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Wreck of the Columbia January 13, 2018-
Kim Michael Producer

LINK: https://youtu.be/v-EdD6bpQy8

PRESS RELEASE: Pekin, Peoria, Glasford, Mid-State IL

A new video, free to the public, was released on YouTube, on January 13, 2018 commemorating the famous sinking of the river boat “Columbia” on July 4th, 1918. The video features original photographs and a music score with two new, original songs in a unique telling of what has been described as one of the greatest maritime disasters in American history, causing the deaths of 87 people and injuring hundreds more. Running time is 7 minutes 22 seconds.

The video goes on to show how regulations regarding the river changed, adding dams and locks to raise the level of the river so another disaster like the Columbia could never happen again, as well as the final outcome for the Captain of the Columbia- Herman Mehl and Pilot Tom Williams.

“This is spectacular!” “We just watched it. Fabulous!” “This is an amazing accomplishment! “I loved it!” “EXCELLENT!”


“Few events in human history define a town, or region and its people, more than the sinking of the excursion steamer Columbia. My motivation for creating this video was to memorialize, in an entertaining but sensitive way, the events that happened on July 4th, 1918. Like Gordon Lightfoot's “Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald” I wanted to create something that highlighted, and was part of, the history that we in greater Peoria/Pekin area all share. I am making it free to the public to watch and enjoy...and remember.”                   

                                                                                               -Kim Michael

KIM MICHAEL: originally from Glasford, Illinois, is an author, writer, producer--having written several books and formerly on the production staff for Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Orchestra--and now founder of Kim Michael: Business Design Graphics. He resides in Hendersonville, TN (greater Nashville area) with his wife, Joann (originally from Pekin,Il)

Media Contact:
Kim Michael
kim.michael.author@gmail.com 

70 Dancing Little Angels: Garden of Angels by Kim Michael-- Copyright February 2015

70 Dancing Little Angels: Garden of Angels

                                                                                  

                                                                                                           

            by Kim Michael

       Copyright February 2015

URL-- ttp://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/12/07/angel-to-abandoned-babies-wins-lottery. Home Video Politics U.S. Opinion Entertainment Tech Science Health Travel Lifestyle World Sports Weather Privacy Terms.

      
      Some people live their lives going from cradle to grave without leaving so much as a footprint, while others leave huge wakes in life as they pass.  They are heroes of a sort.  They are people who inspire us and at times even humble us; people who are capable of such indescribable acts of kindness and courage that it’s difficult for us to grasp how or why they do what they do.

      Some years ago I read a Fox News article about the “Garden of Angels” and it affected me so profoundly that I promised myself that one day I would write about it and this is a story that has been long over due.   

      By the way I have included the original URL so you can also see the original article and pictures of the Garden are readily available if you search for the "Garden of Angels."     

     This story is for anyone who has ever loved a child, who knows how precious a gift they are, and that Angels do exist.

      Debi Faris-Cifell and her husband live in a little town in California called Calimesa.  When the phone rings it is a call for Debi to come to the morgue to collect yet another body of an abandon baby who has died somewhere in the three county area surrounding Los Angeles.  They are tiny, no names, left in alleys or garbage cans to die alone, unloved and unwanted.

      Debi goes to the morgue and insists on going in alone into the autopsy room where she raps the babies in a hand made quilt and in the quiet of that room she holds them, and prays over them, and loves them.  She gives them first names that will be engraved on a white cross above their grave in a very special place she has made for them, a place she calls the “Garden of Angels”.  

       Over the years the Garden has had frequent visitors, people who believe in what Debi and her husband are doing and often adopt the babies, leaving flowers and toys on their graves through-out the year. 

      Until Debi began her work in 1996, babies whose remains went unclaimed were cremated, their ashes placed in a small cardboard box and after three years if they remained unclaimed, were buried with other John and Jane Does in an unmarked grave. 

      Since Debi began her work in 1996 she has buried more than seventy babies.  Held seventy babies in her arms.  Gave seventy babies names and gave seventy babies love.  She refuses to let them pass from this world nameless and without being loved—even if only for a little while. 

      But just as she is committed to the babies who have been lost, she is equally committed to saving the lives of babies who are still in peril.

      In 2001 Debi Faris-Cifelli, helped win passage of the law called the “Safe Haven Law” in California, which allows desperate and confused parents a three day period to leave a child at a firehouse or hospital, without fear of prosecution.  Forty-six states now have enacted such laws and since the law took affect 67 babies in California have been safely surrendered, though Debi admits, no one knows how many have still been lost, and without an adequate awareness campaign many of these tiny lives are still in jeopardy.      

      To that end Debi travels across the country to lobby in states that have no such laws, all in the hope that one day the Garden of Angels will see its last angel. 

      She does all this with a three person staff supported by donations, grants, car washes, bake sales and compassionate people through out the country, but it has barely been enough to cover the costs.

      Then in 2008 a miracle happened.  Debi and her husband won the California lottery.  They had only played it three times in their entire life, but they won $27 million dollars.  For many of us that would be enough to just walk away from it all, but not Debi and her husband.  They have already made plans for the money.  They received a lump sum after tax of $9 million dollars and as you would expect some will go to their children, but the bulk will go into doing the work that is, and always has been, her passion.  And because of the money her babies will live on in a new way, one hundred forty scholarships will be given out each year in the names of each of the abandoned babies she has buried. 

     I suppose there are critics who will say that Debi and her husband are deluding themselves into thinking that they can love and comfort a child after its life has passed; that what they do makes no difference at all; but it does.  It makes a difference to me and probably anyone who has ever loved a child; and I am convinced that no act of love is ever lost, no good deed ever overlooked.  Maybe not here on earth, but I would like to believe, like Debi and her husband, that somehow, someway, those babies know and they are saying “thank you for loving me when no one else did”. 

     And why do I think that? The odds of winning the lottery are astronomical, even impossible, especially if you've only played three times in your life.  But I tend to think the odds are significantly less, when you have seventy dancing little angels in heaven…helping you. 

By the way you can find the website for the Garden of Angels at:  http://www.gardenofangels.org/

Women of Courage

The Amazing Story of the "Practical Magic" House

by Kim Michael

Copyright February 2015

For anyone who has ever seen the movie "Practical Magic" you know that the biggest star of the movie is not Sandra Bullock or Nicole Kidman--it is the Practical Magic "house". 

Having a fascination for such things I was interested in finding out where this house is, and if it can still be seen today.  Actually, the movie was made back in 1998, so there have been quite a few years since the house was first filmed, and I suspected that it had probably been sold and was now privately owned.

What I found out however was, the house no longer exists.  It was torn down  years ago.  But what most people (including myself) didn't know is that the house  was not actually a house, but rather, a movie set.  It literally had no insides and was essentially an empty shell.  The interiors were filmed on a sound stage in Hollywood.  It was rumored that Barbra Streisand was interested in buying the house at one time, but in the end, the cost of building out the inside proved to be too much and it was eventually bulldozed to the ground.

But there is another side to the story of the Practical Magic house that is even more intriguing.  When Griffen Dunne was brought in to direct the movie, he wanted to use a Victorian House on top of a hill, overlooking the ocean--but none could be found, so Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer (a husband and wife set design team) were brought in to design and build the house--with a strange requirement.  The house had to have a "woman" inspired theme to it; a house where only women lived; and if possible, the architecture had to be "woman" inspired.  

Robin and Stephen's first thoughts were of a victorian house with lavish, frilly, ornate facades.... but when Robin began doing research on the concept, she discovered something that neither she or Stephen expected....something that would change dramatically the concept of their house, and instill in their design a deeper meaning, that many people would sense, but not really understand.    

It was a warm afternoon when they took their plans to the movie studio and spread them out for the production staff to see.... and the first reaction was one of confusion.

It was a victorian house alright, just as had been first envisioned, sitting on a hill top, overlooking the ocean, but with one signifiant difference... it was a lighthouse.  If you look closely at the picture at the top of this page you can see it--the highest point on the roof is actually what's called the "lantern room" of a lighthouse.

But why a lighthouse?  Why would a "woman" inspired design be a lighthouse?

"Because", Robin said, “In my research I found out that it was women, not men, who manned the lighthouses of the world for centuries."

Literally hundreds of thousands of sailors owed their lives to the brave women who climbed the stairs, night after night, to light the light... the light that would lead the ships at sea safely home, even in the worst storms.

Who were these women?  They were women who had lost husbands and sons, brothers and fathers, to an unforgiving sea....and had committed themselves to not let another life be taken....for lack of a light that could bring them safely home.  They were, and are, some of the greatest unspoken heroes of our past.  

And I tend to think that there are many women today, just like them, who maybe don't have lighthouses, but day in and day out, climb the stairs and light the light; and for most, it is not important to them that the world know they are heroes.  But it's is important...that we know.  

Last Recorded Words Aboard the Challenger Spacecraft-by Kim Michael

"Give Me Your Hand"

    by Kim Michael

    Copyright March 2015

On January 28, 1986, seventy-three seconds after lift off, the space shuttle Challenger exploded nine miles above the earth.  Despite thorough coverage of the accident by the media, the last few minutes inside the spacecraft were kept from the public.  Only years later would we learn that some of the members on board did not die in the explosion.  And in those last few, terrible moments; as the spacecraft came crashing to earth, the last unofficial words recorded in the cabin was a single voice saying, “Give me your hand.”

They were not words of anger or regret.  They were “human” words.  Words that resonate at the very heart of what it means to be human.  When I first heard this story it made a lasting impression on me, and it occurred to me that it is in the simple act of reaching out to one another that the true strength of what we are, and who we are, is the most meaningful. 

“Give me your hand,” reminds us in a way that no other words can, that we are never really complete as evolved creatures or master works of creation until we have the ability to connect with one another.   

And of all the words that could have been spoken that day, “Give me your hand” leaves us with the undeniable truth that the simplest of all human gifts-- are perhaps the most precious.   

We may one day traverse the galaxy.  Walk on distant planets and live in great cities beneath the ocean, but no matter how far we reach, no matter how high we climb, the one thing that will not change, and has not changed since the dawn of our existence, is our need for one another.    

When I think of the words, “ Give me your hand”, I am reminded of Luciano De Crescenzo, a famous Italian writer and director, who once said—"We are each of us, angels, with only one wing, and it is only when we embrace each other….that we can fly."

Kim Michael

Author

The “Gift” In Each of Us.  By Kim Michael  Copyright April 2015

We all have “gifts”: talents and abilities that are uniquely our own.  Some we know.  Some we don’t.  Some we don’t even realize are talents.

If there is one person in the world who should be an expert on “you”, you would think it would be you, but how many of us really don’t know ourselves?  The reason why is because self discovery can be uncomfortable.  Often we have to force ourselves out of our comfort zones to find out who we are, but it doesn’t have to be.

Sometimes just making little changes that takes out of the mindless routines that we all fall into can make a huge difference: removing the blank spots on the piano roll of life where we lived, but didn’t, that’s all it really takes.

Sometimes getting free of them is as simple as taking a different way to work: going right when you would normally have gone left; maybe even doing something you always wanted to do, but never tried.  Making little changes that remove us from the normal routines and forces to live in the moment instead of just passing through it, and in the end, we become different.

This is a story I heard years ago, told to me by a back stage guy at the Frontier in Las Vegas.  I don’t know how much of it is true, but it serves a point.

Phillip (not sure of his real name), was a traveling salesman around the turn of the century.  He traveled around the world and truth be known, as a salesman, he really wasn’t very good, but he had one unique talent, considered by almost everyone he knew, to be interesting, but useless.  Phillip could run on his knees.  In fact, he could run faster on his knees than most people could on their feet. 

At parties he would show off his unique talent by pulling the weight of several people along with him, and though everyone was impressed, none thought it was of any value… yet Phillip practiced.  He got even faster and stronger. 

But fate and destiny sometimes have a way of colliding. One day flying back to the United States from a trip overseas, disaster struck.  It was 1937, Lakehurst New Jersey, and as the aircraft came in for a landing, a fire broke out, but this was no ordinary aircraft and the fire was no ordinary fire.

Phillip was aboard the Hindenburg, and as it touched the mooring tower an explosion rocked the ship.  Fire swept through the giant aircraft in a matter of minutes, and people began jumping from the broken windows and portals just to escape.  When Phillip jumped he hit the ground so hard that both of his ankles were broken.

Two passengers landed on either side of him, knocked unconscious by the fall.  

Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), there were 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen).  Phillip survived, as did the two people that landed next him, and the only reason they did, was because they were just lucky enough to fall next to a little man who could drag them to safety, because he had the worthless talent of being able to run on his knees.    

No talent is without value, even those that others may think are worthless, and they are given to us for a reason.

Angels in the Front Seat by Kim Michael -Copyright February 2015

Some weeks ago I was in Beverly, MA driving back to Manchester to catch the last flight out for the night.  I had been on four flights, drove to Beverly Massachusetts to meet with a friend and back to Manchester to head home to Nashville--all in a single day.  My flight was at 5:35p.  The meeting with my friend went to 3:15 and as I looked outside to the parking lot I could see the rain had not let up like I hoped it would.  Instead it was coming down even harder--in sheets--wind blowing--visibility only about 20%.

I drove back in a rented Hyundai SUV, a vehicle that I had never driven before and really didn't know how all of the features worked.  All I knew was I was going to miss my flight and I had not made arrangements to stay in New Hampshire for the night.   Sometimes in the heat of desperation we all do stupid things and I was so determined to make that flight--that at times, I was driving as much as 80 miles an hour.  

Even with the rain pounding and the wind blowing the rain sideways, I was amazed…I could see the road fine (which is a feat in itself because I am practically blind in the dark—can’t see a thing).  

Oddly people kept flashing their lights at me all the time I was driving and I kept thinking to myself "These people in Massachusetts sure don’t like to be passed".  When I got within five miles of the airport the rain began to let up and as I pulled into the garage, even with the lights in the garage, it was hard for me to see.  

Then I looked down at the dash and saw the true "miracle".  I had driven the entire way with my lights off-and yet in all that rain and wind and dark—I saw the road perfectly.  

I am convinced that angels are with us.  Sometimes as close as the seat next to us.  Guiding us, even when we don’t know they’re there.  And sometimes they help us to find our way home….even when we can’t see it for ourselves.

GOAT MAN by Kim Michael 2014

GOAT MAN  A Novel By Kim Michael--Copyright Library Of Congress 2014

PREVIEW

A ghost rises out of the mist--an old man stands atop the first of two makeshift wagons, their sides alive with the sound of hub caps banging and bottles clanking. The detritus of a hundred backroads fills the air with their own symphony of sound.  Below his gaze a team of twenty goats pulls the menagerie, tethered together with bits of rope and old leather.   

His clothes are ragged- his silver hair, long and disheveled, feathers in the breeze as he faces motionless against an open highway that begins and ends in thick flames of a haunted mist.  A car crawls by and as it passes a boy in the back seat turns to catch a final glimpse of the ghost before he disappears into the wall of white behind them.  Their eyes meet, and for that one second they connect...and that moment would stay locked in the boy’s memory forever.  

Now it is twenty years later.  E. Alex Fleming, the author of the best selling book “Angels of a Divided Sky”, becomes hugely successful, but then disaster strikes.  Amid a torrent of bad press and allegations of fraud, in a single day he looses everything--his wife, his luxury apartment on Hollywood Boulevard, his career... and his reputation.  

So, too, Kimberly Siecrest, Alex’s young intern agent, looses everything as well.  Now all they have is each other and one hope.  Together they must find the one story that will be their salvation; a ghost Alex once saw when he was a boy, on the backroads of Georgia.    

But as Alex soon discovers, it is not the writer who finds the story, it is the story that finds the writer--and the story that finds Alex and Kimberly is very different from the one they expected.  

Inspired by real events (and the real American legend, Ches McCartney) the story of the Goat Man is a fictional tale of love, and loss, and more importantly, how perfection in life (as in gemstones) is defined not by its purity, but by its flaws--and therein... a twist to the story that is as haunting as it is beautiful.   

I have not yet found a publisher for "Goat Man" and any interested parties can contact me via this blog site.  

km

Author