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Children's Activities Music Icons Reading

March 11 . Issue #134

“To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune, but to write and read comes by nature.” Shakespeare

Hello all and welcome to my weekly journal. A place for me to share with you 5 points of interest. Things that motivated me, events that brought me some joy, some happiness or delighted the senses. This week celebrating women and International Women’s Day events, jazz music icons, in-person writing workshops and more…

1.  International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th with events from all over the world. Here in the Blue Mountains, I took in a virtual event. 24 Women – 24 Hours, Local Canadian women who achieved great things going back to the 17th century.

Fascinating to discover these incredible women who gave so much of themselves to their communities. Leaders, authors, chefs, artists, journalists, athletes and so much more.

2. Wes Montgomery, the renowned jazz guitarist was born this week, March 6, in 1923 and I listened to his music to celebrate his birthday.

Wes Montgomery – live in 65, this is a classic, delightful performance care of Jazz Icons – Holland, Belgium and England. The DVD movie opens with Wes joined in performance by musicians Pim Jacobs, Ruud Jacobs & Han Bennink.

The Belgium performance sees him joined by musicians he is familiar with, Arthur Harper (Bass), Harold Mabern (Piano) and  Jimmy Lovelace (Drums). In England, Wes is joined by Rick Laird (Bass), Stan Tracey (Piano), Jackie Dougan (Drums).

3. Blue Mountain gets more than its fair share of snow and this winter I have done plenty of relocating of this white fluff from a place where it is not wanted to a place of less undesirability. What I look forward to after all this working out in the cold is a big mug of matcha white hot chocolate.

My favorite recipe for matcha white hot chocolate is courtesy of  Love and Lemons.

4. Live events are coming back after two years and I am excited to take my creative writing workshop to the library. The East Gwillimbury Public Library has asked me to facilitate a workshop as part of the upcoming children’s March Break on Thursday, March 17th – 6:30 – 7:30 PM.

Write Your Own Story – Facilitated by WCYR and author Paul Yanuziello – For More Information and to register for the event go to Eventbrite.ca.

East Gwillimbury Public Library has always encouraged young writers to imagine and create and once again, students in Grades 3-8 are invited to submit their creative writing for inclusion in the 2022 Write On! Anthology. This year’s theme is Out of This World!

If you are in the area – Holland Landing, East Gwillimbury, sign up for the workshop and join me for a fun evening of creative writing.

5. Write what you want to read and what makes you happy. I am passionate about martial arts and I have trained with many international masters of martial arts, here in Canada, in Europe, Japan and the USA.

Last week I shared Part 1 of a short story entitled Man of the Everglades. Please enjoy Part 2 right here.

Thanks for reading, if you think someone you know would like to read my newsletter please share it with them.

If you are looking for a great children’s book check out one of my books, including my new children’s early reader chapter book Scratchy the Squirrel: A Time for Friends.  Paperback version, on sale for a limited time.

Or one of my other children’s picture books, Samba on a Snowy Day or the Brazilian/ Portuguese version Samba em um Dia de Neve. Or you may enjoy Samba in Brazil or the Brazilian/Portuguese version Samba no Brasil.

Stay safe, stay well, stay strong and keep going.

Please subscribe to my newsletter below. Just enter your email address and you're in! Join all my other subscribers who get my news, my writing, and interesting links delivered to their inboxes on the last Friday of each month:

Copyright © 2022 Paul Yanuziello, PNJ Services, All rights reserved.

Categories
Music Icons Reading

February 25 . Issue #132

Hello all and welcome to my weekly journal. A place for me to share with you my interests during the week. Just 5 points, things that caught my eye or my ear, motivated me, gave me hope and kept me going.

1. This week is all about reading and the freedom to read. Freedom To Read Week happening from February 20 – 26, go to the site to find special reading events.

Judy Blume is a children’s author who I became aware of way back in the day when my children started reading chapter books.

Blume is the author of lots of books and she writes across many genres, books for children, middle-grade books, books for teens and even adults.

Blume is also familiar with banned books, Judy Blume talks about censorship.

A conversation with author Lawrence Hill, Hill is the author of the award-winning Book of Negroes. In this conversation to celebrate Freedom to Read he is in discussion with a librarian from an Edmonton library on his favourite banned books.

He talks about three books. A diverse group, all unique, and now books that I  want to read. Another Country by James Baldwin, Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates and Three Wishes by Deborah Ellis.

Lawrence Hill, in response to someone wanting to burn his book, wrote an essay entitled Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book.

2. My eye candy this week: Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D – Man in the Waters. This is an extraordinary collage of interviews, archival material, and uniquely powerful cinematography.

A superb documentary that uses the story of this iconic dancer to illustrate the power of his artistic importance and the triumph of the human spirit.

3. My sonic explorations this week – George Frideric Handel who was born on February 23, 1685 and I spent time this week celebrating his birth in the enjoyment of his masterpieces. The Best of Handel on youtube music.

4. One project gets completed, Scratchy the Squirrel: A Time For Friends my new children’s early reader chapter book is out in the world and it’s receiving great reviews.

What’s next, another project springs to life, I am working on a new, old story. A story I started in 2010 and put aside until just recently. A story about martial arts, one that I hope children can relate to, tentatively entitled Dojo in the Woods, enjoy a free sample.

5. I am not looking to politicise my newsletter but I couldn’t help getting my interest peaked with news of War in Europe. I don’t like war or physical conflict in any way, shape or form. I am all about Peace, Love and Harmony.

During the writing of this week’s newsletter I listened to an interview with Noam Chomsky on Europe Matters – in it, he discusses many of the current problems facing humankind at this moment — including the Pandemic, Ukraine, Climate Change and USA politics.

Thanks for reading, if you think someone you know would like to read my newsletter please share it with them.

If you are looking for a great children’s book check out one of my books, including my new children’s early reader chapter book Scratchy the Squirrel: A Time for Friends.  Paperback version, on sale for a limited time.

Or one of my other children’s picture books, Samba on a Snowy Day or the Brazilian/ Portuguese version Samba em um Dia de Neve. Or you may enjoy Samba in Brazil or the Brazilian/Portuguese version Samba no Brasil.

Stay safe, stay well, stay strong and keep going.

Please subscribe to my newsletter below. Just enter your email address and you're in! Join all my other subscribers who get my news, my writing, and interesting links delivered to their inboxes on the last Friday of each month:

Copyright © 2022 Paul Yanuziello, PNJ Services, All rights reserved.

Categories
Jazz Movies Music Music Icons Reading

December 18 . Issue #69

“Music makes the world go round.”

Welcome and happy holidays to all. In this weeks journal, I share music, more music and my year-end reading list.

1. A friend recently asked me to recommend some jazz music. He indicated he was new to jazz and he wanted an idea of what to listen to and what would give him a good idea of what jazz is. My list of the top 50 jazz albums, or at least some of my favourites.

That, of course, begs the question of what is jazz? Famed bebop pianist, Dr. Barry Harris put it like this when I asked him that very question. “I don’t know!”

2. My end of year list for the best new recordings, honourable mentions and most listened to recordings.

3. The books that got me through a COVID-19 year. What I am reading now and books I keep coming back to for reference.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B.White. Every writer should read this book.

4. This week I celebrate the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. Happy 250th maestro.

5. The best Holiday Movies: A Christmas StoryHow The Grinch Stole Christmas, and of course A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim.

Those are a few of my favourite things.

Thanks for reading, if you think someone you know would like my newsletter please share it with them.

If you’re looking for a great children’s book, check out my book, Samba on a Snowy Day.  Available in most good book stores including Chapters – Indigo stores. 

Please consider a contribution to our next book project; scheduled for February of 2021. You can contribute by buying me a coffee, just swing by Ko-fi.com.  You know I appreciate my coffee and every coffee really helps us out. If you’re interested in an advanced reading copy let me know. We are happy to trade an e-book for an honest review at Goodreads or Amazon.

Check out my weekly journal, follow the link to subscribe. Get the weekly happenings in your inbox, no spam I promise.

Copyright © 2020 Paul Yanuziello, All rights reserved.

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