MUSIC

Freddie McGregor was recently honored by the City of Hartford, CT. for his contributions to reggae music, with the city declaring Aug. 14 Freddie McGregor Day. By Flair Lindsey

Sound Chat Radio commemorated its 10th Anniversary in fine style this weekend in New York, culminating with an appearance by The Captain of the "Big Ship" Freddie McGregor OD on their soldout "Reeewind Sundays on the Ocean" All White Cruise.

The exclusive Sunday, August 29 event came fresh off the heels of the famed singer being honored with an official "Freddie McGregor Day" by the city of Hartford, Connecticut.

The Grammy-nominated Freddie McGregor has been serving up musical greatness for more than six decades and was the ideal artist to headline the milestone occasion for Sound Chat Radio, one of the world's largest online Caribbean radio stations. The legendary act joined an all-star lineup of Sound Chat Radio "Reeewind Sundays" personalities including Bobby Channel One, Carl B Moxie, Supa Fridge, Nexxt Level, Jah Wise, Johnny Guard and Kulcha Kartel. "It's truly a blessing to have sustained Sound Chat Radio for 10 years," said Bourne before the event kicked off. "We are proud that Freddie McGregor will be on deck to celebrate this accomplishment with us, as we have built a great relationship with the legendary entertainer over the years and our listeners love him."

Launched by Garfield “Chin” Bourne of Irish and Chin, Sound Chat Radio is syndicated in more than 30 markets and has amassed millions of listeners. Bourne credits the success of the Sound Chat Radio sound system-driven talk show for catapulting Sound Chat Radio into an expansive network.

“The journey has had challenges, but it’s rewarding to see the growth and even more humbling to see the overall influence the platform has had on media,” Bourne said. “Sound Chat Radio has provided a blueprint for sound system based talk programming, spawning scores of shows taking on its format.”

Consisting of more than 40 programs with top sound systems, DJs, radio personalities and esteemed journalists, Sound Chat Radio offers an interactive radio experience to a wide audience, ranging from 28-71 years old. The station is a conduit of the global Jamaican Diaspora, connecting them with timely, important and substantive content. Topics span entertainment, politics, business, sports, economics, health, spirituality and more.

“I believe that Sound Chat Radio’s diverse and insanely talented roster and unorthodox style of radio are the main ingredients in its winning formula. We took a chance and broke the monotony of traditional radio, incorporating sounds as radio personalities, unique topics and audience involvement. It worked! You’ll never hear the same show twice,” said Bourne enthusiastically.

Over the course of his incredible career, the internationally acclaimed Freddie McGregor has made unmatched contributions to Reggae music. The singer, record producer and famed “Big Ship Captain” is a cultural icon and premiere voice and face of Jamaican music. Recording since seven years old as “Little Freddie,” the Clarendon, Jamaica born entertainer continues to deliver impeccable, soulful records. His sons, producer Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor and artist Chino, are boldly carrying the McGregor musical legacy.

By Stephanie Korney

Gilbert Glenn Brown is an actor, writer, and director born in New York City in a hardworking and family-oriented Caribbean home that emphasized love for the Jamaican heritage of his immigrant parents.

Brown’s latest role is playing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the new Jennifer Hudson film, “Respect,” which follows the life of superstar singer and cultural icon Aretha Franklin.

While Brown had originally auditioned for another part in the film, he declined that role as it didn’t feel right to him. He received a call a week later, on his birthday, asking him to audition for the role of Dr. King, and after about two weeks, he was offered the part. Brown shared that he had played the role of Dr. King in other productions and had already done considerable research to prepare for the challenge. His previous portrayals of King were presented in a staged reading of the play “Mountaintop” before it appeared on Broadway, participating in the national tour of the show, and then starring in the show in its production in Los Angeles in 2019.

Describing the greatest challenge in taking on the role of the historic and iconic Dr. King and participating in the film project, Brown noted the scope and size of the overall vision involved in telling Franklin’s story and the difficulties of including all the important and amazing figures in history connected to her life in a two-plus-hour film.

Telling the singer’s story was “not a simple feat,” he said, adding that it was also humbling and slightly intimidating to share the experience with actors and artists he had always admired.

Brown described Dr. King as a “wonderfully complex and powerful person.” For the actor, the role did not involve focusing only on his vocal intonations and the ability to deliver his speeches, but also to show that the man was a “living, breathing human being who was deified, but who never saw himself that way.” Dr. King always viewed himself just as a man working for the people who had the same hopes, doubts, fears, and aspirations. “I wanted to present him that way,” Brown added.

Brown first became interested in acting as a profession when he saw Sidney Poitier on screen. In high school, some of his teachers introduced him to Broadway theater, and he was especially inspired by a production of “The Tempest” starring Aunjanue Ellis and Patrick Stewart and decided he wanted to be a part of the theater world. He joined the Mind Builders Creative Arts Center Positive Youth Troupe, a group focused on issues facing young people, and saw for the first time that people like him could talk about their own challenges and issues. At the age of 15, Brown went on tour with the troupe to Detroit, and the trip showed him that his love of theater could open doors for him that he had never thought possible. This was when he realized he could make

Gilbert Glenn Brown

acting his career.

Now a seasoned performer, Brown has succeeded in many performing genres, including stage, television, screen, voiceover, writing, directing, producing, and as director of photography. Among his many accomplishments are originating the role of R&B singer “Jett Slade” on “The Young & The Restless”, recurring as “Dean Evan Foley” on the Emmy-Winning “The Inspectors”, and appearing with Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell in “Best of Enemies” as “Howard Clements.” He recurs as “James Michael Chapel” in DC’s “Stargirl” and appears as “Dr. Riley” in Walter Mosley’s “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” with Samuel L. Jackson.

By Steve Klinger

Since the numerous vaccines for Covid-19 were fast-tracked through trials and production in the second half of 2020 the news media have been covering their development and deployment nonstop, and as a bit of a news junkie, I’ve been reading and, mostly, watching with great interest.

Lately it has been with growing dismay at the new nationwide surge, thanks to the Delta variant, that threatens to undo all the progress we’ve made. On a national scale, this is a self-inflicted setback inasmuch as the great preponderance of serious infections and fatalities is among those who remain unvaccinated.

Although the FDA granted full approval to the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine on Aug. 23, providing cover for government agencies and private employers to require inoculation and/or frequent testing, and those who had demurred because the Pfizer vaccine was experimental had one less excuse, the road to anything approaching herd immunity through inoculation remains a long and winding one.

The remarkable scientific accomplishments of fashioning safe, effective vaccines at warp speed certainly deserve all the coverage I’ve watched, but if promotion is even a part of the endeavor, the media have been doing it all wrong. I have a modest proposal.

Why in this age of fabulous graphics generation and instant access to vast quantities of video resources is the coverage so incredibly lame, predictable and counterproductive? Every single network and local news broadcast continues to loop the same tired video: It starts with a conveyor belt of glass vaccine vials with pastel-colored tops, then progresses to healthcare workers jabbing needles into the arms of vaccine recipients with their sleeves rolled up, and usually looking in the other direction. Sometimes there’s a long shot of a gym interior or other space. By late spring of this year, any video of mass vaccination events or lines of cars waiting patiently had given way to mostly empty popup gazebos with idle personnel looking about vainly for customers before the voiceover returned to the endless jabbing and the marching vials.

In a typical newscast I’ve counted at least five to 10 individuals getting injected and hundreds of vials of vaccine parading across the screen. Although I got my two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech as quickly as I could possibly arrange it, I still get a slight chill and shudder just a little each time I see the long needle come out and plunge into someone’s arm on the nightly news. I figure I must have seen somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 inoculations in less than a year of watching the vaccines’ rollout. Vaccine-resisters probably watch less news--a lot less, perhaps--but surely even most of them have seen at least dozens of shots administered on TV by now.

A few women and more candid young people will admit they’re afraid of needles, but how many men would fess up that needles make them cringe, inwardly if not outwardly? On surveys, fear of the jab would not put up big numbers for why the unvaccinated continue to resist inoculation, but I’m confident it is a significant reason for many people.

What if, instead of showing arm-jabbing and conveyor belts of vials ad infinitum, media took a different approach? Let’s zoom in on healthcare workers handing out and vaccine recipients applying the smiley-face stickers to their chests that say, “I got the vaccine.” Let’s show people wearing those stickers gathering with friends and family. Let’s show concert halls and restaurants with happy, confident customers. Let’s show grandparents hugging their grandkids.

There’s a place for deterrence as well. Why not take a page from the very successful campaigns of decades past to reduce smoking by linking it with cancer? Those of us old enough to recall will not soon forget those images of pale, wasted, lung-cancer patients on oxygen telling viewers in a raspy voice they wished they had quit their habits or never started in the first place. Who can forget the woman without a jaw or the former athlete with the disfigured face urging viewers to stop smoking or chewing tobacco?

There is, unfortunately, abundant video available of very ill Covid-19 patients telling their care providers they wish they had been vaccinated, perhaps even poignantly asking them for the vaccine when it is far too late. A government-sponsored public service campaign on a vast scale with those kinds of videos or photos would do more to overcome vaccination reluctance than the current menu of scolding, finger-wagging public officials and the aforesaid counterproductive video loops of needle jabs.

This approach won’t convince everyone, and of course there are many people with immunosuppressive issues and other very legitimate concerns who are being failed by numerous systems and have valid reasons for remaining unvaccinated. The misinformation and, worse, the disinformation, launched last year by Trump and his cultists, and politically ambitious governors like Abbott and DeSantis, continue to do devastating damage to our efforts to get ahead of this pandemic, but we can move closer to some kind of herd immunity, or at least minimizing the opportunity for new and more contagious or deadly variants to develop. We can accomplish a reopening of America that will actually be safe and joyous. But we have to understand our failures to communicate effectively before we can overcome the profound social and cultural impasse dividing us over vaccines.

The Covid-19 vaccines are a remarkable scientific achievement. They’re free, they work, and they’re verifiably safe, with only rare serious side-effects.

We can sell this. It’s called marketing. Let’s do it right.

Steve Klinger, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a veteran community journalist and college English instructor based in southern New Mexico.

ARA photo Fuel kids with foods that are scientifically proven to boost focus and improve brain performance.

(BPT) - As summer draws to an end, many families are gearing up for an exciting new school year. And while picking out new pencils and notebooks is a fun way to prepare, it's even more important to make sure your child is mentally ready to return to the classroom - whether that be virtually or in person.

"To help them stay focused and learn more efficiently, fuel your kids with foods that are scientifically proven to boost focus and improve brain performance," says Marissa Meshulam, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and founder of MPM Nutrition. Instead of stocking up on sugary cereals and processed meals, Meshulam shares her go-to foods for feeding little minds:

Strong evidence suggests that blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and other berries have beneficial effects on the brain. Their high levels of antioxidants help protect and boost memory functioning. Try sending the kids off to school with a berry smoothie or pack a fruit cup with berries for lunch to help keep their minds sharp throughout the day.

A versatile and easy option for any healthy, filling meal, eggs contain a variety of nutrients such as choline and lutein that are essential for brain health. To ensure your family is getting the most out of their favorite egg-centric snack or recipe, choose Eggland's Best eggs. Compared to ordinary eggs, EB eggs contain more than double the Vitamin B12 and Omega-3s, which help regulate sugar levels in the brain and can improve memory function.

Most nuts have brain-boosting benefits, but walnuts are especially high in Omega-3s, Vitamin E, antioxidants and folate content. Nuts make a great snack and also pair well with fruit or as part of a granola.

Avocados have nutrients that protect the nerve cells in the brain that carry information. Try spreading avocado on a sandwich for lunch or mashing up with some garlic, salt, chopped tomatoes and lemon juice for a quick dip with chips or veggies for an after-school snack.

Leafy-green vegetables are rich in so many vitamins, including Vitamin K, lutein and beta-carotene, which all contribute to healthy brain functioning. If you have trouble getting your kids to eat fruits and veggies, try sneaking them into smoothies or blended soups.