Transcription of Voice #8
Lisa: Hello. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle, and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast airing November 6th. This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast our theme is voice. My co-host Genevieve Morgan and I will be speaking to a broad variety of guests, each giving their opinion on what voice means to them and how best to have one’s own voice in this world. Voice is an important topic within my medical practice, and in fact it is maybe the most important topic. The most important thing that I do as a medical profession is to listen and to enable people to have a voice which may have been lost long before in their lives.
A loss of voice, which does indeed contribute to physical, emotional, and mental woes. Once people have found this voice, I find that many of their health problems fall away. This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we begin with a discussion of the importance of voice in soldiers who are returning home from conflicts overseas. We have a conversation with Major General Bill Libby and Chaplain Andy Gibson of the Maine National Guard. This is followed by a conversation with musician and local event promoter Spencer Albee.
We then go into a conversation with Delia Gorham of the League of Young Voters, and Carlin Whitehouse of the Young Adult Abuse Prevention Program. Each of these individuals, in their own way, is helping others to create a voice for themselves in this world. We hope this program, and all of our Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast programs are doing just that for those who are listening. We are attempting to give a voice to all the people that are on. We are tempting to prompt others who are listening to perhaps think about the importance of their own voice and their own lives. This is Lisa Belisle, thank you for joining us.
Lisa: Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, my co-host and I, Genevieve Morgan, have a conversation in which we, just this week are starting to call Deep Dish rather than Food and Sustenance.
Genevieve: I think we were eating something when we came up with that name.
Lisa: I think we were actually.
Genevieve: Burritos.
Lisa: Right, we were at Bruce’s Burritos in Yarmouth and that’s a favorite hangout, so we thought, you know what? We do a lot more than just talk about food on some of these segments, and let’s call it something different. You’re the creative genius, so this is what you came up with, Deep Dish.
Genevieve: Well I wouldn’t say that, but I am good at some marketing terms every now and then.
Lisa: That’s good. I like that. This is an interesting Deep Dish to have because we’re talking about voice this week, and one might not necessarily think, “Oh, well food, nutrition, nourishment, how are they related to voice,” but they are.
Genevieve: Definitely. I mean the strength of your voice is how you put action and thought into the world.
Lisa: It absolutely is. There’s a very physical thing that we know that happens in Chinese medicine and even in Indian medicine where they talk about the voice and the throat chakra and your ability to express yourself.
Genevieve: Well I’m actually looking at your right now across the studio, and your throat is right in-between where your heart is and your head.
Lisa: Gen, you’re a genius! I think that is a very important thing, and then sometimes when people are either too much in their hearts or too much in their heads and they aren’t able to marry those two that that does become an issue that they lose their voice.
Genevieve: Well that makes sense.
Lisa: Yeah. We’ve talked about, I don’t know how many weeks ago it was now because we have so much fun here on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour that –
Genevieve: We have so many shows now.
Lisa: We do, it’s so exciting. This is our own musing of our own voices, we entertain ourselves this way, and we hope that we entertain those of you who are listening. We were talking about milk and phlegmy things that cause you to lose your voice, we talked about the throat and cold season tea and other things you can do to keep your voice going during the cold seasons, so we thought, “Let’s talk about something related to that.”
Genevieve: Well I know it’s important for you Lisa because you actually have a singing career. I don’t know how many of your fans and listeners know this, but Lisa actually sings extremely well, and I know because I used to act and I used to do a little singing myself that you have to really prepare your throat when you want – there’s one thing to talk, and then there’s a whole other thing when you’re trying to project and sing. What do you do?
Lisa: What do I do. Well one of the things that’s very important is, and this has been known for a long time, is the importance of warmth and keeping your throat warm. I know this as far as not only singing, but also digesting, I teach this in the Dragon’s Way Qigong Class, I talked to my patients about it, in this country it’s so weird that we’re always about the ice water. Let’s have some ice water with our meal, let’s have our ice water to cool us down.
Genevieve: Even when it’s twenty below we want ice water.
Lisa: Right, we want ice water. That’s actually, that doesn’t really make sense, we need to keep things nice and warm, we need to keep our throats warm and our stomachs warm so that we can digest, so I will often start my meals, and this is whether I’m going to sing or not, but I’ll start my meals with something warm, so I at least have room temperature water, but I also will sometimes have tea which is one of the things that we felt we might talk about today.
Genevieve: Well and actually if you go to a Chinese restaurant or a Japanese restaurant they often serve you tea, so that makes a lot of sense.
Lisa: Yeah. Tea does have very interesting and unique health benefits. More and more we’re finding the benefits of tea. The reason why it’s so interesting to me is because if you think about what tea is, or tisane, I think that’s how you pronounce it, t-i-s-a-n-e, which is an herbal preparation and not the camilla sinensis leaf which is actually tea. These are all condensed plants, so tea is all the healthiest things about plants condensed down and then you reconstitute them with a little water and it’s like a little magical potion.
Genevieve: Yes, and an ancient cure actually.
Lisa: Yes, and we use this a lot in Chinese medicine. We use a lot of teas to help people heal, but they also use it in ayurvedic medicine, and we know that it’s becoming more and more used as people go back to herbal preparations. If you go to the Whole Foods Market, which sponsors our locally grown food segment, there’s an entire section full of teas, so it can have many different benefits.
Genevieve: Which can also be confusing when you’re shopping and you’re figuring out what’s right for you and what you need.
Lisa: It’s important to know that there is a broad range of teas that are available that are herbal preparations, and they’re not without their side effects. There is Valarian tea which can be good for sleep, there’s tea that has hops in it which is also good for sleep, but if you’re going to use an herbal preparation then you probably want to do a little research ahead of time and hopefully you have a practitioner who has some knowledge of herbs that can help you out with this so that you’re –
Genevieve: That’s right, and if you’re on medication sometimes you really need to check with your practitioner to make sure that the herb that you’re drinking doesn’t counteract, or maybe it’s a mixture of herbs.
Lisa: Yes, and it’s something that you might not intuitively know, so if you have access to something like the natural medicine’s comprehensive database, you can go look at that. If you have a naturopathic physician, we had Dr. Richard Mower here a few weeks ago and he has a good knowledge of teas. We’ll have Deb Swole of Vina Botanicals coming up in a later show, so find somebody that knows something about these herbals preparations, don’t just jump in.
Genevieve: Well I think what’s interesting about what you’re saying is that really, they have power. I think when people think about tea they think about a diluted drink, and what you’re saying is that it’s actually an incredibly powerful thing to do for yourself is to drink tea.
Lisa: Right. It’s been around for thousands and thousands of years, so this is all we’ve been talking about, medicinal teas and you asked me what do you do to prepare for singing. Well what I do to prepare for singing is what I do in my normal routine which is I actually drink a fair amount of tea. I tend toward green tea, and green tea is known for a lot of things. It’s about mid range as far as caffeine content is concern, but it does have caffeine, so green tea has antioxidant properties and it’s been shown to be good for cancer prevention, and also good for heart disease, and maybe even some lipid lowering, some cholesterol lowering properties.
If you’re thinking about your green tea, it’s halfway between black tea and white tea. Then there’s of course decaf tea, but green tea is about middle range as far as caffeine content is concerned. Your black tea is your oolong tea, Earl Grey which has a little bit of bergamo oil in it.
Genevieve: My kid’s favorite is English Breakfast.
Lisa: English Breakfast, absolutely. Those are all your black teas and they have to do with the way that the tea is actually prepared, the way it’s oxidized. That’s black tea, and that has the most caffeine content. Not as much as coffee. The reason I talk about caffeine is because that, again, just like the herbs that we’ve been talking about, has an impact on the body. It’s just important to know if you’re going to be drinking tea, how much caffeine does it have in it and where do you want to place it in the course of your day.
Genevieve: Yeah, and how it works for you.
Lisa: And how it works for you. Black tea has the most amount of caffeine, green tea not as much, and then white tea which we don’t know as much about, we don’t use as much in this country, but I love white tea. It’s a beautiful light tea that you can have sort of mid afternoon. It comes in different – there’s a silver needle tea that comes loosely formed that, it’s just – and again, it has antioxidant properties, it’s a good thing to have in the middle of the afternoon. If I’m looking at the teas over the course of my day, whether I’m singing or not, start with black in the morning, green throughout mid-afternoon, and then if I’m going to have, if I want someone lightly decaffeinated I’ll go with a little white tea.
Genevieve: What about lemon? Let me quickly ask.
Lisa: Well I think we talked about lemon and cayenne.
Genevieve: Which is for your throat.
Lisa: Yeah, lemon and cayenne as a cold preventive, in a past segment we’ve talked about that, so it really just depends upon what you need if you need that stringent, if you’re trying to fight off some phlegminess, it’s not a bad thing to have.
Genevieve: In your tea.
Lisa: Yes, right, in your tea, that’s right. Those of you who are interested you can find cold season tea, you can find locally grown honey, you can find other teas down at the Whole Foods. You can find out more about tea on our doctorlisa.org website, and hopefully having a little bit of this tea will help you to find your voice whether it’s singing or otherwise. Well Gen, it’s been fun to talk to you as always. I love having our guests on, but I also love just hanging out doing the Deep Dish with you.
Genevieve: I know, it’s a nice chance for us to catch up. We’ve got so much to talk about every day.
Lisa: I know, we always run out of time on this segment, but we’ll talk about it more next week.
Hello, this is Dr. Lisa Belisle, and this morning we’re privileged to have with us two special guests from the military. This is a new thing for us on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast. Genevieve Morgan, my co-host, and I are very happy to have you both here. Good morning, General Libby and also Andy Gibson.
Libby: Good morning, ladies.
Gibson: Good morning.
Lisa: Should I call you Chaplain Gibson? What’s your official title?
Gibson: Chaplain Gibson. If you’d like to call me Andy I’m just as comfortable with that.
Lisa: All right. Well I’m going to read a little background on you because it’s interesting to me. We’ll start with you, Chaplain Andy. You are the Director of Deployment Cycle Support in Maine military and community services. You’ve been in the military for twenty four years and received your Master of Divinity from the Bangor Theological Seminary nineteen years ago. You’re ordained in the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. What’s really interesting to me, because I have siblings who have also been overseas, you were deployed in both Bosnia and Afghanistan.
Gibson: That’s correct. It’s been a great career, and I really enjoy the work that I’ve been able to do.
Lisa: I thank you for it. Having siblings go overseas, it really is very meaningful to be sitting here with somebody who’s been overseas, so I know that – and Genevieve also feels the same way I think.
Genevieve: Oh absolutely, I do, I do.
Lisa: General Libby, you’re just as impressive actually. You’re officially a Major General, is that correct?
Libby: Yes.
Lisa: Major General. Major General Libby, you assumed your duties as the Adjutant General of the Maine National Guard on January 15th, 2004, and during your tenure the Maine National Guard has been continually involved in operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and more recently Libya. You’re responsible for immobilizes, deploying, and returning units from war, but your emphasis has been on the reintegration of Maine National Guard members back into their civilian lives and families. What’s more interesting to me is that you also served in Vietnam.
This is the reason that we decided to have you come in today. We’re talking about voice, and as you know my father is in the Maine Air National Guard, I think both of you have work with him, is Dr. Charles Belisle. I don’t know exactly what his, General Libby do you know his actual military title?
Genevieve: Oh yes, tell us his rank.
Lisa: Yeah, can you just – Colonial or something?
Libby: I’d rather tell you some stories about Charlie from back in Orono but …
Lisa: Okay, well we know – okay, you were just actually saying earlier today that you’d play football with my father at the University of Maine, but you know him now as a family physician serving in the Maine Air National Guard. The reason that we were interested in having you come in was because I had a conversation with him about how people are impacted when they serve overseas, and how their families are impacted, short term and long term, and he said, This is a really important for you to discuss because sometimes people feel as if they don’t have a voice upon returning.” I know that you have suggested that this so. People don’t necessarily know who they can talk to, or what they should be saying, or when they should be asking for help.
Genevieve: Well and I imagine their experiences are so different from the civilians who are here that coming back and having all of these stories that they may or may not want to tell, figuring out what to tell, what to say, when to say it can be very challenging.
Libby: Yeah, there’s no question about that, and we all react to our experiences differently, and therefore have different needs when they come back. What Andy’s all about, and what I’m all about, and frankly my focus comes from my experience in Vietnam. When I returned from Vietnam in 1969, my service was not embraced, it wasn’t appreciated, that’s a statement of who we were as a nation at that time at the end of a very unpopular war. We went to Starbucks across the street this morning and could not pay for our coffee.
The military is seen differently now, so at some level it is easier for people to get the help that they want, but as I was sharing with Lisa we are all Mainers, and we’re stubborn and we don’t ask for help, and that’s part of my challenge is to convince people that, I returned from Vietnam in 1969 suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. I sought help. I was changed by my experience, not clinically diagnosable perhaps. My wife would confirm what I’m telling you, but it was not an impediment to my being successful in my chosen career.
I feel I’m more resilient than I was, so I like to talk about post traumatic stress growth which a lot of people experience. Part of our challenge is convincing people, their families, their loved ones, and their employers that help is available. All you got to do is ask.
Lisa: Right, you actually have to speak up. Although you were telling me that there is a pretty significant process when somebody goes overseas and comes back. You have a – well you tell me about this, tell me what that looks like.
Libby: Well Maine’s actually, we’ve got our own program. There are programs that are sponsored federally and then there’s stuff that we do here for our folks. One of which in particular is that right when they get off the plane from their mobilization station, wherever that might be in the United States, we have a one day demobilization reverse check where they go to different stations, and part of those stations is finding about all the benefits that are available to them.
Then the more formalized program at thirty, sixty, and ninety days is called the Yellow Ribbon, and that is congressionally funded. And at that, again they see a lot of the benefits, a lot of the things that are available, a lot of the formal and informal folks that are out there that are willing to support them.
Their families are invited to these things, and so we find a lot of times that the military member is still in a little bit of a daze after they’ve come back. It’s not a behavioral health issue, it’s just a natural reintegration emotional experience. A lot of times the family member, whether it be a spouse, whether it be a parent, maybe even a brother, sister, or even kids. Sometimes even a friend can better understand the benefits that are available and better explain to that military member what’s going on.
Oh by the way, we also do this before they leave and we also have several sessions for the families while the military member is gone. All through, it’s support and that’ s why it’s called Deployment Cycle Support, is because the whole cycle is getting ready for war, actually participating in war, and then reintegrating from war. Ever since service member in Maine is in one of those zones, one of those parts of the cycle.
Lisa: I think it’s really important to remember that we really are in war. I mean this is very, I think this is a significant challenge. I’m glad that when you went to Starbucks people wouldn’t pay for your coffee because that’s the least –
Genevieve: Wouldn’t let you pay.
Lisa: Wouldn’t – well right, wouldn’t let you pay, sorry, but that does seem, my mother when – I had three siblings that were all overseas, and she had her three blue stars in the door, and for people who are in the military they know what that means, but there’s a lot of people who don’t know what that means. I was talking with Genevieve about this yesterday that it’s almost as if there’s this something going on somewhere else, but it can be completely abstract and we’re not remembering that there are violent, violent things that continue to go on overseas.
Libby: Yeah, and it becomes more difficult for the general public to comprehend as time goes on. We’ve been at this a decade which is hard to believe. I remember where I was, as you do, on 9/11 and remember realizing that something significant was about to happen to the National Guard. I never believed on that day that a decade later we’d still be at this, and we are.
Genevieve: In fact it’s become more complicated in some ways in terms of our involvement, more entangled in different areas.
Libby: But as a national, we’ve got a short attention span. I think the average public has just lost sight of the fact that we’ve still got men and women deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan from the Maine National Guard as we speak this morning with an awful lot of units scheduled to head off after the first of the year.
I think we’ve lost sight of that at some level, and that’s understandable, but the thing that I noticed that’s still significant in my mind is, as a nation, we’ve come a long way from where we were in the late sixties and early seventies holding guys and gals who simply agreed to support and defend the Constitution responsible for what’s going on in those places.
We don’t have a vote in where we go. Senator Snowe, Senator Collins have a vote in where we go, but we don’t have a vote. We go where this nation sends us, and as a nation we’ve come to realize that. Consequently I walk into Starbucks on a morning in Portland, Maine and not be able to pay for my coffee, and frankly that tickles me.
Genevieve: Can I ask a question, of either of you, but I’m wondering the process that when you enlist and you become a solider, that training is about toughening you up, so I can imagine that when you come home and you’re trying to figure out what’s going on, you may or may not know that you need help. If I’m the wife or spouse or partner or mother of a soldier, and I’m seeing that that solider or veteran needs help, and maybe I’m the one that is recognizing that but they aren’t, how do I go about finding you and figuring out how to get that person into your services?
Gibson: Well actually, our services are available to anybody. Whether it be the military member, a dependent, a friend, a parent, a child. Actually the phone number, 1-888-369-9287 or our website mainemcn.org, either one of those places, family members, friends can find all of that information that’s available.
Lisa: You can go and say, “Well I’m worried about my husband, he’s not really acting right, or he has all these dreams,” or whatever it is that they’re thinking about. They can go and then everything kicks in.
Libby: Yeah, absolutely. One important group that Andy didn’t mention, our employers because we see our individual soldiers once they’re back one weekend a month and a couple of weeks for annual training a year, the spouses, the family, the loved ones and employers see them on a daily basis. They’re the ones more likely to recognize that we’ve got a solider in crisis or a soldier with needs. They’re the ones who are likely to refer then.
Gibson: Our main military and community service is indeed a network, and it involves not only state entities, but also employers and also family members. Also, a lot of behavioral heath folks that are on the civilian side that have said they would step forward and help, sometimes at no cost sometimes on a sliding scale. It really is quite a large group of people, and the general was just referring to how much things have changed.
I think people have finally got it that just because we’re maybe in a war that is not popular with a certain segment of the society, they’re not holding that against the military member. The outpouring of folks that are willing to come forward and help is great. The problem is, as you just mentioned, is the service member, or the family member, or the employer, or anyone else with whom this person is associated, knowing where that stuff is.
That’s why we’ve created this website, that’s why we’ve created this 888 number. We have a Facebook page, hopefully someday we’re going to have a Twitter page. The whole idea is, and just to keep the theme, is to give these folks a voice and to hear what other voices are out there to support them.
Lisa: I’m stuck by, again, it’s this theme of voice, but also connectivity on lots of different levels. I mean we have General Libby who’s connecting with people and brotherhood, and you it sounds like the same, but you’re also connecting people from a faith standpoint, and you can give me this information on your organization, and you are helping people with substance abuse, you’re helping people with legal problems, you’re helping people – I mean it really is this very broad network that you’ve created of support. You are trying to connect people with that they need. Is that a fair statement?
Gibson: Absolutely. It’s wonderful having General Libby, and actually the previous Governor and the current Governor have all bought into the concept that a person is not full and well until all of the parts of their life have been met. That means that if you’re not working and you want to be, it means if you do have a behavioral health issue, it means it you do have a substance abuse issue, it means that if for some reason you can’t get your wood in while your soldier’s deployed, if it means that you can’t have certain basic needs met either through yourself or through your own work, that person is not fully actualized. If you want to talk about a voice, it does take away from that person’s voice. What we try to do is approach each individual as part of a system within some sort of a family or a relationship, but also an internal system to themselves that all the aspects within their life need nurturing and need help. We can’t provide all of that for everybody, but our job is to try to find the people who can and connect them to the service member of the family and the veteran.
Lisa: I have an eighteen year old. He’s in Guatemala, he’s in a different country now, and he has all of these uncles and his grandfather and his great – he has all of these people in his life who have been in the military. I don’t know if he will end up in the military at this point, but I’m struck by the fact that when you start in the military you could potentially be as young as seventeen.
This is what, I believe I understand, that you could sign up when you’re seventeen, go to basic training before you begin your last year of high school or before you turn eighteen, and then join the military. That’s very young, so you’re actually raising not only our sons, but our daughters from their early adulthood. That’s a pretty big responsibility.
Libby: Yes it is, and it’s a responsibility that frankly I, and I think most of my staff embrace. It’s all about service, I have three sons, none of whom served. I’m convinced they didn’t serve because they didn’t experience what I experienced listening to my father recount his experiences. They didn’t hear about the brotherhood from me because I didn’t talk about the brotherhood. They knew what I did, they appreciated and embraced what I did, but they weren’t mentored by me because of my experiences in Vietnam as my father mentored me without knowing it towards service.
Now they’re all involved in service, and I tell people this all the time, when my father died they wrote in his obituary, “He served his community, his state, and his nation.” That’s a theme that’s always played out in our house. If they can say that about me when I’m gone, and if they can say that about my sons when they’re gone, then they’re saying an awful lot. It’s really all about service.
Lisa: You’re raising our sons and our daughters to be of service whether it’s to family, community, larger sense. This is what you see your important job as being.
Libby: Absolutely, and the Guard’s involved in so many things in the community, whether it’s building a ball field in Yarmouth during an annual training period, whether it’s the Drug Demand Reduction Program that’s funded at the national level where our soldiers go into junior high schools and talk about the evils of drugs and do team building exercises. The great thing about the Guard is we’re community based, and they’ve given us programs that allow us to give back in the community. That’s part of what we’re dragging your sons and daughters into is not only service to the nation, but service to their state and service to their community.
Genevieve: Speaking of service, how can we as Mainers and members of the community support or help members of the military and their families this holiday season? Is there anything that we can do to help either support you and your services, or just – are there programs out there that can offer help and aid?
Gibson: Well that same number that I gave you earlier, and that same website, both will give you the opportunity to volunteer in whatever capacity that you’d like to. It may be just that you just want to do general yardwork or something like that for someone who’s deployed. Right now we are at a lull in terms of Mainers that are deployed from this state. We have roughly 150 Marines that are over. Our Air Guard folks go in and out, and that’s a much less visible type of deployment because they go for many short term deployments.
In the long run that ends up being just as disruptive as the single long term ones that the army tends to do largely because there’s such disruption in the household, I mean they’re coming home, then they’re going away for four months, then they’re coming home for half a year, then they’re back over for three months, and so there’s different types of disruption, but it’s just as impacting. What I would say would be is become aware of the military folks that are around you. Certainly thank them for their service.
Offer specific things. If you just say, “Anytime you need me, give me a call,” as the General said, we’re stubborn Mainers, no one’s going to call you. If you do say, “Hey look, I’d be willing to take your kids for a night if you need a break.” “I noticed that you got some leaves out in your front lawn, let me rake those up for you so that you don’t have to worry about that.” Offer specific things because if you offer specific things then you’re much more likely to be able to reach out and help.
Libby: I got to say that the people of Maine, the three administrations that I’ve worked with, the legislature have been magnificent in their recognition of the service and sacrifice to these part time guys and gals that we’ve got in the organization. You’re always at risk when you mention someone because you don’t mention everyone, but it’s the acknowledgment of what we do.
The free coffee at Starbucks in the morning, the Portland Pirates on the twelfth military appreciation night, those little gestures that simply say, “We understand your service, we appreciate your sacrifice and the sacrifice of your families, so let me recognize you in some tangible way.” Something that was missing in this nation in the late sixties and early seventies, but is clearly present today.
Lisa: Well thank you so much for coming in and talking with us today, thank you for serving and … I’ll just start that again. Thank you so much for coming in and talking with us today, and also for continuing to serve not only our country, but our communities. You’re doing great work, we really appreciate all that you do, and we send our thanks out to all the military during this holiday season.
Libby: Thank you.
Gibson: Thank you.
Lisa: This week, like every week, we spend time with Genevieve Morgan and enable her to have her special guest on as part of Maine Magazine Minutes. Thanks for returning, Genevieve.
Genevieve: Thanks, Lisa. Today I have a wonderful guest and a pillar of the music scene in Portland. His name is Spencer Albee, he’s been in a number of bands including The Rustic Overtones, As Fast As, he had a band called Spencer and the School Spirit Mafia, and most recently one of my favorite bands Space Versus Speed. Welcome, Spencer.
Spencer: Thank you. How are you?
Genevieve: I’m fine thanks. Well today’s show is about voice, and you are a singer and a songwriter and a musician and you also give plenty of opportunity for other bands in Portland to have their voice. Did you come to music through singing, like singing along to records, or did you come through playing an instrument and then adding your voice because you’ve been the fronts man for a lot of bands and you’ve been the singer.
Spencer: Yeah, I mean the … I don’t know, that’s a good question. Piano happened, and I mean – singing because it’s the instrument that you carry around all the time.
Genevieve: Your voice.
Spencer: Yeah, everyone has one. Everybody, I mean if you can speak you have a voice. Everyone can sing.
Genevieve: You also, like we said, give opportunity to other bands. Tell me a little bit about what you’ve been doing in the event promotion and art support areas.
Spencer: Well I have a weekly event called Clash of the Titans which is currently in its tenth season I think, and it’s at Portcity Music Hall every Wednesday. The prior thing’s for the crowd. Musicians just get together and have fun, but it’s been doing great.
Genevieve: This experience has lead you to start a new, well not new but relatively new venture called Paper Empire. Can you describe more about Paper Empire?
Spencer: It is new, I think, because it was started a couple years ago. My neighbor and I, and good friend Alex Creekhouse were on our stoop and he was leaving Wall Street as I was leaving the music business in a way. Just being like, I couldn’t figure it out. No one’s buying CDs, my whole industry – I equate being a musician these days to being a wooden ship builder, and then you’re standing there in the harbor and the iron boats comes in, the steel boats come in, you’re like, “I’m out of a job now.”
Genevieve: You’ve actually – you’re not out of a job as far as I can tell.
Spencer: Well no, but you have to figure out how to, this is going to sound really corny and I apologize for any artist that listening right now, but you have to figure out how to remonetize it because the old model is just dead. People, there’s no more huge record deal, there’s no Fleetwood Mac, there’s no Beatles, there’s nothing like that, so there won’t be any one song that’s on all the radio stations. Radio Now is mostly just pop. Most new music is discovered on a mass national scale by American Idol and The Voice and things like that.
Genevieve: You’ve created the Clash of the Bands and …
Spencer: Yeah, the Battle of the Music People.
Genevieve: Battle of the Bands, and what I think is so –
Spencer: See? No one can remember it.
Genevieve: Specific Clash – it’s good as Clash of the Titans, right?
Spencer: Yeah. We’re trying to make up, so it’s okay.
Genevieve: You’ve create a venue where people can have live experience with music which is something that won’t ever die. It is a way –
Spencer: No no, people will always want to see music. The Clash of the Titans, I’ve gotten some heat for it actually from the music community, or more like the Indie music review community because it’s not an “original music series,” using my quote fingers again, because it’s covers, but that’s why we do it on a Wednesday and a Tuesday. We stay out of the way of a night where you should actually go see an original band play their real music, and we party down on a Tuesday or a Wednesday.
Genevieve: But I think what you’re doing is actually really inspirational because you have chosen a hard field to succeed in monetarily. You have done a number of different things and you’re keeping it alive, and you are actually, through these different ventures like Paper Empire, Clash of the Titans, other event promotion you are actually out there creatively and entrepreneurially, and I’m wondering for some of our listeners out there who are growing up in Maine and who are musicians or who are visual artists or literary artists who want to feel like there’s a future for them in the arts, are you actually giving them an avenue for their voice. Do you have any advice for them? Do you have any … council?
Spencer: I guess … I think, I don’t want to sound like I was complaining earlier because the industry changed and, like I said, and people stopped buying music, that’s just what happened. I think gone are the days of get a record deal, be famous, millions of dollars. If you think of it along the lines of you’re a plumber, or you bake pizza, or something, it’s a job.
If you work at it, I think you can make a living at it. Maybe you won’t get a landslide fortune which I’ve always been fine with, I’m fine with go to work, do my bit, hopefully get paid at the end of the day, and just make a living doing it.If I can make a living playing music, I think like anybody, if you can make a living doing what you love, then you don’t really need a lot of money.
Genevieve: Spencer, I know that you’re always cooking up something new because that’s just who you are. What’s on the horizon.
Spencer: We have a few, like we mentioned the clash earlier, and we mentioned Paper Empire, I didn’t really do a good job explaining what it is, but it’s like –
Genevieve: Well you can do that now.
Spencer: Well it’s like a, we ended up creating a company that was a promotions company for music and political events I guess.
Genevieve: Great, well that’s very appropos of Election Day coming around the corner.
Spencer: Yeah, I think so. We have a benefit coming up for the League of Young Voters because we’re impressed by.
Genevieve: We’re going to be speaking with them next, so good connection.
Spencer: Good people. They’re doing good work. The Clash of the Titans, the last one of the season, it runs through December, but the last one is going to be Sesame Street versus The Muppets which is going to benefit a local children’s charity, not sure just which one yet, but I’ve had so many people reach out to me. Usually I’ll put up Van Halen versus Ozzy Osbourne be like, “Ya I’ll sing,” but this is – my inbox is flooded with musicians and musician’s parents who wanted to make, moms who want to make costumes for us.
Genevieve: That’s terrific.
Spencer: It’s not going to be so much of a battle as just a celebration of that music.
Genevieve: That’s what’s new in terms of your events promotion, but does Spencer Albee have any new music or new gigs coming up?
Spencer: I do. I actually have been in the studio with my good friend and producer John Wyman, he’s a great recording engineering. We’ve done a batch of new songs, and I’m putting out for the first time, none of my music has been available online. You mentioned all the bands I was in started in 2000s with the Popsico which was an accident record, I wasn’t the singer of Rustic Overtones, but I still wrote songs and sang, so I put out a record. Then it went up through Rocktopus and As Fast As a number of records for each of those bands. For the first time I’m going to put that out on iTunes and Amazon, all the online ones.
Genevieve: Under your own name? If we want to look for it, it’ll be Spencer Albee on iTunes search. Great.
Spencer: Spencer Albee, yup, and then you can get all the different records. It’s 150 songs.
Genevieve: Wow, that’s impressive. Well Spencer, thanks so much for coming in and talking to us today. It’s always interesting to hear what you’re doing, and as a community we need to really thankful to you for not only sharing your very impressive and beautiful voice and writing skills in your own music, but allowing us access to all these great bands, and what an exciting night. Clash of the Titans, Muppets and Sesame Street, among many others.
Spencer: That’ll be fun. For charity.
Genevieve: For charity.
Spencer: For the kids!
Genevieve: Yeah, exactly, for the kids. Thanks a lot for coming in.
Spencer: Thanks for having me.
Lisa: Spencer Albee and his band, The School Spirit Mafia, were profiled in an article last year in the Maine magazine. Download it at themainemag.com. The November/December 2011 issue of Maine Magazine is currently available at your local newsstand.
Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast we read from the book, Our Daily Tread. Our Daily Tread was created in honor of my late college classmate Hanley Dunning to benefit her organization, Safe Passage, which is based near the Guatemala city dump and educates children whose families must work in that dump. To learn more about Safe Passage, visit safepassage.org. To learn about our special holiday promotion of Our Daily Tread, visit islandportpress.com.
Our quote this week from Nelson Mandela, a man who most assuredly has kept his voice strong despite the difficulties that he’s encountered in his life. “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred. He is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed, and the oppressor alike, are robbed of their humanity.”
Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast we feature a segment we call Give Back in recognition of the fact that health is more than just an individual pursuit. It is indeed about the family, the community, and the world at large. We hope that by showcasing some of the people who are helping us to give back, we enable people to make connections with that aspect of wellness in our world. This show’s theme is voice, and appropriately enough we have a woman from the League of Young Voters here in Maine because we have an upcoming Election Day, so welcome Delia.
Delia: Thank you so much.
Genevieve: Hi, Delia.
Delia: Hi.
Lisa: Genevieve and I are very happy to have you here, and I’m reading your very impressive bio which is all the more impressive because let me start with the fact that you were born and raised in the smallest town in Maine, Randolph, which you’d told me is up in …
Delia: Central Maine, right outside Augusta.
Lisa: You started there, you’re the Program Director now fro the League of Young Voters. According to this, you’ve been fighting the good fights since you started marching on picket lines during the ’87 strike in Jay. Growing up in the labor movement and seeing the struggle firsthand, it was no surprise that you opted to attended college in the liberal enclave of North Hampton, Mass where you double majored in Government and American Studies at Smith College.
I love this. Degree in hand, Delia turned right around and headed home to Maine where she started organizing on various campaigns and causes from the 2008 and 2010 electoral cycles to pushing for comprehensive, clean energy reform on the federal level, to fighting for worker’s rights in the Maine State House. Delia has been mobilizing communities across the state to actively participate in the democratic process. You’re an impressive woman. It’s great to have to you.
Delia: Thank you.
Genevieve: With a strong voice, clearly.
Lisa: Yes, you do have a strong voice and you want to enable other people to have a strong voice as well.
Delia: Absolutely. I mean the League of Young Voter’s mission is to really try and make politics relevant and accessible to young people. We’re a member-driven organization, so we’re in this luxury spot of being multi issue and getting to see what the people in the community are focusing on and what’s impacting them. We don’t have a litmus test for, you have to believe in these issues to be on our side. Obviously we advocate for certain things, especially with an election coming up, but being member driven, we hear from the community about what to work on and it’s great. It’s almost like being the reverse Program Director in a way.
My members tell me what we need to be doing, and it’s exciting to go out there and amplify their message and what they need to take away from what’s going on right now. Yeah, you end up working on a lot of different things that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
Lisa: What information does the League provide, and who are you really targeting in terms of your members?
Delia: Our membership is open to everybody, but we like to focus on folks that are eighteen to thirty five years old to really try and get them into participating in the political process. It’s not just elections, it’s everything that’s going on in our community here, so we want to make sure that they’re turned off by the process, that they have the tools to understand how they fit into it, and really focusing on the younger crowd is important if we’re going to have community leaders later on in life.
That’s a big focus for us in trying to get folks out there. This Fall we’ve been doing a lot of work trying to educate the public. Rank choice voting, we’ve got a great program called Portland 101 that really dives into the heart of how our city runs.
Lisa: Because we’re electing a Mayor for the first time, isn’t that right?
Genevieve: Yup.
Delia: First time in I believe it’s almost eighty eight years, so yeah it’s a pretty big deal, especially with fifteen candidates in the race. We have a fabulous elections committee made up of six members from here in Portland that, for months on end had been studying and interviewing these candidates to really dive into exactly what they stood for, what they wanted to see happen with this new position.
They’re trying to really provide some great info to the community on this because we talked to a lot of people this Fall who are like, “There are just so many people, I don’t know where to start researching,” which is great. We have out Fall Voter Guide out now so folks can check out all the different Mayoral positions, we also included everything else that’s going on the ballot this year from city council to the “Yes On 1” race, or question 1 I should say.
Lisa: Where can people find this information?
Delia: We have them out at local businesses and different non-profits across town. You can also get in touch with us directly at our office over on high street. We’re in the State Theatre building in suite 302, anyone that wants to drop by can get one. Hopefully they should be able to find one pretty easily, and we’ll also have them at the poll on Election Day, so that’ll be the last minute grab to see what folks had to say about all the different issues and candidates.
Lisa: Well it’s Election Day on Tuesday. Today’s Sunday, that leaves tomorrow. Can people still register to vote tomorrow?
Delia: People can actually still register on the same day because we got this issue on the ballot, it suspended the repeal from going into effect. As long as you have the proper ID, or a utility bill, or something with your address on it, you can still go to your polling place on Election Day and register right before you cast your vote.
If your town hall is open, if you’re lucky enough to have it opened on the weekend or on a Monday, mine is not open on Monday usually, you are allowed to go in and register still, you just can’t submit an absentee ballot two business days before Election Days. That’s the good news about this season is if you haven’t registered yet, there’s absolutely still time and you should make sure to do it even if it’s right before you vote.
Lisa: How can people find out more about your organization?
Delia: They should go online and check us out on Facebook at The Maine League of Young Voters, and definitely go to out website which is maine.theleague.com. We try and update it every single day and really encourage folks to send us information that they want to see getting out there, so that would be the perfect place to start, and you should come to some of our events in the future and learn about it in person because that’s the most fun.
Lisa: We encourage people to do that, and thank you so much for coming in and talking to us today, Delia. You’re doing great work, and we hope that you’ll keep it up.
Delia: Well thank you guys so much, I really appreciate being here.
Lisa: Today on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast we have the unique opportunity to speak with a second Give Back guest, and that would be Carlin Whitehouse who is a youth educator with the Young Adult Abuse Prevention Program with family crisis services, and that is here in Portland. Thank you for coming in.
Carlin: I’m really happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Lisa: One of the reasons I’m interested in having you just spend a few minutes with us is I know you have an upcoming event that you were very excited to tell us about.
Carlin: Wednesday, November 9th, at USM Portland, the Lee auditorium, we are going to be screening for I believe the very first time in Maine actually, a documentary called Miss Representation. You may recognize it’s been on the O Network or Oprah’s Network recently, but we’re going to be screening it in its entirely, no edits. We’ve had the full support of the director and the producers to screen it here in Maine. They’re really excited for us, and we’re excited too.
Lisa: How is this film going to help us to understand the notion of preventing abuse?
Carlin: It’s interesting, we’re always educating people about healthy relationships, and recently within the last bunch of years we’ve really come to understand that the media plays a huge role in shaping cultural values, shaping beliefs, shaping norms and ideas about, for example, gender stereotypes. How men are supposed to be, how women are supposed to be. Then when they have relationships, how is that supposed to play out.
This movie specifically talks about how women are portrayed in mass media, how women are sexualized, how women are objectified, and how this can affect a young woman’s mind when … actually studies have been done where kids around nine, ten years old, they’re asked what they want to be when they grow up. Well there’s very similar answers for both boys and girls at that age.
Then, as they get a few years old, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, things start to really shift all of a sudden,. The boys are the ones that want the powerful jobs and the girls start talking about wanting to be actresses and models. These are the kinds of things that shape our worlds where the messages are, this is how a woman gains power by displaying more skin, by acting a certain way, by being a sexy, coquettish flirt, and those are the only options.
There’s a huge double standard, I think we all know that. This film really delineates it, points out some specific examples and interviews a lot of really famous women who’ve struggled through their own, dealing with their own identity and their own ambitions.
Lisa: This film does actually represent exactly what we’re talking about today on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast which is about voice. We thank you for coming in and talking to us about it. Where can people find out more about this event that’s coming up on November 9th?
Carlin: Yaapp.org, y-a-a-p-p.org. We also set up an event page on Facebook, the Young Adult Abuse Prevention Program.
Lisa: People can go on the Facebook page, or we will refer them to your website via the doctorlisa.org website. Very good, thanks for coming in.
Carlin: Thanks a lot.
Lisa: Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast we read from My Bountiful Blog. As I’ve said before, I began this blog in 2008 as a means of feeding my physically, and moved on to feeding myself emotionally and spiritually through writing in this blog. What I have also found is this blog has given me a voice. It has enabled me to speak my piece, which as I said at the beginning of the show is very important. This blog is called Finding Voice, and it was initially written on July 14th, 2011.
When we lose our voice physically, that fact is plain. A touch of laryngitis and we’re forced into a state of semi-whisper, working hard so that others might hear us. When we lose our voice metaphorically, others may not realize it at all until one day we start talking again. At that point it can be painfully loud, or at least loud by comparison. Then people are startled. Our newfound voice isn’t always welcomed. It can be hard for others to want to hear, but sometimes others are more than willing to hear us. We just need to find the right audience.
Then, gaining strength from an appreciative audience, we are able to use our voice anywhere, at any time, even if our voice dances uncomfortably in the ears of those around us. If we have the strength to keep using our voice, we may have a chance to use it as a tool with which we may help others, perhaps others who have no voice or perhaps others who voices are not like ours. Our voice, after all, is part of who we are. Our voice is our gift.
As we fine tune our voice, the fact of this gift may become clear. We may use our voice in song, or in poetry. We may use our voice in defense of the voiceless. We may use our voice in praise or adulation. Then our voice is not merely a means by which we communicate. It is an instrument through which the breath of the world might flow. Our voice is not merely ours. It is the voice of many.
It is the voice of the life spirit, and as such, it must be allowed to find its way from the depths from our physical bodies so that we may be hold, so that we may join in the glorious cacophony and madness and joy created by the voices of our fellow man so that our words may be welcomed back into the world.
This blog post, and others like it, may be found on bountiful/blog.com. This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we addressed the theme of voice. I feel strongly that the work we’re doing with the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is giving a voice not only to those who come on the program, but to those who are listening and perhaps hoping to find an inspiration to create their own voices in their lives.
Today we talked with Major General Bill Libby and Chaplain Andy Gibson of the Maine National Guard who spoke about giving voices back to the soldiers who are returning from overseas. We also spoke with musician and local event promoter Spencer Albee who discussed the importance of knowing one’s own voice and using it with joy. Finally, we had a special featured Give Back which had two different guests. Delia Gorum of the League of Young Voters, and Carlen Whitehouse of the Young Adult Abuse Prevention Program, each of whom spoke about the importance of finding ones voices and using it in the world.
We hope that this show inspire you to find your own voice and perhaps listen more carefully to the voices of others. The individuals and events discussed on this show can be found on the Dr. Lisa website which is d-o-c-t-o-r lisa.org. This is Dr. Lisa Besilie, thank you for joining us this week. We hope that you join us again next week. Thank you also for being a part of our world. May you have a bountiful life.