WOW! JOY'S SUMMER STIMULUS PACKAGE!!
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This month I'm declaring my own stimulus package ~ an incredible Half-Price Sale on all of my CDs on my site online store with a mention of this email. Currently CDs on my site are $14.99 each (including shipping/sales tax). Email me and mention this stimulus special and I will deliver or mail my CDs to you for $7.49 each and I'll even cover the Fla. sales tax. That's $7.49 per CD including shipping and sales tax. There is no limit, and all full-length CDs are part of this special. I'll include my 3-song Holiday Circle of Love CD, which normally sells for $4.99, for a flat $2.49 each with any order.
This is an INCREDIBLE sale! I have never offered my CDs at a price this low, and as you know, shipping costs have just increased. It is just something I want to do, and I will carry out this summer sale through June-July-August '09. Please note that this sale applies only to items purchased through my own Online Store.
You may still purchase my recordings through Amazon, CD Baby, itunes, and numerous other sites including CD Universe, Rhapsody, AmieStreet, and others, but I have no control over the prices they extend. Some items are available as specials from time to time on those sites.
If you have purchased or heard my CDs, I would be deeply grateful for your reviews and testimonials on the sites above. Visit the product pages at CD Baby, Amazon, or itunes, click on the recording you have heard, and provide a review on that page.
Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter as well.
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Edna Ferber,
Magic, Or Madness? |
In my last newsletter, I was preparing for  the premiere of Edna Ferber, Magic or Madness? which
was featured as part of Eckerd Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
Biography Series in April and May. This new play by Jan Taylor features me as Edna in a one-woman dramatization based on the words of
Edna Ferber, one of America's most celebrated 20th century journalists,
novelists and playwrights, author of Show Boat, Giant, Cimarron, So Big, Stage Door, Dinner at Eight, Come and Get It, Saratoga Trunk, Bravo, and many other works featuring strong women characters in central roles.
 Above
you see the real Edna Ferber. To the left and below ... me as Edna
Ferber. The production was so well received that 3 more appearances are
scheduled this summer for OLLI and Eckerd Elderhostel, and more are
planned for Fall. Here are some of the audience remarks from the first
presentations:"Excellent! Three Cheers! Well Presented! Bravo!" "A great unusual
experience." "Just outstanding. Thank you! What a treat!" "Fantastic. A
Great presentation." "How clever and creative! Jan & Joy make a
great team!" "Outstanding!" "Joy should do more acting... She was great. The writer is obviously very talented." "Both Joy
and Jan were excellent - in text as well as  production. Could make a
good Broadway show." "A terrific presentation." "Excellent performance.
Good writing, well done!" "GREAT!" "This was superb. new, fresh,
inventive and thought provoking. Hope to see more of their
collaboration." "A charming presentation, very enjoyable. Read her
books 50 years ago - Now I'm going right up to the Largo Library and
reread her books!!" "The visual display was so very eye catching - it caught your attention
as soon as you walked in. Her presentation was just marvelous and such
a delightful change. ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING! Great use of record &
film." "Fine
performance! Joy is developing well as actress!" "This was absolutely
wonderful." "This presentation was outstanding - well worth repeating."
"Beautifully presented. A different way of telling a biography!! Such
talented people - Jan Taylor & Ms. Katzen-Guthrie." "Excellent!"
"Yahoo to Joy and to Jan. A job well done by both actress and author."
"Wonderful!" "Bravo, Joy!" "Excellent script and delivery as well as
content. - Bravo!" "This was wonderful. More of this please."
"Absolutely wonderful presentation of Edna Ferber." "This is a MUST for
the fall catalog!" "Please repeat in Winter session 2010 so our
snowbirds will be back."
Needless
to say, it has been an honor and a wonderfully creative challenge to be
part of this project. Details of upcoming appearances are at my online calendar.And if you have an interest, download a pdf document of the interview feature with me that was included in the Fall/Winter 2008-2009 OLLI catalog.
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YAY! JOY'S SHEET MUSIC!
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 I am so excited to be preparing my original songs for sheet music publication, beginning with lead sheets in alto, mezzo, and soprano ranges or by request in any key. You may now request lead sheets of any of my songs and I will provide or prepare them for you immediately. Lead sheets are provided in the original key as on the CD, but may be custom ordered in any key or vocal range at no additional charge. Songs are available at $4 each in pdf format, or I will snail-mail you the music for only the additional charge of first class mailing.
Full songbooks will be released shortly and will be available on my site and at Amazon.com. Each publication is expected to contain some 25 songs at $15 per book, available in a variety of vocal ranges, including alto/bass, mezzo/baritone, or soprano/tenor.
To order individual song titles, or to be notified of the release of music books, please e-mail me. |
HIGHLIGHTS OF UPCOMING
Classes, Concerts, Programs |
| View details of all of these and more appearances here |
Unity of Palm Harbor, Most Sunday Mornings Ongoingly, 9:15 and 11 a.m. services, View calendar on stie for details of each Sunday.
June 9, July 16, August 17: MAGIC OR MADNESS? A Biography of EDNA FERBER (1895-1968), An original work by Jan Taylor, Performed in Dramatic Format by Joy, Eckerd OLLI & Eckerd Elderhostel
Sun., June 21, 1 p.m., A CELEBRATION OF THE SOUL: SACRED RENEWALS & DISCOVERIES, a special concert by Joy of inspiring songs of faith, renewal, family, and love ~ especially for Fathers, Mothers, and Families of all ages in celebration of Father's Day! New Life Unity, following morning services
Thurs., July 2, 10 a.m. CHINA'S ANCIENT FAITHS: TAOISM AND CONFUCISM, An overview of the spiritual, philosophical, and cultural aspects of two of China's indigenous faiths in Chinese life, both past and present. Eckerd OLLI
Thursdays, July 9, 16, 23, 30: 10:00-11:30 a.m., I'VE HEARD THAT SONG BEFORE: HIT PARADE MEMORIES, At the grand piano, Joy takes you on a sentimental journey through top songs and songwriters of the 30's through 50s. USF OLLI
Thurs., July 23: 7 p.m. FUN FUN FUN! A SUMMER SPLASH CONCERT to Benefit The Music Program at Unity of Palm Harbor An evening of great fun, goodies, and summer-themed music. Unity Palm Harbor
Aug 24-28. SHALL WE DANCE: BROADWAY MUSICALS OF THE 1940s AND 1950s, Examining the works of the composers, performers, dancers, and creators of musicals from the 40s-50s, Eckerd Elderhostel
View details of all of these and more appearances here
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What's in Store for Summer 2009?!
Let me welcome new subscribers to the newsletter as well as many who have been on my mailing list for years, and say how much I love staying in touch with you. Via Facebook, I am really having a blast connecting with many of you now, adding photo albums, and making new friends around the world as well as reconnecting with many good friends from the past. This social networking thing is really something! Join me via Twitter, Plaxo and LinkedIn as well as my site, joyfulnoise.net, which I update almost every day. My recordings are now on Amazon, CD Baby, itunes, CD Universe, in addition to my own site. My music is also available via AmieStreet.com, a new download source. To help promote their site, they are providing a 50% discount on downloads when you click on this link: http://amiestreet.com/?pytr=cdbaby. Additionally, there are tens of thousands of other independent artists on the site, and the discount via that link applies to any purchase. So, click away!
Variety is the spice of life. In my last e-mail newsletter, I mentioned my upcoming new adventure, starring in the new one-woman dramatization of Edna Ferber by St. Petersburg playwright Jan Taylor. That production, Edna Ferber: Magic or Madness? premiered in April and has been presented on three campuses of the Eckerd Osher Lifelong Learning Institute to rave responses from audiences. The experience of starring as Edna Ferber in what is my first real venture into acting, has been eye opening, challenging, fulfilling, and icredible fun. The initial panic of "What on earth did I get myself into?" resulting from having to memorize a full script with no other characters and learning to trust instinctive abilities to act, turned into an incredible discovery of the amazing Edna Ferber and her powerful, fascinating, and impactful life experience and view of the world. Three more presentations have now been scheduled for June-August, with more planned for fall, and we hope to take the show to many more venues, all of which are being explored now. Keep up with the current schedule of appearances via my online calendar and click on June-August here.
For four weeks in July, I will offer a class for USF's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) called I've Heard That Song Before: Hit Parade Memories. Each hour-and-a-half session in the four-week series will examine the work of some of the most celebrated songwriters of the 1930s-1950s, including Sammy Cahn & Jule Styne, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, and Frank Loesser. I'll be teaching the course at the grand piano in University Village's beautiful theatre auditorium. To sign up or for more details, visit my online calendar and click on July here.
Over these summer months, I am completing my own studio CD projects and working with several other artists who are recording in our studios. If you are interested in hearing more about our studio, give me a shout. We have worked with many artists to create music and spoken word projects here, in addition to recording live concerts in any venue and productions featuring my own work as a voice over artist.
Warmly, Joy · www.joyfulnoise.net
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Australia/New Zealand Shomer Shabbat Heritage Tour
November 4-22, 2009
In March I announced my coming Chai Australia/New Zealand Shomer Shabbat Heritage Tour for November 4-22, 2009, visiting Auckland, Rotorua, Melbourne, Philip Island, Sydney, and surrounding regions including the Blue Mountains and Dandenong Ranges, for which I will serve as Tour Leader and Scholar-In-Residence.
We're now just  under one month from the reservation deadline of June 15th for a guaranteed spot. Our exclusive small tour needs only ten to travel and we need only a few more travelers to place deposits by the reservation deadline of June 15th for the tour to proceed. Won't you be one of the lucky ones to experience this extraordinary and exhilarating first-class 18 day/17 night tour? Including round-trip
airfare on acclaimed 4-star Qantas Air from L.A., plus all first-class hotels, activities, domestic flights & transportation, lectures, all breakfasts and many other meals, fully guided by myself in addition to local tour guides and Jewish scholars, the tour is is
available from $6,799.
See and read more of the tour highlights at:
http://www.joyfulnoise.net/tours/australia4.html
For an immediate detailed itinerary and pricing, or for any questions regarding the tour or Australia/New Zealand, please contact Premier Aussie Specialist Francine Beifeld, who is handling this tour, at Francine@travelharmony.com or 800-622-3533. Please include your phone, email, and snail-mail address.
I've scoured the net and travel agencies and found no other tour like this one currently available. Travel Harmony and I have created it with extreme care to visit local and Jewish sites with time to truly experience them. On this one-of-a-kind tour, you will travel with like-minded people who share your interest in Australia/New Zealand and in Jewish history and experience. We will enjoy Kabbalat Shabbat
in all three cities with local congregations in addition to touring
flourishing Jewish communities in both Australia and New Zealand, interacting with local Jews throughout the tour.
We will visit strikingly grand and historic synagogues and world-renowned museums of Jewish culture. We'll be personally guided through national parks, museums, nature preserves, indigenous folk arts, and of course the wide range of spectacular sights and activities in the vibrant cities and regional landscapes of Auckland, Rotorua, Melbourne, Philip Island, and Sydney. Our tour is Shomer Shabbat,
allowing the freedom and convenience to walk to a nearby synagogue in
every city, or to sightsee or rest on Shabbat as you desire, for our hotels will be located both within walking distance of synagogue life and within historic and vibrant city centers. As Tour
Scholar-In-Residence, I'll discuss how Jewish life helped shape this extroardinary part of the world as well as how these countries helped shape Jewish life. In every area, we also will be served by expert local city, museum,
and Jewish-interest tour guides.
 On the fencepost? Travel to Australia/New Zealand has considerably increased this year, thanks to the increasing value of the US dollar, and many costs, including food are inexpensive. Kosher food arrangements will be made upon request. We are being served by the expertise of Travel Harmony, premiere Aussie specialists who are renowned for their knowledge of Australia and New Zealand and  for their special tour packages. Time is
provided to fully experience each city and the surrounding regions
without rushing from one place to the next and jumping on one plane to the next. And if you desire
to stay longer and get to know more of this exquisite part of the
world, you may craft your own extension tour to add extra days to the beginning or end of the itinerary. Francine will assist you in creating a personalized itinerary.
Questions? To have them answered and to request a detailed itinerary, contact Francine Beifeld at Francine@travelharmony.com or 800-622-3533. Please include your phone, email, and snail-mail address. Please keep in mind that we must have deposits for travelers by June 15th to guarantee travel. After that date, provided the minimum travelers are on board, it will be possible to join the tour on the basis of availability.
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Argentina Jewish Heritage Tour
Mid-April to early May 2010
 An itinerary is near completion for a Jewish Heritage Tour of Argentina for mid-April through early May 2010 for which I will serve as Scholar-In-Residence. This extraordinary package will tentatively include Buenos Aires, an amazing Shabbat weekend with the Jewish Colonies of Entre Rios Province, the breathtaking Iguazu Falls, the exquisite regions of Salta, Jujuy Province with Quebrada de Humahuaca communities, and the spectacular wine country of Cafayate in Argentina's Northwest, at the foothills of the Andes Mountains.
A number of you have already responded and we will be sending finalized itineraries and pricing at the first opportunity. If you have not yet responded and this tour is of interest to you, please e-mail me at joyfulnoise@earthlink.net
to be included in the mailing list for updates regarding the tour.
Keep eyes posted for coming details.
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Joy's Neat News & Recommended Reading
I
love to share discoveries I make on the internet as well as news of
friends and colleagues. If you have neat news you would like me to
share,
please email me to tell me about it!
 My friend, Rabbi Arthur Segal, has just released two new works, The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal, and A Spiritual And Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud. Both were written to help modern Jews recapture their Judaism & Spirituality and life a life of joy, freedom, and happiness. He suggests your life should and can be a celebration every day. Read more about his books and his work. These books are available in Amazon Kindle Editions as well ... (Handbook #1) (Handbook #2),
 My friend and colleague, Singer/Songwriter Doug Halper, has created a wonderful fun new children's and adult's entertainment as one of the nation's premier kirigami artists. Kirigami is a variation of origami involving both cutting and folding of the paper. The result is a
3-dimentional imaginative creation. Check out the video of kirigami and Douglas Scissorhands at Doug's site.
The fascinating painting, Along the River During the Qing-Ming Festival,
is on view at the Shanghai Museum. Originally painted circa 1085-1145
during the Northern Song Dynasty, it was repainted during the Qing
Dynasty about seven centuries later and is considered one of China's
greatest treasures. Through this site,
you may walk through this enormous painting by taking your mouse (or
track ball) right or left. As you come to each of three white boxes,
stop your curser, click within the box, and turn your sound on. You'll
watch the painting come to life. It's quite an experience.
Next month, Alysa Stanton will be ordained as America's first African-American female rabbi. Read her amazing story from this May 20th article in Jewish Week and in a May 25th article from CNN.
Pioneers for a Cure
is a cross-cultural project raising money for cancer research while
preserving the music of Israeli Pioneers. Attracting leading Jewish
musicians & singer/songwriters, including David Broza, Dudu Fisher,
Yossi Piamenta, Neshama Carlebach, and others, Pioneers for a Cure has
revived and reinterpreted classic songsfor the occasion of Israel's 61st birthday. Visit the site and hear the music here.
 My friend, novelist, and song collaborator, Lisette Brodey, was featured in a recent article in the Perpetual Prose Online Writing Community. Lisette is not only a fine novelist, but also a wonderful  lyricist with whom I have collaborated on several songs that have been featured on my past CDs and several of which will appear on my coming CDs. Lisette's first novel, Crooked Moon, has received an ecstatic response and is available in both paperback and Kindle editions, while her second novel, Squalor, New Mexico, has just been released as a Kindle book. Check them out!
Search and Unite seeks to reunite families separated by the events of WWII. They locate individuals with property that was taken away by the State during the Nazi era in post-WWII Czechoslovakia, helping families reclaim that property. Additionally they research occurrences during or after the Holocaust that remain enigmas today. One such project is the so-called Curacao Enigma involving the amazing story of Chiune Sugihara and  the saving of many lives in Kaunas in 1940. Thanks to the work of the late Lani Silver with Holocaust-related oral histories - a project later taken over by Spielberg - the efforts of Sugihara and Zwartendijk were brought to the attention of the world. Search and Unite is still attempting to solve the mystery of the Russian end of the triangle, seeking a list of al known 1940 passports issued with the So-Called Curacao Visas. Attempts are being made to analyze who the Russian officials were who signed the entry/transit and exit permits that enabled refugees to travel to Kaunas, Lithuania, to the eastern shores of the Soviet Union, enroute to China and Japan. If you have one of these passports/visas or know of someone who does, David Lewin of Search and Unite deeply seeks photographs of the documents. Read more on the Search & Unite site, both here and here. Additionally, you may contact David Lewin directly.
 Be'chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) desires to strengthen the Jewish
people through ethnic, cultural, and racial inclusiveness. A new study of intermarriage between Asian and Jewish Americans is currently being conducted by Helen Kim, PhD, and Noah Leavitt.
The research will be published in a book that will examine the racial,
ethnic, and religious identities of Asian-Jewish couples and families.
While much attention has focused on interfaith marriages between
American Jews and their non-Jewish spouses, little is discussed
regarding
marriages of racially and ethnically diverse couples in which there is
at
least one Jewish partner. This project plans to fill that gap. They are
seeking a wide
range of participants, including couples with and without children,
couples who are religiously involved and those who are not,
individuals from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other
Asian backgrounds, participants who have converted
to Judaism and those who have not. Read more about the project and how
to contact Helen or Noah here.
 I recently was introduced to this amazing site of Old Time Radio Classics, and it practically knocked me off my feet. It's no exaggeration to say that OTRCAT (Old Time Radio Catalog)
offers a truly vast catalog. For a few dollars, you can purchase mp3 or
audio discs of many many shows from every genre of radio from the 1920s
through 1959, as well as historic recordings dating to the late 19th
century. Thousands of old time radio episodes can be heard on the site,
many of which can be streamed or downloaded in full for free. What an
incredible resource, and if you love old radio, you'll be thrilled with
what you can hear and read on the site.
 Planning to be in China in July? If so, you might have an opportunity to view the Solar Eclipse on July 22, 2009, in one of the best viewing spots in the world. Professionals and amateurs both plan to flock to the Shanghai/Hangzhou regions, where the spectacle is expected to be in its finest view for the Total Eclipse of the Sun.
 Got a glut of CDs that you don't know what to do with? Consider recycling them. Billions of CD/DVD discs are thrown away every year - and it is estimated that it would take a million years for one CD to completely decompose. Free CD & DVD Recycling is available through this site, and if you're interested in finding local sites that will recycle CDs and DVDs as well as other materials like computers, paint, and more, check out Earth911.com. There you can search a zip code, city, or state to find recycling centers for a variety of products.
  The Jews of Anchorage were among the features in the just-released May 2009 issue Hadassah Magazine. The article, Northern Stars of David, can be read online here. I maintain a continually updated resource for the Jews of Alaska in the heritage tour section of my site, along with Jews of Asia and Australia/New Zealand. Another recently added link is this one from the Jerusalem Post: Israel's Image in China, an examination of the Chinese view of Hamas missle attacks on Israel. Read it here.
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