Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Lunch Break Dance Parties: No-tech disruption for tech overload, obesity

With a bit of complimentary Absolut vodka office workers start shaking their booty at lunch time dance parties instead of staying by their computer screens gobbling down a sandwich.

That's the new trend THE NEW YORK TIMES reports.  And this no-tech introduction could disrupt the tech overload among professionals and deep six obesity.  So huge could be its implications that organizations could start creating incentives for employees to get out of the office and onto the dance floor at clubs which provide this time-out.

Before the company gym was introduced, we Baby Boomers remember how restorative it had been to grab our coat and flee the cube for a walk for a few blocks.  Along the way we peeked at store windows and even got fresh ideas for our work.  Instead of consuming a 700-calorie lunch, we might have just sipped a can of those diet meal drinks which were in vogue then.  And, all was right with the world.  We were in control again.

BigPharma such as Johnson & Johnson which is so concerned with obesity and emotional health might partner with the sponsors of these lunch break dance parties.

Annette Funicello: She let us know it was okay to grow up

Before our Baby Boomer eyes Annette Funicello went from rah-rah Mickey Mouse girl to a woman who liked boys and boys liked her.  That helped us let go of childhood.

In one episode of "Mad Men," Don Draper muses that upon entering their teenage years young men and women mourn their childhood.  That was a simple time when we were taken care of and shielded from the heart of darkness.

I stumbled along that journey into adulthood. But Funicello, perky and nice, was always there to remind me that it's possible to find a place for ourselves in a confusing world.

Funicello is now dead age age 70.  She will always, like Mary Tyler Moore, remain America's sweetheart.  My hunch is that angels directed her mouse ears toward heaven and she quickly was able to settle in.

Meditation Clears Mind Like Modafinil: April Schedule of Events at New Haven Zen Center

The performance-enhancing substance for The Achiever Class is Modafinil, reports NEW YORK Magazine.  That has made Walter White's Meth on "Breaking Bad" seem so 20th century.  The hitch with Modafinil, as with most additives for the human psyche, is that it can become addictive.  Then we all knows what can happen.

When that does happen, some users/abusers discover that plain-vanilla meditation can have the same effects.  The person can focus without distraction and think clearly about anything for hours on end.

After reading this in NEW YORK some may be connecting the dots and deciding that it might be smart to skip the Modafinil and go straight to meditation.  So, here is a schedule of the April activities at the New Haven Zen Center, on Mansfield Street, not far from Yale.  Stop by and join the rest of us blissed-out souls who manage awesome feats of concentration.

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April 3 - (Free) Interviews with Guiding Teacher Ken Kessel, JDPSN.  From 7:00 P.M. until about 8:30 P.M. Ken sits on his cushion off the main meditation area to listen to us and somehow that forces us to listen to ourselves.  The few words he does say tend to resonate for weeks.

April 5 to 7 - Buddha's Birthday, Providence Zen Center, Providence, Rhode Island.  Buddha's birthday has a pull force for the Kwan Um School of Zen.  There are rites and rituals, along with lots of food (forget mindful eating), games, and getting to know the delightful human being inside the robes monks and nuns wear.  For more information on taking the journey to Providence you can please call 203-787-0912.

April 8, 7:00 P.M. - Zen at Yale's Battell Chapel (where College/Elm Intersect) Ryushin Sensei, the Abbott of Zen Mountain Monastery, will deliver a free Dharma talk.  You don't have to be a member of the Yale community to attend.

April 21, 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.,  (Free) Interviews with Guiding Teacher Ken Kessel, JDPSN.  After the one-on-one sessions are over, then there is a Dharma talk, followed by a light lunch (guess that means mindful eating.)

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For those who may be shy or simply wary and just want to slip in and try out zen without the fanfare of an event are welcome to:

Meditation - Every Sunday, 9:00 A.M. to 11 A.M.

Meditation + Chanting - Every Wednesday, 7 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. Arrive around 6:30 P.M. and a zen master will introduce you to the fundamentals of practice.

All this comes free but donations are welcome.  As they say, "The Dharma costs nothing but the heat and electricity do."

P.S. The scientific term for what occurs during meditation is "neuroplasticity."

 

Adele: Her huge talent allowed her to be her own woman

The new book "Adele" by Sarah-Louise James provides inspiration to talented folks who don't quite fit in - or perhaps are downright misfits.

Adele's huge voice and ability to dig into her hurt to create iconic lyrics allowed her to bypass the norms of society.  As long as she chose to (she has since slimmed down some) she remained full-figured.  She never turned her back on her working-class roots.  And she wears her celebrity as a loose garment, rather than compulsively pumping it up as some handlers might encourage her to do.

Although Adele's middle name is "Blue," that was originally because her parents were fans of the blues as well as other kinds of music.  Her soulfulness and raw vulnerability likely started when her parents' marriage ended and she became estranged from her father.  That might have been the platform for the disappointing love affairs she captures in her songs.

Adele's story of trimuph over petty conventional people can be one all talented people can replicate - if they believe in themselves the way Adele has.  Insecurity invites in the torment. 

Jay Leno et al. - We are guilty of the unspeakable crime in America of aging

In America, birthdays soon mutate from happy events shared by family, friends, co-workers, and superiors to evidence of an unspeakable crime.  That crime is becoming older.

Many years ago genius in music Louie Armstrong sang that his sin was in his skin.  Our sin is that we have had too many birthdays to remain a premier brand in the labor market. 

The latest instance of that might be the exiting of comic Jay Leno from his network show after the 2013 - 2014 season.  HOLLYWOOD REPORTER notes that Leno could be on short time, replaced by Jimmy Fallon.

Of course, there are aging players seemingly unaffected by the American preference for youth on its labor front lines.  Those range from Rupert Murdoch to Betty White.  Good for them.  Then there are the rest of us who have been forced out or not let in. 

Our mission, like those African-Americans, women, and gays embraced, is to transform the perception and work policies about aging.  Few will help us.  This is our fight.  We can show up for it if we get over the shame inflicted on us about "not looking young."  Sixty may be the new 30 but it doesn't look like 30.

"I Got A Name: The Jim Croce Story" - Baby Boomer's artist struggle with traditional Italian family

Reviewers of Jim Croce's music frequently commented that his art clearly showed his pain.  The ordeals he sang about, they speculated, he had experienced directly. 

And Baby Boomers from ethnic families will recognize that much of that suffering had been rooted in Croce's father's inability to accept that his son wasn't going to take the road more traveled.  Even later when he became famous, his mother decried his living like a gypsy as he toured the country singing.

Ingrid Croce, Jim's widow, chronicles that history in the biography "I Got A Name: The Jim Croce Story," which she wrote with her second husband Jimmy Rock.  Even into his young adulthood, Jim would have his face slapped by his Italian father who wanted his son to get a secure job, live at home until he married, and sit around the table consuming the huge meals the mother prepared.  The father would send Jim those zinger letters we Baby Boomers remember receiving from our ethnc parents when our lives weren't conforming with their marching orders.

But unlike many of his peers, Jim couldn't shake off the intrusions of his family.  He remained tormented, shut down, and incapable of enjoying his success.  No surprise, he turned to drugs and destroyed his marriage.  Had he not been killed in a plane crash, he likely would have gone the way of passive suicide.

Ingrid captures the hold families used to have on our generation and how too many of us spent our lives running from their values.  Only now in my 60s am I finally healing from my own family's shame that one of their daughters was "different."

Marketing, PR in 2013: Creating tragedy-free zones (Return to the Eisenhower era)

Everything changes.  The meme for 2013 is growth, a whopper of a shift from the economic and human tragedies of the past few years.  We want to be focused on growth in the GDP, opportunities to enjoy our children, respect we are given in the  workplace, and our feeling of being at peace with ourselves and the world.  In short, we demand a tragedy-free zone, without references to hurricane Sandy, Sandy Hook, Connecticut massacre, housing foreclosures, credit card debt, and jobless lawyers, architects, and Millennials.

That means that we in the communications sector have to create convincing Happy Talk.  Here we Baby Boomers have the advantage.  We recall growing up in post-World War II when America wanted to distance itself from that horror and create a kind of social uptopia, with the possibility of a booming economy.  On the relatively new media of television were programs like "Lassie," about the unique bonds between a boy and his dog, "Father Knows Best" focused on males who weren't consumed by work and children who felt safe," and "I Love Lucy" based on the ability of a minority to get a piece of the American Dream.

It will be a challenge to reinvent ourselves for optimism.  At first, we might giggle that we are capable of putting forth a world view which is the antithesis of what we have been feeling since 9/11. Then, we will become as self-assured as were the communications leaders who were in charge until John F. Kennedy passed the torch to a new generation.  That means we have about 15 years to thrive amidst the meme of growth.

"Hello Gorgeous" - Why those not nurtured can do so well

Not every ignored, neglected, or abused child makes it big.  But that lack of nurturing can help.  In the new biography of Barbra Streisand "Hello Gorgeous" by William J. Mann we find out how a grim childhood can push a talent to open itself to what it needs.  Those with happy childhoods might have figured out that everything necessary for success was right there at home. 

Mann shows how Streisand was positioned to attract helping hands and shrewd enough to accept what they offered.  Those ranged from the know-how, wisdom, and contacts of Cis Corman to that of Phyllis Diller. 

Most of us who have lived long enough have observed how those from happy families tended to accept the status quo as if it were their path.  None of the well-put-together young women I attended Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, with made a splash.  Typically they knew what to do to have an engagement ring by first semester senior year.  Those of us who were messes lacked those social skills, so had to forage in life.  We learned plenty, much of which those women never had to.

Is the lesson here for parents to not be nurturing? No.  Playing the game of life wounded is something none of us would wish on anyone.  However, parents might pull back from being all-purpose emotional fix-it apps.  That will create space for their children to develop the instincts of an alert, cunning animal.

Lady Gaga: Stop!

Lady Gaga has been a cultural phenomenon that relieved us of Madonna.  The space was filled.  Plus Lady Gaga, with the exception of the late Andy Rooney, was someone we all could like.  Her antics rather than alienating diverted us from the darkest days of the economy.

Now, something has gone wrong.  The trouble is that she's packed on the pounds.  The gossip industry puts it at about 30 pounds.  The photos which chronicle that change show nothing that adds to her mystique.  All that comes across is plain-vanilla fat.

There has begun endless speculation about why this is happening to Lady Gaga.  Is she tired and is putting herself on some kind of exit ramp?  Could it be an addiction to food which, in her line of work, is as perilous as an addiction to drugs is for a lawyer or medical doctor.  Can this be the beginning of an emotional breakdown?

All fans want is for her to stop the whatever is generating packing on the pounds.  We demand she knock off the 30 and return to being Lady Gaga.

Meow: Cat fights good for business, including careers of aging Madonna, Elton John

Did publicity agents create the cat fight between aging music stars Madonna and Elton John?  Or are they just leveraging it?  Whatever.  This going back and forth of jabs at each other, then some "forgiveness," keep both names in the news.

Most recently, SHOWBIZ 411's Roger Friedman, who follows Madonna, reports that the singer/dancer has attempted to make peace with John in France.  She dedicated a song to him.