The Flywheel
Archive issue

NEXT MEETING: August 16, 2013

Kami Sherpa and the Adventures of Altitude

Kami Sherpa has climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest 6 times, Mt. Kilimanjaro 3 times, and has scaled many other mountains. He has worked as a leader or guide on trekking and mountaineering expeditions, and as a news reporter and cameraman for Nepal Television. Kami will share with us the excitement and adventure of his high-altitude passion.

MEETING OF August 9, 2011

Welcome

Lovely Liliane, our esteemed leader, was back at podium today.  Lesa Macintosh led us the Pledge of Allegiance and Herb Cole offered the invocation.  Liliane also publicly thanked Alan Blavins for service above the call of duty for stepping in to write the Flywheel notes when he realized that the assigned scribe, Mark H. was not scribing.

Visiting Rotarians and Rotarians with Guests

• Jack Freethy was visiting us from the El Cerrito Club to encourage us to conduct more successful membership drives like the one this week at the Richmond Country Club.
• Joan Davis brought her Marina Bay Saluté’s friend, Patty, who owns a document forensics company in Walnut Creek.  Patty is planning a lunch presentation for us about how to successfully forge important documents – NOT!
• Liliane’s guest was our speaker, Melanie O’Reilly and her friend John Kelly.

Sunshine Report

The consummate British gentleman, Alan Blavins was substituting at the check in desk today for the always ungentlemanly, very funny and lovable Sid Chauvin, who was having his knee operated on.  BTW, Alan Blavins was spotted, by your editor, driving the very sexy black Audi sports car that was in the parking lot today—they don’t call it a chick magnet for nothing–Alan’s the man!

Announcements

• Next Friday (August 16^th), Nick will present the results of the two surveys that club members took last month: one for the scribes, one for the membership as a whole. Very interesting data. This is the first of a 2-part presentation that will result in some changes to the Flywheel and how it’s produced.
• Liliane asked for a driver to deliver food to “Brighter Beginnings” program. See Liliane.
• Josh Surowitz, congratulated the club on a very successful joint meeting with the Richmond Chamber of Commerce at the Richmond Country Club last Thursday August 8th, from 5-7.
• Alan Baer let us know that we going to have another poker night and the buy in is $50. The date is this Friday, August 15th.
• The Rotary A’s game will be Saturday, August 31st. We are going to meet at 3:30 in Lot A for a little tailgating party then off to the game at 6:00.  Tickets are $30 each.  See Alan Baer.
• Tom Butt and Jovanka Beckles, were on Fox News this last Saturday debating the merits of Richmond’s “Ban the Box” ordinance.   You can see the clip here, but here’s a disclaimer: the two of them had to be in San Francisco at 3 A.M. to record the segment. Can you tell?

Recognitions

Happy and Sad Dollars

• Jan Brown’s neighbor, Jean Moore, to whom she was recently related through their children’s marriage, passed away last week. Sad dollars from Jan.
• Dave Brown’s father in law, anxious for a ride in a small exciting aircraft is flying up commercially for a ride back down with David.  Davis donated happy $.
• Herb had a happy $20 and a sad $20.  He is happy that grandchildren have gone home and sad that his grandchildren have gone home.

Norm’s Nonsense

A woman went on vacation with her husband to a fishing resort. While he was taking a nap, she took the boat out so she could sunbathe. She anchored in the bay, and along came the sheriff in his boat and said, “Ma’am, there’s no fishing here. I’m going to have to take you in.”
She said, “But officer, I’m not fishing.”
“But you have all the equipment, Ma’am. I’ll have to take you in.”
At which point she said, “If you do that, I will charge you with rape.”
“But I didn’t even touch you,” said the Sheriff.
“Yes, that’s true. But you have all the equipment.”

PROGRAM

Melanie O’Reilly, Celtic & Gaelic Jazz

Melanie O’Reilly, an internationally recognized Irish jazz teacher, singer, and composer explained that this style of music is unique in that it is sung without musical accompaniment. This confident and entertaining women with a recognizable Irish accent treated us to an example of her art. Unaccompanied, she sang an Irish lament in Gaelic. The house was blown away, evidenced by the vigorous applause.

Melanie explained that laments were traditionally sung by women grieving the departure of their husbands, who immigrated to the New World alone.

Melanie’s style of music is a blend of Jazz and traditional Irish music. The themes of the her songs span the range of emotion, from sad laments to bubbling celebrations of life. These songs also reflect significant episodes of Irish culture.

Melanie’s personal history merits recounting. Her mother was an actress and her father a goldsmith – both pursuits where a deep appreciation of the arts is essential. Melanie was educated as a registered nurse at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh Scotland. Upon completing her rigorous training she visited a psychiatric hospital. Moved by what she found there, she starting singing quietly an Irish lament. The patients could hear the music and gathered around her until the room was full.

This experience convinced her that her music is extremeley powerful. It brings people together, and breaks down otherwise impenetrable boundaries. She decided from then on that she could do more good for the world with her music than being a nurse.

Once again the power of music was demonstrated to her, when she was asked to sing at the King Arthur Pub in Belfast during the violent period in Northern Ireland know as the “Troubles”. After the performance, she was told that the pub had been bombed a month earlier. Both Catholics and Protestants, hungry for a break in the fighting, attended her performance. She credits her appearance for helping the warring factions come to a peace settlement shortly thereafter.

Melanie recently performed at the new “Jim Young-financed” Freight and Salvage theatre across from Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Jazz School, in Berkeley. Her albums are available on iTunes. Search for “Melanie O’Reilly”.

Mark Howe, Rotating Scribe