Princess Grace and Amanda Blue Gotera

Yesterday, I posted about a musical performance by two of my daughters, Amelia and Melina. Today, some mad props for my other daughter, their oldest sister Amanda. Amanda taking a snapshot at a family gathering on Fathers' Day, 2014. On 15 August 2014, Amanda Blue Gotera won a prestigious award from the Princess Grace Foundation. She is the proud recipient of a 2014–2015 Princess Grace Film Graduate Award, specifically the John H. Johnson Film Award. The monetary prize associated with this award will support Amanda's MFA thesis film at the University of Texas in Austin. The Princess Grace Foundation supports emerging talents in fields that Princess Grace Kelly worked in during her career: film, theatre, and dance. I feel this award presages a magnificent, scintillant career for Amanda in film. Congrats, Amanda! Here's the wonderful news release Amanda's department at UT posted to announce her award: http://rtf.utexas.edu/news/mfa-student-amanda-gotera-wins-princess-grace-award. Won't you comment, please, friends? To make a comment, look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. If you don't see that, look in the red line that starts Posted by Vince, then find the word comments and click it once. Ingat, everyone.   ヅ

Amelia and Melina Gotera, Hearst Center, February 2014

Yesterday, I posted about the February 2014 Final Thursday Reading in which I was the featured presenter. If you watched yesterday's video, you saw that my daughters were also interviewed. They had performed music in the open mic section of that night's event. It was quite an interesting performance for Amelia and Melina. As an acoustic duo (voice and guitar) they play at bars and coffeehouses, and this was their first time playing for an artsy crowd (and I mean that in the best possible sense). Their usual fans and audience members can be a racuous crowd but at the Hearst — our city's arts center — the people in attendance were quiet and attentive. As much as they love and appreciate their bar fans, Melina and Amelia told me later how refreshing this audience experience was for them. It was certainly a wonderful evening for me. I loved being able to perform on the same stage, same night, with Amelia and Melina. That night was also a kind of preview for our performing together the following week: my band The Random Five played a benefit concert at the Lutheran Student Center at the University of Northern Iowa on March 7 and Amelia and Melina opened for us. Anyway, at the same time that yesterday's video was launched on YouTube, the Cedar Falls Cable TV station uploaded a video Amelia and Melina's whole performance that evening. And I am proud and pleased to present that video below. I hope you enjoy it. As I mentioned yesterday, parts of this video are also dark because of the way the room was lit that evening. Many thanks to Shelby Gappa for her great work. If you would like to hear part of Shelby's interview of Amelia and Melina, watch yesterday's video. Won't you comment, please, friends? To make a comment, look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. If you don't see that, look in the red line that starts Posted by Vince, then find the word comments and click it once. Ingat, everyone.   ヅ Amelia and Melina Gotera, Hearst Center, February 2014 http://youtu.be/2sXn0rFdrOE