Here’s the lineup for the Children’s Entertainment Tent this weekend (posted again for your convenience) – I’ll have more info about the performers later today!
Category: Uncategorized
Texas Book Festival draws a star-studded crowd to raise funds for public libraries
PBS TV stars, local celebrities and entertainers will serve up some serious fun in the Children’s Entertainment Tent this year
Great causes have a way of bringing out the best in people, don’t they? Nowhere is that more apparent than at the Texas Book Festival, where some of the nation’s most intriguing authors and popular entertainers turn out year after year to celebrate the joy of books and reading — and support Texas public libraries.
The festival runs every year around this time, and roughly 35,000 people descend on Austin to attend the two-day event, which raises money for our traditionally under-funded public libraries.
I’ve been involved with the festival in one way or another since it began, but this year I signed on for my most ambitious effort yet when I agreed to serve as Chair of the Children’s Entertainment Tent in late August. I was tasked with finding, recruiting and booking enough talent to fill a two-day schedule of children’s entertainment.
With a little luck and a lot of advice and encouragement, I whipped up a baker’s dozen of incredible acts: 13 back-to-back performances running from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1…emceed by two celebrity news anchors on Saturday and a nationally acclaimed star from musical theatre on Sunday.
On Saturday our little souffle includes a show by the wildly popular Biscuit Brothers at 1:00 PM (see below for details) and a smorgasbord of singers, songwriters and interactive performances before and after that.
I hope everyone will stop by to catch the last show on Saturday by the Peterson Brothers Blues Band. The brothers are two musicians, both under the age of 13 (one of whom plays no less than 6 instruments), and they will be joined by a couple of friends on bass and drums. I watched about 60 seconds of their performance at a local coffee house and knew they’d be a perfect way to wrap up the day. You won’t believe the sound that comes from these kids and their band — they’ll give you a good send-off, especially if you plan on catching some blues entertainment later on downtown.
On another note…There’s a fascinating twist in the lineup of this year’s festival. In cooperation with The University of Texas at Austin’s Harry Ransom Center, the Book Festival is weaving in an intriguing mix of activities to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe’s birth.
The children’s entertainment tent will feature readings from a selection of Poe’s works — presented in child-friendly and dramatic style by Shakespearian actors from the TexARTS Academy for the performing and visual arts (and led by the astonishingly generous and gifted TexARTS Executive Director Todd Dellinger, who will also serve as emcee on Sunday).
I hope you’ll come out and catch a few of these awesome acts … which are FREE all weekend. These generous performers have donated a great deal to help raise money for our state’s public libraries (whose already-strapped budgets have taken a beating during the nation’s economic crisis). Some of the acts themselves are non-profit organizations, including TexARTS and the Biscuit Brothers, and they work hard to raise money for their own organizations.
Festival-goers can attend performances and support the performers in one simple and rewarding way: Stop by the children’s entertainment tent and pick up a few early Christmas gifts for your little friends and loved ones. Many of the performers will have CDs, DVDs and other merchandise for sale during and after their shows.
Stars of Wildly Popular PBS Kids TV Show,
The Biscuit Brothers, perform at 1:00 PM Saturday
The Biscuit Brothers star in an EMMY Award-winning PBS kids’ music and education program that airs on KLRU-TV PBS Austin and on a number of other PBS stations across the United States. They also work outside of the studio, venturing off the Musical Farm to entertain live audiences with concerts that are wildly popular with children and draw
an impressive fan base of adults as well.
You won’t find much fluff or filler in these Texas Biscuits. With the help of a talented crew and professionals such as Jill Leberknight, who plays “Buttermilk” on camera, the team presents an entire landscape of lessons in the arts. They introduce new ideas to children with original songs, good humor and brilliantly crafted scripts (which cleverly conceal the fact that the show is educational).
The Biscuit Brothers program was created by Damon Brown, Allen Robertson, and Jerome Schoolar, whose backgrounds in professional theatre, music and acting led to this successful collaboration. All three write and perform on the show, which is hailed for its originality and distinctly Austin style.
You won’t find much fluff or filler in these Texas Biscuits. With the help of a talented crew and professionals such as Jill Leberknight, who plays “Buttermilk” on camera, the team presents an entire landscape of lessons in the arts. They introduce new ideas to children with original songs, good humor and brilliantly crafted scripts (which cleverly conceal the fact that the show is educational).
The cast and crew are fearless when it comes to presenting complex material. They tackle everything from music theory to geography and tuba repair with aplomb, and they weave it all together into well-delivered, entertaining and memorable programs.
The program’s official mission is to introduce arts-related content to children with ideas that engage creativity and learning. A happy side effect of that work has been the delivery of a splendid repertoire of music that’s distinctly Austin, delightfully entertaining and undeniably worthy of a permanent place in your homes and hearts. The program captures all that’s best about children’s music and entertainment while teaching valuable lessons about life and the many ways we can bring harmony to it.
The Biscuit Brothers have a way with words and music — and a habit of leaving audiences with the distinct impression that our world is infinitely better when we can Go Make Music together.
PS – be sure to check out the Biscuit Brothers’ CDs and DVDs at the show. As the mother of a 4-year-old boy, I can say with some authority that their recordings will quickly become some of YOUR favorite items in your children’s media library. Here’s one of my favorites – a pure-genius musical interpretation of something South of the Border performed by Biscuits puppet character “Tiny Scarecrow.” Cracks me up every time I watch it: Chickens playing bongos. (CAUTION: Addictive melody.)[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPkrin2g-7E]
Texas Book Festival features stars including singer/songwriter Joe McDermott Saturday, October 31
Joe McDermott: Noon
Joe McDermott has been obsessed with music ever since he was a little kid growing up in Chicago, the youngest of eight children.
“It all started out with a coffee can and a couple of drumsticks my dad gave to me. I think he was sorry he got them.” His first gig was when he and his brother performed at a Harlem Globetrotters show. Five year old Joe played drums and sang “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” with his older brother. This amazing debut was arranged by their aunt who was organizing a hospital benefit. “We had medallions and everything – I wore the Sagittarius,” Joe remembers.
All he wanted to do from that point on was make music and make people smile. His next big show was in the 4th grade, when he played drums in his brother’s rock band.
As he grew, Joe’s creative endeavors shifted for awhile to fine art and painting. While he learned to play guitar and played in rock bands, he moved to Austin and earned a Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas. Hoping to make it in the art world, he took a job as an art teacher at Athena Montessori. Five years later, he opened his own
preschool, The Phoenix School, in Central Austin. Little did he know how this melding of creativity and immersion in early childhood education would lead to his future career as one of the nation’s top children’s music recording artists. “It’s amazing how it all evolved so organically. I’m not sure about fate, but it seemed there has been a guiding hand in this,” Joe says.In a rambling old Austin house, Joe and his wife ran the preschool in the front two rooms, and on the weekends played music in the back room studio with friends. Joe realized that children were an unending source of inspiration for songwriting. One year, he recorded a tape with the school children recorded as a Christmas gift for the parents. It was just a dabble into the world of children’s music, but the response was so positive, and his own experiences as a parent made songwriting for children an irresistible force.
Joe’s first nationally distributed CD,
I Am Baby, won a Parents’ Choice Recommended Honor in 1998; and both Great Big World (2001) andEverywhere You Go (2003) won the esteemed Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award. Joe was honored with his first NAPPA Gold Award for Everywhere You Go, which includes the Children’s Music Web Award winning song, “Baby Kangaroo.” This song also captured a second place prize in the International Song Writing Contest, Children’s Division in 2005. In 2007, Joe released his fourth family music CD, Everybody Plays Air Guitar, which received a Parents’ Choice Recommended Honor. Many songs from all four releases are in regular rotation on XMKids Radio.McDermott’s proficient songwriting abilities enabled him to compose music for children’s video games
(Zombies Ate My Neighbors) and educational software. One project teamed Joe with Stan and Jan Berenstain, authors of the classic Berenstain Bears books. Impressed by Joe’s work, author Stan Berenstain enlisted him to adapt ten of their books to song. After working with Joe, Stan Berenstain said, “Joe McDermott is not only a magnificent songwriter, he’s also an absolute wizard at communicating with children through music.” Many of Joe’s catchy songs have been arranged for orchestral performance, allowing him to perform with the Austin Symphony Orchestra and the Allen Philharmonic Symphony.Children’s music is a full-time focus for Joe McDermott. “What I love about this genre is how open it is to expression.” His artistic training helps him create visually rich songs that evoke emotions in “people of all sizes.” He’s been called “The maestro of imagination” for his creative approach and appeal.
Children’s Entertainment Stars Rise Early in the Morning to Perform at the Texas Book Festival on Opening Day (Halloween-style)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Opening act: Mr. Johnny and Sharon: 10:00 a.m.
Music journalists have praised Tragert as one of the best of his genre. He has a “soul-man’s delivery with a poet’s heart,” according to Texas Music Magazine.
Tragert recently released his first full-length children’s music album, “Rough day in the Sandbox.” The artist got together with a few well-known friends to record and produce the album, which was released this month (October 2009). The result is a splendidly creative collection of songs that appeal to a wide range of audiences and age groups. Walter Tragert lives, works and occasionally uses his kitchen to cook gourmet meals in Austin, Texas. He has one cat but considers himself a “dog” person.
Mr. Johnny and Sharon are five-year favorites of the Texas Book Festival Children’s Entertainment Tent. This year they bring scarves, bugs, drum sticks, streamers, bubbles and more to the Festival’s opening act, which will inspire children to dance, jump and sing along in the “most interactive music show” in Central Texas. The duo has performed together for more than 10 years at venues such as ACL, Austin Museum of Art, Nutty Brown, Wild Basin, Zilker Hillside and regional schools and libraries. They also publish KidEvents Weekly, a digest of the best kids’ activities in Austin. See www.mrjohnny.com for more details.
Walter T. and the Rated G’s: 11:00 a.m.
Austin musician Walter Tragert
Walter Tragert’s musical training began in the cradle and involved his rocking to the rhythm of “Gloria” as interpreted by his adolescent brothers’ garage band. Since his portentious start, Walter has crafted his own career as an acclaimed songwriter and performer. He’s been hailed as Texas’ answer to Graham Parker, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello, but he’s undeniably unique, with a bona-fide brand all his own.
A veteran of Austin’s live music scene, Tragert has recorded and performed with a variety of artists, from Ian McLagan (The Faces, Rolling Stones) to The Tosca String Quartet (David Bryne). In 1988, he joined Grammy nominees Michele Valeri and Ingrid Crepeau as a cast member of their child-oriented show Dinosaur Rock, touring from coast to coast to the delight of thousands of elementary-schoolers.
When it comes to his combined talent and take on music, Tragert is in a class all by himself — except for those times when he’s in a class full of children. Walter is fully in his element as a teacher at the Armstrong Community Music School, which is run by the Austin Lyric Opera. He has 20 years of experience teaching guitar and songwriting, but he says the greatest experience is working with children — engaging their curiosity and energy and providing an outlet for both through music.
Music journalists have praised Tragert as one of the best of his genre. He has a “soul-man’s delivery with a poet’s heart,” according to Texas Music Magazine.
Tragert recently released his first full-length children’s music album, “Rough day in the Sandbox.” The artist got together with a few well-known friends to record and produce the album, which was released this month (October 2009). The result is a splendidly creative collection of songs that appeal to a wide range of audiences and age groups. Walter Tragert lives, works and occasionally uses his kitchen to cook gourmet meals in Austin, Texas. He has one cat but considers himself a “dog” person.
Walter T. and the Rated G’s (a lineup you won’t want to miss) will present “A Rough Day at the Sandbox” at the Texas Book Festival on October 31.
Telling tales out of Speechwriter School: the writer doth gettare un’ombra
“Lord love a duck,” as one of my favorite professors used to say.
“Major League Asshole,” as one of my former bosses might say.
Both would be right in this case, I’d say.
A soon-to-be-famous ex-Bush Administration staffer (now labeled an untrustworthy and unemployable ex-speechwriter, I suspect) has toddled out across the South Lawn of the White House to hang some dirty jockeys, which apparently grew quite bunched during his short stint putting words in the mouth of a past president.
I chuckle and shake my head every time I hear about another former “Bush Insider” parading around America talking all expert-like about “extensive” experience and lessons learned while serving in the office a U.S. president.
I wrote speeches for Laura Bush in Texas from 1995 through 2000, and I was her White House speechwriter in 2001-2002. Matt Larimer hadn’t made his big entrance onto the national stage by then, apparently, because his name doesn’t ring a bell. Then again, I don’t pay much attention to bells that signal feeding-frenzy time for tasteless, self-righteous piranhas. The bell tolls for them and them alone.
Like any other office in America, the White House has always been (and will always be) staffed by an interesting mix of people who range from one extreme to the other — from bright to dim; loyal to opportunistic. From decent and hard-working to lazy spawns of Satan. The higher up the career ladder you go, the more pronounced the extremes. The world is full of bad people, frankly, and that’s one of the lessons that most of us learn by the time we reach our 30s.
The people whom I’ve always thought of as heroes and leaders don’t run and tattle on the people they perceive as bad guys. They’re above all that. The best among us know how to be kind, forthright, self-conscious and willing to admit their own shortcomings. They make mistakes like the rest of us, sure, but they don’t blame others for it. And mistakes don’t dissuade them from working hard to make the world a better place in spite of the bad people working around and against them.
Wise people and worthy leaders are usually generous with their portions of edification and generally look for ways to celebrate the good in life. They rise above the petty fray and let the bad guys sink their own damn boats. And down there, among the shipwrecked souls, you won’t find any legacies and important chapters of history waiting to be written. You’ll find gossips, snipes and troglodytes who have nothing better to do than stir the sand and muddy the waters of their own miserable abyss.
Telling tales out of the nation’s Number One Speechwriters School might make Latimer feel better about the bitter pills he felt he was forced to swallow, but in doing so, he’s also proved himself something of a bitter pill.
The book, a semi-educated “insider” tell-all, betrays a man who is looking for a job with a new administration or a new political party — a man who is apparently willing to sell his soul, and sell out his friends, for a few bucks and a few minutes of fame along the way.
His book may have a short shelf-life, but his pettiness and self-aggrandizement are set in words of stone, immortal. He’s cast a pall across the office of the president and all who work there; he’s also done a good bit to undermine the nation’s trust of any political leader and further disillusion an already politically weary voting citizenry. Beyond that, he’s hurt a lot of good people who were there in the trenches, too.
Tsk. Such a tragic story. And precisely why little boys should not play with matches, especially when they’re standing on a bridge.
A browser’s bookshelf: order is in the eye of the beholder
I am a book person. I love books. I browse and admire them. I tote and collect them. I shelve, stack and compulsively rearrange them. My books are not alphabetized or systematized. Dewey Decimal has never seen the likes of my library, nor would he want to, because my brain has a mind of its own when it comes to the kingdom, phylum or classification of words and titles, bound or unbound (a fact that has confounded colleagues and assistants for years).
Most of the time I enjoy hunting for books in their various stores around my house. I always come across a title I’d forgotten, or a book written by a friend, and those encounters evoke in me the kind of smiles, Aha’s and memories that others have when they flip through photo albums.
I thought it brilliant that Amazon.com launched a campaign to ask customers “What’s on Your Bookshelf?” and I love that one of the featured shelves belonged to two of my favorite people, family members Joel and wife Kathryn (who is a terrific poet and author herself).
I don’t know about you, but when I’m in someone else’s house, if there’s a bookcase nearby I can’t resist inspecting it. It’s a habit I learned from other readers and writers. Books say so much about people and the things that interest them. How they’re arranged does, too. Few would be so bold as to snap a photo of a great row of titles that belong to someone else; after all, book cases are private matters, aren’t they? We have standards. Rules of etiquette apply.
Inviting people to show off their books is a novel idea, yes, pun and all….and a splendid diversion for book browsers like me.
I’m a veteran supporter and happy volunteer for the Texas Book Festival, which is one of my favorite fall festivals in Central Texas (and which raises money for Texas public libraries). A respectable smattering of books on my shelves either came from past book festivals or were written by authors who were featured at them.
If you’re wondering about the authors, celebrities and musicians who will be reading, paneling, opining and signing at this year’s Texas Book Festival October 31-November 1, visit the website: www.TexasBookFestival.org.
I’ll let you in on one little secret: The lineup for the Children’s Entertainment Tent so far is Tremendous (with a Texas Capitol T), and I can say that with some confidence because I’m helping the festival line them up. Grown-ups will walk away from that experience smiling as big as the kids who brought ’em. We’ll have more details on entertainers and the schedule soon.
Elizabeth Gilbert, on writing
Great piece about creative ventures.
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Digitry, wizardry and gadgetry, oh my! The tool that turned Charlie into an early adopter: Text4vCard
If you happened to be wandering around the Austin Interactive business technology conference last fall, you might have heard whispers among the gadget-loving trade show elite about some new business cards being flashed around. Flashed, as in electronically. As in uber-cool business card technology.
The buzz was about a clever and timely innovation from a feisty little Central Texas startup called Text4ROI, which is one of 10 select companies that will be showcased in StartupRow at the InnoTech conference in October. The firm is led by equally feisty CEO and co-founder Carrie Chitsey, who announced today that her firm’s patent pending new product – Text4vCard – is ready for prime time. And it’s oh-so-easy to use.
“With Text4vCard, you can send your business card to someone instantly, and they don’t have to be signed up with our service or download any applications before they can receive a card,” said Chitsey.
Text4vCard is an electronic SMS business card exchange service that lets people share contact info (plus any personalized text, like a Twitter user name) through cell phone text messaging. Users can then import the info to any contact database that accepts standard vCard formats, such as Outlook, Gmail, Address Book (and soon, SalesForce).
Chitsey, an acclaimed entrepreneur, innovator and Fortune 100 sales and marketing veteran, calls the service “phone agnostic” – it isn’t bound by any proprietary technology, so just about anyone can use it. All you need is a cell phone with a text messaging plan and a co
mputer. And, if you happen to own a smart phone, you can add the vCard to your address book within seconds.
The evolutionary technology is bound to make the cavemen of Corporate America stand up a little straighter, especially now that they can shed their 100-pound card stock in favor of a weightless alternative.
The idea of exchanging contact info electronically isn’t new, of course. Companies have fiddled around with the concept before. But no one has approached the level of sophistication and ease-of-use that Text4vCard delivers. The service has advanced capabilities like a dashboard, which can generate reports about distribution, use and ROI. Users can see how many vCards they shared at an event and how many people actually added the information to their contact databases. Text4vCard also lets users add and share more information than other SMS-based services.
“You can enter more than your name, phone number, and e-mail address,” Chitsey said. “We have more fields for information and customized text and you can revise your information any time. If you change your phone number or switch jobs, you can instantly update your card.” Editing on a whim is a nifty capability, especially if you find yourself at a speed dating mixer or Star Trek convention and someone with green horns asks for your number.
Text4vCard may be the belle of the ball at cocktail parties and trade shows this fall. In fact, speakers and exhibitors at four upcoming trade shows in September and October will be flashing their new techno-cool Text4vCards, and people have already started snatching up vanity names. By the time South by Southwest 2010 rolls around, we’ll all be texting our digits on gadgets.
I’m no early adopter by any stretch of the imagination. But Carrie and her colleague Dave Valentino had me sign up for a free trial, and – what do you know! I discovered it’s rather fun to exchange business cards this nifty new way. I always took great pride in the design of my old paper cards, but it’s pretty cool to tell someone to text my name to 70626 and see what happens. And yes, after a few tries, I succumbed to vanity and paid a little extra for “MissCharlie,” so the rest of you Charlie girls will have to think of another vanity name (and I’d hurry, because they’re going fast).
To see a live demo, text TXT4 to 70626; or for a free trial, visit the Web site: www.text4vcard.com.
Photo illustration by Roy Pena. Thanks, Roy!