Today's show featured musical guest Summer Grace Watson!

Today's show featured musical guest Summer Grace Watson! Summer joined me at 9:00am on December 1st to talk about how she started playing guitar at 16 and where her creative journey as a singer/songwriter has taken her. We also had a chance to listen to some of her latest music (what a voice!) written by Summer Grace Watson and Produced By (JP) John Parenti.

If you missed Summer on today's show,
listen to our conversation here.

ABOUT SUMMER GRACE WATSON

Before you hear her music. Before you listen to the soulful timber of her voice. Before her lyrics play on an endless loop in your head. The first thing you think of when you hear Summer Grace Watson is, "Is that her real name?" The answer is yes. That is her given name. And never has there been a name more perfectly suited for someone. Because Summer is summer with all its fun, first loves, wave riding, road trips, day dreaming and sad endings. Grace, as it should be, is found on the inside feeling and listening eyes closed, detangling a head full of lyrics and melodies. And standing there front and center is our dear Watson, playing her music and singing in between the notes of her life.

This is Summer Grace Watson. The singer/songwriter from San Clemente who taught herself how to play the guitar at 16 and started performing in local venues at 18. It's been a fun ride ever since as she's gone from a teenager strumming the guitar to a gifted song writer and artist. More than a natural at music, she's an avid trail-runner, a lifelong surfer, loves body surfing and free diving. Any activity, it appears, that requires total immersion. So, it's not surprising to hear that she writes most of her songs on her surfboard in the ocean. Her home away from home and where her heart is.


ABOUT THE MUSIC
All Music & Lyrics by Summer Grace Watson
Produced By (JP) John Parenti
Arranged, Recorded and Mixed by JP at Parenti Music
Rhythm Section Recorded and Engineered by Chris Steffen at Sage & Sound Studio
Additional Vocal Editing: Aaron Walk
Mastered by Patrick Woodland at Woodland Music Productions

Architect for the Wolfgang Puck Food Company, Stephen Francis Jones joined me Monday at 9:00am!

Had a great time chatting with special guest Stephen Francis Jones today! If you missed the show, listen here.

About Stephen Francis Jones
As in-house architect for the Wolfgang Puck Food Company, Stephen Francis Jones established one of Southern California’s most iconic brands. When he founded his own firm, Puck immediately hired him to help develop the fine dining ambiance at Spago Beverly Hills. That project led to designing Wolfgang Puck restaurants worldwide—and, most recently, the renovation of the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland, site of the Academy Awards’ Governors Ball.Beginning with a complete renovation of the Century Plaza Hotel, Jones received a steady stream of high-profile commissions. He designed the serenely elegant sushi restaurants Hamasaku and Kumo for Michael Ovitz and Anisette—a classic French brasserie in a landmark Santa Monica tower—for Tommy Stoilkovich, Mike Garrett and four-star chef Alain Giraud.


“My objective is to make the total sensory experience as delicious as the food, setting the mood from the moment you walk in the door,” Jones says. “I like to call it the ‘wow’ factor.”

Jones was a young associate at a boutique Los Angeles architecture firm when he discovered that restaurant design was his true calling. Working as project architect with restaurateur Brian Vidor on Typhoon at Santa Monica Airport, he realized that the intimate scale allowed him to focus on the details of lighting, texture and color that create a memorable ambiance.

After graduating from the University of Florida School of Architecture, Jones developed high rises at Jung/Brannon in Boston. He worked on large projects in southern Europe with the internationally renowned Barcelona firm Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura before completing his master’s degree in architecture at UCLA. A fluent Spanish speaker who had spent his youth in Bogotá, Colombia, Jones found that immersion in urban European life gave him a fresh perspective on what makes a social space a memorable experience.An avid cyclist and volleyball player with a warmly engaging personality, Jones has a way of bonding with his clients. After meeting restaurateur Chris Simms at a local beach, Jones collaborated with him on six projects, including the playfully rustic M.B. Post (a former post office) in Manhattan Beach, with Michelin-starred chef David LeFevre.

Jones seeks to realize each client’s distinctive vision. By interpreting and enhancing his clients’ concepts, he creates uniquely inviting settings for casual to high-end dining. Among his best-known projects is Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood. Working with CEO Steven Foster, Jones created a wildly popular hipster hybrid—restaurant, bar and bowling alley—that resulted in a flurry of spin-off projects.

Married to Stephanie Eyestone Jones, owner of urban planning firm Matrix Environmental, Jones and his family live in Manhattan Beach. Some of his best ideas come during the tranquil early-morning hour he spends sculling at the UCLA Aquatic Center—in line with his belief in work that “feeds the spirit, not the ego.”

Johnny Schillereff, founder of Element and recent TEDx Orange Coast Speaker, joined me Monday at 9:30am!

Great show today featuring Johnny Schillereff! 

If you missed my conversation with Johnny, listen here.

About Johnny Schillereff
At the age of four, Johnny Schillereff got his first skateboard and a lifetime passion was discovered. Escaping the turbulence and dysfunction of a troubled childhood, Johnny began to find solace in world of skateboarding and its subcultures. Ironically, the path that most people frowned upon and attempted to detour him from was the very path that saved him. The few things that kept him grounded were his passions for the outdoors, art, and the skateboard under his feet. In pursuit of these disparate passions Johnny merged this unlikely marriage of our urban culture and the natural environment – and Element was born.

Element was created out of a passion and an unwavering dedication to making a positive difference. The brand continues to grow while honoring its deepest roots of skateboarding and the lifestyle that surrounds it. From team riders and advocates to product, Element embodies the unbounded potential of creativity and imagination. Today Element, identified by the iconic tree logo Johnny created, is now sold in more than 100 countries and has developed into a lifestyle brand spanning skateboards, accessories and apparel for men and women. Johnny’s entrepreneurial spirit and vast achievements have made him an industry maverick and pioneer that continues to shine today.

There are no tipping points | Johnny Schillereff | TEDxOrangeCoast joins me Monday at 9:30am!

Wise words to remember...

Thanks to The Master Shift for posting!
 

Saturday November 8th, former host of the hit children’s show Wonderama and long-time television producer, Sonny Fox will present excerpts from The Songwriter, the series he produced for CBS Cable!

Next Saturday my very special friend 

Sonny Fox will be featured in a very special LA event! 

Here are the details:
Former host of the hit children’s show Wonderama and long-time
television producer, Sonny Fox will present excerpts from The
Songwriter, the series he produced for CBS Cable. Featured profiles
will include Alan Jay Lerner, Kander and Ebb, Sheldon Harnick,
Yip Harburg, Arthur Schwartz, Charles Strouse, and Burton Lane.

The free event will include a reception immediately following the program,
during which Sonny will be signing his book,
But You Made the Front Page: Wonderama, War, and a Whole Bunch of Life.
Saturday, November 8, 2014, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
West Hollywood City Council Chambers
(Located at Street Level at the West Hollywood Library)
625 N. San Vicente Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069
For more information call 323-929-2359 or email
Westhollywood.Friendsofthelibrary@gmail.com

Abra Liberman-Garrett, author of Maccabee on the Mantel, joined me Monday at 9:00am!

If you missed Abra Liberman-Garrett on today's show, listen to our conversation here!

Move over Elf on the Shelf and make room for the holiday companion that is over 5000 years in the making – it’s Maccabee on the Mantel, an adorable plush doll and accompanying storybook that teaches children about the origins of Hanukkah and celebrate one of the culture’s most prominent but often misunderstood traditions.

Conceived of by mother of two and pre-school temple instructor Abra Liberman-Garrett, Maccabee on the Mantel is a huggable stuffed Maccabeean soldier whose personal story in the book illustrates the escape of the chosen people from the brutal King Antiochus. Raised with sometimes lackluster Jewish holiday traditions, she became more passionate about teaching the origins of Hanukkah while raising her children in Dallas. With the aid of her friends at Fort Worth’s legendary improvisation and comedy troupe Four Day Weekend – a group whose business savvy earned them last year’s Small Business of the Year Award from the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce – Liberman-Garrett invented a holiday product that is kid-tested and Rabbi-approved.

Unlike other recent attempts to cash in on the holiday “buddy” phenomenon that seems to cross across cultures, Maccabee on the Mantel is based in real Jewish history, and presented with materials that have been developed with the utmost educational value in mind. More than anything, Maccabee on the Mantel reminds human companions young and old – and Jewish or otherwise – about the origins of the Festival of Lights. “Hanukkah is a really cool holiday,” says Liberman-Garrett. “The story is about facing insurmountable odds, fighting for your rights, and believing in yourself.”

http://www.maccabeeonthemantel.com/