Posts by John Duggleby:
Do Good, Get Stuff
I have what I call a “10% Solution”: I donate 10% of my earnings from musical performances and author programs to charity. I typically try some new causes each year; and while many seem extremely worthwhile, others seem to exert their greatest energy trying to get more money from me.
I recently ran across The Hunger Site Store in cyberspace. Run by an organization called The Greater Good, it is an online store that, at the very least, donates about two cups of food somewhere in the world it is badly needed for every dollar you spend. Better yet, most of the hundreds of items are custom-made by individual craftsmen or third-world small businesses, and fair traded. The site even runs sales and other specials, like sort of a munificent Macys. I couldn’t resist clicking up a sleigh full of global gifts ranging from Ghanian and Peruvian apparel to herbal goods produced by a battered women’s shelter in Colorado. You can’t beat capitalism for a cause; for your last-minute shopping needs, check out www.thehungersite.greatergood.com
This month also marked my fifth season of performing holiday concerts, mostly at senior venues. This year saw a record 14 holiday shows, beginning on December 6 and ending 21 days later with a final performance at my birthplace, Muscatine Iowa. They’ve become one of my favorite holiday traditions; and as I tell people at the end of each show, I wish you all a belated Happy Hannukah- a Joyous Kwanzaa– a Rockin’ Ramadan to come, and a very Merry Christmas!
My Main Squeeze
As you undoubtedly know if you’ve turned on your computer or TV (or less likely, picked up an actual newspaper), today is the first anniversary of the Newtown Massacre that killed 27 people (including the murderer’s mother), most of them elementary school kids. There is little I can say to elaborate on this monumental tragedy. Newtown […]
Pocket Rainbows
I walked into my home office on this sunny morning wishing I was greeting the day with my dog Otis at our nearby lake, not trudging to the computer to crank out a white paper. Something stopped me in my tracks: tattooed on the back of my hand was a luminous rainbow. It was then I saw […]
More Triangle!
This weekend I sat in with Piper Road, a legendary bluegrass/swing band I’ve joined occasionally for many years. These guys are so transcendent on strings that I stick to percussion, banging and scratching rhythms in the background to whatever they’re playing. So it was to the band’s great surprise– and nobody more than myself– that […]
At Last, a Stamp for Brother Ray
I have more than a passing interest in The Genius, a.k.a. Ray Charles. I wrote a book for young people called Uh Huh! The Story of Ray Charles (see books page) shortly after he died in 2004. Unfortunately his passing was overshadowed by that of Ronald Reagan only five days earlier. Reagan got a U.S. […]
The Winner and Still Champion– Uncle Sammie!
It’s downright embarrassing to have to live up to the achievements of your dog; but then again, Otis is no middling mutt. That’s why there’s a special place on my site (see top of page) that chronicles his amazing journey. Even though he’s mostly retired from Wonder Dog duty these days, Otis still wags the tails of his rescue group, […]
Made in America: Budweiser, No; Duggleby, Yes
In case you missed it, Budweiser staged a so-called “Made in America Festival” over Labor Day weekend headlined by Jay-Z and Beyoncé, with about a gazillion others. I’ve heard of very few beyond the headliners (call it an age thing), but my personal favorite band name was Diarrhea Planet– perhaps the spiritual heirs of one […]
School’s in Session!
Let’s say you’re the little town of Cottage Grove, Wisconsin. You have a beautiful but rapidly aging 1910 schoolhouse on a piece of prime real estate not far from the Interstate. Do you: A) Bulldoze it away for a strip mall like the one across the road? B) Hope someone might save and salvage it? Fortunately Cottage […]
Welcome Kellie!
I’d like to send out a shout to a new client, Kellie Radford. Kellie is a marketing manager for international commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, my largest corporate client for the past several years. We are working on some papers on improving real estate management aimed at energy industry executives. Welcome Kellie!
Clucking Good Time!
I just got back from shaking my tail feathers from Minnesota to Milwaukee for inaugural performances– in chicken costume– as “John Cluckleby” in my new “Boogie in the Barnyard” kids show. Each stop was “egg-static”: Mankato with its modern sandstone-sheathed building that loomed like a local quarry. Lake Crystal, where, in a building multi-tasked for […]