beach...I also saw a lot of pelicans in Everglades City-in a boatyard. While I was staying in Everglades Motel in Homestead, I saw a green heron fly out of a tree in front of the motel."
All the Florida authors I learned about were very interesting, and I resolved to read their books at my local public library, or though Inter-Library Loan when I returned home to Ohio. You can find out about them at www.worldcat.org too.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
"Downtown" Girl Turns 80
Petula Clark is still going "Downtown" at 80. Her birthday was last week, so this is a birthday celebration for the girl who said, "You'll never grow old if you look to the rainbow." George Burns said at 95, "We can't help getting older, but we don't have to get old." Petula Clark hasn't gotten old. She has grown as an artist and performer, developing her talents as she has gotten older. And still does.
Petula Sally Olwen Clark was born Tuesday, November 15th, 1932 in Epsom, Surrey, England to her English father Leslie Norman Clark and her Welsh mother Doris Phillips Clark, making Petula half-Welsh. She's very proud of her heritage. As Petula explains on her 2003 Paris Olympia DVD, "The Welsh sing. Like the Italians, they sing all the time. When I was five or six years old, I just sang for pleasure." She also sang in the chapel choir.
In October 1942, she had an uncle in the war she wanted to sing to. A BBC radio show which offered kids with soldier relatives that chance turned out to be her broadcasting debut with "Mighty Lak' a Rose". Although other kids sang on that BBC Radio show that night, she was noticed, both for her previous performance to the jittery theater audience immediately after an air raid, as well as the radio performance itself. What followed were numerous BBC Radio performances where Petula sang to the troops, became the British Army mascot and youngest singing sweetheart, and Britain's Shirley Temple.
Then came twenty-five British films as strictly an actress, giving Petula two parallel careers which have occasionally intersected ever since, especially in movies "Finian's Rainbow" and "Goodbye Mr, Chips", and her later theater work in "Sunset Boulevard" and "Blood Brothers". Among her early British films were a series of Huggett Family films based on a popular British radio series. In the late 1940s, she also hosted two BBC-TV series, "Petula Clark", then "Pet's Parlour". The 1950s began her recording career with major UK hits like "With All My Heart", "Majorica", the Gogi Grant tune she covered "Suddenly There's A Valley", and Clark's first international hit "The Littlest Shoemaker" (which topped the charts in Australia in 1954).
The late 1950s began her singing career in France, thanks to her success at the Olympia in Paris, then her new collaborator at Vogue Records, Claude Wolff, who also became her publicist and future husband. While performing and recording as a French chanteuse, Petula also maintained her popularity in England with hits like "Sailor", "Chariot", and "Ya Ya Twist" into the 1960s.
In 1964 Tony Hatch, a young songwriter who had worked with her on Pye Records in the UK as well as Vogue Records in France, played her an incomplete song with no words except the title on his piano. She liked the melody immediately, and told him to finish the lyrics-if they were as good she wanted to record it. The result became her biggest hit, and "Downtown" was the start of a string of Tony Hatch written international hit songs and her American career, which continues today. She starred with Fred Astaire in "Finian's Rainbow"(1968), her first film role in nearly two decades. Always discovering new talent, she was instrumental in the launch of Herb Albert's A&M record label. Clark also introduced French composer Michel Colomber and the then unknown Richard and Karen Carpenter to Herb Albert. 1968 was also the year she took a moral stand in her TV special with Harry Belafonte, garnering high ratings and acclaim for it. She returned to England and starred opposite Peter O'Toole in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" in 1969.
Petula Clark kept recording, charting, and touring in the 1970s, but scaled back her career to raise her young family. Her last movie was the 1980 British film, "Never Never Land". Her last TV acting role was as Mme. Millian in the 1981 French TV mini-series "Sans Famille".
In the 1980s, her children, now older, urged her to return to legitimate theater, which she had last done in 1954's "The Constant Nymph". Petula won rave reviews as Maria von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" in London's West End in 1981, then followed up with her 1983 title role in George Bernard Shaw's "Candida". She composed the score of "Someone Like You", in which she also acted, in 1989. In 1993 Petula made her Broadway debut in "Blood Brothers". She starred as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard" from 1995 to 2000, with over 2500 performances, the most for any actress in that role.
Queen Elizabeth II made Petula Clark a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, just one step below Damehood, in 1998.
But she hasn't rested on her laurels. She's kept touring all over the world. In 2001, a Virginia Beach, Virginia concert was taped for her "Sign of the Times" PBS-TV special. Her 2003 concert at the Olympia in Paris was a huge success and released as a CD and DVD in 2004. During 2005 and 2006, Clark performed engagements with Andy Williams in his Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri. 2006 also saw her singing debut in Iceland. Petula did "Coming Home" a 2007 BBC Wales TV show about her Welsh family history. She performed in Quincy Jones' 75th birthday celebration at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on Monday, July 14th, 2008 with Paulo Nutini on "Goin' To Chicago Blues". Later that year, Petula Clark made her singing debut in the Philippines.
Petula Clark sang two concerts in Dayton, Ohio in March 2009. I attended the second one and met her after the show. In 2010 she continued touring, appeared on French TV on "Vivement Dimanche", and released a triple album titled "Une Baladeine" with ten new tracks, plus "SOS Mozart" written by Gilbert Becaud and Pierre Delanoe. The Saw Doctors put out their own version of "Downtown", with Clark appearing in the video, in 2011. She was also on Italian TV and sang at a Parisian music hall, Casino de Paris, that year. She worked in New York City in early 2012. She recorded, released, and promoted a French album in Paris with her old friend Charles Aznavour, who still looks and sings well at 88. She toured Australia, then returned to London to do an English language album to be released in February 2013.
And as I post this, Petula Clark is scheduled to sing a concert next Friday at the Kursall Ostende in Ostend, Belgium.
Petula Sally Olwen Clark was born Tuesday, November 15th, 1932 in Epsom, Surrey, England to her English father Leslie Norman Clark and her Welsh mother Doris Phillips Clark, making Petula half-Welsh. She's very proud of her heritage. As Petula explains on her 2003 Paris Olympia DVD, "The Welsh sing. Like the Italians, they sing all the time. When I was five or six years old, I just sang for pleasure." She also sang in the chapel choir.
In October 1942, she had an uncle in the war she wanted to sing to. A BBC radio show which offered kids with soldier relatives that chance turned out to be her broadcasting debut with "Mighty Lak' a Rose". Although other kids sang on that BBC Radio show that night, she was noticed, both for her previous performance to the jittery theater audience immediately after an air raid, as well as the radio performance itself. What followed were numerous BBC Radio performances where Petula sang to the troops, became the British Army mascot and youngest singing sweetheart, and Britain's Shirley Temple.
Then came twenty-five British films as strictly an actress, giving Petula two parallel careers which have occasionally intersected ever since, especially in movies "Finian's Rainbow" and "Goodbye Mr, Chips", and her later theater work in "Sunset Boulevard" and "Blood Brothers". Among her early British films were a series of Huggett Family films based on a popular British radio series. In the late 1940s, she also hosted two BBC-TV series, "Petula Clark", then "Pet's Parlour". The 1950s began her recording career with major UK hits like "With All My Heart", "Majorica", the Gogi Grant tune she covered "Suddenly There's A Valley", and Clark's first international hit "The Littlest Shoemaker" (which topped the charts in Australia in 1954).
The late 1950s began her singing career in France, thanks to her success at the Olympia in Paris, then her new collaborator at Vogue Records, Claude Wolff, who also became her publicist and future husband. While performing and recording as a French chanteuse, Petula also maintained her popularity in England with hits like "Sailor", "Chariot", and "Ya Ya Twist" into the 1960s.
In 1964 Tony Hatch, a young songwriter who had worked with her on Pye Records in the UK as well as Vogue Records in France, played her an incomplete song with no words except the title on his piano. She liked the melody immediately, and told him to finish the lyrics-if they were as good she wanted to record it. The result became her biggest hit, and "Downtown" was the start of a string of Tony Hatch written international hit songs and her American career, which continues today. She starred with Fred Astaire in "Finian's Rainbow"(1968), her first film role in nearly two decades. Always discovering new talent, she was instrumental in the launch of Herb Albert's A&M record label. Clark also introduced French composer Michel Colomber and the then unknown Richard and Karen Carpenter to Herb Albert. 1968 was also the year she took a moral stand in her TV special with Harry Belafonte, garnering high ratings and acclaim for it. She returned to England and starred opposite Peter O'Toole in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" in 1969.
Petula Clark kept recording, charting, and touring in the 1970s, but scaled back her career to raise her young family. Her last movie was the 1980 British film, "Never Never Land". Her last TV acting role was as Mme. Millian in the 1981 French TV mini-series "Sans Famille".
In the 1980s, her children, now older, urged her to return to legitimate theater, which she had last done in 1954's "The Constant Nymph". Petula won rave reviews as Maria von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" in London's West End in 1981, then followed up with her 1983 title role in George Bernard Shaw's "Candida". She composed the score of "Someone Like You", in which she also acted, in 1989. In 1993 Petula made her Broadway debut in "Blood Brothers". She starred as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard" from 1995 to 2000, with over 2500 performances, the most for any actress in that role.
Queen Elizabeth II made Petula Clark a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, just one step below Damehood, in 1998.
But she hasn't rested on her laurels. She's kept touring all over the world. In 2001, a Virginia Beach, Virginia concert was taped for her "Sign of the Times" PBS-TV special. Her 2003 concert at the Olympia in Paris was a huge success and released as a CD and DVD in 2004. During 2005 and 2006, Clark performed engagements with Andy Williams in his Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri. 2006 also saw her singing debut in Iceland. Petula did "Coming Home" a 2007 BBC Wales TV show about her Welsh family history. She performed in Quincy Jones' 75th birthday celebration at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on Monday, July 14th, 2008 with Paulo Nutini on "Goin' To Chicago Blues". Later that year, Petula Clark made her singing debut in the Philippines.
Petula Clark sang two concerts in Dayton, Ohio in March 2009. I attended the second one and met her after the show. In 2010 she continued touring, appeared on French TV on "Vivement Dimanche", and released a triple album titled "Une Baladeine" with ten new tracks, plus "SOS Mozart" written by Gilbert Becaud and Pierre Delanoe. The Saw Doctors put out their own version of "Downtown", with Clark appearing in the video, in 2011. She was also on Italian TV and sang at a Parisian music hall, Casino de Paris, that year. She worked in New York City in early 2012. She recorded, released, and promoted a French album in Paris with her old friend Charles Aznavour, who still looks and sings well at 88. She toured Australia, then returned to London to do an English language album to be released in February 2013.
And as I post this, Petula Clark is scheduled to sing a concert next Friday at the Kursall Ostende in Ostend, Belgium.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Don't Forget The Third Parties When You Vote!
When you vote, if you find that you can't stomach either of the top two candidates for the U.S. presidency, Republican nor Democratic, take a moment to consider the top third party candidates. But who are they?
Dr. Jill Stein is running on the Green Party ticket. Endorsed by Noam Chomsky and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, Stein promises a Green New Deal for Americans and an Economic Bill of Rights, transitioning into a sustainable 21st century green economy while reforming the financial sectors. She also plans to strengthen our democracy by replacing the Electoral College with direct popular vote, extending the vote to ex-felons, and making Election Day a national holiday, enabling all to vote.
Gary Johnson, running for the Libertarian Party, promises to balance the Federal Budget by cutting Federal spending enough to eliminate deficit spending, replace taxes on income, capital gains, and businesses with a national consumption tax, which would create millions of new jobs. Johnson also wants to scale back federal involvement in the nation's schools, in Medicare, in health care by providing block grants to the states, and in regulations in managing the environment, leaving all these functions to the states and the marketplace. He also supports finance reform.
Virgil Goode, presidential candidate for the Constitution Party, promises a balanced budget in the next fiscal year. Goode also calls for totally ending illegal immigration, reducing legal immigration, and a moratorium for green card admissions until the economy recovers. His campaign has refused any PAC donations and limited individual donations to two hundred dollars per person.
Richard Duncan, the Independent Party presidential candidate, has a national building plan for America-The Duncan Plan-also known as the Federal Jobs and Economic Boost Act, proposes rehabilitation projects for American cities, and plans to assure equal educational opportunities for all children. Duncan also favors a national health care program for the middle class.
Rocky Anderson is running on the Justice Party platform. This new party believes the two party system has failed us and offers an end to corporate funding of political parties, the building of a green technology economy and infrastructure, environmental justice, and affordable universal health care through Medicare, stricter financial reform, support of women's rights, and support of whistle blowers.
There are other parties. But I'll stop here. These all have websites. So study them carefully before you vote.
Dr. Jill Stein is running on the Green Party ticket. Endorsed by Noam Chomsky and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, Stein promises a Green New Deal for Americans and an Economic Bill of Rights, transitioning into a sustainable 21st century green economy while reforming the financial sectors. She also plans to strengthen our democracy by replacing the Electoral College with direct popular vote, extending the vote to ex-felons, and making Election Day a national holiday, enabling all to vote.
Gary Johnson, running for the Libertarian Party, promises to balance the Federal Budget by cutting Federal spending enough to eliminate deficit spending, replace taxes on income, capital gains, and businesses with a national consumption tax, which would create millions of new jobs. Johnson also wants to scale back federal involvement in the nation's schools, in Medicare, in health care by providing block grants to the states, and in regulations in managing the environment, leaving all these functions to the states and the marketplace. He also supports finance reform.
Virgil Goode, presidential candidate for the Constitution Party, promises a balanced budget in the next fiscal year. Goode also calls for totally ending illegal immigration, reducing legal immigration, and a moratorium for green card admissions until the economy recovers. His campaign has refused any PAC donations and limited individual donations to two hundred dollars per person.
Richard Duncan, the Independent Party presidential candidate, has a national building plan for America-The Duncan Plan-also known as the Federal Jobs and Economic Boost Act, proposes rehabilitation projects for American cities, and plans to assure equal educational opportunities for all children. Duncan also favors a national health care program for the middle class.
Rocky Anderson is running on the Justice Party platform. This new party believes the two party system has failed us and offers an end to corporate funding of political parties, the building of a green technology economy and infrastructure, environmental justice, and affordable universal health care through Medicare, stricter financial reform, support of women's rights, and support of whistle blowers.
There are other parties. But I'll stop here. These all have websites. So study them carefully before you vote.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
"The Great Courses"
In today's world, it is a lot harder to get a job, isn't it? And there is a growing skills and education gap here in America that, by the time its economy fully recovers, will leave a lot of people behind because they won't have the education and skills to be employable in tomorrow's economy. It's a bleak picture, and I'm concerned about it too, as a commentator in a global economy. But I've found a way to overcome this.
I'm going back to school-and so can you! In today's economy hardly anyone can afford college tuition, which keeps going up. But neither can anybody afford not to have a college education. Yet there is a way to have a university-level education without tuition. And you can even get credit for it. That way is from the public library, in a free university-level liberal arts education called "The Great Courses" by The Teaching Company. It's available in DVD and CD. It's a series of university courses taught by top professors in their fields who have been chosen as the most engaging professors in their fields. Like Music Professor Robert Greenberg, who is very informative, enthusiastic, and funny-all at the same time! These professors won't put you to sleep! They are top public speakers, just like I'm training to be at Toastmasters International!
Those of us who are older and haven't been to university classes in over twenty years, as well as younger people today who can't afford a university education, can benefit from "The Great Courses" by The Teaching Company. For example, there is current information, based on recently research that wasn't available over twenty years ago, in these courses.
In addition to the DVDs and CDs, there are booklets-reading course guides-that outline and synopsize each lecture, and gives essential and optional reading sources, which, when fully used and learned, will get you up to date on that field. "From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History" has six DVDs and three course guidebooks, each covering two DVDs with a professor bio of Kenneth J. Hammond PhD and Associate Professor of History at New Mexico State University, a table of contents, scope of the course, scope and outline of each lecture, essential and supplemental reading sources, questions to consider, a map of modern China, a timeline, glossary, biographical notes, and a bibliography.
This is a perfect example of an education that wasn't available a generation ago to most Americans. Then, World History meant European History or Western Civilization. Today, World History IS World History, and I'm taking advantage of that by taking "Great Courses" like "Great Minds of Eastern Intellectual Thought" alongside "Great Minds of Western Intellectual Thought", a prehistory or archeology course that covers Neanderthal and other humankind before Modern Man. There are development of human language and theology courses. Philosophy, music, art, sciences (including meteorology, which I've watched), mathematics, literature, and economics.
And we need to know them all today. Harvard University's School of Business tells its students that it isn't enough to know the business world. To survive in today's global economy, you have to have a liberal arts education so that you'll have a working knowledge of every field. "The Great Courses" by The Teaching Company will give you that. And you can list these courses on your LinkedIn profile under "Training and Education" to claim credit on your LinkedIn resume. All for free from your public library, or for a nominal fee, through inter-library loan. That's why these courses are worth our time and effort!
I'm going back to school-and so can you! In today's economy hardly anyone can afford college tuition, which keeps going up. But neither can anybody afford not to have a college education. Yet there is a way to have a university-level education without tuition. And you can even get credit for it. That way is from the public library, in a free university-level liberal arts education called "The Great Courses" by The Teaching Company. It's available in DVD and CD. It's a series of university courses taught by top professors in their fields who have been chosen as the most engaging professors in their fields. Like Music Professor Robert Greenberg, who is very informative, enthusiastic, and funny-all at the same time! These professors won't put you to sleep! They are top public speakers, just like I'm training to be at Toastmasters International!
Those of us who are older and haven't been to university classes in over twenty years, as well as younger people today who can't afford a university education, can benefit from "The Great Courses" by The Teaching Company. For example, there is current information, based on recently research that wasn't available over twenty years ago, in these courses.
In addition to the DVDs and CDs, there are booklets-reading course guides-that outline and synopsize each lecture, and gives essential and optional reading sources, which, when fully used and learned, will get you up to date on that field. "From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History" has six DVDs and three course guidebooks, each covering two DVDs with a professor bio of Kenneth J. Hammond PhD and Associate Professor of History at New Mexico State University, a table of contents, scope of the course, scope and outline of each lecture, essential and supplemental reading sources, questions to consider, a map of modern China, a timeline, glossary, biographical notes, and a bibliography.
This is a perfect example of an education that wasn't available a generation ago to most Americans. Then, World History meant European History or Western Civilization. Today, World History IS World History, and I'm taking advantage of that by taking "Great Courses" like "Great Minds of Eastern Intellectual Thought" alongside "Great Minds of Western Intellectual Thought", a prehistory or archeology course that covers Neanderthal and other humankind before Modern Man. There are development of human language and theology courses. Philosophy, music, art, sciences (including meteorology, which I've watched), mathematics, literature, and economics.
And we need to know them all today. Harvard University's School of Business tells its students that it isn't enough to know the business world. To survive in today's global economy, you have to have a liberal arts education so that you'll have a working knowledge of every field. "The Great Courses" by The Teaching Company will give you that. And you can list these courses on your LinkedIn profile under "Training and Education" to claim credit on your LinkedIn resume. All for free from your public library, or for a nominal fee, through inter-library loan. That's why these courses are worth our time and effort!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Teodora Ungureanu-Cepoi
The Olympics are coming up soon, and I recently viewed the 1984 TV movie "Nadia" on DVD, a Nadia Comaneci bio which also explores her friendship with Romanian gymnastics teammate-best friend-best rival Teodora Ungureanu. The scene where they meet and become best friends is wonderfully scripted and choreographed, which evolves into a story within the main story of Nadia's Olympics gymnastics career. Both have since moved to the United States, and both today coach young gymnasts, with one school in Oklahoma and the other in New York. Since Nadia is better known, I'd like to cover Teodora's story today.
Let's set the scene. It's in Resita, Romania on a quiet Sunday in 1960. It's November 13th, and a baby girl is born in the Ungureanu family. She is named Teodora and later nicknamed Dorina. A healthy athletic girl, she joins the local Resita Sport School to begin gymnastics in 1969, and is coached by Andrei Karekes.
In 1971, her family moves to Onesti, where Teodora joins Gymnastics School Onesti, with her new coaches, Marta and Bela Karolyi. There, according to the "Nadia" TV movie, Teodora, who had been trained in advanced gymnastics, bonds with a less advanced, two years younger Nadia, who is entranced by Ungureanu's floor routine and yearns to be as good as Teodora and to become a champion. So they become best friends and best rivals, supporting each other as part of the Romanian women's gymnastics team that goes all the way to the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
There Teodora wins the Olympic team silver medal alongside Nadia's gold. Teodora also wins the silver medal on the uneven bars beside Nadia's historic perfect ten, and caps it off with a bronze medal on the balance beam. After the Olympics, Nadia and Teodora, as the two best gymnasts of their team, appear on television shows together. But although Nadia is the media darling, Teodora holds her own on these shows. And in gymnastics competition. In YouTube clips, although Nadia deserves all the credit she gets for her unforgettable performances, Teodora delivers incredible performances.
It's 1978. The Romanian government, against their coaches' wishes and without their foreknowledge, transfers Bela's and Marta's entire 1976 Olympic team from the Karolyi's gym in Onesti to the government's own gymnasium, Dinamo Club Bucharest, replacing Bela and Marta Karolyi with government coaches Lita and Florea Stefanesco. There, in the Romanian capital, while Nadia is struggling with fame and training without her beloved coach Bela, Teodora, spared the unwanted attention and stress her best friend is going through, quietly trains, stays in shape, and begins attending the Bucharest Institute in Physical Education and Sport, where she majors in gymnastics. Teodora graduates in 1979, and retires from active competition the same year. Her last competition is the 1979 World University Games, once again with Nadia Comaneci on her team. Teodora wins the gold medal in the all around, then retires to join the Romanian Circus with beau Sorin Cepoi, a former gymnast himself, whom she marries in 1980.
By 1984 Teodora and Sorin are traveling all over Romania, and as far away as Finland as part of Romania's traveling circus, the Troupe Comea. They return to Dinamo Club Bucharest to coach gymnastics, then later move to Grenoble, France to coach gymnastics at La Grenobloises. They do well as the head coaches there. Their gymnasium wins second place in the team division at the French Nationals several times, and one of their students, Chloe Maigre, represents France at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.
On the strength of these accomplishments, Teodora and Sorin Cepoi are in demand in America, and offered coaching positions there. In 1993, they make their move to the States, settling in Ardsley, New York to coach at Gymcats. By 2001, Teodora and Sorin become directors at Dynamics Gymnastics Club in Bedford, New York with star students like Brooke Hamilton, who is competing in the Junior Olympics Nationals during that time. In June of that year,2001, Teodora Ungureanu-Cepoi is inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Commenting on that honor, Teodora tells International Gymnastics Magazine:"I never dreamed that America would become my home, or that I would be also be deeply honored by fellow competitors in the sport that I love."
Currently, Teodora and Sorin are coaching at Dynamic Gymnastics in Mohegan Lake, New York, have a website there, and are training Olympic hopeful Sabrina Vega, who also has a website. The Summer Games are soon. So Teodora may yet be interviewed at the Olympics this year, albeit in a different role than she was in 1976.
Let's set the scene. It's in Resita, Romania on a quiet Sunday in 1960. It's November 13th, and a baby girl is born in the Ungureanu family. She is named Teodora and later nicknamed Dorina. A healthy athletic girl, she joins the local Resita Sport School to begin gymnastics in 1969, and is coached by Andrei Karekes.
In 1971, her family moves to Onesti, where Teodora joins Gymnastics School Onesti, with her new coaches, Marta and Bela Karolyi. There, according to the "Nadia" TV movie, Teodora, who had been trained in advanced gymnastics, bonds with a less advanced, two years younger Nadia, who is entranced by Ungureanu's floor routine and yearns to be as good as Teodora and to become a champion. So they become best friends and best rivals, supporting each other as part of the Romanian women's gymnastics team that goes all the way to the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
There Teodora wins the Olympic team silver medal alongside Nadia's gold. Teodora also wins the silver medal on the uneven bars beside Nadia's historic perfect ten, and caps it off with a bronze medal on the balance beam. After the Olympics, Nadia and Teodora, as the two best gymnasts of their team, appear on television shows together. But although Nadia is the media darling, Teodora holds her own on these shows. And in gymnastics competition. In YouTube clips, although Nadia deserves all the credit she gets for her unforgettable performances, Teodora delivers incredible performances.
It's 1978. The Romanian government, against their coaches' wishes and without their foreknowledge, transfers Bela's and Marta's entire 1976 Olympic team from the Karolyi's gym in Onesti to the government's own gymnasium, Dinamo Club Bucharest, replacing Bela and Marta Karolyi with government coaches Lita and Florea Stefanesco. There, in the Romanian capital, while Nadia is struggling with fame and training without her beloved coach Bela, Teodora, spared the unwanted attention and stress her best friend is going through, quietly trains, stays in shape, and begins attending the Bucharest Institute in Physical Education and Sport, where she majors in gymnastics. Teodora graduates in 1979, and retires from active competition the same year. Her last competition is the 1979 World University Games, once again with Nadia Comaneci on her team. Teodora wins the gold medal in the all around, then retires to join the Romanian Circus with beau Sorin Cepoi, a former gymnast himself, whom she marries in 1980.
By 1984 Teodora and Sorin are traveling all over Romania, and as far away as Finland as part of Romania's traveling circus, the Troupe Comea. They return to Dinamo Club Bucharest to coach gymnastics, then later move to Grenoble, France to coach gymnastics at La Grenobloises. They do well as the head coaches there. Their gymnasium wins second place in the team division at the French Nationals several times, and one of their students, Chloe Maigre, represents France at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.
On the strength of these accomplishments, Teodora and Sorin Cepoi are in demand in America, and offered coaching positions there. In 1993, they make their move to the States, settling in Ardsley, New York to coach at Gymcats. By 2001, Teodora and Sorin become directors at Dynamics Gymnastics Club in Bedford, New York with star students like Brooke Hamilton, who is competing in the Junior Olympics Nationals during that time. In June of that year,2001, Teodora Ungureanu-Cepoi is inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Commenting on that honor, Teodora tells International Gymnastics Magazine:"I never dreamed that America would become my home, or that I would be also be deeply honored by fellow competitors in the sport that I love."
Currently, Teodora and Sorin are coaching at Dynamic Gymnastics in Mohegan Lake, New York, have a website there, and are training Olympic hopeful Sabrina Vega, who also has a website. The Summer Games are soon. So Teodora may yet be interviewed at the Olympics this year, albeit in a different role than she was in 1976.
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