Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Marshall Crenshaw EP Subscription Series!

Excerpt from Kick Starter: (click for entire article)

First of all, THANK YOU to the 315 people that are backing this campaign! Wow.  I appreciate it so much, as well as all the "likes", "shares" and "tweets" you have posted to help spread the word.

We are in the final hours of the campaign, and I have raised an amazing $23,000 so far! Because of the way kickstarter works however, I won't receive any of this funding unless the total goal amount of $32k is raised.  The contributions you have put forth will be returned to you and I will not be able to distribute my incentive rewards.

Prolific 92-Year-Old DVD Bootlegger Sends Thousands of Films To Troops Overseas

Patti's Comments:  Love This!!!!

Excerpt from Geek O System: (click for entire article)

When you think of pirates and bootleggers, there’s typically two places your mind might go: Punk kids, or vast organizations of bootleggers, all with thick accents. Hyman Strachman is neither of those, instead, he is a 92-year-old World War II veteran. He is however, probably one of the worlds foremost bootleggers. For eight years, Stachman has been running a pretty impressive bootlegging operation from his apartment, copying thousands of first-run movies, and sending them to U.S. troops overseas. Hardly some punk kid.

Over the course of his bootlegging career, Strachman went from burning the DVDs on his own personal computer to purchasing a $400 rig that would let him copy 7 at a time. Amusingly enough, Strachman does not actually torrent or download the films himself or anything, but rather buys them from a local bootlegger, and then proceeds to bootleg said bootlegs. Though his methods may seem a little roundabout, his record is impressive; he’s sent at least 4,000 boxes of DVDs, free of charge, to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marshall Crenshaw EP Subscription Series!

Patti's Comments:  I LOVE MARSHALL CRENSHAW!! Please consider supporting this interesting way of distributing Music he came up with!!! I did!!  By the way music fans, years ago I had a picture from Rolling Stone of Marshall performing at the Stone Pony - Bruce made an infamous surprise appearance & they performed together!  If anyone recalls that picture or ever sees a link to it again please send it to me!! My idea of musical heaven!

Rock On!!

Excerpt from Kickstarter: (click for entire article)

Help bring Marshall Crenshaw's vision for a two-year, 6 EP subscription series released as 10" picture sleeve vinyls and digital downloads to life!  Each EP will feature a brand new Marshall Crenshaw track written and recorded exclusively for this series, a great cover tune and a classic Marshall Crenshaw song which will  be re-recorded.  The EPs will be released every four months over the course of the next two years. Help fund this campaign and be the first to receive the EP subscription, as well as other Marshall Crenshaw items and experiences only available through Kickstarter.

Aretha Franklin Video Birthday Greeting From Detroit

Excerpt from WDET: (click for entire article)

Aretha Franklin celebrates her 70th birthday Sunday, March 25th. Please join WDET, Detroit, and Larry Callahan and Selected of God Choir (from the "Imported From Detroit" Chrysler video) in wishing the Queen of Soul a Happy Birthday!

Music therapy soothes patients young and old

Excerpt from The Miami Herald: (click for entire article)

Rachel Harrell, tiny and rail-thin at 90 years old, sits in her armchair, staring vacantly ahead. Her niece, Marion Adderly, prompts her to greet the woman who has just entered the house. Harrell doesn’t turn her head while the group around her talks, and someone tunes a guitar in the corner of her room.

But suddenly the guitarist begins to sing Amazing Grace, and everything changes. Harrell, who had just struggled to mumble “hello,” starts to sing along. By the time the song has switched to T his Little Light of Mine, she is sitting upright and clapping in time.

Harrell is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease and can communicate very little. But bimonthly visits from Patricia Chaviano, her music therapist who works at Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care, breathe new life into her.

Village People Singer Seeks ‘YMCA’ Rights Under Obscure Copyright Termination Provision

Excerpt from ABA Journal: (click for entire article)

Victor Willis, the Village People’s original lead singer, has filed papers to regain control of the rights to "Y.M.C.A." and 32 other songs, the story says. The termination-rights provision applies to work registered with the U.S. Copyright Office after Jan. 1, 1978, too late for the group’s other big hit, “Macho Man.”

The 35-year mark is approaching for many hit albums, the New York Times reported in a prior story. Among the musicians who have filed termination notices seeking to reclaim their rights are Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Bryan Adams, Loretta Lynn, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Waits and Charlie Daniels.

NOW Can We Induct The Monkees Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame?

Excerpt from NPR: (click for entire article)

When Davy Jones died yesterday of a heart attack at 66, Twitter, Facebook and the Internet in general lit up in warm remembrance of the amiably pint-sized Monkee who was that group's best fit for the prevailing teen-idol mold of the mid-1960s. It was a gentle outpouring of affection for someone that a lot of people felt symbolized a happy part of their youth.

Me, I got kind of angry but determined. I'm not happy that it's taken Jones's death to force us to seriously consider righting what now seems to be an obvious, glaring injustice, but now that it's happened, we need to accept the facts. It's time to induct the Monkees into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Strike that. It's well past time. (They've been eligible since 1992, 25 years and change after the release of debut single "Last Train To Clarksville," meaning that they've been snubbed for almost as long as it took them to become eligible in the first place.) Yes, they were assembled by outside forces to be Beatles clones for a television show. No, they didn't write most of their own material or, early on, play on their own records.

Whitney Houston's Estate Planning

Excerpt from TaxProf Blog: (click for entire article)

• Daily Star, Whitney Houston's Bid to Pay Tax
• E! Online, How Much Was Whitney Houston Worth When She Died?
• Forbes, Whitney Houston’s Death and Taxes
• Financial Planning Magazine, Broke or Not, Whitney Houston Now Understands Value of Estate Planning

Hundreds Crowd Mulcahy's to Rock for Autism

Excerpt from Wantagh-Seaford Patch: (click for entire article)

Five years ago, Massapequa resident Jim Cronin wanted to do something more to support his two children with autism.

The fifth annual Rockin' for Autism fundraiser for the Smithtown-based Developmental Disabilities Institute (DDI) was held at Mulcahy's Pub & Concert Hall Sunday afternoon featuring performances by Long Island rock bands One Step Ahead, Bon Journey, Time Warp and Soul and Dr. G's All Star Veteran Band.

All hail John Williams, a maestro of movies

Excerpt from USA Today: (click for entire article)

His musical themes made the water a scary place in Jaws, helped an alien and a boy wizard fly high in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and the Harry Potter series, and announced the arrival of ultimate evil in Star Wars.

Chances are, John Williams' fans listen to his movie scores a lot more than he does, yet even the composer had to turn up the volume for a recent Volkswagen commercial with a dozen dogs barking Darth Vader's Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back.

As far as the strangest versions of his music go, "I think that takes the record. I got a big kick out of that," Williams says with a chuckle.