Lisa Marie Mercer | Winter Sports

December 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Lisa Marie Mercer: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Our second guest on the show this week is LISA MARIE MERCER, a fitness expert for winter sports. She will give us some pointers on staying in shape for the holidays, catching our balance, and hitting the slopes.

More about the book coming out in January from the author’s website:

The title of my book is Open Your Heart with Winter Fitness: Mastering Life Through Love of the Slopes.

An ambitious title? Yes it is. It is also an ambitious book project. The book reaches the reader on four levels:

It is a book about the physical benefits of learning a snow sport as an adult.
It describes the psychological benefits of learning a snow sport as an adult.
It discusses the spirtual benfits of snow sports.
It provides the most comprehensive winter sport fitness plan that has ever been written.

So who am I to write such a book? I have been a fitness professional since the 1970s. At first, I was the quintessential New York City girl, who had no interest whatsoever in outdoor sports. As a marathon runner who spent about two hours a day in the weight room and taught about four fitness classes a day, I was incredibly fit when I made my first attempt at skiing. However, I could not balance on my skis for even one moment. Years later, at the age of 45, I made my second attempt. By then, I was teaching Pilates and Stability Ball classes. Amazingly, I did not fall-not even once.

A few years after learning to ski, my husband and I moved to Summit County Colorado, where I am the owner of Mountain Sport Pilates and Fitness. I am the ski fitness coach for the Epicski Academy, and the ski fitness expert for YoungerNext Year.com and Ski-Clothes.com. You can read about my ski fitness ideas on ski-fitness.net.

Open Your Heart with Winter Fitness will be in bookstores in January.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Sports, Motivation, Inspiration, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Lorie Conway | Forgotten Ellis Island

December 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Lorie Conway [12:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week we spoke with LORI CONWAY, the author of a new hardcover book and an upcoming documentary on public television or cable. She spoke to us about our ancestors, and about Ellis Island, the first stop of so many immigrants to the United States. Her book and documentary are about the hospital on Ellis Island.

The following about “Forgotten Ellis Island” (the book) is taken from amazon.com:

Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals
How rare it is to find an absolutely fascinating story that has never been told.

Ruth J. Abram, president, Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Beautifully illustrated, this book offers an important history lesson and illuminates current debates surrounding public health.

Joy Hakim, author of A History of US
Lorie Conway’s wonderful book takes a little-known story from medical history and makes it a metaphor for much that epitomizes American history . . . This narrative, with its haunting illustrations, belongs to all of us. I was fascinated.

Peg Breen, president, New York Landmarks Conservancy
Lorie Conway has given us the moving human stories which bring these remarkable buildings back to life.

Book Description
A century ago, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, one of the world’s greatest public hospitals was built. Massive and modern, the hospital’s twenty-two state-of-the-art buildings were crammed onto two small islands, man-made from the rock and dirt excavated during the building of the New York subway. As America’s first line of defense against immigrant-borne disease, the hospital was where the germs of the world converged.

The Ellis Island hospital was at once welcoming and foreboding—a fateful crossroad for hundreds of thousands of hopeful immigrants. Those nursed to health were allowed entry to America. Those deemed feeble of body or mind were deported.

Three short decades after it opened, the Ellis Island hospital was all but abandoned. As America after World War I began shutting its border to all but a favored few, the hospital fell into disuse and decay, its medical wards left open only to the salt air of the New York Harbor.

With many never-before-published photographs and compelling, sometimes heartbreaking stories of patients (a few of whom are still alive today) and medical staff, Forgotten Ellis Island is the first book about this extraordinary institution. It is a powerful tribute to the best and worst of America’s dealings with its new citizens-to-be.

About the Author
Lorie Conway is an independent producer and filmmaker. Her work has been recognized with the Peabody, DuPont, and Cable Ace awards. In 1993–94, she was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University; she now serves as Vice President of the Nieman Foundation Advisory Board and as an Associate of the Boston Public Library. Her work on Forgotten Ellis Island was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. She lives with her family in Boston, Massachusetts.

Posted by admin | Filed Under History, Medicine, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Sally Franz | Holiday Grinches

December 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Sally Franz: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Our third guest is SALLY FRANZ, who has a guide to help us get through the holidays… She will speak with us about the Grinch of the family, about the ups and downs of the holidays, and much more.

Sally’s extended biography from her website www.babyboomertalkradio.com:

Sally Franz has appeared on NBC’s The Today Show with Al Roker twice and Willard Scott. She was interviewed on _The Lifetime Network , the _Maury Povitch Show , CNBC , and has shared the speaker’s stage with *Geraldo Rivera, Rosie O’Donnell, Brooke Shields, Storm Fields, Sally Ride, and Sue Grafton*. She’s produced and hosted over 150 Cable Interview TV shows for NewChannels , Group W and a radio series for Clear Channels .

Her writing has appeared in The Reader’s Digest, The New York Times Best Selling series, Chicken Soup for the Soul , and in numerous magazines, e-magazines, newspapers and anthologies here and abroad. Her ten books include testimonies from *Mark Victor Hansen, Jayne Meadows, Jonathan Winters, and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason*. Ms. Franz has received *four awards* for her humor writing and has been a motivational speaker to Fortune 100 companies for the last ten years including: SONY, Intel, Chevron and Texaco. She was recently named as one of the *2007 Top 100 Voices for The People’s Choice List* in the National Public Radio Talent Quest with her audio adaptation from Scrambled Leg, her upcoming new book.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Entertainment, Motivation, Inspiration, Business, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Dr. Elmo Transcript

December 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Introducer: You’ve been listening to Sound Authors, where authors sound off. If you’d like more information about Sound Authors and Dr. Kent’s guests, visit soundauthors.com. Now, back to Dr. Kent and friends.

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. On the fourth segment of each show, we have authors of sound. It is my childish pleasure to welcome Dr. Elmo, who is the author of “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” I’ve loved it all my life. Welcome to the show.

Dr. Elmo: Hello, Dr. Kent. Great to be on.

Dr. Gustavson: Before anything else, I think I’ll play a little of the clip that made you famous. “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” Here we go.

Dr. Elmo: OK.[Musical interlude]

Dr. Gustavson: How did this song start in your head? Did you just sit down and start playing it?

Dr. Elmo: No, I just wrote it about a friend of mine. He had a grandmother who used to imbibe a lot during the Christmas holidays. We just sat and instead of saying she was hung over, it would more politically correct to say that she was run over by a reindeer.

Dr. Gustavson: [laughs] And this song has sold how many million copies? It’s on cute little reindeer dolls, right?

Dr. Elmo: Yeah, it’s amazing that it’s sold so much because, you know, in the beginning, it didn’t start out to be a hit. A lot of people didn’t like it. Whatever station would play it, somebody would call and say they didn’t like it and they would pull it off the air. So it kind of babbled on and off for about four or five years, until finally enough people called in and they started playing it.

Dr. Gustavson: And you’re one of the first successful independent artists in a way because now, it’s open to all sorts of musicians in the industry. But back when this song first came out 25 years ago, it was not common that somebody could just get on the radio.

Dr. Elmo: Not at all. I wasn’t even a full-fledged musician at that time. We didn’t have any promo company; we didn’t have any record company or anything. It seemed to me that we were just lucky enough that so many people called up, maybe more out of curiosity than anything. They called the radio stations so much that they kind of made a hit out of it, even without a promo.

Dr. Gustavson: Can you sing a little bit from some of your new music, which is just as amusing and everything as that song was back then. We’ve all gotten an email from Nigeria. Sing a little bit from “Santa’s Email from Nigeria”, if you would?

Dr. Elmo: [sings]When your arrears up-rear yah,Like bird flu or diptheria,Hope Santa won’t bum steer yah,With an email from Nigeria.

Dr. Gustavson: all right. I assume you’ve also gotten emails from Nigeria. Have you answered any of them?

Dr. Elmo: Well, now, whenever I receive an email from Nigeria, I always send them a link to my song.

Dr. Gustavson: [laughs] Nice. And you’re also a marathoner. I hear that you ran the New York marathon this year. Do you sing when you hit the wall at 20 miles?

Dr. Elmo: [laughs] That’s the last thing that comes out of me when I hit 20 or 21 miles. You won’t be hearing anything out of me other than heavy breathing.

Dr. Gustavson: [laughs] What are you working on now?

Dr. Elmo: I’m working on a new album. I make a new Christmas album every year. I’m working on a new album. I have a new Halloween album that we just had out in the last year. That was our last project. It involved a lot of writing that I thought was our cleverest one yet.

Dr. Gustavson: And where can we find your music online and in stores? What’s your website?

Dr. Elmo: It’s online. My website is drelmo.com which is just D-R-E-L-M-O or drelmo.com. My music is available at all Wal-Mart stores and pretty much stores all over the country. That’s by Wal-Mart and most of the rest of them as well.

Dr. Gustavson: And we can find it everywhere, I can assure you. Let’s listen to a little bit of “Grandma’s Killer Fruitcake.” We’ve got it cued up here. Let’s listen.

Dr. Elmo: OK.[Musical interlude]”Holidays were upon us, And things were going fine.’Til the day I heard the doorbell, and a chill went up my spine.I grabbed the wife and children, and as the postman wheeled it in.I fear the Christmas nightmare has come back again.”"It was harder than a heavy, hocky pucky, heavy as a sermon, if you’re lucky.One’s enough to give the whole state of Kentucky a great big belly ache.It was denser than a drove of barnyard turkeys. Tougher than a truckload of all beef jerkies.Drier than drought in Albuquerque. Grandma’s killer fruitcake.” [trails off but plays in background]

Dr. Gustavson: I love your songs. I’ve been a follower for many years and a lot of us have loved your songs even though we might not necessarily have known who you were. We’re going to check out your website at drelmo.com. What are you doing for Christmas this year?

Dr. Elmo: Well, I’m on a tour right now, but I’m going to be home. I’m in Rochester, New York. I’m in Binghamton, New York, sorry, and I’m playing with Brenda Lee tonight in a concert. Then we play in Syracuse and then I fly back to California. I have a couple of my own concerts back in Marin County, California. That will be on Christmas Eve.

Dr. Gustavson: So we’ll keep tabs on you at drelmo.com. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Dr. Elmo: Thank you, Dr. Kent. It was my pleasure.

Dr. Gustavson: And thank you to everyone who was on the show today: Natalia Ippolito, Bob Goodrich, Jon Paul Hutchins and Dr. Elmo. Thank you to engineer Anthony Farabee, host guru Sonia Darte, Executive Producer Charlavan Hart, Sound Engineer Reuben Columbe, and Randy Jackman with e-cards.Be safe and have a happy holidays. We’ll see you next week. Visit us on the web at soundauthors.com.[Musical interlude]

Posted by admin | Filed Under Comedy, TRANSCRIPTS, Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Bob Goodrich Transcript

December 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. Today is our Holiday Show. It’s December 21st. And my next guest is Bob Goodrich, winner of 14 Emmy Awards and his newest project is called Sports Cast Stars Training. Welcome to the show.

Bob Goodrich: Thank you very much for having me.

Dr. Gustavson: Who did you grow up listening to on television?

Goodrich: Wow, I grew up listening to Chris Shinkle and Jim McKay and, you know, some of the old-time great announcers, Curt Gowdy. You know, I remember listening to him when I was a kid on the radio all the time.

Dr. Gustavson: Who was your home team?

Goodrich: Well, I grew up in Dallas so I didn’t really have one until the Dallas Cowboys came into town. We didn’t have much pro sports back then.

Dr. Gustavson: And you produced Monday Night Football..

Goodrich: Yeah, yes I did.

Dr. Gustavson: … and that’s how the Emmy awards got… Are you an athlete yourself?

Goodrich: Yes, I played football through college and played basketball through high school and ran track in college and through high school and played baseball in the summertime. So, I’ve always been an active athlete.

Dr. Gustavson: Can you give us kind of a breakdown of what creating the show was like? You know, you worked with the sportscasters. You worked with..

Goodrich: Yes, yes. It…one of the things that I always tell people is that when you’re watching a sporting event, I decide what you see and the director decides how you see it. And then obviously you listen to the announcers for the description and replays and so forth.So, I decide where the replays go. I decide where, you know if we have to promote another show. I decide when a timeout comes, whether we’re going to do a commercial - all of those kinds of things.And then the director decides, as I said, how you see it. Whether he takes a tight camera of the participants or a wide camera or an in-zone camera, or whatever it might be.

Dr. Gustavson: Man, television sure has changed since then. When I was a little boy watching, you know, the tiny little television at my grandparents’ house-black and white and grainy-colored television at my folk’s house that didn’t do all of this fancy stuff with painting the first down line on the field.

Goodrich: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Gustavson: How has television shaped the way that we think about sports?

Goodrich: Well, I think, the biggest innovation was color. I think, that was far more important than HD. Although we’re all being told that we have to have HD in another year-and-a-half or so. But, color made it so much easier to tell the difference between teams when you were watching sports and to be able to tell the various nuances of the game-whatever the game was. So, I think, that’s been the biggest.And the next biggest is obviously our ability to do replays from every single angle and every single camera that we have.Then the third thing is the recent addition of the Sky Cam. I happen to be a huge proponent of Sky Cam because you can - you sort of feel like you’re a part of the play when you see the play from a Sky Cam.

Dr. Gustavson: And the sound makes a lot of difference too; now days they can mic the field.

Goodrich: Yes. Yes, I am totally with you on that because most shows in all honesty don’t pay that much attention to getting the sound. But, I think, the sound can really add to the experience for the viewer of watching whatever game it is.It doesn’t matter whether it’s, you know whether its golf and you just occasionally hit a - hear a sound of the ball being hit and the crowd applauding. But, it makes a huge difference in the perception that the viewer has about the sporting event that they’re watching. And it’s all positive.

Dr. Gustavson: Tell us a little bit about some of these folks that you’ve worked with. You wrote a little bit to us about Howard Cosell and O.J. Simpson. Tell us a little bit about them and about a couple of other characters that you worked with.

Goodrich: Well, Howard Cosell is…I think, anybody that has either heard of him or seen him or knows of him, you know, would probably admit that he was a kind of a character.Howard was probably the most intelligent person I ever worked with, was certainly the most unusual person I ever worked with and you just never knew what was going to happen. One day he would call and tell me I was the worse producer in the history of television and two days later he’d tell me what a great job I’m doing and… You just sort you know - you just sort of took it and said, “That’s Howard and that’s his moods.”He knew a lot more about the sports he was calling than I think, people gave him credit for. He brought a different perspective to it because he was not an athlete. And he brought intelligence to whatever game or boxing event or Wide World of Sports event that he was calling.And he did his homework. He had a photographic memory and could remember anything he read about a participant in a game or an event. He was… by the blind is, he was a lot of fun to work with. And you know there were some trying moments, but so what? You know, it was worth it because he really, really made a difference in our business.As for O.J., I worked tons of shows with O.J.–Wide World of Sports, Super Stars, any number of events and I was a friend of his. Back then we played golf together and tennis together and so forth and I never, ever, ever saw a mean side of O.J. He would get frustrated or kind of mad at himself because he made a mistake and hit a bad golf shot or something but when we were working together or around people and stuff he was as charismatic a person as you could ever want to be around. So, I have nothing but fond remembrances of working with O.J.

Dr. Gustavson: When you’re planning these shows, do you plan it and how much doest he forecaster-how much does the voice sort of improvise on its own?

Goodrich: Well it depends on the event but for the most part the event dictates what I do and what the sportscaster does. Hopefully we stay in sync with what we’re doing. That’s part of my job is to make sure that we stay in sync because if you have a blowout football game hypothetically you’re going to treat it differently than you would a tie game because there are so many additional stories you can tell and so many additional features that can be used in a blowout. In a tight game you don’t want to lose sight of what’s going on on the field. So, it’s more, I think, the event than anything else.

Dr. Gustavson: Let’s talk about the holidays a little bit. Where are you going to be for the holidays?

Goodrich: In Las Vegas for a bowl game and in Atlanta for a bowl game.

Dr. Gustavson: You’re still working hard after 35 years in the business?

Goodrich: Yes, because I love it. It’s so much fun to do and the people are so great. I enjoy sports. I’m not a sports junkie. I don’t sit everyday and read box scores everyday and stuff but I enjoy producing the sports and enjoy being there and working with the great people I work with and getting to enjoy the people that are participating in whatever the event is.

Dr. Gustavson: And speaking about that I’d love to talk a little bit here about…you also founded the Sportscast Stars Training?

Goodrich: Yes. What we’re trying to do is take people who have a great desire to be a sportscaster, that are coming out of college or changing professions or whatever. Or people that are working somewhere in the business now but are not at the highest level and they’d like to be at the highest level and believe they can be at the highest level. That’s why we call it Sportscast Stars Training because we’re going to show them how to become a star.I have worked with all the greatest sportscasters in the last 35 years but they’ve pretty much been in the business so I know what it takes and I know what you need to do to become a great sportscaster. So, that’s what we’re doing. We have a very limited size on the seminar. We can only accept sixty people and we’re hoping to get sixty people that have this great desire and that out of that we will help the industry by finding some really great talent that will move on and work in the industry and people will say ‘boy, that person - he or she - is terrific. Where’d he come from or where’d she come from? And we’ll be able to say we helped them with our seminar.

Dr. Gustavson: The industry sure has changed a lot also. I mean even from when I was a kid. It was so much more focused on the voice and now it’s so much more media personalities and all of that. Do you think it’s going a good way?

Goodrich: Yes, I think, it’s going a good way as long as it doesn’t go too far away from the calling of the game or event because that’s what in all reality - and we all know this - that’s what people are tuning into the event for or the telecast for. It’s for the event. So, I’m all for having some fun. I’ve all for interviewing people. I’m all for putting little features into the events, I’m all for any and all of that - sideline reporters - but as long as it doesn’t take away from people enjoying the game. I’ll go back to what I was talking about a while ago, the difference between a blowout and a tie game.

Dr. Gustavson: Tell me what your greatest accomplishment is.

Goodrich: Ohh, probably my five-year-old daughter. That would be my greatest accomplishment. In terms of my work it would probably be producing the first Super Bowl for ABC Sports back in 1985.

Dr. Gustavson: Those are both wonderful events. You’re the winner of 14 Emmy Awards and which one of those are you most proud of?

Goodrich: Probably the Indianapolis 500 because it is such a difficult event to do and requires so much teamwork by so many people and to put it all together and have it work and work so well and have a great race and then win an Emmy Award for it was very gratifying.

Dr. Gustavson: Well thank you so much for being on the show. Bob Goodrich’s new project is called Sportscast Stars Training. We can find out about that - where can we find out about it?

Goodrich: Our website is sportscaststarstraining.com, just like you said. And there it gives you all the contact information, email, 800 numbers and all that kind of stuff to call us about any questions and we’d love to talk to anybody that has any interest in it.