October 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with James M. Tabor [17:00m]:
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About author James M. Tabor:
James M. Tabor is a former Contributing Editor to Outside magazine and SKImagazine. His work has also appeared in TIME, U.S. News, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, Reader’s Digest, American Heritage, Barron’s, The Washington Post, UltraSport, and other national publications.
Tabor was the writer and on-camera host of the popular national PBS seriesThe Great Outdoors. He is co-creator, writer, and executive producer for the upcoming television series, Journeys To The Center of the World, about caves worldwide.
In Alaska, Tabor attempted Mt. McKinley and summitted Mt. Sanford. A certified Master Diver, he has dived in the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean, U.S., and Canada.
Tabor graduated with honors from the University of Vermont and earned an MFA from the Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Vermont with his wife Liz.
October 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. We had a little hiccup there with my last guest R.T. Jordan. It was a pleasure speaking with him about his Polly Pepper mysteries. My next guest is the author of Millennial Leaders, Success Stories from Today’s Most Brilliant Generation-Y Leaders. The authors are Bea Fields, Scott Wilder, Jim Bunch, and Rob Newbold. I have Bea Fields on the show with me. Welcome to the show.
Bea Fields: Hello Dr. Kent, it’s great to be here.
Dr. Kent: Tell me a little about Millennial Leaders.
Bea Fields: It is a book that is actually a collection of stories from some the top generation-y leaders of today and we basically cut the book and combined it along with some of the research scientists that have studied the generation and then we interviewed 13 to 15 generation y business leaders, entrepreneurs and political leaders and published their stories in this book.
Dr. Kent: What is Gen-Y? Of course I know, but the listeners, we talk about the millennials, the nexters, and the I-generation. Why do you call it Gen-Y and what is it?
Bea Fields: Generation-Y does not like being called Gen-Y. They were originally carbon Y because Gen-X is the generation that came before Gen-Y so the monikers clumped them in and said the next generation is generation Y. Generation-Y is very individualistic, they like their own name so they link their name to millennials. And that includes the group of men and women who were born between 1977 and 1991 but more importantly they are a group of individuals who have a very unique perspective. They see the world differently; they have been born and raised during some very significant world events and their bringing a very new outlook into work, community, family and the political system.
Dr. Kent: In the workplace I know has many generations, all the way back to before the World War II. Those folks are still in the industries. You’ve got that, the baby boomers, the X-Generation, how do they all work together?
Bea Fields: Well, the moment you have four different generations your certainly going to have four different mindsets so there is little bit of clashing with ideas, belief systems and perspectives. I know this wasn’t about all four generations, today we’re talking about Gen-Y but the biggest concern that we’re hearing right now is that Gen-Y has a very open view about how work should be done and I think accessibility to senior leaders and the dress code should be much more casual and there should be a very relaxed approach to work.
Of course, that is not really the belief system of some of your more senior leaders, especially those from the great generation and the baby boomers. They’re much more formal in their interactions and so what we’re finding is in those clashes there are also opportunities to find common ground. So that’s what we’re really working on right now is to help the four generations find that common ground around why they’re all there together, what they have in common, and what vision they share so that they can work together to create strategies for companies that will pull them forward.
Dr. Kent: Let’s take a great story of a leader of this generation, the millennials. Tell me a couple of examples.
Bea Fields: Well I can tell you a couple from the book because I think that there are hundreds of stories with Gen-Y that are very impressive but one is about a young man named Ben Casnocha and his career actually started in grade school. He started selling pens to his classmates and selling gum balls and he recognized early on that he was an entrepreneur. then at the age of 12 he started a class assignment that had him develop a website and get the constituents with government officials who could answer questions about common complaints in the san Francisco California area.
He opened a complaint website and within about a month, he had over 10,000 complaints coming into this website. What he realized in the process of trying to manage all of this, going to the government entities, a lot of governments didn’t have the software that could handle this number of complaints. So with his own entrepreneurial savvy and his own technology ability he developed a software platform that he then started selling to governments and he is now age 19, has built a very thriving company and he sits at the head of the board of directors of his own company, which is now called Comcate. And he’s only 19.
Dr. Kent: I have a random question. I had a guest a few weeks ago who talked about the dress code for Gen-Y. And she said that she often times sees kids come in flip-flops and things like that. How does this 19 year old dress? Does he wear a full suit?
Bea Fields: I met with him at a conference and he was very well dressed. He had on slacks and a jacked and a button down collar shirt and loafers. He looked like he just walked out of a corporate setting so I didn’t see that about him. Most of the Gen-Ys that we interviewed; they seem to despise those dress issue situation. They say there’s a time and a place to wear flip flops, shorts and t=shirts, and then there’s a time when you need to suit up and show up in a way that will help you build credibility, with a more senior leader. So I think that as Gen-Ys get into the workplace if they don’t know it they will know it that there is a time and a place to be able to dress very casually and there is also a time and place to dress up.
Dr. Kent: So your book itself is written for the millennial generation, I guess born after what, 1980?
Bea Fields: Yes. We usually used the cutoff date of about 1977. I used those dates because they’re published by rainmaker thinking and that’s what Carla Martin who is of rainmaker thinking in our book. But there are a lot of different dates floating around but in that 1977-1980 category, a newborn after that date is considered to be a Gen-Y.
Dr. Kent: And this book was written for them for what purpose?
Bea Fields: Well, the book was written, we really felt like when we wrote the book we wanted to reach Gen-Y because this is the largest demographic of consumers that are coming into our adult world in the next couple of world, about 72 million. And we thought we could reach them that would be our first audience. The purpose of the book, if the Gen-Y reads book, of the Gen-Ys that have read this book I can tell you what they’re saying.
They are saying that they are getting very inspired by reading the stories of these Generation-Y young adults because at the end of each chapter you actually get strategies that those Gen-Ys are suggesting you use to be successful in business. And most Gen-Ys say they really want to be successful in business, in career, and in interaction with senior leaders. But there’s a secondary market that’s buying the book and is actually buying it in volumes and that is the parents and teachers and the leaders and the employers of Gen-Y.
So their reading the book and getting insight into how to best communicate with them and to also learn about their entrepreneurial strategies that they can then turn around and apply to their own companies and communities.
Dr. Kent: Talk a little bit about you have a radio show, you have some bonuses on the website, you have a newsletter. We can find you at millenialleaders.com. Talk about that a bit.
Bea Fields: You can go to millenialeaders.com or I tell most people if you go to learnaboutGen-Y.com, you’re going to hit our blog and that’s where most of our activity happens. We have a blog and a podcast link. We have shows on Wednesday evenings called Y-Talk Radio. If you go to ytalkradio.com you can learn more about that. But the blog is really where most of the action is happening. We have daily blogs, a lot of commenters, hundreds of people that are members of our community on the blog so I think that probably is the best way for people to get lots and lots of information about Gen-Y.
We have I don’t know, 20 or so categories of information and I think if we posted our 400th blog post and we’ve just been blogging since the first of December. We have a lot of research articles and you can sign up for the newsletter there, but if you want instant access to the latest greatest information about Gen-Y, the blog is the place to go. And that is learnaboutgeny.com.
Dr. Kent: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What kind of work are you involved in outside of this?
Bea Fields: I’m an executive coach and a consultant in the area of leadership and key development for high companies and my target market or the group that I most work with are men and women between the ages of 40 and 55 who are leading a team inside a hikers company or a business that is in stages of some kind of transition. I write more because of the Gen-Y expansion so that is where I spend a lot of my time working with organizations on group initiatives that include getting Gen-Y assimilated into that growth process.
Dr. Kent: Well this has been a real pleasure. Bea Fields is the author of Millennial Leaders. Success stories from today’s most brilliant Generation Y Leaders. It’s been a real pleasure.
Bea Fields: Thank you Dr. Kent it’s great to be here.
Dr. Kent: My next guest is a legendary piper in the band that Natalie McMaster uses and for many other projects. It will be my pleasure to welcome him after this break and we’re going to listen to a little bit of one of the songs from his album in that break. Come on back.
October 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with Jimmy Carter (Blind Boys of Alabama) [18:52m]:
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It was a great honor to speak to Jimmy Carter of the Blind Boys of Alabama, and his 7 decade career in the music industry. More information about the Blind Boys of Alabama from Wikipedia:
The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel group from Alabama that first formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939. The three main vocalists of the group and their drummer/percussionist are all blind. As of 2008, they continue to tour nationally and internationally, led by the soulful Jimmy Lee Carter singing lead vocals. Mr. Carter is one of the original members from the Alabama Institute for Negro Blind and the Happyland Jubilee Singers (the precursor to the Blind Boys of Alabama). In 2006, Clarence Fountain, the group’s former long-time lead vocalist and founding member limited his touring for health reasons. A third founding member, George Scott, died on March 9, 2005 at the age of 75.
Releases by the group in recent years have been favorites at the Grammy Awards—they won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album every year between 2002 to 2005. The Blind Boys of Alabama were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
Their rendition of Tom Waits‘ “Way Down in the Hole” was used as the theme song of the HBO series The Wire in its first season.
Their cover of Ben Harper’s “I Shall Not Walk Alone” was featured in the first season of ABC’s Lost, in the episode “Confidence Man”.
The Blind Boys were featured on the Imus in the Morning radio and TV show on November 30, 2006, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on December 20, 2006 and March 11, 2008, and on Late Night With Conan O’Brien on February 1, 2008. They have collaborated with numerous artists, including Ben Harper, Aaron Neville and Mavis Staples. They have joined Tom Petty and Peter Gabriel on tour, and will tour with Taj Mahal in 2008. In a surprise to both the band and the audience, the Blind Boys were joined by Prince on stage in a March 7th, 2008 show at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, California.
October 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest his name is R.T. Jordan. He’s the author of the Polly Pepper Mysteries Series. His newest book is called Final Curtain. Welcome to the show.
R.T. Jordan: Thank you doctor, how are you doing?
Dr. Kent: I’m doing well. Tell me a little bit about this latest book in the Polly Pepper mystery series.
R.T. Jordan: Well, Polly is an icon from the days of musical comedy variety television and now she’s still on stage in a production of the musical Mame. It’s kind of a shoddy production and right off the bat her director is murdered so she and her son Tim and their maid Lucinda begin to investigate who among the cast, perhaps the musical director may have been the culprit.
Dr. Kent: What does comedy do for you in these mysteries?
R.T. Jordan: I’m sorry; could you repeat that for me?
Dr. Kent: What is the importance of comedy in this mystery series?
R.T. Jordan: Well it keeps the flow of the story going. I certainly love comedy and I think most people do. And my main character Polly Pepper is very much a Carol Burnett, Carol Whirley, Sandy Duncan, Michelle Lee kind of persona and so comedy is inherent to her and therefore inherent in the scope of the stories as well.
Dr. Kent: How did you get into writing novels?
R.T. Jordan: Well I’ve always been a writer as all writers will probably tell you. I worked for Walt Disney Studios and I was a staff writer there for about 16 years before I switched to being a photo editor but all along I was writing stories and articles then anything that I could get a byline for. Finally, I had my first book published which was a non-fiction book called the Darling I’m You’re Auntie Mame with the complete history of the Auntie Mame character.
Following that, I began writing novels. My editor, Kensington was very, very kind. I wrote under the name Ben Tyler I think for five books and three novellas and then I actually burned out with that and he suggested that I write a mystery. So I culled through some of my characters and there was one particular novella that I had written a few years ago which was a Christmas story about an aging icon from television and her son Tim and their maid.
In that story, it was a Christmas story as I said, and for Christmas the son wanted a boyfriend actually and the mother wanted a boyfriend and they sort of collaborated and were able to give each other that gift. So when I began to do mysteries I thought I really like these characters a lot, I think they really could work well in a full length novel. Indeed they seem to be doing just that.
Dr. Kent: Do you have it on hand? Is there anyway you could read a little bit of it for us.
R.T. Jordan: No I apologize I don’t have it with me, I’m in my car. So I apologize for that but they are very funny, especially the new one, Final Curtain, I must say. The first one, Remains to be Seen, it was very funny but I think I’ve kind of hit my stride with Final Curtain.
Dr. Kent: Do you want to keep doing these?
R.T. Jordan: Well I have a contract for four of them and I’m finishing up the third one right now. Depending upon how well they continue to sell they will go on and on. There is a producer in town who is interested into making them into a television series. So yeah, I think I’ll be doing this for quite a while.
Dr. Kent: What other kinds of projects are you working on?
R.T. Jordan: Well I have a screen play that I’m producing. Its actually based on someone else’s novel that I adapted and we’re getting very close to having that produced and I pretty much I write internet profiles for friends for somebody who wants to go online for dating services. So I’m just constantly busy with either Disney or finishing my novels for Kensington. So, it’s a busy life but a very fulfilling one.
Dr. Kent: Tell me a little bit about Polly Pepper. You already told me a little bit about it, tell me what she looks like, where she goes to eat her Sunday brunch, things like that.
R.T. Jordan: Well Polly lives very extravagantly. She’s not rich; people think that anyone who’s been in television is rich. That’s not necessarily the case. Polly lives in a very large mansion in Bel Air and she consumes champagne as though it were water. She loves to give extravagant parties; she’s in her mid 60s getting closer to 70 but very attractive still. She’s a woman who isn’t defined by her age, which is one of the things that I think my female readers like so much about her.
She has at her age she has a younger boyfriend, she still is very glamorous and she just enjoys life. She loves the fact that her son still lives with her, he’s an adult now but he’s not going to give up the chance to live in this great mansion, because why should he go out on his own when she’s paying for everything? She’ll eat at Fargo’s and all the great restaurants, she loves to give dinner parties and her son who is a party planner gives very large and interesting theme parties. So she’s certainly a woman who is who she always wanted to be.
When she was a child she wanted to be a movie star and although she only made a few movies, mainly theme movies in Mexico, she’s still living the way she always dreamed of you know, with the big house, the famous friends, the parties and she is who she set out to be.
Dr. Kent: What is the process for you, just like you worked through who this person is? How do you sit down and say okay I have to continue this person’s life story through another mystery?
R.T. Jordan: Well you know its interesting because I like the character so much that part sort of comes easy. I know a lot of people who are similar to Polly. Not that I’m copying them but often their attributes will show up in Polly’s character but its easy when you like your characters and this is why I was so happy I was able to fulfill to a full time actual full length novel based on these characters.
As I said before, they appeared in a novella originally but they’re strong characters and I had a lot of fun with them. I sit down and usually say, good morning Polly, good morning Tim and then I begin to write and everything falls into place. I just, I like them so much and I think that shows in the writing, I think that my readers like the characters because I like them.
Dr. Kent: How much of the book itself and all of your books come out of I guess your own life experiences? How many things can you write out of your own life?
R.T. Jordan: A lot quite honestly. I live and work in Hollywood now and I’m kind of, I won’t say I’m Polly Pepper, but I’m living the life that I always dreamed when I was a kid. I was raised in Massachusetts and I wanted desperately to move to Hollywood not to be in films, that’s for sure, but to work around creative people, have interesting friends and live in a glamorous world. That’s what I get to do, which is very, very cool. I never planned to work for Disney but here I am and this is one of the great studios and certainly historically it’s a wonderful place and I’m very fulfilled.
Dr. Kent: Do you have any major career goals in terms of writing? Is there something else in your future? An opera? Who knows?
R.T. Jordan: There are always a couple of things that I would like to do. There is one more non-fiction book that I would like to tackle before I leave this planet. I’d like to do the story of the 1961 US figure skating team, all of whom perished in a fiery plane crash in Belgium enroute to the World Games in Czechoslovakia. That’s a very fascinating story; something that I’ve researched a great deal and hopefully eventually I will have the time to write that. Right now of course with the deadlines for the Polly Pepper books and my obligations to Disney and family matters and such, I’m pretty busy with just writing and working for the studio.
Dr. Kent: The book is called Final Curtain, A Polly Pepper Mystery. It’s in bookstores now. His writing title is R.T. Jordan, it’s been published by Kensington Press.
October 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Interview with The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir [21:10m]:
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About the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir: Rare is the band that can captivate both punk rock kids and folk music fans. Rare still is a band that can do this by playing a ferocious combination of traditional blues, Appalachian folk, and ragged gospel. But The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir does just that.Formed from the ashes of several wildly divergent Calgary bands, the Agnostics began creating their strange brew just three years ago. FeaturingJudd Palmer on vocals, banjo, and harmonica and Vladimir Sobolewskion stand-up bass (both of whom were members of the now defunct Great Uncle Bull), guitarist/vocalist Bob Keelaghan (formerly of the Puritans), and drummer Jay Woolley (note that Woolley departed in 2007 and was replaced by Peter Balkwill), the group claims they were “founded in an effort to forge a kind of gospel for the unbeliever.” To judge by their performances, they have succeeded and then some.The intimacy and power of their live show leaves usually noisy clubs rapt with attention. Between Palmer’s unholy harmonica playing and the from-the-pit-of-his-stomach vocal delivery, and Keelaghan’s dizzying guitar work, the band commands their audience’s attention with ease. The songs sound as though they have been squeezed through the ages, from the deep South by way of Chicago blues, and there are no gimmicks or artifice to get in the way. The Agnostics have remained untouched by the trend in roots music traditionalism, as it seems everybody else is simply finding places the Agnostics have already been. Instead, the band remains focused squarely on celebrating the various styles they have forged into one uncompromising sound.The Agnostics’ power is accompanied with an obvious respect for the styles the quartet explores in their music. While their sets are good natured and punctuated with humour, there is no kitsch about what they do. The honesty comes out in their original music, which could only sound more authentic if it were accompanied by the pops and crackles of old vinyl. While modern recording technology hardly affords the luxury of such character, this band has gone for the next best thing, opting for a recording [St. Hubert] that features entirely live performances, straight off the floor with no studio gimmickry or technology to help them out. It is yet another extension of the band’s ethic, and the music suffers nothing from this simple approach.All the members of the Agnostics have lengthy resumes, and numerous creative endeavours: Palmer, for instance, writes children’s books, and is a puppeteer. So when the band does perform, their pure enjoyment of playing together colours the entire affair. It is an infectiuous feeling, and perhaps explains why the Agnostics appeal to so many damn people.- Derek MacEwan, from the 2003 Calgary Folk Music Festival Guide.
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