Monthly Archives: January 2017

Five Jaunts remembered singing Doo Wop

by contoveros

     I cannot recall the one and only time I saw myself perform on television with my singing group, even though it was one of the highlights of my life.

     I sang bass for a Doo Wop group in the late 1960s as we appeared on the Super Lou Dance Show. We sang two songs, which were recorded by a film crew. The performance was taped in front of a live audience for Channel 29, a UHF Station with its studio at Old York Road in the Philadelphia suburb of Jenkintown. (Philadelphia had three UHF stations – Channels 17, 29, and 48.)

Continue reading →

100 nations visited the Contoveros site

by contoveros

flag.png     Someone from 100 different countries has viewed this site and my flag counter can attest to the number of nations represented here.

     I started to write a Blog some seven years ago and hooked up with a link that not only counted the number of persons viewing Contoveros, but determined which country that person was from. I placed the flag counter at the top of my Blog so that anyone — including myself — could readily see it on linking into Contoveros. It’s at my home site.

(See Flag Counter for the latest count. Trinidad is the latest country added to my list!)  Continue reading →

Sounds Touching the Heart & Soul of Me

by contoveros

     A Tibetan Singing Bowl rang out just now. It called me back to the peace inside despite the noises of harshness my life has heard played out for me in recent times.

Continue reading →

Giggling at somber times can enlighten you

by contoveros

     Alexander giggled like a schoolboy as 40 of us gathered for a service on Sunday and quietly attempted to meditate for about 30 minutes.

Wait a minute. He is a schoolboy. Alexander was just 14 years old yesterday when he attended the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia with his mother. I was sitting next to the youth, and about halfway through the gathering, a sound erupted from the other side of the room. It sounds like someone adjusting a metal chair on the wooden floor, but to a young mind like that of Alexander, it also sounded like someone farting.  Continue reading →

Meditation starts as you travel through life

by contoveros

I learned to meditate easily while riding on a train.

I had tried sitting mediation alone and with others, but was successful only once, and I really don’t know what I was doing. I was following a guru – a 15-year-old teacher from India — before I had turned 30, and I mingled with aspirants in an ashram in Philadelphia. I never touched Nirvana or reached the level that others seemed to rise to. Continue reading →

Resolve: never let a kid dream of war again

by contoveros

I could die really cool when I was a kid.

I’d pretend that I was a soldier on a mission with a rifle in my hands as I made my way through enemy territory. I’d carry a tree limb most of the time and walk through pathways in a jungle we called Fairmount Park.  Continue reading →

Obit-writing to lead off a brand new year

by contoveros

     I don’t think my son knows enough about me to write a good obituary. And so, for 2017, I hope to sit down and look back on my life and offer highlights to appear in the Philadelphia Inquirer if it should still be publishing years from now.  Continue reading →