Experience Talks 2/9: Reinventing Yourself – Ronni Bennett, Steven A. Heller, and Lia Hirtz

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Tune in to Experience Talks, our “Radio Magazine for the Experienced Listener.” Saturdays 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 99.5 China Lake, 93.7 N. San Diego, streaming live online and now syndicated on up to 100 Pacifica Network stations! You can also enjoy hearing all of our previous shows on the Listen Page of our Experience Talks website.

Saturday, 2/9: This week, a show about reinventing yourself.

Host Cynthia Friedlob talks with Ronni Bennett, well-known elder blogger at Time Goes By, then with professional photographer Steven A. Heller and entrepreneur Lia Hirtz.

Ronni Bennett RONNI BENNETT: Dubbed the “dean of older bloggers” by AARP, Ronni Bennett has been writing her popular blog “Time Goes By – What it’s really like to  get older” since 2004. Prior to that, for many years, Ronni wrote and produced for such television programs as Biography, The 20th Century, 20/20, and The Barbara Walters Specials. In the mid-nineties, when the commercial internet was new, she switched to the web as the first managing editor of CBSnews.com and later at various websites about restaurants, sports medicine, finance and business management. These days in addition to her blog, Ronni speaks at technology conferences and on radio and television to discuss seniors’ technology needs and “elderblogging,” which she promotes as a near-perfect pastime for seniors. In 2008, she received the Media Excellence Award for her blog from The National Association to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Ronni lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon, with her Savannah cat, Oliver.

Steven_A_Heller STEVEN A. HELLER: Heller’s commercial and advertising work ranges from precise studio product and portraiture to editorial reportage and documentary. It has garnered numerous awards and has been published in Time, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Metropolis and many other publications. Heller has exhibited at the Gallery for Contemporary Photography in Santa Monica, the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art in Buffalo, New York; Soho Triad Fine Art Gallery in New York; and both the Mendenhall Gallery and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Heller provided all photographic material for the Art Center College of Design website , winner of the 1999 “Best Site” Award from Network Computing magazine. In 1991, Heller was named Photographer of the Year by The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He holds a BFA and MFA from Art Center College of Design. A partial list of Heller’s clients includes Virgin Records, Warner Bros. Records, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Knopf Publishing, Sun Microsystems, Samsung Electronics, Silicon Graphics, The Getty Trust, and Loyola Marymount University. See his portfolio here.

Lia_HirtzLIA HIRTZ: Lia describes herself as someone who “finds life fascinating and enticing enough to continue re-inventing her story on a daily basis. Uneducated, but with an insatiable hunger to learn philosophy, language, history, science, and the mystery of the human mind. From a miniscule town in Mexico to the East Los Angeles projects. Grew up with a wonderful storytelling grandmother, a bohemian father and a strong and dedicated mother — a house full of love, music and food. Who at an early age decided that she would not allow discrimination, lack of beauty, gender, and now, age, to get in the way of her taking the next step forward. Who has now discovered that the process is more important than the goal and that success and achievement is really the satisfaction you find in the things you do and not in what others believe success is. Proud mother of three, loving granny of one, happy wife, daughter, sister, fast typist, yoga instructor, bad karaoke-singer, new writer, and passionate entrepreneur.” Lia’s current entrepreneurial venture, with one of her sons, is World Empanadas, a take-out only, specialty restaurant in Burbank, CA. Click here for more information. You can also find the restaurant’s Page here on Facebook.

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Crosby, Stills & Nash: New Album, New Tour

“CSN 2012,” the new two-CD and DVD package from Crosby, Stills & Nash highlights performances in San Luis Obispo, CA, including“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping,” “Our House,” “Teach Your Children,” Déjà Vu,” “Wooden Ships” and “Guinnevere,” as well as new songs: “In Your Name,” “Radio” and “Almost Gone.”  Goldmine Magazine features the trio on the cover (see here, but the issue is not yet online; FYI: music plays immediately at that link).

And they’ll be at Lincoln Center in May: “In a unique and historic collaboration, iconic rock trio Crosby, Stills & Nash and the world renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will perform together for the first time in Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in two concert events entitled ‘The Crosby, Stills & Nash Songbook.’ The premiere on May 1, 2013 will be Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2013 Gala Concert followed by a public concert on May 3, 2013.” Click here to get the details. (It’s a fundraiser, so tickets are pricey.)

 

 

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The Power of Music

MUSICHave you ever been overwhelmed by the beauty of music? NPR writer  learned that his euphoric musical moment could be explained scientifically. He consulted Daniel Levitan, author of This is Your Brain on Music for details. “Not that Levitin wanted to take away any of the ‘mystery or majesty’ of my musical experience, but to a neuroscientist all our experiences are, he said, characterizable in terms of different neurochemical states.” Learn more here.

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Frederika Goldberger: 93-Year-Old Superhero — in Photos

Digital CameraFrom the New York Times:

“My grandmother, she’s not a normal person.  She’s like a character when she speaks.  Every day she’s playing like she’s an actress.” These are words of love, and they come from Sacha Goldberger, a French photographer who has turned his grandmother, 93-year-old Frederika Goldberger, into a minor European celebrity.”

Read more and see more terrific pictures here. And, naturally, there’s a book:

“An uplifting, arresting, and utterly hilarious gift book showcasing the world’s oldest real-life superhero: the 93-year-old grandmother and global media sensation, Mamika. Mamika has been featured in major newspapers, magazines, special interest blogs, and websites worldwide. The idea to photograph Mamika began when bestselling author and photographer Sacha Goldberger wanted to raise the spirits of his once quite spirited grandmother by engaging her in an activity they could do together. Now, countless costumes, geriatric gaffs, unbelievable stunts, and hilarious photo shoots later, the collected Mamika photographs are here to delight and inspire everyone who opens the covers of this one-of-a-kind photo book.” Purchase links here.

 

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Two Opinions About When to Leave the Workforce

Work ZoneOver the Hill at Work: Why Fifty May Be the New Seventy

Should We Have to Work Until 70? These CEOs Say Yes

What do you think? If you think that requiring seniors to work longer is the way to save Social Security, please fact check here.

 

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Worth Repeating: Seniors Need to Know about Computers!

WORTH-REPEATING“Worth Repeating” is a weekly feature on the EngAGE Blog that will bring you previous posts that we think are still timely, interesting, or just plain fun! From 2/9/12:

“Lorraine Kenfield (left) looks up after checking emails on her computer. When her husband died, she knew so little about the computer where their important information was stored that she literally did not know how to turn it on.” An article by Katy Read in the Star Tribune, called “It’s Never Too Late to Learn,” explains that seniors who know nothing about computers are not just missing out on access to information, they’re at risk of being left out of the cultural loop completely, now that computers have become “the backbone of mainstream life.” More here.

 

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Aging Unattractively

vector illustration of a black bow tie in low-polygonal style. mNo one will accuse Michelle Pfeiffer of not aging beautifully, but what about the average person who doesn’t have the fabulous genes to keep looking gorgeous despite of the passage of time? “Boomers are the most resourceful and inventive generation in history. Aging is one wall we can’t climb over. We accept it intellectually but resist it emotionally. The impulse to create a new way of being 50, or 60, or 70 includes wanting to retain something we all prize — physical attractiveness. This midlife dilemma, says Nobel laureate Doris Lessing, is one in which ‘a whole dimension of life suddenly slides away, and you realize that what, in fact, you’ve been using to get attention, or command attention, has been what you look like.'” Read more here.

 

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