Since the debut of his very first recording, One of the Ones, it has become a bit of tradition that whenever Tony Award-winning actor and singer/songwriter, Levi Kreis, releases a new musical project, we sit down and have a chat to discuss it.  And, true to form, a few weeks back we hopped on a call to do just that as we settled into a good long catch up and a talk about Broadway at the Keys, Levi’s latest musical outing in which he takes on an array of Broadway classics from some of the Great White Way’s most memorable shows.

In the spirit of full disclosure, however, technology was not our friend during the last interview, in that when I went to review the recording of the interview, I realized that the magic that was our conversation had been garbled by what I can only describe as robotic goblins. This turn of events would not be quite so humorous but for the fact that it is not the first time that one of my interviews with Levi has been muddled by circumstance. As in the past, Levi was the best sport about it when I texted him to tell him what happened.

In any case, rather than put my friend through the standard interview routine again, I just decided that I was going to tell you all the reasons why his latest project is so notable, which was really the sole purpose of the interview to begin with. As I mentioned above, I’ve been listening to Levi’s music since his debut album — a raw, unfiltered emotional collection so personal that it had a profound effect upon me and still remains one of my favorite recordings by a male vocalist to this day. Since that time, I’ve seen Levi on Broadway, marveled at his every new collection and the plucky approach that he took to each, watched him grow as an artist and even had occasion to work with him.  It is against this background then that I hail Levi’s latest effort, Broadway at the Keys, as one of the brightest spots on his musical journey since his debut more than a decade ago.

Perhaps, what most makes Broadway at the Keys stand apart from Levi’s most recent recordings, is its pure simplicity. He describes the album as a kind of getting back to basics, but I would go even further and call it a return to a format in which his gift truly shines. On this recording, there are no distractions — no extraneous instrumentation and no background singers or duets. From start to finish, it’s just the dulcet tones of Levi’s soulful voice, a piano and 13 great vehicles to showcase the many facets of the singer’s talents.

Whether emoting on better known tunes from Broadway classics like Victor/Victoria (“Living in the Shadows”), Pippin’ (“Corner of the Sky”) and The Rothschilds (“In My Own Lifetime”); getting bluesy on tracks like “Kansas City Blues” from Smoky Joe’s Café and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” from Million Dollar Quartet; or turning signature songs from more recent Broadway hits like Beautiful (“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”) and Beaches (“The Wind Beneath my Wings”) into his own personal anthems, Broadway at the Keys is not your typical, by the numbers, collection of showtunes, regurgitated as originally heard on the stage. Instead it is Levi Kreis at his most intimate –riffing, soaring and sharing his take on this beloved collection of songs. And, for the record, Broadway has never sounded better.

In addition to checking out the new recording, catch Levi on tour. Though it has already officially kicked off, you can still catch Levi’s Broadway at the Keys tour in New York, San Diego, and Los Angeles as well as other cities around the country.

For more details about Levi’s tour and the new album, click here.

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“I choose to live my life with a certain fearless vitality that I think more people should try.”

— James Whiteside, Principal Dancer, American Ballet Theatre

I find the ballet to be a lot like life when it comes to men – the bad boys always stand out.

To be clear, in using the term ‘bad’, I mean no disrespect to the wildly creative artists to whom I attach the term here. I rather use it to describe the fiery, matchless ability of those rare few performers whose talent is so explosive that it can’t be put into a box – those true artistes whose mastery of an art form is so advanced that it can scarcely be harnessed or contained by one genre, but instead must constantly be allowed to spill over into new arenas in order to achieve its fullest expression.

Think Nureyev at the height of his career breaking with tradition to perform both classical ballet and modern dance or Baryshnikov dancing his way to an Academy Award nomination in The Turning Point, the first of his many acting roles on the big screen. More contemporarily, think of genre-busting former Royal Ballet star Sergei Polunin, who is fast becoming a Hollywood ‘It’ boy co-starring and working alongside some of Tinseltown’s biggest names like Ralph Fiennes and box-office megastar Jennifer Lawrence.  Now add to this exclusive clique of auteurs, the always daring, never boring, James Whiteside (aka pop-dance artist JbDubs, aka Ühu Betch of the drag posse known as The Dairy Queens).

Not fully able to express the breadth of his creativity within the realm of his widely lauded, four-year run as a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, which just recently closed its current season at the Metropolitan Opera House, Whiteside has spread his talents far and wide, venturing into music and video production and becoming something of a YouTube sensation under the alias JbDubs, while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of his art in almost every direction imaginable. This week, the chameleon-like Mr. Whiteside launches an eclectic, globetrotting series of summer performances that promise to reveal more about the range of his talents than the world has ever seen before…and he couldn’t be more excited.

“My summer has a wide range of dance styles, so throughout the course of the summer I think people are actually going to learn a lot about the real range of things that I can do… from hip-hop to ballet to contemporary ballet and jazz,” Whiteside explains when asked what people can expect to see on his tour which will make stops in Los Angeles, Vail, and Tokyo over the course of the summer. “Normally my summers consist of a lot of gigs essentially,” he continues. “But this summer is a little bit different in that I have programmed a lot of it myself. So, I’m doing a lot of stuff that I really want to do and that I’m looking forward to doing as well as stuff that I’ve done in the past and really loved and want to revisit.”

Among the performances to which Whiteside is most looking forward is one that is set to debut at the Fire Island Dance Festival on July 15 and 16. It is a new work by musical theater choreographer Al Blackstone that promises to showcase a sexy, flirty side of the dancer entitled, “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore?”. “The premise of the piece is that I am pining after this guy and these other four guys are pining after me,” Whiteside offers as something of a teaser preview of the performance. “[But] I don’t want to give it away because there’s a bit of a twist – there are some interesting things that go down in the dance. It’s great. It’s just Prince and a piano and it’s a great, sexy, jazz piece.”

Another highlight of Whiteside’s summer calendar will be the premiere of his new production company “James Whiteside Presents” at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA. Along with 5 Dances, a collection of works in varied styles that the he has created over the years, Whiteside will also treat the Jacob’s Pillow crowd to a performance by his sassy, uninhibited pop alter ego JbDubs, whose YouTube hit “I Hate My Job” has scored 4 million plus views. “One of the numbers that I’m going be doing [for my Jacob’s Pillow performance] is to a song that I wrote called “Wallflower”’ says Whiteside who admits to being the antithesis of the person about whom he wrote the song. “It’s basically about not being a wallflower and just getting on the dancefloor and shakin’ it! I’ve got a music video for that song with ABT soloist Cassandra Trenary [and] we’ll be doing a live version of that.”

From there Whiteside will head back to New York for two performances in the world premiere of Impressions, part of an evening with Gemma Bond at the Joyce Theatre, which will be directly followed by a 3-day dance series at The Music Center, in Los Angeles, where James will dance the pas de deux from both Romeo and Juliet and Rubies with fellow American Ballet Theater principal Isabella Boylston and Lauren Cuthbertson, principal dancer at the Royal Ballet in London. And as if that weren’t hectic enough, to round out the summer, Whiteside will take the stage at the Vail Dance Festival, August 4 and 5, and Ballet Sun Valley in Idaho, August 22 and 24 under the direction of Isabella Boylston where he will reprise the Rubies pas de deux with Boylston, while also mounting his own You Rascal You. Finally, the seemingly inexhaustible danseur will end his extensive calendar of appearances in Tokyo where he will both dance in and choreograph a specially arranged Beauty and the Beast excerpt, “Tale as Old as Time” for Tokyo Disney’s release of Beauty and the Beast.

At this point in the interview, I can’t help but ask Whiteside not only how he keeps all the performances in his schedule straight in his own mind but also how he does it all at such a break-neck pace and with what appears to be such good humor. “I choose to live my life with a certain fearless vitality that I think more people should try,” the performer says patly without missing a beat. “If you’re so serious all the time, you forget to enjoy your life and to enjoy the people around you and the beauty that is existent. I take what I do very seriously…[and]…it is out of joy and love and experience that I am pushing forward.”

So does “fearless vitality” imply that unlike most of us humans, James Whiteside is without fear of anything? And, if so, has he always been so fearless?

“[No]. I’m not without self-doubt,” he quickly offers in reply to my facetiously posed query. “I have plenty of insecurities just like anybody else. It’s just that it’s important to me to keep pushing forward and to be proud of my struggle.”

“But as far as fearlessness goes, it wasn’t so much a choice [for me] as it was [something] that was already there,” Whiteside adds after pausing for a moment to reflect.  “I do recall a time when the PR Manager for the Boston Ballet, which was my first ballet company, came to me with a story that the local gay paper wanted to do on me. I was very young and she said, ‘You know, this is going to be in print and online pretty much forever, so are you sure you want to come out? I just need to ask you, because I know it’s your first interview like this.’

I was so confused that she would even ask. I understand that she was just trying to explain the consequences of what we were doing and that people might be put off by my blatant sexuality, but for me it wasn’t even an option. From a young age…hiding myself or being apologetic for my existence…wasn’t something that really interested me. That got me into a lot of trouble when I was a teenager. I was very opinionated and outspoken and unapologetic. It’s kind of funny, when you’re young, you’re berated for being outspoken but then you get to be a certain age and it gets to be celebrated.”

With no signs of holding back or in any way reigning in his aspirations, expect to see even more of Whiteside and his fearless vitality on the horizon. “In the future, there are so many things I’d like to do,” he tells me in a manner that suggests he’s holding something back…something big that his mind has already leapt to but he’s not quite ready to put into words. That stumbling block aside, he is still able to list some of the highlights on his personal bucket list. “One of these days, I’d like to be on Broadway,” he says clearly ticking through a well-established checklist. “I’d like to go to school for music production. I’d like to choreograph commercially for theatre and the ballet. I’ve got my irons in various fires and I don’t see myself retracting them anytime soon.”

What good news for us. Dance on Mr. Whiteside. Dance on.

Follow James Whiteside and check out his latest projects and tour dates at www.jameswhiteside.org.

To read this story on the Huffington Post, click here.

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When, during a recent phone interview, I asked Slattery about his choice to play Eisenhower with such understatement, he initially joked, “I didn’t look like Ike, so I played him straight,” mischievously intimating that he suspected he only landed the role because someone else must have dropped out.

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When was the last time you were unfairly scrutinized by someone (or a group of someones) without even being given the benefit of the doubt?

After years of cynicism, I found myself charmed by the place from the moment I stepped off the ferry that deposited me on the shores of what I came to think of as a slice of paradise just off the south shore of Long Island. Granted I arrived the week after the Pines Party, the premiere event of summer on the island, so it was unusually quiet, but that does not signify as far as my rationale for sharing this anecdote. The point is that my judgment of Fire Island, based not on fact, but instead on a perception not anchored in anything more than projection, turned out to be the farthest thing from the truth.

Rather than being dismayed by the experience I had anticipated with varying degrees of loathing for most of my adult life, I spent hours touring around the island admiring the striking architecture and gardens of the homes, walking Instagram-perfect sandy beaches, watching spectacular sunsets from the docks, admiring pretty people and, if I’m honest, taking pride in the fact that decades of nurturing by the LGBTQ community had produced an oasis of such superlative magnificence. Truth be told, in all my travels, rarely has my preconception of a destination been so pleasantly off the mark. Which brings me back to Fire Island the series.

I don’t know the six guys at the center of this new Fire Island series, but I did get the chance to become briefly acquainted with one of the show’s stars during my sojourn on Fire Island last summer. As fate would have it, Patrick, the show’s southern gent, was my host at the Sharegurl property, Pines Club, where I spent those memorable few days in the Long Island sun last year. [ For the record, I highly recommend Sharegurl properties for newbies to Fire Island because they are beautifully situated and perfect for short-term stays, but I digress]. Handsome, professional, charming, polite and preternaturally friendly (and not necessarily in that order) are the words that come to mind to describe this Georgia peach who welcomed me to the island. Based upon my encounter with Patrick alone, I am inclined to believe the boys of Fire Island are not, on the whole, due the premature demonization they have received.

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By any standard, the fictional Savastano clan central to the Weinstein Televison Company-distributed hit Sky Italia series, Gomorrah, is not one to be trifled with. For those who come into contact with the Savastanos, and indeed even for those who count themselves among its ranks, life is a tenuous affair subject to be taken on account of suspicion, manipulation, internal power struggles or just plain old-fashioned grievance, however slight or based in reality.

In Naples, which serves as the often gritty, occasionally picturesque backdrop for the crime-fueled drama in the series, the Savastanos are portrayed as the top dogs in the infamously violent real-life Neapolitan crime organization known as The Camorra, and they neither take their power lightly or endeavor to leave a diminutive footprint on the community that surrounds them. They are the law and they own the law. And every episode is an adrenaline-filled, bullet riddled excursion into the underbelly of some of the most notorious ghettos in Naples, the drug trade that pervades those communities and the mafia dons who do battle for sovereignty over them.

Not since the first season debut of Downton Abbey, have I found myself more riveted by the lives and doings of a television family. A curious comparison, you say? Perhaps. And yet, while on the surface, it may seem odd to compare the stately Granthams of Downton to the violent Savastanos of Naples, at the core of both shows, the similarities are plain.

You see, just as the Earl of Grantham dictates life in Downton, so does Pietro Savastano dictate life in Naples. Similarly, just as Lord Grantham hails the grand Downton Abbey as his seat of power, so does the commander of the fiercest Neapolitan crime family lord over his dominion from a heavily guarded, heavily fortified palatial palazzo in the suburbs of Naples.

Likewise, just as Lord Grantham relies on the quiet strength of Lady Grantham to take on great challenges of the day, so does Pietro Savastano lean on the steely reserve of his wife, Immacolata Savastano, to support his dark and controlling ambitions. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, just as the Earl fights to maintain and uphold the social order he inherited, so does Don Pietro struggle to maintain his supremacy within the ranks of an ever changing and ever more violent Naples filled with upstarts angling for his throne.

I could go on, but you get the gist.

Based on the chilling best-selling book of the same name by Italian journalist and novelist, Robert Saviano, Gomorrah, has already broken records in Italy, becoming not only the most-watched current television program in Italy, but the most watched show in the country’s history. Beyond that, the show has become a global hit distributed to more than 130 markets.

America, however, has been slower to take a cotton to the series.

Since Gomorrah debuted in the U.S. on Sundance TV last fall to generally strong critical buzz, the show has not quite grabbed the imagination of the American public, which is why I feel duly obligated to recommend it.

Intense, addictive, beautifully shot and set to a stirring soundtrack by Mokadelic, Gomorrah is ideal viewing for either your next long-haul flight or your next major television binge. (And that may be the only redemption for which the show’s universally irredeemable characters can hope).

Season 1 of Gomorrah is currently available on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Season 2 of the series debuts April 26, 2017 on Sundance TV.

For more information about the series, click here.

Watch the trailer for season 1 below:

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If there is one thing traveling has taught me, it is that the world is full of glorious surprises. Whereas expectation gives way to revelation so do preconceived notions necessarily give way to unexpected marvels. Such were my thoughts as I slipped into the architecturally revelatory Houston Ballet for a tour during a recent visit to the Lone Star State.

While many notable attributes immediately spring to mind when thinking about Houston – savory barbecue, oil derricks, urban sprawl and well above average Mexican fare, for starters – the ballet was not at the top of my list. That is, at least not until recently.

However, as I stood in the midst of the action on the fifth-floor corridor of the Houston Ballet, peering into sprawling studios where an abundance of unobstructed natural light appeared to defy the building’s central location overlooking downtown and the Bayou, I quickly arrived at the conclusion that the ballet was indeed a very serious business in Houston. In every corner, I spied the sincere toil, sweat and passion that have become the legend of the ballet as I envisioned many a Black Swan moment occurring in the hallowed halls and rehearsal spaces around which I presently trod.

“Houston isn’t [just] cowboys and NASA,” exclaimed Christian Brown, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Houston Ballet, with a hearty laugh as we strolled the company’s impressive home base. “I mean, it is but there is so much more that goes on here that is dynamic and that is making a unique, exciting echo of notice.”

In a town where big is the order of the day in almost every way, Brown’s humble pronouncement about what the Houston Ballet brings to the city it calls home is almost too understated. Not only is the acclaimed ballet company the fourth largest in America, it is the nation’s largest dance center or, to use Mr. Brown’s more apt description, it is “the largest building in the United States that was specifically designed for dance.”

Moreover, with Australian-born Artistic Director Stanton Welch at the company’s helm for the last decade, the Houston Ballet has soared in international acclaim – touring the globe, forming impressive alliances with renowned companies from Australia to Denmark and attracting top tier talent like William Forsythe and Justin Peck, among others, to work with the company and produce contemporary works. As further proof of its vaunted standing in the world of dance, this past month the company debuted a new $5 million production of the Nutcracker, complete with sets built outside London by the same shop that just completed the new Harry Potter experience. It is the Houston Ballet’s most ambitious production to date and it is expected to exceed last year’s attendance record of 77,000 guests over its 39-show run through December 27.

Bottom line: From its adjoining theatre, in-house cobblers, seamstresses, fabric hall and, yes, even dye shop, the Houston Ballet is a most impressive operation.

“It is the only fine arts organization in Houston that tours and has an international presence at this level,” Brown offers with a hint more of the boastfulness one might find more befitting of a Houstonian.

“We have 59 really talented dancers and, I think what [our Artistic Director] Stanton [Welch] would say, is that we have really talented men. Everyone has talented ladies but our men are fantastic and there are a lot of them and they’re strong and they’re good-looking and I think that is a unique attribute for us.”

Brown is quick to point out the make-up of the students of a class we happened upon during our tour to further drive home his point. “As you can see the ratio of guys to girls is almost, but not quite, half and half,” he offered as we looked in on the class. “Young men who want to be in companies and who want to be strong men in companies are attracted here because of Stanton and his emphasis on men dancing in ballet. [Here, they’re] not just lifting the ladies but having key roles as well. It’s not that [Stanton] over emphasizes men but he is more equal in his use of them.”

One such talented young male dancer who found his way to the Houston Ballet and the tutelage of the celebrated Mr. Welch is Rhys Kosakowski, the undiscovered young talent who would become the first actor outside of London to take on the lead role in Billy Elliot when the production debuted to rave reviews in Sydney back in 2007. Now, one might be inclined to think that, with this pedigree, the ballet would have been a natural calling for the rising star, but on that score, one would be as mistaken as I was in my original estimation of the Houston Ballet.

“My mom put me in jazz and tap lessons at a really young age, when I was maybe 6 or 7,” Kosakowski explains of his haphazard journey into the world of ballet, as he takes a breather in between rehearsals for the upcoming Nutcracker. “It was more like a fun, interactive kind of thing. But as I grew older I took an interest mainly in jazz and contemporary dance. My jazz teacher at the time said to me ‘If you really want to pursue jazz as a future, then you have to do ballet class.’ [Well] I was about 12 at the time and I wasn’t really into ballet at all but taking classes kind of opened my mind up to it a little bit. And then as I started to audition for Billy Elliott, I had to send in a ballet class video to audition. So that’s how ballet started for me. And then after I got the part of Billy, ballet just took off for me and that’s how I fell in love with it.”

Oddly enough, it was with the same degree of serendipity that Kosakowski made the leap from Down Under to the great state of Texas. Contrary to convention, he did not pine away over whimsical thoughts that he might one day join the Houston Ballet. In fact, he didn’t even think the leap was all that possible until his grandmother gave him a nudge in the right direction.

“After Billy Elliott finished, I took about year and went back home and did full time dancing college at the National College of Dance in Newcastle,” Rhys says of his career trajectory. “Then one day, my grandma saw an audition in the newspaper [for the Houston Ballet] and she said I should go for it. I thought I was never going to get it, but I went and then I got the offer to come to summer school so I came to Houston then. That was four years ago.”

As obstacle-free as his journey to one of America’s leading ballet companies may seem on paper, it is clear that the young dancer does not take his good fortune for granted. “Just saying that I’m in a ballet company is a great thing for me,” Kosakowski beams when asked the most rewarding aspect of being a part of the Houston Ballet.

He is likewise respectful of his role as part of the whole that makes up the ballet company. Despite his chiseled good looks, growing modeling portfolio and tens of thousands of followers on social media, Kosakowski seems devoid of even the slightest hint of a prima uomo persona. Asked if he thinks he brings anything unique to the Houston Ballet, he cautiously demurs replying that while “a lot dancers think they have [special] things that they bring, other people view how you dance differently.” That said, he does admit that perhaps his early training in jazz and contemporary dance has played to his advantage.

“I started ballet late so I can definitely say that I am not the most classically trained dancer in the Houston Ballet,” Kosakowski readily admits with a laugh. “But I can [also] definitely see that when other choreographers come in with contemporary works that I catch their eye because I am a little bit different to the rest. But then again, like I said, other people have different opinions about how I dance so… ‘ Another self-deprecating chuckle follows as he contemplates the thought.

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Remember how New York’s The Plaza had Eloise – the hotel’s most notorious, if elusive, resident? Well, allow me to introduce you to Brian Wonders, who could well be a descendent of one of The Plaza’s most eccentric guests. In fact, you might even think of Brian as Eloise’s globetrotting, hipster-in-training great nephew who, like his great aunt, creates his own fantasy world within the confines of the some of the most fabulous destinations around the globe.

The brainchild of Los Angeles- based artist Victor Robert, Brian Wonders is a modern-day “Alex in Wonderland” whose fantastically colorful world of shipwrecks, cabanas, pirates, diving towers and all manner of mischief is beautifully captured in a glossy, bold, eye-popping limited edition story book entitled The Brian Wonders Wordless Storybook.

Each copy  of this exceptional tome arrives signed, stamped, numbered and accompanied by a Magic Magnifying glass that allows the reader to follow Brian’s adventures through the double-gate maze that folds out in the center of the storybook revealing a whimsical journey filled with fantastical seascapes, shiny submarines, glittering swimming pools, birthday party princesses and sheer magic of all varieties.

Oddly however, despite the crisp images that fill its pages, the Brian Wonders story book was not purely born of wild imagination, but also of sheer happenstance. “I loved swimming as a kid but I had really poor eyesight, and since I couldn’t wear glasses in the pool everything was just a big blur,” explains Robert, whose 3D animations skills have also been on display in some of Dreamworks Pictures biggest hits. “Some of the swimming pools were super deep and swimming to the bottom was like entering a dark ocean, ” he continues in explanation of how the snazzy character of Brian came to be.  :And there was one pool that had large circular windows — underwater — half way up the side walls and I always felt I was peering into the belly of a submarine… that’s where Brian Wonders was born.”

On December 7, 2016 LivingWells will present a launch party with Victor Robert in honor of his the new line of  Brian Wonders products. With that date looming near, I sat down with Mr. Robert to dive into the story behind his passion project, his inspiration and his plans for Brian Wonders.

LW:     Who is Brian Wonders and what inspired him?

VR:     Brian Wonders is a little boy of about 7 years old. He is a swimmer. He has an incredible head of hair. He wants a big bright spotlight to be shined on him, but he is also very shy, so he spends a lot time living out glittering fantasies inside his head. You might find him off playacting by himself.  You might catch him spying on you.  He has a powerful imagination but in his case it is a double-edged sword — he will lose control of his imaginary characters and become captive inside his own fantasy.

I was a swimmer as a kid and swam most of my life from elementary school into high school. Swim practice after school every weekday for years upon years…  I think all that time I spent daydreaming underwater, and Brian Wonders came from there.  I was especially small and skinny for my age and felt smaller by comparison when we’d share the pool with the team of seniors. A lot of this shows up in my drawings.

LW:     In the universe of animated characters, what makes Brian Wonders unique?

VR:     [It’s] Hard to put into words what makes Brian Wonders so unique… much of what makes his character unique will reveal itself in later stories… what I can say is there’s a lot me in him, and I don’t see many characters like him represented in the world of mainstream storybooks.

I think that’s another thing that makes Brian Wonders unique is it was created outside of the mainstream world of storybooks. I’m printing these on my own in very limited quantities, and I had fun including additional flourishes — for example, the magic magnifying glass that comes included with each storybook, the large format of the storybook 12” square and the custom made slipcover, adding a double-gate fold out at the center of the book, the fact that there are no words in the storybook. I look at Brian Wonders as the storybook that I wish existed when I was a kid — or my fantasy of what a storybook should be.

LW:     Let’s talk about the book …tell me about the thought process that went into it and the construction of the book itself?

VR:     The drawings were sketched in pencil and then scanned.  In the computer I added basic colors to figure out the lighting and composition and to experiment with size relationships. This image gets printed out, mounted on wood and I begin the painting process. I used mainly acrylics and guache. This raw painting gets scanned back into the computer and adjusted for print.

There’s a wide variety of techniques in the book — some of the illustrations were put together by overlaying layers of 3D CGI elements and then working those layers into the painting. Some spreads are technically very traditional — graphite lines with washes of color.

The over-sized dimensions of our book required we bring our project to a shop equipped with a large scale digital printer. We found one in Minnesota and they were incredible to work with.

LW:     Who do you see as the ideal audience for the Brian Wonders story book?

VR:     Because of the limited nature of this First Edition, I think anyone looking to give a unique creative gift is the ideal audience. In addition, creative parents, artists and storytellers of every age. Teachers. Collectors of illustrated books. And if you were or if you know of a little Brian Wonders, this book is for them.

LR:      How was your love of animation and drawing born?

VR:     Definitely Disney’s Alice in Wonderland made some strange new connections in my brain the first time I saw it. I must’ve been in kindergarten or 1st grade…all us kids we would sit on the carpet in the music room…the teachers would roll out a rectangular tower entertainment system…this was the early 80s… with a giant television on top and a giant VCR hooked up to it… large dumb knobs and dials and buttons and little orange lights… and they popped in Alice in Wonderland and I was dazzled with the colorful palette and the darkness of it. It was a little scary for me [but] I related to Alice in a way that other boys didn’t [and] in a way I think I fell in love with her.

My love for drawing I think came from there. I remember drawing all over the inside covers of books and creating little flipbooks out of the corners of volumes of required reading.

LR:      What’s next for Brian Wonders?

VR:     Well there’s a lot that’s next. I’ve been working on Brian Wonders a while but I think it’s really just at the very start. His next storybook will be told through the perspective of Stella, the girl with blond swirls of hair in the story  and I’m excited to show her personality. As a 3D animator, I can’t resist the temptation to want to pull the characters into the computer and see them animated. I’m already working on 3D models of Brian and Luna. I need to see the characters animated, I think it’s really important for the world to see him ‘alive’, breathing and speaking and reacting so they ‘get’ who he is.

From a brand standpoint, the Brian Wonders world will begin releasing limited edition gifts including designer toys and a collection of designer home accessories featuring art from the storybooks.

LW:     Final question, do you have a favorite character outside of Brian?

VR:     Aside from Brian I love the character of Luna. Luna is Brian’s inflatable pool animal. She’s got red ears a big blue smile and is covered in colorful polka dots and Brian rides her like you’d ride mounted on a horse. Luna is magical but in the way the Cheshire Cat is magical — back to Alice in Wonderland.  There’s a bit of darkness behind her color… something mischievous… she craves risky adventure… she’s his alter ego.  She will whisper things in Brian’s ear, the same things he’s thinking. And once she’s convinced him, he will climb aboard and they will take off together like a speedboat.

And so the adventure begins.

To purchase The Brian Wonders Storybook or to find out more information about other Brian Wonders products, visit brianwonders.com.

Also join LivingWells next week at Please Do Not Enter in Downtown Los Angeles to celebrate the launch of the Brian Wonders collection of designer home accessories. For more details, click here or seee below.

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“I’m not cool. I’m just honest.”

— Oleta Adams

There are a handful of singers who stride into the limelight and captivate audiences not with a catchy hook, a dizzying flurry of choreography or a parade of outlandish interviews and costumes. They instead stand on unadorned stages, without artifice or ego, enrapturing music lovers with the sheer breadth of their talent alone. Oleta Adams is one such singer.

Since her solo career took flight in 1990 with the platinum-selling global hit “Get Here”, Adams has enjoyed a burning under, somewhat underappreciated, degree of fame, buttressed by diehard music fans around the world. Enjoyed is the operative term here with respect to Adams’ career because the singer’s star has largely continued to shine for more than three decades on her own terms, without ever resorting to any of the music industry’s stereotypical, sparkle-inducing shenanigans.

In concert, Adams and Adams alone commands the stage where her rich contralto acts like a beacon summoning up every imaginable emotion from the greatest joy to the most heartbreaking sadness, irrespective of the genre of music to which it is applied. She is, like Nina Simone before her, a master interpreter of music and one can’t help but wonder if like Simone, the true depth of her talent will have to wait decades to earn its due.

Tonight, the indomitable Ms. Adams will take the stage for the first of two shows at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas before continuing on with a string of tour dates in venues across the globe from New York and Chicago to Amsterdam and Belgrade. I sat down for a conversation with the powerhouse singer a few months back after a performance in Los Angeles. In her mellifluous speaking voice, which is, for the record, almost as entrancing as her singing voice, the petite diva talked frankly about remaining true to her gift, the travails of the music business, the challenge her own songs can sometimes present and singing her next chapter.

How do you account for such longevity in such a fickle business?

OA:     I think not doing trendy music is one of the things. I’m not willing to just keep working for someone else’s ideal. I actually have a purpose. I really have to have something to say or else I don’t want to do [the music].

[I think] the sound of my voice is also unique. It’s well oiled. It soothes people and makes them feel as if it is a healing balm. And I try to sing songs that have lasting meaning and songs that people can become invested in and discover for themselves. It’s more endearing that way.

It would be an understatement to say that you have a knack for what might be called the “anthemic”. While some artists create passing moments, you create lasting moments. Do you have a musical secret sauce so to speak?

OA:     Wow. It’s probably the way that I was mentored and trained. Because that was the most important thing – emotion. To give people something to think about and to latch onto. Something to build a little fire in their hearts, one way or another.

I wish you could have been standing beside me when I stepped off the stage to hear all the different stories. There are always stories. As an artist [and] as a composer my job is to identify with the audience and to say for them what they’re feeling – to articulate it – and that’s basically what I’m doing.

I’ve always said that when people are feeling bad, they don’t want to feel better right away. They want to hear someone say ‘I understand what you’re feeling’, and then they can get on with the healing. That’s what these songs do.

Speaking of healing, you’ve released eight albums but your first album, Circle of One, co-produced by Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears, was a musical landmark that spawned quite a bit of healing during and after the Gulf War in large part due to your global hit “Get Here”. However, I understand that behind-the-scenes your second album was more challenging for you than your first on all fronts. Why?

OA:     My second album was received more warmly by the true fans. It had the really deep stuff on it. So for the true diehard fans that was their album.

But when we were looking for producers [for that album] there were some who did not want to produce me because they didn’t like the music. Which is fine. But I had still had a hit in Europe with “Window of Hope”.  [Record labels] try to push songs on you and then you have to go “No…no”.  So some of the songs on that record were pushed on me…mostly the ones I didn’t write.

The first single from that album, “I Just Had to Hear Your Voice”, is a personal favorite of mine but a little birdie told me that you won’t sing that song live anymore. Is that true?

OA:     I can’t hit those notes anymore. [Bursts into laughter] I had to lower it. [Laughs].

I do [still] sing that song but I have to pick certain times when I do it. I don’t want to do it and then disappoint everybody. It’s a hard song to sing. I love it and it’s such a big showstopper but honestly it’s a big song. There are several [of my songs] that are just so wonderful that I can’t really do right anymore and it hurts my heart that I can’t sing them.

That is so honest! I don’t think I’ve ever heard a singer cop to anything of the like before. Usually the response to that question is full-on bravado and everyone says ‘I sound better today than ever’ – which is almost never true, by the way.

OA:     I know. That’s the sad part and mostly women have more problems than guys. Guys can sing longer. Peabo [Bryson] I sing with on his Christmas things and he sounds very much the same as he’s always sounded and it’s just wonderful. He even smoked for many years and still sounds the same!

And I never smoked! [Laughs] But at 62 I have earned not hitting those notes anymore. [Laughs]. I have sung a long time and I hit a lot of big notes for a long time. [Laughs]

Does that thought ever make you think of putting down your microphone and exiting stage left for good?

OA:     Part of you wants to get out [of the business] before it all goes downhill and another part says there’s still a richness there – there’s still a story to tell and it just becomes a new chapter. You think of people like Tony Bennett … he’s like 90 or something and he’s still singing…not the same way…but it’s one of those situations where when you see him, he doesn’t have to sing a note and we stand up and give him an ovation because we know what he can do. He doesn’t have to prove a thing.

I still love singing. I think it’s a good career and I’m still doing different stuff today. So even though I can’t sing the way I used to, I am discovering so many more things.

You have a huge following in the Netherlands. Why do you think the Dutch connect to your music in a bigger way than other audiences?

OA:     I think the Dutch love music.

They’re so full of music – all kinds of music – their own folk music as well as their own pop and rock. They believe in celebrating life and they believe that music is it. They love soul music. And when I say soul music, I don’t mean the rhythm and blues of today, I mean old soul music like 70’s and before! [Laughs] The more soulful you get the more they like it.

And they also love jazz. And thank God they’re trying to keep it going and keep it alive because …hmmm [thinking]…isn’t it something that a music that was developed here in America – jazz music – this is where it was born but…

[Interrupting] It’s having trouble breathing here in America…

OA:     It’s having trouble breathing here. [Laughs] It’s on life support. It’s on a respirator! [Laughs]

Well thank God you’re on the road and performing in venues of all sizes across America and Europe over the next several months. How would you describe what people can expect to see on stage when they come to your upcoming shows?

OA:     We want to get more and more intimate [so] I love the [current 4-piece] combination. The more people you put on stage, the less room you have to be creative on the spot and then everybody has to play a part. Here, we’re playing parts but we’re also breathing together and becoming one. It’s one body with many members and I love that.

We want to expand it and we want to record it, but I just have to stop being lazy. [Laughs]

Lazy is hardly a word anyone other than the singer herself might use to describe Oleta Adams these days. In addition to her current slate of gigs, Adams has a new album of inspirational songs tentatively titled, Place of Peace, in the works. And for the record, despite her modesty on the subject, her voice is not only in fine form, it is as hauntingly stirring as ever.

Follow Oleta Adams on the road on Facebook @TheOfficialOletaAdams.

The post The Singer’s Singer: On the Road with Oleta Adams appeared first on .

Mindy Kaling, the Emmy-nominated creator and star of The Mindy Project, has been nothing short of a revolution since hitting Hollywood. Not only has her insightful and unique brand of funny attracted legions of sympathetic fans, her starring role as Dr. Mindy Lahiri has re imagined the possibilities for female comedians of all stripes on the small screen.

And yet, for all these achievements, the quality that has most frequently made Kaling a hot topic of water cooler conversation is her size. Standing 5’4” and described by Vogue as a fluctuating size 10, Kaling has frequently been caught in the crosshairs of the current debate about size and shape in America because she neither fits the mold of traditional Hollywood starlet nor does she dress the part.

Rather than shy away from the subject of her frame, Kaling has embraced it with rip-roaring humor first in her New York Times bestselling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and now with head on aplomb in her most recent tome, Why Not Me?. An angsty, thought-provoking, intensely personal, impossible to put down read, Why Not Me? is Kaling at her unabashed best.

In her latest collection of essays, Kaling pokes fun at the glamorous world of Hollywood and her role in it, her ongoing battle with self-image which she approaches with self-deprecatory zeal rivaling that of the legendary Joan Rivers, and the difficulty of building real relationships in a town held together by glitter, Botox and array of sly beauty tricks.

In one of the book’s most memorable chapters, “How to Look Spectacular: A Starlet’s Confessions,” Kaling with rare honesty lays bare all the beauty secrets that help her achieve a magazine cover ready look. From hair color, undergarments and body make-up to hair extensions and spray tans, Kaling offers a hilarious exposé on the beauty regimens that necessarily happen behind the scenes to ensure that actresses like herself appear to be the goddesses we worship in magazines and on television. She strips away the artificial while reveling in it, all the while winking at the reader as if to say “it’s all make believe people and I’m in on the joke.”

That said, the great charm of Why Not Me? is Kaling’s casual conversational writing style. Reading the book is akin to reading a great gossipy email from a close girlfriend who just happens to have the inside track on all of Hollywood’s biggest secrets. Sure she’s a big star, but it is Kaling’s ability to write about her experience with stardom with the awe of an outsider that makes reading her books so appealing. She’s the best friend who made it, your friend from college who works on a hit show, that funny friend who you feel proud of every time you see her pop up on the red carpet and so much more. And you just can’t help but root for her.

A perfect pick me up or beach read, Why Not Me? is the perfect accessory for your Spring/Summer 2016 getaway.

To purchase Why Not Me? click here.

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“It is very important in the world we live in today that we as humans can just let go of what we’re doing sometimes and just enjoy ourselves and dance. I love to give people that experience.” — MORTEN

The Danes are coming! While the Swedes may have laid claim to a pretty significant parcel of the dance music landscape in recent years, Danish DJ MORTEN is almost single-handedly carving out a slice of the scene on behalf of his fellow countrymen in neighboring Denmark. Could this be the start of a new Danish dance music revolution?

Perhaps.

Who can say? Music is a fickle thing.

But revolution or not, there can be little doubt as to fact that MORTEN is in the midst of a very big moment that kicked off in earnest back in 2008 with a chart-topping, award-winning collaboration between the DJ and Danish pop duo Nik & Jay and has continued through the last several months capping off what can only be described as a very good year musically for the Dane. In addition to playing a slate of major gigs in some of the hottest venues around the world in 2015, one of the highlights of which was closing the popular Skanderborg Festival just this past August in his native Denmark before a crowd of 35,000, there was his glorious unofficial remix of Adele’s “Hello” that began setting dance floors across the globe ablaze just a few weeks back, racking up more than a million spins in its first three weeks of release despite being quite difficult to find given that it was unsanctioned.

Unlike so many other remixes of late which have woefully fallen so deep into the soulless ravine of homogenous dance beats and contrivances that they wind up completely and utterly detached from the original melody or vocal, MORTEN’s take on “Hello” is organic inasmuch as it leaves the signature vocal front and center and respects the intent of the song while simultaneously layering an infectious groove onto it that works for the dance floor. It is in fact the kind of remix that hearkens back to the era of what might be called the ‘superstar remix’ – that moment in music not so very long ago that heralded the rise of superstar djs who were savvy enough to craft remixes that were as good as or better than the originals. Remember those? Of course, I’m referring here to the mix masters behind mega remixes of hits in the late 90’s and early 00’s by the likes of that era’s ruling cabal of one-named divas – Whitney, Mariah and Cher. [Gold star to you if you called that one.]

Like those who have done with the music of other divas what he has done with Adele’s latest mega hit, perhaps the key to MORTEN’s take on “Hello” is that it reflects his deference to the raw talent of the diva about whom the whole of the music business is currently buzzing.

“I’m a great fan of Adele,” the DJ with the model good looks enthused during a call from Copenhagen, where he was taking a break from shooting a new campaign for the Danish brand Halo. “For me, Adele is one of the greatest singers we may have ever had. I love her so much. The track [“Hello”] came out on a Thursday or Friday and I heard it on Saturday. Then I woke up on Sunday…and played around with it. I called my manager that night and played it for him and he was like, ‘We have to do this!” We knew we had to be on it. I worked three days straight with another DJ in Denmark…I didn’t even sleep because I knew there were going to be other [remixes] coming out.”   MORTEN’s efforts not only paid off in the form of the near universal praise his remix received from his fellow DJs and fans alike but also in the rapturous reception his spin on the hit track has continued to receive during his live sets in clubs from New York to Vancouver and beyond in recent weeks.

Listen:

On the heels of that bit of unexpected, if welcome notoriety, comes a completely different and edgier collaboration with DJ Karma Fields called “Stickup” which, after years of delay, was finally released on the Monstercat label on November 30^th  and features vocals by actress and singer Juliette Lewis, another artist whose talents inspire enthusiastic praise from the rising star DJ.

“First of all, I think Juliette Lewis is so cool. She’s [expletive] amazing! I’ve always loved her. She’s so edgy!” MORTEN gushed.

“[‘Stickup’] is actually an old track. It’s a weird story,” he explained before launching into the tale of how the collaboration came to be. “I was so lucky to get in the old EMI studios with [Juliette] in LA three years ago and I had this house track that was kind of rocky so I played it for her and she loved it right away. She had all these ideas…and she was very excited and she was like ‘Let’s do this!’ [The recording] was really intense. She was screaming and pulling her hair. It was great. Right after I got out of the studio I knew the production that I had wasn’t suited to her vocal because her vocal was too intense…too strong…it didn’t fit the production. I needed something crazier. I met this guy in LA called Karma Fields. He does really crazy electronic stuff so I sat down with him and we finished up the track and I think it is a unique track and it really suits her vocal.”

“Stickup” – featuring Juliette Lewis

The result is a track that may not be to everyone’s taste, but is nonetheless proof of the breadth of MORTEN’S talent and his willingness to take risks in an increasingly derivative arena of the music business. All of which is in keeping with the music man’s thoughts about music in general and the anatomy of a great dance song. “I think music is a bit like fashion. It moves. It travels,” he explains with the quiet zeal of a shaman. “But for me throughout the years it has always been [about] something with a good groove. It’s got to be bouncy. I listened to a lot of hip hop when I was younger and now I work a lot with house music and I like to add these elements from hiphop where it feels like the head is bouncing and you put your hands up and it’s like you want to be moved by the music. And then there’s the feeling …if you have a vocal that really touches you that’s something different. If you can combine these two things…the elements that make you move and the words and the vocals or melody that gives you emotions then you can really create something unique. That’s what I look for…ways to touch people through music.”

Asked about his favorite temples around the world in which to ply his craft, he offered the following without skipping a beat, “I really enjoy playing in Miami. I love playing in New York. I love playing in Vegas and I love playing in LA. I always kind of play the same clubs in the U.S. I play Live in Miami, I play Marquee in New York and I play XS in Las Vegas. I think the major cities in the U.S. have really good nightlife and, compared to Europe where I’m from, the U.S. has that spark of interest in new house music that I really enjoy.”

“Recently I’ve been playing in South America,” said the DJ who now calls Los Angeles home. “I’m actually playing in Peru again in two weeks and the crowd down there is just completely crazy and that is really, really fun. And then of course Denmark. Most of my fans are here.  I played in here in Denmark this past Saturday and it was the first snowstorm of the year and 1,200 people still showed up for me so it’s always very special to play here. Ibiza is very special as well because it’s like the capitol of house music.”

Given the number of miles he logs on the road in a given year, I asked what items he never leaves home without. “I kind of have a fetish for skincare products and hair care products,” he responded quickly with the slightest chuckle. “I don’t leave without those because I’m not a big fan of the hotel products. I like to have my products. There are also so many good things to bring from LA like protein bars and healthy stuff like vitamins…I always have those things with me [as well]”.

Speaking of healthy stuff, my final question to the DJ of the moment was not about music but instead about tips for staying healthy while on the road, since he is notoriously fitness minded.

“For me it’s just part of a daily routine. I work out almost every day. I have to do it,” he replied summoning up that shaman-like zeal once again.  “I think it’s very important to get into a routine where you work out regularly. It’s not important how much you work out it’s just important that you get it done every day. There’s no excuse not to because you can even do it in your hotel room. I often do something called 500 or 600 where I do one hundred of each thing…a hundred sit-ups, a hundred push-ups, a hundred squats…and it may only be 20 or 30 minute workout but it’s important to get your body moving especially after a long flight.”

“I stand on the stage every week,” he added with a sense of benediction. “If I feel good in my body and my clothes feel good on my body, I have one less thing to worry about and I can worry more about the music and being present instead of worrying about whether you can see my belly or that I’m not healthy.”

And again…it’s all about the music with MORTEN. Just as it should be.

Find out more about MORTEN and his upcoming international tour dates at mortenofficial.com.

Read this article on the Huffington Post at: www.huffingtonpost.com/morten

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