What do you do when you walk out on a good paying job and had earlier signed an agreement not to work in the same field for two years and within a 70 mile radius?
You "Go Bananas!" I wrote a jingle and made my first YouTube, with over 4000 hits, sang on live radio and won the contest with help from my friends, people I have never met before.
But why did I leave my job when I was making more money than I have been in a few years? The work environment was toxic and it was detrimental to my health and happiness. So, after my year was up I left.
I landed a contract job in less than one month as a recruiter, but I didn't like the environment there either. I was happy when the contract firm that placed me there went out of business, because I was free to find something better.
So, how could I keep positive while looking for work? How could I keep confidence in myself and have some fun until I landed on my feet again.
While looking for jobs I went on little adventures. I biked all around Pittsburgh, enjoyed new sights and eateries and then I read in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the Latrobe Art Center was throwing a "Jingle Contest", so I read on.
They put the call out for people to write a song about the dessert called, "The Banana Split".
The town of Latrobe was getting a historical marker from the State of Pennsylvania as the birthplace of the Banana Split.
I told myself that, "I can do that!" I write poetry and I made my first banana split at my first job ever and although I haven't eaten one in a long time, I thought this would be what I needed to get through a hot summer with a lack work.
I wrote the words to my "Banana Split" song in about ten minutes. I learned in my poetry class at the University of Pittsburgh in Greensburg to rhyme my words and to pace the lines out evenly. So poetry actually lends itself nicely to be set to music.
When I wrote this song it initially focused on the history that the town of Latrobe had with the banana split, but then wrote the second part of the song with our day in mind. And, I found some black and white pictures at the Latrobe Historical Society, but needed an expert to put the video together. Besides, I recently sold my video camera on eBay.
And since I didn't put my heart into playing the piano when I was young, I probably needed to find some musicians.
But first things first. After writing the lyrics I thought to myself, "If I want to win this contest I need to find a local ice cream business in Latrobe". This way they will already have a steel counter, some cold ice cream and toppings, and people that work there.
I Goggled the words "Ice Cream" and Latrobe and two shops came up immediately. The first place I called was Mr. B's, but no one answered. Everything clicked with the second call. I called the Latrobe Dairy Queen and spoke briefly with the owner Dean Miller. I approached this contest as a business proposition. I had words or a jingle that could be made into an advertisement for their DQ. It could be a win-win situation. They could use the song in advertising their business. This jingle was easy enough to remember and would dance around in peoples brains and would help to keep the customers driving to their counter for ice cream.
The owner, Mr. Miller put his daughter Katie Miller on the telephone. It just happens that she was a graduate with a B.S. in Journalism and had this wonderful musical family and just so happened to have a friend that was a videographer, Studious One. I also managed to secure an old friend, Lisa Crucis Emert, of LME photography to help me to photograph my activities as a keepsake.
Suddenly, I am caught up in a flurry of activities, meeting in a basement garage with our band, having a ball and getting caught up with everything to do with ice cream, bananas, and fun!
I managed to find a couple of nice dresses, some yellow accessories like...a purse, bows, bangle bracelets, yellow flowers, a yellow scarf, banana colored gel shoes, a yellow necklace and earrings, a yellow umbrella with taxi cabs printed all over it. I even found a makeup artist to do my makeup for free at 7 a.m. near Latrobe.
Making the YouTube was a lot of fun as I got to meet all of the people and actually see the scenes being shot and then see how it transferred into the finished product with the singers and the musicians. It is amazing how this all started with some words that I scribbled down on a piece of paper with my pen. It was nice to have a cameo appearance on the YouTube, as I view it as my signature on the song that I wrote. Plus, I got to eat a Banana Split on the set with the beautiful corn fields across the road and the local college. The sun was shining beautifully that day. I'm even glad they put a dog, Lucy on the set. She had a calming influence. She was pretty with her pink bow.
So, I went from being a casual Facebook user to a Facebook maniac in no time at all. Even an old high school friend, Richard D. Ruttenberg, Owner/President of Raviv Records Intl gave a thumbs up for our YouTube. And word is that he is on his way to Hollywood.
I Goggled "Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor" and Pittsburgh and managed to find out that we have an authentic ice cream parlor in our midst from around the 1930's. I found the address of Klavon's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor and went to the location to snap a photo of the ice cream fountain for the video and ended up getting a job as an "Assistant Manager".
Everything worked out perfectly as I was so driven and so focused about the whole thing. And here this new store owner, Jacob Hanchur, had just bought the building and was reopening the ice cream store after the old owner, Ray Klavon passed away. I was singing my song, "A Latrobe Hit" (Banana Split) to the customers at the fountain. It really felt good to be a part of something that was so much fun and so positive. Still,I had much marketing to do to win this contest.A Latrobe Hit (Banana Split) YouTube Press the pink link to hear our song. I was singing it in my sleep for many nights. The winners needed to perform their song on the weekend of August 23-25.
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