PeaceJourney.com Marketing Entertainment For A Better World: February 2016

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Finding Peace ...Do You Feel Like I Do? David Bowie Tribute

Peter Frampton Conquers 'Stubbornness and Fear' for 'Acoustic Classics'

2/22/2016 by Gary Graff

Playing acoustic is hardly alien to Peter Frampton -- "Baby, I Love Your Way" from Frampton Comes Alive, anybody? But it did take him awhile to wrap his head around the idea of doing a whole album that way.

"People have been trying to get me to do it for years, and I just didn't want to try it," Frampton -- who releases the 11-track Acoustic Classics, premiered exclusively below, on Feb. 26 -- tells Billboard. "I now think it was just stubbornness and fear -- or fear and then stubbornness because I was scared."
Frampton put those fears aside to record Acoustic Classics in his Nashville studio, playing acoustic guitar and bass and a bit of piano on "I'm In You." Regular collaborator Gordon Kennedy joins on the lone new song, "All Down To me," but the album is mostly populated by a combination of favorites --- yes, even "Do You Feel Like I Do" and "Show Me The Way," the latter complete with Talk Box -- and lesser-known gems such as "Fig Tree Bay," the first track from his 1972 solo debut Wind of Change, "Sail Away" and "Penny For Your Thoughts."

Peter Frampton Pays Tribute to 'Dear Friend and Mentor' David Bowie: 'I Can Never, Ever Thank Him Enough'

"When I started the CD I thought, 'Ha ha, it's gonna take me a couple of days,' and yes, was I wrong," Frampton says with a laugh. "I have such a high standard of my own output that when I did two or three tracks, I came into the control room and listened to them and I was just, 'It's OK. It's good. It's fine,' but I wanted more. So I spent a few months going in every day doing different performances of different songs until I found the ones that worked for me and I thought people would like. I wanted it to be like, 'Hey, sit down, I've just written a song' and I sit down and play you 'Lines on My Face' or whatever and you were likely drawn in 'cause you're the only person in the room besides me, and that's how I look at it, like a one-on-one experience."

Frampton acknowledges that given the iconic epic it is as a live piece, he initially did not consider including "Do You Feel Like I Do" on Acoustic Classics." But towards the end of the recording process changed his mind. "I thought, 'Look, I've done all the others. Let's give it a go,'" Frampton recalls. "I think the most important thing for me was that the instrumental portion of the beginning came off well. It's just a different take on it, y'know? It's an acoustic 'Do You Feel.' I can understand if some people just won't listen to it because they only want to hear the other one, but for me, going from 'I can't do that' to 'Yeah, it's not so bad,' it works for me."
Frampton, Kennedy and Frampton's son Julian toured acoustically last fall and are headed out for another 13-show run of the west coast on March 9. In addition to the Acoustic Classics, Frampton also performs Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue," the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood," material from his Humingbird in a Box EP and a couple of Humble Pie tracks -- and, he notes,"We talk a lot between songs." One of the show will be filmed for broadcast on AXS later this year, and a live release and perhaps a second acoustic album are under consideration. But Frampton, who plans to be on the road with his full band this summer doing dates with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Gregg Allman, is also looking forward to plugging back in for his next album.

Peter Frampton Wants to Help You Tune Up With

His New Crowdfunding Campaign: Exclusive

"I need to move forward as well; I don't want to get stuck right there (acoustically) too long," he explains. "I want to move on to something different and then maybe the album after that might be a live acoustic show. Some people in this industry have said that the more senior artists like myself, no one wants to hear new music from them, so don't worry about it. I get it. But that's what I do, you know? You can't just stop. So even though new music from me isn't going to leap to the Top 40 stations or streams or whatever, it doesn't matter because it's what I do every day. I'm always creating. Whether people want to hear it or not, I'm gonna do it."

Frampton's mind these days is also on the passing of good friend David Bowie, who Frampton has known since school days in England and played with both then and as part of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider Tour Band. "It's hard to talk about for me, still," Frampton says. "He was a great, dear friend, and as an artist he was totally unique. We grew up together. We went to the same school, so obviously it's hit me very hard. That was a tough day -- for everybody. I"m not saying I'm special, but it just so happened that I knew him all my life so it was hard. It still is hard. I miss him greatly."

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6882856/peter-frampton-conquers-stubbornness-fear-acoustic-classics

Waukegan Theatre Company A LIttle Jack Benny History Lost

Waukegan's Bowen Park Theatre Company to close after this season

Sheryl DeVoreNews-Sun

The curtain will go down on the Bowen Park Theatre Company after its spring performances, but many in the Waukegan arts community are already mourning the loss of a professional production company that has staged comedies and dramas for nearly three decades.
Smaller audiences and reduced state funding are among the issues that led to the decision, according to artistic director Jason Clark and Claudia Freeman, superintendent of cultural arts at the Waukegan Park District.

"I feel like Clockwise (Theatre) is losing a big brother," said Gurnee resident Madelyn Sergel, playwright and past artistic director of Clockwise Theatre, which opened about six years ago in Waukegan.

The Bowen Park Theatre Company "has fought the constant battle for audiences, actors, media and dollars to bring vibrant art to our neck of the woods," Sergel said.

Bowen Park Theatre Company's last performance will be the final showing of "On The Verge," according to Clark.

The park district oversees the theatre and other activities at the Jack Benny Center for the Arts including the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra and Waukegan Concert Chorus, which perform at various venues in the region, plus arts and music classes and other cultural activities. All of those activities will continue, Freeman said.
Freeman said both she and Clark are "heartbroken" about closing the theatre's doors, but that it's time to move on.

"This is a choice Claudia and I made to step back, to re-evaluate the future of Bowen Park Theatre," said Clark, adding that local theatre supporters have expressed disappointment about the decision.
"Claudia and I had talked about this for a while," he said. "We've been having fewer and fewer people audition and there's been a slow decline of the audience over time."
Clark said he wants supporters to know "it was our decision, not the park district's decision to close." He added it hasn't helped that funding for the theatre from the Illinois Arts Council has declined to about one-tenth of what it once was.

Clark, a Waukegan resident, actor and set designer for various local theater companies, will be acting as Long John Silver in the Devonshire Playhouse production of "Treasure Island," beginning Feb. 13 in Skokie. The role, he said, will help "lighten the sting a little" from closing Bowen Park Theatre.
It's also still possible the theatre may return to produce one production a year or in some other capacity, Clark said.

"We may do one show next year. We still hope to produce a show in the future," he said. "We are hoping this is not our swan song."But there is no plan to create another season of performances, he said.

As little as a decade ago, Clark said, "We'd add seats for our productions. We needed to because we sold out."

The theatre seats up to about 100 people, Freeman said. For a recent production of "A Few Good Men," the theatre averaged about 54 tickets sold for each showing. At another production before that, the theatre sold an average of 12 seats, she said.

Freeman said closing the theatre is a sign of the times.

"Things have changed. The numbers have gone down for performance arts (venues) in the metropolitan areas as well," she said, pointing out the December closing of Redmoon Theater of Chicago after about 25 years. Apple Tree Theatre of Highland Park closed in 2009 after 26 years of productions.

Freeman said the lighting and sound system will be maintained in the Bowen Park Theatre's space, and that it likely will continue to be rented out to other theater companies or for meetings.
"It's good space," she said.

The roughly $20,000 annual budget used for the theatre can be put to good use, she said, adding that cultural arts is alive and well at the park district.

Lynn Schornick and Ken Smouse founded Bowen Park Theatre Company and the Bowen Park Opera Company in 1987.

In 2003, the Waukegan Park District and the Jack Benny Center for the Arts renamed the Goodfellow Hall Theatre, the Dr. Lynn Schornick Theatre, where Bowen Park Theatre holds its productions.
The Jack Benny Center, located in Bowen Park, is the cultural arts division of the Waukegan Park District.

The opera company closed in 2010, said Freeman, "because we were not filling seats."
Sergel said she has seen Bowen Park Theatre's recent play, "Agnes of God," which continues through this weekend.

"It's a superb production, beautifully directed, with all three actors doing wonderful work," Sergel said.

She added that Bowen Park Theatre has been a "kind and generous friend to Clockwise, always there with a loaned prop, coming to shows, and cheering Waukegan on.
"Jason Clark could have gone other places, set up his professional tent in Chicago or L.A., but he chose to stay in Waukegan, offering up his numerous talents as director, actor and designer to his hometown," she said. "He also quietly provided opportunity to dozens of young people and was a constant advocate for designers, actors and playwrights. His work and the work of Bowen Park Theatre Company will be sorely missed."
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/lifestyles/ct-lns-bowen-park-theatre-closing-st-0210-20160209-story.html

Sunday, February 21, 2016

#LA REID Cincinnati Man and Soul Brother From Another-Mother

#LA REID Cincinnati Man and Soul Brother

I had the honor of meeting music-mogul, ‪#‎LAReid‬ in Chicago Wednesday night at Morningstar- during Chicago Ideas Week.

"Sing To Me"

There are Beautiful Miracles of Connection in This Story.

Wednesday's February 17, 2016 Chicago Ideas event was sold out, but I went anyway. A few friends tried to get tickets for me, but no luck. I heard he was in Chicago from friends Wednesday morning and on WGN TV. All I knew is I had to get there.

I did not know of LA. (My bad!). I caught him on the @KathieLGifford Today Show with Kathie Lee & Hoda 2-weeks ago. During the TV interview, I felt a deep connection. I stopped and acted, ordering his 390 page book from Amazon titled "Sing To Me". It came the next day.

Reading the book, I had learned he and I lived on the same street in Mount Auburn, Cincinnati when we were kids, a few years apart. He got his nickname "LA" when he wore a Los Angeles t-shirt at a music production meeting during the Reds vs LA World Series games in '75. Such an amazing time in Cincinnati. I lived there back then.

I read his book in one day. I did not have that planned. I kept personal Cliff Notes during the 15+ hour read--amazed to find he was from my home town, lived on the same block as young kids; and that during my adult life, I had met so many of the artists/managers he represents today, as one of the top music producers/record Executives in the world

(I have met Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Russell Simons, Snoop Dog, Justin Timberland & Lionel Richie's managers, Avril Lavigne, Michael Jackson, some members of the Wu Tang Clan).

LA also had attended Hughes High School where my Portuguese mom studied to become an American Citizen way back then. I bet they were crossing paths in those halls.

He worked on Johnson's Party Boat on the Ohio River as a kid. He wanted to be a drummer so he started by buying drum sticks because that's all he could afford. Years later he was given drums. He was a member of the band The Deele (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deele), performed at my fav venue, Bogarts in Clifton, and started the LaFace Record Label. He recorded at CGA Studios' old location where I produced a short video for my son's wedding with music, and he opened for Luther Vandros on tour (a friend of mine, Ava Cherry, was Luther's amazing back up singer and lived with and toured with David Bowie).

@LA_Reid has an amazing story about working with Michael Jackson & Jermaine and letting Lady Gaga go from Epic Records. He was a judge on the X-Factor too. I heard randomly last weekend at a dance event our granddaughter attended through a friend of my daughter's, that LA just received keys to the City in Cincy a week ago and that her hubby, a Cincy radio Exec, was at the event. More & more miracle info threading this story through so many people and over so many years.

@LA Reid writes, "Passion is my superpower. I wanted my work to be cultural." I got to tell him that "Passion, peace and culture are my superpowers". We laughed. I gave him my book to read "Peace Journey, Seven Paths To A Charmed Life". He said he would read it.

Last Sunday while watching the Grammys, Meghan Trainor @Meghan_Trainor won artist of the year. She thanked LA Reid: she cried, and so did I. To know he brings so much joy to artists & musicians got to me.

Wednesday night, in an audience of hundreds I felt his true spirit. I told him I lived in Mount Auburn till I was 6. I broke my arm in that yard! He looked at me and reached out to hold my hand--knowing what I knew too, that I am white and lived there when it was pristine, he lived there when it was nice and turned ghetto. This is where race riots destroyed part of our innocence in Cincy in '69. Yet we were right here, right now, and it felt as if time stood still.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion. When all was said and done, it was the memories we shared as little kids, when life was innocent, full of music and light, and now as adults, for a heartbeat or two, strangers; a brother I never knew, shared a precious moment from another time. They say everything you are is formed by age 5. Today, I believe that more than ever.

I have loved this series of small and important acts of connection, to remind me that God is here, in the room and it pays to trust that, no matter what.

Now, I hope to connect on the business of PeaceJourney and bringing the world to peace through youth and music!

Jeannette Barcelos Kravitz

Executive Director

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