Romy
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 Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:23 pm Post subject: Re: Ping Sue Mitchell |
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Miffed? OMG Sue! I thought they only took PayPal and I couldn>t do that
because my PayPal was all screwed up, seriously! I sent you Monk>s for
free, remember?
What was the name of his group? I can>t remember now.
I>m so glad they>re in France, and so jealous.
Monk is just finishing up bookings for concerts for a library grant he
got from Elliot Spitzer>s Payola Money. It>s been going on for the last
18 months. It was awesome here in NYS. We brought people from all over
the country to perform here in free library concerts. We got like $150K
and have been doing it for 18 months.
It has been so great. We brought people from Florida, Virginia, and
local people too, air fare, hotels, the works. The grant money was
through the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, you can check on line and
see all the people who got all the money. The grant money was supposed
to be used to present either original material with emerging artists, or
older artists who may have suffered (like Monk!) by not being able to
get a record deal. Our concert series was called "Jazz Blues and
Libraries Too!"
The thing I posted last on Monk>s blog, describes his experiences in
the 80' with a Rock 'n Roll band called Mr. Edd (note the two D>s). It
took me all day Sunday to put it together, but it>s there through the
portal at monkrowe.com if you want to check it out.
Whatever is said about Elliot Spitzer and his meandering ways, I was
horrified when he resigned so quickly. As our Attorney General, he made
millions and millions of dollars available for the arts in New York
State from suing the record companies for Payola, that>s when record
companies paid radio stations to play their tunes, and other artists may
have been denied record contracts because their tunes weren>t being
played.
I>m so sorry the last of that grant money is gone because it was good
income for us, but a ton of a lot of work (contracts, hotel bookings,
press releases, coordination with the 25 libraries in central NY; dates,
times, space considerations). The musicians, however, were paid well.
I worked really hard for Obama here, in the Mohawk Valley for Obama
group, gave to Move On, etc. Thought I was going to go out of my mind if
he didn>t get elected. I was so worried about what happened with the
swiftboaters in 2004 to Kerry. And a black man as president, holy cow. I
was so glad when Hillary got beat. I couldn>t stand her coming her to
New York to be our senator when she never even lived here! Go back to
Arkansas! Go to Illinios! Go to Pennsylvania! Her and her "stand by your
man" thing in the 90>s was a horrible role model for my two teenage
daughters. They came home one day and go "Mom, why>d she [Monica} save
the dress?" Then near the end of the struggle between Hillary and Obama,
they were saying, among the dems in NYS, "let>s offer Hillary the
Governor of New York position because maybe she>ll be satisfied with
that." Hello? As a voter, do I have any say? She>s a freaking junior
senior here, only one term in the senate. We have Charles Schumer as
Senior Senator from NY who I love. Personally I think current Governor
Paterson is really fabulous with a difficult job because of the Wall
Street crisis and the New York State budget problems which are
positively enormous.
Meanwhile, very quietly, people don>t realize that our governor of NY
is a black, BLIND man named named Paterson. He quietly moved into the
position when Spitzer resigned because he was lieutenant governor. He
put all his crap out for everyone to see, like his and his wife>s
affairs. He is so awesome. He does not wear sunglasses like Ray Charles
or Stevie Wonder, it>s very obvious he>s blind. He has to have
everything read to him and reportedly has a phenomenal memory. So all
the gays are complaining about "hey, what about us!" To them I say your
turn will come. Meanwhile Patterson is a big kudo for Americans with
Disabilities, and though we lost gay rights, Americans with Disabilities
can be proud of Gov Patterson. On the Black Entertainament Network I saw
him during the campaign and it was so funny, like the black interviewer
said "good to finally have you here, Gov" to which Paterson replied
"good to be here bro." He>s can have that black ebonics thing happening
if he wants to. Too funny.
Oh well, Monk does a lot of travel, and is doing well, but he tries to
be home in his own bed every night.
We are doing a 9 day Western Caribbean cruise out of NYC on January 2.
on Royal Caribbean. It>s "off season" the cruise lines, so we got a
really excellent deal. Who wants to travel on January 2 out of NYC? Well
the colleges are still on vacation until January 21 so I just have a few
clients to manage for us have to take any time off.
I>m really glad about your nephew, but OTOH Univeristy of Idaho thing
really was very bad. There>s hardly any money to preserve stuff, and the
Lionel Hampton Institute probably just folded their stuff into all their
other library stuff and now nobody will travel there. There used to be a
great jazz festival there in the winter, people would come from all over
to ski. Well all the funds dried up and the curator lost his job a few
months ago.
Fortunately we>re safe here at Hamilton. Our benefactor (who died in
2002) endowed Hamilton with a permanent Jazz Archive Director part time
position, with health benefits, in perpetuity. There>s no funds
available for any more interviewing though. The college will not
allocate any money at all for operating funds but he does have a free
phone, a gorgeous campus space, a yearly jazz festival which the
benefactor>s widow puts on, and all those great jazz contacts from doing
300 interviews :). Next October we>re bringing Dick Hymen (he did
Moonstruck and the Woody Allen film scorer) on piano and as leader, plus
Bucky Pizzarelli (John Pizzarelli>s Jr.'s father), Eddie Locke (black
drummer from NYC, awesome), and Nicki Parrot on bass (young fabulous
blonde bass player). Monk hasn>t decided on the horn player yet, and
whether it will be sax or trumpet, but it doesn>t matter. It>s always a
great concert and Monk makes the choices as to who comes.
I see you changed your screen name!
Good to speak with an old friend!
Romy
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Romy
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