ON AIR (Wed., June 27, '07): Kitchen For Hire co-owner, Priscilla Maddox, and I have cooked up a sizzling 'Lisa Tolliver Show'

BARE-NAKED TRUTH IN ADVERTISING: Green Amazon.com text links = shameless commerce.

SOME LIKE IT HOT: Tomorrow I'll be hosting two shows back-to-back on New York Radio WVOX 1460 AM. From 11:30 AM until noon, Eastern Time, movers and shakers, Dario Vaccaro and Patricia Burgess, will join me on SCORE Radio to discuss the business of dance.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN, INTO THE FIRE: From high noon until 12:30 PM (lunchtime!), I will host the Lisa Tolliver Show. In honor of the occasion, Kitchen For Hire co-owner, Priscilla Maddox, and I have cooked up a sizzling menu.

In course one, we'll discuss her business, which you may have read about in "Can’t Stand the Heat? Then Rent the Kitchen" [New York Times] or elsewhere. In course two, we'll share tips for healthy cooking, laced with delectable, scrump-tuous (scrumptious-sumptuous) summer recipes.

SUGGESTION: The show should be meaty; you may want to take notes. Bon appetit!

THANK YOU, SPONSORS. The Lisa Tolliver Show is made possible, in part, through the sponsorship of The Field (they grow artists!), and with funding provided by 360 MERIDIAN (they're all around world class!), and USPS (they deliver!).

SUPPORT THE SHOW & PATRONIZE THE ARTS: Contributions are tax-deductible. And you can double, even triple your money! Learn more, contribute here.###

Tomorrow's 'Lisa Tolliver Show' features DRESS FOR SUCCESS and the DARIO VACCARO DANCE PROJECT

Come turn us on! Hear and share in to tomorrow's Lisa Tolliver Show from noon-12:30 PM, Eastern Time.

Make a splash with us! Tune in New York Radio WVOX 1460 AM, listen live online at www.wvox.com, or hear and share via telephone call-in line: (01) 914.636.0110. If you're listening, we're listening. Talk with us!

Here's who's making waves:

• Lisa Tolliver Show Arts & Culture Correspondent Patricia Burgess (the musician/composer is also Creative Director of WATER MOON ARTS). She deserves to be heard!
  
• DRESS FOR SUCCESS Bronx Regional Director, Regina Howard. What a suitable guest!


• DARIO VACCARO DANCE PROJECT Founder, dancer/choreographer Dario Vaccaro. He's one moving dude!###

Air's free for breathing, but not for broadcasting. Did you know: you can now support my "four-eyed" broadcasts (whose mission is to inform, instruct, intrigue and inspire listeners) tax free? To contribute or purchase advertising now, click here.

A word for my sponsors: today's show was made possible, in part, by support from The Field (they grow art!) and USPS (they deliver!).

My next broadcasts will be back-to-back on Wednesday, June 27:

• 11:30 AM - Noon, Eastern Time: SCORE RADIO: COUNSELORS TO AMERICA'S SMALL BUSINESS. Visit my SCORE profile.
• Noon - 12:30 PM, Eastern Time: THE LISA TOLLIVER SHOW. Who's Lisa Tolliver?

ON AIR: My voice is back and so is the 'Lisa Tolliver Show'. Join us at high noon (ET) today.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY - My voice is back (hallelujah!) and so is the Lisa Tolliver Show. I'm taking full advantage by chatting up today's guests, callers and co-host Patricia Burgess (of Water Moon Arts) at high noon (Eastern Time). You can hear and share by tuning to New York Radio WVOX 1460 AM, streaming online at www.WVOX.com, or phoning our call-in line: (01) 914.636.0110.

Today's show should provide food for thought...and for the soul. It should also be a pod people pleaser.

My featured guest is best-selling author, motivational speaker and spiritual leader Mike George. His latest book is Don't Get MAD Get Wise: Why no one ever makes you angry, ever!Links to that, and some of his other books, are featured below. You might also want to check out Mike's RelaxCentre at www.relax7.com.

Today's listeners should also look forward to an update from Bruce Chambers. If you haven't read about him in Newsday's recent article, "Home is Where the Podcast Is," or any one of the other articles featuring website-design-savvy, music-loving podcasting experts then you might know him as the founder of Podcaster Who's Who and the Long Island Podcast Network (Long Island's fastest growing podcast station).

Old Bruce (pictured left, in the Newsday photo) has some new tricks up his sleeve, and I'll be involved with some of them. In his phone-in he'll dish some scoop about his new podcasting magazine (which I'll contribute to), an upcoming Podcamp (where I'll be a featured speaker), and more! Here's a hint: splish splash he'll be speaking at an upcoming podcruise. Stay tuned.

SPONSORSHIP: Thank you USPS. Check out what's new at www.usps.gov. Also, thank you to The Field. Check them out at www.thefield.org.

SCHEDULING NOTES: Our previously scheduled guest, Regina Howard from Dress For Success, will join us next month. In the interim, check out http://www.dressforsuccess.org/ and the organization's upcoming events. Also next month, we'll talk with (and meet via podcasts) three reknowned performing artists: dancer/choreographer Dario, musician/composer Patricia, and musician/educator Claire.###

ON AIR: I was silenced by laryngitis, so guests Tanya Calamoneri and Patricia Burgess of The Field interviewed each other

As I wrote in "ON TV: One monkey(wrench) don't stop no show - exhibit A is Jackie Warner," if you've really got the goods, you don't always have to flash them. Jackie - sans samples - muscled her way, verbally and conceptually, through what should have been a show-and-tell for her new clothing line.

In contrast, I was everything but verbal during yesterday's Lisa Tolliver Show on New York Radio WVOX 1460 AM and www.wvox.com. Silenced by laryngitis, I was a talk show host who couldn't talk. Nevertheless, I had the goods: one solid set of talking points and two great guests: Tanya Calamoneri and Patricia Burgess of The Field. Combining those critical ingredients made for a darned good show (if I say so myself).

The Lisa Tolliver Show listener who sent the following email message agreed. His subject line read: "Good Show!"

Hey Lisa. At least you had one chatterbox there. I could hear you but it was kinda painful to listen to. A good show all in all.

I appreciated the feedback. As painful as it might have been to hear the few lines I croaked out, it was more painful to speak. Talking was, for me yesterday, a classic case of "this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you."

About yesterday's featured guests and non-profit organization:

Tanya Calamoneri is a teacher, performer and choreographer. She is also the Co-Director and Manager, Sponsored Artist Program at The Field. Her bio at TheField.org shares:

Tanya Calamoneri came to New York after nearly a decade of working in the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene as an arts administrator and performer. Among her roles, she was Executive Director of Dancers’ Group, a Co-Director at 848 Community Space and Temescal Arts Center, Founding Faculty Member of the Experimental Performance Institute at New College, and a company member of InkBoat, a Butoh performance company, and Kim Epifano’s Epiphany Productions. In New York, she has helped found Studio 111, and is a member of The Fifth Floor, so.go.no. and CavEnsemble performance companies.

Patricia Burgess is a composer, saxophonist and multimedia artist. She is also Creative Director, Watermoon Arts, as well as Manager, Membership at The Field. (I first met her in March, when I attended Patricia's orientation for Sponsored Artists at The Field). Her short bio at Watermoon Arts.com shares:

Patricia Burgess is a composer, producer and musician. Her works include the opera, The Dream of the Four Directions, produced off-Broadway, and music for theater classics including Hamlet, Trojan Women, and The Seagull. Collaborations with theater writer and director Ariane Smith include an original score for Lysistrata-The Human Cartoon which played in New York for nine months and The Decameron, which ran on Theater Row for Toontheatre Co. She also scored The Venus Cycle, produced by the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Burgess studied classical composition with Dominick Argento, jazz performance with Ruben Haugen and Joe Viola, world music with Jerry Granelli, and computer music with Charles Dodge and Brad Garton; she also worked with the Art Ensemble of Chicago in the study of new music. She served as Resident Composer for the Independent Theater Company of New York.

The Field is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is:

to serve independent performing artists on a completely non-exclusive basis. This means that everything we do is open to artists from all aesthetic viewpoints, cultural backgrounds, and levels of development. Our priority is to create a climate where risk-taking and originality are championed, and where the broadest range of voices are included. Field programs are affordable, accessible, and rigorous. To support independent performing artists, The Field's programs are directed toward the creation of new work and its dissemination.

In terms of creation, The Field: assists artists in making clear, cogent work through peer-oriented feedback groups;

• produces performance festivals focused on the exhibition of new work;
• sends artists on retreats at arts colonies such as White Oak (FL) and Earthdance (MA) to create new material and developnew collaborations;
• provides free rehearsal and performance space grants in the FAR Space, our new Chelsea gallery district studio.

Tanya and Patricia described the programs and resources offered by The Field, the benefits enjoyed by the organization's 600 or so members, the Field Network, and other organizations with which The Field has strategic alliances, e.g., Freelancer's Union, Fractured Atlas and Materials for the Arts.

According to my guests, these are some artist must-haves:

• a calendar to keep track of funding opportunties and residencies,
• a clear mission statement, artist's statement and boilerplate for use with proposals and promotional materials,
• and resources such as those listed here.

And now, some messages from our sponsors:

The May 9, 2007 Lisa Tolliver Show was made possible, in part, through the sponsorship of The Field, and with funding provided by 360 MERIDIAN (they're all around world class!), Dee Hargrove (she's the best!), and USPS (they deliver!).

The USPS messages shared in today's show addressed the USPS Help Stamp Out Hunger campaign, and Click 'N Ship options for Mother's Day.

It's that time again!

Yep, on April 11...

• The Lisa Tolliver Show airs at noon, ET on New York Radio WVOX 1460 AM and www.wvox.com,
  
• We're 11 days into National Poetry Month (access my National Poetry Month-related posts and show roundups), and
  
• We're 10 days into the 2007 baseball season (access my baseball-related posts and show roundups), and
  
• Most of us have survived 2007''s two biggest days of foolishness: April Fool's Day (April 1st) and the "Imus in the Morning" Fools' Day (April 4), which like scene from Groundhog Day or the Energizer bunny, seems to keep going and going. Regarding the latter, the question is: what will be the fates of the "wrinkled-up old buzzard" of broadcasting, Don "I-man" Imus, and his "bald-headed stooge," producer-sidekick Bernard McGuirk?
  

POST-SHOW ROUNDUP: Today's Lisa Tolliver Show guest was composer Patricia Burgess (who "daylights" with The Field), and accompanied me to PodCampNYC. Also scheduled - but unable to join us - was Bruce from Long Island, who founded Podcaster Who's Who and the Long Island Podcast Network. Today's "hearty" emergency preparedness & safety tip addresses cardiac health.

A MESSAGE ON BEHALF OF OUR SPONSOR: The 23rd Honoree in the United States Postal Service “Literary Arts” series is poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. For baseball and history lovers, the USPS Commemorative Stamps Program also offers a Baseball Sluggers series, which features Roy ("Campy") Campanella, "Hammerin' " Hank Greenberg, switch-hitter Mickey Mantle, and high-kicker Mel Ott.

NEXT SHOW(S) HEADS-UP: Join me again on April 25 via New York Radio WVOX 1460 AM, www.wvox.com or the call-in line at (01) 914.636.0110. From 11:30-noon, I'll be hosting SCORE Radio: Counselors to America's Small Business (here's my SCORE profile) and from high noon-12:30, I'll be hosting the Lisa Tolliver Show.

IN THE INTERIM: if you're listening, I'm listening. Talk with me!

Kissing and Telling: My Valentine's Day program was a public display of affection

On Valentine's Day, USPS representative Tony Musso and actor-radio host Steve Pal (nee Stephen Plaushin) joined the WVOX engineers, listeners and me for a lovely show. There was something for everyone, whether looking for love or in love, lovelorn or about to tie the knot, distant lovers or chocolate lovers. Content included kissing and call-ins, telling of tales and history, serenading and songs, advice and confessions.

Steve, by the way, is starring in Welcome to Norway this Saturday, February 17 at 3:00 PM and invites one and all to come. The play, by writer-director Robin Anne Joseph, is being presented in Series F of the Riant Theater's Strawberry One-Act Festival.NYC. In the play, "a woman [played by Laura Maggie Kramer] discovers a powerful lesson about life's destinations and how to accept it." - source: the Riant Theater Website

Now, about the Valentine's Day Lisa Tolliver Show. The broadcast included:

MUSIC

We played...

• "Can't Hide Love" (from Earth, Wind & Fire's The Eternal Dance, Volume II)
• "Dedicated to the One I Love" (The Shirelles)
• "I Love My Daddy" (from Hubert Laws' track on the CD 101.9 Presents Columbia & Sony Jazz Collection CD) - which I dedicated to my late father
• "Love You to the Letter" (from Anita Bakers' Compositions CD)
• "On the Radio" (from Donna Summers' Endless Summer: Donna Summer's Greatest Hits CD)

We serenaded listeners with selections from:

• "Take a Letter, Maria" (R. B. Greaves)
  
• "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (Stevie Wonder)

We discussed relationship songs mentioning letters, stamps and mail, such ...

• "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" (by Fred E. Ahlert and Joe Young and sung by many artists)
  
• "The Letter" (Box Tops)
• "Love Letters in the Sand" (written by J. Fred Coots, Nick Kenny and Charles Kenny and performed by various artists)
• "Please Mr. Postman" (Marvelettes)
• "Return to Sender" (Elvis Presley)
• "Sealed With a Kiss" (by Peter Udell and Gary Geld and recorded by various artists)
• "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" (Stevie Wonder)
• "Twistin' Postman" (Marvelettes)
• "Yesterday's Letter" (98 Degrees)
• "You Send Me" (Sam Cooke)

TALK:

Love at the USPS...

• Love Stamps and other romantic trinkets at the USPS Store
• The Valentine's Day Re-Mailing Program at the USPS Post Office in Loveland, USA, which Crew's Nest Holidays reports:"creates a special and one-of-a-kind cancellation stamp every year in order to celebrate Valentine's Day and the romantic name of Loveland, Colorado."
• The Love and Kisses campaign (offering sweepstakes and other sweet somethings) sponsored by USPS and Hershey (commemorating the 100th anniversary of Hershey's Kisses)

Information and advice, such as...

• Valentine's Day history and facts, courtesy of Crew's Nest Holidays (which provided the image, above right) and History.com.
• Love-themed libations, such as those tagged "bride," "honey," "kiss," "lip," "love," "romance," "sex," "sweet," "Valentine," and "wedding" at DrinkNation.com.
• How to write a love letter.
• Many lovers get married on Valetine's Day (and other holidays), but divorce divas say, "don't do that." (If the relationship sours, the holiday will forever serve as a painful reminder). On the flip side, many vengeful spouses also file or serve divorce papers on Valentine's Day.
  
• Why, on holidays, it's better receive than to give engagement rings.

WHAT WE DIDN'T GET TO:

I'd be insulted if anyone ever sang or dedicated either of these popular songs to me:

• "I Love You Just the Way You Are" (Billy Joel) - specifically:

I don't want clever conversation
I don't want to work that hard.
I just want someone to talk to
I want you just the way you are.

• "My Funny Valentine" (Rodgers and Hart) - :

Your looks are laughable, unphotographable.
Yet, you're my favorite work of art.
Is your figure less than Greek ?
Is your mouth a little weak ?
When you open it to speak, are you smart ?
But don't change a hair for me, not if you care for me.

I love you for listening! SWAK