Coming up Monday 11/1/21 at 9:30am pst - Author Robin Merle shares latest book, a self-help that title turns the trauma of being fired into opportunity. An expert’s debut empowers women to be resilient after experiencing job loss

LISTEN

It’s no secret that pandemic job losses are affecting more women than men, with women losing employment at a rate 1.8 times greater than men. And even before the pandemic, job loss was proven to be an issue that often disproportionately affected women. A 2018 study by Fortune found that female CEOs are 45% more likely to get fired than their male counterparts, even when their companies are performing well.

Job loss is a common experience faced by women professionals spanning a wide-range of industries, interests, and experience levels. Which is why Robin Merle set out to destigmatize conversations surrounding being fired in her new book, Involuntary Exit: A Woman’s Guide to Thriving After Being Fired (She Writes Press, Oct. 19, 2021). A fast-paced and digestible self-help book, “Involuntary Exit” is based on Robin’s own expertise and her interviews with accomplished women who were suddenly severed from their organizations and navigated their way back to success.


Robin discusses:


The emotional, mental, and even financial toll being fired takes on women


What she learned from her interviews with real women who were severed from their organizations


How destigmatizing being fired can lead to community-building and personal growth


Her advice for dealing with uncertainty in the workplace, especially as we are still evaluating the short- and long-term effects of the pandemic


“Involuntary Exit should be compulsory reading for women at the top of their professions—and all who are navigating upward.” –Deb Taft, Chief Executive Officer, Lindauer Global




Robin Merle has been a senior executive for billion-dollar organizations. She is a veteran of the power, value, and identity wars at the top ranks; has raised more than a half-billion dollars in philanthropy during her decades working with nonprofit organizations; has served as a board member for three nonprofits in New York City; and has been the vice chair of National Philanthropy Day in New York for three consecutive years. In 2017, she was named Woman of Achievement by Women In Development (WID) for her leadership in fundraising and commitment to women in the field. Robin is a frequent speaker at national conferences on fundraising and leadership. Her short fiction has been published in various literary magazines. Involuntary Exit is her first nonfiction book. Robin splits her time between New York City and North Conway, New Hampshire and Maine. You can find Robin Merle at her website: https://theprofessionalguide.com

Coming up 11/1/21 at 9am on KUCI -- American singer-songwriter and keyboardist, Rachel Eckroth, currently the keyboardist for alternative musician St. Vincent and singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. Her latest album, The Garden, was released by Rainy Days Records in 2021.

Click the video below to watch the show
featuring Rachel Eckroth

Can't listen live on 11/1/21? 

LISTEN here

About Rachel Eckroth

Polymath (noun): a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning.

Music needs a term for this. What do you call one person who is a pianist, vocalist, keyboardist, composer, producer, arranger, band leader, sideman and more? Music may not have a term, but it does have a name: Rachel Eckroth.

Eckroth can lead with a bold vision or accompany with the subtle skills necessary to make another musician shine. Her combination of jazz experimentation and pop feeling form the engine behind her own work as a leader or co-leader on 20 albums, most recently The Garden on Rainy Days Records (2021). That same crossover talent is why she's been featured on voice and keyboards in the bands of Rufus Wainwright, St. Vincent, KT Tunstall, and Chris Botti.

Eckroth can hold an audience's attention in an intimate jazz club or on a massive concert stage. She did the latter when she opened for Rufus Wainwright's All These Poses Anniversary Tour, standing on stage alone with just her keyboards and her voice, weaving a sonic landscape that kept audiences enthralled. Eckroth is no stranger to television, either, having been a member of the house band on The Meredith Vieira Show and appearing on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers and Good Morning America with various artists.

Eckroth has been a busy recording artist throughout her career, and the pace has only increased in recent years. In 2020, Eckroth appeared on the single "Circling" by Donny McCaslin, the acclaimed saxophonist from David Bowie's final band. That same year, she released three singles of her own. This year (2021) she and her husband, bassist Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie, The Tedeschi Trucks Band) put out a duet album called The Blackbird Sessions Vol. 1. She also released the single "Moot Points" featuring Alassane, as well as an eponymous EP featuring four of her own songs.

Her latest project, The Garden, features 8 tracks written or co-written by Eckroth. The band includes Lefebvre and McCaslin along with drummer Christian Euman, guitarist Nir Felder, and saxophonist Andrew Krasilnikov. Eckroth chose the album title because, like a garden, her music is a diverse ecosystem grown from the seeds of her many musical adventures.

Polymath. Renaissance woman. Jack of all trades. Use whatever term you're comfortable with, or no special word at all. What matters is the music, and Rachel Eckroth's musical world is inviting, exciting, and filled with surprises. Stay a while in The Garden, and then check out everything else this visionary has to offer.

https://www.racheleckroth.com/

TUNE in on 10/25/21 at 9am to hear award-winning singer/guitarist/songwriter and instructor, Janet Robin on KUCI 88.9fm. “From Randy Rhoads to Precious Metal, Lindsey Buckingham to John Carter Cash and all points in between – like a stint working with Meredith Brooks, opening for Midge Ure or appearing with Monte Montgomery – the ongoing tale of singer/guitarist/songwriter Janet Robin is a fascinating journey.” – Pollstar

"Top Acoustic Guitarist" - Guitar Player Magazine, 2017
"Top 10 Female Guitarist" - Guitar World Magazine, 2012

“Working with Janet was an unforgettable experience. She followed her spirit – no limits. Janet’s love for her art is evident in her impassioned musicianship and inspired songwriting. The music we created together, vibrant and full of energy, encapsulates all that she is.”— JOHN CARTER CASH (PRODUCER, OWNER CASH CABIN STUDIOS)

“From Randy Rhoads to Precious Metal, Lindsey Buckingham to John Carter Cash and all points in between – like a stint working with Meredith Brooks, opening for Midge Ure or appearing with Monte Montgomery – the ongoing tale of singer/guitarist/songwriter Janet Robin is a fascinating journey.” – Pollstar

                                                LISTEN

Janet Robin can be defined in a single word: Musician.

Many people attempt to make music, but few earn that illustrious title. Those in this business reserve that label for the rare individuals who consistently demonstrate a high level of talent, perseverance, taste and sensitivity over a period of time. To these people making music is not simply a pastime; it is a matter of blood and guts. That a serious addiction to making music runs through Robin’s veins is made clear from a quick review of her career.

A Southern California native, Janet Robin’s musical education began the moment she met her guitar teacher, Randy Rhoads (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne). Under Rhoads’ tutelage, Janet became an ace six-string player and, while still in high school, parlayed this education into a position as the lead guitarist for the all-female rock band Precious Metal. Discovered by Rodney Bingenheimer of the legendary L.A. rock radio station KROQ, Precious Metal was soon signed to Polygram Records. Later moving to Chameleon/Capitol Records, Precious Metal released several albums, wrote with Heart, Poison and Cheap Trick, toured extensively and gained accolades from both fans and critics alike.

Following the demise of Precious Metal, Janet was picked by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, band in support of his 1992 solo album, Out of the Cradle (Reprise Records). A consummate pro, working with Buckingham profoundly influenced her own guitar playing, singing and songwriting, as well as her general approach to the music business. She has stated, “Lindsey became sort of a mentor and inspired me to do my own solo work.” This new direction led to her 1998 debut solo album, Open the Door. 

Released on her own label, Little Sister Records, Buzz Weekly described the CD as “smart, savvy, fuzzy, hooky pop.” She has seen songs from this album featured in film and television; most notably on the then popular T.V. show Felicity. Ever the road warrior, she supported the disc by opening for such acts as Heart, Colin Hay, Loudon Wainwright III and the Smithereens, steadily building a wide fan base. She has since continued to tour heavily and averages as many as 150 dates per year.

Encouraged by the warm reception of her debut, she released three more albums on Little Sister including the acoustic After the Flood which was recorded in Laurel Canyon and features “Beautiful Freak” which has since become a fan favorite and one of Janet’s defining songs.

Also among these records is 2007’s Days of Summer. Recorded with producers David Bianco (Tom Petty, Teenage Fanclub, Mick Jagger) and Steve Baughman (Eminem, 50 Cent), this acoustic based EP is the work of an artist willing and able to explore the poignant emotional states of adulthood while avoiding the stereotypes brought on by most acoustic singer-songwriters. Working on the album was an experience that greatly affected her style and led Janet to many new and exciting opportunities including multiple tours in Europe.

2012 here in the USA, saw Janet release her album Everything Has Changed that bridges the gap between passionate acoustic music and gutsy rock n’ roll. With the help of her dedicated fan base, she was able to raise the funds ($20,000) for that studio effort. The loyal support enabled her to team up with producer John Carter Cash (Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) at Cash Cabin Studios outside of Nashville. The son of Johnny and June, Carter Cash was a producer on the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line and produced several records with his father as well as a Grammy Award winning record for June. Built by Johnny in 1979, this studio is where the country legend recorded much of his later work including his final recording, American V: A Hundred Highways, which was released posthumously and co-produced by Rick Rubin and John Carter.

Janet had previously released “Everything Has Changed,” in Europe, with Hypertension Music based in Hamburg, Germany. Coupled with the strength of her growing European following and introduced to the German based label by friend and frequent touring partner Colin Hay (Men At Work), Janet signed a licensing and distribution deal with Hypertension for a Winter 2010 European release of Everything Has Changed. The company also did the booking for her throughout Europe and after the initial release in Europe, she secured a January 2010 tour with Midge Ure (Ultravox – co-organizer of Live Aid, Band Aid and Live 8).

Janet enjoyed the experience of working with Cash so much that she returned this 2016 to record her latest studio effort "Take me as I am" again with John Carter Cash as executive producer and Chuck Turner producing and engineering: "We have talked at great length about this project and he understands my desire and vision to record an album that is representative of the energy brought out in my live performances," Janet says of John Carter Cash. "It’s just great to work with a producer that lets me be myself, yet brings out the best in my work. There weren’t many restraints working with John and the vibe and history at Cash Cabin is overwhelmingly inspiring. John seems to "get me." Her latest release, "Take me as I am" in the USA was released Oct. 2016 and the European/UK version was released in January 2017.

She has since had several successful headlining tours in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, UK, and France where she plays solo acoustic shows, and with a her band, to sold out crowds in clubs (200-400 cap venues) and festivals (1,000's) across Europe. Janet recently finished a whirlwind fall tour in 5 countries in Europe and the UK- and has played in many major festivals from The Colours of Ostrava (CZ), to the renowned "Blues & Jazz Festival" in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland. Janet continues her touring as well in the USA.

In addition to pursuing her solo career both in the U.S. and abroad, few musicians are able to work with the great variety of artists that Robin has been fortunate enough to be around. Besides the aforementioned Lindsey Buckingham, Robin has toured, performed with, recorded, or written songs with Tommy Emmanuel, Peppino D’Agostino, Meredith Brooks, Monty Montgomery, Michelle Shocked, Maia Sharp, Marcy Levy (co-writer with Eric Clapton on “Lay Down Sally”), Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart), Garrison Starr, Anne McCue and many more. 

Her most recent side-woman gig was the touring guitarist of Air Supply in 2009. In 2015, She was featured on the bill for the prestigious "All Star Guitar Night" which features some of the top guitar players in the world, during the LA NAMM convention. In 2017 she was named in Guitar Player’s “Top 50 Acoustic Guitarists” (Bonus List), amongst many notable players such as her old boss, Lindsey Buckingham. With touring nearly 150 dates a year and releasing new material consistantly, she has seen her solo career rise to higher and higher levels each year.

Janet has also had her original songs placed in TV and films such as “One Life to Live,” “All my Children,” “Felicity,” “Free Enterprise,” and many more. Along with placements she has also composed original scores for short films such as “Traces” directed by Joseph Culp (actor Robert Culp’s son) and the film was accepted into the prestigious Palm Springs Short Film Festival and the Hollywood Film Awards, in June 2012. In 2017, she had an original song in a short film “Casting All Corpes” which won the “Best Comedy Short Award” for the Reel Hollywood Film Festival. 

In January of 2015, Janet was hand-picked to coach and consult actress Jennifer Jason Leigh for 2 months on location and in Los Angeles for a special guitar scene in the Quentin Tarantino film, "The Hateful Eight." The actress was nominated for an Academy Award. And in June/July of 2015 she was also hand picked for the guitar position in the musical "Girlfriend" to rave reviews at The Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City, California and just recently (2018) for another musical, “Soul Doctor” formally on Broadway.

Along with Janet's busy solo career she has started a side project featuring 4 amazing guitar players- "The String Revolution." Combining 4 guitarists each with their own unique contribution to a "band" sound. They have released 2 cd’s, both mixed by the prestigious Matt Hyde in London who worked previously with famed guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela. Their newest release “Red Drops” reached the Top 10 Spotify Instrumental Charts for Los Angeles and also made it to the Grammy™ Entry Ballot. Their Spotify channel have reached over 3 million streams. 

The band has been selling out local LA venues, east and west coast venues, and has performed at major festivals such as The Laguna Beach Arts Festival. In 2019 The String Revolution was invited to perform at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles for their special concert series sponsored by American Express.

However, one need not base their judgment on Janet solely on those with whom she has been associated. Only a listen to her albums or a ticket to one of her shows will prove the opening claim to be true. For what underlies the Janet Robin labels of singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, and road warrior is a single word: Musician.

Janet Robin conducts guitar workshops, has hosted DVD recordings for Alfred Music Publishing, and is a respected clinician for Turner-Renaissance Guitars and Line 6. She currently endorses Taylor Guitars, Fender Guitars, Martin Guitars and strings, Turner-Renaissance Guitars, Cordial Cables, Goldtone Instruments, Radial, Seymour Duncan, Sennheiser, Warm Audio, DR Strings, Clayton Picks, Jodi Head Straps, Visenut Cases, Case Xtreme, and the Thimble Slide, amongst others.


For more information on Janet Robin and/or interview, promo, photo and ticket requests, please contact:
janet@janetrobin.com

www.janetrobin.com

thestringrevolution.com

LISTEN to Janet perform JUST WHAT I NEEDED by The Cars performed by:

vox: Hutch Harris (The Thermals) 

drums: Frank Ferrer (Guns 'n Roses) 

guitar: Janet Robin (Lindsey Buckingham/The String Revolution) 

guitar: Craig Montgomery (Live Sound - Nirvana/Presidents of the USA) 

synth: Don Gunn (Studio Lord - DCFC/Clutch/Soundgarden) 

bass: Mike Squires (Duff McKagan's Loaded) 

mixed by Don Gunn 

edited by Mike Squires

drum tracking by Gabe VanBenschoten 

Coming up 10/25/21 at 9:40am pst on KUCI 88.9fm - Dreena Burton, one of the pioneering vegan cookbook authors, shares details on her latest book, Dreena’s Kind Kitchen

LISTEN

Dreena Burton is one of the pioneering vegan cookbook authors. Vegan for 25 years, Dreena is also a mom to three “weegans.” She has charted her journey as a plant-based cook and mother of three through five bestselling cookbooks. Dreena has also collaborated with renowned plant-based physician Dr. Barnard on The Cheese Trap and coauthored their most recent Cookbook for Reversing Diabetes. Dreena's recipes have been featured with groups including PCRM, Forks Over Knives, Blue Zones, and The Food Network. Dreena was also the Culinary Coordinator with The Food Revolution Network's Whole Life Club. 

In a conversation, Dreena shares details on her latest book, Dreena’s Kind Kitchen: 100 Whole-Foods Vegan Recipes to Enjoy Every Day:

• How keeping a kind kitchen helps you be more kind to your loved ones, community, planet, and yourself
• Her 20+ year career as a plant-based business owner
• Raising three daughters plant-based from birth
• How access to vegan and plant-based information and products has evolved since the early 90s
• Healthy and yummy lunchbox ideas for the week
• Tips for how to jazz up your leftovers for a quick and delicious dinner

Connect with Dreena’s online kitchen and community at dreenaburton.com.

--

Coming up 10/18/21 9am pst on KUCI 88.9fm -- Kelechi Ubozoh, a Nigerian-American mental health consultant, advocate, writer, and published author

LISTEN

For nearly a decade, Kelechi has worked in the California mental health system in the areas of research and advocacy, community engagement, stigma reduction, and peer support. She began her career as an investigative reporter in New York City, and was the first student-reporter ever published in The New York Times.

After witnessing the impact of trauma and mental health issues on the people she was writing about, she decided to change her focus to providing direct mental health support. She relocated to California and started working at PEERS, a consumer-run mental health nonprofit. At PEERS, Kelechi supervised mental health programs, led communication operations, and partnered with Dr. Patrick Corrigan, on a project which provided mental health recovery story-telling trainings across 41 California counties. She also managed a Columbia University research project examining mental health stigma in the Chinese community with Dr. Lawrence Yang.

Kelechi transitioned to research and evaluation work at Resource Development Associates where she was a senior project manager, wrote grants, and conducted community-based participatory research spanning the fields of mental health, child welfare, education, and criminal justice.

A popular keynote speaker, Kelechi worked at CalMHSA as the Statewide Peer and Community Engagement Manager for a large technology project to bring digital mental health solutions to California counties. At CalMHSA, she conducted community outreach and engagement and facilitated listening sessions with over 250 stakeholders to develop digital mental health literacy programming. Kelechi also has a large body of work in suicide prevention, and published the book We’ve Been Too Patient in 2019.

Currently, Kelechi is a consultant working with clients dedicated to transforming mental health, substance use services, as well as justice system reform and workforce development.   Her areas of specialty are training, workshop delivery and design, meeting and retreat facilitation, planning and research, curriculum development,  and community engagement.

In summer of 2020, Kelechi Ubozoh dedicated her time to facilitating healing-centered spaces for black employees internationally to respond to the ongoing violence toward the black community. She also helped co-create the Discussions that Matter program with Heliana Ramirez, which placed peers and clinicians as co-facilitators of affinity groups to support important dialogue emerging in 2020 around race, mental health, radical healing, and moving toward liberation. In 2021, Kelechi was named a Mental Health Champion by the Steinberg Institute.

ABOUT KELECHI'S BOOK
We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health, Kelechi’s book with co-editor L.D. Green, was released from North Atlantic Books and distributed by Penguin Random House, July 2019.

Jon Sherman, Associate Professor of Film Kenyon College, talks about his latest film, his role as Director and Co-Writer and more!

LOGLINE

When two single parents meet on a dating site and move in together, they must blend their family of four teenagers while navigating a new relationship. They/Them/Us is contemporary family comedy set against the backdrop of a light-hearted kink world.

WATCH the TRAILER

LISTEN to the conversation 

SHORT SYNOPSIS

They/Them/Us tells the story of Charlie and Lisa, two divorced parents in their 40’s who find themselves at a midlife crossroads. Both are single parents and they have four complicated teenagers between them: one non-binary gender kid, one who orders his weed through the mail, one very outspoken one, and last but not least, the “good” child. Lisa and Charlie meet on a dating site, fall madly in love and move in together way too soon. They/Them/Us is the story of how they manage the challenges of parenting some very demanding teenagers while trying to juggle an adult sexual relationship.

JON SHERMAN | DIRECTOR | CO-WRITER

They/Them/Us is Jon Sherman’s third feature film. His first film, Breathing Room, starred Dan Futterman, Susan Floyd, Edie Falco, and Paul Giamatti. It was released in more than 25 countries worldwide. His next film, I’m With Lucy, was a romantic comedy produced by Gaumont, the largest film studio in France. It starred Monica Potter, Gael Garcia Bernal, Julie Christie, Anthony LaPaglia, John Hannah and Harold Ramis. It was the opening night film at the 2002 Deauville Film Festival and has been released in more than 50 countries worldwide. 

 He has also directed television movies for the Oxygen Network and worked with Working Title Films and Paul and Chris Weitz' Depth of Field Productions. Sherman is an Associate Professor of Film at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He is deeply committed to developing the film community in Columbus and is President of the Board of Film Columbus and a Board Member of the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

WEBSITE: https://www.theythemusfilm.com/about-the-film

INSTAGRAM: @theythemusfilm

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11115706/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/theythemusfilm/?modal=admin_todo_tour

TWITTER: @theythemusfilm

Releasing TODAY October 5th, 2021 - ERUPTION: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen Honors One-year Anniversary of Legendary Guitarist's Death. Janeane speaks with two music journalists who knew him best. Authors Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill share a candid, compulsively readable, and definitive oral history of the most influential rock guitarist since Jimi Hendrix

ERUPTION: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen HonorsOne-year Anniversary of Legendary Guitarist's DeathThe first definitive biography of guitar legend Eddie Van Halen, a year after his death, composed of more than 50+ hours of interviews with Eddie, his family, and friends. Releasing today from Hachette Books.

“A respectful and detailed tribute to a guitar legend.” —Kirkus

WATCH | LISTEN

ENTER TO WIN A COPY OF ERUPTION!

TUNE IN 10/11/21 at 9:30am pst
KUCI 88.9fm 
www.kuci.org 

October 5, 2021, New York, NY – Coinciding with the one-year anniversary of Eddie Van Halen’s death, ERUPTION: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen (10/5/21; Hachette Books; 9780306826658; $28) is a major biography by two music journalists who knew him best. Authors Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill share with fans, new and old alike, a candid, compulsively readable, and definitive oral history of the most influential rock guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. The book releases October 5, 2021, and is available here.

When rock legend Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020, the entire world seemed to stop and grieve. Since his band Van Halen burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut album in 1978, Eddie had been hailed as an icon not only to fans of rock music and heavy metal, but to performers across all genres and around the world. Van Halen’s debut sounded unlike anything that listeners had heard before and remains a quintessential rock album of the era. And they would end up as one of only five rock bands with two studio albums that have sold more than 10 million copies in the US.

ERUPTION: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen is based on more than 50+ hours of unreleased interviews Tolinski and Gill recorded with Eddie Van Halen over the years, most of them conducted at the legendary 5150 studios at his home in Los Angeles. The heart of ERUPTION is drawn from these intimate and wide-ranging talks, as well as conversations with family, friends, and colleagues, including other major guitarists like Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Steve Vai, and Steve Lukather (Toto, Michael Jackson, Ringo Starr, Elton John).

ERUPTION chronicles the highs and lows of this rock legend. In addition to discussing his greatest triumphs as a groundbreaking musician – including an unprecedented dive into Van Halen’s masterpiece 1984 and the story behind playing on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” (which they did as a favor and never received a dime for) – the book takes an unflinching look at Eddie’s early struggles as a young Dutch immigrant unable to speak English, which resulted in lifelong issues with social anxiety and later problems with alcohol and cocaine.
Eddie Van Halen and his older brother Al and their parents moved to Pasadena, CA in 1962 when Eddie was 7 years old, with less than $50, some suitcases and a piano. During the nine-day boat ride over, Eddie and Al played piano for spare change. “We were like a kid freak show,” said Eddie.


The boys attended a segregated school in Pasadena and were ostracized because they knew little English. “My first friends in America were black,” Eddie said. “It was the white kids that bullied me. The black kids stood up for me.”


While words often failed him, as a child Eddie expressed himself through the piano, maintaining a rigorous practice schedule under the watchful eye of his mother. A few short years later, at the age of twelve, he would apply the same diligence to learning the electric guitar, spending countless hours locked in his bedroom developing the technique that would help him become one of the greatest players in the world.
It also examines his brilliance as an inventor who changed the face of guitar manufacturing.
Eddie built his own guitar with spare parts. The guitar, known as “Frankenstein,” created a trend that eventually changed the way electric guitars were made and revolutionized the guitar industry.


A handmade replica of his original guitar now resides in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, and his original “Frankenstein” guitar was featured in the Play It Loud exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019, a show inspired by Tolinski’s book on the history of the electric guitar.


Eddie also invented and popularized many playing techniques on the instrument that have functioned as the backbone for guitar soloing in popular music for over to 40 years. These include “tapping,” “whammy bar dives” and “chime harmonics.”

The book also explores the details of his life, both personal and professional.
His long and complicated marriage to Valerie Bertinelli; his close relationship with his son/bassist Wolfgang Van Halen; and his marriage to second wife and publicist Janie Liszewski, who helped him recover from substance abuse and supported him through his many cancer treatments.


His often-stormy relationships with Van Halen’s trio of singers: David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone.
Unfortunately for Eddie and his legions of fans, he died before he was ever able to put his life down to paper in his own words, and much of his compelling backstory has remained elusive—until now.

As entertaining as it is revealing, ERUPTION is the closest readers will ever get to hearing Eddie’s side of the story when it comes to his extraordinary life.
Find out more and order here: ERUPTION: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen


###


Brad Tolinski was the Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine, the best-selling magazine for musicians in the world, for over 25 years. He is also the author of Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page and Play it Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound and Revolution of the Electric Guitar, which was the inspiration for the Play It Loud exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019. He lives in New York.

Chris Gill was the Editor-in-Chief of Guitar Aficionado magazine and a regular contributor to Guitar World magazine. He is also the author of Guitar Legends: The Definitive Guide to the World’s Greatest Guitar Players, and he contributed extensive guitar background and historical text to Eric Clapton’s Six String Stories and Jeff Beck’s Beck 01: Hot Rods and Rock & Roll.






More info and order here: ERUPTION: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen

Hachette Books | October 5, 2021

$28 | Hardcover | 336 Pages | ISBN: 9780306826658





Praise for ERUPTION:

“During Eddie Van Halen’s lifetime, few—if any—journalists were granted the access that journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill were afforded. And as Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen demonstrates, the guitarist’s trust was not misplaced. This is the final word on what made this epochal musician, guitar innovator and, it must be said, complicated man, tick.”
—Tom Beaujour, New York Times bestselling author of Nothin’ But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the ‘80s Hard Rock Explosion

“Though he lived his adult life under a spotlight, Eddie Van Halen remains shrouded in mystery. There is no duo better suited to peel away the fictions and fog and get to the heart of Van Halen the man and the musician than Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill, two of the greatest guitar journalists of our era. That's exactly what they do in Eruption. Even the keenest fan will find surprises on every page.”
—Alan Paul, New York Times bestselling author of Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band

“Guitarists and rock fans can rejoice that Eddie Van Halen’s story has finally been told, accurately and with insights from those who knew him best. Tolinski and Gill compellingly unravel such details as the development of Ed’s two-handed tapping technique and the Frankenstein guitar, and shed new light on every corner of Van Halen’s life and prodigious artistry. It’s a long-awaited and vital read about the most important and influential guitarist of the modern age.”
—Christopher Scapelliti, Editor-in-Chief, Guitar Player magazine

“Few journalists get a front-row seat to witness genius at work the way that Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill did over decades with Eddie Van Halen. In this comprehensive look at the late guitar virtuoso's art and artistry, the pair share everything they learned from the man himself."
—Kory Grow, Rolling Stone

Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur, and activist shares details on his latest book, REGENERATION: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation. Hawken is the New York Times bestselling creator of Drawdown and one of the environmental movement’s leading voices shares a practical approach to climate change

 

LISTEN

"We and all living beings thrive by being actors in the planet’s regeneration, a civilizational goal that should commence and never cease. We practiced degeneration as a species and it brought us to the threshold of an unimaginable crisis. To reverse global warming, we need to reverse global degeneration." - Paul Hawken

 

The dangers of a warming world have been in the public eye for at least the last fifty years, and yet it wasn’t until 2016 that 191 countries came together to sign the Paris Agreement, committing to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees centigrade. Only two countries have targets consistent with that goal, and G7 countries do not even come close. 

The most asked questions by people are: 

What can I do? Where do I start? And how can I make a difference? 

When people see what climate change is doing to the earth, they can feel overwhelmed, anxious, confused, or very small—“I am just one person.”

Enter environmentalist, entrepreneur, and activist Paul Hawken. A leading voice in the climate movement, Hawken has dedicated his life to environmental sustainability and to changing the relationship between business, society, and the environment. His eight books include the 2017 New York Times bestseller Drawdown, which Outside Magazine called “a bold plan to beat back climate change.” This fall, Hawken returns with REGENERATION: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation. Launched in conjunction with his Regeneration organization, REGENERATION weaves justice, climate, biodiversity, equity, and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy, and transformation. It is the first book to describe and define the burgeoning regeneration movement spreading rapidly throughout the world—an inclusive and multifaceted undertaking that aims to end the climate crisis in one generation. As Jane Goodall writes in her foreword, “REGENERATION is a rebuttal to doomsayers who believe it is too late.”


Paul Hawken shares six basic frameworks to solve the climate crisis:

1. Equity: Transforming the climate crisis means mending the vital relationships and understandings between people, reconnecting humanity and nature, and restoring nature itself.

2. Reduce: The best method of ending global greenhouse gas emissions is simple: don’t put them into the atmosphere. It is also the most difficult, while being the greatest economic opportunity in history. Hawken predicts the end of fossil fuels by 2040 and the advent of totally electrified world by 2050.

3. Protect: The world’s terrestrial ecosystems contain four times more carbon than the atmosphere. If we lose just 6 percent of our grasslands, forests, mangroves, seagrasses and wetlands, we will see a 100 ppm increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Protecting wildlife corridors, bioregions, biomes, and all the forms of life within them are crucial to stopping the climate crisis.

4. Sequester: This means bringing carbon back home. It is the nutrient required by life to regenerate the earth. The primary way to sequester carbon is through regenerative agriculture, grazing ecology, proforestation, afforestation, degraded land restoration, and protecting existing ecosystems.

5. Influence: Laws, bureaucratic regulations, perverse subsidies, bygone policies, and outmoded building codes often obstruct climate initiatives. Making our voices heard requires letters, emails, protests, boycotts, and lobbying legislators, companies, city council members, and corporate CEOs.

6. Support: organizations, ideas, groups, videos, books, and people who are implementing regeneration worldwide.

Hawken explains how REGENERATION creates abundance, not scarcity. It expands what is possible. It is about the optimism of action instead of the pessimism of thought. REGENERATION is an inspiring and necessary guide to today’s climate movement that will enable readers to understand its many facets—and more importantly, to act.

JUST ANNOUNCED! FREE COURSE  Regeneration with Paul Hawken How We Can End the Climate Crisis in One Generation Start watching today for free. “Regeneration is not just about bringing the earth back to life. It is, but it's also about bringing ourselves back to life. It’s about bringing meaning to our lives.” ~ Paul Hawken

About the Author:

Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, author and activist who has dedicated his life to environmental sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. He is one of the environmental movement’s leading voices, and a pioneering architect of corporate reform with respect to ecological practices. He is the bestselling author of eight books that have been published in 30 languages in more than 50 countries and have sold more than 2 million copies, as well as dozens of articles, op-eds, and other papers concerning the environment, the ethical responsibility of business, and social justice. Hawken is a renowned lecturer who has keynoted conferences and led workshops on the impact of commerce upon the environment, and consulted with governments and corporations throughout the world.

Actor, director and producer Mark Salyer talks about NewStages - a collective of teaching artists, directors, writers and performers from Broadway, film, and television, committed to producing wildly entertaining arts experiences for seniors. Since 2012, New Stages has been a part of the City of West Hollywood One City One Pride Arts Festival producing a show with the seniors of the LA LGBT Center each June.

LISTEN | WATCH

Los Angeles, September 2, 2021…Beginning with their New Year’s show in January, NewStages, a Los Angeles based theater company for seniors, has had a busy year, in lieu of Covid, with thousands of seniors tuning in to their online programming. This past April, their Tennessee Williams workshop launched the company’s Zoom Lecture Series. In June, Secret Lives was presented on Zoom and Vimeo over the four weeks of Pride month and was a huge success. Since 2012, New Stages has been a part of the City of West Hollywood's One City One Pride Arts Festival producing a show with the seniors of the LA LGBT Center each June. Currently they are presenting Sondheim: Flecks of Light and Dark. In September (as long as Covid holds out) Broadway's Kay Cole will be presenting her Musical Theater Conservatory to the online community.


NewStages was originally an offshoot of Stagebridge in Oakland, CA, the country's oldest senior theater company and in 2014, they became a part of the award-winning Oasis Theater Company. Through a partnership with the LA LGBT Center’s Senior Services and with support from the City of West Hollywood and the Grace Helen Spearman Family Foundation, NewStages was born. Since then, the company, under the direction of Mark Salyer, has brought classes, workshops and performances to thousands of seniors, including a yearly production for the One City One Pride Arts Festival.

“Surprisingly, this year has been our busiest yet,” says Salyer who is currently teaching a workshop on the life and work of Stephen Sondheim. “Zoom has made it possible for us to reach people who hadn’t been able to attend our programs.”

Salyer, a theater artist with over twenty years of experience as an actor, director and producer, says teaching is his passion. “Teaching is storytelling. Throughout my career as an actor and director, I was always teaching. It just seemed the natural extension of my work.”

In a 2015 study sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, researchers found “true health promotion and disease prevention effects” in participants in creative projects with professional teaching artists.

“I think the benefits of our program are undeniable,” says Salyer. “We are forming creative communities and helping our clients connect to make art happen.”

NewStages’ work has often centered on personal narrative and storytelling. The program at the LA LGBT Center, for instance, offers LGBTQ+ seniors the opportunity to tell their own stories in a cabaret show presented each year during Pride Month.

The company boasts a dynamic group of professional teaching artists. In September, Broadway’s Kay Cole will teach a musical theater conservatory class. Bringing her many years of experience as both an actress and award-winning director and choreographer, Cole will work with students over the course of eight weeks to develop their music, movement and song interpretation skills. Among the program’s many benefits, she sees it as a way to bridge the generational divide in today’s society.

According to Cole: “Seniors are the foundation of our world but are often forgotten and overlooked. New Stages has remedied this dilemma by their classes in the creative arts and their heartfelt productions. Nurturing these experienced yet vulnerable artists is important because it not only celebrates their lives, it also teaches the younger generation how to survive every challenge with grace. Creating that special dialogue between young and old is vital to everyone’s joy of life.”



This month, NewStages began teaching classes for Jewish Family Services senior programs. “We are doing a fun acting class, followed by our Tennessee Williams workshop. I’m delighted to bring our work to a new audience,” says Salyer.

For more information about NewStages or to join an upcoming class, please visit their site www.newstages.org or follow on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/artandaging.

Watch Pushcart Prizewinning poet Maggie Smith on KUCI 88.9fm with host Janeane Bernstein. Maggie gained star status in 2016 with her viral poem Good Bones. She shares her latest book of poems, Goldenrod, and her inspiring journey as an award-winning poet.

WATCH | LISTEN

Pushcart Prizewinning poet Maggie Smith gained star status in 2016 with her viral poem Good Bones. Long-celebrated in the poetry community for her lyricism and style, her poetry has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review, but her breakout bestseller Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity and Change (2020) launched her to new levels of popularity. A collection of personal essays and affirmations, Keep Moving captured the spirit of a grieving nation as she guided “readers toward discovering growth through struggle, resilience through practice, and transformation through small actions” (People). 

Now with GOLDENROD (on sale 7/27; One Signal/Atria 9781982185060), Smith returns to her original craft with a powerful collection of poems that explore parenthood, solitude, love, and memory. Pulling objects from everyday life—a hallway mirror, a rock found in her son’s pocket, a field of goldenrod at the side of the road—she reveals the magic of the present moment. Only Maggie Smith could turn an autocorrect mistake into a line of poetry, musing that her phone “doesn’t observe / the high holidays, autocorrecting / shana tova to shaman tobacco, / Rosh Hashanah to rose has hands.”

Slate called Smith’s “superpower as a writer” her “ability to find the perfect concrete metaphor for inchoate human emotions and explore it with empathy and honesty.” The poems in GOLDENROD celebrate the contours of daily life, explore and delight in the space between thought and experience, and remind us that we decide what is beautiful.


ABOUT
Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and the national bestseller Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received several Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in the New York Times, The New Yorker, the Paris Review, The Best American Poetry, and more.

For more on Smith, please visit https://maggiesmithpoet.com.

Devon Albeit Photography

Praise for Goldenrod

“To read Maggie Smith is to embrace the achingly precious beauty of the present moment—a sentiment that is omnipresent in her latest collection of poems, Goldenrod. In this volume, the award-winning poet uses the seemingly familiar objects and happenings of everyday life—an autocorrect mistake, a rock from her young son’s pocket and a field of the titular goldenrods—as conduits for finding the extraordinary in the day-to-day motions of a routine. In doing so, Smith makes the case that nearly every element in our lives can be part of the divine, if we only take the time to look.” —TIME

“Maggie Smith is that rare poet who can inspire you, break your heart, and make you stop astonished at the planet around you—all in the same poem, often in the same moment. Who else can do that? ‘I walk alone in the snow,’ she writes, ‘squinting up into the big, wet flakes, / letting them bathe my face. I tell myself / it is a kind of touch.’ This kind of wisdom is more than hard-earned, it is a gift.” —Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic

“Goldenrod is fresh, wise, and necessary. With wonder and poignancy, the speaker navigates a necessary reconstitution of self as she grieves what is lost. This is a lush and intimate collection of poems full of joy and sorrow, fire and field. Maggie Smith’s way of seeing is positively alchemical.” —Marcus Wicker, author of Silencer

“Maggie Smith’s brilliant new book Goldenrod alternates between gratitude and anger, bafflement and forgiveness, but more than anything else, like all Maggie’s work, these poems radiate love. To read Maggie Smith’s poems is to realize that we aren’t alone.” —Rhett Miller, singer/songwriter, Old 97s

“Goldenrod brims with a fervent love for this gorgeous and wounded world. Though Maggie Smith doesn’t turn away from the pain and suffering––from a divorce and a child’s illness to mass shootings and the desecration of the earth––her precise attention and observations pull me in closer to the beauty and the mystery of this life. These are poems you want to rush into. They are also poems you will find yourself returning to more slowly again and again. These poems are like the stones she describes: together/ they dazzle with fire.” —Ellen Bass, author of Indigo

“Keep Moving...is a meditation on kindness and hope, and how to move forward through grief.”

—National Public Radio


“A poet for times of trouble”

—The Wall Street Journal



“[Good Bones] is the official poem of 2016”

—Public Radio International