March 31, 2009

How to make people appear thinner

As the videographer for ConnPost.com, one question I am frequently asked by people being interviewed, is, "can you make me look thinner?"
The answer is, yes, there ARE techniques of videography to make people appear thinner. It is all done with lighting. But of course it is not something I ordinarily do.
Here is how it is done:
+The person must wear moderately reflective clothing; not white, which is highly reflective, nor black, which is non-reflective, but an in-between tone. Tan for example.
+the person must be taken either outside into a dark night or dark morning with no street lights, or into a vast interior space like an auditorium with no lights on whatsover. It must be black-out dark.
+A single spotlight (not a living room lightbulb, lol) of medium strength, must be positioned directly in front of the person; it must be positioned overhead of the camera, on a stand, so as not to catch the shadow of the videographer.
+The person must back off until the light is falling exactly at their VERTICAL center, with a little light out to the sides, but blackout black to the far left and the far right.
These steps, if followed, will make a person appear much thinner than they are. Frame the picture just above the belt line to de-emphasize the lower abdomen.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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180 pounds of tomatoes

I just got an email for a new product that promises a tomato plant eight-feet high! One that can produce 180 pounds of tomatoes!
LOL, where has this secret been hiding? With plants like that, we'd be awash in fresh tomatoes. We could make pasta sauce and salad until the doomsday clock strikes 12, and still have enough left over to give to friends.
I whipped out a calculator and did the math: if you kept 20 pounds of tomatoes for yourself, and gave five pounds each to some friends, you would have to give five-pound bags to 32 friends!
Of course I have my doubts about the claims of an eight-foot tomato plant.
It's no doubt a marketing ploy -- like the expensive device they've been selling on TV commercials called the "upside down tomato planter" or something like that -- they charge about $50 for a device that is not much more than a length of vertical pipe with a hanger at the top for a burlap sack full of potting soil, with the tomato plants sprouting out of the bottom and the roots growing upwards.
I would imagine you could go to Home Depot and buy the materials to make one of these "tomato inverters" for probably $12! But you've got to give them credit for at least TRYING to overcharge you.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Love potion number 9

I was doing some spring cleaning last night, and tucked away in the back of one of my book shelves was a little volume I had never read that I had picked up with some other things at a clearance sale: a book of love potions.
Flipping through it quickly, I noticed that some of the ingredients for these potions are very exotic and not the kind of thing you can buy at Walgreens. But a couple of them were accessible to anyone near a good herbal vitamin store, so for what it's worth, here they are:
+To attract love, brew a pale tea made of 3 parts jasmine flowers, 2 fresh lemon leaves, 2 pieces orange peel, 1 pinch cinnamon and 3 drops honey. Fill a clear, decorative jar with the tea and set the jar outside to greet the full moon, being sure the moon is shining on it. Drink the cool tea as a toast to love in the morning.
+To attract love, take one brand-new empty vial, whisper the name of the one you desire into it, add 3 drops gardenia, 2 drops jasmine, and 2 drops of yang-yang. Blend with half a fuidram of jojoba oil. Wear it on your skin like perfume.
(Hey, if this stuff works, drop a line!)
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 29, 2009

Those absurd emails

I get my share of those annoying pharmaceutical advertising emails that get past the spam blocker by including paragraphs that, to a computer, seem to be authentic communications. But to a human reader they are utterly absurd.
Here's one I got a few minutes ago, attached to an ad for oxycotin:
"Jerrya neither more nor less. hotel and ask to be directed to the room of Hans Grumbach.
Chestera only knew what further madness would have unbridled his tongue. Lloyda Carmichael lolled in the worn cushions, wondering whether or not to."
The funny thing is, with a little filling in of the blanks, that little paragraph actually DOES make sense:
"Jerry asked for neither more nor less of what had been given to him at the luncheon. He took what he had, in a hurry, and went to the hotel, where he asked to be directed to the room of Hans Grumbach, of whom Chester had spoken. Reserved Chester said a little and it was intriguing, but of course only madness would have unbridled Chester's tongue to say more, so Jerry insisted on meeting Hans for himself. He walked in to the open doorway of room 127, with a polite rap at the door, only to find Lloyd Carmichael inviting him to take a seat and wait for Hans to get out of the shower. Jerry lolled in the worn cushions, making himself at home, wondering whether or not to ask Hans the one question that burned in his mind."
That's the way it could be but of course it isn't. Why don't these spammers just send out an email that makes sense in the first place?
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 27, 2009

Mini book review: the ad man cometh

Years ago, American business took great pride in its advertising. Not just buying ads, but hiring ad men like David Ogilvy, the godfather of modern advertising and long considered the king of Madison Avenue, to carefully craft their copy for them, to write and produce their commercials.
Advertising is a subject that is very close to my heart, because if not for the money businesspeople spend to advertise their enterprises and offerings, a newspaper could not survive. Some write their own ads, and then wonder why they don't get a good result! The trick of course is to hire an ad agency to produce the material for you, and Ogilvy was the champ.
"The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising," by Kenneth Roman (Palgrave Macmillan) is a well-done biography about one of the most important people of the 20th Century business world. (He is the one who brought Schweppes to America from Britain, and made us all run out to buy Hathaway shirts, among others.)
Ogilvy's theory of advertising was simple: the ad is not to entertain, but to provoke people to buy THAT product or service when they need something along those lines.
He was a master at getting results with his ads, and the book also points out why he thought ads that failed to deliver were short on the goods; it explains in detail what they did wrong and how they could have done better.
This is an important book because we live in a time when many business organizations have lost their faith and touch with advertising and are not passionate about making their name and brand the tops anymore. I would say every American business person needs to read this book and help pull us out of this bleak advertising recession that is winnowing all the news media from the New York Times to the local television and radio stations..
-- TONY SPINELLI

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In praise of Wendy's chili

I've had so-called gourmet chili, and I've had so-called fresh-made chili at fancy little bistros. So I can honestly say, from having sampled some of the best, that the chili at good-old Wendy's is an excellent bargain.
It's fast, inexpensive and good -- maybe not good enough for a gourmet, but altogether "not too shabby," as Adam Sandler would say.
So yes, I'm really glad Wendy's finally reopened in Bridgeport. Now where's the Taco Bell with the low-budget burritos?
-- TONY SPINELLI

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In praise of Borders Books

A couple of years ago, there were no large major bookstores in the Valley. That changed in the past year with the opening of a big Borders Books store in Southbury, at the K-Mart Plaza.
Southbury that is only a short drive down Route 67 from Seymour and Oxford, so it is in some ways a closer and less trafficked trek than driving Route 34 in Derby over to Milford and Orange, where there is no shortage of big book stores.
But Borders gets my vote for another reason too: it is friendly to self-published authors. A few of my friends who have self-published books through vanity press-type arrangements have been welcomed at Borders stores to talk about their books and sign copies. The store even bought some to put on the shelves.
If big record stores were as friendly to self-published music artists, that would surely be a welcome wonder. But don't take my word for it -- publish your own works free on the Web through Scribd!
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: I have also self-published a few books, but not through the vanity press route where you pay a printer a few thousand dollars to print up your book; I published them electronically, virtually, on the Web. A book of poetry, a book of world history, and my latest, a book comparing the similarities of Hapkido, Aikido, Ju-Jutsu and Shaolin Chin-Na.

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March 25, 2009

Another fine mess Stanley

A couple of months ago, when the federal government gave bailout money to financial institutions and they all politely and curtly refused to disclose what they were doing with it, I instinctively knew the truth.
"They're giving out bonuses," I told a friend. "They think they can hide this, but they can't. Once this gets out it is going to blow wide open and become a huge story and people will be incensed."
That is exactly what happened in the last couple of weeks, as AIG and its executives were put to the media blitz -- a horde of reporters and cameramen showing up outside executive's multi-million dollar doors on a Saturday morning -- and it's almost comically predictable.
The bottom line is, you can't hide from the American press. So you might as well be up-front with them, and give them the real story, and not try to play games and hide things.
Otherwise, you wind up with a horde of TV cameras in your driveway one fine spring morning.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: I am also a believer in Poetic Justice. You can outrun the law sometimes (unsolved cold cases, etc.) but you can't outrun the Big Guy with the Sense of Humor that is Nearly Unfathomable.

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Phineas Taylor Barnum recalled

I love learning about Phineas Taylor Barnum, Bridgeport's most famous resident and former mayor, who rose from being a minstrel to being a self-made show business millionaire, figuring out that if you give the people what they want, they will pay to see it.
Give them a giant elephant, the largest in captivity, and call it "Jumbo." Show them an old woman, old enough to make you wonder, and tell people she was George Washington's nanny. Give them giants and dwarves and bearded ladies and charge them 25 cents to "see the egress" (a fancy name for an exit door).
So it gives me pleasure to announce that the Stratford Library will continue Sunday Afternoon Talks, its series of informative and entertaining talks featuring prominent local guest speakers, on Sunday, April 5 at 2 p.m. featuring Kathleen Maher, Executive Director and Curator of The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport.
Maher will discuss “The Life of P.T. Barnum” in the Lovell Room.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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The wonders of humble broccoli

I've been writing stories and making newsvideos for the food page, and that's a real pleasure because food is something we all have in common and is of interest to us all. Food is the universal language. No matter what our simple or complex belief systems, lack thereof, or cultural and ethnic backgrounds, we all have to eat.
But some of us have food allergies, myself included: I have a mild case of lactose intolerance that makes drinking milk or cream a very uncomfortable experience, to say the least. So I've had to turn to vegetable sources to get the calcium I need.
Broccoli, which is probably my all-time favorite vegetable -- humble, inexpensive and incredibly versatile -- is a great source of calcium. So is boiled spinach and other greens, which I also have a lot of affection for.
I remember our former president, George H.W. Bush, had a pronounced dislike for broccoli. I had to laugh because in my book, you can't beat broccoli. It is easy to prepare in several different ways, and is wonderfully crunchy. When I was a kid I thought broccoli was some kind of dwarf bonsai tree.
So yes, I love writing for the food page. My next food page project will appear on Tuesday, about Orthodox Christian Easter bread. Look for the story and the video!
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: Former Bridgeport Mayor John Fabrizi, aware that I've been writing for the food page, asked me yesterday for a good recipe for Osso Bucco -- broiled veal shank so tender it falls off the bone. So if you have one, write in!

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March 24, 2009

Taking the AIG tour

The protest tour of Fairfield County upper class neighborhoods where AIG executives live had to be the media event of the year -- even eclipsing the coverage for the chimpanzee attack in Stamford last month.
I expected there would be about 40 protesters and perhaps a dozen or so press. ("Look how wrong you can be," as Rod Stewart sang in his classic early '70s track, "Every Picture Tells A Story.") Instead, there were probably 80 reporters, photographers, TV crewpeople, and a smattering of Web videographers. (Web videographers are the ones with the small, inexpensive videocameras, while the TV guys carry the $70,000 shoulder-mounted ones.)
Our original plan was to ride on the chartered bus with the protesters, but when I saw the number of out-of-state media that wanted to ride on the bus, I knew we would be better off riding in our own cars and following the tour itinerary on our own, meeting the bus as it arrived at each location.
So off we went in my little Nissan sedan -- photographer Autumn Driscoll, reporter Mike Mayko and myself --through the multi-million dollar backroads of places like Greenfield Hill and Southport.
When we arrived, we found that not only the AIG executives, but some of their neighbors, had hired personal security for the day. Driveways were blocked and very serious looking security people reminded all the reporters and photographers they should not be stepping onto any private property.
There were so many reporters present, it was clear that the AIG executive bonus story was THE biggest story in the country on that Saturday morning. CNN was even there.
But we had the advantage, because we were the local guys and knew the turf. We didn't need any GPS systems to zip around Fairfield like that, and when it was all over, we three of us went to one of the best Mexican takeout shops (Senor Salsa) imaginable -- right there in Fairfield under the media horde's nose, if they only knew.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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More newspapers going virtual

Paper is expensive. Paper requires cutting down trees. But a virtual paper -- an edition that looks just like a newspaper and is printable, page by page, from your printer -- or even a newspaper Web site or newspaper iphone edition digital package, is certainly less expensive to get out everyday.
That's why a growing number of American newspapers are going digital and virtual. It is a modern model for news publishing that dramatically reduces the cost of operation, with the only caveat being that retail stores, car dealers, etc., have to develop the taste for digital advertising.
The New York Times reported that the latest newspapers to go digital and virtual are in Flint, Saginaw and Bay City, Mich., where paper editions will be printed only three days a week, the days when they are most in demand, and in Ann Arbor, where they will be paper-printed twice a week.
From a business perspective, remodeling and retooling for the Web is one way newspapers can survive financially, short of getting a government bailout to take the place of lost advertising revenue. (Another way is to form a nonprofit center for public journalism and investigative reporting, but that's another ball of wax because it is not a business model but a nonprofit corporation model.)
In order for local newspapers to make the business transition to the Web, they need three things to happen: advertisers must come along, people must be willing to pay for electronic products like customized Blackberry feeds that they pay like a cell phone bill, and of course, a hunger and thirst by the American public for the local news of the communities and regions where they live.
(Getting the community involved in the news, through the use of talkback forums and guest blogs, is quickly becoming a significant way to stoke the flames of that hopefully blazing furnace.)
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 23, 2009

Vietnam author Elliott Storm of Milford scores prize

Vietnam author Elliott Storm of Milford has won top honors in the Connecticut division of the veteran's writing contest for 2009 and is on to the nationals.
Storm, who was a U.S. Marine in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, won the prize for his short story, "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes."
He's no stranger to literary success: last year he won second-place at the nationals, and his latest novel, "These Scars Are Sacred," has won him praise and book sales nationwide.
Storm is known by his nickname, Trump, to his friends. A Milford deli has even named a sandwich after him: just ask for the Perfect Storm at D&D's.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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No stranger to Southport

Emmeline Bravo-Blackwood, one of the Bridgeport women who protested in front of an AIG executive's home in Southport Saturday, told me she was no stranger to the upper class neighborhood.
She works as a landscaper and gardener, and some of her clients live in Southport. She puts flyers in mailboxes up and down the road, to attract new clients.
I asked her if she felt she was biting the hand that feeds her by protesting against the upper class that provides her with work. Working class and middle class people certainly can't afford to hire private gardening services.
Actually, in the upper class neighborhoods, nobody even cuts their own lawn. At one house, I saw a sign in a driveway that said something along the lines of "contractors please park here," showing that contractors were regularly visitors.
The upper class, often with millions of dollars in annual revenue at its disposal, does not live a middle class lifestyle of cutting lawns on the weekend and all that.
Bravo-Blackwood was familiar with the professionally-manicured surroundings.
"I have to do what I have to do, and they have to do what they have to do," she said.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Church bulletin bloopers

I received this email from a friend this morning, a collection of what are purported to be actual announcements from Sunday church bulletins that were not proofread:

Announcement in the church bulletin for a National PRAYER & FASTING
Conference: "The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference
includes meals."

*****

Miss Charlene Mason sang, "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious
pleasure to the congregation.

*****

"Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those
things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands."

*****
Next Sunday is the family hayride and bonfire at the Fowlers'. Bring your
own hot dogs and guns. Friends are welcome! Everyone come for a fun time.

*****

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a
conflict.

*****

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help
they can get.

*****

Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more
transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of
Pastor Jack's sermons.

*****
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at
someone who is hard to love. Say "hell" to someone who doesn't care much
about you.

*****
Don't let worry kill you - let the Church help.

*****
At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?"
Come early and listen to our choir practice.

*****

The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning
to join the choir.

*****

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery
downstairs.

*****
Attend and you will hear an excellent speaker and heave a healthy lunch.
The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and
gracious hostility.

*****
Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 P.M.-prayer and medication to follow.

*****
This evening at 7 P.M. there will be a hymn sing in the park across from
the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

*****

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church
basement Friday at 7 PM. The Congregation is invited to attend this
tragedy.

*****

Weight Watchers will meet at 7PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please
use large double door at the side entrance.

-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 22, 2009

Connecticut: land of the beasts

A 200-pound chimpanzee went berserk in Stamford last month and mangled a woman, drawing national and even international media attention in what is certainly be one of the biggest stories in the state this year.
Here's something on the same beastly beat but making a much smaller splash (literally) -- in South Windsor, a 3.5-feet-long alligator was found in a marsh near the sewage treatment plant.
It reminded me of when I was covering the Valley, earlier in this decade, and a Shelton man had pet alligators that he kept in a basement converted into a terrarium. The story about the man and his alligators emerged at a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, and became front page news locally, although it did not apparently make national headlines.
Neither, apparently, will the alligator found in South Windor, which appears to be an abandoned former pet, possibly a recently abandoned one.
Channel 8 news reported the alligator is being held at South Windsor police headquarters and will be turned over to an approved Department of Environmental Protection contractor on Monday.
I'm wondering what will become of the gator. The Shelton gators apparently were taken in by an Amish country, Pa., woman who already had pet caymans living in her house.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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When speed is what you need

As you know from watching ConnPost.com videos, my favorite style of video making is the narrative documentary style, where I write a script that corresponds with the video clips, known as the storyboard....in other words, a screenplay. I often punctuate my videos with native audio or music soundtracks. It is an elaborate process of video making.
However, when I got back from the late-running AIG bus tour of Fairfield County yesterday, there was no time to write a full screenplay (combination script and storyboard). By the time I downloaded my videotape to my computer it was 5:07 p.m., and I had a deadline to get my video done so I could press the "save" button by 5:45 p.m. In other words, I had little more than half an hour to make the video.
So I used Method Two of video making, which is the photo documentive style, in which there is no screenplay, no narration, only clips of video assembled in an order that tells a story, and with textual material like names and places added -- called "dropping text" -- to hold the story together so the reader knows what's going on and why.
I don't usually work in that style but with the pressing deadline, that is the direction I had to go. I hope you enjoy it!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Advancing technology beckons

Things have changed in a year, and for the better.
A year ago, I took a ride with someone who had an early model of a Global Positioning Satellite receiver in their SUV. It gave them directions to where they were going, spelled out on a little screen, if I remember correctly.
Now the gadgets talk. They tell you in amazingly lifelike language what street to turn on, what left to take, how far you are from the next exit, etc. The talking feature of the GPS made me want to run out and buy one post haste! (Connecticut Post photographer Autumn Driscoll demonstrated the GPS for me; she uses it regularly when she's traveling the region on assignment.)
Technology has also advanced for Google Satellite. A year or more ago, I remember looking up my own street address on Google Satellite and being able to see a picture of my house, from overhead, enough to recognize it. Now you can get a frontal view of the house, so close you can see the model of car parked in the driveway and count the cracks in the sidewalk. I'm sure this is going to be something I use again.
And then there's self-publishing. I have seen friends self-publish the printed type of books, at a cost of at least several thousand dollars, and struggle to sell copies or get people to read it. Now, there is a Website called Scribd (I don't know how long it's been around) that allows you to self-publish electronically, at no cost, and get hundreds, even thousands of people, reading you. It is an eye opener. It is like YouTube for self-publishing books and manuscripts.
The moral of the story is that technology marches forward, recession or no recession, and although some of it to me is something I would not use, like Twitter, some of it is honestly useful and something I want to add to my electronic toolbox.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 19, 2009

Spring arrives and ice is free

Friday is the first day of spring as you know, the spring equinox, and Rita's, a nationwide franchise Italian ice chain with a location at 1055 Huntington Turnpike in Bridgeport, will be giving away free cups of Italian ice.
It's called a sweet date to scoop up spring free-ver.
Rita's will also give out samples of its new mystery flavor and ask guests to submit a suggested name for it at ritasice.com. The winner will get a year's supply of Italian ice free.
I've already got a name for it: Jellyfruit.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 18, 2009

John LaBarca loses 160 pounds

I saw radio personality John LaBarca tonight at the Sons and Daughters of Italy dinner in West Haven, and I have to say, the big man has never looked trimmer.
I wrote about LaBarca's quest to lose weight back in the 1990s, when he was going to the Stratford Club to exercise, but whatever he was doing back then was not effective as what he's been up to lately. He told me he'd lost 160 pounds in the past year.
"I've also grown this," said LaBarca, of WNLK/WSTC in the Norwalk/Westport area, pointing to his Fu Manchu mustache.
He's not the only one who has been watching his weight. There were a couple of Atkins dieters sitting at table 9 with me, trying hard to enjoy just the roasted chicken and sausage, but when that tray of baked ziti, stuffed with ricotta cheese and topped with mozzarella came by, they could'nt resist.
I can't blame them because I know it was the best baked ziti I ever had!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Talking about bread

When I go on the Jim Buchanan Talk of the Town show on WICC AM 600 next Thursday at 4 p.m., (tomorrow's show is pre-empted by a game), one of the things I want to talk about with Jim is Easter bread.
I have just completed a long article on the Orthdodox tradition of making Easter breads, and have learned lots of things about bread that really couldn't fit into the article, so I'd like to mention them on Jim's show.
Bread, to a Christian, already has phenomenal spiritual meaning: it is the eucharist.
And then there is Easter bread: made with extra yeast, and lots of eggs and spices, it is similar to a hot cross bun, only more of a fluffy bread texture than a bun texture.
In the course of researching the story on the Easter bread, I found that centuries ago there were traditions among the faithful that today seem like magic:
+In England, bread baked on Good Friday was believed to have the power, when hardened in an oven, to protect a house from fire for a year.
+Sailors took loaves of bread baked on Good Friday on their voyages to prevent shipwreck.
+A Good Friday loaf was often buried in a heap of corn to protect it from rats, mice, and weevils.
+Finely grated Good Friday bread was mixed with water and used as a medicine.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 17, 2009

Talking about ConnPost.com

The Sons and Daughters of Italy has invited me to speak about ConnPost.com and the digital news revolution at their spring dinner in West Haven tomorrow night, and I am excited.
I know the food will be really good, true, and I know radio personality John LaBarca will be there with Milford novelist Elliott Trump and Miss Connecticut, but I'm also excited because I'll talk about digital news and how exciting it is.
A couple of years ago, if there were an interesting issue or person to be covered in a newspaper, they would get an article, perhaps a sidebar, and some photographs. That's what newspapers did. Now that story or individual would get an entire electronic package -- I have done stories that carried their own digital page, and included music mp3s, charts, lists, several articles, photographs, as many as four videos in a series and even photographic slideshows!
Digital news can bring a story to life in ways that make it all that much more real to you. Subject matter no longer seems abstract. Look at the video today of the St. Patrick's Day parade in Bridgeport, and you feel the sheer joy and exuberance of the people who are proud to be Irish.
It is not only multi-media; it is multi-dimensional.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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A sunny day for St. Patrick

I've been to St. Patrick's Day parades where it rained, and where it snowed, but today the weather was postcard perfect: sunny, and although a little cool, not cold enough to button a coat. It was a pleasure videotaping the parade, even if I had to run back to the newsroom two minutes into it to get a spare camera battery, breaking a sweat at the back of my head for the good saint.
Green knit sweaters abounded, including my own, and hats there were aplenty -- those Derby hats, like in Victorian times, and of course those floppy looking green tophats that show up by the dozens at St. Patrick's Day parades.
It's a day of the wearing of the green, and for good reason: St. Patrick's Day is the first event of spring and the promise that the woods will be green again. Friday of course is the spring equinox, the official start of spring, and good St. Patrick has got the jump on it.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Big show biz chance for clowns

Do you perform as a clown, and want to perform as a circus clown?
Well, this is your big chance -- my friend Kay from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus informs me that the Clown College, the official training ground for circus clowns, is hosting open auditions Monday, April 6 from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
You must come prepared to show with a three to five minute routine that includes exaggerated facial expressions, athleticsm, unique physical skills like riding a unicycle, an understanding of your comedy, and a sense of your personality and why you want to be a circus performer.
Performers selected to travel with the circus must be at least 18-years-old, but younger auditioners are welcome.
To register for auditions or for additional information,send an e-mail to nyclowncollegeauditions@feldinc.com or call 212-971-1488 ext. 8. Advance registration is requested.
The clown college will train you in character development, improvisation, makeup, pantomime, gag development, prop and costume construction, acrobatics, dance and the physical skills of slaps and falls, stilt-walking, unicycling, juggling and more.
See you at the arena!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Connecticut Post spotted recession early

TV comedian Jon Stewart took on CNBC's Jim Cramer over how the business news network
missed the financial meltdown, but I'm glad to say the same can't be said for the Connecticut Post.
Back in the spring and early summer of 2008, there was a series of articles and newsvideos: about how pawn shops were taking in an extraordinary amount of scrap gold and tradesmen's tools, indicating a serious inability of many people to pay their bills and using the word recession to describe it, and about how repo men were doing a phenomenal amount of work, repossessing large gas-guzzling vehicles whose owners defaulted on the loans, signalling a crash in the American automotive industry and a credit default trend.
There were other stories as well about a recession months before the political candidates and the government jumped on the bandwagon and started talking about it. I know I have said this before, probably ad infinitum, but we got these stories by keeping our ears and eyes open, being observant. (If I hadn't been visiting pawnshops, looking for good deals on used video equipment and things like that, I would not have noticed the rush on scrap gold.)
So keep reading us. We are reading you.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: Here's another trend for you, although I can't write an official story about it because the people involved refuse to be interviewed: there is a rush on scrap metal of all types, even lead. Everytime I drive by the scrap metal yard, nearby the seafood place where I go for chowder, they are hopping. I looked into it and found out that people are cleaning out their garages and basements and bringing metallic items to scrap metal yards, for cash, rather than bring it to the transfer station. One of the most common things I see when I drive by the scrap metal yards is those metal "razor" skateboards that were popular earlier in this decade.

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March 16, 2009

The red badge of Kulich

I am researching for a story and video on Kulich, Russian/Greek Orthodox easter bread, so please write in if you have an interesting story to share about this fabulous holiday bread, which is yellow and sweet and often baked in a coffee can.
Among the things I learned, while doing the research, is that the traditional color of Orthodox Easter eggs is red.
It reminded me of my own tale of Kulich, and how I was introduced to it: in the 1990s, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch -- the equivalent of a pope for the Orthodox -- visited Bridgeport and gave out loaves of Easter bread that he reportedly made himself. It was considered to be blessed and an honor to eat this bread. He visited the newsroom, and lo and behold, I was bestowed with a loaf of the bread.
Well, I brought it home to my family to eat. I had never tried Greek Easter bread before, so for a first time, that was quite an event! Made by the patriarch!
Needless to say, I am a huge fan of the bread and enjoy eating it whenever I can. (I have become a fan of Greek food in general, actually.)
So tell those stories!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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A lesson learned from the business world

I worked eight years as a reporter on the business staff, in the 1990s, and learned many things from the world of business and investing that I carry with me to this day.
One of those things from the business world is that you must try to find the LEAST expensive solution to whatever problem or challenge you face, and not go chasing after expensive pie-in-the-sky fixes. It makes a lot of sense, because when you think about it, any fool can spend money if they are fortunate enough to have some. But it takes thought and good sensibilities to stretch a buck and find inexpensive ways to get things accomplished, to be thrifty and cost-effective.
I'll give you an example: when I became the video maker at ConnPost.com, in late December of 2007, I saw we needed some soundtrack music for videos and so, emailed a professional background music provider with a collection of CDs for sale to use, royalty-free and copyright-cleared. The price was like $1500!
I almost choked, because we don't throw money around like that. So what I've done is started a library of music recorded by Connecticut recording artists, who allow me to use snippets of their instrumental tracks as background music, copyright-cleared and royalty-free, as long as I give them some credit.
So bands, artists -- send in those CDs! Become a part of the ConnPost.com background music library!
Send CDs to me at the Connecticut Post, 410 State Street, Bridgeport, CT, 06604. Thanks! Mood music and holiday themes are particularly needed.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Passing along story ideas

Information is a reporter's stock in trade. And the most important information, as you can imagine, is the information of things that are about to happen -- in other words, news that is in the making.
I make it a point to pass along to my fellow reporters all the stories I know of that I can't personally use, for whatever reason, not because they are uninteresting, but because they are off my turf or don't make for good video. This is something I learned many years ago, from reporters like Rose Venditti. I have passed plenty of stories along to the Milford bureau, because I have some friends in Milford and hear about things there, and to the Valley Bureau, because I live in the Valley and hear of things happening there.
And that is what a reporter always hopes people in the community he or she covers will do, as well. A person who regularly keeps you in the know is called a source. Good sources are very important to a news organization and they are treated with a respect that some other people envy and fight against, rather than trying to become useful resources themselves. (Mediocre sources are those who only fill you in when they have an axe to grind, hoping you'll become their attack dog; worse, there are "one-note Johnnies" who only care about a single issue.)
So if you know of things happening in your community, pass it along -- to a Connecticut Post reporter. News is an interactive process. The Connecticut Post tipline is newsroom@ctpost.com, if you wish to remain anonymous.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Talk about fear of monkeys

The nation is still reeling from the news out of Stamford several weeks ago about a 200-pound chimpanzee that mangled a woman's face and hands.
That was enough to spur a crackdown on having monkeys as pets, but in Malaysia they have a much harsher anti-monkey attitude. An Associated Press report out of Kuala Lumpur today told the story of how a woman who climbed her neighbor's sapodilla tree to get some of his fruit was shot.
Police questioned the man about why he shot the woman climbing his tree, and his response was that he thought she was a monkey!
With the cause of animal rights and cruelty to animals high on the list here in the U.S., it is doubtful anyone could use such an excuse like that on these shores.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 15, 2009

Fire at Pleasure Beach points to problem

One or more of the old cottages on Pleasure Beach was set on fire this afternoon -- I took photographs last June of the fire damage from the last time there was an arson blaze out there -- and it points up the situation that Pleasure Beach has found itself in. (I am fresh on the subject because I did several newsvideo reports on Pleasure Beach last summer.)
A couple of years ago, when the Town of Stratford ordered the cottage residents to leave because there was no way to get a fire engine out to them, there was no fireboat available. You could not expect the town to buy a fireboat, just to satisfy the needs of those dozen or so cottage residents. So the town knew its liability in case of fire, and ordered the residents away.
However, last summer, the Bridgeport Fire Department acquired a fireboat -- the first fireboat in Greater Bridgeport, which I reported on at the time with a newsvideo. (If there were cottages out there on Pleasure Beach today, nod nod wink wink, they would have a form of protection from neighboring Bridgeport, which used federal grant money to buy the boat and must assist surrounding coastal towns in their time of need.)
Secondly, the fire today came just hours after news broke in the Sunday edition of the Connecticut Post that federal earmark money will pay for a couple of ferry boats to bring people out to Pleasure Beach for the first time in 13 years.
That's a good start, and I am truly glad to hear it because I grew up in Bridgeport and have fond memories of Pleasure Beach, but from a reporter's questioning perspective, I don't see how the city will be able in this recession to come up with extra budget money to pay the operating expenses of opening that beach: if there are swimmers, there must be lifeguards, and maintenance, and security. Not to mention the old bathhouse, vandalized after the bridge was destroyed in a fire in 1996, must be refurbished and put back in working order. There are derelict buildings out there that must be secured, like the fomer Polka Dot Playhouse.
The maintenance alone would be a big job: the beach is littered with the dead crabs and debris you would expect from a beach that is not regularly cleaned, like Seaside Park. The place is loaded by day with chiggers -- huge sandflies that chew you up -- and haunted by night with voracious mosquitoes. In resort towns they fumigate with chemicals to keep those dark realities of beach life at bay. How people managed to live out there in those cottages, with all those biting insects, I don't know.
So although I am happy to hear beach access is finally coming, there are questions that need to be answered about operating expenses that would support this free capital improvement. There is also the question of, where will people park their cars to take these ferries to the beach? And who will pay the ferry operators and buy the gasoline and empty the garbage and all that?
The federal money is the beginning of a new era probably, but the journey will be up to the city and its taxpayers and money in Bridgeport has never been tighter.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Satellite, cable TV, no match for Web

I just received an advertisement in my email beckoning me to sign up with a satellite television service, for $19.99 a month, plus additional fees for "premium" channels like HBO and Starz.
And I had to laugh.
Fifteen years ago, before the emergence of the Internet, an offer like that would have been as juicy as a burger at T.G.I. Fridays. But in the Web age, where you can go online and see movies and even classic television shows like Bonanza in streaming video, so called "premium" services like HBO and Starz are actually behind the times.
For Web-oriented people like myself, there's no pressing need to even have a television. I watch the TV newstalk shows at the gym, when I'm walking on the treadmill, and I catch a little of the Discovery channel or something like that here and there, but that's about it.
And the truth is, I'm not alone. My son, Ant, who is 19 and a sophomore in college, and ALL of his young friends are also Web-oriented and watch very little television. (The only time he watches TV is to see football -- he's a Dallas Cowboys fan.)
I would say that the Web will continue to grow as the dominant media, with customized services and Web sites like electronically-packaged news specially designed for your iphone, Blackberry and printer. Newspapers, which have the news-gathering organizations in place, will probably be the leading producers of these electronic products once they beef up their digital divisions. We will not think of ourselves as news "papers" but as news outlets and organizations.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 14, 2009

Foods laced with hidden calories

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has released its list of the 10 worst foods of 2009. Not "worst" as in tastes badly, but worst as in lots of calories, fat and sodium. In other words, you are better off cooking at home with fresh ingredients if you want to control your diet.
Here it is:
1. Pepperidge Farm Roasted White Meat Chicken Premium Pot Pie. Eat one of these for dinner and you've got 1029 calories, including 18 grams of saturated fat. And you thought chicken was a healthy choice!

2. Romano’s Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce. If you thought a plate of spaghetti and meatballs would be a modestly healthy dish, you would be dead wrong when it comes to this selection: it has 2,430 calories including 57 gams of saturated fat and 5,290 milligrams of sodium.

3. Progresso Traditional, Vegetable Classics, and Rich & Hearty soups. There's a lot of sodium in this stuff -- one can has more than a person's daily quota of a safe level of salt.

4. Dove Ice Cream. Just a half cup of it smacks you with 300 calories including 11 grams of saturated fat. In other words, it's a bad snack choice.

5. The Cheesecake Factory Chris’ Outrageous Chocolate Cake. A single five-inch-tall slice has 1,380 calories, including 33 grams of saturated fat, 5 grams of trans fat, and a surrealistic 32 teaspoons of sugar. You really don't want this for dessert!

6. Smoothie King’s Grape Expectations II. A 20-ounce serving of this stuff will bop you with 550 calories -- just eat some strawberries.

7. Pop Secret Movie Theater Butter Popcorn Snack Size Bags. Oh, a little bag of this stuff can't be bad, right? Wrong. It packs 11 grams of fat, including 7 grams of trans fats. The best popcorn is to your own, with an air-popper so there is no grease or oil, and learn to enjoy it without butter or salt.

8. The Starbucks Venti (20 oz.) Caffè Mocha with whole milk and whipped cream. One of these clever coffee break treats packs 450 calories including 13 grams of fat. In other words, if you take a liking to them you will be wearing bigger pants.

9. Chipotle Chicken Burrito. Here we go again, thinking it must be healthy if the label says "chicken." Not so. This mamasita has 1,049 calories including 16.5 grams of saturated fat and 2,500 milligrams of sodium. You will be as puffy as a marshmallow if you get in the habit of eating these things.

10. Cold Stone Creamery’s Gotta Have It Founder’s Favorite. Just one 12-ounce serving of this ice cream, which is packed with brownie pieces, fudge, caramel and pecans, will bloat you with 1,600 calories including 42 grams of saturated fat.

The moral of the story is, eat an apple!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 13, 2009

Blog passes 401 mark

Wow -- I've officially been writing this blog since last May, a month or more shy of a year ago, and I've surpassed 401 posts! That is definately more than one post per day, including weekends!
The truth is, I love writing a blog. I had acquired a taste for blog writing back in the day where what I wrote appeared in paper print, in the form of a column on Sundays called "Talk of the Town." Ted Tompkins, the Connecticut Post's assistant managing editor for news, orchestrated the column and wanted reporters to contribute items that were off the hip and maybe a little too uncategorized to fit into a news article. I was more than happy to oblige him, and next thing I knew, I was a regular contributor!
Some of the things I wrote about included my childhood family dog, Rex the mixed breed German Shepherd that belonged to by Uncle Joe, and my Great Aunt Mary Maraczi, the hot dog queen of Bridgeport. I wrote about my Uncle Max, and his summer holiday breakfasts cooked over a flaming can of Sterno at Pleasure Beach, and about what it was like growing up in Bridgeport as a kid in the 1960s.
I loved writing those columns that ran in the Sunday Connecticut Post, and next thing I knew, I was writing a blog on ConnPost.com!
Some reporters, I know, view blog writing as extra work but to me it is a pleasure. Telling the story behind the story, and the story behind the scenes, is just about as exciting as the story itself half the time. I even have a private blog on MySpace and two newsgroups on Yahoo, in addition to my personal YouTube channel!
No doubt about it, I am a Web head! Peter Parker all the way!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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The Steinway calls me

I was videotaping the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra at the Klein Memorial Auditorium tonight, and while waiting backstage in the "green room" for the rehearsal to begin at 7:30 p.m., I couldn't help but play a quick piece at the marvelous old Steinway grand piano there.
It's said that there are pianos, and then there are Steinways. The Steinway is made with such fine craftsmanship that it is very responsive to the sensitivity of the player, in a range of soft to loud, depending on how the keys are pressed.
I'm not Billy Joel or an Elton John when it comes to the piano, but that Steinway made me sound better than my digital Yamaha console at home. And I have to say, my digital Yamaha beats the pants off a lot of acoustic pianos that AREN'T Steinways, including the uprights found in school music classrooms.
Phyllis A.S. Boros, the Connecticut Post's arts writer, stood by and politely told me I sounded wonderful at the Steinway, for which she gets the gold star for the day.
The piece I played: "All Creatures of our God and King," an English hymn taken from St. Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun, and often musically credited to Johann S. Bach. It's something I usually play when practicing piano; another is "O Sole Mia."
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Calling all polka persons

As you know by now, I'm working on a project series on the status of polka in Southern Connecticut. I would love to hear from you, at my email, tspinelli@ctpost.com, or phone, 330-6361, with Information about your upcoming polka events, so our list can be complete as possible.
So do that little two-step and send me an email!
Thanks to Jim Buchanan of WICC AM for letting me ramble about this on his show the other day, and to Polka Prince Peter J. over at WDJZ for helping to get the word out!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Sunday liquor store openings would not work now

The concept of allowing liquor stores to open on Sundays to raise tax revenue is being kicked around again, but this is the wrong time to even consider it.
There is a recession going on, and it is deeply affecting the profit margins of liquor stores. As I have reported here at ConnPost.com several times, sales of liquor and expensive drinks on which there is a high profit margin are off considerably, while sales of low-profit items like domestic beer is up.
Tax revenue is only solid if products are beIng sold, and from all reports, liquor stores are doing poorly in this recession. So how could they increase tax revenue?
It costs money to open a store an extra day, pay another day of heating and lighting, etc., much less hire clerks to run the store.
In better times the concept would probably work but this does not appear to be the right time.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 11, 2009

Saving money in simple ways is no joke

A couple of weeks ago the Danbury News-Times had a really interesting video about how a person who needs to go on a job interview can probably buy the clothing they need for about $20 at the local Salvation Army or Goodwill if they wear common sizes.
That was a great video on saving money, and so I followed through with that concept and posted one of my own today: how to save money using household appliances.
Saving money in simple ways, as you will learn from today's video posted here at ConnPost.com, is no joke. It really works. If you brew your own coffee at home once in the morning and pack it in a thermos, you will have it to enjoy all day and you can bring it with you to work, or wherever you go, and save money every day by not buying your joe at coffee shops and delis.
That's just one of the ways to save, so check them out:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid4662807001/bclid6138655001/bctid15373705001

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March 10, 2009

In perfect light

I first became aware of the Stratford Point lighthouse in the 1990s, when I was married and living in Stratford and would often take my young son to the parks in Lordship. (He's 19 now, and is a sophomore in college.)
I had always wanted to get out there and knock on that lighthouse keeper's door and do a story with photos on the place. I finally got around to doing that a couple of weeks ago, and you can see the result on today's front page and watch the video right here at ConnPost.com; just click on the photos and multimedia icon to take you to the video player page.
It was worth waiting for, because today's streaming video capability -- which did not exist in the 1990s -- allows you to SEE the beauty of the sunset on Long Island Sound. It is a scene that helped to drive thousands of people over the decades to buy cameras and take up the photographic arts. Seeing it in a still photograph is one thing; seeing it in video, with waves rolling and seagulls flying, singing their melancholy song before dusk, is another!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 9, 2009

A classic buyer's market

There is an old saying in the world of investing, whether you are buying stocks, antiques, collectibles, whatever: the saying is, "buy low, sell high."
Well, this economic recession is a CLASSIC buyer's market. People are buying homes in Detroit for $6,000. General Motors is so desperate to sell Cadillacs and other vehicles they offer zero percent financing on top of the already reduced prices. Stocks are selling at incredibly low prices -- if you are young enough to hold on to them for another 20 years and let them ride.
It's a tremendous buying opportunity, to say the least.
So, to repeat something I've already said a couple of times, those who CAN spend money should get out there and spend it and help push the economy in the direction we all need. Reacting fearfully, holding on to all your money in fear thinking there is no tomorrow, just locks up the system and drags it down further.
If you can, take advantage of some of the amazing bargains that are around and do us all a favor!
Go shopping if it is within your power -- your country needs you!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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A bad investment but a true trend

Back in 1995, when the public use of the Internet was just beginning, I invested some money in stocks of a company that was working to provide entertainment content on the Web. The company believed that someday people would watch movies and television shows in streaming video format on the Web and wanted to be on the groundfloor providing that content.
It sounded like a solid trend to me, and I truly believed that was the direction we were headed, so I took the chance that every investor takes and put my money on the line. The company's business deals fell apart and the stock soon shriveled to microscopic levels -- yes, I lost money on that pick -- but streaming video DID go onto become a dominant force on the Web.
Streaming video is what you watch right here at ConnPost.com. Streaming video is how I watched an old episode of "Family Guy" last night.
The future that I sensed coming in 1995 has certainly come to be. I put my money on the wrong train, but I had the right railroad.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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I'm glad Warren Buffet and I are on the same track

I'm no gazillionaire, but I do have a few things in common with Warren Buffett: I recommended Coca-Cola as a stock; so did he, and bought a lot of it; I said in a blog a couple of weeks ago that Americans who can spend money should consider it their patriotic duty to do so and help move the economy in the right direction; Buffett said pretty much the same thing in an interview on television Sunday.
It makes sense, because as Buffett said, not EVERYONE has been adversely impacted by the recession. Not everyone has lost overtime, tips, commission, part-time or full-time income as a result of the economic downturn. There are some people whose revenue really has not been impacted, like school principals, police brass, etc.
And those are the people who need to lose their fear, as Buffett said, and buy a few things. There are amazing deals available right now on new cars, for example. There are so many leftovers that didn't sell, they fill parking lots. If those who are in a position to do something do nothing, then this situation will certainly get worse, in a sort of self-fulfilling doom and gloom prophecy. Change for the better does not happen by itself. It requires the dynamic force of effort, and we really need to make an effort to help push the economy forward.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 8, 2009

"Hair's" another chance to shave head for charity

Just a reminder that any amount of donation will be accepted today at the St. Baldrick's head shaving marathon to raise money for childhood cancer research. It's taking place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a tent behind the Bear & Brill restaurant on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield.
Chemotherapy patients lose their hair; the idea is to shave off yours, to show some solidarity with them, while donating pledges at the front table.
You can also have your newly balded head painted with shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 7, 2009

Happy Birthday to Barbie?

As you've heard by now, Monday marks the 50th anniversary of Mattel's "Barbie" doll, which is of course the most iconic of toys.
You've heard the background stories about Barbie by now -- how she was actually copied from a German doll called Lili that Mattel bought the rights to and all that -- but have you considered the impact Barbie had on American culture?
Look at any film star or glamour girl from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and you will see that the "ideal" figure of a woman was that of a full-at-the-hip, curvy, shapely figure. Marilyn Monroe, for example, was considered extremely gorgeous but by today's standards would be considered to be a little pudgy.
That's the Barbie influence. With her impossibly thin neck and limbs, and incredibly narrow architecture, the Barbie doll implanted an ideal of feminine beauty in the American mind that placed a premium on being thin. By the 1970s, the women who were considered the "most beautiful" were not shapely figures like previous decades, no Jane Russells, but women who carried as little weight as possible, like vintage Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Tiegs.
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia and other eating disorders that had not been heard of in the 1950s by the 1980s were raging out of control, with fatalities including Connecticut's own Karen Carpenter. The irony is that Americans are struggling with a weight problem, with obesity at the highest rate in history, and yet we still hold up this stick-thin image of beauty that didn't even exist until Barbie dolls became popular.
So I'm not so sure we SHOULD be happy Barbie has made it to 50. Maybe if we had a more realistic standard, as we did before Barbie came onto the scene, we wouldn't be struggling with our physical dimensions so much. It shows how much of an impact a cultural icon can have.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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High gasoline prices helped trigger the recession

We all know about the recession and how bad it is. But I haven't seen or heard enough people talk about where it all began.
How it began is important -- because by understanding how it began, we can perhaps prevent it from happening again! It is called learning from your mistakes; first, we have to examine what we did wrong and understand WHY it was wrong.
I've done a lot of thinking about this recession, and have come to a couple of basic conclusions about the U.S. economy:
+It is a bad idea to make asset backed securites out of mortgages and home equity loans. I have always said so -- I told brokers and analysts on Wall Street that was a very bad thing to do back when I was a reporter on the business desk 15 years ago. It's bad, I said then and repeat now, because if people start to default on their mortgages, it not only hurts the housing market, it hurts the entire U.S. financial system. That is exactly what happened.
+It is bad to let gasoline prices get out of control in the U.S. The concept of freedom, the open road, going where you want, is central to American life. To do that requires cheap fuel. The country's economic crisis truly began the moment when gasoline cost us $50 per tank for an economy car. People could not afford to buy gasoline and they started defaulting on the payments for their American-made gas guzzler pickup trucks and SUVS. They also stopped buying the American vehicles. Now the entire American automobile industry has gone to hell in a handbasket.
These are just a couple of my ideas about how we got into this fiasco. Another one is that real estate developers concentrated too much effort on building luxury homes, for the well-heeled, which helped to hyperinflate the price of all surrounding housing, rather than doing what succeeded in the U.S. in the past and building new homes intended for average income earners, which would have had a stabilizing effect on the market. A few people made out like bandits from that scenario but a great many more people wound up with negative equity and upside down mortgages.
What are your ideas about where we as a country went wrong and how we messed up? Please share your thoughts!
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: That being said about the need for cheap fuel, I hope our new president is not going down a rocky road with his alternative energy initiatives. Being alternative for alternative's sake is not going to cut it. They key is, the energy has to be cheap. Being "green" is cute but it is not going to help the average Joe. Being cheap will.

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Hilarious misheard news reports

I was at WICC AM 600 studios in downtown Bridgeport Thursday, talking about ConnPost.com's latest videos with talk show host Jim Buchanan, when a caller phoned the station to clarify a news report they had heard.
"Has A-Rod injured his lip?," the caller asked.
Jim and I both laughed, trying to imagine effect a swollen, bruised or cut lip could have on a baseball star like A-Rod. Perhaps it would make him a soulmate to Angelina Jolie!
No, that wasn't "injured his lip," Buchanan said, "that was injured his hip!"
-- TONY SPINELLI

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Where's the bottom?

There's a story moving on the news services today about how experts are wondering where the bottom is going to be in the economic recession we are in.
The truth is, you don't know you've been there, until you are past it and looking back in retrospect. You usually find out one or two quarters later, after some significant upticks are registered in the economic indicators, that we have passed the bottom.
There is no flashing sign that goes on out on Interstate 95 to tell the world "we have hit bottom!" Indeed, you don't know that the worst is past until you are finally out of it and the economy is on the road to recovery.
But it would be unrealistic to expect the stock market to quickly regain all the ground it has lost, or the housing values to go back to what they were before the recession struck. That could take a very long time, unless certain dynamic forces I have previously discussed were set in motion and all worked together like a clockwork.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: As I said a couple of months ago, President Obama's initiatives can reasonably be expected to take a foothold in October, the fourth quarter, which means the official economic indicators to show the uptick probably won't show up until the first or second quarter of 2010. There will no doubt be anecdotal and unofficial evidence in the fourth quarter, if things improve as expected under the weight of the enormous bailout and stimulation package.

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Big donor for childhood cancer research shaves head

Yes indeed -- tomorrow, Sunday, is St. Baldrick's Day in Fairfield, where hundreds -- maybe more 1,000 -- men, women and youngsters will have their heads shorn completely of hair as a fundraiser for childhood cancer research.
The article about the fundraiser ran Friday, telling everyone to bring a dontation to the tent behind the Bear & Grill restaurant on Black Rock Turnpike between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., and have their heads shaved. Jim Buchanan of WICC AM 600's "Talk of the Town" also talked up the event, when I was a guest on his show Thursday, and we did our best to spread the word.
It paid off. Dana McCreesh, the founder of the local Team Brent chapter of the St. Baldrick's Foundation, told me today in an email that a donor read the article in the Connecticut Post and was inspired to make a sizeable donation.
"I am amazed by
the
kindness of strangers," McCreesh said.
And it amazes me too! So there is still time to get over there and have your head shaved for childhood cancer research!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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The dynamics we need to fix the unemployment rate

The unemployment rate is high -- the highest it has been in decades (some economists say since 1983; others say since 1967) -- and we have a young, energetic new president with some bold initiatives to stimulate some jobs.
In order for the stimulus to work, and carry us out of this deepening mire of unemployment that hacks into consumer confidence like a low-budget slasher movie, we need the help of three dynamic forces that traditionally have shaped the unemployment rate, other than new hiring.
+Military enlistment. Young men and women who enter the military remove themselves from the unemployment ranks. (In World War II, millions were drafted and it effectively solved the high unemployment trend of the Great Depression.)
+Retirement. The eldest Baby Boomers (Monkee Petr Tork is 67) are at, near to, or already past retirement age. When people retire it takes pressure off the job market, improving the unemployment rate. (The silent generation, those who are perhaps 10 years older than the boomers, also has many members still in the work force despite their advancing age and they too could stand to retire.)
+Population shift. The concept in the U.S. has always been to migrate to where the jobs and opportunities are more plentiful. That is the dynamic force that has driven American population shifts since the pioneer days of the West. It still happens today, only we call it a "brain drain" or a "youth drain". People moving to where the jobs are and the living is easier results in a reduction in the unemployment rate and an improvement of lifestyle for everyone.
We need these dynamics to work to reduce the unemployment rate because low unemployment is one of the keys to consumer confidence, which is vitally important to the American retail economy. When people stop buying goods and services, the whole American economic system seizes up like a car engine that has been bleeding oil through a worn gasket.
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 2:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Overinflated housing prices are big part of the problem

The nationwide tally of mortgages that are in arrearage or foreclosure is at an all-time high. Conservatives are quick to point fingers at banks, claiming the banks should not have let those unworthy families borrow the money in the first place, but I see another cause of the problem.
The problem is that houses COST too much. As recently as the 1960s, the standard formula used by banks to determine your eligibility for a mortgage on a starter home was to make sure the value of the home did not exceed three times your annual revenue.
At that time, it was common for men -- even working men, now referred to as blue collar -- to be the only person working in the household while the wife stayed at home with the children. Yes, homes could be found in those days that cost only three times the man's annual pay.
But that is NOT the case in today's hyper-inflated U.S. economic landscape. The last time you could find a starter home that was three times a young blue collar husband's pay is so long ago, you may as well whip out the history books instead of the newspaper, which is supposed to be about current events.
Yes, real estate in the U.S. is overpriced, and it is still overpriced.
It doesn't have to be expensive to build a starter home. Less expensive materials can be used. Standard floor plans, like they used to sell at Sears & Roebuck, can be used. Pre-fabricated components can be used. There are many ways to build affordability into a home design so that the average Joe can afford a place of his own.
So where are the affordable housing initiatives?
The only housing developments I ever see being built are luxury homes -- not first homes, but perhaps third homes, after someone has already graduated from a starter to a mid-size and is ready for a dream home.
The good news is our economic malaise does not HAVE to be a death sentence. If there is a sincere effort at building and designing affordable homes that can be owned with sensible mortgages by the average Joe and Jane, then we will bring back some of the American dream that we lost so long ago.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: Of course, like I have told friends of mine who insist that Fairfield County is too expensive as if they have no way out, there is no law compelling you to live in a certain place. You can move to where it is less expensive. That is why so many former Fairfield County residents have moved to the Naugatuck Valley. To broaden it even further, just got an email from a family friend living in Arizona, where the living is much more reasonable: he paid $90,000 for a home!

Posted by Spinelli on 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tell us about your blog!

A couple of the blogs outside of ConnPost.com that I regularly read are Lennie Grimaldi's "Only In Bridgeport" and Fairfield rockstar John Mayer's, in which he talks about the studio he is building and the songs he is writing for his new album. But I would like to check more blogs out!
So please write in with the address of your blog! Who knows, you may be favorited!
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 9:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hype your blog

ConnPost.com has made it easier for you to hype your blog! If you have a blog on MySpace, or Facebook, or any other social networking site, you can easily slip a ConnPost.com video into your blog with the new feature found on our videos, called "copy code."
You have always been able to email the videos to friends, and if you knew a couple of Internet tricks, could have copied the code in guerilla fashion, but now we make it dead-on easy for you by just offering the option. So, if there is a video that captures your interest (because you are in it or whatever lol) just copy the code, go to your blog and push the "paste" button. Voila! Now the video is posted on your blog!
Web video is flexible, that way. You can post it to your blog, email it to your friends. It is dynamic.
So enjoy!
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 6, 2009

A little Friday night shopping

It was time to do some spring shopping so I went to one of the best stores I know of -- a store where they have terrific selections in all sizes and prices that can't be beat -- Sym's, on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield. It's around the junction from King's Highway.
If you need a new winter coat, this really is the time to go buy one -- I saw some unbelievable deals at Sym's on the clearance racks. You pick up those off-season discounts and it stretches your buying power. I saw quilted and down-filled waterproof Timberland parkas, complete with furry-trimmed hoods, for $49! I would dare say you can't beat that price anywhere.
So do a little shopping and help move the economy in the right direction -- we'll all benefit.
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 7:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Market reversal could have been worse

The stock market has lost so much ground in the recession, it has receded by as much as a couple of decades. What took 15 or 20 years to build up to, has been erased.
A lot of people are crying in their beer -- (good domestic brands like Miller, no doubt, rather than the pricey imports like Corona) -- but it could have been much worse. At least our Social Security program is not invested in the mess that is Wall Street.
There was a lot of talk, in the '90s and the aughts, about privatizing Social Security -- in other words, let people invest it on Wall Street through brokers, the same way they do with their 401(k) -- and I had always believed that would be a tragic mistake. I learned a long time ago that investing is risky, and you pick your investments based on your level of risk tolerance. For Social Security to work, it has to be a really safe play, like a treasury bill. Anything less and it would not be security but INSECURITY.
So I am truly glad we didn't go in that direction and privatize Social Security, otherwise the big diamond mining hole we are in right now would be a couple of miles deeper and wider.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: For Baby Boomers, in their 60s (Monkee Peter Tork is 67) and already at or near retirement age, there is not much hope that the stock market will recover its losses soon enough. For Baby Jonesers, in their 50s and late 40s, it is really a time to buckle down and pick some investment plans that are less risky. Jonesers have to stay in the market, but with more caution and care than they did in the 90s, when they were still in their 30s with perhaps 30 years of market time ahead of them. The people who really stand to benefit from this dip on Wall Street are the young people just beginning their careers. If they have opportunities to invest on Wall Street -- that is questionable because some employers are pulling back on contributions to 401k plans or eliminating them -- they are the ones who stand to benefit the most because they have four or five decades ahead of them to invest on Wall Street and they shares they buy at low prices will have a good chance of building value over time. They just have to pick investments in the right stocks, like Coca-Cola -- Coke continues to be an excellent investment -- and not in fly-by-nights or last leggers.

ANOTHER ADDENDUM: I was a reporter on the business desk for eight years, from the end of the last big recession 20 years ago to the turn of the 21st century. Admittedly, being a financial writer is a lot like being a sports writer. I would write two or three stock profiles per week, with a buy, sell or hold rating, but of course I was not in a position to personally buy a lot of stocks. I would write in-depth investment articles on topics like gold, but couldn't go out and buy a lot of gold, no more than your typical sportswriter could personally pitch a perfect game of baseball or run a touchdown in a football game. However, the lessons you learn can be translated to smaller scales, just like the lessons you learn in small things can be translated to larger scales.

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March 5, 2009

Marty Swiatek, the polka maestro, joins the club

It's no secret that I love music. But my tastes can be wide-ranging. Polka, for example.
Polka music is nothing if not happy music. It is hard to feel sad about anything, really, when you are listening to polka.
That's what I told Marty Swiatek of Beacon Falls, the local polka band maestro, when I was interviewing him today about his role in the Connecticut polka scene.
I'm always on the lookout for CDs to add to my library here at ConnPost.com, which can be used as musical soundtracks on videos if needed, and Marty was only too glad to give me approval to use his group's latest CD as a possible soundtrack source.
Don't let Marty and his polka band be alone! If you are an artist or in a band that produces its own original music CDs -- no copyright infringement please -- please send them along to me at 410 State Street, Bridgeport, CT, 06604, and I will add them to my library for possible use in a video as a soundtrack. Instrumental music is the type most needed, since it's all about providing an atmospheric background, not singing a song whose lyrics need to be discerned.
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 6:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Behind the scenes with Jim Buchanan

Jim Buchanan, host of WICC AM 600's "Talk of the Town" -- (you can listen daily from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.) sure puts in a long work day.
Jim told me today, when I was visiting the studio for the weekly Thursday 4 to 5 slot when we talk together about the latest stories and videos on ConnPost.com, that he puts in a long work day.
Jim wakes up about 7 a.m. and gets to the studio around 10 a.m. He works in his office there, gathering news, researching topics, booking his shows and doing the work of a producer, until it's time for him to go on the air at 4 p.m. He finally leaves the studio about 8 p.m.
The moral of the story is it looks easier than it is. A lot of preparation goes into the show before Jim actually takes over the mic at 4 p.m.
And the talk that goes on while the commercials are playing is just as fun! Today I discovered, in a while-the-commercial plays moment, that Jim and I share a love of eating meatloaf dinners in classic American diners. Not roast beef, or steak, or anything remotely fancy, but meatloaf.
That's two things we have in common! I discovered a couple of weeks ago that we both grew up reading "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine and like to watch low-budget 1950s monster movies!
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 5:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 4, 2009

Author Mallard to sign books in Milford

Bridgeport author Darryl T. Mallard will autograph copies of his latest illustrated novel Saturday at 2 p.m. at Borders Books in the Westfield mall in Milford.
Mallard writes AND illustrates his books. His new book is "The Price of Greed and Malice," published last August by Authorhouse.
Hardcover editions are about $24 and softcovers are about $10.
-- TONY SPINELLI

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March 3, 2009

Connecticut not good enough for movie?

"The Haunting In Connecticut" is a new horror/thriller film that will be out soon in the theaters, and when I saw the advertisement for it on the Internet, I clicked on the banner to find out more; I thought it would be about Bridgeport's famous Lindley Street case of 1973-74, which I had wanted to make a video documentary about. (I could not get the people involved to agree to on-camera interviews.)
The film is not about the Lindley Street case. Rather, the new film is based on a case in northern Connecticut in 1986 in which a family moved into a former mortuary and was troubled by alleged spooks.
However, for a film that is about Connecticut, it was not shot in Connecticut! I am told that the PG-13 movie was made on location up in Manitoba, Canada.
With all the tax breaks Connecticut gives for movie-making -- Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio movies have been made here for Pete's sake -- wasn't our little corner of the universe good enough for this movie?
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 4:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em

There's a classic line from old World War II movies, in which the battle has ended, there is a lull in the action until the next line of German Panzers comes rolling, and the sergeant tells his men, "smoke 'em if you've got 'em."
That's good advice for this recession, and getting us all out of it. If you are in a position to buy goods and services, then by all means, do so. Consider it your patriotic duty, just like President Bush did in 2001 when he urged us all to go shopping, to SPEND some money.
Saving money in a money market account or certificate of deposit is a good thing, (I won't say save it in a bank because most banks' interest rates on savings plans are like Charles Lindberg plans -- so low) but saving money does not drive the short-term and mid-range American economy: it is all in the SPENDING.
A huge chunk of the American economy derives its vitality from consumerism: people buying appliances, cars, clothing, furniture, anything really.
I know there are a lot of people who are sort of rebelling against the economy by not buying anything, sort of punishing it for the falls they have taken in their portfolios and in their equity. But that is like butchering the goose that lays the golden egg, because refusing to spend money on goods and services just drives the downward spiral, and it self-perpetuates, with your portfolio and equity dropping even further.
I would say the best thing we could ALL do for our investments is to SPEND some money, and buy some goods and services, to put some cash flow back into the economy. Cash flow is the lifeblood of the retail and service economy. Not everyone can do it, because some people are struggling just to have groceries in the refrigerator, but there are plenty of people who certainly can but are just holding back.
So don't hold back.
Smoke 'em if you've got 'em, as they said.
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 8:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 2, 2009

Madoff has amazing gall

Right now I'm thinking there is no more hated a man in the U.S. than Bernard Madoff, the Mephisto of Wall Street.
And yet, Madoff is seeking to KEEP his $7 million Manhattan penthouse PLUS $62 million in assets!
Madoff's reasoning is that the swanky millionaire's digs and big pile of skadillions are in his wife's name and unrelated to the fraud he perpetrated that cost victims more than $50 billion, and indirectly, helped to weigh down a financial crisis that already had American investors sucking wind.
Madoff truly has gall. It is like he believes, implicity, that his expensive lawyers will keep him out of the grasp of the American legal system so he can enjoy his luxurious lifestyle, with no regard for the countless people he has directly and indirectly hurt financially.
If Madoff successfully perpetrates this latest scam, I am certain that he will inspire an entire generation to lie, steal and cheat.
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 8:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

DVDs dead; you read it here first

Seven months ago, I reported in an enterprise story and video that the DVD rental and sales business was vanishing and the golden age of video stores and Friday night movie rentals was past and quickly being replaced by Internet streaming. Now, Disney -- one of the country's dominant producers of DVDs -- is admitting the same.
In an article in Business Week magazine, Disney CEO Robert A. Iger explained that the company perceives now that the heyday of the DVD is gone, and they are working toward making the best of what is now becoming the standard in entertainment, from music to movies: direct digital access via the Web.
(In my other life as an independent music artist this has already become the standard; I no longer market CDs, which is expensive because of the cost of printing and materials; rather, I sell digital tracks called mp3s direct to the public, which is a much more profitable business model.)
Paramount arguably has gone the furthest, according to Business Week: It's premiering movies on the Web. Last year it streamed the comedy Jackass 2.5 on Blockbuster's site free and it attracted 15 million viewers.
I had a reporter's hunch last year about these things because I had seen so many video stores go out of business, and at the same time, had seen so many movies being streamed on the Web. Once again, being observant and keeping eyes and ears open led to a good story. Remember you read it here first!
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: Another side effect of the passing of DVD sales and rentals is that big budget movies will become fewer; indeed, fewer investors are putting money into film projects that executive producers come calling about. DVD sales and rentals, like video cassette sales and rentals before DVDs became the standard in the late 1990s, had provided a significant marketing opportunity for the movie industry since the mid-1980s.
On the flipside, there is a renaissance in independent, low-budget and no-budget filmmaking. The emergence of computer-based editing systems like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier Pro, combined with digital "film"/high definition video cameras that can be purchased for as little as $2,000, comes at a time when YouTube allows uploads up to 1 gigabyte in digital file size, creating a proliferation of small, independent filmmakers operating via the Web, bypassing the traditional distribution, exhibition and retail outlets and going direct to the public.

Posted by Spinelli on 12:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Credit card snowballing

A bright spot, if there is any, to all the mortgage foreclosures going on means that theoretically, people who once had a mortgage that was too expensive for them now have more cash on hand, to take less expensive apartment arrangements and pay some of their other debts, like credit cards and personal loans.
That being said, the best strategy I have ever heard of for paying off credit card and loan debt is something that has come to be known as "snowballing" in recent years, although it has been around since the advent of consumer credit cards in the 1970s and 1980s. Using this method, you are certain to pay off your debts, so long as your revenue stream doesn't dry up. If you have a relatively steady revenue stream, for example from your job, this method should work.
+Pare down your daily expenses so that as much of your revenue as humanly possible goes to debt service. You must sacrifice meals eaten out, movie tickets, Starbucks, etc., until you are caught up in your debts.
+Pay your smallest credit cards off first. Arrange your payments so that you pay more than the minimum on the smallest ones, and use extra money like income tax refunds and overtime income at work to knock them down further.
+Once the smallest credit cards are paid off, go after the largest ones. Use the money that used to go toward paying the smaller ones, in addition to the money you were already paying on debt service for the larger ones.
+Repeat this procedure on up the ladder, until you are using all the money you spent paying your smaller debts to pay off the larger debts.
The reason this method works, as opposed to the classic Sylvia Porter "pay off your higher interest debts first," is because you SEE yourself making progress and it FEELS good. You actually feel a little buzz of relief when you pay off your debts, and this is like a psychological reward that keeps you on track with the program until you finally knock down your biggest debts, like your biggest credit card.
Once you are out of credit card and personal loan debt, make sure you don't take on a car loan that is too expensive, a rent that is too expensive, or a mortgage that is too expensive. Live within your means on your basic living expenses, and you will have a good credit rating.
Remember that you can have the best credit rating in the world, but you will only be extended the amount of credit you can reasonably be expected to repay. If your living expenses are too high because of exorbitant rents and mortgages and luxury vehicles with high monthly payments you will not have much borrowing headroom, no matter how good your credit rating is, so be sure to live within your means.
The bright side is that if you pay your debts in a disciplined, orderly way, they will only be temporary. And if, as a society that is locked down in a recession, we all get out from under the debts we have incurred in the confusion of the last several years when lenders relaxed their standards, we will get back into the classic American consumer habit that is the backbone of this country's overall economy; when people stop buying goods and services, the whole system locks down, as we are seeing.
-- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 9:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 1, 2009

Spring ahead

A TV weatherman swore to me on a stack of Gideon Bibles (borrowed, no doubt, from the nightstand drawer of a Route 1 motel) that we are in for a big snowstorm tonight, into tomorrow morning.
But the calendar marches forward: next Sunday, March 8, is "set the clock ahead an hour" day. They tell me it has something to do with farming, which I guess makes sense if you live in Iowa. The clocks will be reset from 1:59 a.m. to 3 a.m., a time of day when most of the people awake are emergency workers on the night shift or people who crumble into dust in daylight.
So if the forecasters are correct, we'll be shoveling and snowblowing while thinking about spring. To put this in perspective: St. Patrick's Day, the first spring event of the year, is in two weeks. The vernal equinox, which is the official start of spring, is just a couple of days after St. Patty's. Easter and Passover come in about six weeks. Then comes May, and with May's end, Memorial Day -- the unofficial start of summer.
If you have survived the winter and are still in one piece, celebrate. Buy yourself a present: the end-of-season sales are going on right now, as I discovered this weekend at stores like Burlington's and Sym's, and there are plenty of bargains to be had for everyone in all sizes because the winter retail season was weak amd there is still plenty of unsold winter merchandise at clearance rack prices.
-- TONY SPINELLI

ADDENDUM: At 10:20 p.m., the snow is indeed falling. Those Gideon Bibles from Route 1 must have done the trick.

Posted by Spinelli on 9:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Music soundtrack in Milford video hits indie top 5

When I made the video "Winter at Milford Point" several weeks ago, the soundtrack music I used was a snippet here and there from "I Could Never Lie," I song I wrote and recorded in my other life as an independent rock artist. Well, I'm pleased to report that the single, from my latest indie CD "Jade Wing Ray," has hit number five on the indie station hardcoremix.com after hovering at the top of the movers and shakers list for several weeks.
Indie radio, for those of you who are not that much into the Internet, is Web-based independent radio that plays music recorded by artists who are not well-known or signed to major labels. It is independent radio for independent music; the artists who make this music do it for the joy of sharing their original art. Hardcoremix.com is one of the largest of the indie stations, with a listening audience comparable in size to a popular FM station. It is based in Cleveland, which in the 1950s of course was the birthplace of rock n' roll radio, via Alan Freed.
I don't know if this will repro, but here is the code for the banner at the station: -- TONY SPINELLI

Posted by Spinelli on 8:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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