clown-ministry.com mailing (07/11/2004)
1. Introduction
Hello, and welcome to the weekly Clown-Ministry mailing list. This is just a short note to let everyone who’s interested know about new additions to the site, and related information.
First, a welcome to all of the new subscribers from around the world! A belated Happy Canada Day (July 1) and Happy Independence Day to our Canadian and U.S.A. readers, respectively.
(If you’re not in the U.S.A., feel free to skip to the next paragraph :o) Normally, I try to steer clear of politics — after all, clowns are not only ageless and sexless, they’re apolitical, right? In the U.S.A., voting either as Republicrats or Democans … but this time the issue crosses all boundaries — and Christians are called to be salt and light. I’ll likely receive some complaints, but regardless I’m urging my readers who are citizens of the United States of America to call their local representatives (you can find the phone number for your representative at http://www.protectmarriagerally.com ) and urge them to vote in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment. What’s at stake is nothing less than the future of the country’s culture, and the future of our children.
And now, back to our regularly-scheduled newsletter.
2. New skits on-line
1 new skit, courtesy of Cheri Burton and Goofy Grape – Beauty Makeover – wherein a free beauty makeover goes … clownish. It was written by Cheri, who works at a group of local nursing homes as entertainment director, and she and Goofy Grape have presented the skit multiple times with good reaction from the nursing home residents. Thanks to all who’ve contributed — and don’t forget, if you have any original skits that you would like to contribute, just e-mail it to Tom Raymond
3. New Articles
Added several reviews, including The Chaplin Revue (a DVD collection of some of Charlie Chaplin’s best silent films – A Dog’s Life, Shoulder Arms, Sunnyside, A Day’s Pleasure, The Idle Class, Payday and The Pilgrim), as well as The Chaplin Collection Volume 2 (a 7 DVD collection which includes everything in The Chaplin Revue as well as City Lights, The Circus, The Kid, A King in New York, A Woman of Paris, Monsieur Verdoux and a new documentary). Also reviewed The Marx Brothers Collection (a 5 DVD collection containing A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, A Night in Casablanca, Room Service, At the Circus, Go West, The Big Store). In addition, finally added the Marx Brothers filmography, an anecdote about the healing power of humor in the life of Joseph Grimaldi, a biography of Paulette Goddard (Chaplin’s co-star in Modern Times and The Great Dictator), and updated several articles including New Clown Shoes and The Pledge of Allegiance, reflecting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. All of these are linked from the home page ( http://www.clown-ministry.com/ )
4. Questions
Haven’t heard any responses from last issues glut of questions, so I’m holding off until next week :o)
5. Web Site of the Week
Somewhat unusual this week — it’s not specifically relating to clowning, but it does relate to children’s entertainers — http://www.kidabra.org/ For those who don’t know, Kidabra is a wonderful conference for children’s entertainers — but beyond that, the information you will find on their on-line forums is priceless. I’ve started to check it daily for new postings :o)
6. Outroduction
This is a weekly e-mailing from http://www.clown-ministry.com/ — if you received this by mistake, or you just don’t want to receive it any more then simply reply to this message with ‘unsubscribe’ as the subject of your message, and I’ll gladly remove you from any future mailings. As always, feel free to submit your own skits, articles, ideas for articles, etc.
Thanks for listening, and bump a nose!
Tom Raymond
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http://www.clown-ministry.com/
“Clowns work like aspirin, only faster” — Groucho Marx