Underwater Video

December 2005: We recently completed and copyrighted the two hour documentary entitled: "Musical Treasures of the Southern Appalachi'ns of the Carolinas." Short video clips can be viewed on this website's Documentaries page. The documentary is dedicated to the late Joe Wilson. The documentary had its premier screening in February at the Pender County Public Library in Hampstead, North Carolina to an overflow and very enthusiatic audience. Because of limited space, many persons were turned away, and a second screening is planned for April. Copies of this video and the "Along About Sundown" video documenting Asheville North Carolina's "Shindig on the Green," our first project, are being gifted to the Mars Hill College Library archives which documents and preserves for posterity the culture of the Southern Appalachians.

February, 2006: Nancy and I recently returned from Quito, Ecuador after an unbelievable eight days aboard a 98´ trimaran, the mv Lammer Law, traveling around the magnificent and unusual islands of the Galapagos archipelago. In preparation for a future nature documentary, I will begin inserting video clips of our many snorkeling adventures: swimming with White Tip Reef Sharks, the rare Marine Iguana of the Galapagos, Galapagos Penguins and Galapagos Sea Lions, including huge Bull Seal Lions, in my face,  protecting their harem of females. There will also be clips of the beautiul city of Quito and the unique wildlife, like the giant Tortoise, of the Galapagos archipelago.

March, 2006: We will be heading to Florida to continue interviewing Korean War veterans for the "17th Infantry in Korea" project, which we believe to be the most important project we have evr been involved in. It will probably take upwards of two years to complete. (Note: We are now in Florida (March 18) where we have concluded three excellent interviews, and where we will complete two more tomorrow before returning to North Carolina on March 20. We will have covered the state from St. Augustine to Orlando to Zephyrhills to Naples to Hallandale to Titusville to Ormond Beach and back to North Carolina-a complete circle of the state, other than the panhandle; and we have had some great interviews of some very interesting veterans, making some wonderful new friends all along the way.) On a sad note: One of the veterans whom we interviewed in Titusville, FL, Mike Mirabella, passed away in June 2006. That sad fact only makes our mission more important, for each one of these interviews will ultimately find a place in the historical archives at the Army War Museum in Carlisle, PA.

We are proud to report that short video montage-only five minutes and twenty seconds-will be featured, along with other films, at the Welcome Center of the March 18-19 Peace rally at Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of the 82nd Airborne. The film is taken from footage shot by the Judge at the 2005 Fayetteville rally. This promises to be a much larger gathering of those who are opposed to the war in Iraq. The video is streaming on our "Works in Progress" page.

July 1, 2006: Nancy and I will be in beautiful Asheville, NC for the opening of the 40th year of Asheville's Shindig on the Green music festival which we have been videotaping for 15 years, and which is the subject and background of two of our documentaries. The Shindig has moved this year from City County Plaza, due to construction, to Martin Luther King Jr. Park in the heart of Asheville, and it will be there all summer on Saturday nights at 7:00 PM between July 4th weekend and Labor Day weekend, except for two weekends. It is a unique music festivel which is open to the public and free, weather permitting. 

Week of July 3, 2006: This will be an exciting week, with a visit to 98 year old Grace Powell in Williamsburg, VA, the widow of Gen. Herbert Powell, who, as a Col. and CO of the Regiment, rebuilt the 17th Infantry from an understrength and under equipped occupation force in Japan after WW II, into a mighty fighting machine which he led into battle in Korea in September 1950, as part of the newly formed X Corps. From there, it is on to the beautiful Alleghany Mountains mountains of West Virginia to interview a medic who served with the 17th at the battles of Pork Chop Hill. Finally, we will meet with Greta Klingon, Gen. Powell's biographer and family friend in PA, with whom we will continue our research and copy documents at the Army War Museum at Carlisle Barracks in PA.

September 2006: After a summer of editing and reediting our Korean War documentary, we are now in the heartland of the United States-the center of Kansas on our way to the 17th Infantry Association reunion in Colorado Springs. By this afternoon, on this trip, we will have conducted five more veteran interviews for our upcoming documentary: Men of Courage in a Forgotten War: The 17th Infantry in the Korean War (see the "Works in Progress" page). Yesterday, in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, we met with and interviewed 87 year old Herbert Newman, a retired Chief Warrant Officer, who served thirty years in tne Army before retiring, and who is a veteran of three major wars: WW II,  the Korean War and the Vietnam War. A widower, he lives by himself in a beautiful five room apartment, and is as lucid, loving and as active as any human being could possibly be at that age. Herbert was the 17th Infantry's Regimental Supply Officer in 1951 and 1952, and he had much to say about the supply situation, especially with respect to winter gear, during the very cold north Korean winter of 1951-52. Nancy, who worked with senior citizens for many years,  wanted to take him home with us.  Today, we have one last veteran interview in Gove, KS, and then it is on to the reunion where we will conduct many more interviews, and screen what will not be the final cut of the first half of our documentary. In every veteran's home that we have visited, we have received a very warm welcome from our hosts, which has made this mission one which we will never forget and long cherish.

In October 2006, Nancy and I will be off to Africa, to visit the Serengetti in Kenya and Tanzania for 14 days, from where we expect to return with great video clips and photographs of Africa's unique wildlife and culture.

On November 17, 2006, at 6:30 PM, at the beautiful campus of Mars Hill College in the heart of the North Carolina mountains, there will be a screening of our two Southern Appalachi'n documentaries about mountain music and performers: Along About Sundown, Asheville North Carolina's 'Shindig on the Green,' and Musical Treasures of the Southern Appalachi'ns. Both of these documentaries are in their musical archives, and the screening is open to the public, the faculty and the student body (see the "Documentaries" page on this website). Contact Us for further information.

Note: If you have enjoyed this website, and wish to be notified when additional music, photographs and video clips have been added to the site, please contact us by e-mail where provided, and we will be happy to advise you whenever we have added more material to these pages. Simply utilize the "Contact Us" hyperlink found at the bottom of each page of the site.