THE
BOOT NEWT SING ALONG PAGE (1998-2009)
http://bootnewt.envy.nu
This is my first and oldest web site,
launched December 10, 1998, just before then-Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich retired from Congress. I've written over 1,300 political
song parodies since 1995, and just about every parody I've ever written
is posted there. According to the bootnewt.hostingzero.com
server log statistics, the site once had over 150,000 hits per month of
web traffic from all over the world, including Canada, Australia, Britain,
Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Romania, Japan, China, Singapore,
just to name a few countries. But, free web site hosting eventually disappeared,
and I retired from writing after 2009. Most of my parodies catalog
is also posted at the Amiright.com song parodies web site:
http://www.amiright.com/parody/authors/williamtong.shtml
THE
BOOT NEWT SING ALONG BLOG (1998-2012)
http://bootnewt.blogspot.com
During December 2002, I decided to start
a web blog ("blog") so that I could write and post new song parodies more
quickly, using the blog format. (The blog comes in handy for me when
I finally get around to updating the main Boot Newt web site.)
A
BUNCH OF COCONUTS (2008-2016)
http://abunchofcoconuts.com
In March 2008, 6 former members (including myself) of Na Mele Aloha decided to start their own Hawaiian/tropical/island music group, choosing the name, A Bunch Of Coconuts. Following our June 24, 2008 concert debut at The Tiki Terrace, we were invited back to perform there once a month. We have performed at The Wishbone Restaurant several times, at retirement homes, Raging Waves Water Park, and even the Naperville Country Club. We have had a number of personnel changes since 2008, with one member retired, and two percussionists who played with us briefly. At full strength we were an 8 member band with 4 ukuleles, 12-string guitar, dobro/steel guitar, bass, and drums/percussion. In July 2010, we recorded our first studio album at Audio Recording Unlimited, located in the Wrigley Building in Chicago. The band dissolved in March of 2016.
The studio CD, "On A Coconut Island" was released in March 2011, and is sold through Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Coconut-Island-Bunch-Coconuts/dp/B004S3O0BA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300222506&sr=1-1
Over 100 of our songs from our live concerts
are also posted on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/abunchofcoconuts/videos
Vic
Miguel & Friends at Chicago Ukulele Cabaret (2013-2016)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0097B00D2D860B7C
On December 20, 2013, one of our YouTube videos at the Chicago Ukulele Cabaret was discovered by radio producer Jason Marck, who invited our trio to play a live radio debut on Chicago Public Radio WBEZ-FM, playing holiday music on The Morning Show with Tony Sarabia.
Vic
Miguel & Friends Radio Debut on WBEZ-FM (12-20-2013)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyyYqDS_LelgQGZBhO5VqbNZyBJbcu0Ff
VON
STEUBEN ALUMNI BAND (2011-present)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE5285F624F8DE331
During 1996, after an 18-day government shutdown several months before, the annual celebration of Earth Day (April 22) at the EPA needed a morale-boosting dose of music. EPA musicians and singers got together and formed a number of bands. The EPA folk band, the first band I ever played in, has survived and was since renamed The Earth Tones; we've played an annual Earth Day concert every year since 1996.
The Earth Tones'
Debut Concert - April 22, 1996
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk71iQBr_z8
Our video was even mentioned by Rachel
Maddow on her television show on MSNBC:
http://vodpod.com/watch/1552098-video-epas-musical-nature
After a 3 year hiatus, The Earth Tones played for the annual EPA celebration of Earth Day on April 20, 2011. Here is the video of the entire 15-minute concert:
The Earth Tones'
15th Anniversary Concert - April 20, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-hmC3E8xPM
The Earth Tones
at the CFC Kickoff (9/28/11)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlrMCoL2R70
The Earth Tones
at the Combined Federal Campaign Kickoff (10/10/12)
: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlrMCoL2R70
More videos at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/earthtonesr5epa/videos
LOOSE
CHANGE & FRIENDS (2003-2010)
https://www.youtube.com/user/loosechangeandfriend/videos
While attending a local folk music festival during the summer of 2003, I met Ron and Marcy Novit, who were members of a folk/old time country band named Loose Change. They had recruited John Daugherty, a mandolin player, and they invited me to join their band to sing and play the autoharp. Doris Lee Dutton clog dances to some of the songs and provides harmony vocals. I've since added many other instruments to the line-up (all self-taught): 12-string guitar, 6-string guitar, tenor guitar, 4-string tenor banjo, baritone ukulele, banjo ukulele, strumstick, and washboard. The band, now called Loose Change & Friends, now has 7 members, and has played over 100 concerts at libraries, senior centers, music festivals, and other venues since September 2003 throughout the north/northwest Chicago suburbs, and as far away as Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At our web site, we have posted concert audio and video clips as well as historical information about the music and the instruments that we play, as well as our schedule of upcoming concerts. In August 2004, a cable TV documentary about our band was created with footage from the Mount Prospect Library, and broadcast by Mount Prospect TV. In February 2008, we were taped by Time-Warner Cable in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and our studio concert was shown on the air during March and April 2008. Here is a video clip from that TV show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzbfshukW1A
More videos at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzbfshukW1A&list=PLvxwcbk5mnAOICRM7W3DmF1AHWZbcngRV
NA
MELE ALOHA (2005-2007)
http://NaMeleAloha.org
After playing ukulele and Hawaiian music
for several years with my friends Earl Essig and Judy Maritato, who organized
the Hawaiian Music Club at Oakton Community College, we got an opportunity
to play a concert (performing as "Na Mele Aloha") on May 7, 2005 at an
annual luau fundraising event for the Cherry Preschool. On June 19,
2005, we played at a picnic for a Filippino-American group at Henry Proesel
Park in Lincolnwood, which included my friend Lee Mishkin on the electric
bass. On May 13, 2006, and April 23, 3007, Na Mele Aloha was invited
to play at the 2006 and 2007 annual luau organized by Northwestern University's
Hawaii Club. Na Mele Aloha has since grown to include over a dozen
players. In 2007, Na Mele Aloha performed 6 concerts at The
Tiki Terrace, a Hawaiian restaurant located in Des Plaines, IL.
SOLO RECORDINGS
at ezFolk.com
http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/
My solo recordings on guitar, autoharp,
and tenor banjo are also posted at ezFolk (see link above).
WHIRLWIND
TOUR OF CHINA - 10 CITIES IN 20 DAYS (1996)
http://chinatour.envy.nu
In 1996, I took a trip to China with my
father and two sisters. For me and my sisters, it was our first trip
ever to China; for Dad, it was his first trip back since emigrating to
the U.S. in 1946. We booked a 9 city guided tour that included, in
chronological order: Shanghai, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, Xian, Guilin,
Canton, and Hong Kong. We visited all those cities in just 17 days!
At the end of the tour, we visited Dad's ancestral village in Taishan County,
located in southern Guangdong province, on the west side of the Pearl River,
and spent 3 days visiting our distant cousins and kinfolk. This was
the only part of China where I could hold a conversation in the Taishan
dialect of Chinese that I learned from my parents. This web site,
with over 500 posted photos, has generated interest and e-mails from all
over the world, and I've done many slide show lectures locally, and once
in Washington, DC.
THE
CHINESE & AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: A BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO CULTURES
http://www.oakton.edu/~billtong/chinaclass.htm
During 2001, Oakton College asked me to
develop a mini-course that dealt with Chinese culture. I came up
with the idea to compare and contrast American and Chinese culture, using
the classic work, "Americans & Chinese" by the late anthropologist,
Prof. Francis Hsu, as the the reference. The mini-course didn't attract
enough students to offer as a class, but I retained the materials to be
presented as a seminar, which I've also presented many times, locally,
most recently for the Chinese-American
Museum of Chicago. The Ethical
Humanist Society posted a review of my 2004 presentation for
them (click on their newsletter link and scroll about half-way down
their web page).
HISTORICAL
ROOTS OF THE TONG AND YAN CLANS
http://home.earthlink.net/~wtong/tongroots.htm
In 1995, my father helped to organize
a local chapter of the Tong-Yan Family Association, uniting those with
the surname "Tong" (also spelled "Hong" or "Tang" depending upon which
Chinese dialect was used to phoneticize the spelling), and "Yan" (also
Yen, Yun, Gin, or Jin), an offshoot of the Tong family tree. For
the benefit of my overseas-born Chinese cousins, I wrote an essay summarizing
what my father told me about the historical roots of our family.
The Tang surname dates back more than 3,000 years, to one of the earliest
dynasties in China, the Shang. This web page has generated
dozens of e-mails from other overseas Chinese from all over the world seeking
their historical roots, including many possible cousins whom I've never
met. I've even met my great-uncle Eugene Tong (originally from Boston),
who visited Chicago with his wife during a 2006 cross-country motor tour
from Seattle to Boston.
FEDERAL
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN COUNCIL (FAPAC) PHOTO WEB SITES
http://chinatour.envy.nu/fapac/index.html
From 1997 to 2002,
while serving collateral duty as the Asian Pacific Special Emphasis Program
Manager for U.S. EPA - Regio, 5, I was able to attend the national convention
of the Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC), an organization
of federal government employees from all over the U.S. I made my
mark as an avid "snapshot" photographer, and I created a seperate photo
web page for each year that I attended the convention.
ASIAN
PACIFIC HERITAGE MONTH
http://www.oakton.edu/~billtong/ahm2011
Each year, during
the month of May, the federal government celebrates Asian Pacific American
Heritage Month. U.S. EPA - Region 5 has collaboratively held this
celebration with one or more fellow agencies, including the U.S. Dept.
of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Dept. of Agriculture - Food
& Nutrition Service (USDA-FNS), and/or the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS). I have created web sites commemorating these celebrations
from the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.
EARTH
SCIENCE
http://www.oakton.edu/~billtong/eas100
This web site was set up for my earth
science/geology students at Oakton Community College, where I teach part
time 2 evenings per week. Most of my self-written lecture summaries,
handouts, and lab sheets are posted here.
CHORD-LYRICS
http://www.oakton.edu/~billtong/chord-lyrics
Being a self-taught musician, I've put
together chord-lyric sheets for nearly 100 folk-pop songs, with chords,
which can be used for sing alongs by musicians who play guitar, ukulele,
autoharp, piano, etc. I deliberately left off the index page
because it was too much trouble to update it every time I posted a new
PDF lyric sheet.
MUSICIANS'
CONCEPT (2001-2009)
http://musiciansconcept.com
My sister was a publicist and booking
agent for independent folk musicians, representing the following artists:
Sons of the Never Wrong, The Cages, Al Stewart, Joshua Kadison, Stephanie
Corby, Annette Bjergfeldt, Kevin So, Adam Ezra, and Chris McKhool.
JAZZMAN
JEFF JUSTMAN (2005-present)
http://jazzmanjeffjustman.com
My good friend Jeff Justman, whom I met
through the Lake County Folk Festival, is a prolific singer-songwriter
and a fine performing musician. Jeff asked me to create and launch
a web site for him.
THE
ACOUSTIC MUSIC JAM - serving acoustic
musicians in the northwest suburbs for over 20 years
http://jazzmanjeffjustmanmusic.com/acousticmusicjam.htm
I also created a web page for the semi-monthly
Acoustic Music Jam, which Jeff Justman hosts in Grayslake, IL