Hope you’re well. I’m learning more every day, especially about me. I’m writing and doing interviews, which have always been conversations based on our actual life experiences as artists in a hard world. I’m thankful there are people that cross the aisles to communicate and find common ground. None of us should criticize others that want to create peace, even in politics… although politicians need to get back to public service.
I have miscommunications with friends because we weren’t clear or just didn’t take the time to guide someone along, especially if I didn’t understand them or vice versa!
Let’s
spend time with folks and we’ll be happier.
I’ve been active with my group, “The Bronx Toastmasters Club” since 2020. Table Topics is a favorite section of the meeting—when the segment leaders gives us a topic to improvise a one to two minute off-the-cuff and coherent speech. At the last meeting, the host asked me, “What’s a lesson I learned from a mistake?”
Like
writing, we’re supposed to own the topics when we speak. Just as writing an article or term paper
takes an angle, so does making a speech. My philosophy came out in the speech, which
is—to quote Billy Joel’s “You're Only Human (Second Wind)” --“you’re
supposed to make mistakes!”
A few
days after the speech that my second thoughts about what else I could have said
started flowing, “Man! I should have told the story of how we were helping a
new radio personality break into a station. We showed her to run the board,
what we wanted in her stop sets, and everything else about the station. One of
the questions she had, “What happens if I make a mistake?” We laughed, “you
will.”
She’s been
living an amazing future, from radio to education and animals.
I’ve been watching the TV show “Nashville,” and noticed a pattern of some characters having riffs in friendships based on seeing a situation briefly and not trying to figure out the whole situation. Aside from the problems that come from evil intent, most just need complete opportunities with two-way dialogue and time to talk things out. I’d love to dialogue with you on your reflections on the show if you watched it.
Connection is one of the things I want in the projects I’ve been working on lately. In addition to musical clients, my own activities have good energy, interaction, and discernment in them.
It’s
also just knowing on many levels. The new is something I pulled from Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s newsletter this week, “Pump it Up.” You’re saying: “I’m
worth the effort, even when I’m not perfect.”
Episodes of The Anne Leighton Inclusion Interview Show on YouTube are on my poetry page Working Gal Rock and Roll Poet . Doing these interviews are helping create writing opportunities for The Aquarian, Substack, and the Patch. I wrote a new poem there “Simple Lines Sometimes” for my supportive musicians, especially Joe Deninzon, longtime friend and a great rock violinist. 😊
I’ve been included in a few media outlets since starting the Interview Show, and it’s fun. Some are local websites with listings and descriptions of when the Kindness Sessions will run. (The next one is April 2026). Some are full-fledged podcasts!
Derringer
Podcasts EP91:
Anne Leighton Returns with More Rock Legends
Though my work was mainly related to a seemingly never-ending discography because Rick worked with thousands of indie artists, he and Liz and Jenda have helped me with my music career especially in coming to New York city. A few years ago I heard Bob Cowsill on their podcast, and reached out to them with Dean Friedman, and they connected. Then they interviewed Elliott Murphy, then Jim McCarty. About that time Rick Derringer passed away.
Rick wasn’t
able to do the podcast, and I wanted them to do their podcast’s namesake. As we
traded ideas, they, “Let’s do some of your artists, too). Here’s the second
episode as it shows how much of a Professional Teenybopper I can be. Rick, Joe Deninzon, and Renaissance are in
the Derringer Podcast part 2. Note that
we did it before the tour, so there’s nothing about what’s going on this
weekend or next (visit renaissancetouring.com if you’re near St. Louis,
Philadelphia, Newton, NJ). P.S. There’s
a Poem in my poetry book-- a “Derringer
in Wonderland” trilogy. There’s also a part one on the website, and we talk
about The String Revolution, Jethro Tull, and Orleans.
Recently
I appeared Lisa Wright’s podcast:
https://youtu.be/d1htm5fxolg?si=KG-SbNwZ-F0CjuaS
https://youtu.be/oZgu5CS7dWU?si=BmFY63noOM_4MiTg
Quick
story: Lisa was a youngster when she pitched her idea of a Cheap Trick top 10
for Hit Parader. (This was before “The
Flame”). I wrote back with a “no” and explanation. In 2024 she sent me an email
with the subject line “Rejection letter from 1992.” Thinking it might have been a pitch to fight
PTSD, I almost didn’t open it. But I did. This time curiosity didn’t kill this
catlover. Lisa found the letter saved in her closet, googled me, and wrote me.
In part of the note she writes that she’s also a “recovering agoraphobic.”
Coming
up—I’ll be talking about cat welfare support from Jethro Tull, Grand Funk
Railroad, and Renaissance, artists that are part of my rock and roll history. This will be on zoom on November 29 at 15:15
CET/9:15 AM ET. I’m joining over 40 music and cat lovers
including from the world of Academia to speak at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
in Germany's first ever "Music and Cats" Symposium on Nov. 28 and 29
from 11 till 7 pm Germany time, which is 5 AM till 1 PM ET.
For more
information, visit: www.eventbrite.de/e/music-and-cats-online-symposium-tickets-1595714708649?aff=oddtdtcreator
In
closing, be like a cat—curious and re-defining mistake-maker!
Love,
Anne
