Morgan Kaolian, Southern Connecticut's gentleman of the air -- the official aerial photographer for the Connecticut Post (known for his aerial photography business called Morgan Kaolian Aeropix) -- stopped by the newsroom today and he gave me one of his classic Morgan Kaolian jokes.
Only Morgan knows lines like this. He used to be an advertising man, and of course for years he was the traffic reporter for WICC AM as well as manager of Sikorsky Memorial Aiport. (But I think he learned most of his humor as an advertising man.)
"I went to a movie theater and got them to let me in free," he told me.
"How did you do it?," I asked him.
"I walked in backwards and told them I was leaving," he said.
-- TONY SPINELLI
Viet vet Elliott Storm appears today on Buchanan show
Vietnam veteran/author Elliott Storm of Milford will appear on WICC AM 600's Jim Buchanan "Talk of the Town" show today at 5 p.m. -- he'll be talking about Veteran's Awareness day so try to tune in.
You can also tune in on the Web at wicc.com.
Semper Fi!
-- TONY SPINELLI
This summer is significant, if you think in terms of American culture being important in some way: it is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and also, of the first moon landing.
I was 10-years-old that summer, when I stayed up late (for me 10:30 p.m. was late lol) to see Neil Armstrong take his tentative first steps onto the craggy lunar surface, from the grainy and sometimes snowy visuals of my parent's black and white Zenith television. (That's right -- when the U.S. landed on the moon, most people didn't even have color TVs!)
There was a feeling of excitement in the air, like anything was possible. There was a lot of positive energy, and it coalesced several weeks later, in August, with the rock festival in a pasture on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, N.Y., that became known as Woodstock. They had planned to sell tickets but so many people showed up it became a free-for-all.
Were there 100,000 people there? Easily. But were there really half a million there? LOL, the truth is, there was no way to make an exact head count and most of the people were stuck in traffic jams on the outskirts of the festival area. The number of people who were close enough to the stage to actually SEE the performances is quite small. Most of the people were so far from the stage they were lucky even to hear anything. But they experienced the "vibe," with each other, that carries on to this day in the form of Bridgeport's Gathering of the Vibes Festival, whose handbill I picked up during the week and whose coming is the reason I am writing this blog in the first place.
Of course, today's rock and pop music is very different from the stuff that was played at Woodstock, but the soundtrack album (actually I had the 8-track tape. Remember those?) was something that I listened to incessantly when I was in junior high school. (I was particularly bowled over by Alvin Lee, Carlos Santana and Jimi Hendrix.)
So, all I'm saying is, salute!
-- TONY SPINELLI
ADDENDUM: Yes, it's true: Crosby, Stills and Nash -- who debuted at Woodstock -- are topping the bill for the Vibes festival. And I was just listening to Stills in my car the other day! (Fishes and Scorpions.)
ANOTHER ADDENDUM: Notice I differentiate between rock and pop. There's a reason for that. Pop music is when they sing about love and drop the l-word in almost every verse. Rock is when they NEVER use the l-word at all and try their damndest not to be Barry Manilow.
In this recession of the late 20-odds, a number of people have taken up home gardening to produce vegetables and even fruits on their own, to save money on groceries.
But once you have a productive garden, with well-nourished cultivated soil (it can take several years to get the soil just right) you face the dilemma that farmers have known for thousands of years: what to do with highly perishable food items, short of selling them all to a wholesale broker.
The answer is to preserve them somehow, and that is the subject explored by "Well-Preserved," by Eugenia Bone (Potter), a straightoward recipe and instruction book that is gorgeously illustrated with rich color photographs.
You may want to pack tomatoes and peppers in Bell jars. You may want to pack leafy green vegetables like spinach in plastic baggies and keep them in a freezer, stored in the basement where it is already cool so the motor doesn't have to work that hard and run up your electric bill. You may have a cool, dry wine cellar that can double as a storage bin for your pumpkins, squash, and apples (that's the way the old-time farmers did it; they usually had an underground cooler room, much like a fallout shelter). Whatever the method of preservation, this fascinating book will help guide you so you can have a fresh supply of produce from your own backyard, or perhaps from commercial sources with deep discounts so you don't have to break the bank in order to eat in a healthful way.
-- TONY SPINELLI
For years, readership had been falling at newspapers. Then advertising sank into the abyss, and now the American newspaper industry is in the worst depression it has ever faced.
But the opposite is true for the online division of the American newspapers -- the newspaper Web sites. Despite the immense popularity of national news Web sites, the audience for local online newsweb coverage continues to grow at a rate that would be considered robustly healthy by any standard: Nielsen Online told the Associated Press this week that newspaper Web sites attracted 10.5 percent more people in the first quarter of 2009 compared with a year earlier. The average number of people now viewing newspaper Web sites is 73.3 million, Nielsen reported.
The average number of pages views climbed nearly 13 percent to 3.5 billion. Both figures were the highest since 2004.
Now the trick is to make money off that rising popularity, through advertising sales, because after all this is a business and without revenue a business dissolves. It's true that the entire advertising industry is in a deep recession at this time, but news Web sites are working on bold new strategies to make virtual newspapers and custom packaging the buzz words of a revival. (Think of a professional, dependable, subscription version of a newsgroup; one that gives you the latest news on topics of interest to you, like the town you live in, the town you work in, the sports teams you follow, etc.
It is true that what we are at this point in history is not so much a newspaper as a news organization. And the trusted brands are still the trusted brands.
-- TONY SPINELLI
As a reporter, at least a portion of the stories we develop come to us not through press releases, or secret sources spilling the beans or tipping us off, but just by being observant. Being aware of what's going on around us, in the community at large, etc.
A recent story I did that came about that way was my piece on how donations had fallen off at the Goodwill because of the recession. Nobody told me that was happening and asked me to write about it; rather, I observed that it was happening -- the racks were noticeably thinner when I stopped in to look for some thrift shop bargain CDs -- and inquired about it, which led to the story a couple of weeks later.
Being observant pays dividends in all areas of life, as well, not just news reporting. I can't see well in the dark when driving at night -- most 49-year-old guys have trouble seeing in the dark when driving at night -- and the dark roads of the Naugatuck Valley, places like Oxford where there are no street lights, don't help any.
So, I observed that motorcycle riders wear special sunglasses at night -- yellow tinted, bright sunglasses that help illuminate the night. No, it's not to look sheik. It's for safety. "Good idea," I said to myself: I'm not a biker, but I immediately ordered a pair of night riding glasses on eBay.
I have no intention of buying a motorcycle and learning to ride it, but I have to admit that the concept of night riding glasses is a good one so I happily and shamelessly borrowed it to suit my own ends.
If I hadn't been observing, I would not have had this extra measure of safety when driving on dark roads at night.
-- TONY SPINELLI
The U.S. Surgeon General tells us that Americans eat WAY too much meat and not nearly enough plant fiber. At the same time, we are in the depths of a recession in which many groceries are more expensive than they should be.
So what's the solution? Plant a garden and grow some vegetables -- that's the advice of "Growing Chinese Vegetables In Your Own Backyard," by Geri Harrington (Storey), a succinct trade paperback that gets right to the point.
One message I get from the book is that vegetable gardening doesn't have to be tomatoes and cucumbers. Consider growing the under-rated pumpkin and squash, for example, which are nutritionally dense and have an amazingly long shelf life that can provide fresh plant fiber for months if stored in a cool and dry place.
But if growing your own isn't in your bag, then the next best thing has got to be going to a farmer's market. As long as the prices are reasonable, and you're not sucked into a trendy pay-too-much-for-it vortex, farmer's markets are the way to go and "Eating Well In Season: The Farmer's Market Cookbook," will show you what to do with it all.
The Countryman Press book is richly illustrated with gorgeous color photographs that will make your mouth water and help you make the transition from a carnivore diet, which the U.S. Surgeon General warns against, to one that is rich in plant fiber, from nuts and raisins to broccoli, oranges and asparagus, which the Surgeon General says will help you be healthy.
-- TONY SPINELLI
I videotaped Go arts writer Joe Meyers' Martinis and a Movie night Tuesday at the Fairfield Theater Co., and the film being shown in the small (about 220 seats) theater was "Broadway Danny Rose," a classic from the 1980s by Woody Allen.
It is an exceptionally well-done comedy film, and for me, an interestingly made one as well, because of the format Allen uses -- the film opens with a group of show business friends talking in a restaurant about the old theatrical agent, Danny Rose, and breaks off into vignette segments that play out the stories the old show biz pals are telling. This continues for about for or five vignettes, until it breaks into the main vignette piece of the film -- the story of Danny Rose and one particular client, an Italian singer who had scored a hit record with a comedy song called "Agita."
The acting, the comedy, the script, are all superb, true; but in this Allen film, the format itself is entertaining because it's not the usual linear storytelling in which a plot unfolds, etc. (Like Star Wars, where the plot drives the film.)
It was a joy seeing this classic from the '80s with Joe and everyone at FTC, and if I hadn't been working that night, I probably would have joined them in one of those martinis!
-- TONY SPINELLI
For people with allergies, this is a miserable time of year: we have just come out of the mold season, the season of thaw (also known as the mud season here in New England) and are well into some kind of pollen season, when the trees are blossoming.
But if you don't have allergies to the tree blossoms, you've got to admit that aesthetically, this time of year is hard to beat. The sight of blossoming trees has inspired artists and poets for thousands of years, all over the world. In China they speak of the plum blossoms. In Japan it's cherry blossoms. In the U.S., apple blossoms carry a lot of weight.
So get out there and enjoy this stuff. I was tempted to make a video of it but it has been really damp, dismal and cold and out of sync with the theme of a video like that.
-- TONY SPINELLI
One of my newsgroups (if you are not in newsgroups, join them now; they keep you informed about topics you are interested in) has just notified me that our big blue planet is entering a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher, the source of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Wednesday morning, in the darkness before the dawn, with 10 to 20 meteors per hour over the northern hemisphere. That's a Pink Floyd-grade light show!
The newsgroup tells me that our planet occasionally passes through a dense region of the comet's tail and rates surge five- to ten-fold. (In 1982, for example, there were 90 Lyrids per hour.) However, the outbursts are unpredictable so if you want to see what they're all about you just have to get out of bed early that day and get outdoors.
Even if the Lyrids crap out on you and don't give you any good reason to get out of bed that early, there is still something for you to check out: the crescent Moon and Venus are going to have a close encounter, low and to the east.
Now, back in the Renaissance, astrologers like Nostradamus would have been hard at work telling people exactly what all these portents in the sky mean; what they symbolize, that is.
So if anybody wants to offer a couple of shoot-from-the hip opinions, bang a line!
-- TONY SPINELLI
The U.S. Surgeon General says that Americans eat WAY too much meat, and not nearly enough plant fiber, which is the cause of a great many of our people's health problems. That being said, "America's Best BBQ," by Ardie A. Davis and Chef Paul Kirk (Andrews McMeel Publishing) is a book only an American could love.
If it's carne that you crave, then this color photograph-laced trade paperback is the one you've got to read for this spring and summer's barbecue season, to bring home the best recipes from the US of A's best smokehouses, barbecue pits, rib joints, roadhouses and grease shacks.
Did I forget to say restaurants?
From hot chili to spitted whole hog, it's all here. (If you have ever been on the Atkins diet and got bored of eating the same meats all the time, you NEED this terrific book.)
-- TONY SPINELLI
Connecticut is working hard to join the list of states that have decriminalized marijuana, but while we're at it, why not take it to the next level?
If someone wants to grow marijuana for their own personal use, just like folks including my dad who make their own wine and beer, they should be sold a license. They would be allowed to grow some for their personal use, and have a little to share, just like they do with wine and beer. The license would help the state raise funds in this recession which has decimated all the usual sources of revenue.
If someone wants to buy marijuana, sell licenses to tobacco companies to grow and market marijuana. And then place a user tax on the package of marijuana cigarettes, sold at liquor stores that also have a license for that.
But the biggest money is not from what licenses are sold and taxes are paid, but from what is NOT spent on drug enforcement. Right now, Mexican drug cartels are at an all-time peak of violence. If marijuana were completely decriminalized, with people growing their own and tobacco companies marketing their own brands, the drug cartels would vanish and all that money spent enforcing the old law would be saved. Vermont, long famous for its illegal marijuana, could finally go public and admit to the world that it grows fine cannabis. So could California. States could compete to see who has the best. It would be an entire new industry, a new shot in the arm for American agriculture.
There would also be a tremendous savings of money that is now spent on the prison system, on incarceration of people who have been arrested for selling and using marijuana.
It would be a bold move, yes, but one that would generate lots and LOTS of money and create a great many jobs and business opportunities at a time when the United States badly needs it.
-- TONY SPINELLI
ADDENDUM: Contary to public mythology, marijuana did not suddenly appear in the human race in the 20th Century. Archaeologists have found evidence of marijuana use among our ancient ancestors in prehistoric times. Scientists have also determined that the ancient drug known as Soma, which was regularly consumed by priests and prophets, was a combination of marijuana and ephedrine. Mankind has evolved with marijuana over many thousands of years and it has virtually no toxic effect on the human body.
AND ANOTHER: Not only would Mexican drug cartels dissolve, the domestic drug cartels that poison our American cities with violence and the threat thereof would also dissolve.
Bill Cotter, 62, a former copy editor at the Connecticut Post who retired three years ago due to health problems, died a couple of days ago and today was his wake. I went, to say my last goodbyes, which of course are not really goodbyes at all because we will always remember the good people we have known.
Cotter was a witty guy, full of earthy wisdom, and we really did miss him when he left three years ago. Sympathy to his family, which is deeply tied to the Naugatuck Valley -- his uncle was Ed Cotter, the well-known photographer of the Evening Sentinel back in the day when newspapers had licenses to print money because advertising revenue was so strong. I'm glad to say I knew Bill Cotter.
-- TONY SPINELLI
Note from Tony Spinelli: A YouTube pal of mine from Sweden just sent me the link to his latest music video; he took an old Charlie Chaplin movie and set it to music; he also drop-texted the lyrics (from a Japanese folk song) at the bottom of the screen. It is an amazing song and an inspiring video, and I thought you might like to check it out:
Ten years ago it was 1999, and most Americans were awash in Millenium fever, worried either that their computers would crash at midnight on New Year's Eve or the world would come to an end.
Take a look back and see all you've done, all the progress you've made, these past 10 years.
To help you reflect and recall, here is a list of the top toys for 1999, published in October of that year:
+Pokemon trading cards. (Now you can't give them away at tag sales.)
+Nintendo Donkey Kong video game. (Now kids are hyped on Guitar Hero.)
+Millenium edition Barbie. (Now girls who are 6 or 7 are too young to remember the turn of the millennium.).
+ Furby. (Remember that little furry electronic toy that everybody had to have? Now they don't.)
-- TONY SPINELLI
Congratulations to the Jim Royle Drum Studio Steel Band for providing a CD of their original music for ConnPost.com to use in newsvideos when background music is needed. Vinti Singh made a video today using the Royle tracks.
So bands and solo artists, send in those CDs! We need lots of original (not cover songs) music by local bands and solo artists to fill our library of available music.
Instrumentals, or songs with extensive instrumental sections, and holiday themes like Halloween and Christmas are in particular demand.
You will get credit on the video for your music. It doesn't pay money, but you can add it to your professional resume -- to be able to say your music has appeared as the soundtrack in a newsvideo is not a bad thing, hey?
The address here is 410 State Street, Bridgeport, CT, 06604. Send them to my attention. Thanks!
-- TONY SPINELLI
ADDENDUM: If you have original music tracks on your computer, but not on a CD, email them to me at tspinelli@ctpost.com. "A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse," as Rod Stewart once said.
The Barnum Festival's annual Jenny Lind vocal contest for sopranos set records for the number of young women competing for a spot as a semi-finalist, I was just told by Kay Page Greaser, publicist for the event.
She didn't mention in her initial email the total number of entries, but she did say that 10 semi-finalists will compete Saturday, April 25, at Salem Lutheran Church in Bridgeport for the honor of being this year's American Jenny Lind.
The singing contest is always free and is a treat for classical music and opera lovers.
Unfortunately I won't be there videotaping the contest this year -- I am already booked for two videotaping assignments that day -- a lumberjack championship and a polka dance event for my series on polka in Connecticut!
-- TONY SPINELLI
If you are moving soon and have good, reuseable furniture and clothing to donate as you lighten your load for the moving truck, you don't need to schlep the stuff around in a pickup truck to donate it. Just call the local Salvation Army and arrange for them to pick it up.
Paul Quinn, the manager of the Salvation Army store on Connecticut Avenue in Bridgeport, told me that the organization has as many as 50 men living on-site in its adult rehabilitation program, so it has a ready supply of manpower to operate one of the big trucks to come and get your stuff.
Make sure it is good and reuseable, though. If it is not the driver is authorized to leave it behind.
-- TONY SPINELLI
If you want to learn about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the perspective of Vietnam veterans, who have decades of experience dealing with PTSD, see Marine Corp vet and author Elliott Storm of Milford (April 16) when he speaks on PTSD at the American Legion Murray Renolds Post at 20 Church Street in North Haven.
The event is at 6 p.m.
Trumup will also autograph copies of his novle, "These Scars Are Sacred," which is a best seller at Amazon.com.
-- TONY SPINELLI
It was a noble goal: the Goodwill wanted to make up for a decline in donations because of the recession by offering raffle prizes to reach a goal of 400,000 pounds of donated clothing and household goods in six days, during Easter week.
But it fell short.
It did well by another measure, though. The drive raised more than last year's springtime drive amount, when the goal was 100,000 pounds.
Donations to the Goodwill are tax deductible and all the proceeds go to support programs for people with disabilities. They also provide opportunities for thrift shopping for those among us who are financially challenged by the recession.
-- TONY SPINELLI
When the news broke that President Obama is loosening the decades-old restrictions on Cuba -- a country that is only a boat ride away from Florida and had been a popular vacation and retirement spot for Americans up until about 1960 -- I was glad to hear it. It's good to forget the the animosity of the Cold War and build a future instead. (And did you see that film, the "Buena Vista Social Club?" Makes you want to go there and play some Salsa!)
So my assignment today was to try to find some Cubans to give me their reaction. Only, I couldn't find any.
I went to every Latin record shop, Latin bakery and Latin botanica shop I could find on East Main Street, Main Street and Madison Avenue in Bridgeport, but found not a single Cuban.
So, hey amigo, if you are Cuban, buzz in so we can interview you about this new era in Cuban and American relations.
-- TONY SPINELLI
When I was a kid, doo wop music was very popular, and of course I remember records like "There's A Moon Out Tonight" and "Earth Angel."
By late 1964, of course, the Beatles and Motown had taken over the pop charts, and doo wop rapidly faded into yesteryear. But you've got to admit doo wop music has great charm and in that spirit, the article I wrote and videos I made last December about the vocal group Yesteryear, have been nominated by the Society of Professional Journalists for the "best multi-media" award.
Multi-media is a new category, intended for newspapers that produce video. (When television stations produce video, it is just called television. When we do it is called multi-media.) The category has only been around a short while so it is exciting to be one of the first nominees in this exciting new category of journalism.
-- TONY SPINELLI
The earthquake in Italy is all over the news, and I have to admit, it reminds me of what I believe was the last major quake in that sunny land: the earthquake of November, 1980.
They say the good things we do come back to us and that must be true because I donated everything I possibly could to help the quake victims of 1980, and a couple of years later, I met a young woman who had grown up in one of the towns destroyed by that quake. She and I stuck like gum to a schooldesk; she became my wife and the mother of my son.
She had often joked that going back to see her old hometown was not an option, because the place was leveled by the quake. She didn't want to go back to visit anyway; the U.S. was her country now, and she was as much enamored of KFC as she was of calamari.
The marriage didn't make it past the 13 year mark -- so few marriages today last even three years -- but I'm glad for it anyway. You can't curse the summer because it ends.
Now, lol, with all the contributions I made to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 I am waiting any day now to meet a nice available lady of about 50 from Louisiana.
-- TONY SPINELLI
Perhaps no country on earth needs the message of Easter today more than our own United States.
Our nation is badly in need of a resurgence, a resurrection, so to speak. We once led the world in industry; now General Motors is on a financial oxygen tank struggling to make it another day.
The pioneering spirit of ingenuity needs to be fostered, nurtured, like it once was.
And it is something our government can do, easily: revise the U.S. patent system. Make it easy and cheap to file a patent on a new product or process, and encourage the American inventiveness.
Have you ever looked into what it costs to file a patent? I have; It is ludicrous. It costs many thousands of dollars, and actively discourages people from trying to go to market with the products and processes they have devised. They wind up using the stuff for their own good, like old time farmers who made their own tools and implements but didn't patent or market them.
Discouraging inventiveness is not the American way; not the way it should be. So this Easter, I hope the U.S. government does its part to foster a rebirth in American ingenuity by revising the ridiculously prohibitive patent system.
-- TONY SPINELLI
ADDENDUM: The U.S. also seems to have lost its zeal for religion; it seems like the only church that people want in their communities is a quiet little one where they can get married and buried, and even that is declining: more people opt for civil ceremonies and more people who die are directly cremated, with no service at all. In fact, many churches are struggling for their existence today, as I reported several weeks ago on the religion page. Churches are closing and merging to adapt to the overall decline in American religious life and of course the decline in financial support. (One former Connecticut church was even converted into an exotic dance bar.) But the minute you get a dynamic, growing congregation, neighbors start calling it a "mega-church" and try to zone it out of existence. The Bible teaches that faith is a mustard seed and must grow into a huge tree; our modern American mindset acts as if the mustard seed must not even sprout.
The University of Bridgeport happens to be the only university in the United States that offers a bachelor's degree program in martial arts.
That's significant, because many Americans love practicing some form of martial art -- whether it be a percussive art like Karate or Tae Kwon Do or a throwing and joint-locking art like Judo, Ju Jitsu, Hapkido, Aikido, Hwa Rang Do and Shaolin Chin-Na.
To see the students practicing their forms at Seaside Park, in the water of Long Island Sound with the waves rolling into their legs, is an inspiring sight, to say the least.
Here is the video I made last year about this unique and expanding martial arts degree program:
Some people want to be in the movies. Some people just want to make them.
For those who would like to operate the cameras, microphones and other equipment that is used in making films in Connecticut -- Connecticut is a significant location choice for major films -- Governor M. Jodi Rel is offering her 2nd Film Industry Training Program, starting June 1.
Applications are online at: www.ctfilmworkforce.com , although, when I clicked on that link it was dead and I could not locate it otherwise on Google.
It is a four-week program, but I can't tell you how much it costs because the press release that was sent by the state did not indicate the price. Classes take place at two colleges: Middlesex Community College in Middletown and Quinnipiac University
in Hamden. I don't know whether they are day or night classes, but the press release indicates you will learn the basics of feature film-making and episodic television production that will make you eligible to seek entry-level FREELANCE (making movies is rarely a full-time job) work in the film industry. You will be required to be a member of a union to work on those films, so the courses teaches you about that as well.
Areas of specialization are: assistant directing, location
management, production office coordination, script supervision,
lighting and grip, camera, sound, props and set dressing, set
construction and wardrobe. (What, no editing or soundtrack scoring? I guess that's not entry level.)
Students may also also receive internships with
producers and crew members on projects shooting in-state.
Applications are only available on the Web site and must be submitted
by April 22.
-- TONY SPINELLI
I saw a show in an art gallery a long time ago called "Found Art," showing examples of how ordinary objects could be recycled into pieces of furniture, decorations for the wall, etc. It inspired me and I've always had my eyes open for things like that.
So that's exactly what happened a couple of months ago, in the icy grip of New England winter, when a heavy snowstorm tore through Connecticut and knocked some trees down. I noticed that someone had chainsawed a fallen tree into thick, round blocks of trunk sections, and one of them was roughly the size of a patio serving table. It was on its way to a wood chipper or whatever but now it is, indeed, a patio serving table.
It is now set on a three-legged iron stand that had once been the base of an old chiminea. I have to admit, it makes a great tray table and it cost absolutely nothing.
-- TONY SPINELLI
I've been hard at work on a new CD in my other life as an independent music artist. So I spent a good part of my Easter vacation week working on the new set, called "The Second Touch," based on a story from the Bible. It takes roughly 15 hours of labor to complete each 3 minute song on a CD (3 minutes being an optimum length for radio), so if you do the math you quickly see that 15 hours x 15 songs = 225 hours of labor. So it's not something you can knock out in a weekend, lol, like you see in the movies. It takes a lot of planning and organization and sustained effort.
The first step, last fall, was to write the music and the lyrics for all the new songs; that itself takes many hours of work that I don't even count in the final tally. Once the songs are written, the basic tracks of acoustic guitar or electric rhythm guitar are recorded, along with the vocal track. (That's the way the Rolling Stones always did it and that's the way I like to do it.)
This week, I recorded all the digital drums and percussion. I worked at it about three or four hours a day. Having completed all those tracks, the next step will come in May, when I record all the bass guitar tracks. That is more even more involved than the percussion because all the bass guitar parts have to be written.
Then come the keyboards, the colorization instruments like mandolin and fiddle, and of course the lead guitar solos; each instrument part requires writing for that part so the writing doesn't stop. It is a project that should probably keep me busy all through the summer, and then, in the fall, I should begin making the tracks into music videos for YouTube, and compiling the CD with cover art and all. When all is said and none there will have been at the very least 300 hours of musical labor into the project, not counting the time it takes to mix the sound and master it to digital files and all that.
But of course I did other things during my Easter week as well. I lost a few more pounds, having gone to the gym everyday, practiced Aikido every day, and managed to find time to do a pro bono writing project to help a friend.
So I've been busy, haven't watched more than a half hour of television, and I am really looking forward to Easter!
-- TONY SPINELLI
When you're a child, Easter is a big deal because of the baskets of chocolate and jellybeans. Then you grow up and you find you are really looking forward to the glazed ham.
You've got to admit it, Easter has its traditional foods that are so special, so intrinsic to the enjoyment of the holiest day on the Christian calendar, that they are foods you don't eat at any other time of the year.
Here is a short list of them:
-- Boiled eggs and kielbasa. It is the Hungarian tradition to eat this for breakfast on Easter. (I have to admit though, when I've been on the Atkins diet boiled eggs and kielbasa was a nice refreshing changeup from the classic Atkins bacon and eggs.)
-- Easter bread. Popularly known as Babka, it is a sweet, eggy bread with extra yeast that goes wonderfully with a cup of coffee. (I like it better than fancy cake and it is probably better for you.)
-- Ricotta pie. It is an Italian tradition to make a ricotta cheese pie for Easter. Wheat pie falls in the same category, although when lactose intolerance is not an issue I go for the ricotta. A little powdered sugar over the top and you are in business. Ricotta is an amazingly versatile cheese; you can make dinner entrees like ravioli, stuffed shells or lasagna with it, and you can make killer desserts with it.
- Glazed ham. Baked ham is an American staple; but the glazed ham -- that is special and is reserved for Easter.
- Pizzachiana. Pronounced pizza-gain, this is another Italian Easter tradition: it is lunchmeats like spicy salami, pepperoni and provolone cheese rolled up and baked into a loaf of bread that is made on Good Friday. This special stuffed bread is then eaten for lunch throughout the Easter holy days until the last crust is gone. With the tradition of baking it on Good Friday, it is deeply connected to the Easter observance on a culinary level and a quasi-spiritual one (bread is the symbol of Jesus Christ's body) as well. It isn't diet food, by any stretch of the imaganation, but then again you make it only once a year.
-- TONY SPINELLI
It's an old tradition in the United States to eat pickles with your sandwich, if you're having a sandwich for lunch. It makes sense because you really need the vegetables, and the vinegar is good for your digestion and all that.
But when's the last time you saw a pickle barrel in a deli?
Delis aren't what they used to be. I remember in the late 1970s, there was a deli in the Lafayette Plaza mall -- a terrific little downtown mall that I spent lots of time and money in (Housatonic Community College is there now) -- there was a deli called the Swiss Colony that served classic deli sandwiches that came with a pickle.
I don't remember what it cost -- I'm certain it was not extravagant -- but in retrospect, that place was a gem.
I can honestly say that when I go to delis these days nobody EVER asks if I would even like a pickle with the sandwich. It is like pickles have fallen off the radar of the delicatessen business.
At least Subway still uses them -- there you go, Subway wins again.
-- TONY SPINELLI
I learned something new over the weekend -- something I probably should have learned a long time ago because I love spicy food -- horseradish sauce is killer.
I had heard of horseradish all my life, but had never actually seen it on a table anytime I was in a diner, restaurant, deli, etc. So I never actually tried it -- it was just something I had heard of, the way people in North Dakota have heard of canolis but probably not tried one.
So there I was Saturday, eating lunch with a friend who happens to have been born in eastern Europe, and lo and behold, he had a bottle of creamy horseradish sauce and suggested I try it on my roast beef sandwich. (Which he served with a plate of homemade gulash, but that's another story.)
So, being an amenable kind of guy, I tried it: it blew me away on a white cloud of joy! I love hot mustard -- hot Chinese mustard, hot English mustard, etc. -- and this creamy horseradish sauce was like hot mustard on steroids!
I immediately ran to the supermarket, bought a bottle of it, and began putting it on everything from boiled ham to balogna. It was like I had just discovered America or something -- I felt like a new world of culinary possibilities had opened.
It gave me a connection with my friend, who is part Serbian, part German and part Hungarian (like me) that will last as long as I live.
"Alex, every time I eat this now, I will think of you," I told him.
-- TONY SPINELLI
The pirate problem is getting major news coverage these days, but there was a time when it wasn't. Following is a blog I wrote last September, when the presidential election season was in full swing and the news media at large cared but a farthing for the pirate problem:
People are fascinated by pirates. "Pirates of the Caribbean" is one of the highest-grossing film series going.
But you don't have to evoke the 18th century for a taste of pirates. There are plenty of real ones, running wild right now, off the coast of Somalia.
Gun-toting, seafaring hijackers, who approach yachts and merchant ships in speedboats, have gone nearly unnoticed and mostly unpunished on the Indian Ocean until this weekend, when Naval ships of the United States and Russia are in hot pursuit of them for hijacking a Ukrainian vessel transporting military gear to Kenya.
The pirates grab a ship and its crew and demand a ransom, which is typically paid. In the first nine months of this year, they have attacked 50 ships, hijacked 25, and are holding 14 of them.
A Somali diplomat said it is the world's problem, and now, with American and Russian Naval vessels on the trail of the pirates, it will be interesting to see what comes of the situation.
The Somalian government is saying they approve of foreign governments like the U.S. and Russia using force against the pirates. But that is more of an "I dare you" than anything else because there are dozens of captives onboard that ship, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military hardware. Direct military action against the pirates on the ship could hurt the very people and merchandise the Russians and the U.S. and trying to protect. I would love to hear what the presidential candidates would suggest doing about this predicament! (My suggestion would be to fake them a payoff, get them to leave the ship, and then let them have both barrels.)
-- TONY SPINELLI
ADDENDUM: The United Nations has to step up to the plate and do its job and send a multi-national naval force to the Indian Ocean for pirate patrol. It is not up the the U.S. to do the UN's job. Half the troubles in the world would be solved if the UN would do its job.
The Lenten season is supposed to be one of spiritual reflection, of self-improvement and the willingness to face our faults and try to do better. That's the Christian line of thinking and it is significant for the United States because, despite our multi-culturalism, most Americans identify themselves as some type of Christian; they may be Catholic, or Protestant, or Orthodox, or other (Adventist, Pentecostal, etc.)
But this past month during the Lenten season of 2009 has probably been the bloodiest, most murderous month in American history. There have been six mass shootings in the past four weeks. It is like someone pushed a button somewhere, some kind of panic button, and all of a sudden we've got amateur night at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
So when we go to church Palm Sunday to gather palms, there is no place on earth that could use those blessings right now more than our own United States of America. We should put some palms on a flag. Something is wrong here and making our rivers run red with blood -- our own. Foreign terrorists? We don't need them. They are superfluous. In 2001 our hearts turned toward each other in solace but eight years later we are up to our necks with the anger and rage of our own countrymen.
-- TONY SPINELLI
ADDENDUM: Make that seven. In Graham, Wash., almost as the above blog was being written, a man who lived with his five children in a trailer park shot them all to death before putting a rifle to his own head.
ADDENDUM: One day later, eight. Looks like nobody put palms on the flag.
There hadn't been a dog in the house in some time, until my niece Christina the veterinary technician was over about a month ago with her Tibetan Spaniel, Patron (named for the tequila brand owned by multi-millionaire Margartaville-monger Jimmy Buffett.)
The sight of lovable Patron inspired something deep within the heart of my 19-year-old son, Ant, and he realized that he had always wanted a dog too. (He had one when he was two, a black Labrador named Scorpio, but that's another story.) So, my college sophomore son was off to get a dog of his own, the one he had always wanted: a pit bull!
I joked with him that with the jaws of a pit bull, my right leg might become a play toy for his new pet, named Kobe, because he jumps high, like Kobe Bryant.
"He already chews on my legs," my son confided.
I guess we'll save money on Pupperoni and Beggin' Strips with that one!
-- TONY SPINELLI
I was researching Lenten fish traditions for an article that will appear Saturday on the religion page (the video is already up and running) and I asked Pastor Heather Sinclair of the First United Methodist Church in Shelton why fish is the meal for Friday during Lent in the first place.
Her answer: at the time of early Christianity -- and indeed for most of European history up to present times -- fish was plentiful, common, and inexpensive. It was considered a simple food, an unpretentious food, and that is why Christians ate fish on Friday, abstaining from more expensive luxury meats like beef, pork and poultry. Protestants like Methodists were never bound by dietary restrictions anyway.
When I was young, that was still pretty much true. I remember steaks were kind of expensive and my family ate them as kind of a treat, but you could go to the fish market and buy a bag of fish for like five bucks. Fish was plentiful and cheap, true.
But it is no longer true. Fish today is a premium item and it often costs more than beef, pork or poultry. It is no longer an inexpensive, unpretentious food item. Go to a restaurant and it is one of the pricer items on the menu.
This economic reality -- the reverse of the way things used to be -- may be at least part of the reason fewer people seem to eat fish on Friday during the Lenten season. Have you priced a fish n' chips meal lately? It costs like $8 for a two-piece fish n' chips. With a soda, you are talking about an easy $10. That is MORE than going to Subway, Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, or Taco Bell, etc. (When I was a kid fish n' chips was cheaper. I used to get it at the Polish place, Up to Date, on the East Side of Bridgeport. There would be lines going out the door. It is not like that now, even during Holy Week.)
So, if you wanted to eat something simple and inexpensive to avoid luxury items on Friday for Lent, I can understand how fish is not on the bill.
-- TONY SPINELLI
ADDENDUM: Speaking of inexpensiveness, it is not until you go to a mainstream deli where a chicken salad on hardroll costs $5.25 do you appreciate the bargain that Subway is: at Subway, you get a footlong turkey and cheese grinder, loaded with vegetables and dressings, for five bucks flat -- throw in another $1.50 or so and you also get a nice fountain soda to go with it -- I don't know of a single mainstream deli that can beat that deal.
ANOTHER ADDENDUM: If Catholics think their old-school Lenten dietary observances are strict, they should look at the Orthodox: over at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Bridgeport, I was told the Orthodox abstain from all meat, milk, butter, cheeses, and even eggs during the entire season of Lent, not just Fridays -- that would hit me like a brick because I am a guy who by habit eats two eggs for breakfast, often with a couple of strips of bacon or a couple of links of Jimmy Dean, to control my blood sugar.
AND ANOTHER: Up to Date fish n' chips went out of business in the 1980s shortly after an armed robbery that rattled the family's nerves. Armed robbery of small takeout food shops was common in the '80s; I remember the owners of a fried chicken place and a pizza place were shot to death during holdups.
Soundtrack from Milford Point video sticks to indie chart
Back in February, I released "I Could Never Lie," the soundtrack song from the ConnPost.com video I made called "Winter At Milford Point," and I am happy to say it has stuck to the chart like gum over at indie station hardcoremix.com, on the Web.
The song has been number two for nearly a month, after having been number four or number six for a few weeks at the Cleveland-based streaming radio station -- from my other life as an independent music artist.
So, please tune in to hardcoremix.com and check out the Top Songs icon or scoot over to our video player here at ConnPost.com on the Photos and Multimedia page and backscroll to "Winter At Milford Point."
-- TONY SPINELLI
They say laughter is the best medicine; in that case, I just took a round of antibiotics: I have just seen music videos by a mysterious guy named St. Sanders who infringes copyrights of music videos by famous bands, using their footage but substituting his own ridiculous music and vocals that amazingly matches the lip-synching and hand-synching of the actual tape.
If you haven't checked out St. Sanders and his "shreds" on YouTube, do it immediately: big record companies are after him to take his stuff down because he does not have the right to reproduce those music videos, even if it is in a comical parody format that people love. (His Ozzy Osbourne handclapping spoof was reportedly shut down by Ozzy's manager/wife Sharon Osbourne in a fury.)
He's underground, and he's the hottest parody artist since Weird Al Yankovic in the '80s, so check him out before they shut him down!
(I couldn't stop laughing when I saw his parody of kabuki band KISS.)
-- TONY SPINELLI
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