News Views and Updates

Brief and Concise---that is the watchword here. Unlike Fair and Balanced---where have we heard that?

The line-up on TRADITIONS for July 15 you know of---if not just scroll down. It promises to be a memorable program.

DAVID AMRAM was originally scheduled for SUNDAY SIMCHA. Due to time constraints he will be on TRADITIONS and on TABLETALK. The date will be announced shortly--for TRADITIONS. TABLETALK will have his presence on August 12.

Granted this is not a great picture of a venue that promises to be a nice home for some musical events. In fact, it is a lovely theater located in Stony Point, NY making it a short drive from Bergen County, Orange County, and less than 15 minutes from points in Rockland County. The venue is the PENGUIN REP . Their drama season is now under way and you might want to check that out by clicking above on the website. Their plays are all professionally presented with Actors Equity personnel. The staging and scenery is Broadway class. As the Artistic Director mentioned in my TABLETALK interview ---"...you get Broadway for less than half the price and free parking to boot". One of last years productions that was truly "great" is moving this fall to Off Bway. This is spoken by one who witnessed it and was blown away by it----THE GOLDMAN PROJECT.

The music part will need your help if you think this worthwhile. If you do then you are joining the ranks of, among others, Margot Leverett and The Klezmer Mtn. Boys., Modern Man, Kim and Reggie Harris, and all the others you can see by clicking on the right to view pictures of artists that I have been fortunate to meet and present on TRADITIONS. New artists are also in the offing for this, hopeful, new venue to give a stage to people that can provide us with more that the "pop" and "pap" you get to attend for a very heavy price or the free "pop" and "pap" on your very own boob tube. Which, as we know, is not free. You pay for your cable or satellite and then you watch the commercials.

Now comes an opportunity for a fairly priced venue to welcome you to some brilliant talent. While I, personally, encourage this, and will present some of these people, my interest is solely---as it was, some 25 years back--- in giving a stage to people who should be seen and to have audiences expose themselves (in a most proper way) to artists they may or may not have heard of before.

You might want to contact the Penguin Rep at their web site above and request such a series.

The reception for the interviews and the book on Steve Goodman by Clay Eals has been gratifying. Mr. Eals will be in New York and the environs for book signings in the month of August. I will be joining him for a few of those. A definite one will be at The Bitter End. Some libraries in the area will also have him for his signings and discussion of his book.

It is gratifying that he has brought Steve Goodman to the fore once again. As he said---"...there are Goodman fans there and they do not even know it". True words. City of New Orleans aside (and once you say that---the response--oh, that is Steve Goodman) there are so many songs people do not realize were his creation. So many songs that he helped others compose that no one realizes were partly created by him---who asked no credit.