Hello Cafe'ers
Happy spring everyone.
Hope everyone is doing well. Sunshine and warmer temperatures are on the way. We have a great issue full of interviews and artwork.
As always, send in submissions to holidaycafe.nicole@gmail.com thank you. Check out our Facebook group page too, if you get a minute.
Wishing everyone continued good health, stay safe
Nicole
“I had the pleasure of working with Kim Maverick awhile back at the Schoolhouse Studio in Greensburg, PA. It was an awesome experience helping her bring drum tracks to life for a great batch of songs.
One of my favorite traits about Kim is her creative drive. She seems to pull inspiration from anywhere and channel that into superb songwriting. She also has a very focused attention to detail and works really hard at her craft…and that is far from easy being a mulit instrumentalist and composer. Her open-minded & musicially diverse approach to music enables her to be an ever-evolving artist.”
-Chris Belin, Freelance Drums & Percussion.
Photo Credit:
Christopher Hyzy
1) When did you realize you wanted to be a musician?
I was obsessed with music as a child. I started piano lessons at five years old, but I was always more interested in pop music than classical. I loved memorizing lyrics and trying to figure out songs by ear. I thought it was amazing that melody could make words hit harder emotionally, which is a big part of what drew me to songwriting. I started my first “band” when I was eight and ever since then, making music has been the only thing I’ve wanted to do.
2) Who are your earliest musical influences?
I’m grateful that my parents exposed me to many different music styles, from doo-wop and show tunes to pop-rock and glam metal. Madonna was my first idol, then Shania Twain and Jewel inspired me to write songs. Hearing Amy Lee's voice in Evanescence led me to hard rock, and in high school, I discovered Iron Maiden. I’m also really lucky to have had excellent music teachers who taught me to stay curious and open to everything.
3) Tell us about landing the Howl at The Moon gig?
I first heard about Howl at the Moon from a Facebook ad that said “Rockstars Wanted!” I was living in LA at the time and applied online. I moved to Pittsburgh in a whirlwind and was stunned to see a new Howl under construction downtown. I encouraged a friend to apply, then got my chance to audition a few months later. I love being a Howl entertainer because of high-energy performances and musical challenges. When I was hired in 2015, I only played piano and had maybe a dozen cover songs in my repertoire. Getting paid to learn drums, bass, and hundreds of new songs was a dream come true. I also love the experiences I’ve had playing with different musicians. We often joke that we’re an “arranged band marriage” since we’re hired first as individual players, then we’re thrown together on stage. We’ve gone through a few lineup changes over the last five years, but it keeps the job interesting, and I’ve learned so much from everyone I’ve played with.
4) What are your future music plans/goals post-pandemic?
When everything shut down, I was only seven months into a new position as Entertainment Director at Howl Pittsburgh. The role is all about creating fun moments in the show and coaching new entertainers. We don’t yet know when the club will reopen, but I’m eager to get back to work as soon as it’s safe for our guests and staff. In the meantime, I’ve been finding a lot of joy in songwriting and performing online. I’m a partner on YouNow, a social live streaming platform. The show I play online is much more laid-back than Howl, with my original songs and stories mixed in with covers and requests. It’s been wonderful to find an audience and get feedback on my music from the comfort of my living room. So, I plan to keep streaming post-pandemic. Through YouNow I also joined an amazing project called WeCreateNow, where we do something creative every day based on a photo and prompt drawn from the community. We’ve on a streak of over 250 days full of songs, poetry, and art of all kinds. WeCreateNow has been a saving grace for me through the pandemic and I’m determined to help the project grow. Anyone who wants to join us is welcome at bit.ly/wecreatenow.
5) I’ve heard great things about your original music, are you planning on releasing it in near future?
After a rollercoaster of emotions from my last band breakup in 2016, I found myself writing a lot but hesitant to release anything. It’s easy for me to get excited about the music I made with friends, but I didn’t have the confidence or motivation to be a solo artist. That’s gradually starting to change, thanks to the audience I’ve found live streaming. I quietly released a single this past October, called Coffee. It’s the first thing I’ve made 100% on my own, and while it isn’t perfect, I’m proud of it. I’m learning to think of releasing music as a practice just like writing and performing. This year I’m planning to put out a few more songs that people have enjoyed on stream, to keep honing my skills as a producer.
6) What advice would you have for someone wanting to start a music career?
I believe that music is a service industry. There are a million different ways to have a career in music, but all of them involve being considerate of other people, whether those people are clients, collaborators, or fans. Learn to balance your ego with kindness, because kindness is a superpower. Think about how your skills and creative work can help others. And always remember, you get to choose your definition of success. Try to enjoy where you are today, even as you work towards your big dreams.
7) What is it like teaching vocal lessons? Any stories or experiences you’d like to share?
I kind of fell into voice teaching by accident. I loved singing but I wasn’t very good at it, and even though I was studying voice in college, I didn’t feel like the lessons were helping. My mom’s friend asked if I could coach her son, who landed a spot in his school’s musical, and I agreed half-heartedly. Preparing for that first lesson, I searched Wikipedia for how the human voice works. That sparked my curiosity, and over time, learning to teach made me a better student. I started to seek out different teachers and in 2011 I found a workshop in Estill Voice Training. EVT approaches singing as an athletic activity, where the anatomy and physiology inform how you practice. I got hooked on the exercises that target specific structures of the vocal tract, and for the first time, I felt and heard an actual improvement in my singing. Estill Voice International is headquartered in Pittsburgh and that was a big part of the reason I moved here. I finished my certification as an Estill Master Trainer in 2017, and today I’m thrilled to be sharing this knowledge with others. My favorite thing is working with singer-songwriters, because EVT allows them to create their unique sound, instead of imitating others. Unfortunately, my schedule doesn’t allow me to teach many one-to-one private lessons anymore, but classes and workshops have been a lot of fun. This past January I started a program called the Immortal Song Circle, for singer-songwriters who want to develop their voice, lyrics, and self-accompanying skills. It’s very similar to what I teach new entertainers at Howl, with more focus on personal artistry and brand identity. We meet twice a month for a masterclass and song feedback session. For more info, visit kimmaverick.com/immortal-song-circle.
My links:
Website: kimmaverick.com
YouNow: younow.com/KimMaverick
YouTube: youtube.com/KimMaverick
Discord: bit.ly/kimmunity
Twitter: @kimmaverick8
Instagram: @kimmaverick8
TikTok: @kimmaverick8
Howl at the Moon Pittsburgh:
howlatthemoon.com/pittsburgh
WeCreateNow daily creativity
community: bit.ly/wecreatenow
Estill Voice Training:
estillvoice.com
Natalie Belin is the author of The Many Colors of Natalie, a book of poetry. She holds an associates degree in Specialized Technology Le Cordon Bleu Pastry Arts and in her spare time is an artist and percussionist.
To Find Desiree
IG is dmh.warrior
Email is desiree.harrison7@gmail.com
"DM for inquiries on how to get personalized art by DMH"
To find Desiree
IG is dmh.warrior
Email is desiree.harrison7@gmail.com
"DM for inquiries on how to get personalized art by DMH"
1. Tell me a little about yourself
All of my books to date reflect who I am. I identify as a Pittsburgh native, daughter of Italian immigrants from an extended blue-collar family working in a steel mill, plate glass factory, mirror works, the produce business. The highest complement anyone could pay me is to say I’m a poet of witness to working class lives, to those who are marginalized and struggle to be accepted for being “other.”
2. Tell me a little about the book you just published?
Here’s the publisher’s description:
In Vertical Bridges: Poems and Photographs of City Steps, Paola Corso celebrates public stairways in her native Pittsburgh and around the world. Inspired by her Sicilian grandfather, a stonemason who built concrete steps, and her Calabrian grandfather and father, steelworkers who once climbed them to the mill, Corso is a storyteller. She shares memories of her family, the history behind Pittsburgh having more public staircases than any other city in the country, and curiosities about some of the world's most famous steps. Vertical Bridges includes photos by the author along with archival photos from the University of Pittsburgh Library's Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection.
3. What is your writing process like?
Since I’m writing mostly poetry these days, I often will jot down a phrase or scribble a rough sketch in a pocket notebook that I carry in my purse. Of course, I could do that on my phone but prefer the tactile experience of handwriting on a piece of paper. It could also be a line of dialog that I heard or a connection I make when I’m mulling over my thoughts. I go back to my notebook and see if I can take one of these and develop, often times, within the theme of my current body of work.
4. What is your writing process like?
I cofounded Steppin Stanzas, an art and poetry project celebrating city steps. Andy Edwards and I wrote wrote poems inspired by city steps and performed them with musicians and dancers on the steps.
But then a day came when steps weren’t just an artistic endeavor with my group Steppin Stanzas. I remembered my personal connection to steps. My maternal grandfather was a stone mason from Sicily who built concrete steps. My father and paternal grandfather lived up the hill and worked in the steel mill along the river.
And when I discovered a set of steps near their house buried in leaves, that was an epiphany for me. Those steps were built for steelworkers like them to commute to work, steps as our first form of public transportation.
I have a poem about my father and his brothers picking my grandfather up from the mill on his last day as a crane operator before he retired after 47 years on the job. They saw to it that he wasn’t going to climb up any steps but ride home in style in a Cadillac they borrowed from a friend.
5. What's the most important part of writing a poem?
Along with all the poetic elements such as imagery, rhythm, sound, and remembering that less is more, I want to find a poem’s emotional center. Explore and deepen the feelings they invoke in me then craft the poem so it’s conveyed to my reader. If someone reads my poem and says beautiful imagery, for example, but don’t know what to take from it, then I haven’t succeeded.
6. What makes a good poem?
Writing and rewriting. I am a believer of multiple revisions. Some changes may be major and the equivalent of deleting and replacing stanzas that aren’t working to advance the poem, some minor, such as coming up with a better word choice to convey the tone I’d like to come across, or deleting an article before a noun, an alternate title.
I workshop everything with my writing group and revise before I consider submitting for publication. No matter how books I’ve published, I recognize that while I strive to be objective about my own work, it’s a sure thing with my writing group. Taking a writer seriously enough to offer honest, constructive feedback and following it as one can is what makes for a good poem.
7. Where can we find your book/social?
Info on my website:
http://paolacorso.com/
Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/Vertical-Bridges-Poems-Photographs-Steps/dp/1989305059
Karen’s Book Row
https://bookshop.org/books/vertical-bridges-poems-and-photographs-of-city-steps/9781989305058
Littsburgh:
https://www.littsburgh.com/start-reading-vertical-bridges-poems-and-photographs-of-city-steps-by-paola-corso/
Pittsburgh City Paper:
https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/paola-corsos-vertical-bridges-pays-tribute-to-pittsburghs-beloved-city-steps/Content?oid=18561395
Watershed Books Review:
https://thewatershedjournal.org/2021/03/15/vertical-bridges-a-review/
The book is sold on Amazon and for each book sold $1.00 will go to the charity Safe Place.
Why Safe Place?
I think the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has been tough for a lot of people, not just adults, but children as well. Many of them are not in a safe environment right now. Safe Place® designates businesses and organizations as Safe Place locations, making help readily available to youth in communities across the country. Youth may access help at any location with the yellow and black Safe Place sign. They may also access help through the Safe Place texting service, TXT 4 HELP, by texting SAFE to 4HELP (44357).
Safe Place is helping keep our kids safe. So many kids are at risk of immediate danger (even simply walking home from school), human trafficking, bullying, suicide, and a number of other reasons. If kids are aware of Safe Place before a crisis happens, they know where to turn if/when it does. Learn more about Safe Place at www.nationalsafeplace.org.
I am also giving a few interviews this Saturday to promote the book. Stay tuned...
Nicole Leckenby is the co-founder/editor of The Holiday Café. She works full-time at the University of Pittsburgh and she has two amazing boys that keep her busy, along with a whole host of other things. Check out her website .
It all began at the trailhead following his group’s weekly hike in the mountains. A vile odor rose from Ole’s right hiking boot. Somewhere along the trek he’d stepped in the leavings of a dog whose owner hadn’t picked up.
A nearby stream presented the opportunity to rinse the pungent excrement from his footwear. But before Ole could begin, their punctilious hike leader ordered everyone to board their rented bus for the two-hour trip home. He waved off entreaties from Ole about his predicament.
Within a few hours, the speeding bus had descended the mountain into mid-day temperatures near blazing hot, a stark contrast to the freezing temperatures at the trailhead that morning. The heat would have been less of an issue had the air conditioning on the aging bus not taken the day off.
As the heat intensified people sitting near Ole’s offensive footwear began glancing his way, their noses twitching with discomfort. Clearly, the soiled footwear needed urgent attention. The rising temperatures had also created an urgent need to shed the long underwear from his sweltering body, donned against the chilly morning.
He headed for the toilet at the back of the bus.
A sign inside the door informed occupants the light switch could be turned on once the latch was engaged. It performed as promised, at first. He was half disrobed when the light went out.
Ole’s search for the switch was complicated by the pitching and lurching of the bus, throwing him around and bouncing his partially clad body off the toilet walls. Eventually, he located the switch and turned on the light. He resumed disrobing. A few seconds later, it went off again.
Once more, Ole fumbled around in the dark for the switch as the bus careened its way homeward. By now he was half out of those long johns, with his outer clothing in the dark somewhere on the floor beneath his feet. That’s when the bus took a sharp lunge sideways, throwing him hard against a wall. Ole’s hip slammed into a button that flushed the toilet. Beneath the closed lid, it sounded like a 747 taking off.
Ole remembered another sign on the wall when he’d entered. It cautioned occupants to sit while doing their business, the wisdom of that advice now readily apparent. He decided to get dressed and then figure out how to clean the doggie detritus from his right boot, in the dark or not.
But first, being fastidious, he thought it prudent to wipe the seat before depositing his posterior. He lifted the lid. That’s when he learned two key facts: 1. the lid and the seat itself were dripping wet, and 2. the lid had been concealing a rush of air now screaming loudly skyward from the depths of the toilet bowl.
What to use to wipe it? Ole felt around in the dark until he found the toilet paper dispenser. He wiped the lid and the seat. Then he balled up the soaking wet remnants and pushed the button for a few more seconds of light.
Then came his next mistake: he tried to flush the wadded-up soaked toilet paper. Wrong! The intense wind that came screaming from the depths of the open toilet grabbed the soggy paper ball, flinging it to the ceiling where it stuck in a disambiguated mass. The wind also reversed the direction of the flushed water, with dire consequences. And that’s when the light went out again.
There he was, standing in the dark, his long johns down around his ankles, his body and clothes soaked with moisture of dubious origin ... his bushy hair dripping with that mysterious liquid concoction.
Through all of this, Ole’s right boot remained invidiously odiferous.
Wedging his body into a corner of the toilet, he struggled out of his long johns and donned his pants and shirt, both now dripping wet. Reluctantly, he stuffed his feet, clad in dripping socks, back into his hiking boots, and then located his semi-dry jacket hanging on the door.
For a fleeting moment Ole considered using the toilet for its intended purpose. He lifted the lid and then promptly abandoned the notion. The screeching wind was convincing; he knew his clothing would end up wearing anything he chose to deposit. Past experience with RV’s suggested the screeching wind might have been caused by a missing cover for the holding tank drain, allowing wind from the speeding bus direct passage into the toilet bowl.
Now soaked and disheveled, Ole felt around with his wet hands to locate the door latch. The light came on and this time stayed on … one final insult. With teeth clenched he headed down the aisle of the bus to the front, there to inform the driver about the malfunctioning toilet.
Damp and disgruntled, and with his wet long johns draped over one arm, he began making my way back in the swaying bus toward his seat under the curious gaze of fellow passengers. The driver chose that moment to announce over the intercom that the only toilet was now out of service. All eyes focused on Ole as the presumed culprit.
The best part of the return trip was that his 82-year-old seat partner stayed true to form. During bus trips he would install ear buds, and promptly fall asleep listening to his favored classical music. Mercifully, he obliged again.
At home, Ole would later confess it was easy to tell that he’d arrived. Outside on the front steps lay his discarded hiking boots, wet and continuing to smell disgustingly rank. Just inside the door lay his now semi-dry jacket, dropped in a heap in the front hallway beside the closet. On the stairs up to his bedroom slumped his damp shirt. And on the floor beside the merciful caress of a steaming shower was the rest of his clothing.
I’m so blessed to have an understanding spouse, he thought as water from the hot shower pelted down.
#
(Creative Non-Fiction)
James Osborne is the author of the Amazon #1 international bestseller THE ULTIMATE THREAT, an account of the rise and fall of the terrorist group ISIS. His four traditionally published books include the award-winning SECRET SHEPHERD, a suspense/mystery novel.
Osborne’s varied career includes investigative journalist, college teacher, army officer, corporate executive, business owner, and writer/editor. Examples his work can be found on his Amazon author’s page: www.amazon.com/author/jamesosborne
