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Didn't you used to be Dean Friedman?
Volume 1, Issue 3, July 1993
Greetings to my legions of ten toed fans. Having recovered after standing for 4 days straight at the New York Virtual Reality Expo my dogs are feeling much better now thank you. How are yours?
Helpful Hint of the Month: Applying moistened mineral salts will make your tootsies smell fresh and clean, the natural way.
CORPORATE NEWSCLIPS:
Virtual Reality - "To Be Or Not To Be" or "Dooby Dooby Doo!"
This little piggie has gone to market and may actually be on the verge of bringing home the bacon. (Don't worry, this business venture is strictly kosher.) Which is to say, my latest business ventures seem to be bearing some fruit, or vegetable, or moldy bread (?). Which raises the question: Which side is my bread buttered on?
Thankfully, life and business both seem to be going along rather well. Oh sure, I could still use a few hundred thousand to pay some incidental bills, but hey, who's complaining? The kids are healthy, the animals have no fleas and I still have some hair on my head.
For those of you who may be curious, I've stumbled onto a great business concept: I'm selling virtual reality! Yes. VR! It's the latest thing. The buzzword(s) of the nineties. Now get this - otherwise intelligent people pay me a lot of money for - ready - something that doesn't actually exist! No kidding! The only drawback is that some of my clients insist on paying for my virtual product in virtual dollars. This is not as bad as it might seem at first. This enables me to by virtual groceries which has helped me avoid putting on too much actual weight.
Put simply, some of you may remember the VR game "EAT-A-BUG" I created for NICKELODEON TV a few years back - where kids get to step inside a video game. Well, since then my company InVideo Systems, Inc. has been creating award winning virtual reality systems for leading children's and science museums and family entertainment centers around the world. Just this year we've created InVideo Systems for the Eureka! Children's Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Life & Science, the Franklin Institute, the COSI Columbus Ohio Museum of Science and Industry, the Liberty Science Center and the Family FunJungle in Maryland. Suprisingly, to some (me for instance), the business has been rapidly growing and we're already starting to land some major media. (Eyewitness News did a piece on us a few weeks ago and we've been showing up in magazines like Compute and PCWeek).
Anyway, life's been hectic. Fun and interesting - but hectic. It's still too early to say where all this will lead exactly, but, hey. Maybe I'll make enough to go in and do the next album or something - that is assuming I don't forget how to play piano and guitar and all the lyrics to my songs (nothing new, Dean). Music? Did someone mention music? What's that?
Lately, the only music I get to do are the soundtracks and theme music to our VR video games. The music for Virtual Volley Ball is a big hit by the way. I do miss playing though. Fortunately, this VR stuff I'm doing now is also a lot of fun.
Although, I have to admit it's still disorienting when some one walks up to me at some VR show and asks (as they invariably do) 'Didn't you used to be Dean Friedman?". This sort of thing gives me pause. Indeed, did I used to be Dean Friedman? And who am I now? More to the point, what is it I actually do? My mom would still like to know. I'm still not quite sure, myself. In fact, I'd like to take this opportunity to officially offer a prize of one free Rumpled Romeo CD to the first person who can actually explain to me what it is I do for a living! [send your entries to P.O. Box 1286 Peekskill, NY 10566 no later than December 31, 1993. Employees of Dean Friedman Productions, Inc. or its subsidiary InVideo Systems, Inc. are expressly encouraged to participate, although not during working hours, thank you. (I'm a real slavedriver as a boss, as you probably guessed.)
Speaking of which - quite seriously - we here at InVideo Systems, Inc. which is located at 7 Corporate Dr. (very corporate don't you think?) in Peekskill, NY 10566, are actively seeking extremely talented, experienced, hardworking and cheap (innexpensive) programmers, animators, video producers, production assistants, salesreps, and assorted business execs, lawyers and accountants to possibly get involved with us during an extremely rapid period of growth and expansion. If you live anywhere in the Westchester area and have an interest or, better yet, a passionate and burning desire to be involved in the media revolution of the future, send me a resume and samples of your work. You'd be surprised at how many current employees I've already found through my gig mailing list. Send stuff to me c/o InVideo Systems, Inc. at the above address and mention that you're on the mailing list. I'll try to respond in a timely fashion.
So what does all this have to do with my songwriting and recording career? Nothing. Did I plan all of this? What do you thing?
Don't worry though. If you have an unquenchable desire to come and see me perform some memorable tunes, crack a few silly jokes and dance around like a lunatic you won't have to wait much longer.
I won't be performing any grown-up concerts until the new year (I'll let you know when) but I will be performing the 3rd annual DEAN FRIEDMAN's CHANUKAH CONCERT FOR KIDS tour on the following dates:
December 5, 1993 at 1:00pm
Paramount Center for the Arts, Peekskill, NY
Tickets $6 CALL: 914-739-2333
December 12, 1993 at 1:00pm
Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th St. New York, NY
Tickets $10 CALL 212-864-5400
December 19, 1993 at 1:00pm
Brooklyn Children's Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Tickets (to be announced) CALL 718-735-4400
The show is lots of fun, with giant puppets and props and special guests Larry the Latke and Murray the Matzoh Ball. All are welcome, but, be forwarned you may walk away with a desparate craving for potato latkes. Group Sale discounts for a minimum of 20 tickets are available by calling 914-736-3600.
And while I won't be performing any grownup songs at these shows, I promise to book some proper grownup gigs in the beginning of the new year (with the band); that is if you promise to come and bring your friends.
What else is going on? All sorts of stuff. The kids keep getting bigger. Every time I turn around there seems to be another animal in the house (Alison, these maternal insticts are driving me nuts!) The latest, Cupcake, a cat, is a voracious black and white ball of fluff that eats anything in sight and purrs like a lawn mower. Have I mentioned my allergies? Does anyone listen?
I can't help but wonder, now and again, about you - my patient readers. Some of you have been on my mailing list for over ten years. And I still get letters almost every other week from someone somewhere here in the U.S. or over in England that goes on about how they've been searching for my albums since the '70's and finally tracked down a copy with a mailing address through the cousin of a friend's neighbor's sister-in-law's friend's orthodontist. This correspondence is a pleasure to read but I have to admit it definately makes me stop and wonder at the circuitous route that's led me down this peculiar and virtual path.
But of course, however strange my own life may seem at times, I know each one of yours is at least as strange - probably stranger! So, seriously, write. Let me know what's going on out there. Otherwise I tend to think of you all as a big vague, amorphous blob as opposed to the slightly psychotic individual loopy lunatics and friendly felons you probably are.
As always, thanks for listening. Order lots of tapes and CD's for Chanukah/Christmas. Stay healthy. Take lots of Vitamin C this winter. Don't fight with your siblings (that goes for me too and Racelle and Aram and Erica).
And and one last thing: Even if you don't order anything at all, please send in a mailing list form so that we can keep you on the mailing list, otherwise you may have to wait for the TIME/LIFE TV compilation offer before you hear from me again.
Don't worry no one really understands what's going on - they just pretend they do!
Yours,
Dean Friedman, D.M.*
Foot Doctor to the Stars (*D.M. decent musician)
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