(LONG ISLAND, NY) Brooklyn born and Long Island raised singer, Cristina Fontanelli, loves to come home to Long Island to perform. She debuts her new show “From Bagels to Bocelli: the Musical Journey of My Life” at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center at Five Towns College on Sunday June 1 at 2pm.

“The show chronicles the craziness of my journey from starting in the ‘Borscht Belt’ in the major resorts in the Catskills to performing at George Bush’s inauguration in 2005 as well as performing for President Clinton,” Fontanelli said.

Cristina Fontanelli opened the ceremonies at the Stars and Stripes Presidential Inaugural Ball in Washington D.C. where she sang the “Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” to an audience of over 6,000 invited guests and dignitaries.

“My career came about in an unusual way,” she continued. “I’m a dedicated opera singer but the journey up the ladder is colorful. I wasn’t all of the sudden in a serious opera house.”

“I studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts,” she said. “I wanted to be an actress but I was shy and a bit overweight. Then a light bulb went off – I could be an opera singer, they’re chubby. This way I could eat lasagna.”

Even the story of how she began singing opera is comical.

“I was taught by a tiny Italian lady in Brooklyn,” she said. “She smoked and just said to get over it. There was a train trestle outside so while I was singing trains would go by. She had a stuffed bear head, but this head was not over the fireplace, it was coming out of the fireplace. She would send me to the local church to sing ‘Ava Maria’ and ‘Mamma.’ I got paid $25 and I joke that I still get paid $25.”

Fontanelli performing live 11-29-09 in the Christmas in Italy Concert

Don’t let her wry humor fool you. Fontanelli has toured around the world including Europe, Japan, Korea, Africa, Istanbul, Hong Kong and the Middle East. She has performed with major orchestras, opera companies, nightclubs and festivals throughout the world. Recently she was a PBS-TV host for Andrea Bocelli’s concert “Live from Central Park.”

Her show takes you through her career and around the world through songs and stories. It includes Broadway show tunes, including “Time to Say Goodbye,” “Besame Mucho,” “Send in the Clowns,” and songs of Andrew Lloyd Weber. It will also include some Yiddish songs, Frank Sinatra – because her mother is from Hoboken- and Opera.

The show is chock full of anecdotes. She tells the story of when she went to Boston to perform on a Greyhound Bus during a strike.

“The doors closed and we were ready to leave,” she said. “The driver turned around and said ‘Does anyone know how to get to Boston?’ It gets better. Some people were telling him how to get to Boston and they told him the wrong way, then they fell asleep. The bus broke down along the way. We finally got there and I realized I forgot my dress, so I had to go to Filene’s Basement and get a dress.”

Fontanelli performed a nightclub act at Feinstein’s at the Regency Hotel in New York City.

“I wrote this show because people were hungry for it,” she said. “They would ask me when I would be performing my night club act. It’s super entertaining. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry too. When I sing ‘Mamma’ they cry.”

Her music appeals to people of all ages.

“There was a man that took his 95 year old mother to see my ‘Christmas in Italy’ show,” she said. “June 1st is his mother’s 96th birthday and she chose to spend it at the show. They are bringing the children and the grandchildren and he asked me if I could dedicate ‘Mamma’ to her.”

“It [the music] is considered old fashioned but I’ve had young people, kids, teenagers and people in their 20s say they loved it,” she said. “There was a 21 year old girl when I sang at a park on Long Island that said she had tears in her eyes, she loved my show. That’s what singing means to me.”

Tickets are sold through the Box Office at (631) 656-2148 and online here.  Tickets are $30 and $25. More information on Ms. Fontanelli can be found at www.cristinafontanelli.com

(Long Island, NY) Lady Jane Craft Center, maybe one of the last Mom and Pop craft stores in the area, has been open since 1988 in Ozone Park, Queens. The store is a dream come true for owners Lynn and Charlie Kerschenbaum of Oceanside.

The store sells everything you need to make crafts whether it be for a bridal or wedding shower, a school project, children’s crafts, favors, yarn, notions, fabric, glass, wood, chocolate molds, cake molds, anything you can think of for a craft they have it. It is 11,000 square feet and has everything the big chains have and more. Plus they offer the personal touch.

“You don’t need to try to sell as much as you can,” Lynn said. “If you set people up with what will work best for them they will come back.”

“For example, a parent came in needing to do a science project with her son,” she continued. “She was tearing her hair out. She thought it would be complicated and expensive. I showed her how with a little bit of paint she could re-purpose a cereal box from home and turn it into what she needed. I showed her that with a little bit from the store and a little bit from home she could get it done. She left happy, and to me that’s the best.”

The Kerschenbaum’s didn’t always know they would open a store. Lynn started by making crafts and selling them at flea markets. Then she realized she could make money from selling the supplies.

“The first time I walked into a craft store it was amazing,” she said. “I started making favors, wall hangings and crafty things with wood and dried flowers. I would go to flea markets and sell crafts. Charlie would help me bring stuff to the markets. Then we realized we could make money with supplies. We opened a store on Liberty Avenue, it was an old barbershop.”

It was a resounding success.

After a couple of months, Charlie quit his job as a taxi driver.  Two or three years later they moved to their current, larger location on Crossbay Street. It was half the size it is now. Two years later they doubled the size of the shop.

“We expanded so fast because we kept our prices down,” Lynn said.

“We wrote a five-year business plan before we opened the shop, and it all came true,” she said.

In addition to the approximately 30 part time employees the couple’s two kids, Jaqui, 16 and Deven, 23, work in the store. Jaqui works the cash register part time and Deven is a full-time IT manager, building the store’s website.

“We have people that were babies coming in with their parents who now have jobs with us,” Lynn said.

Manger Elle Ramsing, of Queens, has been working at the shop since 2005.

“It’s a family friendly atmosphere,” she said. “I’m very crafty and I like helping customers design their crafts.”

Deven Kerschenbaum said he enjoys building the family business. “When I put work into the store it benefits me and my family.”

So why is a store, started by Lynn Kerschenbaum called Lady Jane Craft Center?

“When I was creating the store I didn’t want to use my name,” Lynn said. “I like the Renaissance and my mother used to call me ‘Little Miss Lady Jane.’ She would say, ‘What do you think you’re doing Little Miss Lady Jane?’ or ‘You think you’re Little Miss Lady Jane.’ It was like a joke. My father was in the Navy and he was away a lot. I remember him listening to a Trini Lopez song called “Sweet Lady Jane.” So the name makes me think of my parents, it’s Renaissancy and it’s fancy.”

Running the store is more than just a business for Lynn.

“I fell in love with creating things the first time I walked into a craft store,” she said. “I was mesmerized and I was hoping others would be too. And they were!”

Lady Jane Craft Center is located at 137-20 Crossbay Boulevard, Ozone Park, Queens. Store hours are 9am-9pm Monday through Saturday and 10am to 7pm on Sundays. Visit www.Ladyjanecraftcenter.com.

(Long Island, N.Y.) The indie-alternative rock music played by Long Island band, Face the King, is known all over the world. “The music,”  says drummer Randy Palumbo, ”is about uniting people.”

“People aren’t different from one another,” Palumbo said in a recent interview. “When the lights go down we’re all the same there’s no need to discriminate.”

Face The King, made up of Eric Zirlinger, Dan DelVecchio, Joey Dammacco and Randy Palumbo,  has played as far north as Massachusetts, as far south as Florida and as far west as California. The band practices in Amityville and its members are from Farmingdale, Wantagh, Bellmore and the North Shore.

Face The King. (Photo by: Kristin Tully; Makeup by: Cristina Calderaro)

The band has only been together four years. But in that short time has built up quite a following.

“Due to the Internet we have fan clubs in Portugal, France, England, Brazil and Canada,” Palumbo said. A little closer to home, the band has a big following in the Northeast between Philly and Connecticut.

“The music is poppy enough that it can be played on the radio,” Palumbo said. “It’s not abrasive but it does get deep and dark at times. It’s provocative. It lets you see what’s going on in your own mind.”

The band just released a four track mini EP called “Sound EP.” This is a preview to a full length album called “You, Me and The Sound,” that will be available shortly.

Named the Best Band of Long Island by Long Island Press earlier this year the band has played big festivals including Warp tour and in big venues like Syracuse and Embry Riddle Aeronautical Universities. They can be seen around Manhattan at places including the Gramercy Theater, The Highline Ballroom and Webster Hall.
They have partnered with the anti-discrimination group Hate to Hate led by Tim #37 (Tim Martinez) a booking agent who is big in New York, in an anti-bullying campaign.

“We each have our own story why anti-bullying is important to us,” Palumbo said. “I was bullied all through elementary school, junior high and high school. I was never very good at sports and even though I was in the band I didn’t show up every day and I didn’t fit in. I got my hair pulled. Even teachers made fun of me. Anti-bullying is really important to me.”

For Randy playing music is all about the fans. “It’s the passion we get from the fans,” he said. “When they come up to us at a show and say the music makes their day better that’s a great feeling. Or when they send an email and say ‘listening to your music put a smile on my face.’ That’s icing on the cake. “

“A big part of why I play music is to be creative,” he continued. “It’s an art form where I can express myself.”
Palumbo doesn’t write music although he does play guitar. He said the band considers him the captain of the ship.

“I’m the new guy at the helm steering the ship,” he said. “When we compose music I help with the flow so that it makes sense.”

The band, which usually travels and plays all year, is coming off the road.

“We’re back in the studio to finish the next full length album. Then we’re going to get back in there and perform bigger and stronger than before.”

For more information or to order an EP go to facethekingband.com

(Long Island, N.Y.) Mentalist/Magician David Levitan seems to be able to know exactly what you’re thinking but he doesn’t claim to be able to read minds.

His shows amaze audiences and he has entertained thousand s of people at parties, corporate dinners and trade shows. Along the way he has performed magic and mind-reading for celebrities including Alec Baldwin, Donald Trump, Howard Stern and Phil Collins.

Recently he performed at the Manetto Hill Jewish Center in Plainview where he astounded his audience.

In one demonstration he was able to determine a word someone chose randomly from four pages of the New York Times. Before the show Levitan gave a random man who turned out to be Robert Foldes of North Bellmore, four pages of the New York Times. He told him to memorize one word. When the show began, Levitan ripped the pages into four pieces. He had an audience member pick a piece to work with. He continued ripping the pages and having the audience member choose a piece until he was down to an index card size of a page. Then the audience member pointed to a word on the page. Levitan wrote down the word the audience member was pointing to. Then he had Foldes tell the audience what word he memorized. The word was “lurch” and that’s what was written down.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Foldes said after the show. “I was nervous. He mystified and amazed me.”

Levitan went on to prove the power of love. He asked the audience if they had a photograph of someone important to them with them. An audience member volunteered a photo she had. He then talked about an article he read in Psychology Today where a woman jumped in a river and pulled her baby out of the water. She saved the baby but she didn’t know how to swim.

He put the photo in a box. He had only one key to open the box. Then he had a cupful of keys that didn’t open the box. To prove that he had the volunteer take keys out of the cup and try to open the box and it did not open. He told the volunteer to pretend the box is a building with one way in and one way out. Then he had her split up the keys into both hands. He told her to put down the keys she didn’t have a good feeling about. “Now you hear the person screaming,” he told her. Once again she divided the keys into both hands and put down the keys she didn’t have a good feeling about. The tension built. “Now you hear the person pounding on the wall,” he said. She separated the keys again, until she had three keys left. Then he told her to choose a key. That key opened the box. As if this wasn’t enough, the volunteer placed the photo face down into Levitan’s hand. David “knows” the picture is a female with dark hair. “It is your daughter. Her name is Tracy,” he said. He was exactly right.

So, if he’s not reading minds how does he do it?

“My show is based in the science of watching people,” he said. “It’s body language and eye movement. I am a student of Neurolingustics – the science of how people’s eyes move when they are thinking of certain things. People are hard wired when they are thinking.”

“When a good detective comes on to a crime scene he can pick up on clues,” he continued. “That’s what I do. I pick up on clues about people. I look at the way they dress, their age bracket and the expressions they make.”

Levitan who is also an accomplished magician says he throws a bit of magic in his show to make it fun.

“What makes it fun for the audience is that they try to distinguish what is real and what is sleight of hand,” he said. “In this show an adult can see it as real magic the way a child watches magic. It really makes you feel like a kid again. You’re watching something that doesn’t make sense.”

Levitan, 52, has been studying magic since he was in elementary school. He has been performing since he was 16 years old.

“It started as a hobby when I was a kid,” Levitan said. “I learned magic from books in the public library. I liked being able to create the illusion that the impossible was happening.”

The first show he did was with his younger brother for the next door neighbor’s Girl Scout troop.

“The kids had a blast and I was hooked,” he said.

He started studying mind reading at an early age as well.

“In elementary school I had a fascination with Uri Geller, an Israeli psychic. He was very famous at the time. I would read everything I could about him. He gave people the sense that he was able to read their minds. As I started to develop the ability to pick up on body language and making very good guesses I began to learn the science of reading people.”

“I don’t believe anyone can look at you and know what you’re thinking,” he said. “My show is based in the science of watching people, the body language they use and their eye movement.”

“What’s exciting is that every time I’m in front of a new group I never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “Every show is different, every group is different. It’s never the same thing. I love being able to do something that makes people happy and takes them away from day to day life.”

Levitan performs magic and mentalism for corporate clients, at sales meetings, and trade shows where he mixes product information into his act. He also performs at private parties and Bat Mitzvahs. He travels all throughout the US and internationally.

For more information go to www.davidlevitan.com.