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The Roundtable Reports
Harmony on 46th Street 8 March 2004, New York City--The fog lifted around O'Lunney's beautiful Times Square Monday night and the icy snowflake drizzle ceased long enough for the Roundtablers to join together in their monthly gathering - where we all have so much fun talking and inspiring each other to greater heights of creativity. Howie Comen couldn't make it Monday due to family illness... our thoughts and prayers are with him and his grandmother-in-law, Gloria. But he's still working hard on the finishing touches to his new Web design with Alexander Fox, who posts our Roundtable Reports. We thank Alex for doing such a splendid job! Howie is still working on the Great Gatsby case and had me strolling through the graveyard in Farmingdale last month looking for the tombstone of Max von Gerlach... It was such a marvelous experience for everyone to finally meet Elizabeth Baron, first time Roundtabler, and she brought us all healing water from the Healing Springs, in Barnwell, SC. She says the Indians brought the British soldiers there to experience the healing powers of this sacred spring. Elizabeth is currently working with a ghostwriter on rewriting her book of meditation. We'll keep you posted as to when the book will be out on the market. Of course, one of the topics of discussion at the Roundtable on Monday was the newly released Mel Gibson film about Jesus. One of our fellow Roundtablers, Fr. Mike Reilly, Dean at St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School in Staten Island, New York, reviewed "The Passion of the Christ" - Click Here. Last month radio legend Barry Farber was master of ceremonies at NewsMax's lecture by Dick Morris and had the crowd roaring in February in Palm Beach. ...Barry and I attended the recent Fabiani Society meeting where friend of NewsMax, Dick Morris, was the keynote speaker. I had worked with Dick for years but it was the first time I'd met him in person... and what a speech he gave!! Very inspiring and informative. Barry says he made a deal with Talk Radio Network and the show, now to be called "The Barry Farber Show," is in full force - Monday through Friday 10pm - 1am ET. Click Here for Barry's latest column. We're thrilled that New York radio talk show personality, Kevin McCullough is publishing articles again for NewsMax.com. Kevin told us within 6 weeks he should be expanding his show into 23 major markets. Among the markets are NY, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Illinois, and Pennsylvania via the Salem Radio Network. Kevin and Barry met on Monday night and Barry agreed to fill in for Kevin on his NYC show on April 1st. We all laughed when Barry said of Kevin's offer, "I'd release my own straps and walk out of brain surgery to be there!" Charter Roundtable member, Carl Limbacher, is a regular on Kevin's show and offers Kevin's audience a regular NewsMax update. Carl was as delightful and informative as ever, spending the evening talking to Kevin, Barry and co. Carl and I met on Feb. 21st in Huntington for Sean Hannity's book signing. It was lots of fun!! They let us ahead of the line and we got to go to the "press booth." Here is my photo of Sean Hannity, who was very sincere and gracious as he thanked us for helping him to promote his books. We were so happy that Tobi Zausner was able to attend, though a bit under-the-weather... and it was a good thing she was there because her encouragement and inspiration are so important to the artists who attend. Tobi and Tamara "Zerofische" Carter, our youngest Roundtabler, talked about their mutual fascination with mental illness and the artistic temperament, more particularly, Kay Redfield Jamison's book, "Touched With Fire"... and about discrimination toward digital artists. Here is more info on Tobi. Thanks to Tobi's recommendation, my Pope painting/collage (the painting expresses the Pope's pain with the weight of the world upon his shoulders) will be published as an illustration in a high school religion textbook: "Morality: An Invitation to Christian living" by Joseph Stoutzenberger. It was so wonderful to see Tami again (she'd attended one of our first Roundtables). We had a great time photographing the charming town of Huntington as well as the old cemetery high on a hill in the middle of town. She and Elizabeth returned to Charleston, SC on Tuesday night. Last month Betty Dornheim from the Princeton Library gave us all flyers about some fascinating events at the Small Press Center - The Algonquin Round Table Lives Again:
We were very glad that Gail Lefkowitz joined us again for more great food and conversation and it was wonderful to see Brian & Florence Moffatt, of the infamous "Books for Booze," again. Florence was so kind to bring her beautifully framed print of my "2 Green Pears" to show everyone. Elizabeth, my mother, had even created a beautiful handbag with my painting on the front! I told Florence how beautiful the photographs of her from the previous Roundtable turned out (she's very photogenic!). Richard & Jana were sparkling as ever as they are now all settled in back in Connecticut and getting into a nice routine. Richard told us the story of Howie and he reuniting after many years and how they'd organized the all-new Comen International Detective Agency. We laughed when Tami and Tobi mentioned that we're all Libras... and Richard said, "I'm a Libra, too!" Guess that makes he and Jana "Czech and Balance." Richard brought up the point that we all might in the future join in helping a common cause and Elizabeth recommended her daughter Gretchen's organization, Safe Moves, as a possibility. The night was young as we all ascended out into the foggy, neon-lit air in Times Square and Tami kept snapping shots of all the wonderful things that make Manhattan so special... and none so special as our humble little Roundtable.
[View Pictures from the 3/8/2004 Dinner] The Comen International Roundtable will meet the second Monday of every month. For more info on the Roundtable, contact Howard Comen at 843-571-2667, www.comeninternational.com or Sandy Frazier at 516-735-5468, sandy@mystic-art.com
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