Painted Eyes Enterprise

Roads

2012-02-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I have posted. Everyday continues to bring challenges and opportunities, depending unfortunately, on how I may be feeling. But always remembering what Dad would say...ehwuhyagunnado? Lately, I've been watching the challenges and opportunities my daughter & son are going through. Joseph continues to be blessed with certain athletic skills that continue to amaze me and other people. He approaches his kicking skills as an artist who is both passionate and disciplined. My hope is that he will always focus on the small steps to achieve his goals, while always being aware of the big picture. Perhaps the irony of life as my father taught me. Our daughter, Emilia, is facing new challenges & opportunities, too. So proud of the things she has already accomplished. Graduating with honors from high school and a major university. Finding a job with a large corporation and excelling. Moving and living on her own in a great American city, Boston. And now, accepting a new job in Nashville with a new company. Our prodigal daughter is coming home to live with us for awhile. Deep breath all around. OK, it is a blessing for my wife and me. After these many years, Emilia is returning and will be living under our roof. She is no longer that curly red head little girl, but rather, a young adult who is making her way through life. And we are blessed to be a part of her life, her challenges & dreams. Still, I will always see her as my little girl. Fidgia mio. And as she travels that road of life ahead...I hope and pray that she will remember the wisdom and insight she showed me one morning so long ago. Emmy was around 3 or 4 years old. I was taking her to daycare, but told her we had to first stop at the bank. She got all excited at the thought of going to the bank and getting a strawberry lollipop. As I left our house, I took some back roads. She started crying. I asked her why she was crying. She yelled,"you said we were going to the bank and this isn't the way to the bank!" I assurred her that we were still going to the bank, and that I was just taking another road. The she replied, "Oh, so you can get to the same place by taking a different road." I pulled the car over and started to cry. It isn't everyday that God speaks to you through one of his angels. So Emilia...Emmy...as you follow your many dreams in life, always remember the words you told me that day so long ago. Welcome home. Love, Daddy.

Tools, A Personal Memoir Kindle EReader

2011-03-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

Pleased and humbled to announce that Tools, A Personal Memoir, Vol 1, is now available for Kindle EBooks. Pleased, because it was kind of(in my mom's words)...a pain in the ass. I'm not confident when it comes to tech stuff..like many in my generation, this internet & computer stuff, isn't in our genes. After unsuccessfully trying to register an account and upload the text..I found a small company on the Amazon website to help me format Tools...for Kindle. So that was all good! Why humbled? I feel humbled because...my God there are so many books and things out there...how is anyone ever going to find my little tribute book about Dad? But when I think about it..I am soon reminded about a chapter that I wrote about Dad in Tools. Dad was always proud of everything I ever did...size didn't matter...he was always appreciative of my efforts..and proud of my accomplishments...big and small. So if I start feeling intimidated by the thought of the size & competition of all the books & stuff on the internet, I type in Dad's book title..Kindle store...and wait for it to pop up...and there it is...pops up like an old friend showing up at your side door...and I smile...I smile because I can see Dad smiling...and I laugh...because I can hear Dad laughing...and I feel proud...because I feel Dad's love.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T12:38:00.000-08:00

January 1st. Hard to believe it's here. Haven't really thought about the coming year. Maybe because we spent the Christmas holiday in Youngstown, Ohio with Anne's folks, and I did alot of reflecting there. One thing for sure. Finding it harder to go back to Youngstown, and easier to leave. Enjoy my in-laws, but miss my folks. A true reminder of the years passing & how things change. Seeing where I grew up, friends gone. Some died, others just moved on. More change. Still connected with most of my cousins, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church, my brother in spirit..Dave C., and a few HS friends. Still feel a sense of identity & roots there, though I planted my roots in Nashville some 32 years ago. Interesting to see my hometown through my children's eyes. My cousin's restaurant(Hey Dad, how are we related again..OK..you lost me..?), Handels Ice Cream, & Mill Creek Park. Glad I gave them a different opportunity to grow up in though. Much like my grandparents did for us in leaving Sicily & Italy. Glad for the upbringing of my own folks, who gave me their many gifts, including their gift of letting go. So I guess my new year spirit of reflection really started last week, as I was visiting Y-Town for Christmas week, & then leaving Youngstown on Dec. 27th, heading back home with my wife, daughter(in from Boston), and teen aged son. Reflecting on the past & future, closing out another year heading out on 1-80 West, welcoming a change of scenery as we headed home, and looking in the rear-view mirror reminding myself of why I left Youngstown in the first place. Situations change, dreams change, and I guess I've changed, too. Still, I recall the words from Paul Simon's little known verse of The Boxer. "Changes upon changes we are more or less the same." So...maybe things haven't changed that much at all. Here's to another year of reaching for those old & new dreams & enjoying life con mi familia & mi amicos. Love to all..Happy New Year. Tom

Climb your ladder again and again

2010-11-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

Been thinking lately about how fast time passes. Lately it seems like the slide has been greased. In my youth, I couldn't wait for things to change, time to pass, for life to get better. Now I find myself reaching back to sweet memories of times when I was not fully aware of how sweet life tasted, trying to stop the slide I'm on now...or just slow it down. Just like when I was a kid at Lyon Platt field, I'd sometimes place my hands and knees against the sides of the metal slide in a useless attempt to slow down, fearing I was going too fast. Most of the time us kids would race to the bottom of the slide so we could climb the ladder and slide down again. So maybe the point isn't to slow your slide. Maybe it's just to enjoy the climb & ride over and over. A ride that really keeps going. If you're still breathing and dreaming, you can climb up again and keep going down, again and again. That seems too simple & obvious, but maybe it's true.

A Loss of Innocence, from Tools, a Personal Memoir

2010-05-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Loss of Innocence…

As a child growing up in the late fifties and early sixties, one of the favorite past time games in our neighborhood was playing war. Between the glorifying World War II stories of Hollywood B films and TV shows, and real life veterans we knew, it seemed our God given, patriotic right to take on this role in innocent play. Many of us had make-believe guns and other assorted army toys, in which to act out our fantasy warfare. My favorite military toy was a plastic mortar launcher that shot out missiles which we would add our own sound effects to for dramatization. We would stage our games amidst the bushes and trees in our yards where the whole neighborhood was one large playground battlefield. We would even play at night with flashlights guiding our military tactics and camouflage. Looking back, I shamefully admit to participating in the choosing of sides for our war games, and always selecting little Bobby to play the part of the wicked Japanese soldier. Bobby’s mother was actually a sweet Japanese woman that his father married while stationed in Japan after the Korean War. Even now, I wince at the memory of Bobby pleading with us in vain to let him be John Wayne at least once.

Growing up in the 1960’s, television brought home the realities of war. From the many gray and white grained news broadcasted flashes from the battlefield, the conflict in Viet Nam seemed like the exciting games we played as children, and the movies we saw and the stories we heard. Exciting tales of glorious victories re-told by some fathers and relatives and friends in backyard settings of our family and neighborhood gatherings. From veterans of D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, to Guadalcanal, the stories were mostly all the same and usually ended with a declaration that if they were serving over in Viet Nam right now, the war would be over in 12 months! The more alcohol consumed during those festive occasions by these war vets, the quicker the war would be over.

Dad drank toasts with these vets and quietly listened to all the stories told, but never joined in the telling of war tales. Dad never served in the military, as did many of my uncles and friend’s fathers. When I was a little boy he once told me how he went downtown to volunteer for military service on Dec. 8th 1941, with his cousin and two childhood buddies. The army rejected him because of flat feet; the navy rejected him because of a heart murmur; and finally, the Marines rejected him because of poor vision. Dad said he did his service at home helping the war efforts by working double shifts sometimes at the steel mill, producing military materials.

About 1967, when I was around twelve years old during the height of the Viet Nam war, Dad and I were watching the Walter Cronkite evening news reports about a battle which was going badly for our troops. I asked Dad to tell me his story again about how he and the three men volunteered on Dec. 8th, 1941. Dad explained that one went to each of the three branches of services they visited that day, but he didn't get the chance to go to war. Then I asked him what ever happened to the men? Dad shifted uneasily in his recliner, fumbled with his rolled up newspaper in his lap, and softly replied with an ash, gray look on his face, “dey never came back.”

We never discussed his experience again after that, and I never played soldier again, either. Like many of the lessons in this book, it was another memory I recalled as I wrote his eulogy. Even now, I can’t imagine how he truly felt or how it affected him for the rest of his life to lose a cousin and two childhood friends in that terrible world war, while he was saved from that hell. I have a hunch, though. Now looking back as an adult and a father, I think I understand why he bowed his head solemnly while pledging allegiance, sang out the words to patriotic songs at the top of his lungs, and brought flowers to the cemetery every Memorial Day. And also the reason he was thankful to God that I never had to fight a real war like he almost did once, a long time ago, before the loss of his innocence.

Lighting a new year

2010-01-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

This past year has been filled with plans, hopes, and encouraging results. I continue to reach out via the vast internet. I have seen my actions result in a mixture of continued aspirations...some continued frustrations...and even great satisfactions. Such is life...since life is in itself a great mixture of those things. Practicing the preachings of my dear friend, Mark Montgomery, who said..."Give your content away for free," has resulted in a call back from an Italian-American themed magazine publisher in Chicago. I had previously sent him a free CD copy of TOOLS, A PERSONAL MEMOIR, nearly 18 months ago. This past week, as 2009 drew to an end, his reporter and I spoke for nearly 2 hours. I made a new paison & friend. As we talked, I realized that the goal I had set when I wrote TOOLS, was moving in the right direction. The reporter got it. The stories in TOOLS were about my father and his generation. I was merely the vessel. Theirs was a generation that lived through great disappointments and uncertainity, economic hardships, survival and success. They were the first generation to be born in USA of immigrant parents, who had sacrificed to come here so their children and grandchildren would have a better life. Most of that generation passed away before seeing that goal reached. I hope that I continue to share the message of TOOLS with more and more people, so they can see their parents and grandparents in a positive light. And I hope that a little of that light spills over and guides our generation in the right direction when times grow dark...so we keep moving...dreaming..and achieving.

To our parents

2009-11-10T16:12:00.000-08:00

Haven't posted for awhile...things are good...working on our projects...slowly progressing...On the eve of Joseph & I's birthdays...I wanted to share a chapter text excerpt from TOOLS, my memoir audiobook, about my late Dad, John Occhipinti. Hope you enjoy reading it..as much as I enjoyed..living it.

Our Parents Were Young Once, Too…

My wife and I are blessed with a 21 year old daughter and a 15 year old son. We conceived our first born after one attempt with no birth control. Naturally, we felt confident that we could easily time the next birth and be successful again. Wrong! We then began traveling a painful road over the next two years to conceive a second child. We tried everything we could do following a natural course of vitamins and supplements. I also began eating Brazil nuts and molasses and drinking ginseng tea between meals. Still no luck! During this time, I remember my parents telling me many times that I was a surprise baby. My parents were nearly forty-years old, and mom had previously miscarried at least three times, from the time of my sister’s birth in 1944, till when I was conceived in 1954. In fact, her Doctor attributed Mom’s frequent morning nausea due to her gall bladder acting up. The Doctor finally ordered tests run, that proclaimed her gall bladder was fine, but she was definitely five months pregnant. Mom and Dad kept assuring us that we still could have another baby and to just be patient…and that God has his plans.

After nearly five years of our failure to conceive a second child, we visited a fertility clinic. The first month we tried to conceive was January of 1994. As soon as we pinpointed my wife’s ovulating time, we headed to the clinic where I proceeded to provide my own sperm sample to the staff for washing and insertion by tube. It was not very romantic. Still, no luck! We tried again the next month under the strangest of conditions. A major ice storm hit Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday, Feb. 10th at around 10:30pm. Within two hours, the ice crushed several power grids leaving the city and most of the state without electricity. We were lucky. We could keep a fire going in the fireplace for some warmth, and managed to ride the storm and it’s consequences out. By Monday, Feb. 14th, with still no electricity, my wife announces that she is ovulating. So, we packed up and visited the fertility clinic again and repeated our earlier try. Six weeks later, Anne’s OB confirmed the earlier at home EPT kit. The Doctor then calculated our due date as November 11th. We laughed because that is my birthday. I asked the Doctor “how can you be sure?” He explained that since we knew that we conceived on Valentine’s Day at the clinic, it was an easy calculation.
At that very moment, I realized that my parents conceived me on Feb. 14th, 1954, and was almost immediately overcome with nausea myself, at the thought of my parents having sex. Anne and the Doctor laughed and tried to console me, but I still cringed at the thought. Later that night, I called my parents. I told Dad the whole story about how we conceived on Feb. 14th, and the due date being Nov. 11th. He excitedly yells in the phone, “Tommy, dat’s ya birthday!” I said, “Yeah, it is…so I guess you and mom conceived me on Feb. 14th, 1954. You guys had some Valentine’s Day celebration that night, huh?” My father said nothing at first…and then replied, “Well….to tell ya da truth, Tommy, ahhhh…..I don’t remember. Ya want I should ask ya muther?” Before I could answer him “no,” Dad added, “Nahhh, I don’t think ya muther’d remember it either!”
Now that my parents have both departed, I’m able to see them in a different light. When I think about my birthday on November 11th or my son’s birthday on November 12th (my wife’s labor started on the 11th and lasted until 2am, the next morning!), I am sweetly reminded that my parents were young once, too. They laughed, cried, dreamed, hoped, played, worked, sang, danced, and most important of all, loved.

August??

2009-08-29T22:52:00.001-07:00

August is an interesting time of year. Summer not quite over and Fall not quite here. Usually dry, scorching, oven roasting temps in Nashville, leaving us with brown lawns and dull Fall leaf colors. But this summer it's been different. Rainy with inconsistent temps and conditions. Just a subtle reminder that nature is a great teacher. Life, like weather, is filled with change. Unpredictable. Interesting. Irritating. Invigorating. Inconsistent. Keeping us a little off-balance. Just when you think you can predict or count on something..well...like my late dad would say, "Eh-wuh-ya-gonna-do!" If we're lucky, we learn to accept it and make the best of it. Nature also teaches us about cause and effect. Just like in our lives, though we have rainy days, there may be lessons to learn and benefits to reap at a later time. I'm looking forward to the end of Summer and beginning of Fall here in Nashville, with a greener lawn and more richly colored bouquets of Fall leaves. Not bad...not bad at all.

Jell-Oh

2009-07-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

Been following my dear friend, Mark Montgomery's FB....he continues to fascinate and inspire me with this internet paradoxical concept of "giving away content" in order to "sell" content. Mark wrote an OPED piece for Billboard recently. Check it out.

In a similar vein...I recently heard the story of the succesful marketing of Jell-Oh...back in the early 1920's....a visionary "high school dropout" buys the 50 year old patented powdered recipe rights for $250(or so)...instead of immediately trying to sell the product outright...he first creates and inexpensively prints up "Jell-Oh recipe books" ..then goes town to town..door 2 door..gives the books away for FREE....then approaches each town's grocery store owners about buying a small order of the Jell-Oh product..sometimes even giving the stores a free complimentary order....his plan worked...he starts making a profit...later...as it was catching on....uses early radio shows(Burns & Allen, Jack Benny) to promote the product to a wider audience....and the rest is dessert history my boy...

There are other lessons here. The man(a successful 19th century inventor) who invented the powder and patented the rights in the 1850's...couldn't think of how to market it...so he sold it to his plant manager many years later. This plant manager holds on to the patent for a number of years...but couldn't think of how to market it either....so he eventually sells the patent for a few hundred dollars to a young, struggling, entrepenuer....who figured he needed to connect with people first with a free recipe book, before he tried to "sell" them this new product. Lots of lessons here....lots of lessons.

Other People

2009-07-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

Years ago, my brother-in-law, taught me the term of OPM, as it referred to learning how to finance one's real estate ventures. Other People's money. As I explain further, just hold that thought. Recently I have been re-reading a favorite business book, whose theme is serving your customer's needs before your own. Sounds simple, yet it is easily forgotten as one sets their own priorities and goals for their company. This includes me. Emilia and I recently visited NYC and a client of ours that stretches back nearly 20 years. During our conversation at their headquarters, a theme kept coming up, as our client continued to voice insights and concerns about an internet social media project they recently launched. We listened and offered little suggestions at the time. Following our return, I drafted an email, reflecting on our meeting and following up with suggestions and solutions to their questions..focusing on their needs. As I reflect on this blog, I realize the importance of OPN. Other People's Needs. I also see our role as a helper. This has been the basis of our relationship over these many years, and probably the single most important reason for it. It's all about the relationship and finding ways to help someone else reach their goals. Simply a perspective...taking your needs out of the equation...thinking first about others.

Summer of Planting Grass Seeds

2009-06-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

So far this summer, I have been working on my "pondering" of ways of marketing TOOLS ..My Test Tips..& Video Diary. I am often reminded of the spiritual lesson in the movie, Field of Dreams..."If you build it...they will come." Well I've never thought for a moment that all I had to do was create something..and it will be a home run(another baseball tag.) Even a little bunt would be nice...but it doesn't work that way. Just like writing and creating is a process....so is spreading the word about the baseball field of dreams you have just constructed. It is a process...it is a way...a thought...a hunch...a plan...a moment of inspiration...a moment of frustration and exhaustion......remembering relationships..making requests...and most importantly....knowing the difference between taking chances and taking action. I better get back to planting more grass seeds..right field is looking a little patchy.

Making Re-connections

2009-06-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

I was googling an old friend's name the other night...and accidentally came across another friend....his name is Ray Cerimele...I first played original acoustical music with Ray back in Youngstown, Ohio in 1975-76...did our first coffee-houses at YSU. As I read Ray Martin Cerimele's MYSPACEMUSIC page, I noted my name listed by Ray as someone important in his life. I didn't realize that and was deeply moved and swept up in many memories. After sending Ray an email greeting, I heard back from him the next day. We hope to speak this weekend. It has been way too many years since we talked. Ray viewed my Video Diary & All Along the Way music videos...and watched as my family aged through these years. I realized the power of the internet at our fingertips to reconnect with old friends. But I realized even more, the power of friendship itself. An encouraging friendship that spawned and launched two young blue-collar italian-american boys...sons of steelworkers...grandsons of immigrants... musical dreams...dreams that ultimately shaped both our lives..led us to new places far from Steel Valley...where we planted new roots..made the best of opportunities...yes...for better and worst...our early musical dreams changed both our lives.

Education

2009-04-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have been educating myself lately about car repairs and marketing our website creations..the two aren't neccessarily connected...yet they can be...learning to diagnose and repair a car problem and a commercial venture..are not that different.....both can be costly and quite the adventure...

I have been finding the irony in many things these days. As previously noted, Panasonic re-licensed an old song of ours a few months back...picking up where we left off many years ago. They have recently brought in a major marketing consultant named Joseph Jaffee and his company, Crayonville. They made some changes to the site...produced and posted a podcast..it's like a commercial..but much more..it was real..the narrator pulls you in..she is one of us..it even features VIDEO DIARY half-way through it..it was a total surpise for us..they just forwarded the link.

Tonight, I searched the web and found Joseph Jaffee's website. I then proceeded to learn much about the new era of marketing and social media. As I learned these many new things from Mr. Jaffee(cool English accent..I assume it's real)...I was painfully made aware...of how much I DIDN'T KNOW. Thank you, Mr. Jaffee...I needed that! I wonder if he works on old GM cars?

Spreading the word....

2009-03-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Just completed the revisions of our My Test Tips page. Now to spread the word. In other news, the Panasonic site, LIVING IN HIGH DEFINTION, is being revamped and better marketed. You can visit both sites from www.paintedeyesenterprise.com

Strong parrallels to draw. It is one thing to create something to sell...it is another thing to create interest in something to sell..and yet another thing to sell it.

Ready..set...

2009-02-07T15:21:00.001-08:00

Thank you again..Thom Flora...for all your help in getting My Test Tips up and running from our site...now the new challenge...spreading the word about our product...already I have encountered from traditional news sources..."Well...we don't usually do stories about this kind of thing....until it's a rage..." Makes sense doesn't it? Not really. Another of life's weird Catch22 examples. So we'll continue to try to get the word out everyway we can...I'll keep planting my young seeds in good soil....pray for a little sunshine and rain...keep tending to my garden...and keep dreaming of new things to plant...because...anything is possible...

Life's Road is a Circle.

2009-01-05T11:47:00.001-08:00

Over the past few months, I have concluded once again that life's road is not a straight line...but a circle. In late August, I had emailed a former contact at the Panasonic Co.,(I wrote a couple of jingles for them in the early 1990's) and invited him to check out our new website. He emailed back and shared that he was moved by the things I wrote about Dad, in TOOLS. He then shared that he had recently lost his father over the past year. I mailed him 2 complimentary CD copies of TOOLS, and asked that he pass a copy on to his former supervisor, as I mention the relationship with Panasonic in TOOLS(Chapter-Humility).

The very day he had earlier given the copy of TOOLS to his former supervisor, now a corporate VP, a strategy meeting was proceeding in Manhattan. The ad agency for Panasonic proposed that the final cap to their year long campaign development to help Panasonic launch a web based interactive community called, Living In High Definition, needed a song. The VP took out the CD he had earlier received..and shared that I had written their Olympic commercial in 1992...a young ad exec went to my website...clicked on the YOUTUBE video of another song, and said..."That is it!" Unfortunately, that particular song is co-published by SONY MUSIC. Undaunted, the Panasonic VP simply said, "Tom has another song called, VIDEO DIARY, that will work even better." After 14 years had passed since we last worked together, he called me that afternoon, and we renegotiated our license. As part of the deal, he wanted copies of my own home videos. So..over the next month, I truly created a "VIDEO DIARY," for them. Go to my website...

http://paintedeyesenterprise.com/ODAT/home.html

Clearly, this would not have happened if I hadn't written & recorded TOOLS or built a website this past summer...and made a fun YOUTUBE video of ALL ALONG THE WAY.(Co-writer-Don Henry). So many threads..so many people to thank.....starting with my friend, Mark Montgomery, for bluntly asking me.."You do have a website?" ...when I didn't. And thanks again to Thom Flora..for designing and re-designing my website.

And most importantly, thanks Dad...you continue to touch my life.....even in death........Love to all...Tom O.

1st radio interview

2008-12-06T21:05:00.001-08:00

Thank you, Vince Camp, of Clear Channel Group, for the recent interview on Nov.30. It was great to share some time and love with my hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. You were gracious and friendly, and put me at ease when talking about TOOLS and both my folks. Thank you.

Launching paintedeyesenterprise.com

2008-06-17T17:49:00.001-07:00

I have been blessed with wonderful, supportive, and talented friends. After months of exploring building my own web site, I realized that I was too challenged. Thank you, Thom Flora, for coming to my rescue. I also wish to thank Gerri & David @ GODESIGN for their past graphic work, and re-working the text.

I was especially proud that paintedeyesenterprise.com officially went on line on Father's Day. Quite a gift for my late father. As I shared with friends and family, I could hear Dad chuckling and mom complaining...."Why da hell did you use that picture of me?...it makes me look fat!"

So...check it out when you get a chance. Thank you guys again for all your help.

For those who don't know, Occhipinti translates from Sicilian to English to "Painted Eyes."

Launch!

2008-06-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new blog for Tools, A Personal Memoir. Following the death of our late father, John Occhipinti, in October of 2003, I expanded on the eulogy I had earlier written for Dad, and began reflecting and writing even more about Dad's life and our family memories. The more things I remembered, it became even more clear how much Dad had taught me over the course of our lives. The best part was that I felt Dad sitting next to me as I wrote Tools. I also felt Dad listening as I read aloud my latest chapter and lesson. Following a brief informal presentation to my local Italians in Nashville group in July of 2007, I was overwhelmed with the positive responses I received. Members were moved to laughter and tears, and came up afterwards to share their appreciation of my stories and to also share their family stories. Then I realized that my book, though a collectional of personal family stories, actually helped people to connect with their own stories and to share them. Our goal in creating this blog is to provide a forum for readers to share their thoughts and reflections about Tools and their own family experiences. Enjoy! TJO