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Woke Boomers Fritz Coleman, Louise Palanker Take a Deep Dive into Pop Culture with Media Path Podcast
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Woke Boomers Fritz Coleman, Louise Palanker Take a Deep Dive into Pop Culture with Media Path Podcast

By Joe Winger — 1 year ago

Take a Deep Dive into Pop Culture with Woke Boomers Fritz Coleman, Louise Palanker on Media Path Podcast

Fritz Coleman and Louise Palanker are hosting a virtual dinner party.  It’s a fun time, a good time, with lots of laughs, smiles, and a deep dive into pop culture past and present.

Have you ever become obsessed with a topic and taken a deep dive into consuming all you could uncover about it?

Media Path Podcast is here to indulge your creative obsessions. Co-hosted by Los Angeles weatherman/humorist Fritz Coleman and filmmaker/columnist and co-founder of Premiere Radio Louise Palanker.

Take a Deep Diver into Pop Culture with Woke Boomers Fritz Coleman, Louise Palanker on Media Path Podcast

Today we had a conversation (via zoom) with Fritz Coleman and Louise Palanker.  This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

For the full conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.

 

What’s the best way to introduce this fun, flavorful conversation?

 

Louise: We tell folks, this is what you would be talking about if you got together with a group of friends anyway. What have you been watching? What should I stream? What’s good? So this is where every conversation eventually devolves. We just get there very rapidly

Fritz: Wheezy and I grew this podcast out of a friendship we’ve had for about 35 years, where we found out surprisingly and wonderfully, that we see eye to eye on lots of entertainment, movies, books, TV shows, and we thought, why not make this a podcast? It is a continuation of our common interests in our conversation.

So that’s what we do. We start each show with some suggestions on what people can watch, listen to, read, and that takes eight minutes. And then we always have a guest on; guests from all walks of life. We found that one of our sweet spots is television personalities from the Los Angeles area particularly ones from our growing up period, the 1960’s and 1970s boomer material and older.

But we do everything. We do politicians, we do singing stars. We’ve had very interesting books and topics that aren’t generally known to the public. I’ll give you an example. Two weeks ago. We had a show about a man who wrote a book about a woman by the name of Connie Converse, who I suppose you could describe as one of the great undiscovered musical talents in America.

She was a great songwriter and a great singer. She was never discovered, which was sad and then she just magically and mysteriously disappeared. So the book this guy wrote was about somebody that not everybody was familiar with, but it was fascinating because it was like a, ‘whodonnit’ and also the heartache of an undiscovered musical talent, that lady that started in Greens Village and all those things.

All that to say it’s Weezy and I discussing stuff we find fascinating and we hope you come along.

 

From the episodes I’ve watched, it feels like the most interesting dinner party you’ve been to in a long time.

 

Fritz: We appreciate that.

We’re gonna use that as a sales tool from now on. The most interesting dinner party you’ve ever been to. Yeah,

Louise: the food is awful. 

Fritz: My dinner with Weezy. 

Louise: Yeah, there’s some hard candies and it’s bring whatever you can in your purse because we, I’ve got some granola bars on the coffee table, but that’s it.

Fritz: We want the intimacy of a conversation among friends and so you, you analyzed it well. Beautiful.

 

Because everyone watching and listening loves food. Do you have a favorite food you’d recommend either you per personally and enjoy or something that we should be eating or cooking while we listen and watch your show?

 

Louise: I’m gonna recommend some water. This comes out of a filtration system near my sink. It’s just lovely.

Fritz: I happen to be a fan of Northern Italian cuisine. I won’t name specific dishes, but in general, I love risotto with a great protein like shrimp or chicken.

I love penne with a bolognese sauce. I love capellini alla checca, which is a great when you add shrimp to it and then you add a checca sauce, which is the red sauce with garlic. And so I like Northern Italian Cuisine. I don’t cook, but I can buy the best food in America. Just walking out my front door here.

Louise: Have you ever put salmon on a pizza?

Fritz: I’ve had that actually. That’s actually very good.

Louise: Very good. Goat cheese. Wonderful. I love let’s see, chicken parmesan, I think that’s what I would order.Maybe that sounds very pedestrian. But comfort foods are delicious.

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, chicken parm. That’s the kind of stuff – any potato really, you can’t do anything to a potato that would offend me.

Fritz: I’ll tell you, LA is wonderful for that lately cuz there’s all sorts of interesting fusions going on. You have Vietnamese food and Italian food and a fusion menu.

And if you like to experiment with different palettes, this is a great city to do it in. It really is, thanks to Wolfgang Puck and some of the gourmet chefs in the town. Completely

 

I think what we’re all, what we’re all noticing immediately is the two of you have phenomenal chemistry. What’s the origin story?

 

Louise: Yes, absolutely. We know each other quite well. It’s very natural, and I’ve been podcasting since you could, you go back to 2005 whenever you got that new iPhone that said, would you like to listen to a podcast? And then you said, what’s a podcast? And then the adventure begins. 

So I’ve been doing it from jump and Fritz was contractually obligated to not speak outside of his news job about anything that did not concern a weather pattern. Your newsman cannot have an opinion. That’s very distracting, especially now in our divided sensibility.

Fritz: You just can’t say anything smart, that would embarrass the station. That’s all.

Louise: So you couldn’t do commercials. It makes sense if you’re talking about the weather, you don’t wanna be thinking, oh, this guy sells batteries. You just, you wanna just get your weather cast.

So as soon as he retired we jumped on board together because I had done four podcasts before this one, and I was prepared in terms of what a podcast requires, how difficult it is. And so for Fritz, I just need his mind, his preparation, his wit and his fascination with all things interesting.

And he’s more than ready to take on the podcasting world. He’s the best. 

Fritz: And this is not a brag but it’s true. You cannot manufacture chemistry. You can see two people on television. You hear them on the radio or hear them in a conversation, and you know that these two people should not be in the same room together, let alone host their own presentation.

But we just have a natural thing that was born out of our friendship really, and our common interest in stuff. One of our sweet spots is baby boomer and older music, old rhythm and blues. Weezy’s interest in music goes back to the old harmony groups like the Mills Brothers, cuz she was personal friends.

So all those things we find fun and so when we get in there we I think that the fun we’re having resonates to the audience. I hope it does. 

Louise: We geek out together. It’s like watching Jimmy Fallon. You’re just so giddy that he’s that giddy. So hopefully we bring that kind of enthusiasm and just to get to meet the people that we grew up watching.

And also the excitement of when you have an author reading the book and then getting to talk to the author and, rather than having to scour YouTube for interviews that the author did, because now you’re fascinated. We actually get to talk to the person. And so we find that exciting. It’s like going to grad school for free.

Fritz: One of the great joys is having a topic that you don’t know anything about. For instance, this Connie Converse topic and the one we’re having this week we’re preparing for now, this is a guy that wrote a book about the friendship between Henry Ford, John Burrows, and Thomas Edison.

These three geniuses in a different venue, each one, but they all had this spectacular friendship and they all took a road trip in a model T Ford.  I knew a little bit about Henry Ford, you know it from the Industrial Revolution and extreme antisemitism. But I didn’t realize that he had interests outside there. Louise and I are just gonna be blank slates and come into this interview with just being inquisitive, and that’s always fun.  You discover something you had no idea about.

Let’s talk about both of your backgrounds.

We’re gonna go to Fritz second. Louise,  bring everyone up to speed about what you’ve accomplished and those other podcasts you’ve worked on so people know the background that you bring to this show.

 

Louise: Yes, I began my career as a studio page, and it was one of those things where you get your foot in the door and one thing leads to the other thing.

So I became a studio page at a place called Metro Media Tape. We were doing all of the Norman Lear sitcoms. We had the John Davidson talk show. Which was where a person like me gets to meet Van Johnson. It was just crazy. Look, I’m from suburban Buffalo and here I am with Van Johnson.

It was crazy. So I’ve always just been so grateful to work in entertainment. I just consider it to be an honor. But that led to a job at a show called PM Magazine, which led to me meeting Rick Dees who was a local radio personality. I went to write his syndicated countdown show, which is called the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, which led to me meeting other personalities at KISS FM and forming a company with them called Premier Radio Networks.

And that was a 15 year rocket ship that led to that company being sold to Clear Channel, which is now iHeart Media. At one point I went to one of my partners and I said, Hey, Craig, what are what’s the chance of me having my own show? And he said, none. And I said, I have two words for you, podcast.

Because he didn’t know that they were just the one word at that time. And I, that’s how new it was. I was doing standup comedy at the time, so I went to do standup comedy that night and I said to my friend, Laura Swisher, have you heard of a podcast? And she said, I just heard about it today.

It was just like, it was hot off the press, right? So we were like, let’s make one. That led to 100 episodes of Weezy In The Swish, which was my first podcast. And then I did one with K with teenagers where I was like giving teenagers advice cuz like I love to mentor young people.

And that one was called Journals Out Loud. And then I did one with some of my comedy friends called things I Found Online, which was people our age discovering the interne. Then Fritz retired and now I’m working with Fritz.

I never was a radio personality at Premier. I was a creator. I was in charge of all of the creative output, but Premier had shows that did not involve or include me other than behind the scenes. 

And now Fritz obviously. My words, you’re an LA icon. For more than 40 years…

 

Fritz: Contactually, you have to say that about me.  Every time you introduce me. I’m an LA icon.

 

Not only do you own LA TV, but you own LA stages because for those who don’t know, seeing you live is a phenomenally fun, entertaining evening.  Was it a very conscious segue to get into podcasting?

 

Fritz: My involvement with her podcast is totally her both blame and her gift that she gave to me after I retired.

People find this hard to believe. Real meteorologists hate this story, but I’ll tell it to you anyway. I was working at the Comedy Store in 1982 and because I talked on stage about having done the weather earlier in my broadcasting career, the news director from Channel Four and his wife were in the audience that night and he came up to me after the show and he said, I really enjoyed your show, particularly the thing about doing the weather in the Navy, but not knowing anything about it.

He said, would you have any desire to come to Channel Four and do some vacation relief, weather forecasting? I was making $25 a night at the Comedy Store, and so I almost passed out. I said, of course, when do you want me to start? He said you have to audition. So I auditioned and got the job, and I did two years as a vacation relief guy on the weekends.

Filling in on the weekends and filling in for people on vacation. And then two years later, I was bumped up to the weekday weather cast position and I retired two weeks shy of my 40th anniversary. And it’s just unbelievable. I didn’t set out to have a career in weather. This opportunity presented itself.

I could continue to do standup. I came out here from Buffalo, New York where we Weezy’s from to do standup. Even as the weather job I was able to continue to do standup. And so I had two careers. One paid for my children’s education. The other exercised my ego, and as they, it both worked out.

 

How do you two decide on the topics and when you bring up your guests, how do you decide on your guests?

 

Louise: We get a lot of offers coming our way now.  There’s definitely people that we go after. But we have so many folks that are pitching, when someone has something new that comes out, they make the rounds. And so we just know what our sweet spots are and we email each other with our producer Dina, and we say, does this sound good? 

So for example we did not know anything about that Elvis story that you’re talking about. And when it was pitched to us, we just said Absolutely. Exactly. This is what we wanna delve into. So that is what you’re referring to, is a book about a woman who researched Elvis’s health history and discovered that he wasn’t a drug addict because he enjoyed drugs. He was a drug addict because he was trying to feel normal. He was born with disease in 9 out of the 11 systems of the body, and this is why everyone on his mother’s side dies in their forties, including Elvis.

Fritz: That was a great example of what I was talking about.

Weezy and I were just flabbergasted. I mean we’ve all known a lot about Elvis, especially Weezy and I, because we’re students of music, but there was so much in there that we didn’t realize. And that’s a great example of discovering things that you weren’t aware of that made the podcast so much fun.

Louise: And the book is by Sally Hodel and it’s called Elvis: Destined to Die Young.

I think so many people are looking for that level of knowledge and a deeper dive. I think both YouTube and podcasts allows for those deeper dives.

 

What do the two of you look for when it comes to interviews? Is there different angles you’re both looking to achieve or how does that happen?

 

Louise: If we find it interesting, we just believe that other folks will find it interesting. So we just gauge it on what fascinates us.

We’re a pretty good barometer.

Louise: We’re always looking for politics. We both call ourselves “woke boomers”.

We’ll take it. And we love history. We love biographies, we love documentaries. We’re both news junkies. We love TV, especially the TV that is close to people because they grew up with it. We believe firmly that what you loved at 10 you love forever. We talked to Marty Croft and we talked to former child stars and we talk to folks like that.

This week we talked to Nellie Oleson,  Alison Arngrim from Little House on the Prairie as well. We love talking to those folks and learning what life was like as a child growing up making the television that other kids were so in intrigued by, and of course the music of our era, sixties, seventies, eighties,

Fritz: We had two documentary filmmakers on a couple of about a month or so ago.  They made a documentary about Blood, Sweat and Tears, which was one of the iconic groups of the late sixties and early seventies. They and Chicago were the first bands to use horns in mainstream rock and roll. But there’s a great backstory about how Blood, Sweat and Tears were bamboozled into making a tour behind the Iron Curtain.  They were the first American rock band that had ever been allowed to tour behind the Iron Curtain.

And there’s hundreds of hours of video of these guys experiencing Romania and all these less than welcoming countries. And that was fantastic because, again, we’d always been fans of Blood, Sweat and Tears.  But this was an aspect of their career we didn’t know anything about. That was fantastic.

And we had Bobby Columby, who was the drummer for Blood, Sweat and Tears in the studio with us. It was really fun. 

 

You both brought up in your own ways, “happy accidents” with guests.  Can either of you suggest guests we should go back through your archives and find?

 

Louise: My favorite episode features Joyce Bouffant. She wrote a book called My Four Hollywood Husbands. It’s absolutely a tremendously entertaining read. She was married to James MacArthur, The son of Helen Hayes. So this kid who has a impoverished childhood and suddenly she’s hanging out with Helen Hayes. Launches a career of taking care of alcoholic husbands and finally winding up with the man of her dreams.

And it’s just, it’s quite a ride and remarkably entertaining. 

Fritz: And we have guests that will always be our favorites. One of our only repeat guests, Henry Winkler, who happens to be a close friend to Weezy’s.  We had him on, but not because he’s a close friend. Because when you just have a very casual conversation with him, you realize his appeal to the world.

He’s one of the most down to earth, non-condescending, brilliant guys who never talks down to you. He’s just the loveliest man in the world and who has had an astonishing career. And we’ve had him on, and we’re gonna try to get him on again because he has an autobiography coming out soon. So we hope we can coerce him into coming back on.

But yeah, we love those too. We haven’t had anybody else on twice? I don’t think so. Adam Schiff. The politician. Now his life has changed because he’s running for senator from California.

Louise: He’s Fritz’s Congressman, so he’s congressionally obligated to attend our podcast.

He’s wonderful and very funny guy as well. We’re always just really honored to speak to him. Another favorite show of mine is: The Steve’s. Steve Young and Steve O’Donnell, both wrote for David Letterman. Steve Young has created this documentary called Bathtubs Over Broadway, where Steve Young becomes obsessed with industrial musicals.

It’s on Amazon Prime right now and it still gets a lot of views.

It’s fun to talk to Pat Boone and Vicky Lawrence and Johnny Whitaker and Christopher Knight. All of our comedian friends, but those are the stories that you love. Uncovering is things that you didn’t know were there and that delight you.

 

Let’s tell the audience where to find your show – Where do we find you?

 

Louise: Anywhere you type Media Path Podcast  it’s gonna come up.  Website, podcast, youtube, iphone.

Fritz: I have a new comedy special, which is streaming on Tubi. It’s called Unassisted Living. It’s just describing life for people of our demographic: that is old people and their parents.

 

That’s gonna be fun.  Can we find you live on stage soon?

 

Fritz: I think I’m gonna be having a residency at the El Porto Theater in North Hollywood, California. It’s a fairly legendary theater, called the Maryland Monroe Forum.

And I’m gonna be doing a show there once a month for a while as I work out new material. And I’ll be advertising that on social media and elsewhere. 

 

Find the Media Path Podcast: https://www.mediapathpodcast.com/

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Grace Potter at Penn’s Peak Sunday September 24

By Daisy Schneider — 1 year ago

Penn’s Peak is proud to announce Grace Potter, Sunday, September 24, 2023 at 7:30pm.

Back in summer 2021, Grace Potter took off on a solo cross-country road trip that would soon bring a life-saving reconnection with her most unbridled self.

 

Heading out on Route 66 from her home in Topanga Canyon, the Vermont-born artist spent the coming weeks crashing in roadside motels and taking time each night to deliriously transcribe the song ideas she’d dreamed up behind the wheel, often scrawling those notes onto the backs of postcards and motel notepads.

After completing two more trips across the U.S. on her own—and partly navigating her way with the help of hand-drawn maps from self-styled historians of Route 66—Potter flew to Nashville for a series of recording sessions that quickly gave way to her most magnificently unfettered collection of songs to date.

Penn’s Peak is proud to announce Grace Potter, Sunday, September 24

Equal parts fearlessly raw memoir and carnivalesque fable, the result is a body of work that goes far beyond the typical album experience to deliver something much more all-enveloping: the original motion picture soundtrack to a profoundly transformative moment in Potter’s life, a fantastically twisted odyssey populated by the hitchhikers and outlaws and other lifelong wanderers who roam through the wonderland of her psyche.

The follow-up to Daylight—a 2019 release that earned GRAMMY nominations for Best Rock Album, and Best Rock Performance—Mother Road marks the start of a thrilling new era of a career that’s included turning out seven acclaimed albums, sharing the stage with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, and the Allman Brothers Band, and playing nearly every major music festival (in addition to launching her own festival, Burlington’s Grand Point North).

Over the course of its 10 larger-than-life tracks, the album fuses elements of soul, blues, country, and timeless rock-and-roll with masterful abandon, thanks to the vibrant musicianship of Potter and her collaborators:

legendary keyboardist Benmont Tench, keyboardist Benmont Tench (Cage The Elephant), bassist Tim Deaux (The Whigs, Kings Of Leon), pedal-steel guitarist Dan Kalisher (Fitz And The Tantrums, Noah Cyrus), Potter’s longtime drummer Matt Musty, and her husband Eric Valentine (a multi-instrumentalist who plays everything from African lute to synth bass on Mother Road).

Produced by Valentine (who’s also worked with Queens of the Stone Age, Slash, and Weezer) and recorded at RCA’s famed Studio A, Mother Road fully echoes the ecstatic catharsis of its recording sessions, a process that Potter alternately likens to a tantrum and a haunting.

“I didn’t have any real intention of making a record; I just thought I’d get into a room with some friends and mess around with these unfinished ideas I’d been gathering,”

she says.

“But then an entire album fell out of me, including all the lyrics—the blanks had been filled in, like my subconscious had created finished sentences spoken distinctly from the perspective of all these characters that were living inside me.”

As she reveals, that explosion of creative energy followed a period of emotional crisis for Potter, a turn of events partly triggered by moving back to her hometown with her husband and young son a year into the pandemic. “There was a big piece of my heart that wasn’t ready to go back to Vermont—it all happened about 10 years earlier than I’d expected,” she says. “California had always felt like a new beginning, a place where I was able to step into a community of like-minded weirdos, and through that first winter I started to feel trapped.”

After suffering a miscarriage (a particularly brutal medical experience compounded by the fact that she’d unknowingly been carrying twins), Potter began treatment for clinical depression and soon decided to seek the solace and release she’d always found on the road. “I used the rental-car shortage as an excuse to go get our car in Topanga, but the truth is I was going to probably have a full mental breakdown if I didn’t step away from the pressure cooker of judgment, I’d placed on myself and my environment,” she says.

“At first, I thought of what I was doing as escapism, and I felt ashamed of that.

But eventually I realized I was giving myself permission to do what needed to be done for me to get better.”

Within days of that first road trip, Potter was overcome by memories of past adventures and began piecing together stories set in parallel realities and alternate timelines, each rooted in the unvarnished truth of her emotional experience. “Mother Road is a reframing of my understanding of my history,” she says. “It’s an important and powerful perspective I’d never had until this record, and the heart of it is my journey to self-reliance and a sense of worthiness.”

Named for a line from The Grapes of Wrath—in which John Steinbeck refers to Route 66 the “the mother of all roads…the road of flight”—Mother Road opens on the soulful swagger of its sublimely rowdy title track.

“That song is my way of saying I’m not okay, and I’m hoping that the road will at least be my partner-in-crime on this journey, if not a healer,” says Potter, whose powerhouse voice lends the track a certain incandescent grit.

A world-weary plea for redemption (from the chorus: “Wherever I’m headed/Mama, don’t let it be down”), “Mother Road” also makes for a prime introduction to the album’s ingenious use of background vocals.

“All of those vocals are me, but each voice is a different character I was manifesting in the album,” Potter explains. Mother Road’s motley cast of characters includes the ghost of Waylon Jennings and an enigmatic road warrior named Lady Vagabond.

On “Good Time,” meanwhile, Potter inhabits the role of a hellraiser called Brigitte as she serves up a groove-heavy sizzle reel of her real life’s wildest moments (e.g., “I breastfed a stranger once at an In-N-Out Burger/Stripped down to my skivvies and danced across the boulevard”). “Writing that song, I was thinking about all the times when there were no boundaries between me and the world at large,” says Potter. “As you get older there’s this expectation that you need to fall in line, that you can’t keep living in a fantasy your whole life. But I don’t know about that. Maybe we can.”

At the heart of Mother Road lies two back-to-back tracks that together speak to the transcendent power of bending reality and creating our own myths. Co-written by Potter and the Highwomen’s Natalie Hemby (a Grammy-winning songwriter whose credits include tracks by Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris), “Little Hitchhiker” brings Potter’s delicate piano melodies, luminous acoustic-guitar work, and gorgeously longing vocals to a tender reflection on her experience as a nine-year-old runaway.

Next, “Lady Vagabond” unfolds with spaghetti-western bravado as Potter immortalizes the lawless superhero within. “To me she represents complete self-reliance and strength, and the permission to be as mischievous or as benevolent as you want to be,” says Potter. “She may not have a great grasp on everything else in the world—she may not even have the greatest grasp on herself—but that’s okay.”

For the closing track on Mother Road, Potter offers up an epic piece of cabaret-pop touched with both theatrical flamboyance and devil-may-care attitude. A bit of coming-of-age autobiography in song form, the piano-led “Masterpiece” paints a picture of her libertine young adulthood in irreverent and dazzling detail (“I was the long-lost daughter of disco/Dancing thru my jock-strap dreams/In my funky little Fiat/Chasing down my Masterpiece”). “One of the silver linings of going back home was driving by my high school every day and having all those memories come rushing back,” says Potter. “The kids I’d grown up with were there with a million stories about me, and every story got weirder and wilder than the last. But I love that that’s how they remembered me, and I love that I’m still living those stories out through my songs.”

Even in Mother Road’s most outrageous moments, Potter infuses her songwriting with essential insight into the endless nuances of life and love and belonging. True to the cinematic nature of Mother Road’s storytelling, she’s also immersed herself in creating the album’s elaborate visual components, an undertaking that’s involved expanding her talents as a filmmaker and multimedia artist. “I know now that there’s more depth to my expression, and I feel ready to bring everything into focus under a much larger circus tent than I have in the past,” she notes. And after thousands of miles on the road, countless nights at seedy motels, and a heartrending return home, Potter has made her way to the kind of creative freedom that leaves both artist and audience indelibly altered—a freedom that’s undeniably led to her masterpiece.

Tickets on sale Friday, June 23rd at 10:00AM at all Ticketmaster outlets, the Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant and Bar.  Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant ticket sales are walk-up only, no phone orders.

General Admission

Advance: $30

Day of Show: $35

About Penn’s Peak

Penn’s Peak, a beautiful mountaintop entertainment venue located in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, can comfortably host 1,800 concertgoers.  Enjoy a spacious dance floor, lofty ceilings, concert bar/concession area and a full service restaurant and bar aptly named Roadie’s. Complete with a broad open-air deck for summertime revelry, Penn’s Peak patrons enjoy a breathtaking overlook of nearby Beltzville Lake, plus a commanding, picturesque 50-mile panoramic view of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains. Choose Penn’s Peak for your next wedding, banquet or special event and treat your guests to an event truly “Above the Rest”.

Geographically convenient to residents of major population zones in Hazleton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg, the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia and New York City, Penn’s Peak is an ideal location for any event.  It is located only four miles from Exit 74 of the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. 

For more information on Penn’s Peak, go to www.pennspeak.com or call 866-605-7325.

The Wood Brothers with Maya De Vitry at Penn’s Peak Sunday, October 22
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The Wood Brothers with Maya De Vitry at Penn’s Peak Sunday, October 22

By Sasha Sinclair — 1 year ago

Penn’s Peak is proud to announce The Wood Brothers with Maya De Vitry, Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 7pm.

The Wood Brothers have learned to trust their hearts.

For the better part of two decades, they’ve cemented their reputation as freethinking songwriters, road warriors, and community builders, creating a catalog of diverse music and a loyal audience who’ve grown alongside them through the years.

That evolution continues with Heart is the Hero, the band’s eighth studio album. Recorded analog to 16-track tape, this latest effort finds its three creators embracing the chemistry of their acclaimed live shows by capturing their performances in real-time direct from the studio floor with nary a computer in sight.

The Wood Brothers, an acoustic-driven album

 

An acoustic-driven album that electrifies, Heart is the Hero is stocked with songs that target not only the heart, but the head and hips, too.

“We love records that come from the era of less tracks and more care,”

explains co-founder

Oliver Wood.

“When you use a computer during the tracking process, you have an infinite number of tracks at your disposal, which implies that nothing is permanent, and everything can be fixed. Tape gives you limitations that force you to be creative and intentional. You don’t look at the music on a screen; you listen to it, and you learn to focus on the feeling of the performance.”

Throughout Heart Is The Hero, those performances are matched by the visceral storytelling and songwriting chops that have turned The Wood Brothers into Grammy-nominated leaders of American roots music, even as their music reaches far beyond the genre’s borders.

The stripped down swagger of “Pilgrim” underscores Oliver’s reminder to slow down and experience each moment as an interactive observer, rather than a passive tourist. A similar theme anchors “Between the Beats,” where Oliver draws upon a meditation technique — maintaining one’s focus on the space between heartbeats — to reach a new level of presence.

The gentle sway of country soul gem “Rollin’ On,” featuring horns by Matt Glassmeyer and Roy Agee, expounds on the time honored tradition of love as the guiding light through darkness, while ”Mean Man World” finds Chris Wood singing about his responsibilities as a father whose young daughter is poised to inherit an uncertain future. “Line Those Pockets” is a universal call for mercy and understanding over materialism.

“Everybody’s just trying to be happy, so put your money away; line those pockets with grace,” the band sings in three-part harmony during the song’s chorus, which emphasizes compassion over cash as the world’s true currency. Together, these songs offer a snapshot of a spirited, independent-minded group at the peak of its powers, always pushing forward and seeking to evolve beyond what’s come before.

“There’s still acoustic guitar, upright bass, and percussion on this album — things people use all the time — but we’re always thinking, ‘How can we make this sound like us, but not like something we’ve already done?'” Oliver says. “Sometimes, the only way to do that is to get weird.”

That sense of exploration pumps its way through Heart is the Hero like lifeblood. Arriving on the heels of 2019’s Live at The Fillmore, 2020’s Kingdom In My Mind, and Oliver Wood’s solo album Always Smilin‘ — all of which were released on Honey Jar Records, the band’s independent label — Heart is the Hero is bold, bright, and singularly creative, a fully realized collective effort ultimately greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps that’s to be expected from a group whose willingness to experiment has earned acclaim from Rolling Stone and NPR, as well as an annual touring schedule of sold-out music halls and theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. Ask The Wood Brothers, though, and they’ll tell you to expect the unexpected.

“We are never satisfied if we are not searching for new musical recipes,” says Jano Rix, nodding to the uncharted territory that Heart is the Hero covers. Chris Wood agrees, adding, “We are one of those bands that isn’t easily categorized. We know what our strengths are, but we can’t help but push the envelope, as well. It’s too much fun.”

Tickets on sale Friday, June 23rd at 10:00AM at all Ticketmaster outlets, the Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant and Bar.  Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant ticket sales are walk-up only, no phone orders.

General Admission

Advance: $30

Day of Show: $35

About Penn’s Peak

Penn’s Peak, a beautiful mountaintop entertainment venue located in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, can comfortably host 1,800 concertgoers.  Enjoy a spacious dance floor, lofty ceilings, concert bar/concession area and a full service restaurant and bar aptly named Roadie’s. Complete with a broad open-air deck for summertime revelry, Penn’s Peak patrons enjoy a breathtaking overlook of nearby Beltzville Lake, plus a commanding, picturesque 50-mile panoramic view of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains. Choose Penn’s Peak for your next wedding, banquet or special event and treat your guests to an event truly “Above the Rest”.

Geographically convenient to residents of major population zones in Hazleton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg, the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia and New York City, Penn’s Peak is an ideal location for any event.  It is located only four miles from Exit 74 of the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  For more information on Penn’s Peak, go to www.pennspeak.com or call 866-605-7325.

Buddy Guy with Vintage Trouble at Penn’s Peak October 14
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Buddy Guy with Vintage Trouble at Penn’s Peak October 14

By Ruben Kellermen — 1 year ago

Penn’s Peak is proud to announce Buddy Guy with Vintage Trouble, Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 8pm.

At age 86, Buddy Guy is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a major influence on rock titans like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, a pioneer of Chicago’s fabled West Side sound, and a living link to the city’s halcyon days of electric blues. Buddy Guy has received 8 GRAMMY Awards, a 2015 Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Award, 38 Blues Music Awards (the most any artist has received), the Billboard Magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #23 in its “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

Buddy Guy with Vintage Trouble at Penn’s Peak October 14

In 2019, Buddy Guy won his 8th and most recent GRAMMY Award for his 18th solo LP, “The Blues Is Alive And Well”.

In July of 2021, in honor of Buddy Guy’s 85th birthday, PBS American Masters released “Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase The Blues Away”, a new documentary following his rise from a childhood spent picking cotton in Louisiana to becoming one of the most influential guitar players of all time. The documentary features new interviews with Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr, and more. Watch the full documentary at PBS Online here.

Though Buddy Guy will forever be associated with Chicago, his story actually begins in Louisiana. One of five children, he was born in 1936 to a sharecropper’s family and raised on a plantation near the small town of Lettsworth, located some 140 miles northwest of New Orleans. Buddy was just seven years old when he fashioned his first makeshift “guitar”—a two-string contraption attached to a piece of wood and secured with his mother’s hairpins.

In 1957, he took his guitar to Chicago, where he would permanently alter the direction of the instrument, first on numerous sessions for Chess Records playing alongside Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and the rest of the label’s legendary roster, and then on recordings of his own. His incendiary style left its mark on guitarists from Jimmy Page to John Mayer. “He was for me what Elvis was probably like for other people,” said Eric Clapton at Guy’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2005. “My course was set, and he was my pilot.”

Seven years later, July 2012 proved to be one of Buddy Guy’s most remarkable years ever. He was awarded the 2012 Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contribution to American culture; earlier in the year, at a performance at the White House, he even persuaded President Obama to join him on a chorus of “Sweet Home Chicago.” Also in 2012, he published his long-awaited memoir, When I Left Home.

These many years later, Buddy Guy remains a genuine American treasure and one of the final surviving connections to an historic era in the country’s musical evolution.

Tickets on sale Friday, June 23rd at 10:00AM at all Ticketmaster outlets, the Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant and Bar.  Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant ticket sales are walk-up only, no phone orders.

Reserved Seating

Premium Reserved: $66

Regular Reserved: $59

About Penn’s Peak

Penn’s Peak, a beautiful mountaintop entertainment venue located in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, can comfortably host 1,800 concertgoers.  Enjoy a spacious dance floor, lofty ceilings, concert bar/concession area and a full service restaurant and bar aptly named Roadie’s. Complete with a broad open-air deck for summertime revelry, Penn’s Peak patrons enjoy a breathtaking overlook of nearby Beltzville Lake, plus a commanding, picturesque 50-mile panoramic view of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains. Choose Penn’s Peak for your next wedding, banquet or special event and treat your guests to an event truly “Above the Rest”.

Geographically convenient to residents of major population zones in Hazleton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg, the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia and New York City, Penn’s Peak is an ideal location for any event.  It is located only four miles from Exit 74 of the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. 

For more information on Penn’s Peak, go to www.pennspeak.com or call 866-605-7325.

Lehigh Valley Foodies Deserve Incredible Summertime wine! Trivento launches #TheFirstWhiteMalbec with Winemaker Maxi Ortiz
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Lehigh Valley Foodies Deserve Incredible Summertime wine! Trivento launches #TheFirstWhiteMalbec with Winemaker Maxi Ortiz

By Joe Winger — 1 year ago

Lehigh Valley Foodies Deserve Incredible Summertime wine! Trivento launches #TheFirstWhiteMalbec with Winemaker Maxi Ortiz

There’s plenty of “other” product launches and then there’s Trivento’s Sunset Cruise launch for The First White Malbec.  Clearly, Trivento is very excited.

NYC wine and food experts board the luxury yacht, from 1919, at Manhattan’s North Cove Premier Mega-Yacht Club & Marina.

 

A handful of NYC and East Coast wine and food experts board a luxury yacht, built in 1919, at Manhattan’s North Cove Premier Mega-Yacht Club & Marina.  On-board, best-selling wine authors, top wine media, and NYC’s food and wine critics.

 

 

As we set sail, our wine glasses are filled with The First White Malbec in the world, produced by Argentina’s Trivento and Winemaker Maxi Ortiz.

 

 

It’s easy to be taken by the moment.  You look up and see the majestic NYC coastline.  Look around the yacht, even the most local New York cynics have their jaws agape.  It’s just breath-taking to see.

 

 

Moments later, the crew aboard the Ventura Sailing Team are passing out delicious seafood and chicken-based appetizers to pair with Trivento’s White Malbec.

 

Ventura Sailing Team at NYC for Trivento what malbec launch

Ventura Sailing Team are passing out delicious seafood and chicken-based appetizers

 

We sail through the bay, passing the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance, coming up on Governor’s Island and of course, The Statue of Liberty.

 

Passing along the Brooklyn Bridge

Why Trivento’s White Malbec is a world-class Innovation

 

For over 150 years, Malbec has been grown widely throughout Argentina. Its deep purple color, rich aromas of plums and red berries.  It’s perfect for smooth, supple red wines.

The fact that Winemaker Maxi Ortiz dares to take an incredible red wine and turn it into a white wine, shows world-class innovation, confidence and vinification prowess.  But as we’ll learn further below, it wasn’t an easy process.

Ortiz later explains in detail, it took 4 years of trial and error.  Getting closer and closer, but not perfect enough for him.  What we taste today is a culmination of his efforts and lessons.

 

What does Trivento’s White Malbec taste like?

 

By now most of us on the yacht have had a second taste of the wine.  It’s opening up and blossoming beautifully.

The color is surprisingly clear, crystalline.

The nose has aromas of white peach, grapefruit, subtle hint of red fruit.

It’s a very easy-drinking wine.  Especially in the summer.  The mouth has a refreshing acidity, light body. Notes of green apple.  Pairs beautifully well with the seafood and light chicken dishes served here.  I could also see it with a garden salad, caprese or sushi.  Be daring and try it with BBQ as the acid will cut into the fatty meat.

Hearing from Trivento’s Team, Juan Jose Gil

 

Juan Jose Gil directs the Trivento brand in the United States. 

He explains that Trivento was founded in 1996 by the group Concha y Toro.  It was the first time they left Chile to make an investment outside of their origin when they chose Mendoza, Argentina.

They started with a very small vineyard of 154 hectares. Today these Malbec experts have 12 vineyards in four different valleys and over 1,764 hectares of vines.   They offer Malbec at every price point and every value tier.

The company has three pillars: Innovation. Sustainability.  Excellence.

From Juan Jose Gil’s explanation, all 3 pillars are thriving together as we sip their most innovative wine, from grapes farmed on their sustainable vineyards, enjoying its excellent quality.

Trivento Winemaker Maxi Ortiz playfully posing with the Statue of Liberty

Winemaker Maxi Ortiz playfully posing with the Statue of Liberty

Winemaker Maxi Ortiz Reveals His White Malbec Process

 

Ortiz has been working at Trivento since 2006, helping to build it into the fourth biggest winery in Mendoza.

2019 was their first vintage of Trivento White Malbec.  But it’s come a long way from what the world is tasting today.

However, for him, it’s a very special wine for more that just the innovation it represents, but also a positive impact on society:

“Sales from this wine

go to a scholarship program that helps students

with low economic resources and high academic performance to finish schooling.”

 

How did he create the white Malbec?  

He revealed parts of his 4-year process.  He picked the grapes the last week of January, 40 days earlier than regular.  Then they quickly pressed the grapes in order to separate the skin from the pulp.  However it’s not “white” yet.  Then it was more of a rose.

Then he revealed the biggest secret of the process.  A winemaking method that is common with red wines, but not whites.  Ortiz got creative, invented and daring – and it worked.  And unfortunately, we’re not going to share it here today.  As competition is already growing!

“We were the first winery [back in 2019] to make a white wine with a red grape, which is the Malbec.

And it’s fantastic because nowadays you can see at least 10 different wineries making White Malbec.

So this is the first White Malbec and

in a way Trivento creates a new category of wine in Argentina.”

The quality is clearly there,  As Ortiz explains further:

“The grapes came from the same region, from the same vineyard,

from the same places that we use for our [traditional Malbec] Reserve.” 

For those who follow NYC weather, it was supposed to be thunderstorms the day of the Sunset Cruise.  Bravely and happily, the launch decided to move forward anyway!

The weather was dramatic and cloudy (but dry) all throughout the cruise.  Then, as if anointed by a higher power, just as Ortiz finished speaking, the rain started.

A slow, steady rinse that grew stronger.  By the time we returned to dock, it was a heavy downpour.  But no one was complaining.  Wet smiles all around.

If Trivento White Malbec has a way of brightening your day even amidst a heavy thunderstorm, imagine what it can do for your backyard barbecue?

Find more on the Trivento website

Follow Trivento on Facebook and Instagram.

Add Flavor to Your Cooking and Your Plate - Heraclea Olive Oil delivers flavor, health and heritage, reveals Berk Bahceci
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Add Flavor to Your Cooking and Your Plate – Heraclea Olive Oil delivers flavor, health and heritage, reveals Berk Bahceci

By Joe Winger — 1 year ago

Heraclea Olive Oil delivers flavor, health and heritage, reveals Berk Bahceci

We are here with Berk Bahceci from Heraclea Olive Oil.

Berk joined me for a conversation (via zoom).  Below has been edited for length and clarity.  Find the full conversation on our YouTube Channel.

I’m excited because I’ve tasted your olive oils and they’re subtle, they’re flavorful, and there’s a great story behind them. And today I wanna touch on all of that and a little bit more.

 

Tell me a bit about your background and how you got into olive oil

 

Berk:  Sure. I moved to the United States approximately 10 years ago for college. Actually. That’s how my story here started. I studied economics at UCLA and then I went to law school at UC Berkeley.

But the day I started law school, I realized something was off. I started questioning whether I was the material to be an attorney. Three years passed by.  I took the bar exam and started working. In my first year I realized, I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore.

I started looking for an exit plan. So I reflected back on myself, my life, my childhood. What is one thing that would  make me wanna wake up every day with excitement?

I realized olive oil is out there. My family owned some olive groves before, but we were never doing this with a business mindset. It was just produced and consumed within family and friends. I came up with the idea to tell my family, why don’t we turn this into a business, create a brand around it, and sell it here exclusively in the United States.

The market itself is very dominated by a couple big players from certain countries. 

I did more research and realized that Turkey is the fifth largest importer of olive oil into the United States, but you are not seeing any Turkish brands on shelves.

What’s the reason for that? It’s probably because producers in Turkey don’t have the means to come here, establish a distribution center like channels, and move product. Selling in bulk is the easiest and most convenient way for those people.

But I wanted to bring a new way for the Turkish olive oil in the United States with Heraclea that’s how we found it.

 

 

We’re definitely gonna get into Turkey in a second.  A lot of the people watching this are wine lovers.  Region is very important.  So tell us about the region that you’re farming

 

Berk: Region has an impact on olive oil as well. That’s the reason why the European Union has a scheme called Protected Designation of Origin. I’m sure wine lovers and cheese lovers will know, when I say PDO, the red and yellow emblem that you see on certain products sold in specialty food stores.

 

PDO is basically a stamp given by the European Union, to distinct products. What do I mean by that? So the variety of olive that we work with is called Memecik. There are over 2000 olive varieties  in the world. 

 

Do me a favor, say that variety again and spell it for us.

 

Berk: It’s called Memecik. It is very unknown, very rare because it is specific to the region that we produce. 

And that’s why the European Union has given a couple years ago to this region and this olive variety, A P D O certification. For example, in California most growers are bequia, right? If they were to plant Memecik, which they can, in California, they won’t be able to have this PDO certification.

So PDO only comes if Memecik is grown in Milas. That’s a very special thing for us and we are very proud to be working with a very rare variety. So when you buy olive oil, it is for certain that you won’t taste it with any other brand because it’s distinct to Milas.

Just the same way that champagne only comes from the Champagne of France.

Berk: That’s exactly what I was going to say. 

 

When did you realize the magic and the power of the Memecik varietal?

 

Berk: This PDO certification is so new that we did not found this business upon that, that certification. It was just an added value with the PDO, but we always knew that our olive oil was distinct in its quality.

It has actually recently been approved by International judges in New York International Olive Oil competition, Japan Olive Oil Competition, Istanbul Olive Oil Competition. We got gold and silver medals from all of these. And this is the first year that we are actively participating in these competitions.

It’s a really good moment for us because usually these things don’t happen in the first or second year. [Usually] you’re a producer for multiple years or maybe generations.  So we’re really proud about that.

 

Congratulations. And just to give someone listening or watching an idea, the scale of these competitions.

Can you estimate how many different olive oils are in that competition?

 

Berk: I would say in the thousands, 2000.  Maybe a hundred companies are winning these awards. You’re in the select field of the top 5-10% in the entire world.

The panel is composed of people from all around the world, from all producing regions, Italy, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Chile, Argentina.  Experts. So it’s a good indication that the product is at a certain level of quality.

 

So let’s talk about the behind the scenes and the process of making this award-winning olive oil.

 

Berk: We have around a hundred acres of land with over 10,000 trees that we take care of with a team of seven full-time on the field every day. We don’t use any fertilizers, we don’t use any pesticides. We don’t use any chemicals.  One reason is our grows are literally on the on mountains. They’re not plantations. 

Many olive oil brands have what people call “olive farms” where the companies do intensive and super, super high density farming, which means that where maybe 10 trees would go. They plant a hundred trees. So it’s very compact, producing very high yield olives, but lacking taste because they’re fed with irrigation all the time.

So the olives get really big when they’re given water every day, whereas our olives don’t have irrigation because it’s on the mountains. Our olives, in comparison, are relatively smaller, which keeps the aroma very vibrant. That’s actually the secret behind it.

A lot of people who taste our early harvest olive oil say that it’s a little bit bitter, especially right after the harvest.  That comes from the antioxidants that are loaded in it. Because our olives are very small. The density of antioxidants is higher, so that’s why the bitterness comes in. 

We just prune the trees, cutting the excessive branches because we’re working in a very scarce,  nutrient environment. Like I said, no fertilizers, so you have to keep the trees very optimal by cutting the unnecessary trees and branches so that whatever there is in the soil goes to the fruit.

That’s why our team of seven constantly does these kind of things. These kind of physical touches, no like chemical alteration or anything. Around October we start  walking  around the grow to determine the day of the harvest. That is the most exciting time of the year

Due to not using fertilizers, we really have to optimize the day of the harvest to maximize our production. So when we determine that day, which is mid-October, usually we start harvesting.

We hire local men and women who are living in nearby villages. We go in with a team of 20 to 30.

We keep it for 90 days until January. We don’t want to go into January. Because fruit flies, conditions and a lot of other things impact the quality. 

So we try to finish everything from mid-October until January. We work with a local mill to process our olives. We take two batches every day, one in the afternoon and one at night because we don’t wanna wait in between.

If you start harvest at 8:00 AM and harvest until 4:00 PM the olives that you have harvested at 8:00 AM will have waited nine hours before going into the processing machine. We don’t wanna do that because as the olive waits, fermentation starts and the quality decreases.

So we do two deliveries every day to the local mills, one in the afternoon, and one later in the day. This way we ensure that our olives go right into production within two to four hours of harvest.  Believe me, we’re working really hard to maintain that.

Then we store our olive oil in stainless steel tanks in temperature and humidity controlled rooms with nitrogen gas used as a buffer between the olive oil and the rim. 

Think of a five ton tank.  You fill it out, but there’s always some portion of the tank that is left empty and there’s oxygen in that empty part. When olive oil touches with oxygen in the stainless steel tank as it is stored, oxidation starts, which leads to rancidity, which decreases the quality of the olive oil. So we take that oxygen out by pumping in another gas – of course, food grade safety, no worries there. 

That’s the level of attention and care we give to our olive oil. 

 

Let’s switch to the the tasty part. Let’s talk about the flavor of your two bottles.  Flavor profiles, aroma, anything you’d like.

 

Berk: So we have two products right now. We’re bringing in a third one soon.

Olive oil is the white bottle which is made from olives that we harvest starting from October until mid-November.

And the moment that we switch from early to mature harvest is when the olives start turning into this purplish color. As months pass the green olives start to ripen and then change in color. When we see that change into purple, that’s the moment we say, okay, early harvest is done.

Now we’re doing mature harvest and then everything else that we harvest mid-November, till January, is considered mature harvest. That’s the distinction between the two. 

The mature harvest is the black bottle. And when it comes to flavor profile, there’s one disclaimer that I wanna make, uh, in general about, uh, these, uh, like.

Flavor profiles.  I think to really understand and feel and get this smell. In any olive oil, you have to have a sensory memory, have that experience in your mind, I still remember it.

Here’s an example from my sensory memory:

We had a walnut tree right across the street by our house, and there was a fine paper-like cover, outside of the walnut. Right before they mature, we would take from the tree and taste it and it’s bitter. So that [bitter] taste is in my sensory memory right now.

Same as tomato stems. Like if you touch a tomato plant with your hands and play around and then smell your hands, you’re going to get a very unique tomato stem smell, and that’s like embedded in your mind now. So from now on, every time you taste an olive oil, if there is that distinct smell or taste in it, that’s how you recognize it.

So in our olive oil, early harvest, for example, I get the notes of freshly cut grass, tomato stems, walnuts, banana.

What I was told in this olive oil school that I went to in Spain is, get your hands out there. Touch everything, smell everything. Taste everything. That’s how you develop your sensory memory.

And that’s how you become, as people say, familiar. But you know, like you don’t have to have a certificate to be one. You know, you just go out there and taste stuff and try to. Memorize and remember those smells and tastes.

I was talking to somebody earlier this week about food pairings and he had a similar answer, which was be curious.

Exactly. Taste things, touch things, smell things, and be curious. 

 

I know your website has a cookbook, let’s talk about some of your favorite food pairings with your olive oil

 

Berk: I love  drizzling our early harvest on cheese plates. That’s my favorite thing. Early harvest is more for finishing dishes because it has a bitter aroma to it.

If you cook with it, you may have a bitter taste in the food. Actually, I know people who cook with our early harvest. I know people who drizzle with our mature harvest, so it’s not set in stone.

It really depends on what you like, but generally, early harvest is better for drizzling over salads. Hummus, cheese.  Sometimes  I dip my bread in it. 

That’s a tradition we have in Turkey sometimes, find a piece of bread and dip that into your olive oil, and that’s a good breakfast. 

Mature harvest is for everything else. Cooking, baking, marinating. A lot of people are saying that they use it for marinating.

 

Anything else you want us to discover about olive oil?

 

Berk: Our goals are twofold.  One is, olive oil is a very healthy product for human consumption, There is research showing that the positive effects on health of olive oil, daily consumption of olive oil. We believe that a product that is so healthy for humans should do no harm to the environment.

It’s production should not cause any more trouble to our Mother Nature. That’s why we’re not using fertilizers. That’s why we’re not using pesticides. We think there’s a solution in nature to resolve any problem that these things claim to be curing. That’s number one, producing as environmentally friendly as possible.

Number two is to introduce to the world the intricacies of Turkish cuisine. It is beyond  just kebab. It is just one meal in thousands of distinct and unique recipes. And the way that we treat these recipes are not just a list of ingredients.

To us, these are stories from past generations and that Turkish cookbook has 550 very distinct recipes. Each recipe is associated with a specific region or maybe sometimes even a village. 

 

It almost sounds Farm To Table.

 

Berk: Exactly. That’s the goal. We’re small batch and we have really certain values and principles.

 

Are there any specific health benefits that you wanna cover?

 

Berk: There are a lot.  There are a lot of research.  I’m not a scientist. I’m not a doctor. But consuming olive oil daily helps with chronic diseases. Cardiovascular diseases. Type 2 diabetes, and many more.

We have lab reports showing the amount of antioxidants in our olive oil, which is around 500 milligrams per liter, which is a high amount. Consuming antioxidants is healthy. Olive oil has anti-inflammatory effects as well. 

When you consider all of these things and if you consume fats, why don’t you switch to a healthy alternative where research shows that its consumption helps you.

That’s why as a layman I recommend consuming olive oil on a daily basis. 

 

Berk, you’ve given us a lot of good information. You’ve given us a lot of tasty ideas.

Let’s talk about how to buy and how to, how to where we can buy your olive oil.

 

Berk: We’re available online at heraclea.co. There is no “m” at the end. 

We will very soon be available on Amazon.

If you are in New York, we will soon be available in NoHo. Manhattan. Then if you are in Seattle, very soon we will be available in a grocery chains in Seattle.

Hopefully by end of this year we will be in over a hundred physical locations 

 

Zac N' Fried with Special Guests Steel Creek Trio at Summerstage Concerts Kick Off in Saylorsburg June 14
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Zac N’ Fried with Special Guests Steel Creek Trio at Summerstage Concerts Kick Off in Saylorsburg June 14

By Daisy Schneider — 1 year ago
Zac N’ Fried with Special Guests Steel Creek Trio at Summerstage Concerts Kick Off in Saylorsburg June 14
The Sherman Theater is bringing the SummerStage back to Saylorsburg on the lawn at the Blue Ridge Flea Market, 648 Route 115.
The first show is Wednesday, June 14 at 7:00 PM with the Zac N’ Fried band, playing the music of The Zac Brown Band and special guests the Steel Creek Trio.
The summer line-up includes:
June 14 – Zac N’ Fried, Music of Zac Brown Band with Steel Creek Trio
June 21 – The Four Horsemen, Tribute to Metallica
July 5 – Jersey Transit Authority, Music of Chicago
July 12 – Satisfaction, Tribute to the Rolling Stones
**July 15 – Steel Panther, from NBC’s America’s Got Talent
July 19 – Fleetwood Macked, Tribute to Fleetwood Mac with. Earth Song Duo
**July 21 – Almost Queen, Most Authentic Queen Tribute Show Since Queen Themselves
August 16 – Rave On!, Music of Legends of Early Rock n Roll with Joey & the T-Birds
August 23 – Almost U2, Music of U2
August 30 – The Dave Matthews Tribute Band
When live bands can get people to dance and sing along, it is sure to be a magical evening.
“This is a perfect opportunity for folks to come out and celebrate community with friends and family.  We listen to great music and enjoy a summer evening together,” said Sherman Theater President and CEO Rich Berkowitz.
Patrons are welcome to bring camp chairs and blankets, food and one factory sealed water bottle.
Food trucks and beverage tent will be selling food, beer, wine, and nonalcoholic drinks.
Kids 12 and under get in FREE for the concerts, excluding the shows on July 15 and 21.
 No pets allowed.  Free parking for all shows.  Rain or shine.
**This show is a special event and not part of the Community Concert Series.
Show:  Zac N’ Fried and special guests the Steel Creek Trio
Sherman Summerstage – 648 Route 115, Saylorsburg at Blue Ridge Flea Market
Wednesday, June 14
Doors at 6:15, Show at 7:00
Tickets at ShermanTheater.com
The Sherman Theater is Monroe County’s only nationally ranked, non-profit theater and performing arts center.  Located in downtown Stroudsburg, PA, the Sherman Theater has proudly served the Pocono region for 90 years.  The Theater and Performing Arts Center is committed to strengthening the community by producing culturally-diverse, nationally-known professional acts and festivals at the theater and at satellite locations throughout Monroe County for people of all ages, by providing an opportunity for local artists to perform, and by creating economic development in the region. The Sherman Theater projects and events attract over 100,000 visitors to the Pocono Region annually.
For more information call 570-420-2808 or visit www.shermantheater.com.
The String Cheese Incident at Penn’s Peak
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The String Cheese Incident at Penn’s Peak Thursday, September 14

By Sasha Sinclair — 1 year ago

Penn’s Peak is proud to announce The String Cheese Incident, Thursday, September 14, 2023 at 7:15pm.

The past three decades have written a story packed full of surreal experiences, epic moments, groundbreaking involvement and huge accomplishments.

The String Cheese Incident has been recognized for their commitment to musical creativity and integrity, for their community spirit, philanthropic endeavors, and for their innovative approach to the business of music.

When The String Cheese Incident’s growth first started gaining momentum in the 1990s, as the Internet was just beginning to take hold and the major-label business model was failing, the band decided to make music on their own terms.

Since then, The String Cheese Incident has gone on to carve out a completely unique  approach to the business of music; they are truly pioneers of a new way of “making a band.” With the Internet as their tool, SCI was among the first artists to disseminate information online, such as tour dates, release information, and other news, to their growing fan base. Rather than doing business on such terms as “the bottom line,” SCI put their music and their fans first, opening companies of their own, including a ticketing company, a merchandise company and a fan travel agency, to best serve their community. The band’s record label, SCI Fidelity Records, has always operated under the same ideals. Even early on, SCI Fidelity embraced downloadable music and file sharing, delivering SCI’s “On The Road” series, where every show the band plays is made available for download on the Internet. Whether they realized it at the time or not, The String Cheese Incident was inventing grassroots band development. Today, literally hundreds of bands are using some version of this same approach to build their brand.

The String Cheese Incident’s commitment goes well beyond their immediate community, and even beyond the music community as a whole. Early on, the band took a serious interest in giving back to the communities that they visited, and they were among the first performers to encourage “Green” shows and tours. SCI’s support has helped give rise to such not-for-profit organizations as Conscious Alliance and HeadCount. All the while, The String Cheese Incident has stayed committed to music as a creative endeavor, not just in their recordings but also in their live performances. The list of SCI’s special guests and collaborators is long and diverse. Their annual events such as Electric Forest and Hulaween, and holiday shows such as New Year’s Eve, have helped redefine the concert experience and have garnered the band a reputation as live music vibe innovators.

Tickets on sale Friday, June 16th at 10:00 AM at all Ticketmaster outlets, the Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant and Bar.  Penn’s Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant ticket sales are walk-up only, no phone orders.

General Admission

Advance: $60.00

Day of Show: $65.00

About Penn’s Peak

Penn’s Peak, a beautiful mountaintop entertainment venue located in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, can comfortably host 1,800 concertgoers.  Enjoy a spacious dance floor, lofty ceilings, concert bar/concession area and a full service restaurant and bar aptly named Roadie’s. Complete with a broad open-air deck for summertime revelry, Penn’s Peak patrons enjoy a breathtaking overlook of nearby Beltzville Lake, plus a commanding, picturesque 50-mile panoramic view of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains. Choose Penn’s Peak for your next wedding, banquet or special event and treat your guests to an event truly “Above the Rest”.

Geographically convenient to residents of major population zones in Hazleton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg, the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia and New York City, Penn’s Peak is an ideal location for any event.  It is located only four miles from Exit 74 of the northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. 

For more information on Penn’s Peak, go to www.pennspeak.com or call 866-605-7325.

Give Dad Adventure and Family for Fathers Day, Chris Jankulovski book Near Death Lessons at Amazon now
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Give Dad Adventure and Family for Fathers Day, Chris Jankulovski book Near Death Lessons at Amazon now

By Contributor — 1 year ago

Fathers Day is coming up and every family is searching for Dad’s perfect gift.  Chris Jankulovski’s book Near Death Lessons offers story of family, adventure, motivation, and life lessons.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Jankulovski (via zoom) to talk about his Father’s Day wishes, business success, family, health concerns, empowerment and more.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.  Watch the full conversation on our Youtube channel.

 

Congratulations on your new book, Near Death Lessons. 

 

Thank you. Been a journey to get it out there, but I am so honored and privileged to do this work. 

It is an inspiring and a motivating book, and I would say equally important is not only is it inspiring and it’s motivating, but for somebody who wants to break-through, you actually give us the lessons that you use to accomplish it so we can follow those lessons as well.

 

 

What was the hardest part of writing the book for you?

 

Friends tell me, Chris, you gotta write a book, man. Seriously, you’ve got some wild stories. It almost killed me when the tumor bursted in my head. I couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk. I was in bed for three months.

I knew that the moment I could stand upright, I wanna write a book for my sons. I want them to know who their father was.  Because yet again, I just confronted a serious adversity where 60% of people normally die on the operating table. I somehow survived it. I’m the lucky 40%, and I just had my operation one month before the birth of my second son, Billy.  And I wanted my six year old and my new son to know who their father was.

I’ll give you a timeline.  We’ll plot it all, and then we’re gonna give it to a ghost writer who’s gonna somehow be able to direct our story. Then we’ll put the muscles in it, and then we’ll build it all up.

And that’s the journey I went on until I gave it to an editor who completely shut it down and it took me about a a year to correct everything. No kidding. 

 

Okay. So how long from the moment you started with your writer through the editing process, what was the timeline from inception to on the shelf?

 

Oh wow. So the first year after my brain operation, I’m still writing this book. A year later, I’m in the pool, rehabilitating [with the book notes] still in front of me.

I’ve got this diagnosis of doctors telling me, Chris, you gotta have these cancers removed asap. They’ve taken off. I don’t know if your kidney is gonna survive removing six cancers. You might be on dialysis. Doom and gloom.

I’ve just gone on a journey of learning how to walk and talk for eight months. I’ve got so many defects going on. 

My tongue didn’t half work. I couldn’t even talk. It was affecting my speech. So I’m there in this scenario and at the height of my worst moment in life, I’ve got this outlook. That’s a disaster. 

'Near Death Lessons' by Chris Jankulovski

I’m trying to run in the pool because I’m learning how to walk properly and I’m about to confront this adversity again.

I’m thinking: Why am I buying a future that no one knows? This is all just estimates, predictions, guesswork. I don’t have to accept this. What if I dare hope that the best is yet to come? Why don’t I look forward to the life ahead of me? That it’s the best? 

And that was the most pivotal moment in my life because, I went from a $4 million house to a $16 million house.

Eight months later, I go off to double my business from 8 million to 16 million. I go off to do all these things, and now I’m in America taking it to another level. 

I was in the hospital room, that’s year one by the way.  I bargained for my life because things were not looking good, that’s when I decided to take my story public.

And since the moment I’ve taken the story public. I wrote the book initially because I didn’t want to give any advice to my sons because I didn’t want them to hate me from the grave. I didn’t wanna just share my story. I wanted to share the lessons.

I wanted to share the things that have transformed my life. So I hired a resilience consultant, and I said to her, can you please read my book? Put a spotlight on how I respond to adversities compared to a more common response because I just keep bouncing back stronger.

She read my book five times. We ended up having 26 zoom sessions, and then from that we unearthed 11 distinctions. We gave those to instructional designers which then they came back to me with the five life lessons that I shared in the book.

That’s a heck of a journey. Tell us about some of the diagnoses you’ve had all the way back from your teenage years.

 

So at the age of 19, we went to a specialist clinic to understand what was causing tumors in my eyes. The doctor was puzzled.  There was this new genetic testing going on. So I had the genetic test done.   I [was diagnosed] with Von hippel-lindau syndrome. A hereditary condition, means maybe your mom and dad have got it. I go, no one’s got it, okay?

The average life expectancy is 30 years, so you’re probably gonna have a short life and you’ve probably got cancers now. 

I was like, what? I’m gonna be dead by 30. What do you mean? That was my brutal wake up call and I went to my car and I cried.

I couldn’t relate to anyone with this problem. I told my parents, I told my friends, I couldn’t connect with anyone about this. I just decided to ignore it. I thought if I pretended deep down I never got this, perhaps it would disappear.

So that’s what I did. I ignored it from the ages of 19 to 32 when my first brain tumor finally caught up. And when it did, it almost killed me. It was so big –  five centimeters. I had to contour my body to go to the toilet and had these weird electric shocks running down my spine.

When I got the operation, I transformed. I looked at the sky and I said, God, kill me. I’ve had enough of living this victim life. I’ve had enough of being disempowered, always reacting to my circumstances.

I choose to focus on life. I choose whatever happens. I’m gonna choose to make the most of whatever life I have, but I’m not living like that anymore.  So that was a pivotal moment. 

I’m now 50, so I’ve had a good run for the last six years. At age seven, my appendix burst, almost killing me. Two weeks in hospital. At the age of 21, I almost drowned. 

But one of the first times I crossed over, out of body kind of experience and a different time dimension was a few years later, 25, when I woke up [during] an eye surgery, I felt the needles sliding on my eye, like on an egg, and they’re poking in.

I woke up and flatlined. I was looking down at myself.  I could see the machine flat-lining until everything went white. And then I felt like I was in a different time dimension. I just felt ‘Whoa. Where am I? Let’s go. Hey, I’m not going anywhere. It’s my sister’s wedding soon. And then I snapped back into life again with the nurses all about to zap me.

So that was at 25 and then at 32 is the brain tumor. And then two months later was the removal of my right kidney because it was occupied by cancers. Some as large as four and a half, five centimeters. Which is way too dangerous. They’re all very aggressive..

The reason why I called that a near death experience as well is because I survived my cancer battle and it didn’t spread. It killed my dad, it didn’t kill me. And then two years later, I had to remove four large cancers from a remaining left kidney. 

A decade later, another six cancerous kidneys.  Before that one was the second brain operation to remove two tumors in my head, and that was the most serious. 

 

Let’s talk about a deliberate life. You mentioned it in your book, what does a deliberate life mean to you and what are the main steps? How do we get there?

 

I have nearly died, came back to life, and every time that happens, it’s like a reset button in my heart.

Everything’s up for grab: my values, my behaviors, my patterns. Because I’m back again. You go through many of these experiences.

Everything you’ve been holding true gets re-evaluated, and therefore, all of it – fears, insecurities, all gets washed away. And what remains is what’s most important and true. For me, every time I go through these experiences, I get an onion layer experience. I get more to the core of who I am and who we are.

All of us, including me, are remarkably powerful. I can’t believe the more I get to me and the core of my authentic me, the more energy, the more light, the more vibrancy, the more drive, the more of everything is there. 

I’ve always been spending money looking for advice and solutions outside myself.  Deep down, the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my life was when I meditated in silence for three weeks in India.  Silence. Every time I nearly died, I’d go into this black void. Vibrancy, energy, and I don’t understand why I’m still consciously pressing, but then when I return, now I know I’m gonna say something really taboo, but life and death coexist in my mind because when I close my eyes and I’m in this black void, if I can meditate to a point where I’m outside of my sense of skin, brain patterns, feelings, and just be presently alert of my awareness.

Man, that’s the same space I go to when I’m in a different time dimension. Hence why I believe that life and death coexist and that fuels me. That just fuels me even more because our mortality is what should fuel all of us. Why? Who are we to take our time for granted here? 

This drop of time that we have here, how selfish of us to be caught up in our own doubts and fears and insecurities. We are so much more than that. 

There is just this magic and energy in us that wants to drive. Follow that drive, follow that energy. Don’t restrict it.  It communicates in feelings and glimpses of vision.

I live a deliberate life because of these adversities, and I keep coming back to life.  I wanna optimize. If I’ve got anxiety. If I was to listen to Steve Jobs, live as if it’s your last day of life. I get anxiety. I can’t be strategic, I can’t plan. I’m always challenged every year with my scans.

So the way I play this game is every year when I get a MRI scan for my brain and spine and kidneys and all this stuff. When I get the results of those scans towards the end of the year, I see them as a certificate to go live life to the fullest. So I get this scan results. I go, yes, I’ve got a free run.  Then that following year, I’m bolting. I’m a hundred percent, I’ve got one more year to live. I see every year as if it’s another year to live. 

What I’ve realized over 30 years of doing this is,  I can’t live deliberately, so I can’t live my life to the fullest every year unless I’m living deliberately and I can’t live deliberately unless I have clarity with what I wanna do, because otherwise I’m spending time on all these things that aren’t important.

I linked my goal to an image and I put it on a board because visually I know that the only way my subconscious relates to this is by image and feeling. Now, I know people call it vision boards, but they’ve got it all wrong. You gotta really link an image to a goal.  That image needs to excite you.   That simple solution allowed me to focus my energy throughout the whole year towards these things. 

 

You offer a ‘free gift’ in your book.  Can you give us a sneak peek of what it is?

 

Since I’m talking about life so much and living life to the fullest I wanted to show people the 10 things that were often affecting me and stopping me from living a life to the fullest.

What does success mean to you? It’s different for everyone and so is living life to the fullest.  But, for people who are driven, success-oriented, ambitious people,  they would relate mostly to this because that’s who I am.

I wanna spend more time with my family. I wanna smell the roses. I wanna see how far I can go and I wanna see the kind of impact I can make because I don’t wanna just pass and it never even be known that I even existed.

So living life to the fullest means you are embracing your true power. You are embracing and optimizing your most important resource,  your time. You are embracing the fact that you’ve got an ability to create. 

So if we can do these simple things, we can achieve our dreams. That’s as simple as that. If we’ve got the right mindset, if we stop responding to life as if we have got no control, if we are always victims of it, I’ve been thrown these incredible blows from the universe.

So many battles outside of my control. I refuse to not take responsibility. I actually take responsibility. Look, the tumors happen genetically, but I take responsibility. It’s a game. Okay? It’s just a game. It’s a game of self-empowerment.

 

Chris Jankulovski’s book, Near Death Lessons on sale at Amazon now.

If we want more from you, where do we find you? What’s your website? Where do we find you on social media?

 

I’m building ChrisJankulovski.com and then you’ll be able to access other things. 

 

What does the future look like for you?  What are you gonna be up to next?

 

I’m developing my personal brand and what that represents to the world.  What that represents to the American people.  What I strive to do in terms of impacting.. 

I’ll be working very heavily on my business, but I’ll also be putting myself out there to meet people, to talk to people and more media of course.

When I said I’m gonna inspire millions, this is the deal. And that deal isn’t just writing a book. That deal is to connect with people. One-on-one or in groups or to speak, and not because I’m looking to become a speaker, but because I’m looking to deliver this incredible energy, this incredible passion, this incredible lessons and distinctions with no bullshit on what gets results and how what you gotta do to optimize your most important time here on Earth.

Chris, I wish you huge success with the book Near Death Lessons. I think there’s so many lessons about either launching a new life or breaking through.  It’s a great New Year’s. Gift and a great Father’s Day gift. 

Thank you mate. 

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BBQ, Cocktails, Ice Cream and more! Nazareth Food Truck Festival Returns on June 17

By Ruben Kellermen — 1 year ago

Nazareth Food Truck Festival Returns on June 17

The Nazareth Area Chamber of Commerce, proud partner of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce presents the return of the Nazareth Area Food Truck Festival!
  

The Nazareth Area Chamber of Commerce (NACC), proud partner of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber, is pleased to announce the return of their annual food truck festival on June 17th!

The festival will take place on Belvidere Street in Nazareth and will feature live music and great food from the Lehigh Valley’s favorite local food trucks and eateries.  

    
 

“We are excited to be partnering with the Borough of Nazareth to bring this beloved festival back to Nazareth,”

said Jessica O’Donnell

EVP of Affiliated Chambers, Easton Initiatives and Northern Tier for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce.

 

“Bringing another fun, community-oriented event is something our Chamber is proud to be a part of, especially when it highlights our beautiful downtown.”  
 
The festival invites families and foodies alike to enjoy local cuisine.

Beginning at 3 PM, Belvidere Street will be filled with 10+ food and beverage vendors, ranging in cuisine from sweets like ice cream to savory BBQ and gourmet sliders. Live Music has been scheduled throughout the day, organized and sponsored by the Nazareth Center for the Arts. 

Food vendors include: Slide on By LLC, Smokehouse Food Truck, Mon and Mel’s Sweet Scoops, Greek Street, and Roll With It.

Adult beverage vendors include: Triple Sun Spirits, Clever Girl Winery, Five Maidens Cidery, Birthright Brewing Co, and The Easton Wine Project.   

 

“The Chamber looks forward to connecting with our beautiful community and enjoying a deliciously awesome day,” states Nicole Miles, Manager of the Nazareth Area Chamber. “We look forward to a great day in the Borough of Nazareth and want people to come downtown to see what Nazareth businesses have to offer while enjoying the dining experience of a casual food truck festival and listening to tunes from talented musicians on stage.”  

Sponsor, The Nazareth Center for the Arts, will be hosting a “Battle of the Bands” on stage all day.  

 
More information can be found on the Nazareth Area Chamber’s Facebook event or on the Chamber of Commerce’s website

 
When: June 17, 2023 from 3-7 PM   

Pricing Information: Free to attend, food and beverages for purchase 

Sponsors (as of 6/10/2023):
Handwashing Station Sponsors: Nazareth Mutual Insurance Company and Keystone Consulting Engineers  

Family Fun Sponsor: WRENCHTEC 

Music Sponsor: Nazareth Center for the Arts
Supporting Sponsor: Evening Sun Entertainment 

Community Helper Sponsor: Vigilance Hose Co #1

More information can be found on the Nazareth Area Chamber’s Facebook event: https://tinyurl.com/39k2e3mu 

or on the Chamber of Commerce’s website: https://tinyurl.com/3hwex367 

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