Thank You New Orleans

The big easy. People are laid back. Things move more slowly. No concern about time. Relax. Lay back. My two day seminar there was sold out and the attendees were really wonderful people and talents. I made new friends. Thank you New Orleans. It was somewhat difficult for me to adjust to the New Orleans tempo but I did it. The food was marvelous. The last day there, in a hard tropical rain, we stumbled into a shack, a little cafe, only to discover the food was fantastic. Soft shelled crab, oysters, shrimp, gorgeous fish, absolutely delicious. I ate standing up, watching the rain outside, eating on a paper plate the best meal I ever had in this great city.

One day, the students went to lunch together and arrived back at the seminar 45 minutes late. Lunch lasted one hour and 45 minutes. Wow. Well, the students missed one entire segment of the day I had planned for them. The city tempo, it seems, invades everyone's body in New Orleans. Yes, I was upset. The next day, everyone returned from lunch on time.

Eating dinner at the famous Antoines was fantastic too. Fantastic prices as well, but we expected that. After dinner, we were taken on a special tour of the entire building, even the secret passage used during the civil war! Photos all over the walls of famous people dating back to the 1800s. And then, we met the grandaughter of the Antoine's founder! She was most gracious. She signed menus for us. We'll frame them in our kitchen. I have a menu from antoines when oysters were $2.40 PER DOZEN. It's framed in our kitchen.

As I write this, it is the Fourth of July. BarBQ awaits. Happy Holiday!

Summer memories

The smells of summer remind me of many things: Quiet summer afternoons with my Aunt Frances walking quiet streets in Joplin MO, my grandmother's front porch in Kansas City, and swinging in the porch swing in the dark until the adults made me stop ("Stop that! The noise let's people know we're here on the porch. If we're quiet, we can watch the neighbors on our street without their knowing!" Without internet and with only about three TV channels that stopped broadcasting about ten p.m., the front porch brigade sat there nightly as entertainment (and it was!). I slept with the big window open, listening to night sounds and sometimes raising up in bed to peer down at the street below in the wee hours of the morning. Once in a while, I'd see a couple kiss, returning from a date. Sometimes I heard arguments in the night. What fun. And always, the moon above and the sounds of insects. I love Kansas City. I always will.

Summer is the Time For Growing

I love summer seminars. I love summer book reading. I love summer just sitting around and thinking and then, wandering out into our back garden admiring the lovely flowers and letting the warm breezes waft over me. And the word "waft" is a summertime word and I love that word the most! Here is a photo of our back garden this summer. Wonderful.

Goodbye Sweet Dennis Hopper

I have been in love with Dennis Hopper for forty or more years. From afar. My husband has known this forever. Easy Rider was the start but Apocalypse Now was the summit, the climax. And when Dennis said, with cameras around his neck, "How am I going to outer space? I can't go on a fraction! Like, what am I gonna do? I can't go to outer space on like, 3/4 or 2/8 or..." And in the same flick he said, "He says profound things like (referring to Brando's character...) the middle word in life, man, is 'if.'" Can you dig it, as they used to say in the 1960s, my hippie days?

Dennis was forever my hippie, my dangerous on-the-edge hippie and I loved him. Enjoy your new journey, Dennis. You were wiser than all of us. You died as you lived, happy and peaceful.

Bettye Zoller
May 31, 2010

Italy: Vacation Tales From Europe

Rome, Venice, and Switzerland, two long train rides, gorgeous scenery, amazing food, antiquities, moving moments in churches, museums, and so much more. A wealth of sights and sounds during our three and one-half weeks in April. Was it wonderful? Good and bad...yes, both.

First, Rome is work. Rome is hill climbing and walking for miles, hours, with nowhere to sit and rest. Rome seems to want to keep us on our feet. The occasional small park with three benches and people fighting to sit on them was a welcome relief. Bridges with hundreds of tiny steps to climb and no other way to get to the other side along with waiting for buses and taxis, incessant noise and fumes from millions of motorcycles, made Rome a chore, not a pleasure. The prices for everything were so high plus the unfavorable comparison of Euro to US Dollar made the costs astronomical. At one shop, two scoops of ice cream were the equivalent of sixteen US dollars. We walked out. Everything requires a taxi ride and the money just flew out of our wallets with every excursion outside our hotel, which, was also expensive!

We couldn't see the Sistine Chapel. It would be a six day wait to buy a ticket to get in. Never mind. We saw many other comparable sights and gorgeous antiquities. The Vatican was amazing. So big. So many buildings. St. Peter's Square was ruined by hawking vendors who chased us at times selling cheap toys and junk. Rome should try to keep the sites cleaner too. Public restrooms cost money to use and are filthy. You have to be taught how to use them and what to pay and where to insert the coins or buy the tickets. Don't wait till the last minute to find a restroom.

On to Venice: Noisy, crowded, pushing and shoving, vendors and booths. We quickly learned to leave the Grand Canal area and go inward, into the city where people live and hang their washing out. We ate at neighborhood restaurants. Delicious foods. Little cafes with house wines. We also saw the tourist shops, Gucci et. al. but passed by in favor of quaint antique shops. I bought some china to bring home. I can't say I would recommend Venice to you. It really was not worth the enormous prices.

The two train rides North through Italy and on through Switzerland to Zurich where we stayed in a lovely hotel for five days was glorious. All in all, it was a terrific trip. Next time, we will not endure the Euro and it being about 60 cents compared to the dollar. We'll go where we use francs or better, American dollars. And we've also decided we're going to keep our money and ourselves at home next year in the good old USA.

Oh please don't think Europe isn't wonderful or I'm ungrateful. I love every European journey. This is our fourth. Now, we're ready to see other parts of our wonderful earth. Perhaps a journey to Australia or Alaska or the Hawaiian Islands. Perhaps the California Wine Country. There are so many wonderful places to see. We're going to try to see and do as much as we can.

A Memorial Day Tribute to My Teachers

Do you ever remember and give thanks to your teachers and those who helped you along the way? If you can do so with your personal phonecall or email, do it now! If the person is deceased, perhaps you can write a tribute in your blog or mention names on your website in a box. Put a framed tribute on the wall in your studio listing favorite coaches and teachers. You'll think of something. do it.

On this Memorial Day weekend, I'm giving thanks to my teachers and mentors, the people who helped me along the path to my life and my career as a singer, actor, voice over talent, audio engineer, and audio producer. I also am experienced in creating jingles and worked as a lyricist and songwriter for a time, as well as a copywriter and writer (a skill I use daily). So here goes:

Josephine Borserine, my childhood drama coach in Kansas City, MO
Stanley Deacon, my singing coach for fourteen years in Kansas City, MO and at the University of Missouri at Kansas City as an undergraduate and graduate working on my first master's degree
Dr. Leroy Pogemiller at the University of Missouri at Kansas City who taught me music sight reading, opening the door to my later career as a studio jingle singer and as a performer in musicals and cabarets. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to say "thank you" to Dr. Pogemiller in person when I presented a convocation at UMKC as a returning alumnae, honored as, "The Graduate With the Most Unusual Career." That was such a wonderful reunion with friends and family in Kansas City two years ago.
My wonderful mother, a professional pianist and composer, who started me in show business at age 4, Hazel Cline Volkart. She passed away but remains always in my heart.
Verna Brackinreed, piano teacher, who gave me my skills as a pianist. Thank you.
Dr. Leonore McCroskey, University of North Texas, who, twenty years later, refreshed my keyboard skills and taught me the fine art of the harpsichord.
Tom Merriman, founder of Dallas' TM Communiations, now deceased, my employer and mentor. I was Commercial Creative Director of TM for six years and learned my producer skills there. I also was Tom's lyricist and one of his favorite singers. Thanks Tom!
Phil Kelly, a wonderful producer, composer, and the person who gave me my start in the Dallas recording studios over thirty years ago now.
Ronnie Tutt, the person who helped me begin my career in the Dallas studios as a jingle singer. He later became Elvis Presley's drummer and you can view him in the Las Vegas videos of Elvis concerts still being played on TV. Hope you read this tribute, Ronnie.
Larry Mehoberac, who later became Elvis' pianist. Thank you for helping me begin my studio career.
Hugh Lampman, legendary voice over talent and teacher. I attended his sixteen week course when first beginning in voice overs. Later, we were business partners and taught together with workshops all over the U.S. Hugh passed away in 2002.
Dave Jackson, Jackson Artists, who booked me and my jazz group wonderfully well when I was on the road as a cabaret performer for seven years.
Don LaFontaine. I was honored to teach on the same bill with Don more than once in LA and we miss him.
Skip Frazee, legendary audio engineer, who taught me so much as I sat beside him watching as I produced sessions over the years.
Rik Hess, voice over performer and one of my assistants, for being my friend. Rik is my former student.
There are so many others I need to thank including the people at MGM Studios in Hollywood who trained me when I was a child actor there starting at age five. Thank you all.

It feels good to say "thank you." Try it. You'll like it.

Bettye Zoller
May 2010

What Voice Over Talents Talk About Most

Here are the topics that voice performers (voice over talents) discuss the most. The answers never are (or will be) definitive. The verdict's always 'out.' We might as well discuss 'how many angels could sit on the head of a pin' or 'how many individual M and M candies have I eaten in my lifetime so far. Anyway...just had to blog on this.

Rehash after rehash on dozens upon dozens of websites and blogs and nothing ever gets resolved. Why? Because every person and his or her voice and every person's business operation and every person's needs for an income, large to small, and every person's emotional and physical personality is unique. Thus, none of these topics which I deem to be "the most discussed" will ever be 'solved' but only discussed. There is a difference. So stop expecting answers. There are none.

Now here's my list, as I see it--the most-discussed topics voice over talents talk about:

1. What to charge a client when the voice talent has to budget a job.
2. Whether the online pay-to-play sites are good or bad and which site is the best one.
3. Various voice potions and pills and folk remedies and old wives' tales one should gargle or swallow to (sometimes magically) make one's voice heal faster after damage or sound better. (Few if any of these are worth the money you spend on them. Stop abusing your voice and take better care of it and consult your ear nose throat physician more often!)
4. How do I know if my voice is good enough to be a voice over professional?
5. What should my voice over demo sound like?
6. Is my current demo good, bad, or just plain awful?
7. Why aren't I making more money at this?
8. How can I start learning audio engineering (and be good at it in a week . . .)
9. Why is there a buzz or knock or clang in my home recording studio?
10. How can I get signed by agents who book me?
11. How can I get audio book narration jobs (or movie trailer jobs, commercial jobs, any kind of job . . .) and why don't I win more auditions on the pay-to-play websites?
    
12. How long will it take me to get rich?
13. How do I know when it's time to quit this crazy endeavor?
14. Should I study with this or that teacher or spend my money on this or that convention?
15. How can I promote myself without spending any money on it?
16. How can I make a demo for a very cheap price?
17. How can I stop being depressed about my voice over career?
    
18. When can I quit my day job?
19. How do some talents make so much money and I hardly ever have a voiceover job?
20. Why didn't I do this years before now?

Well, there it is folks. Read 'em and weep (or chuckle) and keep on keepin' on. Most people give up too soon. Stick with it. This is my 34th year as a voice over and studio singer professional and coach and I feel as if I've never worked a day in my life (except once, when I was Creative Director at a production house where we worked 24/7 with no overtime and no benefits! I resigned, but not soon enough, and went back to my freelance career as a voice, a teacher, a consultant, a recording studio owner, audio engineer, audio producer, and general all-around good broad.

All best...
Hope this helps.
Bettye Zoller
www.voicesvoices.com