James "Pop" Gaskins and helping community

GOFundme page for Pop Gaskins - dental work. November 2016

I have been a community producer at BRIC for a few years now, and one of the best parts is being part of a community of creators. Everyone there has something creative that they want to do, and that already is inspiring. It's not often in  regular life that you have an idea and people say,
"OK how do we help you do this, we are ready and enthusiastic!" so having this group of people that encourages each others dreams means a lot.

One of the first people I met at BRIC was "Pop" Gaskins. He was wearing a cowboy hat and he looked like a real cowboy to me (I did spend two years in Wyoming so I feel semi-qualified to say this). We talked about horses that first day.
 


Fast forward four years later, Pop and I have been working on the same shoots (he is camera one and I am camera two).  I often forget how to do things on the camera and he is always happy to patiently explain them to me, or fix my camera when someone locked it too tight. Sometimes when the mic stand gets stuck, and a penny doesn't twist it,  he will pull out his knife and fix it.

One day Pop seemed kind of tired, and he showed me what he'd been up to all day - trying to find someone who would take his various insurance options for dental work. Apparently medicare cuts out part of the dental when you retire and so now he was trying to get his teeth/mouth fixed with a large copay. He had an appointment scheduled and said the copay would be $1,000 and he didn't have that yet. We assured Pop that there would be some kind of payment plan and he would not have to come up with $1000 the day of the appointment. We were wrong!
The dental place he was assigned (which has 99.9% one-star ratings on Yelp) not only said they wouldn't start without the full copay, they also offered that he could save money but not having anesthesia. For 13 teeth!
This just made me mad. I've dealt with our healthcare system for a while now, and it is tricky when you are relatively young and healthy, so you can imagine when you are a senior how it all works out.
I decided to start a gofundmepage for Pop.  www.gofundme.com/popgaskins

A Fiddle Around Town: Athletes, Motivation & Music

The past few years have been a time of discovering new interests that for me are starting to come full circle.
I walked into the BRIC orientation one day, looking for tips for making better youtube videos, and two hours later, I was signed up for a tv production class and en route to having my own tv show.
I was doing some coaching session with Capes Coaching at the time, and I remember Betsy asking me during the coaching - "how did it go from working on youtube to having a tv show??".

I guess I fell into it by accident, but BRIC  makes it so possible, so affordable and so fun. It's a lot of work to make a tv show - REALLY!, but the best part is there's a  whole community there to help you make it happen.  We volunteer to work on each other's shoots (it takes 9 people to run the studio), and I'm learning so much every time I go there.  From how to run the equipment, to learning about new topics on other people's shows.

My other interest over the last few years has been fitness and getting back in shape. Just like the tv show wasn't planned, I signed up at the Y for personal training one day and two years later fitness is a big part of my life.

I wanted to merge these interests, so my next episode of A Fiddle Around Town is "Athletes, Motivation & Music" . We interviewed my trainer, Jarenn Stewart about fitness and we interviewed my friend Tonya about running her first marathon. Of course we had to have music, so Vita and I were joined by percussionist Steve Holloway, who is known for all his musical endeavors (Riverdance) but is also part of the BRIC community.

The show airs October 12th 8:30 pm in all five boroughs of New York City on Verizon FIOS Cable, and in Brooklyn  on Time Warner 34/Cablevision 67/RCN 82/Verizon FIOS 42.

Worldwide it will air online at http://bricartsmedia.org/community-media/watch-brooklyn-public-network

and on October 12th I will also put it on my youtube www.youtube.com/cadyfinlayson


I hope my journey will inspire you to try some new things, as so many people have inspired me!

March Madness: Opening for Glengarry Bhoys in Sellersville PA 3/13

We loved playing at Northwest Park. What a difference great sound and lighting makes.
I know some people think March Madness is about basketball, but it seems to be about Irish music also..........

We're for the Glengarry Bhoys in Sellersville PA www.STP4.com on March 13th.... 8 pm
 www.ST94.com  (check out the Glengarry Bhoys at Glengarrybhoys.com)
then in the Bronx...
3/14 Cady &Vita at Woodlawn Heights library 3 pm nypl.org/locations/woodlawn-heights