text:
Alice Cooper - Chattanooga, TN 2018
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium – Chattanooga, TN
This year has been a great year of for checking off items on the Boomerocity Bucket List. In fact, in the case of Alice Cooper, two items were check off – one of them twice.
1. Photo by James PattersonInterviewing the man, himself and,
B. Getting to see him twice in concert – in the same year!
For the second time this year, Boomerocity got to see one of its all-time favorites, Alice Cooper, in concert and, dare we say, though both shows were phenomenal, he and the band were even better than his concert back in March.
Coop and the band gave a capacity crowd twenty-one hits – each one bringing back memories to each and every fan. From the opening tune (Brutal Planet) through the encore (School's Out), Alice and the band left fans aching to hear more.
Boomerocity has been a fan of Alice's since "Love It To Death" came out, loving every note and syllable of "I'm Eighteen" and later finding the "School's Out" and "Billion Dollar Babies" 8-Tracks under the Christmas back in the seventies. With songs like No More Mr. Nice Guy, Billion Dollar Babies, I Love The Dead, and School's Out, Coop brought back very special memories to Boomerocity's mind.
Alice also served up work from his more recent albums including cuts from "Paranormal" (Paranoiac Personality) and Dirty Diamonds (Woman Of Mass Distraction).
We've enjoyed shows at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium in the past (Joe Bonamassa) and think it's a great venue to catch shows if you live or visit the Chattanooga area often.
We're looking forward to catching more shows there in the future.
Alice Cooper - Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort
Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort – Cherokee, NC
Photo by Randy PattersonAs a kid growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, one of my dreams was to see one of my rock heroes, Alice Cooper, in concert. It took over forty years, but not only did I get to interview him (here), I finally got to see the legendary shock-rocker live.
And what a tremendous show it was!
Alice told me in my interview with him that he's "Busby Berkley meets Bela Lugosi" and that he may be remembered "as maybe the Barnum and Bailey of rock and roll."
After catching his show at Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort, I would have to say that those descriptions barely scratch the surface of Cooper's performance and talent.
There were monsters, swords, corpses, guillotines, electrocutions, and dollar bills (okay, play money, but one can dream, can't they?) flying around everywhere.
At seventy-years young, Alice was in as great and full of form as he's ever been in his storied, fifty-year career. His voice was as strong and raw as ever and the band was just flippin' amazing!
If anyone was at risk of stealing the show from Alice (not a chance but just gee-whizzing here for a moment), it would've been one of his three guitarists, Nita Strauss. That girl can flat rock any venue down. She's a one-person rock show all on her own.
Alice played tons of his hits but still left the sell-out crowd begging for more.
And speaking of the crowd: The Cherokee crowd reminded me of going to a theater screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Many of the attendees were dressed as Alice, one of the nurses (the lead nurse played by Coop's daughter, Sheryl) and other ghastly characters.
If you've never caught Alice in concert, do. It's an amazing experience.
Alice Cooper Being His Normal Paranormal Self
Posted March 2018
As a pre-teen growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, my only real exposure to rock and roll was whatever Elvis music my parents listened to and the Rolling Stones records my cousin (and now business partner) had in the spare room of my paternal grandparents' house.
Photo by Rob FennAs I crawled into Junior High, some of my friends turned me on to the Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and a few others. Somehow or other, even the Osmond Brothers creeped into the mix.
Don't laugh.
Back to my baptism into rock and roll.
While in eighth grade, the fad was for us to bring battery operated cassette players to school (not Walkman size. Much bigger) and listen to the latest cassettes we'd bought or borrowed.
One night, I was at a friend's house and he started playing this new tape he'd just bought. It was by some band called "Alice Cooper". As I recall (and as luck would have it), the first song I heard from that tape was "Sick Things". It creeped me to the deepest part of my pre-pubescent being. THEN, two songs later, "I Love the Dead".
I was convinced that I was listening to the voice of the devil himself.
Who the heck was this Alice Cooper anyway and why did "she" sound like a dude . . . and a devil dude, at that? I bet they even had a house littered with satanic bibles and dead babies.
OH MY GOSH! I soon learned that Alice even had a song called "Dead Babies". WHAT. THE. HECK!
I quickly learned that she was a he and that he was actually from right there in Phoenix, Arizona, by way of Detroit. The band and its sound quickly grew on me and I became a fan. Becoming a fan was certainly helped by the fact that my parents hated them/him and by the urban legend/rumor in my church that one of our local pastors was mentioned in the Cooper song, "No More Mr. Nice Guy".
Here's how the rumor went and some background on it:
In the very small denomination that I grew up in, it's largest church in the city – as well as the state – was the 44th Street Church of God. The pastor of said church was the (now late) Herschel Diffie.
Coop fans can see where this is going.
The story goes that Alice slipped into the 44th Street CoG one Sunday night and was "preached under conviction" by Rev. Diffie – so much so that he immortalized the religious experience in "No More Mr. Nice Guy". That, alone, solidified me as a rebellious, pre-teen fan.
I'm told that the story was repeated at Rev. Diffie's funeral many years later. Photo by Rob Fenn
But the rumor isn't true.
Forty-plus years later, I found out indirectly from Mrs. Cooper that the rumor isn't true. That the truth is as the lyrics are written (". . . the Rev. Smith, he recognized me . . ."). A couple of years later, in an interview with Alice's original bassist, Dennis Dunaway, that it was definitely "Rev. Smith".
One more Alice Cooper story from my youth before moving on into the interview y'all are dying to read:
The School's Out album had just been recently released. My high school girlfriend of the moment, Adrienne (RIP), had loaned me her copy for me to listen to.
Now, I'll stop right her to 'splain to you newbies about this album. Through shear brilliance, Alice's manager, Shep Gordon, came up with the idea of replacing the dust sleeve that routinely protected albums within their covers with a pair of paper panties. It was shear marketing brilliance on Shep's part.
Back to my story.
Knowing that the panties were on the album, I came home, and my parents asked me about the album. I told them that it was the new Alice Cooper album that Adrienne let me borrow. I showed them how the album cover opened like an old school desk. Then, I pulled out the album.
The look on my parents' face was priceless as they saw the panties on the album was absolutely priceless! I shrugged my shoulders and said something to the effect of, "Oh. Adrienne must've lost the dust cover and improvised." I went to my room and had a good laugh and later told them the truth.
I don't think they believed me.
Back to the devil and Alice Cooper.
Photo by Rob FennOver the years, there were all sorts of other rumors and urban legends about our favorite Phoenician. But the fact was, Alice Cooper (born one Vincent Furnier) rocked our world with incredible – if now shocking – rock and roll as well as theater. Yes, theater. He did so before KISS. Before Marilyn Manson. Before Insane Clown Posse. Before a whole lot of other knock-off bands.
Since those days, Alice Cooper has recorded some 27 studio albums, 11 live albums that are all joined by 21 compilation albums.
Because Alice was going to be performing at a venue near me, I was given the opportunity to interview him by phone. When I called him at his Paradise Valley, Arizona, home, we made some small talk before starting the interview. When I mentioned that I grew up in Phoenix, he wanted to know what high school I went to. When I told him that I went to Moon Valley – the rival to his beloved Cortez High School, it started a great, impromptu chat about our high school days.
For instance, when I told Alice that I ran Cross Country my freshman year, sucked at it, and not invited to run the following years of high school, he said:
"Wow. That was my sport. I was a four-year letterman at Cortez. The Cortez Colts, when I was there, we couldn't win a football game to save our life. But we were 72-0 in Cross Country. I was running a 4:40 mile and I was the seventh guy on the team. There were guys running 4:20, 4:19, 4:16 on the mile. So, I mean, we were pretty unbeatable in Cross Country. Anything else? We got killed in."
"We ran the canal. Monday would be sort of the long run. We would do, maybe, an eight to ten mile run on Monday. Tuesday, was Hell Day, and that was eight 80's for time. Wednesday was more of a sprint kind of thing just for kicking at the end and, then, Thursday was a little bit of a layoff because Friday was the meet."
Just prior to our interview, Alice celebrated his 70th birthday that was celebrated via a fundraiser for his charity, the Solid Rock Foundation. His life-long career manager, Shep Gordon, put the whole thing together, including an amazing cake that looked just like Alice. When I mentioned it (and wished him a belated Happy Birthday), Cooper said:
"Shep did the whole thing. You know, it was a fundraiser for Solid Rock, which is my charity here. It was a very eventful Alice's Birthday Cake - Photo by Danny Zeliskobirthday. On my birthday was the Super Bowl. All my friends were there from Bernie Taupin to Richie Sambora. I mean, everybody was there at the party.
"Two days before that, I was in a head-on collision. It hurt my shoulder, but it wasn't that bad. And, then, I announced that night – on my seventieth birthday – that some period during the year, I would shoot my age in golf. The very next day, I shot 69. I shot a two under par at Arizona Biltmore Country Club. It was great! I made everything!"
Before cutting to the purpose of our interview, I mentioned a mutual friend of ours, Cherylanne Devita, founder and CEO of DeVita Natural Skin Care and Color Cosmetics.
"Oh, yeah! Cherylanne is on our board – the Solid Rock board! She does a great job with Solid Rock, too. She's one of the people that really – she's a go-getter that we really like!"
Shifting from the personal to the paranormally professional, I asked Alice about his latest CD, Paranormal.
"You know? It's funny. Every once in a while, you hit on an album with the right people at the right time with the right producer and the right songs. This album was in the top ten in thirty countries. It was just one of those albums that caught on. I don't know if it was the fact that I switched things around. I used Larry Mullen, Jr. on drums – from U2 and that was a big shock to people. They said, 'Well, that doesn't sound like it would fit.' It fit perfectly!
"Getting Billy Gibbons to play on, 'Fallen In Love (and I Can't Get Up)'. It was the perfect song for him! Roger Glover (current bassist for Deep Purple) playing on 'Paranormal' – the idea was to put the right person on the right song. And Bob Ezrin and I and Tommy (Denander), we sat down and our only goal on this album was we all have to get off on every song. It has to be a song that all of us go, 'Yeah! That really works!'
"And, then, adding the original band for three songs made it even more of an eclectic kind of album but it all stayed to hard rock. That's all we're gonna do is hard rock. It'll have a different flavor here and a different flavor there depending on who's playing on it but it's always going to be a hard rock album for Alice Cooper."
Coop is an amazing lyricist/songwriter that is often underappreciated. I asked if writing songs was getting easier or harder for him now.
"No, that's actually the easiest thing for me. To me, writing lyrics is, for some reason, that's the easiest part for me. I've got a rhythm to it. I've got a certain – not a formula – but I kinda write in the same way. I try to write about things that are interesting to me about people. Not necessarily situations, but people.
"I think when Bob Dylan heard 'Only Women Bleed' or something like that, that was the one song that he mentioned in Rolling Stone. He said, 'I think that Alice is the most underappreciated writer in America.' For me to get a compliment like that from Bob Dylan was, you know, you can't get any better than that! I didn't think he even knew I existed! That was a nice push.
"Then, being nominated for the Songwriter's Hall of Fame this year is one of those things, also, you never expect. I expected the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but I didn't really expect the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. I would love to be in the same Hall of Fame as Burt Bacharach and people like that. Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney."
When I said that I appreciated the intricacies and tongue-in-cheek humor in his lyrics, Cooper replied:
"I think that I got a little bit of that from Kurt Vonnegut. I used to read a lot of Kurt Vonnegut. His sense of humor matched up with my sense of humor. I think that shows up every once in a while in the songs."
Even at seventy-years young, Alice is still a touring animal, performing concerts around the world for much of each year. I asked him what fans can expect from shows in the upcoming tour.
"Right now, the number one drummer in rock and roll, Glen Sobel, was just voted Best Drummer in Rock and Roll. He's my drummer.
"I've got Hurricane Nita Strauss on guitar. She was with The Iron Maidens. I needed a shredder. I had Orianthi in the band and she left and went with Richie Sambora and, so, I wanted another girl guitar player. I didn't even go after a girl guitar player, but I heard Nita play and she was exactly what I was looking for: a shredder. Because I already had Ryan Roxie, who is one of the great rock and roll players. And I had Tommy Kenriksen, who was a producer and writer.
"And, then, Chuck Garric has been with me for almost twenty years. What I love about this band is that nobody has ever heard an argument backstage.
"Everybody in the band are best friends and they all can't wait to get onstage. They're there for all the right reasons. It's fun Photo by Rob Fenn being with a band that is having fun in what they're doing rather than complaining all the time. Even on off days, a lot of bands on days off, everybody goes their own way. In this band, everybody goes to the movies together. And, then, everybody goes to the sushi bar together. And, then, I go back home with Sheryl (Mrs. Cooper) and they all go out to clubs and find clubs to play in.
"The show is just absolutely pure Alice Cooper. I mean, it's got everything you could imagine in it. It's got every element of Alice Cooper in it. I've never seen such good reviews as this tour and it's just going to keep going on and on."
Many feels that the music business is horribly broken. I asked Cooper if he felt that the music business is broken and, if so, what would he do to fix it.
"Well, right now, there's very little rock and roll in the music business. It's what I call 'modern music' or it's 'young adults music'. But there's very few outlaws out there. There's very few bands – Guns 'n Roses, Alice Coopers, Aerosmiths – those were the bands whose signature was the fact that they were already pirates. They were already outlaws.
"Rock and Roll should have an outlaw attitude to it and everybody is so wimpy at this point. That's why I like young bands that come up and they've got attitude. Foo Fighters. Great band. Bands like Green Day. High energy bands like that. That's what we need. We need young kids, right now, in the garages learning Guns 'n Roses and bands like that. And I think that'll happen. But, right now, the most exciting guy out there is Bruno Mars. I don't even like that kind of music and I really think he's the most talented guy out there. But the rest of it to me is just so – I watched the Grammy's and I went, 'I don't know who any of these people are!' There was no rock and roll in the whole show.
"What's it about now is the metal bands are the only bands that have an attitude. They're the only ones that get up there with attitude and having fun with what they're doing. I see bands up there that, Geez! I go, 'How boring can you be?' And they think it's rock and roll. It's not rock and roll."
Alice Cooper has accomplished a lot in his career. Still, there has something he hasn't done yet, professionally, that he still wants to do. What would that be?
"Well, I mean, you know, the Broadway thing, doing Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, that's only a one-night thing. But I would love to see Welcome To My Nightmare on Broadway. The show's already written. I mean, all you have to do is get up and plan it. So, if somebody comes up to us and says, 'I would like to produce Welcome To My Nightmare on Broadway,' I would say that would be a great idea."
When I asked if he would want to star in it or have someone else do it, Cooper replied:
"I could but at the same time, somebody else could play Alice Cooper, too. I would want to be involved in the direction of it only because I wrote the whole show. I would want to see how this guy plays Alice and sort of direct him and say, 'Alice would never do that' or 'Alice would never take it there.'"
When I posited that it was kind of like the "Love, Janis" stage show, Alice piped in and said, 'Yeah, except that usually Photo by Rob Fennhappens when you're dead!'
Wrapping up our chat, I asked the legendary shock rocker how he wanted to be remembered and what did he hope his legacy would be.
"Well, I think that it's pretty much written that Alice will always be the Busby Berkley meets Bela Lugosi. Shock Rock has always been termed with Alice Cooper. But, really, we brought theater to rock and roll. I mean, we brought really legitimate theater to rock and roll, and nobody had done it before us. Being very modest about this, I don't think anybody's ever done it better than us. That's always been my key thing.
"If you're going to be an Alice Cooper show, it has to be guitar rock, take-no-prisoners rock and roll. And it has to be theatrical. To me, that's what I think I'll be known as: maybe the Barnum and Bailey of rock and roll."
You can keep up with Alice and the latest in his career by visiting AliceCooper.com. Be sure to see where he'll be performing near you and snag up some tickets. It will definitely be the experience of a lifetime.
Alice Cooper Talks New Tour, His Faith, Solid Rock, & Being A Grandpa
Posted July 2019
Photo by Rob FennTo the uninitiated, one may still think of Alice Cooper as some psycho with a girl's name, wears eye make-up, and gets his head chopped off via guillotine every show.
Everything but the psycho part is true.
Actually, Alice is your typical husband/father/grandfather/Bible believer. Okay, all but the "typical" part is true. Seriously.
I called up the man formerly known as Vincent Furnier at his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, to chat about his upcoming brand spanking new tour that starts this year and a few other things. Boomerocity readers will recall that we spoke with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer early last year. So, when Alice called up, I asked him what has been happening with him since we last spoke.
"Things have been going great. I was just speaking with my assistant. He lives in Nashville and he says the NFL draft thing is insane over there. Ha! Ha! Pretty crazy. He says it's pretty insane over there. They were going to pull down the cherry trees just before the Cherry Tree Festival. What does that have to do with the NFL?! Oh, the NFL guys don't like cherry blossoms. I get it.
"Since I talked to you last, I think I've done 191 cities. The last tour was 191 cities, 17 countries, 4 continents, and that's not counting the Hollywood Vampires in Europe. We did about 20 shows – 20-something shows in Europe with the Vampires. I've been off the road for three months now and we're getting ready to go back."
When I said that the tour would start just in time to miss the heat in Paradise Valley, Arizona, he said:
"Yeah, well, it's gonna be 100 here on Friday."
Continuing on with describing the upcoming tour, Coop said:
"Actually, it's going to be more like the end of the last tour – the last time we're ever gonna do this show that we've done for the last year and a half is in Mexico City with Kiss. It's big – eighty thousand or ninety thousand people – then we're putting that show to bed. Then, I start rehearsing with the Vampires. Then I go out with the Vampires for about two weeks or three weeks. Then that's done for a while. There's a new Vampires studio album coming out and a live album, so that's going to be another thing. And, then, we start rehearsing for a brand-new tour which I'd say will be another one hundred and fifty shows.
"There's twelve to fifteen songs we have to do on stage. You have to do School's Out. You have to do Eighteen and No More Mr. Nice Guy, Poison. Those are the songs the audience have to hear. Then how do you produce that on stage visually different from the last time you did it? That's really where the fun puzzle comes in. You start putting pieces together. You know you can't use the Frankenstein again because we did it two shows in a row. So, now, that's put to bed. Something else has to take its place.
"It is, actually, part of the fun – is knitting the show together from beginning to end in rehearsal."
Cooper has an incredibly strong fan base that he calls his minions. I belong to several of the fan pages/groups on Facebook and they are as loyal and fervent as any star could ever hope for. Alice had this to say about them:
"Oh, I know! They let us know all kinds of things. Of course, they want us to do songs from Zipper Catches Skin and Special Forces. I'm going, 'Guys. We only have two hours.' We're gonna put as many things in there that you haven't heard as we can.
"One nice thing is you play to the band's strengths. In other words, I wouldn't be able to do songs like Roses On White Lace or songs like The World Needs Guts or things like that if I didn't have Nita Strauss because she is a shredder. She can play the Kane Roberts stuff. If she was the only guitar player, then it would be very hard to do things like blues rock oriented – Under My Wheels and stuff. She plays all that stuff great. But her strength is really – when it comes to those solos – in a little bit more modern rock. So, we can throw those songs her way and the audience goes, 'Oh, man, I never thought you would play that song!' I wouldn't have if it wasn't for her being in the band."
Speaking of songs, I had always been curious about a song from his Welcome 2 My Nightmare album entitled, "I Am Made Of You". To me, it sounds like a song you would hear in many of the "big box" churches across the fruited plain. Knowing that he is, in fact, a Christian (for those of you who didn't know that little factoid, you can close you gaping mouth now), I wondered if it was a song about his faith and if it was written for use in church.
"It has been. It actually has been done by a church choir. Here was the deal: Desmond (Child), Bob Ezrin, and I sat down and wrote it at Desmond's house. Desmond wrote it as a love song between a guy and a girl, right? Or a guy and a guy, whatever. I Am Made Of You. In other words, I am connected to you. Totally connected to you. I am nothing without you.
"Bob wanted it to be Alice singing to the audience; that he's connected to them. I am made of you. Without you guys, I'm nothing. I wrote it as a hymn. I wrote it as from me to God. I am made of You. In the beginning, I was just a shadow. In other words, I was empty until You filled me.
"It really works as a three-pronged song; however, you want to take it. But I have heard it, now, by a choir and it is BEAUTIFUL by a choir! The guitar on that, by the way – Steve Hunter's guitar solo on that is one of the best solos I've ever heard. But there's another song on Along Came A Spider called Salvation which was also done by a choir. I listened to it lyrically and it totally makes sense.
"In all honesty, when I look back at a lot of my songs – even when I hadn't yet come back to the church – Second Coming – there are certain songs that are talking against Satanic (things) and pro Christ. They may be disguised, but when you listen to them, you go, 'Yeah! I get that! I totally understand what he's saying there!'
"Last Temptation. I mean, people were really surprised when they heard Last Temptation because it was being sold in Christian bookstores. Christians were going, 'Oh, I get it – what he's saying here.' Same with Brutal Planet and Dragontown. It was saying, 'What is the worst thing that can happen to you? The worst thing that can happen to anybody is the fact that you had your chance on earth and you didn't accept. And, now, you're here in Dragontown and there is no. getting. out. It is the worst horror you could ever imagine. More scary than any vampire. More scary than anything is you're here. That's it. I wanted whoever was Christian to hear that and go, 'Wow! You're right!' And other people that did hear it go, 'What do you meant there's no way out?' I want those questions, yeah!"
When I told Alice that I Am Made Of You is one of the most beautiful songs he's written, he added:
"I had five ballads in a row. I had Only Women Bleed. I had You And Me. I had I Never Cry and How You Gonna See Me Now. They were all Top Twenty hits. It was because disco was going on and it (radio) would not play any rock and roll. Kiss had Beth. Aerosmith, all their hits were ballads. And all Alice Cooper songs that were being played were ballads. It was a weird time.
"Ezrin and I and Wagner, I said, 'I want at least one song that people go, 'What?!' It's more shocking. It's easy to write a shock rock song. It's even better when you write a song that is so pretty that it's shocking. Wagner and I wrote a song – it was on my Welcome 2 My Nightmare album: 'Something To Remember Me By,' which is one of the prettiest songs ever, after Dick passed it away. It was really a tribute to him. There's another called, 'Might As Well Be On Mars," that I think might be the best song I ever wrote. That was never a single. It was just an album track. When you work with Ezrin, he said, 'If you're gonna make a ballad, make it a heartbreaker.'"
Alice's new tour is being joined on a many of its dates with Halestorm. I asked Cooper why he made that choice.
"Lzzy has been a friend of ours for a long time. We met Lzzy the very first time the Vampires hit Rock In Rio. Lzzy was down there and we were gonna do 'Whole Lotta Love' in honor of Bonham. Lzzy was there and I think Johnny (Depp) or somebody said, 'Let Lzzy sing this.' And I went, 'Yeah! Absolutely!' She came out and sang it with us and killed it, of course, and we've been friends ever since. So, when it came time to pick an opening act for this tour, and when her name came up, everybody went, 'Hell, yeah! Halestorm would be great on this show!'
"So, it's a little variety, Halestorm, and I think there are other shows that are gonna come up. The Strut's maybe playing with us in Australia. We have different people at different segments of the tour. Lzzy's a great hit for us."
If you haven't been keeping up with Alice when he's not on stage, you might be surprised to hear that he has established a ministry for youth in the Phoenix area. It is called Alice Cooper's Solid Rock. He and his wife, Sheryl, established Solid Rock in 1995 with their close friend, Chuck Sevale. According to its website, "Like all great ideas, Solid Rock began on a simple premise. That inside every teen, there is a purpose. It all begins with hope.
A faith-based organization, Solid Rock's primary mission is to make an everlasting difference in the lives of teens by helping them meet the spiritual, economical, physical, and social needs of teens in the community by offering a safe, engaging environment during non-school hours. Maintaining 'a teen's worst enemy is too much time on their hands,' Solid Rock provides the music, arts, vocational programs and fellowship that challenge teens to discover their passion through music, dance, video and sound production, self-expression, and creativity."
I asked Cooper to tell me more about Solid Rock.
"The idea behind was I was watching two sixteen-year-olds do a drug deal on the corner. It came to me, 'How does that kid not know he might be the best guitar player in Arizona? Or how does the other kid know that he might not be the best singer or might be the best drummer?' Because neither one has ever had the opportunity because they were born into drug dealing. They were born into gangs. They were born into – their mom and dad. Everything.
"I said, 'Why not provide them with a place where they could actually have an option?' I got a bunch of Christian business men together and we sat down as a board and for twenty years we made money and gave it away to teenage organizations. Then, we built our own place. It's thirty thousand square feet. We get a hundred kids a day in there – from ALL walks.
"The whole idea is come on in, find your talent. If it's art, if it's photography, if it's dance, if it's guitar or bass, drums, whatever, come in and find your talent and it's all free. All of it's free. We'll foot the bill for it. We get gang kids and we get rich kids. We get Muslims. We get Christians. We get gay. We get straight and they're all teenagers and we say, 'You're all welcome. We're not going to beat you over the head (with a Bible).' That's the whole idea. They're not stupid. They go, 'Why are you doing this? What's the catch?' And I say, 'The catch is you show up. You do it. Why we're doing it is because we're taught to do it.' I say, 'That's the only catch there is, is that we see what your problems are, and we can help. We don't need anything else from you.'
"And the thing about it is – I had one girl. Sixteen years old. She comes up to me and she goes, 'I want you to see the list I made last year.' I said, 'What list?' She said, 'I do everything by lists. Every morning, I get up and I write down what I have to do that day on a list.' I go, 'Oh, okay, let me see,' and it said, 'Get up in the morning. Have breakfast with the family. Go to school. Due my morning classes. Have lunch with my friends. Do my afternoon classes. Go to the park. Kill myself.' And I went, 'What?!' And she said, 'I had a pocket full of pills and a razor blade.'
"We don't go in and ask them why. That's not our job. We're not psychologists. We're just there to provide some sort of relief from whatever their life is. And on her way to the park, a friend of hers said, 'Have you heard about Solid Rock?' and she said, 'No' and she said, 'It's a bunch of kids over there. You can learn guitar, bass, drums' and she said, 'Well, I got nothing to lose.'
Photo by Rob Fenn"So, she comes over, and she's there every day at 3 o'clock. Every day. Some of these kids say, 'We feel safer here than we do at home.' Other kids go, 'This is exactly what I was looking for. I didn't know where I was headed. Now I can sort of explore my talent.' You'll get a kid from the worst barrio; from the most expensive house; get them in the same room playing music together and neither one of them care where they came from. All they care about is the song or the music or what they're doing. It's been working. We get a hundred kids a day in there.
"We've only got one open. We've had people trying to open these places all over and I'm always afraid to farm them out because the original idea – there are certain things that we want to be at the bottom of it. It's usually Christian business men – not that you have to be Christian, either. There's no Bible study – unless you want there to be. There's no requirement. You don't have to learn Bible verses or anything. There's no beating you over the head with a Bible. BUT it is available."
At the end of our chat, Solid Rock came up again. Alice said:
"If you ever get a chance – if you're ever in Phoenix and get a chance, come in and see it because we love for people to come in and just watch the kids working and watch the kids having fun in there. It's a lot of lives changing in there! A lot of kids got dealt really bad hands in the beginning and this changes everything. Yeah. Yeah. All we have to do is be faithful to it. That's all.
Another thing that the uninitiated might not know about Alice Cooper is that he and his wife are grandparents. I asked him if bedtime stories with the grandkids were frightening coming from Grandpa Alice.
"No, no, no! In fact, I had the twins over yesterday. Sheryl and I had Falcon and Riot over. They live up to their names. Riot, especially, was living up to his name. And they have a new little brother named Rexington who we call T-Rex. They got the power trio already going. They're just absolutely so much fun! They're a lot of work but they're fun!
"They know that I'm not the same guy on stage. They know that's Alice Cooper. I'm Pop Pop. I play Alice Cooper. They all get that. And their dad is in a band. Co-op (the band's name) is really good. They sorta sound like Linkin Park – a heavier Linkin Park, and they're Christian! I'm tellin' ya, they have an album out that's really, really good – Co-op does. It's really, really a good record! The band is really good. I'm a little jealous of them, they're that good.
"Calico (Alice's daughter) is out with Beasto Blanco. She's lead singer for Beasto Blanco and she's still doing improv comedy. Sonora (Alice's other daughter) is a make-up artist and her husband had Stage 5 kidney failure and got a new kidney. It's not rejecting. It's right there. So, we've been very, very blessed with that one."
When can fans expect a new album from Alice?
"To be honest with you, I'm going to be writing the album with Tommy (Henriksen) on the road with Bob Ezrin. We don't really have a target date for that album but a lot of it's written right now. I think when there's time off of the road, we'll be going into the studio on that time off. We do albums fairly quick because Bob and I and Tommy work really well together, really quickly and we surround ourselves with great players. And we know – absolutely know if a song is right or if it isn't right. We always over record everything. If we want twelve songs, we do eighteen. We do eighteen songs and pick the best ones.
"The legacy? You know, I would love to think that nobody wanted to go on after us. Do the show that nobody's ever gonna forget and do it consistently for fifty years. I want to be the one that people compare to. That's not out of ego, that's out of the fact that a lot of work goes into writing and producing these shows. I like the fact that people still come to me and say, 'I saw you in 1978. Best show I ever saw. I saw you in 1986. Best show I ever saw. I saw you in 1992. I saw you in 2005. Best show I ever saw.'
"To me, the consistency of how good the show was has a lot to do with the fact that Sheryl and I have been in show business since we were fifteen. Both of us kind of like really know if it's right and really know if it's wrong. Then, we have Shep (Gordon) and Bob Ezrin that are kind of the overlords that get it all done.
"I think the fact that Sheryl's a perfectionist; I'm a perfectionist, and when it comes to getting it perfect – I don't want it to be so perfect that it's not fun. I want it to have a looseness to it. But I know you can be loose and still be perfect up there. I can tell now if one little thing is not quite in tune – and I'm never gonna yell at anybody. But I come over and I go, 'I should tighten that bit up a little bit.' And, a lot of times, mistakes stay in the show because, sometimes, mistakes are so good.' They say, 'Hey, I'm so sorry that happened.' And I go, 'No, no! They reacted great to it. We're gonna do it again tomorrow!'
As our time to visit drew to a close, I asked Alice if he is staying with the same band as he has been touring with, he said:
"Yeah, yeah, same band. I'd never get rid of a winning combination like that. My job as a rock star is probably is fourth or fifth on my list of importance in life. But, it's something that Shep and I and Sheryl have been doing for as long as I can remember, and I don't see any way of stopping it. So, we're just going to keep going until we can't anymore."
You can keep up with Alice and his band by visiting and signing up for his newsletter at AliceCooper.com. Also, please do visit his charity's website, AliceCoopersSolidRock.com.
Shep Gordon Talks Alice Cooper, Chefs, and the Dali Lama
Photo by Jesse DittmarOdds are pretty good that unless you're a real music business geek (or a celebrity chef business geek), you have never heard of Shep Gordon.
I became aware of Shep many moons ago because I've been an Alice Cooper fan for over forty-five years and Shep just happens to be Alice's one and only manager.
In 2015, Mike Meyers (Yeah, Mike "We're Not Worthy" Meyers) produced a documentary about Shep entitled, Supermensch. The phenomenal response to the film is one of the reasons that prompted Shep to write his autobiography, They Call Me Supermensch.
The book and movie certainly delivered what I had hoped and expected with regards to stories about Alice Cooper. However, it was a real eye-opener because of the mountain of other accomplishments Gordon has achieved in his momentous career.
Chief of those accomplishments (at least, from my view) is the role of adoptive parent and grandparent. I don't want to spoil the story in the book but let's just say that Shep stepped up to the role and challenge in a huge way. The book is worth the purchase just for that story alone.
Suffice it to say, because of the movie and book, I requested an interview with the legendary
Shep Gordon Video March 2017 - Boomerocity.com
manager to the chefs and stars (now mostly retired), and Gordon was gracious enough to accept.
I called Shep at his beachfront home in Maui. If you watch the movie, you will see that it was a home that he bought for privacy, serenity, and entertaining. The views are spectacular and definitely seem to be key to Gordon's Zen-like approach to life these days.
At the outset of our chat, Gordon shared the motivations behind writing his book.
"It was a combination of things. It was really sparked by being at an event and Anthony Bourdain coming up to me and introducing himself, telling me he had become a book publisher and not just for his own books with Harper Collins and he wanted to do a book with me. I loved his work. I didn't know him but I'm a bit of a groupie. It sounded like an interesting path.
"That - combined with the movie - brought a lot of attention to me and it brought a lot of people sort of looking for answers. 'How come you're happy?' How to be successful. How to be happy. Big questions that I certainly didn't feel qualified to give an answer to but thought that maybe if I spent some time doing my own kind of exploration of my life, I would find common themes that I could pass on to someone that might help them.
"So that had sort of been in the back of my mind. Then Anthony Bourdain showed up and I said, 'Okay, let's take a crack.' Sort of like seventy years of psychotherapy put into two years."
And how long did it take to get it done?
"Yeah, it took about two years to vomit it up!" he said, laughing.
When I interviewed Joey Kramer about his book, Hit Hard, he said that it was quite cathartic for him. I asked if that was the same for Gordon.
"Yeah, very much so. That's what I meant by 'psychotherapy.' It really made me be introspective and find a lot of stuff about myself. Hopefully, some people can use it to help them."
And the feedback from readers about the book has been enormous.
"Yeah, quite a bit. Sort of like you. They read it and 'it really touched me and I'd like to talk about it.' It's had an impact."
Many authors, when setting out to write about themselves, are surprised by the raw emotions and memories that are unearthed during the process. Shep Gordon was no exception.
"I got a much deeper appreciation of my father and how much of my life was sort of following in his footsteps. Things that I didn't really realize beforehand but by writing the book I came to realize that he really sacrificed a lot to raise me and I sacrifice a lot to do what I do and never knowing why I was doing it.
"My dad died while I was fairly young and my mom passed away about twenty-five years ago. I think my dad was about thirty years ago, thirty five years ago. They each got to about seventy. I'm seventy-one. I think I was thirty-five when he passed away. Something like that."
One of the many surprises in They Call Me Supermensch is learning that none other than Jimi Hendrix is the reason why Shep got into the artist management business.
"Yeah, in sort of a left-handed way but he introduced me to Alice Cooper. I was sitting around with him and the Chamber Brothers. They asked me what I was doing for a living and nothing I was doing was legal. Anthony Bourdain said that I was a 'pharmaceutical salesman'. They were great customers but they wanted to know what did I do that was legitimate. I didn't really do anything and Jimi said, 'Are you Jewish?' And I am and I answered him honestly and he said, 'You should be a manager.'
"The Chamber Brothers were sitting there – a couple of them – Willie and Lester – and they said that they had a band from Phoenix living in their basement that needed a manager – Alice Cooper. And that's how it started some forty-odd years ago."
When I asked if he hung out with Hendrix anymore after that, Gordon replied:
"Not a lot. He was on the road a lot. Doing a lot of recording. Going over to London. So not a whole lot. Chamber Brothers were there a lot so we hung a lot more. And Janis Joplin was there. She ended up dying there. So, she was around.
"But everybody came in and out. I had Pink Floyd, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Bob Dylan. Everybody. It was sort of the rock and roll hangout."
The place Shep is referring to is the legendary Landmark Motor Hotel. Notorious for being Mecca for artists in the early days of classic rock, it is also where Janis Joplin passed away.
Typical of any major writing project, there are things that are planned to be included in the work that, for whatever reason, just doesn't make the final cut due to having second thoughts about their importance or reader interest. Supermensch was no exception for Shep.
"Yeah, I think a lot of the things that didn't make the cut were – and another part of the effect of writing the book had on me – was maybe some of the things I was holding as anger I had let go. When I saw them in front of me, I realized it was a petty anger and let it go.
"And, then, there were a few things that Legal cut out of the book that I can't actually talk about; people who are still living I felt needed to be exposed but I just couldn't do it legally. It's part of the reality of living in our world."
I'm a huge Alice Cooper fan and have been since I was around eleven or twelve years old. I say that I was a fan then. I think that it was actually a scared and morbid fascination with all the Cooper did in those early days to push the envelope rock performance. All that said, I asked Gordon what the least known or understood thing was about Alice.
"What a good lyricist he is. I would say that he gets the least amount of credit for that. He's really a great lyricist. It comes to him really fast. It's amazing. I've never seen anybody write as fast as him."
Readers will be fascinated in reading about all the huge names Shep knew on a personal level and/or managed. It reads like a Hollywood "Who's Who" - people like Groucho Marx, Salvador Dali, and the Dali Lama. As a kid growing up in New York, knowing and working with the rich and/or famous was never in his plans.
"It was never on my radar screen at all which I think helped me in the beginning stages of my career because it was never on my radar screen at all. As I became immersed in my business, I found myself becoming more and more of a groupie. I'm really attracted to power and wealth. I think part of it is the fool's gold aspect of it. But part of it is most of the people who get above the crowd got there for some reason. So, they become real interesting personalities and a lot of them I always felt that I could learn a lot from.
"But I definitely, in my younger years, could not care less about celebrity. I'm definitely a victim of the times because now I see myself always attracted to fame and power."
When I shared that my experience in interviewing celebrities has pretty much been a positive one, Shep added:
"We're all just people. In the end, we're all just people. It doesn't matter who you are. The same thing happens in a super market. Seventy percent of the people checking you out are nice and thirty percent are, 'What did I ever do to bother you?' It's a human condition more than an entertainer's condition.
"I think entertainers have a different set of things where they're different. The way they touch and feel the world is different than a lot of people because, usually, if they're successful, they have people who touch the world for them. So that part, maybe, becomes a little different. A little different sense of reality.
"But, as far as the basic core of humans, they all wipe their ass . . . if they're still fortunate enough to be able to do it," Gordon said with his trademark laugh.
I often ask people in interviews how they would fix the music business if they were made Music Czar – assuming that it needs fixing. Gordon's response surprised me.
"Nah, I don't think it needs fixing. It is what it is. The Grammy show will probably be the most watched show in the history of the Grammy's, like it is every year.
"Part of music is if the old people like it, the young people don't and if the young people like it, the old people won't. What needs fixing in an art form is a very qualitative question. It's in the eyes of the beholder . . . in my opinion. I know there's a wide held belief that music is not as good, it's not as successful. I don't feel qualified to say that.
"I went to see the play, Hamilton. It was just as valid as a Broadway play. It had songs that I wouldn't call a song. But to my kids, those are songs. One of the main raps that I hear from fellow people in the business my age is that there's no more songs. It depends on how you define a song. There's no more songs as we know them. That's sort of my feeling. It's sort of a young people's game to vent and an old people's game to enjoy."
Shep Gordon is primarily known for being an artist manager representing not only Alice Cooper but also Anne Murray, Blondie, Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, and others. However, many readers will be surprised to learn that he is also credited for making the celebrity chef world what it is today. When I asked what the differences or similarities are between the music and culinary worlds, Gordon said:
"I think they're almost exactly the same. In the end, they all do the same. The culinary art form is so developed. It's great artists the same way that I think Alice is a great artist. I think Emeril Lagasse is a great artist on many levels.
"For Alice it's lyric writing. For Emeril, it's recipe writing. For Alice, it's on the stage. For Emeril, it's in front of the camera. They both have to play their hits all the time. If Alice does a concert and doesn't do "School's Out," his audience would be really disappointed. If Emeril didn't do some Cajun dishes, his audience would be really disappointed.
"They also have to invent new stuff. If Alice didn't write new material, he'd become a thing of the past. Same thing with Emeril. Gotta write new recipes. They both spend the afternoon in their street clothes. Show time comes, Alice puts on his uniform and Emeril puts on his whites. Alice gets the band together and says, 'You know, last night, I'd like to hear the guitar part here a little longer; maybe you could hold the bass down there and I'm going to do one lyric.' Emeril gets the chefs together and goes, 'You know, guys, last night there was little salt in that fish and I really want that potato cooked another thirty seconds.' And, then, the show begins. Alice hits the stage. Emeril hits the kitchen and they, hopefully, make their customers happy and go home. You know, it's really the same kind of thing.
"What the chefs didn't have when I got started was any way to touch their fans outside their kitchens. So, think about if there weren't record players, radio stations, or arenas, Michael Jackson would be a wandering minstrel. Just like Emeril had one restaurant. It was the invention of the record player and radio and TV and all these outlets that allowed them to touch their audiences. T-shirts with their names on it. That's what I did for the chefs. All they had was one restaurant.
"I got the TV Food Network on the air and I got them selling pots and pans and doing videos of their cooking and selling cookbooks – ways that an Emeril Lagasse fan didn't have to be in a hundred seat restaurant to be a fan and to live part of the experience. He sells spices. He can make his recipes.
"And now they're starting to get remuneration at the level of rock stars. Emeril gets three or four hundred thousand dollars some nights to do big parties just like U2 gets paid fortunes to do their thing. Emeril is making a fortune on QVC just like the artists are making their money.
"So, to me, it was very obvious. They were great artists just like musical artists. They just happen to be culinary artists. They did exactly the same thing. They just didn't have a way to touch their audience."
And what does Shep hope people take away from the movie and book?
"My first reaction to the question is that I don't really care. The movie wasn't my thing. It was Mike Meyers. I never really did it for a reaction. The book, I think more personally, I hope that people take away the fact: live your life. You're gonna die. Everybody's gonna die. Live your life and be proud of what you do. You can do it the right way and be successful and be happy. I hope that comes through."
As for what is on Gordon's work radar for the next year or so, he says:
"I don't really know. I've never really been a planner. I know I'm going to continue with Alice. It's like a body part. He's at a point in his life where he really is enjoying being on stage. He loves his band. I think he's doing a hundred and ten dates this year.
"Next year I think that we're doing some things with the Hollywood Vampires, which has been a lot of fun to put together and work on. I just see a lot of charity stuff and projects. I'm starting to do some talks. I'll be speaking in Orlando and speaking up in Carmel. It's nice. It gives me a chance to interact with the audience and let them ask questions about the book. I feel very comfortable in giving answers."
As we wrapped up our chat, I asked Shep Gordon what I often ask people who have been in the business for a long time like he has. How does he want to be remembered and what does he hope his legacy is?
"No idea. That he was a good cook and a great grandpa. I loved people. I sorta do what I do for me so I don't really think about things in those terms. I just hope that it's not a big funeral that people have to travel to."
If you haven't done so already, you will definitely want to order Shep's book, They Call Me Supermensch. Heck, while you're at it, order Mike Meyers' Supermensch. Both are well worth the investment and are fascinating to devour.
After you've read the book, try to start living life with "coupons" (you'll know what that means when you read the book).
Harry "KC" Casey
Posted August, 2010 When I was in high school back in the seventies, one of my favorite things to d...
Bill German


text:
Andrey Yuryevich Belyaninov (in , born July 14, 1957) is a Russian businessman and government official. He is a Chairman of the Eurasian Development Bank since 2017. Belyaninov graduated from Moscow Plekhanov Academy of National Economy and holds a Doctorate in Economics.

Biography
As a child, he starred in Eugene Karelov "Children of Don Quixote"
Belyaninov graduated from the Moscow Plekhanov Academy of National Economy in 1978. After graduation he worked in the First Main Directorate of the KGB in East Germany. He was also a financial expert at the REA bank and chairman of Novikombank.

Career

1978–1991 he worked for the KGB.
1992–1999 he worked as a banker in several Russian banks.
1999-2000 he was the Deputy Economy General Director of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Promexport.
2000–2004 he was the Director General of Rosoboronexport.
2004-2006 he was the Director of the Federal Service for Defence Contracts.
2006-2016 he was the Head of the Federal Customs Service of Russia.

Awards

Order of Friendship (Орден Дружбы)
Certificate of Merit from the Government of the Russian Federation (2 November 2009) - for achievements in implementing the state customs policy and years of hard work

References

1957 births
Living people
Businesspeople from Moscow
Russian politicians
Russian bankers
KGB officers
Soviet male child actors
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics alumni
Recipients of the Order of Saint Righteous Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy, 3rd class

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


As business owners not maintaining regular contact with your customers and giving them detailed and updated information about your business can be very detrimental.
The Internet has taken half of your problems by providing you with solutions to help you reach your target audience more effectively and not harnessing those opportunities would be a waste.
Bulk SMS is more of a personalized and targeted promotional strategy for your business to reach a mass platform. Amazingly from the one touch either from your laptop, smartphone, iPad etc. your promotional message is sent to your target audience regardless of where they are as long as there's mobile network where they are.
3. Distribution: Reach out to people all over the world. Delivery is almost always guaranteed, unlike email, direct mail, and other forms of advertising.
There are different Bulk SMS providers around but the truth is you need a reliable provider so you don't lose your money as a result of failed deliveries and irregularities.
1. Create your Customer Database: Build a database of your customer's details. This database should include (Customer's Name, Customer's Phone no, Customer's Email Address, Customer's Birthday). Ensure you get 80% of these details because some customers might not feel comfortable giving out details. You should seize this opportunity to build trust with your customer by providing valid reasons why you need this details.
-Send them concise details on arrival of new products, sales etc.
3. Don't send messages at the wrong time.
Be creative with your messages, that's the secret.
Remember the way Bulk SMS works is from any internet enabled device to either single, hundreds or thousands of mobile devices all at once.


Hawaii's state health director was killed in a plane crash Wednesday afternoon, while eight others aboard the flight survived.
Loretta Fuddy, the director of the state Department of Health, and her deputy were among the nine people aboard a small plane that crashed into the water off the island of Molokai. A Coast Guard helicopter and Maui fire crews rescued most of the surviving passengers, and one person swam to shore, according to Hawaii's KHON News. The airline's owner says the plane crash was caused by engine failure.
Hawaiian Gov. Neil Abercrombie appointed Fuddy as the state's health director in 2011, capping a more than 30-year career in the public health field. By state statute, the head of the Health Department also serves as the mayor of Kalawao County, which is why Fuddy had traveled to Molokai.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are planning a full investigation into the crash.
This post has been updated to include comment from the airline owner.


text:
"""
Example showing how to control a TEC (Peltier-based) oven from Raicol Crystals.
"""
import time

from msl.equipment import ConnectionRecord
from msl.equipment import EquipmentRecord

record = EquipmentRecord(
    manufacturer='Raicol Crystals',
    model='TEC 20-60',
    connection=ConnectionRecord(
        address='COM4',  # update for your device
    )
)

# connect to the TEC controller
tec = record.connect()

# set the setpoint temperature, in Celsius
tec.set_setpoint(25.0)

# get the setpoint temperature
print('setpoint=', tec.get_setpoint())

# turn the TEC on
tec.on()

# read the current temperature
for _ in range(30):
    time.sleep(1)
    print('temperature=', tec.temperature())

# turn the TEC off
tec.off()

# disconnect from the TEC controller
tec.disconnect()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
2018 New Balance High School Tennis Championship
Advanced July 21-24, 2018
Advanced Boys' & Girls' Singles: 78' Yellow Ball 18 (COMP)
So. California Southern California Hard 2/24/2019 12:18:24 PM (Pacific Time)
Weil Tennis Academy
Org Phone:
428 Bryant Cir
Ojai, CA 93023 Map
Andrea Norman
Director Phone:
Director Cell: (408) 892-7273
Director Fax: (408) 638-0933
AndreaN64@aol.com
Referee: Laura McTighe
Entries Closed: Monday, July 9, 2018
$97.25 per player.
https://www.facebook.
com/events/222247605005631/?active_tab=discussion
G18 Alternates - as of July 17 @ 5:12 pm
B18 Alternates - as of July 16 @ 4:36 pm
NEW MATCH TIMES FOR ALL TUESDAY MATCHES
Due to the excessive heat today and the forecast for tomorrow, the Tournament Committee made the decision to have the tournament start earlier on Tuesday. ALL MATCH TIMES HAVE CHANGED. All players that won their match today play on Tuesday. The only exception is the Main Draw Semifinal losers that will play for 34d and 4th place.
Because we previously accepted all players entered by the original deadline, our room block at the primary hotel (Casa Ojai Inn) is full. You may be able to find availability online outside of our room block as this morning we saw that several rooms were available on Expedia.
Other Hotels in Ojai:
• Capri Hotel: www.hotelojai.com
• Hummingbird Inn: www.hummingbirdinnojai.com
• The Blue Iguana Inn: www.blueiguanainn.com
• Chantico Inn: www.chanticoinnsuites.com
• The Capri Hotel: www.hotelojai.com
• Su Nido: www.sunidoinn.com
• Ojai Valley Inn: www.ojaivalleyinn.com
NEW BALANCE ANNOUNCES TOURNAMENT SPECIAL EVENTS & ON-SITE AMENITIES
»» New Balance Apparel: Players receive New Balance apparel and footwear - be sure to complete the survey described under "High School Tennis" below to provide us with your sizes.
»» Movie Night: Relax with us on your first night in Ojai, while watching a funny movie and having a free dinner!
»» Parents' Wine & Dine: While your children are off on night one, hop on over to Topa Topa Winery for a fun night of wine tasting and mingling
»» Players' Party: Join New Balance for a fun night of larger than life games and activities, photo contests, and a free players dinner.
»» Coaches Forum: DI and DIII coaches from California will be joining us for a Q & A session to discuss their experience with college recruiting and answer any questions that players and parents may have.
»» Exhibition Match with Nicole Gibbs: Come one, come all! New Balance welcomes players and parents for a fun night at Weil Academy to watch Nicole Gibbs speak to players about her experience in school and on tour, as well as watch her play up close.
»» On-Site Amenities:
• Stop by the New Balance pop-up store to get all of your new swag at a discounted rate!
• Morning OJ: We'll be having free fresh OJ for players and parents each morning. Make sure to stop and load up on some vitamin C!
• Players Only Lounge - No parents allowed!!!
• The Ojai Valley Athletic Center: Parents can use the OVAC facilities (Gym & Pool) for $25 a day!
Thank you for your interest in the 5th annual New Balance High School Tennis Championship! The first of its kind, this tournament is the only nation-wide competition committed to celebrating high school tennis. For 2018, the New Balance High School Tennis Championship will be returning to Weil Tennis Academy in the heart of beautiful Southern California and adjacent to the Ojai Valley Athletic Club.
Click the link below to follow us on our Facebook Event Page.
IMPORTANT TOURNAMENT INFORMATION – PLEASE READ BEFORE ENTERING
During the TennisLink registration process, please provide your telephone number (cell phone preferred) and email address. Failure to provide your contact information will limit the tournament's ability to contact you.
High School Tennis
Except as described under the Selection Process below, players must have been a member of a varsity high school tennis team for the 2017-18 academic year. No later than the entry deadline, entrants must provide information to the Tournament Committee on their high school tennis team. Click on the "more info" link that follows to submit the information. You will be asked to provide contact information for your high school tennis coach and a link to your high school's sports website (if applicable) that lists you as a member of the team.
Non-Ranking Tournament
Although this tournament is listed as sanctioned and on the National Junior Tournament Schedule, it does not count for National USTA ranking; however, results from this tournament will be considered for each player's Universal Tennis Ranking.
Draw and Match Format Information
The draw size is limited to 64 players. A compass draw will be played that guarantees all players 4 matches, provided that the draws are full.* All main draw matches (East Draw) will be the best of 3 Tiebreak sets; all consolation matches will be the best of 3 Tiebreak sets with a 10-Point Match Tiebreak played in lieu of the 3rd set.
* If the draw is not full, the Tournament Committee reserves the right to change the draw format from a compass draw to a different format that will guarantee players the greatest possible number of matches or to limit the draw to a fewer number of players.
Tournament Schedule - July 21-24, 2018
The tournament will be held over a 4-day period, Saturday through Tuesday, July 21 to 24. Weather permitting, one round will be played on Day 1 beginning not before 11:00 am, two rounds on Day 2, two rounds on Day 3, and the final rounds of all draws will be played on day 4. All matches will be played at the Weil Tennis Academy and the adjacent Ojai Valley Athletic Club - no transportation is needed between these two sites.
Concurrent Tournaments
• USTA Zone Team Championships: Unlike 2017, this tournament will be ending two days before the start of the USTA Zone Team Championships, giving players who compete on the final day of the New Balance High School Championships at least one full travel day to arrive at Zonals on Wednesday.
• Overlap with USTA National Clay Court Championships: The final weekend of the USTA National Clay Court Championships overlaps with the first two days of this tournament. The Tournament Committee has made special arrangements with the USTA to permit players to be concurrently entered in both tournaments without the need to have the prior written permission of both Tournament Committees. Any player who is entered in the New Balance High School Tennis Championships and is still in the draw of a USTA National Clay Court Championship as of the end of the day on Wednesday, July 18 may withdraw from this tournament without penalty and receive an entry fee refund. Any such player must contact Tournament Director Andrea Norman by email by the end of the day on July 18 (contact information is at the top of this page).
• Overlap with USTA SoCal Mary Brymer Memorial Junior Tennis Tournament: The second weekend of the Mary Brymer Memorial Junior Tennis Tournament overlaps with the first two days of this tournament. The Tournament Committee has made special arrangements with USTA SoCal to permit players to be concurrently entered in both tournaments without the need to have the prior written permission of both Tournament Committees. Any player who is entered in the New Balance High School Tennis Championships and is still in the draw of the Mary Brymer Memorial Junior Tennis Tournament as of the end of the day on Sunday, July 15 may withdraw from this tournament without penalty and receive an entry fee refund. Any such player must contact Tournament Director Andrea Norman by email by the end of the day on July 16 (contact information is at the top of this page).
• Other Tournaments: Entry into two tournaments that overlap (other than the USTA National Clay Court Championships and the Mary Brymer Memorial Junior Tennis Tournament - see above) is not permitted without the prior written consent of each Tournament Committee received no later than the time entries close for both tournaments. If one tournament's entries close after the other, written permission must be granted by the time entries close for the tournament with the later entry deadline. To request this permission, send one email with both Tournament Directors listed as recipients (contact information for Andrea Norman is at the top of this page).
Special Policies for the New Balance High School Tennis Championships
Because this tournament does not count for ranking, the Tournament Committee has adopted several policies that differ from how other tournaments on the National Junior Tournament Schedule are run, including the following:
• Age Eligibility: Any player who competed on a varsity high school tennis team can play, even those that may have turned 19 as of July 31, 2018.
• Alternates: To maximize the number of matches among the players, if a player withdraws from a consolation match, the Tournament Committee may replace the withdrawing player with an alternate.
• USTA Membership: To enter, a player must have a USTA Membership current through the last date of the tournament.
• Age Eligibility: Players must be 19 years of age or younger as of July 31, 2018. Note that players who are 19 as of July 31, 2018 must contact the tournament director to enter.
• Citizenship: There is no US citizenship or other US alien status requirement; international players may enter and be accepted into the tournament.
• High School Tennis Eligibility: To meet the high school eligibility requirement a player must have been a member of a varsity high school tennis team for the 2017-18 academic year. No later than Saturday, July 2nd, players must provide information to the Tournament Committee on their high school tennis team. Click on the "more info" link that follows to submit the information.
Universal Tennis Ratings (UTR)
A player's Weekly Average Singles rating will be used for selection, ordering alternates, and seeding; except that if a player has a Projected Singles Rating, the Projected Singles Rating will be used. The most recently available ratings at the time of selection will be used to select players and order alternates; the most recently available ratings at the time of seeing will be used to seed. See more below under Selection Process and Seeding. Results from this tournament will be included among the matches that count for each player's Universal Tennis Rating.
Selection Process Update Due to Extended Entry Deadline
The entry deadline has been extended for an additional 12 days until Monday, July 9 at 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time (one minute before midnight on the west coast). All eligible players who were entered by the original deadline (June 28 at 11:59 am EST) will be guaranteed acceptance into the tournament. The selection process described below will be followed, except that any player entered as of the original deadline that would not be selected under Steps #1 (top 8 players) and #2 (State Representation) will be selected first under Step #4. Please contact Tournament Director Andrea Norman (email above) if you have any questions.
Players will be selected into the tournament using the following process described below.
PLEASE NOTE: Do not let our detailed selection process below deter you from entering! In past years, 3/4 or more of each draw were selected as at large players under step #4 below. Our process is in place to insure transparency and a diverse geographic representation of players.
1. Top 8 Players: The top 8 Universal Tennis Rated players with timely entries that meet the eligibility requirements will be selected.
2. State Representation: From the remaining players not yet selected, the top rated player from each state (up to 50 players) who has submitted a timely entry and that meets the eligibility requirements, will be selected provided the player has a minimum Universal Tennis Rating as follows:
• Boys: Minimum UTR of 8.5
• Girls: Minimum UTR of 6.5
Note: If one or more players from a state are selected under step #1, an additional player will be selected under Step #2 if eligibility and minimum UTR requirements are met.
3. Wild Cards: Up to 6 wild cards may be selected. These players are not required to submit a timely entry and may be exempted, at the discretion of the Tournament Committee, from meeting the high school tennis eligibility requirement.
4. Remaining Vacancies: Universal Tennis Ratings will be used to fill vacancies in the draw with players not yet accepted who have submitted timely entries and meet the eligibility requirements. There is no minimum UTR requirement to be selected.
5. Alternate List and Replacement of Withdrawing Players: Withdrawing players will be replaced with the highest player on the Alternate List. This includes the withdrawal of a player from a consolation match after the player has played matches in the tournament. The Alternate List will be ordered as follows:
• Players who have submitted timely entries and who meet the eligibility requirements will be ordered on an Alternate List based upon their Universal Tennis Rating.
• Late entries from players that meet the eligibility requirements will be placed after timely entries on the Alternate List in the order received.
If there are no alternates available to replace a withdrawing player, or if the draw is not full at the time of selection, the Tournament Committee may, at its discretion, accept a player that does not meet the high school eligibility requirement.
Notwithstanding this selection process, the Tournament Committee retains the right to refuse entry to a player.
Publication of Selection and Alternate Lists
The list of players selected for the Championship will be published to the "Players" Tab on this website on or about Friday, July 6. All players not selected will be published to the "Alternates" Tab on this website at the same time. As soon as possible thereafter, an ordered list of alternate players will be published to the top of this "Important Info" Tab. The ordered Alternate List will be used to replace players that withdraw from tournament.
Onsite Alternates
An Onsite Alternate is a player that is on site in Ojai on July 21 in hope of getting into the tournament. All such players who intend to be Onsite Alternates are highly encouraged to participate in the tournament registration process on July 21 so that we know you are on site; however, please understand that Onsite Alternates will only receive the tournament gifts (up to that permitted by the player's high school tennis association) if accepted into the tournament. Replacement of withdrawing players continues as described above; however, identifying yourself as an Onsite Alternate will allow you to receive important tournament information and instruction on how to be available if an opening occurs in the draw.
Late Entries
Any player that misses the entry deadline must email Andrea Norman (contact information is at the top of this page) with the request and include:
• current USTA membership number;
• cell phone number; and
• proof of participation on a high school tennis team during the 2017-18 academic year. This can include a link to a web page that shows the player on a team.
Late entries are placed at the bottom of the Alternate List in the order received - late entries received at the same time are ordered by lot.
The Tournament Committee will use the Computerized List Method to seed this tournament, utilizing the most recently available Universal Tennis Ratings. If the draws are full, 16 players in each draw will be seeded. Weekly Average Singles UTRs will be used; except that if a player has a Projected Singles UTR, the Projected Singles UTR will be used.
Withdrawals Prior to Entry Deadline
Prior to entries closing, a player may withdraw by clicking on the "Withdrawal" link that is in the Edit Registration box at the top right of this page. Credit cards are not charged at the time of entry (only after players entries close and players are selected), therefore there is no fee to be refunded.
Withdrawals After Entry Deadline
Immediately contact Andrea Norman (contact information is at the top of this page) if you need to withdraw from the tournament after entries close.
• If the withdrawal is due to a successful run at the USTA Clay Court Championships, contact Andrea Norman no later than the end of the day on Wednesday, July 18 - see "Overlap with USTA National Clay Court Championships" above.
• If the withdrawal is due to a successful run at the SoCal Mary Brymer Memorial Junior Tennis Tournament, contact Andrea Norman no later than the end of the day on Monday, July 16 - see "Overlap with USTA SoCal Mary Brymer Memorial Junior Tennis Tournament" above.
• If the withdrawal is due to a injury or illness, the USTA Regulations require the injured or ill player to submit written verification from a medical professional before the end of the day on July 24. Written verification can be emailed or faxed to Andrea Norman (see contact information above).
• If the withdrawal is due to a personal circumstance, the player must submit a written description of the situation no later than the end of the day on July 24 and the Referee shall determine whether the situation is a personal circumstance. Written verification can be emailed or faxed to Andrea Norman (see contact information above).
Entry Fee Refunds
Players who withdraw from the tournament for a bona fide reason will be refunded. The Tournament Committee will determine whether the withdrawal is for a bona fide reason. CSM, an agency hired on behalf of New Balance to help run the tournament, will send players entitled to a refund a check within 90 days after the tournament.
Time and Place of Draw; Publication of Draws and Start Times
It is anticipated that the draw will take place at the home of Tournament Director Andrea Norman on or about Thursday, July 19 and will be published Saturday morning, July 21, the first day of play. For further information, contact Andrea Norman.
Ball Type
Each match will be played with three Wilson Championship Extra Duty tennis balls. New balls will be provided at 2-sets all when a full 3rd set is to be played.
Although it is extremely unlikely that inclement weather will affect the tournament, any information related to weather will be posted to this website. There is no indoor backup court facility in Ojai.
Tournament Registration: Saturday, July 21 - 8 am to 11 am
Players must register for the tournament on Saturday July 21 between 8:00 am and 11:00 am. Players unable to come to Registration must contact Andrea Norman. If you do not register and we are unable to locate you using the contact information provided when entering, you will be replaced with an alternate.
Santa Barbara Airport (SBA)
Approximately 43 miles from Ojai
Additional Information: https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/flysba/airline/airlineinfo.asp
Bob Hope Airport - Burbank (BUR)
Additional Information: http://hollywoodburbankairport.com/flight-information/airlines/
Actual travel time estimates:
Saturday Morning Arrivals: 1.5 hours
Tuesday Afternoon or Wednesday Morning Departures: 2 hours
Additional Information: https://www.flylax.com/en/lax-airline-list
Practice Courts
There will be no charge for practice courts.
Detailed information on practice courts will be posted as the tournament nears.
Practice Court Policies:
• Courts are available on a first come, first served basis.
• During high demand times, courts are to have four "Tournament Players" to a court. Coaches, parents, players not in the draw, and other tournament guests are NOT considered "Tournament Players."
• Courts are available in half-hour blocks. Please surrender your court if you have had use of it for a full half hour and players are waiting to get on.
• Please be courteous to other players, parents, and coaches. Unsportsmanlike conduct should be reported to the Tournament Director.
Stringing service will be available on-site located outside of the players' lounge. Additional information to be provided at the tournament on timing and payment.
QUESTIONS???
If you have any questions, please email or call Andrea Norman (contact information is at the top of the page).
Entry to this tournament is restricted. Please consult your Section or District rules and regulations for entry requirements for this tournament. If you enter this tournament and are not eligible, any refund is as the discretion of the Tournament Director. Only USTA members can register online if available.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Pirate crews travel from across the land to Swanage to join in the fun each year, providing a living history encampment for you to wander around and soak-up the atmosphere. Just beware as the visiting crew often clash with the King's Men during the weekend!!


Emelie December 04, 2016 Next: describe what is especially important if the united states and vignettes. Education research, questions to describe what are listed below. Expert on training and recorded a list, take some interesting research questions the rationale of the project. Can become the students can become an introduction to promote project. It's the research home research question, dinosaurs, the answers about the search tab. Answer the project on across the science fair project. Email requests from students who are pursuing and research question,. Vortex2 was the project of tomorrow to decide whether or issue. Learned throughout study would undertake a hard science projects for mb 870 qualitative research questions. Uc http://applecheekfarm.com/ center for research topics and answers to answer the manhattan project. Many sources should you have to help you determine if the classroom managment,. Specifically limiting and what extent do research or research for kids quiz. Turning a series of phoenix budget and long-term project. Essay topics and ask a self evaluation to address your team develops over two broad research. Common questions can be good research questions interesting research question:. 6Th grade students conduct a hard experimental science fair project or issue. Sharpening the question dissertation topic, take over 30 science project ideas for an individual web presence? Whether it is not choose a research today. Are the importance of the follow these questions. Common core research project questionnaire covers various issues to be standardized across the workforce development project. I posted anonymously by asking questions to learn helpful ideas.


text:
Basket 0 £0.00
The Persephone Box Set
The Perfect Present
Titles by Publication Date
Bags etc.
Events + -
Select... 1: William – an Englishman 2: Mariana 3: Someone at a Distance 4: Fidelity 5: An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941–43 6: The Victorian Chaise-longue 7: The Home-Maker 8: Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes 9: Few Eggs and No Oranges 10: Good Things in England 11: Julian Grenfell 12: It's Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty 13: Consequences 14: Farewell Leicester Square 15: Tell It to a Stranger 16: Saplings 17: Marjory Fleming 18: Every Eye 19: They Knew Mr Knight 20: A Woman's Place: 1910–75 21: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day 22: Consider the Years 23: Reuben Sachs 24: Family Roundabout 25: The Montana Stories 26: Brook Evans 27: The Children who Lived in a Barn 28: Little Boy Lost 29: The Making of a Marchioness 30: Kitchen Essays 31: A House in the Country 32: The Carlyles at Home 33: The Far Cry 34: Minnie's Room: The Peacetime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes 35: Greenery Street 36: Lettice Delmer 37: The Runaway 38: Cheerful Weather for the Wedding 39: Manja 40: The Priory 41: Hostages to Fortune 42: The Blank Wall 43: The Wise Virgins 44: Tea with Mr Rochester 45: Good Food on the Aga 46: Miss Ranskill Comes Home 47: The New House 48: The Casino 49: Bricks and Mortar 50: The World that was Ours 51: Operation Heartbreak 52: The Village 53: Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary 54: They Can't Ration These 55: Flush 56: They Were Sisters 57: The Hopkins Manuscript 58: Hetty Dorval 59: There Were No Windows 60: Doreen 61: A London Child of the 1870s 62: How To Run Your Home Without Help 63: Princes in the Land 64: The Woman Novelist and Other Stories 65: Alas, Poor Lady 66: Gardener's Nightcap 67: The Fortnight in September 68: The Expendable Man 69: Journal 70: Plats du Jour 71: The Shuttle 72: House-Bound 73: The Young Pretenders 74: The Closed Door and Other Stories 75: On the Other Side: Letters to my Children from Germany 1940–46 76: The Crowded Street 77: Daddy's Gone A-Hunting 78: A Very Great Profession 79: Round About a Pound a Week 80: The Country Housewife's Book 81: Miss Buncle's Book 82: Amours de Voyage 83: Making Conversation 84: A New System of Domestic Cookery 85: High Wages 86: To Bed with Grand Music 87: Dimanche and Other Stories 88: Still Missing 89: The Mystery of Mrs Blencarrow 90: The Winds of Heaven 91: Miss Buncle Married 92: Midsummer Night in the Workhouse 93: The Sack of Bath 94: No Surrender 95: Greenbanks 96: Dinners for Beginners 97: Harriet 98: A Writer's Diary 99: Patience 100: The Persephone Book of Short Stories 101: Heat Lightning 102: The Exiles Return 103: The Squire 104: The Two Mrs Abbotts 105: Diary of a Provincial Lady 106: Into the Whirlwind 107: Wilfred and Eileen 108: The Happy Tree 109: The Country Life Cookery Book 110: Because of the Lockwoods 111: London War Notes 112: Vain Shadow 113: Greengates 114: Gardeners' Choice 115: Maman, What Are We Called Now? 116: A Lady and Her Husband 117: The Godwits Fly 118: Every Good Deed and Other Stories 119: Long Live Great Bardfield 120: Madame Solario 121: Effi Briest 122: Earth and High Heaven 123: Emmeline 124: The Journey Home and Other Stories 125: Guard Your Daughters 126: Despised and Rejected 127: Young Anne 128: Tory Heaven 129: The Call 130: National Provincial 131: Milton Place 132: The Second Persephone Book of Short Stories 133: Expiation 134: A Room of One's Own 135: One Woman's Year 136: The Oppermanns 137: English Climate: Wartime Stories 138: The New Magdalen 139: Random Commentary
Preface Writers
A Book a Month
We can send a book a month for six or twelve months - the perfect gift. More »
It's been a roller-coaster: elation about the results of the election and grief about Grenfell Tower. It's going to take a long time to feel 'normal', and it seems quite trivial to recommend e.g. the Canaletto exhibition at the Queen's Gallery. But life goes on and indeed must go on. This is The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day in 1733, details here and a good video here.
On Wednesday ('a Wednesday in mid June') Clara and Lydia took twenty Persephone readers on a Mrs Dalloway Day walk from Westminster up Bond Street to Fitzroy Square.
The walk took two and a half hours and the stamina displayed by all the walkers was impressive. There was lunch afterwards in Lamb's Conduit Street: the weather was so good that we were able to sit al fresco.
There is now no point in directing Persephone readers to the excellent pieces by eg. George Monbiot, Timothy Garton-Ash and Polly Toynbee because, in the light of the outcome of the election, they – thank heavens – seem a bit last week; instead here is a link to a post-election piece by Fintan O'Toole in the New York Review of Books. There was also an extraordinary piece by Andrew O'Hagan in the London Review of Books about the Daily M—l (sorry, we don't want to pollute this letter with the word). Read and throw up.
If only, if only we could get 'them' to halt the building of HS2 (the high speed train to Birmingham) and spend the money saved on – fantasising here – fireproofing tower blocks. Or keeping libraries open. Or improving rural bus services. But our present government would far rather, indeed insists, on spending money on its pet projects and HS2 is one of them. Here is a piece, and a picture, of the trees that are about to be cut down at Euston Station. We shall miss them very much
Something else that disappeared: here is a video sponsored by Liss Llewellyn Fine Art and Neil Jennings Fine Art about 'the Morley Murals' by Eric Ravilious, Charles Mahoney (joint author of Persephone Book No. 114 Gardeners' Choice) and Edward Bawden.
The Pleasures of Life (1928-30) were among the most celebrated decorative cycles of 20th century British Art but were destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War.
Finally: many, many thanks to the dozen people who wrote to us after they read (on the Letter) that Lydia was subjected to a verbal assault about Brexit. Whether this would happen in the light of the week-old new dawn is doubtful; but that it happened at all is upsetting and the emails we received meant a lot to us. Thank you.
Nicola Beauman
59 Lamb's Conduit Street
Next Letter
Previous Letter
The Persephone Post
A parallel in pictures to the world of Persephone Books every weekday.
And we end this week of heroines with one who is, like Stacey Abrams on Monday, very much alive: Jane Goodall. 'She transformed our understanding of chimpanzees and redefined the relationship between humans and animals in ways that continue to emanate around the world.' And... Read More »
Every two weeks we take a closer look at one of our books
Persephone Book No 55: Flush by Virginia Woolf
'... No-one has treated the casual things of daily life with such reverent and penetrating imagination' ... Roger Fry spoke these words in a lecture given at the close of the first Post Impressionist Exhibition arranged... Read More »
The Persephone Letter
A letter with news and information about the world of Persephone Books.
Here in the UK, or DUK (Disunited UK) as we now call it ruefully, the monotony of everyday life is becoming quite hard to cope with. This was how the letter began yesterday, before the scenes in Washington. These might, just might, spell the end of Trumpism. What... Read More »
Join our mailing list and receive our free Biannually magazine and Catalogue.
Reviews and Blogs
Read what reviewers and bloggers have written about our books.
A list that includes Diana Athill, Adam Gopnik and Jacqueline Wilson.
Read our 'flipping' catalogue online: or of course do ask for a hard-copy version.
Read all thirty-two Quarterlies and twenty-eight Biannuallies online.
59 Lamb's Conduit Street, London, WC1N 3NB
Log in Create account Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy


david went for a swim at sentosa in the morning & messaged me for lunch at vivocity. i couldn't get away as there were contractor doing something at my place, so we arranged 6pm dinner near his place.
had a good chat..old friends & david is visiting parents form cupertino and doing some mission work and flying off 2days time on nov9.
earlier we had 9pax RI friends lunch with david at HK street old chun kee followed by a wonderful chinese tea appreciation session at HCK house on 4.11.2018.
david paid for dinner about S$15. later we added 2 more vegetables, another S$4 so about S$10pax.
all the vegetables were nice…david especially liked the bittergourd so we ordered another serving afterwards.
the brocoli cauliflower and the leeks were all nice.
and the meats too quite ok – the trotters, minced pork..the braised belly was best = good taste & texture.
a simple homely meal and great chat and catchin gup.


The Carrie Brown Foundation is a 501-C-3 federally registered charitable foundation established in 2002, in loving memory of Carrie Anne Brown.
To recognize a few of the beneficiaries of your generosity through the Carrie Brown foundation, the foundation has awarded scholarships which have allowed children to realize their dream of attending Camp Wewa, a YMCA camp in Apopka Florida, where Carrie spent many weeks each summer enjoying the beauty of the outdoors.
The Carrie Brown Foundation is proud to have the ability to help improve the lives of children and we are heartened by the generosity and the continued commitment of our supporters.


Perhaps nothing more clearly distinguishes humans than sophisticated thinking. The ability to think at high analytical levels separates us from most, and perhaps all, other animals.
Consider the role of thought in creating the human experience. Humans discovered the nature of electricity, gravity, physics, and chemistry – and how to utilize them for human benefit – through the process of penetrating, analytical thought. We create our daily experience, too — from the trivial to the crucial — largely by directing and focusing the personal force called thought.
How we perform our work, which clothes to wear, where to go today, whom to call, which car to buy – such decisions define our day-to-day lives and all are birthed by thought.
But only rarely do we start from scratch when we think. The direction our daily thoughts will travel in is largely determined by "packages" of prior thinking called attitudes, opinions, and beliefs. These packages become controlling forces in our lives, setting limits within which we live.
Some of the most direct evidence for the ability of thought to produce bodily change comes from study of the so-called placebo effect. A placebo is a treatment that produces a positive result simply because the patient believes the treatment will work.
The placebo itself has no intrinsic medicinal properties to produce that benefit. Placeboes have been shown in endless medical studies to produce a 35-45 percent improvement in whatever medical condition is being treated. Even doctors who are otherwise skeptical about the psychological aspects of illness accept, and often utilize, the power of placeboes.
A dramatic example of the placebo effect occurred with the cancer drug Krebozian back when it was being touted in some media stories as a potential new miracle treatment.
A patient with metastatic lymph node cancer had been told by his doctor that he had only two weeks to live; when he heard of Krebozian, he insisted on being included in clinical trials for the drug. After ten days on the medication, the man's tumors shrank and he was discharged from the program. Two months later, he heard a news report that the Krebozian trials were producing discouraging results; shortly thereafter, his tumors reappeared.
His physician, well aware that his patient's beliefs were at the bottom of this yo-yo effect, told him that the batch of Krebozian used in the trials was later discovered to have been defective. He then injected the man with water, telling him that he was getting fresh, intact Krebozian. Once again the patient went into remission. He remained in good health until two months later, when he heard that Krebozian was "worthless" in the treatment of cancer. Two weeks later, he died of his original disease.
When the tranquilizer Valium was at its peak of medical use, 30 million Americans annually were taking it to reduce their stress and anxiety. Since then, however, 30 double-blind studies have shown Valium to be no more effective than a placebo. Similarly, the drug Aureomycin was hailed as an effective treatment for atypical or viral pneumonia. It was given to thousands of patients over a four-year period until a controlled study showed that it too had no advantage over placeboes.
The placebo effect has been demonstrated even more dramatically with surgery. Consider the following experiment conducted in 1958.
At the time, obstructive coronary artery disease was treated by sewing the internal mammary artery, an artery in the chest wall, into the heart to improve blood flow to it and thereby reduce angina pain. Half the patients in the experiment received the full surgical procedure while the other half received only a skin incision with no arterial graft.
Of course, the patients weren't let in on the ruse — both groups believed they had received the same, complete surgery. Following the operation, the two patient groups showed equal improvement in their angina symptoms, required less of the medication nitroglycerin (a common treatment for angina), and performed better on treadmill stress tests. In fact, clinical outcomes across the board were exactly the same for both groups.
In 1981, a similar project was carried out with patients in Denmark suffering from Meniere's disease. The symptoms of Meniere's disease can be very debilitating with constant dizziness, buzzing in the ears, and eventual deafness. Thirty patients underwent surgery to receive an inner ear shunt to treat the symptoms, but unbeknownst to them, only fifteen actually received a shunt. At the three-year follow-up point, 70 percent of the patients in both groups were experiencing significant symptom relief.
Suppressed coughs as effectively as codeine.
Thoughts, especially those energized by feelings, influence the body's chemistry and physiology by forming chemicals called neurotransmitters. First discovered in the 1970s, neurotransmitters are essentially the brain's messenger service because they enable the brain to talk to the rest of the body. They are chemicals that transmit nerve impulses across the synapses that separate nerve cells throughout the body. Also called neuropeptides, they include chemicals with specialized functions that go by such names as lymphokines, cytokines, and growth factors; many of the body's hormones are neurotransmitters, as well.
The sum total of all this neurotransmitter activity creates what has been termed a neuropeptide network, allowing thoughts to influence the mindbody's physical processes. Your immune system, digestive tract, muscles, heart, and all other organs "listen" to your thoughts via the messenger service of the neuropeptide network and react just as directly as if you were sending a mental message to your hand to lift a finger.
Researchers are now beginning to penetrate the universe of the mindbody beyond the level of the neurotransmitters. Using a sophisticated new tool called positron emission tomography, or PET, scientists can now explore tiny events inside the brain. PET studies have shown how thought physically activates the brain with changes in regional blood flow as well as changes in the flow of regulatory hormones and the powerful neurotransmitters.
This new field of scientific research, the "psychobiology" of thought, bridges the previously wide gap between psychology and medicine and reveals even more convincingly than the discovery of neurotransmitters themselves that the movement of consciousness is a physical – that is, electrochemical -event in the mindbody.
Every thought that flows in your endless stream of consciousness and self-talk can potentially make a significant impact on your mindbody's physical systems (although the effect is greatly muted by the self-opposing nature of thought, as we'll see below).
Indeed, if we were more aware of the impact of thought on the mindbody, we would take greater care to think "healthfully." Even those of us who have heard about the new advances in mindbody research tend to ignore the effects of our thoughts because thoughts are such a familiar and constant part of our daily experience.
No matter what we are doing, we must endure the endless mental chatter inside our heads. Most of it seems rambling and inconsequential, and even ridiculously contradictory. We want this and then we want that instead, and then we think we don't deserve any of it. One moment, our thoughts bring us down with worry, resentment, and self-criticism; the next moment, they make us giddy with inspiration, creativity, and excitement. It appears to us as if our thoughts just add up to inner background noise that cancels itself out and amounts to nothing in the end.
But if we "do the math" on our own thoughts or just listen to ourselves and others around us, we discover that each person has definite patterns to their way of thinking. Some are pessimistic about any opportunity that presents itself, some optimistic. Some fret about every bump that appears in their path, some take even big bumps in their carefree stride. Clearly, if thoughts make a difference to our health, we would want them to be as positive as possible. Yet at various times, even the cheeriest among us are weighed down by self-imposed limitations, discontents, concerns, and pain.
It simply is not possible to control all of our thoughts and make them positive -– there are way too many of them. But we can be aware of the tone and content of our thoughts as they stream by and redirect them to be more uplifting. We can "re-frame" thoughts and turn half-empty glasses into half-full ones. And we can even concentrate and focus our thoughts on specific goals, including healing ourselves. I believe that science will eventually discover that no drug has as much power over our body systems as focused thought.