Posted by Donna Talarico on November 9, 2009

Photo from Weekender, Nov. 4, 2009
The November 4, 2009 edition of the The Weekender featured two articles my me. I’ve been a fan, thanks to @SheliTwits, of the Tom Petty Appreciation Band for some time. A life-long Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers fan, I was secretly waiting for a tribute band to pop up locally (I actually have a name for one that I’ve never been able to use because my only musical talent is listening, so instead I turned it into a collection of short stories I want to write), so when I saw a Twitter update in March that Sheli was going to see a Tom Petty Appreciation Band in Scranton, I was like, “What? Where?” I didn’t get to see them that day, but have seen most of their shows since.
When I heard that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers was coming out with a massive collection of live music called the Live Anthology, I thought it’d be perfect timing to cover the local and national angle. I pitched the idea to my editor at The Weekender, and we found out the next Tom Petty Appreciation Band show was going to be at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains (basically Wilkes-Barre) on November 6, so he scheduled both my stories for the Wednesday before.
Pat Finnerty, lead singer of the band, was very fun to talk to. I think the story turned out well. It seemd to help draw a huge crowd to the Jazz Cafe also.
Check out the article here: NEPA’s Southern Accents… (But of course, I love how the page looks in print.
Also, there’s the article on the Tom Petty collection.
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Posted by Donna Talarico on October 6, 2009
I had a post here yesterday about Talented People I Know- didn’t realize it was still here, in draft form. (That’s the downfall of managing multiple blogs from one place!) You can read the post about Kaylie Jones at www.dailydoseodonna.com. I’m slightly embarrassed that the unfinished post was shown here. Thought it was draft form before I moved it to the right blog.
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Posted by Donna Talarico on September 1, 2009
In the 8/18/09 issue of the Weekender, I interviewed the manager (and father of two of its members) of a local classic rock group made up of local high school students. The interview was prior to their first bigger gig on their own– previously they were opening acts for other bands.
Here’s the scoop on Gentlemen from Mountaintop:
Stevie Ray Vaughn. The Rolling Stones. Led Zeppelin. Not artists you’d first associate with a modern-day teenage basement band, right? Wrong. That’s a typical setlist for a quartet of young men from Mountaintop. Make that Gentlemen.
Check out the whole story on these talented boys here.
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Posted by Donna Talarico on August 13, 2009
The new issue of the eBiz Insider hit the mail this week, and it features my story “5 Must-Have Features to Woo Holiday Shoppers: Forget Sleigh Bells – Get Those Cash Registers Ringing.” But, this issue also has special meaning to me since I am now part of the Solid Cactus corporate marketing team. As an account manager, I just contributed to the magazine. But my new role allows me to be hands-on with the entire production of the magazine along with the rest of the marketing team and copy-editors. It was great fun to be involved from assignment to publication!
I’m in the masthead now, baby!
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Posted by Donna Talarico on August 9, 2009
This is one of my favorite stories to date. Very, very proud of this one.
The moment I saw that my friend Matt Hinton made these unique lighting fixtures from old musical instruments, I knew there was a story in it. The world just had to know about his amazing work!
I pitched the story to the Times Leader for their At Home section, which runs each Saturday. The story ran today and it’s beautiful! There’s nothing like seeing the layout and photos in the paper. Good stuff. What I think was also cool, and that I am very proud of, is that this feature story got the teaser in the front page of the paper! The upper right, above the masthead, gives a peek at the story and a great closeup shot of the saxophone lamp.
We talked about how his hobby started, the types of lamps he has made already, and what he’d like to make in the future. We talked a little about his play The Quiet Cowboy and his other domestic, artistic creations like a pot rack made from a shopping cart.
Matt, of course, was a great interview. This was a fun story to write. And, if anyone has any old brass or woodwind instruments they’d like to part with, Matt can turn them into something really cool…
The Times Leader unfortunately archives their stories after seven days, but here is the link anyway.
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Posted by Donna Talarico on August 2, 2009
Had the cover story in this week’s Weekender: Medical Makeovers: Turning Back Time With Surgery. Wrote about cosmetic surgery trends (for instance, more men are having procedures done, and the economy is changing the industry, too) and had some really fantastic interviews – used a service I just heard about through Twitter caller Reporter’s Source (on Twitter: @reporterssource) and got hooked up with three great plastic surgeons. Also found a local girl to interview, as well as a young man from San Francisco who has quite the story to tell.. learn more about Nick Starr here.
At any rate, this was a story I had a lot of fun writing and think it turned out well. Also learned a lot. It was one of those stories that I ended up with an overload of information, but for the sake of room had to hold back. : )And of course, this makes me want liposuction.
Kudos to these docs for talking to me:
Dr. Yaremchuck – based in Boston, and also teaches at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Glunk – based near Philadelphia, in King of Prussia
Dr. Mayl – based in Ft. Lauderdale , FL
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Posted by Donna Talarico on June 8, 2009
I had the cover story in the June 3, 2009 issue of The Weekender, focusing on the recent increase of violent crime in Wilkes-Barre. For the story, I interviewed Mayor Tom Leighton, Police Chief Gerard Dessoye, a sociology professor, a business owner and a city resident to get all views. Despite the tough subject matter (I mean, it’s about death), I enjoyed this story because it was one that needed to be told! Thanks, Weekender for asking me to tackle this current event story!
Here’s a snippet:
Anywhere but Wilkes-Barre. That’s the job search criteria for one local young professional.
Steve Moyer, 25, of Wilkes-Barre’s North End is looking beyond the local classifieds because he said the city isn’t as safe as it once was.
“[Deciding to leave] the area did not originate because of the violence, however, that is slowly becoming a reason. …,” he said. “The recent escalation has me looking for greener pastures.”
In 2009, there have been seven homicides in Luzerne County. Four of them have been in Wilkes-Barre — fourth most in the state. Wilkes-Barre, with an estimated 41,069 residents, is the 22nd largest city in Pennsylvania, according to the 2000 U.S. census. In murders, however, Wilkes-Barre has a much higher ranking, trailing only Philadelphia (1.5 million residents), Pittsburgh (311,218) and Harrisburg (47,196).
You can read the entire story here.
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Posted by Donna Talarico on June 2, 2009
Just realized that I never posted this story here on my blog. I had the opportunity to interview the lead singer (the “Gene”), Tom Pressano of a New York-based KISS tribute band, KISS ALIVE! for a Weekender story a few months ago. He was great fun to talk to! He’s an English teacher by day and by night, rocks out to some of the greatest rock and roll ever made. The story ran in the April 1, 2009 issue of the Weekender, promoting the band’s show that weekend.
Here is a snippet:
Shakespeare by day. Simmons by night.
Tom Pressano spends his weekdays teaching English in New York City, but as his students tell him, he’s a freak on the weekends. Pressano, or “The Demon,” on bass and vocals, is one-quarter of the Kiss tribute band KISS ALIVE! He impersonates fellow (former) teacher, Gene Simmons.
The NYC-based KISS ALIVE! will bring the makeup, the costumes and the setlist that made KISS rock n’ roll icons to Nightcaps in Edwardsville this Saturday, April 4. It seems as if Kiss and other legendary bands from that era are still insanely popular today, and Pressano offered that perhaps it’s because they were the first big entertainers in the genre.
To read the entire story, you can visit the archived Weekender story here: KISS ALIVE! to Rock and Roll All Night.
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