Showing posts with label Coney Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coney Island. Show all posts

Friday, February 15, 2019

"Solo"


Did you spend Valentine's Day "Solo?"

TINA DECARA RELEASES ANTHEM ON THE POWER OF BEING ALONE: “SOLO”



Pop singer Tina DeCara follows-up her smash single “Illusion” — its had over one million Spotify streams — with “Solo,” a song about loving yourself when you’re at your loneliest.  “I’ve been solo for a while and though most days, I’m cool with not having a special someone to kick it with, there are times my mood swings so low,” admits Tina. It was during one of these down periods that she wrote her new single.   “I sat with a bottle of wine and had a little pity party in my music journal,” she remembers.  But oddly, what emerged wasn’t a sad song about being lonely, but a celebration of self-love and embracing time spent alone.  Tina DeCara’s “Solo” is being released through Big Management and is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, and all other major retailers, as well as for streaming through Pandora and Spotify.  Its video is on Youtube.

“My message for anyone struggling to make it through another day is to take a moment to breath and relax.  Don’t try to solve your problems all at once.  Tackle issues one at a time and give yourself a moment to rest in between so you are strong enough for the next battle.” 


DeCara admits she often struggles with sad feelings.  “Pursuing pop star dreams is hard.  One day, I’m on top of the world and the next I’m back at square one.  It gets lonely being in the big city, away from home and everyone that I love.”

When she’s feeling isolated, she listens to records, and the day DeCara wrote the song that would become “Solo,” she had been sent a new instrumental produced by The Drupes.    “It was pretty popish, with a bop your head around and dance to it happy kinda vibe,” she explains. “But somehow my melancholy lyrics worked  well with it.”

She went to a studio in Queens and recorded the single in about two hours. “It was a great session.  The energy was high.”

Tina DeCara grew up on Long Island with her parents and two brothers. She began singing and songwriting in high school, drawing inspiration from the likes of David Bowie, Lady Gaga, and Amy Winehouse.  While her friends were not supportive of her superstar dreams, her family encouraged her to follow her passion.

“I was surprised by all the negativity I received from kids I had chosen to have in my life.   I quickly cut them out.”

She says one of the biggest challenges as an artist is finding yourself and learning what your voice is capable of.   “I write about how I’m feeling and then I put some unexpected twist on it,” she explains.  “It’s an incredibly personal process so I try not to focus on what is going on outside my bubble.” 

The music video for “Solo” echoes these sentiments.  Directed by David Wept and shot in and around Coney Island, the video depicts Tina DeCara celebrating the one person who matters most in her life. 

“Though I’m solo, for the most part, I’m always giggling.  I work hard, I’m determined and if I have a little unhealthy obsession over buying wigs, what’s it to you? Until I’m a duo, I’m just goin’ to do me.”

Follow on Facebook and Twitter @TinaDeCara

Friday, March 28, 2014

Film Buff Friday: "Boardwalk"


Stephen Verona's "Boardwalk" Finally Released 

1979 drama starring Ruth Gordon and Lee Strasberg, 
from the director of "Lords of Flatbush" 

For all of you Film Buffs out there this is great news as it is the first time this movie has been released on video at all.

It is also great news for all of you fans, of which there are many, of the late great Ruth Gordon...Cheers!
Boardwalk is a 1979 American drama written by Stephen Verona (Lords of Flatbush, 1974) and Leigh Chapman and directed by Verona. It stars Ruth GordonLee Strasberg, and Janet Leigh. The film has not been available on home video, until now.

Boardwalk is a film about love, violence, and survival. It was filmed on location at numerous spots in New York city, including the famous but now defunct Dubrow's Cafeteria. 
Married for 50 loving years, David (Lee Strasberg) and Becky (Ruth Gordon) have lived in the same Coney Island neighborhood for most of  their life together. But the area is not what it used to be, and their children ask them to move. A powerful and determined man, David states, "I left one country, I'm not about to leave another. This is where I choose to live and nobody, but nobody, is going to make me leave." But Becky becomes ill and David's cafeteria and synagogue are vandalized by thugs. David must make his final stance. 

Boardwalk is Verona's 4th film. He's credited with creating the first music videos, starting with The Beatles... He produced over a hundred before retiring from the art in 1972, eleven years before MTV. By the time he was 27, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his live action short film "The Rehearsal" which he created, produced & directed. Not satisfied with commercials or videos, he moved on to write, produce and co-direct his first feature film, The Lords of Flatbush. This is the film that launched the careers of Sylvester StalloneHenry Winkler, and Richard Gere, who were all discovered by Verona who says, "Stallone said that I created the character of Rocky, and Henry said that he took his Fonzie character from Sly."

Stephen Verona's Complete Bio:  http://bit.ly/1deZvZ4