KUCI: Get the Funk Out

TV/Film Composer, musician, and producer Megan Cavallari joined me Monday at 9:30am pst!

So, you think you had a busy day? Consider what a typical working day might be like for composer Megan Cavallari. Start with the fact that Cavallari is one of only a very small handful of women who have established themselves as major creative artists in the professional music industry. But not even most of the men can point to a resume as diverse, eclectic, and impressive as this diminutive Jewish-Italian Philadelphia native: more than a 100 film scores as performer, arranger, conductor, or composer; the official composer of the L.A. Kings for ten seasons; 25 television shows; 16 stage musicals; and hundreds of songs, jingles, and assorted musical offerings have earned her respect, acclaim, multiple professional awards, and a reputation as someone who seemingly creates and produces music in every waking moment of a 37 hour day.
Then consider that while music is the dominant focus of Megan Cavallari’s professional life, it’s probably the easiest thing she does. For kicks, she might suit up and play left wing in a men’s hockey league, where she might find herself hurtling over the ice after being checked by a guy twice her weight. Or, she might be dealing with the very real challenges facing her eleven year-old daughter, surviving life with debilitating juvenile arthritis. She might be at temple, reaffirming a faith that is part and parcel of a family legacy with all the drama of an HBO miniseries. Or she might be talking to children in a hospital’s terminal ward, recording their thoughts in private and open conversations – just because she knows those moments of free thought and reflection are all the more valuable to those with little time left. In short, your busy day has nothing on Megan Cavallari’s.
Cavallari sees a strong personal and spiritual component to her projects, beginning with a lesson learned from one of her early mentors and champions. “Danny Elfman used to say about making music, ‘you put the antenna up and you hope God is listening.’” Cavallari had just completed her master’s degree at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts when she came to California with her award-winning musical project and caught the ear of Elfman. Her first high-profile gig was alongside Elfman as he composed and recorded the now-classic score from Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which lead to work on several subsequent Elfman scores. She likewise worked with legendary film scoring artists Jerry Goldsmith and Edward Shearmur, and artists such as Johnny Mathis. “Music takes people into a very different space and realm, and engaging with that means I’m always full of new ideas.” She also confesses to a history of being in the right place at the right time, and being around the right people. “I’m super lucky – and then I surround myself with great musicians, producers, directors, and music supervisors who keep asking me to do things!”
The gritty dedication to teamwork also explains her passion for ice hockey, reflected in the many pieces of memorabilia that populate her recording studio as well as her passion for the Kings, who are more than just one of her many employers. “Hockey reminds me of life,” she explains. “You fall down hard, you get up. It’s poetry at eighty miles an hour, and it all comes down to getting that puck past that huge man into that tiny cage. There’s no star – you have to work as a team, you have to have those guys behind you, you have to have your line. I have my line in my work – my musicians, my agents – and my line has to be great for everything to work.”
That the work ethic is the product of strong, passionate parents shouldn’t be surprising, but the story of Megan Cavallari’s family offers additional perspective. Her Jewish mother’s family, emigrated from Russia and engaged as union activists, were targeted by the FBI and blacklisted during the McCarthy era (an uncle was called before congressional committees), which lead them to hide their Jewishness. Meanwhile, her Italian-born father was raised Catholic, but had rejected the church when he saw how they treated Italian Jews during World War II. “My father was more into Judaism than my mother,” Cavallari says. “Passover was his favorite holiday.” Learning prayers from her grandmother and great aunt, Megan wasn’t able to fully explore and embrace her traditions until she relocated to California after college. Despite the complex issues of religious identity, Cavallari’s parents excelled and exemplifying the better values of both faith and social responsibility – they were teachers who specialized in working with disadvantaged kids. “My parents had a loving relationship for 43 years, and I grew up in a home that was completely supportive,” she explains, citing a brother and sister who are both business owners “and fighters.”
That fight is needed on a daily basis when it comes to raising daughter Shoshana, who is in chronic pain from juvenile arthritis. “She’s suffering, but she has such a great attitude,” Cavallari observes, proud that her daughter will attend the prestigious Milken Community School next year. “She’s really my role model – kids tend to look at the bright side of things, so I learn a lot from them.” That’s one of the impulses that lead to Cavallari beginning the Talk Foundation Project. The idea is simple: with some simple digital recording technology, she visits with children in terminal health situations and simply allows them to talk. Currently engaging with Kaiser Permanente with specialists who work in childhood oncology, the recordings are simply private mementos of the subject’s life at that moment. “I say a prayer before I go into the room, I remind myself that this is for the good,” she says of the 20- to 30-minute conversations. “Some of these kids are happy, some are angry, some are going to rant or scream – but whatever they need to do, they do it.”
The constant demands for writing and producing music keep Cavallari focused, despite the many obstacles that she has faced. “Less than half-a-percent of composers are women,” she says. She recalls a particularly humiliating moment early in her career: an agent had submitted her as “M. Cavallari,” and she was hired based on her demo. But upon entering a production meeting, she was told that “casting was upstairs.” After explaining who she was, she was terminated because someone on the production insisted that only a man could compose the score for an action film. That’s lead to one of Cavallari’s bucket-list projects: “Someday, I want to do a ‘Mission: Impossible’ score with an all-female orchestra.” (Her other bucket-list gig would be working with fellow vegan Moby.)
Until then, Cavallari is hard at work on a new animated musical film project called “Jacob Marley” with director Russ Francis, with several other high-profile film gigs in development. She’s also begun a relationship with Grammy-nominated pop producer Eric Robinson, and is working with producer/composer Jonathon McHugh on a new opera about WWII hero Irena Sandler (who rescued 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto), which will debut with the Angel City Chorus. All projects to fill an ordinary day in the life of a not-so-ordinary composer.

http://megancavallari.com/

Known for his signature series on the TODAY Show, Bob Dotson has received more than a hundred honors, including eight national Emmys and a record six ...

Bob Dotson’s stories reflect his rare approach to the news. While most reporters focus on life’s flat tires, he looks for something far more difficult to find – what keeps the other tires rolling. Dotson works the neglected streets of our cities, the small towns and dirt roads, searching for people who are practically invisible, the ones who change our lives but don’t take time to tweet and tell us about it. He has crisscrossed this country, four million miles, practically non-stop, searching for names we don’t know, but should, people with thoughtful solutions to problems we all face. Wisdom doesn’t always wear a suit.
Dotson’s signature series on the TODAY Show has received more than a hundred honors, including eight national Emmys and a record six Edward R. Murrow Awards for “Best Network News Writing” from the Radio Television Digital News Association. The Society of Professional Journalists cited Dotson for his work in New Media. Some of his online columns and story videos trend worldwide. His program, El Capitan's Courageous Climbers, was the winner of seven International Film and Video Festivals and was awarded documentary's highest honor, the CINE Grand Prize.
His work has also won Grand Prizes from DuPont-Columbia, the National Press Photographers Association, the Robert F. Kennedy awards and this spring he joined Charles Kuralt and Walter Cronkite as the latest recipient of the William Allen White Foundation National Citation for journalistic excellence.
Dotson’s stories have appeared on all of NBC News programs over the years. He also produced and wrote “Bob Dotson's America,” a series of programs on the Travel Channel. His third book, American Story, a Lifetime Search for Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things, (Penguin/Random House) became a New York Times Best Seller. His new how-to "Make it Memorable," book became the Number One Best Seller on Amazon's Hot New releases list, a week before it was published on October 15th. That same month, Dotson won the 2015 Edward R. Murrow award for this story: http://www.today.com/news/first-blind-man-kayak-grand-canyon-i-couldnt-quit-2D79657900#news/first-blind-man-kayak-grand-canyon-i-couldnt-quit-2D79657
BOB DOTSON BY THE NUMBERS: 40 years at NBC News
25 years on Today
4 million miles searching for American Stories CONTACT:
Bob Dotson American Story
Bob.Dotson@gmail.com
NEW Book: Make it Memorable http://www.amazon.com/Make-It-Memorable-Writing-Packaging/dp/1442256117

PARCHED, Written and Directed by Leena Yadav, and featured at the Los Angeles Film Festival, opens Theatrically June 17th. Leena will be featured on K...

Opening Theatrically on June 17th: Los Angeles, Laemmle Music Hall
Wolfe Video Presents
PARCHED
Written and Directed by Leena Yadav
116 min * India * 2015 * Drama * Hindi & English
WATCH THE TRAILER: Trailer: https://vimeo.com/162697988
'Should resonate with audiences worldwide.' - VARIETY
'The lead actresses deliver a trio of clearly committed performances.' - THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
Indian drama PARCHED, from writer/director Leena Yadav (one of the leading female directors in India), will open theatrically on Friday, June 17th in Los Angeles (Laemmle Music Hall), New York (AMC Empire 25), and the Bay Area (Cine Grand in Fremont and Camera 12 in San Jose).
This award-winning film is an evocative, vibrant drama of a three rural Indian women who begin to question the ancient traditions that hold them in servitude. One fateful night, the women come together and take a bold step that will change the trajectory of their lives forever.
In a remote desert community of North West India -widowed Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee, acclaimed for her starring role in Siddharth), her vivacious best friend Lajjo (Radhika Apte), and the erotic dancer Bijli (Surveen Chawla) - unapologetically talk about men, sex and life as they struggle under the oppressive rules of their traditional village ways. But when Rani is tasked to find a teenage bride for her entitled fifteen-year-old son, they begin to question this status quo that favors men, sends child brides to abusive husbands, and ostracizes women for being educated and opinionated.
With a bold visual confidence, filmmaker Yadav combines the stark realism of hostile desert landscapes with a Bollywood palette, vibrant tones that celebrate the unleashing of the women's repressed sensuality and dreams. Beautifully shot by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter (Titanic), PARCHED elevates these women's heartfelt stories, transforming their struggles into a stirring portrayal of liberation.
Said writer/director Leena Yadav, "I was raised to judge and treat people as human beings above and beyond their gender, religion or caste. This story is my reaction to a misogynistic society that treats women as objects of sex, where their greatest role is to serve men. Giving my women characters a voice that observes, absorbs and reacts was what drove me to write this drama about ordinary women who are driven to extraordinary ends."
Written, Directed and Produced by: Leena Yadav
Cinematographer: Russell Carpenter (Titanic)
Starring: Lehar Khan, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Surveen Chawla, Radhika Apte
Distributed by: Wolfe Releasing
PARCHED opens theatrically via Wolfe Releasing on June 17th in Los Angeles (Laemmle Music Hall), New York (AMC Empire 25) and the Bay Area (Cine Grand in Fremont and Camera 12 in San Jose). The film will also be released via Wolfe Video on August 9th on DVD / VOD, across all digital platforms including iTunes, Vimeo On Demand, and WolfeOnDemand.com, and will also be available same date on DVD via Wolfe Video and many major retailers.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Born in Mhow, India, Leena Yadav is one of a vanguard of successful contemporary female directors working in India. She began her career as a successful editor on commercials and an assistant director for television, and then went on to direct for than 300 hours of television, including hit fiction shows and India's first reality TV show. She made her directorial debut with Shabd (2005), wich she wrote, edited and directed - and which bravely explores the psychology of love, marriage, creativity and freedom. Then then write and directed Teen Patti (2010), starring two legends of cinema - Amitabh Bachchan and Academy Award Winner, Sir Ben Kingsley. Parched (2015), her third feature film, world premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and has garnered awards and critical acclaim in numerous festivals worldwide. It was deeply inspired by real life villagers she met and their resilient spirits.
ABOUT WOLFE VIDEO:
Founded in 1985 and now celebrating 30 years as the largest exclusive distributor of lesbian, gay, bi and transgender (LGBT) films, Wolfe's release slate includes some of the most popular LGBT films of 2015, including the Swiss Oscar and Golden Globes submission The Circle; the gorgeous lesbian drama by renowned Venezuelan director Fina Torres, Liz in September; and the epic international production by Finland's Mika Kaurasmäki, The Girl King. In 2016, Wolfe's releases will include the Thai Oscar submission How To Win at Checkers (Every Time); Henry Gamble's Birthday Party; Portrait of a Serial Monogamist, and Naz & Maalik. Wolfe's library of beloved modern classics includes such acclaimed hits as Cloudburst, Undertow, Desert Hearts and Big Eden. Wolfe's complete motion picture library can be found at WolfeVideo.com as well as at national retailers such as Netflix, Amazon and VOD destinations such as Comcast, Time Warner, Hulu, iTunes and WolfeOnDemand.com.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Matt Johnstone Publicity
New York / Los Angeles
Matt Johnstone
Ph: 323.938.7880
Email: mattjohnstone-pr@sbcglobal.net
Rico Helmecke
Matt Johnstone Publicity
Ph: 424.324.4198
Email: rico.mjpublicity@gmail.com

Deborah Riley Draper, a marketing guru and award-winning filmmaker, joined me Monday 9:30am pst to talk about her film Olympic Pride American Prejudic...

OLYMPIC PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE
A documentary film directed by Deborah Riley Draper
Narrated by Blair Underwood
Executive produced by: Dr. Amy Tiemann, Michael A. Draper, Blair Underwood
World Premiere | 2016 LA Film Festival | Documentary Competition
SCREENING 2
MON June 6, 2016
4:06pm
@ Arclight Culver City
9500 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Get tickets now! http://tinyurl.com/z9lcvpf
VIEW TRAILER:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Icc35DJPM
ABOUT THE FILM:
OLYMPIC PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE, directed by Atlanta filmmaker Deborah Riley Draper (Variety’s “10 Documakers To Watch”) and narrated by Blair Underwood is a feature length documentary that explores the trials and triumphs of 18 African American Olympians in 1936. Set against the strained and turbulent atmosphere of a racially divided America, which was torn between boycotting Hitler’s Olympics or participating in the Third Reich’s grandest affair, OLYMPIC PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE follows 16 men and two women before, during and after their heroic turn at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. They represented a country that considered them second class citizens and competed in a country that rolled out the red carpet in spite of an undercurrent of Aryan superiority and anti-Semitism. They carried the weight of a race on their shoulders and did the unexpected with grace and dignity.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
http://www.1936olympicsmovie.com/
FB: facebook.com/1936OlympicsMovie
TWITTER: @Olympics36
IG: @1936OlympicsMovie
RELATED HIGHLIGHTS:
Variety named Director Deborah Riley Draper as one of the ‘10 documakers to watch’. http://variety.com/gallery/10-documakers-to-watch/#!3/deborah-riley-draper/
This is an Olympic year! XXXI Olympiad (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) will kick off in August 2016.
The film captures profound archival footage, gathered in the US and in Europe.
Deborah Riley Draper and special guests are expected to attend the LA Film Festival.
ABOUT DEBORAH RILEY DRAPER
Deborah Riley Draper is a marketing guru and award-winning filmmaker. Her debut film, Versailles ’73: American Runway Revolution, was heralded by New York Times and Los Angeles Times film critics. The film garnered film festival selections at St. Louis International Film Festival, Denver DocNights, Elle Croatia Fashion Film Festival, Johns Hopkins Film Festival, New York Winter Film Fest, L’Oreal Australian Fashion Film Festival and won CNN Outstanding Documentary at Martha’s Vineyards African American Film Festival and Best Documentary at the African American Film Critics Association Awards. The film also appeared by invitation at New York Fashion Week, Toronto Fashion Week, Saudi Design Week and Holon Fashion Week in Israel. The film is distributed by Cinetic/Filmbuff and enjoyed a successful premiere on Viacom’s Logo TV channel in September 2015. Director/Producer Tate Taylor (The Help, Get on Up and upcoming The Girl on The Train) optioned Versailles ’73 and expects production to start in late 2016; Draper will serve as a story consultant and executive producer.
Draper served as associate producer for Echo at 11 Oak Drive. As an advertising agency executive Deborah has worked on blue-chip client accounts including Coca-Cola Classic, ExxonMobil, HP, AT&T, FedEx, and Georgia Lottery, earning two regional Emmys, a Gold Effie and several Addy Awards. Draper is a member of Film Independent and Film Fatales and resides in Atlanta.

Jason Wachob, Founder and CEO of Mind Body Green joined me Monday June 6th at 9am pst!

JASON WACHOB is the Founder and CEO of mindbodygreen, the leading independent media platform dedicated to wellness with 12 million monthly unique visitors and the author of WELLTH: How I Learned to Build a Life, Not a Resume. He has been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Goop, and Vogue. Jason has a BA in history from Columbia University, where he played varsity basketball for four years. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, and loves German Shepherds, Chuck Taylors, and guacamole. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @JasonWachob.

Ben Collins, Championship Winning Le Mans Racecar Driver, Bestselling Author, TV Presenter, World Record Breaker and Hollywood Stunt Driver, Monday Ma...

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Michelle Gable is the author of the national and international bestseller A Paris Apartment. She works in finance, writes in fiction, and is also a sports-obsessed maniac (Go Chargers! Go Aztecs!), Cardiff-by-the-Sea resident, barre class fiend, tennis player, and card-carrying member of the Chickasaw Nation. Authorial aspirations in mind, she attended The College of William & Mary (Tribe Pride!) and majored in...accounting. To learn more, visit www.michellegable.com.

Diane Morgan, an award-winning cookbook author, freelance food writer, culinary instructor, and restaurant consultant, joins me Monday at 9:30am!

Salmon is the third-most consumed seafood in North America, not only for its exceptional flavor and versatility, but for its undeniable health benefits. Rich in Omega-3s, it's a rich protein source for those looking to eat healthier, consume less meat, or transitioning to a paleo or pescatarian diet.
In Salmon, acclaimed author Diane Morgan has crafted a go-to reference for home cooks who want to add more creative preparations of salmon to their repertoire. The book provides the basics as well as tips including Wild versus Farmed Salmon, Know Your Species, Salmon and Health, and a Salmon Preparation Primer.
Then it is on to 45 recipes that showcase the best ways to prepare this luscious, accessible fish. The recipes span five categories:
Raw and Cured including Salmon Tartare with Fresh Herbs and Cucumber Ribbons
On the Stovetop including Crisp Rice-Coated Salmon with a Citrus Sriracha Sauce
In the Oven including Slow-Cooked Salmon with Spring Vegetables
On the Grill including Salmon Grilled on a Bed of Herbs
Second Helpings including Salmon Risotto with a Parsley and Orange Gremolata
Informative and full of recipes that will work for both beginners and those looking for new ideas for a favorite fish, Salmon is off the hook.
Diane Morgan is an award-winning cookbook author, freelance food writer, culinary instructor, and restaurant consultant. She is the author of over a dozen cookbooks, including the James Beard and IACP winning Roots. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Leigh Beisch is a San Francisco-based food photographer.

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