Pud, the founder of Fandalism[/caption]Carol Forsloff - If you are one of those people wondering about Fandalism on Facebook and why your musician friends, or even those you didn't know who could sing or play music, are sending you notices, then it's high time you took a look at the current wave of activity that somehow is teaching the world to sing.
This fellow named Pud (Philip Kaplan) was looking for a fellow musician to add to his group and set up Fandalism in that quest for finding talent. The site now has 400,000 members and counting, a group that performs for no rewards other than the audience appreciation and the interaction with others.
It is that interaction that is making a difference. For the young, budding musician, Fandalism is a way to get noticed, for other musicians to take a look and reinforce one's efforts. For the old, it is simply good fun, getting people out of that closet of age and allowing them to join in with that teaching the world to sing. Some of them, it turns out, can still perform with enough gusto to get noticed before age robs that last chance.
In the forum called Fandalism, not a game but a true venue for music entertainment, one can find some very serious talent. As a journalist, my first interest is to find that special talent and shine a light on it. As someone who has been an entertainer at times, dating back to childhood, this journalist has some understanding of the package one needs to present in order to be noticed. At the age of 71 there are no ambitions to win that Americas Got Talent prize or to be the top dog anywhere in music, but like others of that certain age, music remains a way to soothe the savage beast of desperation that occurs during moments of crisis, that most of us have but are afraid to admit. Music for the old and older is not just a place to show off talent but an arena to feel young again, to be a part of a world where the door often closes on those folks post 45.
The thrill of Fandalism is the find. The fellow from Mexico, Martin Palomo, who plays harmonica in the down-home blues associated with places like New Orleans and Chicago, the guitarist/singer/composer and musical genius who wraps it all well, Yawroc Sugar Sticky Hopkins , the eloquent and dazzling voice of the Florida woman, Nancy Burridge, whose voice reaches the heavens and who has the look and heart of an angel wrapped with it. There is the young woman with the elegant classical guitar, Chaconne Klaverenga, folk singers who offer voice narratives, like Angelo Marinosci Jr, those who do the standards, like Kathy Songbird, others who compose music of varying kinds, like Ole Cram and Rick Guthrie, some who offer treats on the electric or acoustic guitars, rock like Andre Simmons or Willie Hom, and Alan Fathips Jackson, country singers/composers like Anthony Jones and Glenn Lee Mills , many like Peter Markellos,whose voices and instrumental playing hands are aging well, like the proverbial cellar wine and the old-time, good time musicians from Louisiana like Billy O'Con, who played Jim Croce in a film of the famous music star who was killed in a plane crash outside of Natchitoches, Louisiana. There are people like Renate Moen, who sing with gusto, like Janis Joplin, and who then turn around and sing the honest, sweet songs of today and yesteryear with tenderness, elegance and wonderful intonations and who play the guitar with the emotional strains to round out the material. There are the young and lovely ladies whose shyness shows but whose talent dazzles as well, like Ruby Dall Ingley and Jasmine Reese and the soft, sweet sounds of the fellow who finds his voice and offers it with simple kindness, Bobby San Juan.
There are also the fans and friends of folks like Suzanne Morgan, who find talent for themselves and offer it by way of video material as well.
This article points out the talents of many people. But there are more, and this article is part of a series that will shine a light on the site itself and other people whose talents, kindnesses and presentation are involved in this wonderful site called Fandalism.
Want to learn more about music or just be entertained? Fandalism is for you. Want to get off the television circuit of consistent political divisions, anger and strife? Take a look at the budding talent and feel good about a world that comes together in some place. And that togetherness is Fandalism, a place to find that a world singing is not a world where meanness lives but where the soul soars in harmony with others.
