Posted by John on Feb 8, 2010 in
Me You may have missed the big news in the wake of Super Bowl hysteria and other distractions: ABBAWORLD is open for business. The 25-room touring extravaganza debuted in London (are they has-beens in Stockholm?), and reportedly features priceless ABBA artifacts and recreated scenes of their greatest musical triumphs. Move over, Graceland and Beatles Magical Mystery Tours, here comes the Dancing Queen. Mama mia!
I can understand enshrining Elvis and The Beatles, but ABBA? Okay, they sold 375 million records, but Anni-Frid, Bjorn, Benny and Agnetha hardly roll off peoples’ tongues like that other “Fab Four”, John, Paul, George and Ringo. Unlike Elvis, they’re not The King of annything, even in Sweden. And never have I heard a new band receive the appraisal, “Well, they’re not bad, but they’re no ABBA.”
If ABBA can do it, so can I; plus my hometown of McFarland, Wisconsin needs a new tourist attraction much more than London. Introducing (insert power chord): DUGGLEWORLD, a compendium of memorabilia from my storied– and music-ed– career, including:
- The nickel I received for my professional debut at age five at the Sunset Supper Club in Muscatine, Iowa, singing “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.” I still reprise that chestnut in my “Circle of Life” show, for not that much more money.
- My eighth grade version of “The Three Little Pigs,” written as a Shakespearean play, which prompted my teacher to observe that, “Someday you might be able to become a writer.” Folks still occasionally tell me that.
- The Hall of Battered Percussion, featuring the carnage of drumsticks and heads I shattered during teenage stints in neighborhood garage and school marching bands. My idol of the day, Keith Moon of the Who, was blowing up his entire drum kit, so I considered myself a petty criminal by comparison.
- A 1970s Chicago street map to help me find the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times from the University of Iowa. An anticipated bidding war at the papers for my talents never ensued; neither did anything else beyond a cursory dismissal from the receptionists.
- A Hall of Rejection containing all the form letters politely declining my book and magazine article ideas over the years. Better make that two halls.
– A “Learn to Play Guitar” guide, accompanied by an instrument, that I bought in my twenties because breaking drums in friends’ living rooms seemed increasingly anti-social. I now have four guitars, and am deciding which one to learn to play.
– A small ceramic mug on a string, looped around my neck one evening at the finale of a client’s sales meeting in Puerto Vallarta. I quickly learned that lifting the tiny tankard signaled the willing waitstaff to fill it with tequila. There was food and a band– I think– and the Eastern Regional Manager fell off a balcony, but not too far. Other memorable tales abounded, if only I could remember them.
Like all expectant exhibitions, DUGGLEWORLD relies on support from people like you. Fear not: I seek a job, not a handout. Help feed the passion by contacting me for a new writing project or musical engagement. Barring that, you may have the opportunity to purchase the aforementioned items on E-bay in the near future.
Posted by John on Jan 4, 2010 in
Calendar,
Music,
Programs It’s January, temps are hovering around zero, the snow is turning to cement– if you’re an event planner, time to think green! After all, it’s less than three months until St. Patrick’s Day. Time to shake off the winter doldrums and plan some mid-March madness. And I have just the solution: a Smilin’ St. Paddy’s Party featuring yours truly, who performs as Paddy O’Chair in a Celtic revue peppered with both familiar and lesser-known ballads and toe-tappers, as well as a golden pot of Irish jokes. As one of my songs notes, everbody’s Irish on St. Paddy’s Day, and a tuneful party is a fun way to ride out winter’s last blast and charge into spring.
My calendar is filling quicker than a leprechaun’s heartbeat, but I still have some good slots open. I hope my good luck will include a St. Paddy’s performance for your audience this year.
Posted by John on Nov 17, 2009 in
Business I’m happy to recently begin working with two new (for me) professionals from two longtime clients. Jim Jamrus was recently hired by BP North America to manage tank car leasing, maintenance and security. He takes the throttle on a very long track laid by Tom Gaines, who retires from the position at the end of November. Tom and I go back nine years, and his “work should be fun” attitude has been a real joy. Hatching out BP’s award-winning RailSafe program on a bar napkin is just one of many fond memories of one of my favorite clients. I wish Tom all the best, and hope we’ll continue to dip a kayak paddle and tip an Irish pub pint, now needing only to mix pleasure with pleasure!
Welcome also to Lisa Karbowski, a Pittsburgh marketing professional for international commercial real estate services leader Jones Lang LaSalle. Lisa recently assigned me a case study that marks my first project for the firm’s Pittsburgh office.
Posted by John on Oct 26, 2009 in
Calendar,
Music,
Programs If you’re an Activity Planner, before you know it, it will be time to dust off the ornaments and don the Santa suit; the end of the year is just over two months away. Are you ready with holiday party entertainment? If not, I still have some good dates available for my Holiday Sing-Along, an end-of-year celebration featuring many songs people know and can sing, plus a few surprises. I can make lyric sheets available for reproduction for participants. And since many of our most familiar holiday standards were popularized in the past 70 years, I challenge audiences to guess who first recorded them. The holidays hold deep meaning for many people, and my show is designed to evoke fond memories. Will I be able to entertain your audience this year? Write Santa at me@johnduggleby.com to bring the party to your venue.
Posted by John on Oct 6, 2009 in
Business The biggest group of my active clients are those from global real estate services provider Jones Lang LaSalle. That team grew by another member with my newest Marketing and Communications client from that firm, Kate Hardy. Thanks for your business, Kate, and I look forward to working with you, as with your colleagues, much more in the months ahead!
Posted by John on Sep 17, 2009 in
Me If you’re a tennis fan like me, you were probably heartened by the tremendous achievment of Belgian Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open this week. Clijsters, a former number-one ranked player, retired at her peak to become a mother, then came back this summer after more than two years of inactivity. The U.S. Open was only her third tournament since her return, and her win was the first Grand Slam victory by a mother since 1981, when Evonne Goolagong Cawley came out of retirement much the same way to win Wimbledon. Cawley’s joyous response to her successor: “Go moms!”
Closer to home, another mother is making a comeback: mine. Grace Duggleby recently celebrated her 80th birthday, and her wish for the past year has been to take a celebratory trip with my dad, sister and me, and our spouses. Mom’s wanderlust rivals, well, mine. It has carried her all over the world, but health issues grounded her since 2001. Good news: she’s fought back, and we’re leaving tomorrow on a New England/Canadian cruise. We’re all thrilled, and I’m proud that my mother, in her own way, has shown the same irrepressible determination that Clijsters did with a tennis racquet. Go Moms!
Posted by John on Aug 11, 2009 in
Business You probably won’t see it on You Tube anytime soon, but a new video I created for BP and adapted for Union Tank Car Company is up and running on Union’s web site, www.utlx.com. The subject, the proper documenting of information such as last contents when a tank car is sent to a repair shop. When cars carry hazardous-classified contents, the consequences of opening a car expecting one commodity and encountering another can, can be harmful to the environment and, in the worst cases, fatal to workers. Not that most of you will need this information, but for a sample of my recent video work click http://www.utlx.com/video_car_shop.html . Thanks to Bill Hansen at Union Tank Car for hanging our project out in cyberspace.
Posted by John on Jun 30, 2009 in
Business Much appreciation to my newest clients: Tim Schwister and 44,655 other people, the population of Glenview, Illinois. Tim is the Facilities Supervisor of this Chicago suburb, and I will be helping him draft a Strategic Plan for managing the comunity’s public properties in the years ahead. Another grateful grin goes to Tim Revord and Sandy Nordahl, my clients at Jones Lang LaSalle who referred me with a good word or two.
Beyond Chicagoland, military veterans around the U.S. remember Glenview for time they logged at its former Naval Air Station, one of the nation ’s largest in its heyday. About 10 years ago the 1,100-acre facility was reborn as The Glen, an elegant blend of housing, shopping, cultural areas and woodlands. Nature walkers frequently spot whitetail deer, but the redoubtable bear on Glenview’s village seal is, presumably, a nod to the past.
Posted by John on Jun 8, 2009 in
Business,
Me At this time 25 years ago I left a “real” job in Chicago– and a pretty good one at that– to try what many deemed “sefl uemployment.” I had a concept for a children’s story brimming with multi-media tentacles, and a nest egg of $10,000 in 1984 cash. I’d swim until I became the next Walt Disney or until the money ran out, one or the other.
Neither happened. The childrens book never found a publisher, though eight others eventually did. I passed much of that first summer in my mobile office at Wrigley Field, three blocks from my condo. It was the golden era of pre-lights Cubs baseball, when $2 on game day conferred status as a Bleacher Bum, a subculture 355 feet and a societal universe from the hoi polloi behind home plate in reserved boxes. Barking comments to a left fielder known as The Sarge (he actually shouted back) and catnapping in the afternoon sun mollified the recjection letters piling up back home, and my manuscript always read much better after a beer or two.
Just as the Cubs were bounced from the playoffs in October, I got a call from my former employer seeking writing help. Then another inquiry, and yet another. To my mild amazement, freelance work was working. Within a year I had replenished my savings, and the rest is my version of history. The road has taken all sorts of unexpected professional and personal turns, including a journey north to sink roots behind the Cheddar Curtain in Wisconsin, from where I scribble today. It’s been a ton of fun, and to those who have smoothed the path with an assignment, even an encouraging word, I’m eternally grateful.
And say, might you be interested in a book on a talking Victrola?
Posted by John on May 20, 2009 in
Calendar,
Music,
Programs As we approach the Memorial Day holiday, I have two performances in the coming week of my musical program, “Sentimental Journey.” Through song and radio clips, the show revisits the World War II era when men and women, pushed to the brink of economic ruin during the Great Depression, were slammed headlong into a fight for physical survival. Their willingness to sacrifice and work together to get the job done– no excuses– is a stark contrast to the hedonistic greed that led to our current economic stew. I like to tell people at senior centers, far out of the pop mainstream, that they’re becoming suddenly hip. As a rebellious Baby Boomer who largely discounted them in my youth, I’ve belatedly come to realize that my elders are the reason that my progeny and I can regard a land of plenty as the norm.
Following is a tribute I recently penned for them, which I’m introducing into my show. Imagine if you will, a Glenn Miller-type mild swing accompanying the lyrics, and stretch your cognition even further to picture me trying to nurse it like one of those buttery40s crooners. As they say, it’s the thought that counts.
I’m looking forward to traveling to Iowa this weekend to visit my favorite war-era bobby soxers, my parents. My mom was a jitterbug champion and my dad still plays Gene Krupa drum solos on his stomach; it doesn’t get any better than that. Have a safe and happy Memorial Day, and if you see anyone from the Greatest Generation, give them a big hug and heartfelt thanks– from you and me.
The Greatest Generation
By John Duggleby ©4/2009
You’re the Greatest Generation, you stepped up and saved our nation
From depression, from aggression and war
Jeepers Creepers, how’d you do it? Can’t believe you pulled us through it
Downing Zeros, launching heroes galore.
On the front or back at home, hovered over the radio
Up with the sun, you got it done, Rosie the Riveter and GI Joe
You’re the Greatest Generation, can’t hide my admiration,
With adulation, here’s an ovation for you
You’re the Greatest Generation, you learned to sacrifice and ration
Through each setback, you could get back in gear
No excuses, no complaining, when the dark clouds kept on raining
You were a model, not to wobble in fear
Honest work for honest pay, separating right from wrong,
Clung to joy and boy-oh-boy, did you ever leave us with some songs
You’re the Greatest Generation, please accept my demonstration
Of jubilation, a celebration of you
No calculation can total what we owe you