Epitome

 

https://vimeo.com/911017477?share=copy

Hi Everybody. This particular Sunday, February 4, 2024, is and will remain historically a wet day! I can remember back, people talking about this or that. Trying to figure out a quandary they all seemed to be in at the time.Nary a man, woman, or child has one day or another when they find themselves in a universal quandary.    Because every day is different? Yes, that was a question mark. Is that what it’s going to be from now and from this day forward? Whoops that was another question mark?   Years ago, it appeared to me as a very young and uninformed guy, life was loaded with a preponderance of “what if’s”. I was beginning to hear, and learn about all of those things. I didn’t realize it then, but I was developing an overpowering desire to move up in the world. After all, it was time! Harvey Kalmenson had just turned thirteen.   Life’s what if’s, from questions to positive thinking encouraged reaching for the epitome I was determined to accomplish during my lifetime.   Tonight, before you fall asleep. You might try something I try quite often. Present your secret mind bent to any and all who may be paying attention. You see, while you're sleeping for whatever happens. -  For what you And you alone seek  Life as you order it to become Remaining forever Perhaps a single day longer.  Admiring dreams ordered  They became forever yours The embodiment of personification A God like “Dream Road” The “Epitome” for where you belong And then the very next day, With the mere encouragement of last night A dream enters your real world Replacing a “what if”, You’ve received a “what is”, Likely an angel's reply Two new roads to choose from They call it a “fork”. Both roads look the same. But one side may lead to a lake. And you dear friend, haven’t learned to swim, as yet. What to do? What to take with? What to leave behind?   “What a difference a day makes”

Dina Washington What a difference a day made, twenty four little hours Brought the sun and the flowers where there use to be rain My yesterday was blue dear Today I'm a part of you dear My lonely nights are through dear Since you said you were mine Oh, what a difference a day made There's a rainbow before me Skies above can't be stormy since that moment of bliss That thrilling kiss It's heaven when you find romance on your menu What a difference a day made And the difference is you, is you My yesterday was blue dear Still I'm a part of you dear My lonely nights are through dear Since you said you were mine Oh, what a difference a day made There's a rainbow before me Skies above can't be stormy since that moment of bliss That thrilling kiss It's heaven when you find romance on your menu What a difference a day made And the difference is you, is you, is you. Every day is different. Here’s a poem I read many years ago. It’s called “The Road Not Taken” by “Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one road as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth.   Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear. Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,   And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.   I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.   And so I'll just repeat again. I found, every day is different, isn’t it? At least that is what I found to be an absolute. If there is a bottom to it all. Why not look up? You may find what I have. The very top may just become an endless perch to swing with and on!   Thank you all for listening and reading what I have compiled during my different forks in the road!                                  da harv here, signing off!

Have you noticed? There's been a change in the weather?

 

There'll be a change in the weather;

And a change in the sea

From now on there'll be a change in me;

My walk will be different, my talk and my name --

Nothin' about me gonna be the same

I'm gonna change my way of livin'

And if that ain't enough

I'm gonna change the way I strut my stuff

Cause nobody wants you when you're old and gray --

There'll be some changes made today

There'll be some changes made.

Julie London was a mainstay in our country at the time. Lots of arguments going with what’s going to happen to advertising, but the fact was if you were around it did nothing but good. And if you happen to be interested…I directed Julie London on a VO audition a little more than 40 years ago. The biggest money spenders on TV advertising at the time were the tobacco companies, mainly cigarettes. I mean you couldn’t watch a movie without seeing a noted star smoking. “Julie London” was one of them. Who was known to smoke three packs every day. Her cause of death was attributed to lung cancer. Didn’t come as a surprise.

Never the less we had an awful lot of good things going on to look up to. On April 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio. You could safely say my dear friends, that- that legislation by our congress, men and women, have been some of the great moves ever by our politicians. Some fifty plus years ago! Can you imagine that? The diminishing factor of not smoking has considerably helped cut into the main cause of lung cancer. Not just in our beautiful United States of America, but all over this planet. FYI: What was a twenty cent per pack of cigarettes then. Today in many places costs as much as six bucks. 

But long before that, there was a time that I was in the group known as little kids it was a given. Dad came home from work, and somehow, some way we played catch. It became our father and son ritual. Most importantly, my father was teaching me how to learn a thing or two of value each and every day we were together. Baseball became his driving force for making it easy for him to teach me things. Well, here's kind of an example:

It was just one single day, I guess. When he came home from work. He was saying to me: “Well, there's going to be a lot more scoring in baseball next year.” And I said: “What do you mean by that, Dad?” And he said: “Well, rumor has it that they're going to make the ball livelier, there's going to be more scoring because people are going to be hitting more home runs.” And I said to him: “How in the world, did you know that?” I was interested. He had my attention. He said: “Well, the inside of a baseball, was stuffed with things. You find out that what's inside is pretty dead. You know, the ball doesn't bounce very well anymore. So, baseball, it's just made to be hard and last a little longer.” That was the year of buying something and making it last. As opposed to the enjoyment it gave you. “But now whatthey're talking about doing is. Putting a livelier like piece of cork inside so that when the batter hits it, it'll go further.” 

He went on to tell me how it wasn’t really that difficult to do. He pointed out to me the people who run baseball did the very same thing many years ago. When a ballplayer named “Babe Ruth” broke the home run record and hit sixty in one season. The owners were giving the people what they wanted: More excitement at the games. (Well, It’s just like today. The more people who come out to the ballpark, the more money the team owners make. It’s good for all concerned. They call it “Capitalism”)

The clock kept ticking, I kept growing and low and behold then came along… “Only In America”

         Many years ago, I read a book entitled “Only In America”. It was written by an author named “Harry Golden”. Hard to believe, the year was 1958. (The not yet da harv was twenty-five years of age). Free of being as prideful as I am today. (It wasn’t any comparison; I still had a long way to go with the army and all.) About our American accomplishments, “Harry Goldens” in-depth observations struck a lasting note with me forever more. 

         Thinking back often times for me has been the direct stimulus for forward movement. The story of the greatest country in the history of the world continues to be told. Writers, politicians, and the most ardently meaningful human contributors to life and the betterment of man continue to unabashedly sing the praises of what the American way of life continues to build from within.

Please listen to my patriotic credo that musically follows.

It’s entitled: “Vote Them Out. It’s What Americas All About”.

Music by Todd Carlon

Lyrics by Harvey Kalmenson AKA da harv

         Have you noticed? There's been a change in the weather?

Before picking up the quill...

 One lived

One died

One smiled

While another sighed

Before crying

Life’s Provocations causing

The unknown no longer

Yet reason without explanation’s given

Upon thousands of days

Many years have come and gone

We grasp and linger

Life’s soldiers

Carrying on

Another day will be displayed 

Once more we pray 

When good passes us by

We waited too long

“Too late for dreams”

My latest title

Skips in and out

Without meaning

Within one’s mind eye

Perhaps living has exceeded want or need

“An Uneasy Occurrence” 

       It was two o’clock in the morning, during one of those humorless, provoking, un-rehearsed moments which seemingly come to visit more often these days.  Without warning, I‘m unable to sleep. In general, I’m pissed off. Really, really pissed! 

 

(Two hours had passed since placing my most recent book on hold; It sat on a nightstand adjoining my bed, of course with all lights out. As is the usual case, I had dropped off into “da harv’s” dreamland. Some way, somehow, almost always unsolicited, they arrived:  a parade of characters moved in and out. This time the place was Brooklyn, New York, the year 1941.A group of children, under the watchful eyes of their mothers, serving as protective guards, kept a vigil as their children marched in a circle, each waving little handheld American flags.)

       Ours is a free country! I don’t like the idea that it’s becoming an acceptable format for regular people like me to take their families, and to influence friends, and business associates as well, into moving from this beautiful world of California, in order to restore some form of financial independence as merely the mainstay for possible survival.

       Wait a minute, I thought. Where did all the marching kids go? And what happened to Public School 233? And how in the name of hell did I get to be ninety years old? All those books, and all those writers. “In and out, up and down, and all around town”. There with me whether a dream or awake, I still march and carry my American flag. Asleep or awake.

                

                                    https://vimeo.com/904613724?share=copy

-da harv

New Year News

 

From  KALMENSON & KALMENSON’S  EDUCATION DEPARTMENT! Our GLOBAL world of voice-over high fives continues with the one and only  Kalmenson Method For Voice Acting

HOT TIP! TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR CURRENT DISCOUNTED TUITION RATES WHILE SEATS REMAIN AVAILABLE!! We will return to our pre-covid full-rate tuition structure commencing with new enrollments starting February 1st, 2024.  Please visit our website, and then call us to secure your reservation as a participating student.

Preserving Our Integrity

  The year was 1947 when I first got my California drivers permit. I was fourteen years old. Whether I was a good driver or not was debatable. At the time, in the state of California, a fourteen year old wasn’t permitted to drive after dark. Two years quickly past and I became eligible at age sixteen for a regular drivers license. Watch out world, day or night, wet roads or dry, sleepless, or well rested, I was as most boys of sixteen are: integrity-free while driving a car. A thwarted mind behind the steering wheel of an automobile, usually going a little too fast for society to cope with. And speaking of going places… my buddies and I never had to concern ourselves with the cost of gasoline; 25 cents per gallon in 1947.

I rather doubt if any of us had heard the word integrity as yet. Personally, I had no idea what it meant, up and until I heard my high school baseball coach use it as a description, praising his men who were players on the city of Los Angeles. Our Coach "Harry Brubaker" was given a standing ovation when introduced as the man who led his men to a national record of forty-three straight wins, over a two year period. “During my long career as a teacher and a coach”, he began “I’ve been privileged to work with many fine athletes and students. But never ever had a group of young men to put on this magnificent display of team integrity before. Men I’m indeed proud to have worked with you all!”. My Father, who was in attendance, was absolutely beaming with pride. That evening, I looked up the word integrity. Like father and son privately we celebrated unabashedly! It was seventy two years ago, hence, thank God the burning remains.

Above all

Burn with it

Learn from it

Teach with it

Allow it to grow

Where there is truth

Integrity will abound

Yours to sustain forever

HK / 12 / 23

                                                  

                                            -da harv

Integrity: the quality of being honest hand having strong moral principles; moral uprightness: he is known to be a man of integrity. 2 the sate of being whole and undivided: upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty. º the condition of being unified, unimpaired.

An “Oy Vey”! Day at K & K

 (But we ain’t complaining)

 

Place: da villa on “da hilla”

 

Da harv to Cathy via intercom at 6:06 AM

 

He: on the third floor (his bathroom)

 

She: that would be her, Cathy in our first floor office

 In case you’re interested we built this place about sixteen years ago. For any of you out there who may be contemplating attempting to accomplish the same fait accompli, please wait until we explain the extreme tribulations of self-construction, destruction here in our great city of Los Angeles. 

Like I started to say, Cathy was down in our office on the bottom floor of our house (in her office) at 6:06 AM completing a last minute voice casting call from an ad agency producer who, as usual, found himself in desperate straits (as he described himself). As usual, they contacted us because they had tried saving some money by attempting to cast the voices themselves.  FYI, it had become a do-or-die adventure for him that required us to complete on the very same day. She was just completing the call with him, guaranteeing he had nothing to worry about. Cathy had already completed our work order simultaneously while she was on the phone with him. 

          In summary, here’s what the casting specs called for: Man or woman who sounded like an authentic Italian baker, as he or she welcomed their customer or customers into the bakery.

          One might think that would be a rather easy assignment for the world’s best (acknowledged) “Queen of the voice casting runway” to deliver.

Well, it did come to pass. That very same day, Cathy was able to make it happen. But it should be pointed out to any and all in our business, almost without exception, our clients, advertising agencies and production companies are financially much better served by coming to us first before putting a call out there in the marketplace on their own. 

A way with words

                    

                     "If you wait, all that happens is that you get older."

                                                            -Larry McMurtry

"Don't ever wait to grow older. S**t will happen no matter what age you happen to be or become". 
(It's why the caveman began wearing shoes during the hunting season). 

                                                                   -Harvey Kalmenson