IAT
NEWSLETTER
Fall 2008
This issue of the IAT newsletter is dedicated to the memory of our dear
friend and teacher, John Denver, who left us much too soon
*********************************************************************
"IT'S ABOUT TIME WE BEGIN IT,
TO TURN THE WORLD AROUND . . . "
*********************************************************************
ORGANIZATION INFORMATION
*********************************************************************
Co-Founder/Former President - Marcelle Orswell
(notmartha2@yahoo.com)
Co-Founder and Secretary -- Theresa Shea (Tree1A@aol.com)
Co-Founder/Webpage Designer-Sandy Clark (tybrenn@comcast.net)
Co-Presidents -- Ann Schnitz (aerie01@comcast.net)
and
Mary Ledford (eagleshorses@yahoo.com)
Web Site -- -- http://home.comcast.net/~tybrenn/iat/
back to top
*********************************************************************
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
*********************************************************************
Dear Friends,
Hard to believe that another October 12 has come and gone. There have been eleven of them since
that fateful night in 1997, and it’s still so surreal in some ways. But with all that we’ve
lost, I’ve come to truly appreciate the blessings I have that are a direct result of that night.
That old expression, “When a door closes, a window opens” couldn’t be more true in this case.
I write on the “almost” eve of the 2008 US Presidential election. What scary times we
now inhabit – but also – how exciting. Considering that in my lifetime, I experienced
the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the fact that an African American man is a serious contender
to be the next president is somewhat mind-blowing. I can’t help but imagine how proud John
would’ve been.
Of course, I know all of you will do your part this coming Tuesday, no matter who you vote for.
Happy Autumn!
My heart to yours,
Ann
back to top
*********************************************************************
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
*********************************************************************
"I want to remind you that in this democratic society of ours, a government for the people, of the people and by the people, that you have a responsibility too; and if you don't take part and get involved at all, you really have no right to bitch or complain. Thank you very much."
JD, hosting the Midnight Special, 1972
(thanks to Virginia Allen for helping me with this! – AS)
back to top
*********************************************************************
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
*********************************************************************
DECEMBER
December 23, 2008 - UK - "Country Roads: A Celebration of John Denver" - Wayne Denton at Warners Gunton Hall, Lowestoft, Nr Gt Yarmouth (Tel: 01502 730288) (from the FOJD web page: www.fojd.org.uk)
December 26, 2008 - UK - "Country Roads: A Celebration of John Denver" - Wayne Denton at Warners Cricket St. Thomas, Chard, Somerset (Tel: 01460 30111) (from the FOJD web page: www.fojd.org.uk)
MARCH 2009
March 21, 2009 - UK - Concert for Friends of John Denver will follow the spring Denver Day / Christine Moon fojdclub@fojd.org.uk * www.fojd.org.uk
APRIL
April 3, 2009 - Netherlands - John Adams concert in Hendrik Ido Ambacht (near Rotterdam) in Cascade theater. Tickets go on sale 9-8-08.
April 17, 2009 - Kansas City, MO - "The Music of John Denver" will be performed by the Kansas City Symphony at 8:00pm at the Church of the Resurrection / 5001 W. 137th Street /Leawood, KS 66224 http://www.kcsymphony.org
Branson, MO - Monday through Saturday 10:00am "A Tribute to John Denver & Country Music Legends". James Garrett sings John Denver's best-loved hits. IMAX Little Opry Theatre / 3562 Shepherd of the Hills Expressway / Branson, MO 65616 (800) 419-4832
(thanks to Emily Parris and the Rocky Mountain High newsletter for these dates; thanks too, to Karen Tupek for keeping us up to date with Mack Bailey’s schedule, PattiAnn Cutter and others for information on Chris Westfall’s engagements, and Deb Sanderson for news of events in California)
back to top
*********************************************************************
LETTERS & POEMS
*********************************************************************
From Heather Wilkey (heatherwilkey@aol.com)
Thank you all for being a voice for these children and to all who set time aside to vote on the Givemeaning website. It takes effort at every stage and that makes it all worthwhile.
I wanted to give you an update on Innocent’s project. Africare in Lusaka, Zambia has agreed to provide the technical assistance the community has needed for so long. Most of the help will be geared toward improving the sanitary conditions within the village. Some examples of ngos work would be building wells, latrines, sub-surface dams, winter cropping and education. When people’s lives are at stake due to outbreaks of water borne diseases, the health situation takes priority. With a cleaner environment, there can be more focus on development and progress on all levels. It is wonderful to learn that Chibolya is part of a future plan. I can picture Innocent's huge smile.
We are pending a school supply grant for 100 orphans. We have not been denied and it has up to this point positive. The organization sees there is a real need. They have asked us to locate an ngo in Mazabuka to monitor the projec t. It may be challenging, but this is the next step.
All of your support & persistence helped pushed this forward for these children. It should make you feel pretty good!
God Bless.
*****
New Age Energy Plants
(by Carole Romanowski - whispjesse@aol.com)
My newspaper, "The Journal News", printed an interesting piece on New Age energy.
Decades of waste - household trash,construction waste and other refuse - buried in the 400 acre 1-E landfill in Kearny,New Jersey, owned and operated by the NJ Meadowlands Commission, provides electricity to thousands of homes in that state. New Jerseyans produce 50% more trash per day than the national average and are basically buying back their own garbage but in a different form!
The Board of Public Utilities states the Kearny site is among 21 landfills in NJ where methane gas produced by decomposing garbage is used as fuel to generate electricity.
According to NJ Gov. John Corzine's Energy Master Plan, new landfills in NJ are required to be designed to accommodate methane gas collection. Tom Marturano, director of solid waste and natural resources for the NJ Meadowlands Commission, estimates the 1-E site landfill can keep collecting methane for 20 or so more years. The energy produced by 4 landfills in the Meadowlands district alone powers about 25,000 homes to date.
NJ estimates 30% of it's state's electricity by 2020 will come from landfill methane gas.
A leading NJ environmentalist envisions landfills one day making more use of the sites by installing wind and solar power to supplement methane. Adding windfarms might take awhile since landfill surfaces are constantly shifting. But plans are already in progress to install 20 acres of solar panels near the 1-E landfall site in NJ.
Nationwide the federal EPA counts 455 landfills that use their methane to generate electricity and has more than 500 others as future candidates through the Landfall Methane Outreach Program.
Furthermore, existing landfills can produce methane long after they've been shut down. Mr. Marturano states "the half-eaten Big Mac you threw away near the end of the Reagan administration may be helping to light your neighbor's home tonight!"
I'm sure if the environmentally and energy conscious John Denver read this article, he'd exclaim "Far Out!"
*****
From Susan Leaver (susanleaver19@yahoo.com)
Hi guys.
There is going to be a CD of the Whisper the Wind - music and life of John Denver show.Guessing from the number of songs on the show see www.showinfo.co.nz
actually it will be a double CD.
Last Saturday the promoters started taking names, addresses and phone numbers of people who would like to purchase it.I'm guessing that the purchase price will be no more than $35 New Zealand currency.
Like I sent out to you the New Zealand John Denver collection I am happy to process your oders for this CD if you would like to obtain it.So if you would like to indicate your interest/pay for the CDS/postage and packing I am happy to take charge of these orders.
My box number is
P O Box 11-0114
Grafton
Auckland
New Zealand
If you decided to send cash I would give you a receipt and if change becomes available i will send it back to you.
So
If you are in New Zealand the charge would be $35 plus $6.50 for postage and packing.
For overseas orders it would be a matter of checking with your bank the amount to send. As I did with the other Cd I am happy to process other currencies.
The feeling expressed amongst fans here is that we don't usually go for tribute acts but the two main artists in this show come through powerfully in their own interpretation of the songs.
All the best
Susan (Leaver)
*****
Contact Bette Danse at 352-473-8994 or bettdanse@yahoo.com to sign a petition to rename Denver International Airport: John Denver International Airport
**
My dear friend Virginia Allen sent me this excerpt from a book she’s writing about JD – here’s Part I of a 1991 radio interview I thought you might enjoy, to commemorate October 12:
Part I: NICKIE CAMPBELL RADIO INTERVIEW
28 October 1991
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
Interviewer: “So you were in Bristol last night? How was that?”
“It was a real nice evening. We played in a beautiful, beautiful hall. The sound was just impeccable.
“You know Peter, Paul and Mary didn’t get that from the “Rhymes and Reasons” album. When I was with the Mitchell Trio, when Chad Mitchell left, I took his place. They’d already changed their name due to legal problems amongst the boys. I used to open the Trio if one of the guys showed up late or at the club, I’d sing a little bit later after everything closed down. People kept saying, “You ought to record some of those songs you do by yourself” and one Christmas, I made an album. It had 11 songs, 3 of which I’d written, one of which was LEAVING ON A JET PLANE and I made 250 copies, which is all I could afford to do, which was my Christmas present to family and friends that winter. I gave a copy to Peter, Paul and Mary, and that’s where they first heard that song.
“And that was a very big stop to have one of your songs on a Peter, Paul and Mary album, as big as they were. They’d recorded another of my songs, FOR BABY (FOR BOBBIE). And it was a very big thing when it became a hit.”
Interviewer: “You haven’t been in the news as much lately.”
“I’m still recording, doing concerts. One thing that happened, the label I was with, which was RCA, there was nobody any longer connected to the success of John Denver, and so there was no vested interest in what I was doing. Having had as many hits, radio stations were more interested in playing those, as requested golden oldies and it became harder and harder to have them listen to the new stuff. And it’s something I’m still dealing with.”
Interviewer: “You’d get in trouble not doing JET PLANE.”
“I don’t think I did it once on this tour. There are enough songs. You have to include some everyone knows. I always do COUNTRY ROADS, ANNIE’S SONG, CALYPSO or ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH, but there are others I can change around and always have some new songs. I hope to do a couple new songs for you tonight.”
Interviewer: “Let’s have one right now.”
“You want me to do ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH first? Let’s see if I can sing this.”
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
Interviewer talks about the environment and how John brought it to people’s attention.
“There’s been a lot of other people who educated me in regard to the environment and a lot of other people seriously involved and there’s a lot that still needs to be done so there’s no need to be smug about it.”
Concerning Windstar:
“It’s a non-profit, educational foundation. We have a Symposium each year.
“A lot of the problems that we are dealing with are because we didn’t know any better, but we know better now. We have an opportunity to make a conscious choice. And there are still those people , organizations and businesses whose chose is for the short term profit without consideration for the environment or concern for our future. The people I listen to say that within the next 10 years we are going to determine whether the earth will be inhabitable by higher life forms. We are an endangered species. And people don’t get that, they don’t understand it. One thing for instance is about the ozone depletion. The process that allows chlorofluorocarbons to get out of those little spray cans and get up to the altitude of the atmosphere where they begin eating up the ozone molecules is a 40 year process. So what we are experiencing now with the holes in the north and south poles is a product of what we did 40 years ago. So it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. There’s great concert about the food chain. We don’t know what’s going to happen out there.
“So one thing the Windstar Foundation has done is create the Aspen Global Change Institute, and we’re bringing earth scientists from all different disciplines, from all over the world each summer to Aspen and come up with a comprehensive report of what’s really happening in global change, what it’s impact is probably going to be on human civilization, what humanity has to do in increasing and decreasing global change and what are the kinds of things we need to be addressing. Another thing we are doing is bringing educators in and creating an agenda for schools.
Frosty's Melt Down |
(This’ a bit early, but since we won’t have a newsletter in time for John’s birthday, I thought our wonderful author, Carole Romanowski, wouldn’t mind if I included it now!)
With New Year's Eve just dawning
And John's birthday that same day
Frosty the Snowman "welcomed the wind"
For he was melting fast away!
"With temperatures still rising.."
Oh, Frosty really was in trouble!
"How can I wish John Happy Birthday
While I slush into a puddle?"
So the snowman summoned the North Wind
And quickly dear Frosty froze
From underneath his snowball bottom
Up to his head and carrot nose!
Now Frosty knew John was the wind's friend
So he cried out "Auld Lang Syne!"
Shouting "Happy Birthday,John!"
And "Happy New Year 2009!"
(copyright by Carole Romanowski (whispjesse@aol.com))
|
back to top
*********************************************************************
CONSCIOUS CHOICES – TIPS AND TRICKS FOR SAVING $, TIME AND THE ENVIRONMENT
*********************************************************************
Did you know that chargers such as those for your iPod or cellphone are always drawing electricity, even when they’re not in use? Pull out their plugs unless you’re charging your electronic equipment to save money and energy.
back to top
*********************************************************************
WEBSITES OF INTEREST
*********************************************************************
If you find sites with interesting projects or information, please pass ‘em on! – AS
From Sandy Clark:
Swaptree.com is a place where you can trade books, music, dvds or video games that you own for thousands of items that you want all for FREE!" http://www.swaptree.com/
******
And here are some cool ideas from Ideal Bite:
Is your cash (not to mention electricity) evaporating every time you wash the dishes?
The Bite
Not if you turn off your dishwasher's drying cycle. Just flip a switch and watch energy savings come 'round, again and again.
The Benefits
1. Soaking up cash savings. Expect to bank $25 per year on your electricity bill.
2. Putting a damp-er on power use. You'll reduce the energy your dishwasher uses by 15%-50%. More slowly but surely, your dishes will still dry. Promise.
Wanna Try?
If there's no off switch for your dishwasher's drying cycle, just open the door when the cycle starts.
**
Would your parents disapprove of your workday lunch costs?
The Bite
Don't crash your motorcycle over it. Just try bringing your lunch in reusable containers a couple times a week to conserve cash and landfill space - no matter which side of the tracks you're from.
The Benefits
1. More cash for Motown records. You'll save $1,000 or more per year.
2. Cleaner highways to cruise. A NJ study found that about 1/4 of all litter comes from takeout packaging - second only to cigarette butts.
3. It's eco-harmonious. In the United States, takeout bags and containers create 1.8 million tons of garbage each year.
Wanna Try?
1. Cook meals (such as stir-frys) that last a few days - though beware of cooking so much of one thing that you get sick of it.
2. Carry your eats in a reusable lunchbox.
3. (Or do what I do – reuse plastic bags and tinfoil by washing every day – AS)
**
Got what it takes to survive on the streets?
The Bite
With the cost of gas these days, maybe not. Increase your road IQ by checking our top five tips for getting better miles-per-gallon (and thus, fewer emissions), whether or not you're cruisin' in a Smart Car.
The Benefits
Shrewd savings. Since gas goes for nearly $4/gallon, conservation is key.
Emissions intelligence. Each year, your car emits more CO2 than your appliances, A/C, and trash output combined, so getting brainy about your fuel efficiency can really help lower pollution.
Wanna Try?
1. Don't Idle - idling more than ten seconds takes more gas than turning your car off and starting it up again; 15 minutes of idling per weekday can cost you up to $100 per year. It also creates twice the emissions of a car in motion.
2. Keep Your Tires Properly Inflated - improves mileage by about 3% and saves up to seven cents per gallon.
3. Change Your Air Filter - increases your mileage-gas savings by up to 10%.
4. Drive Slower - every 10 MPH higher you go over 60 costs you 4 mpg.
5. Know Where You're Going - needless driving obviously wastes gas and time. (Yeah you...quit cruisin' the strip.)
back to top
*********************************************************************
FOR SALE
*********************************************************************
If you're looking for something special for a special someone, come check out what Wildlife Creations (http://www.geocities.com/wldlifecreation) has to offer!! We have many items relating to John Denver and other items that would make fantastic gifts for people you know and love! Or gift someone who is hard to buy for, something that they will talk about for years! From keychains, snowglobes, t-shirts, potpourri jars and more!!! We're sure you'll find something! And remember, whenever you purchase from Wildlife Creations, you're not only giving a gift to someone you know, but to the Windstar Foundation and also the National Wildlife Federation, in John's memory, for wolf education as all proceeds are given to them. Wildlife Creations is now offering a feature product.
Checkout the website for this month's offering! For more information, you can email us at wldlifecreation@wildmail.com.
In this healing time...
Thank you for helping to make the world
a better place in which to live,
Diana and Susan
Wildlife Creations
http://www.geocities.com/wldlifecreation
back to top
*********************************************************************
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
*********************************************************************
I originally saw this on CBS News – TerraCycle gets schools and groups involved with recycling and creates all sorts of useful products: http://www.terracycle.net/bags.htm – check it out!
TerraCycle was founded in the fall of 2001 in a Princeton University dorm room -- 82 Blair Hall to be exact. The idea was simple: take waste, process it, and turn it into a useful product.
The initial business plan was written for a business plan contest sponsored by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club. The following summer, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer made arrangements with Princeton Dining Services to accept dining hall waste and process it in their prototype 'Worm Gin'. The waste turned out to be a bit messier than they had anticipated, but they perservered. Towards the end of that summer, they found their first investor who learned of the company through an interview with Bernard Spigner. They shortly moved into their first office at 20 Nassau St, Unit 14.
Tom took an extended leave of absence from Princeton in the spring of 2003. In May of 2003, Tom entered the Carrot Capital business plan contest, which offered $1 million in seed capital to the winning team. And TerraCycle won! However, they turned down the money because they didn't like the direction in which Carrot Capital wanted to take the company.
The company continued, funded by prize money from business plan contests and angel investors. A major breakthrough was achieved in May of 2004 when The Home Depot began selling TerraCycle Plant Food™ on their website. In 2005, TerraCycle continued their growth as Whole Foods, Home Depot Canada, Wal*Mart Canada, Wild Oats and Do-It-Best began carrying the TerraCycle line.
Most recently, TerraCycle has been named one of the 100 most innovative companies by Red Herring magazine and been awarded the Environmental Stewardship Award from Home Depot Canada. The Environmental Stewardship Award is one of only two company-wide awards given by Home Depot Canada.
Read more about it at http://www.terracycle.net/index.htmback to top
*********************************************************************
NEWSLETTER NEWS
*********************************************************************
If you would like to submit articles, news items, stories, poetry, or any other pertinent information to IT'S ABOUT TIME, please e-mail any of the IAT staff. The submission deadline for the next edition is January 19, 2009. Please be sure to include any contact information so that members can e-mail or snail-mail for further details.
*********************************************************************
The contents of this newsletter are entirely at the discretion of the "It's About Time" staff. Contributions, as always, are welcomed, although inclusion is not guaranteed. All contributed material may be subject to editing for content and length.
*********************************************************************
". . . IT'S ABOUT TIME WE START TO LIVE
IT,
THE FAMILY OF MAN,
IT'S ABOUT TIME
AND IT'S ABOUT CHANGES . . .
AND IT'S ABOUT TIME."
**************************
back to top
|