VIEW POINTE PROPERTIES

Executive Summary

    View Pointe Properties 401K, LLC was established to fill a void in the process of acquiring home ownership for those of us who do not qualify for conventional loans. There are people in trouble these days, with the number of foreclosures, short sales, abandoned properties, loss of jobs, lowered incomes, lowered credit scores, bankruptcies, divorces, and most of all, people who lose a major portion of their retirement because of high medical bills. These people, who have suffered losses and failures, are why we formed our company. We are putting together a team of industry professionals who are driven by the need to help people while they earn a living for themselves and their families. We began just a year ago and currently have a half dozen people who need our help. Word of mouth is getting out, and people are calling us.     Our first priority is to find limited equity partners; people who would like to get a decent return on their investment, currently 7+% and are willing to gain that over time, three to five years, if necessary. There are special people who have a desire to utilize their talents to benefit less fortunate of our neighborhood, who don’t want to give up their dream of pulling themselves out of despair, gaining some equity and being able to grow into a place where they can uplift themselves, and reject government bail outs, and even charity. Why do they have this posture? Because they want to recover what self-esteem they can muster, and they know it’s not by waiting for others to do something, but to find their own solutions and discover the actions they need to take to become whole, healthy and be able to have loving relationships with family and friends. Once we find limited partners, and are able to acquire property that we can either set up a lease option agreement or provide low income housing rentals, we have begun to help them help themselves. The very worst thing we could do, as many others have, is to be critical of them, and ignore the fire and drive they have, even if it is a wavering light, a sign of failure normally. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes good people who believe in people who can turn themselves in a positive direction and overcome the many “nay sayers” who relish in putting others down, so they can inflate their own pride and stature. 
    Our second priority is to find distressed properties, finding ways and means to prevent a homeowner losing his/her home. All too often, because they have fallen into financial delinquency, the system judges them, which causes some of them to just give up, because they are over-whelmed with the sheer number of losses they have sustained.
    Failure causes addictions. When someone cannot confront the many assaults that come with financial disasters, they try to escape from view, wanting to disappear to prevent an onslaught of criticism, negativity, blame and shame. For centuries families have supported one another through trying times. Why? Because of the love they have for each other. It is our goal to care for our clients as if we were family members, who are honest and sincere with each other,
    Not manipulating or controlling for a specific agenda to forward a parent’s, aunt’s, uncle’s needs. At the same time,
    However, we must insist that we don’t fall into traps of diverting our attention to our own needs over the concerns a brother, sister, mother, father, grandparents might have. We must retain our natural values, areas of our lives we cannot compromise. We must encourage each other to be responsible for our condition, our circumstances, and not be tempted to place blame on the weather, bad luck, or any of many distractions from the truth. 
    Our third priority is to find properties on the market which can be purchased at a discount, to provide opportunities to gain equity in the future. View Pointe Properties is set up to get comparable sales within a mile from the subject property, and to make offers which correspond with actual market values. We need to evaluate the length of time the property has been for sale, the condition of the property comparable to neighboring houses, as we need to factor in the cost of rehabilitating properties offered at a discount, and establish a range of recovery that will correspond with our income needs and wants.

TEN REASONS TO STUDY MUSIC

10 Reasons to Study Music

Music study develops the areas of the brain which are responsible for language and reasoning
Students who study music score higher of the SAT and other standardized tests, and receive higher grades in school over non-music students.
With music study, students learn the elements of detailed work towards creating an aesthetic result. Students learn to overcome challenges and to break work down into understandable units.
Discipline: Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to reach excellence.
Music provides an important avenue towards self-expression.
Performing music builds self-esteem.
Music study provides a gateway to appreciate, understand, and experience world cultures, traditions, and histories.

Music study and practice encourages creative thinking and artful problem solving, as well as the ability to see a viewpoint other than your own.
Making music is fun and rewarding.
Music amongst family and friends bring precious memories that last a lifetime.

MONOLOGUE INFORMATION

Monologue Information

    Why do monologues? To establish a communication between one viewpoint and another. Any text information falls under the classification of communication, including texts from stories, plays, films, and SONGS. All communication occurs between viewpoints, whether real or imaginary. It is the performer’s job to create identities and points of view, so that communication can occur.

   What is a monologue? It is an imaginary viewpoint creation from a source to a destination, and requires imaginative abilities to create those viewpoints. It is also more of a telling than a reading, as you are telling someone something, usually of increased importance, in order for something else to happen, a desired result of the communication. There is a point to the communication, a reason you are telling it, and a consequence of getting the message across.

What are the steps in a monologue? There are three steps: First, the act of SEEING what is in a text, independent of your own thoughts about it. See all of the thoughts and understand what they mean. Next, there is the step of RELATING the information to what you know about the communication, the situation (which you may have to imagine), the person you’re talking to, and the reason why you are communicating the message. The last step is to SIGNIFY, or to attach a degree of importance to the communication, usually dealing with why you’re delivering the communication. To add significance to the thoughts makes them special to a viewpoint, and to match your viewpoint to an imaginary character’s viewpoint is why you want to monologue your songs. The more you monologue them, the more certainty you receive, and the more you groove into the viewpoint of the character.
   Keep up the good work and be prepared always!

Dr. Fredric Cook

THE BENEFITS OF MUSIC EDUCATION

The Benefits of Music Education

Society / Life

Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances. – Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report.  Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998

“…Arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, certainly not the cause of it!” – Michael Greene, Recording Academy President and CEO at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, February 2000

Disruptive behavior of frequent skipping of classes , times in trouble, in-school suspensions, arrests and drop-outs total 12.14% of the school population compared with 8.08% of students involved with music classes. – NELS:88, second follow-up, 1992

“Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience…” according to the U.S. Department of Education.  In addition, one year of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended for college-bound high school students.  – Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997

The very best engineers and tech designers in the Silicon Valley are almost all practicing musicians.  – Grant Venerable, “The Paradox of the Silicon Savior” as reported in “The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public Schools,” The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York, 1989

The arts create jobs, increase the tax base, promote tourism and growth in related businesses and the overall quality of life for local cities and towns. This results in $3.4 billion in federal income taxes from nonprofit arts institutions and organizations each year. – American Arts Alliance Fact Sheet, October 1996

School / Developing Intelligence

The “No Child Left Behind Act of 2002” defines 10 core academic subjects including the arts. – Title IX, Part A, Section 91011 (11)

Children receiving piano training scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than students that received computer math training. – Graizano, Amy, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw, “Enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training.” Neurological Research 21 (March 1999)

Math proficiency by 12th graders was significantly higher in students that received consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music through middle and high school years.  This is true no matter the child’s socio-economic status and is more profound the more they are involved. – Catterall, James S., et al. “Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement in Music and Theatre Arts.”  Los Angeles, CA:  The Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, 1999

Students with studies in music performance scored 57 points higher on verbal SATs and 41 points higher in math SATs.  Students with studies in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal SATs and 44 points higher in math SATs than those with no arts courses.  College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001

Pre-schoolers given eight months of piano lessons had 46% increases in spatial-temporal IQs (important for math-reasoning) – Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky, and Wright, “Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship,” University of California, Irvine, 1994

The percentage of music participants receiving academic honors, As, A/Bs, and Bs was higher than that of non participants. – NELS:88 First Follow-up, 1990, National Center For Educational Statistics, Washington DC

66% of music majors that applied for medical school were accepted, the highest percentage of any major.  Only 44% of biochemistry majors were accepted. –  Thomas, Lewis as reported in “The Case for Music in the Schools,” Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994

36% of minority students listed music teachers as their role-models, the highest of any category.  English Teachers  were the closest with 28% and physical education/sports teachers were only listed at 7%. – D.L. Hannan and L.M. Walker, “Music teachers as role models for African-American students,” Journal of Research in Music Education, 41. 1993

Two Rhode Island elementary schools implemented a music program that showed improvement in reading and math skills.  In fact, students that were behind their peer caught up in reading and pulled ahead in math.  – Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and Knowles, as reported in Nature, May 23, 1996.

Reading music scores and playing music activates areas in all of the brain’s four regions called “cortex lobes” and parts of  the cerebellum. – Sergent, Zuck, and MacDonall, B. (1992).  Distributed neural network underlying musical sight reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257, 106-109

Students participating in music education had significant increases in self-esteem and thinking skills.  – National Arts Education Research Center, New York University, 1990

Brain scans show musicians have larger planum temporales (a region of the brain related to reading skills) and thicker corpus callosum ( the bundle of fibers that connect the two halves of the brain) than those of non-musicians. This was even more dramatic in those beginning training before the age of 7.  – Schlaug, Jancke. Huang and Steinmetz (1994).  In vivo morphometry of interhem ispheric asymmetry and connectivity in musicians.  In I. Deliege (Ed.) Proceedings of the 3d international conference for music preparation and cognition (pp. 417-418).  Liege, Belgium

Researched & Prepared by Laura Bennett, Intern with Utah Conservatory, July 15, 2004

STORY OF UTAH CONSERVATORY

Utah Conservatory

Our Story

    It began in upstate New York where Dr. Fredric Cook was born, and his mother named him after a famous actor, Fredric March. For seventeen years his father used him, his eldest son, to establish disciplinary standards for his siblings, by beating him almost every day of his teenage life. He discovered drama in High School as a means of escaping the punishment, as he was respected and admired for his performances. He joined the Navy after graduation and spent four years exposed to criticism, hostilities, and jealousies. His solution was to study history and philosophy, which played an important role in his life. He knew as a young man, that the way out of bad situations could be handled by having a definitive philosophy that would provide options from which he could make choices before responding or acting. By the time he went to college, he thought he would major in history/philosophy, again offering solutions to the many problems confronting him. However, the Lord had presented him with the opportunity to act in a play in his freshman year. As a sophomore, he played Mr. Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and the applause in that spacious theatre questioned his decision to become a history or philosophy teacher. He changed his major to theatre and went on to do several plays and musicals before he graduated. He approached one of his revered professors at the University of North Carolina, asking if he thought he was good enough to become a professional actor. The instructor said no. Shocked, amazed, angry and in tears he went back to confront his professor, asking why he had that opinion. Smiling, he said, “If you don’t know yourself, the answer is always no.” That was the first time he realized that a performer must be aware of his ability, not dwelling on it or prideful, but humble, grateful and dedicated to the mission of a performer, which, discovered later in life, is to experience joy in the work, and share it with colleagues, teachers, and audiences. He also realized that his mother’s postulate for him to take on the responsibility to be a professional actor came with the name he was given. After graduation, he went to Europe, watched student artists at the Louvre in Paris, studied improvisation as well, toured London, and watched British actors perform with ease and clarity, much of which he put together years later. Returning to California, he was a founding member of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and performed in several productions, where a young director saw him and offered the lead role in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at the Little Fox Theatre in San Francisco.
     That was his first professional role as he joined Actors Equity Association in 1970 and later performed in the Off-Broadway production, while studying with Uta Hagen, Mira Rostova from the Moscow Arts Theatre, and Bobby Lewis from Yale Drama School. He attended Hunter College studying under Harold Clurman, Joseph Anthony, Lillian Hellman, and playwright, Arthur Miller, completing his master’s degree in directing, while continuing to perform in film, theatre and television. He had joined Screen Actors Guild and The American Federation of TV and Radio Artists. After that, he worked at the Long Wharf Theatre with E.G. Marshall in Ibsen’s Masterbuilder. After that he auditioned for the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.
     He went up to the Headmaster at the Academy, explaining he had been a professional actor for four years, was a member of all three unions, and had performed over two dozen roles in theatre, film and television, yet did not know the basic fundamentals of acting. That was why he accepted their invitation. He asked; “Please tell me, what the essential truth about acting is?” The headmaster smiled and replied, “It’s simple actually, it’s knowing what your attention is on, moment to moment, from the viewpoint of the character.” He said that none of his mentors in New York ever said anything like that, and wanted to know why? The Headmaster again smiled, and said; “They probably don’t know.” At that moment he recalled seeing and understanding what he had seen on his first visit to London, after college. It all came together. It transformed his ability, gave him higher self-esteem, and awareness of what he needed to know, which helped him in later years to formulate his own special technique-a patterned approach in sequence which produces a definitive, unique, and desirable result. When he returned to the states, he flipped a coin; “New York or LA?” Three weeks after arriving in Hollywood, he secured his first agent, and within three months had his first lead role in a film, with Yvette Mimieux and Tommy Lee Jones (his first film). When he had shared what he had learned in London, actors wanted to study with him, and the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art was created in 1975. It took him eight years to understand how to approach actors through the perils of navigating toward a character’s viewpoint, seeing images through his/her eyes, and the proper gradients he had to use to maintain the actor’s self-esteem and confidence.
     It wasn’t until Dr. Cook and his wife, Debra Cook moved to Park City, Utah in 1997 that he realized that he needed to research educational methods to teach performers what they need to focus on without offering his personal opinions, or criticism, because he knew that a performer’s natural self-esteem is reduced when subjected to criticism. He began a seven year program in Educational Studies, before completing his PhD in 2004. He had studied, and recalled what he saw at the Louvre many years earlier. He realized that, as an instructor, his attention must be 100% on the student, and as Socrates’ philosophy dictated, only questions are viable in discovering the truth from the student. Statements and opinions of others are outside the realm of a student’s reality and understanding. Also, he had witnessed several teachers over the years that had too much attention on themselves, almost justifying why they were teaching, rather than guiding and leading the student to having his/her own recognition of what they liked about what they did, and subsequently, what they would like to change! That was what he witnessed in Paris, looking at the artists’ eyes that had not an ounce of criticism, only evaluation of what they liked and what they wanted to change.
This is the solution! This is how a student can appear to be natural, effortless, and passionate from the viewpoint of the character. We have one of our students, Talon Ackerman, who has been in three Broadway musicals, for which the Director of Mary Poppins remarked in a newspaper interview, that his “Focus is beyond his years.” Talon is 12 years old. Another reviewer from his most recent performance of Leap of Faith said he’s a natural talent, yet “Just a kid” without the pretensions of being an actor. What appears to be an “Inborn talent” is actually the result of a non-critical pedagogy and years of being asked those two important questions; “What did you like about what you did?” and “What would you like to change?” This philosophy pervades Utah Conservatory, and several students have received major scholarships, paid performance work, invitations to perform in regional theatre and opera productions, and received kudos in the Classical Singers Competitions. Comments at the recent competitions were extremely positive, although they assumed that the students were all born talented, which removes the tribute that should be paid to them for years of dedicated work acquiring their abilities to perform effortlessly, all the while appearing to be “Natural.” It is the goal of the performer to have audiences assume that, but is disappointing to have professionals, who know how difficult the preparation can be, to assume they were born talented, discounting the countless hours of monologuing, rehearsing, singing and performing.
So, in conclusion, artists need to develop early a collaborative approach with colleagues, performers, directors, instructors and others. Asking questions with a positive intention engenders more artistic collaboration than do opinions, criticisms, evaluations and negative assessments. Positive questions which search for solutions increase the performer’s ability to be responsible for their condition and their original creations. This philosophy protects and prepares the student against any abuse, from often well-meaning instructors and colleagues. We also encourage our students to be gracious, and acknowledge well-meaning contributors with a simple “Thank you.” Thus, the student maintains the right to accept or let go of another’s evaluation of their work, which strengthens their ability to make choices and decisions on their own.
     Over these past twelve years, our students have become more compassionate and understanding of how a person’s viewpoint directs their decisions and choices. Most of all, students become non-critical, non-judgmental, and are devoid of cynicism. Basically, they improve their abilities to confront and handle any situation they are presented with, which is very important in their later years. It has been said that, when a person can master his/her attention over the distractions presented, their employers, producers, and decision makers will pay much more money to them, than to those who are unable to focus their attention completely on the tasks they perform.

THE MULTIPLE EFFECTS OF CRITICISM

The Multiple Effects of Criticism

Does this look familiar? How do we get confused and frustrated? How does criticism affect our ability to produce results? What actually occurs?
There is a question of our point of view that pops up when we are distracted by critical thoughts, usually coming from others, parents, teachers, “friends”, and foes alike, especially when we adopt the practice and become critical of ourselves. It throws us into doubts of our abilities, our choices, the decisions we make, and how we respond to problems, adversity, difficulties, and challenges. Primarily, it reduces our SELF ESTEEM.     It could be assumed that our agreement with critical thoughts make such uncertainty a reality. So, how can we disagree? Especially when we create the criticism ourselves? Take, for example, you’re on a date with a friend, who can’t help telling you that what you’re doing is wrong, lame, ineffective, stupid, crude, and generally wrong. And, because it’s your friend, you accept the judgment and go into agreement with his or her viewpoint, because you don’t want to create a scene or an argument over it, because it’s not that important. Or is it? Well, we have to be socially acceptable, or the word will get out that we are losers and negative and no fun to be around. So, we take it away with us, and like a virus, our minds are affected, and our productivity is reduced. We mull over the critical thoughts and get down on ourselves as an inevitable conclusion surfaces: “I’m not very smart, or popular, and how can I live knowing other people know that about me?     Criticism is prevalent in our world, in school our teachers tell us what to do and not do, they chide us for our mistakes, our foibles, our idiosyncrasies and screw ups! We should know better to recognize critical thoughts for what they are… other peoples’ problems! And if we “catch what they throw at us” we take on the illness as well. Why should we “catch” them? Because if we can recognize critical thoughts, we are ahead of the game, we are not affected adversely, and can maintain our own knowledge, security and sanity in spite of wild attacks. Consider yourself as a steel plated battleship and the critical thoughts are pebbles which naturally bounce off us unharmed, and we survive, we stay afloat despite the assaults.    Okay. Now that we assume that viewpoint, we have to rise above the unknowing, unwittingly attempts to put us down, because our friends usually don’t mean to hurt us, or minimize our ability to handle life’s many challenges. No. Albert Einstein believed: “In the Middle of Difficulty Lies Opportunity.” Often, we experience traumatic events, which throw us into despair at the time as we are hit unaware and are surprised by the incident. And how long does that take to get over it? It depends upon our constitutions, our stamina, and our ability to recover and find joy in life. And what happens? We find ourselves sharing it with a friend or family member, finding irony (the opposite of a literal meaning, marked by such a deliberate contrast between the actual incident’s meaning and another intended consequence which we can see as humorous! In that understanding is it not possible to realize the critical thought as it is uttered, and responds immediately with a humorous response?    One very effective response is a sincere, honest “thank you!” When it is genuinely offered, the offender who shared the criticism has an opportunity to acknowledge the act as somewhat foolish or uncharitable. It can be socially approved method to deal with the situation. Why? Because you see what’s actually transpiring, and can, without criticism, but with unconditional love for the person, respond positively with the intention that you like or even love them and understand that we all have moments that move from positive to negative, like the terminals on a battery, with no malice intended.     Now, that is a tall order, isn’t it? But, consider the consequences. You come home from a hard day at school, or work, and your spouse has had a more difficult day, and is upset and angry, even frustrated and lashes out at you. You have two choices: mirror the hostility, or show how much you love him or her. It takes a lot of confidence to do that, and a great deal of unconditional love. You have to evaluate the importance of each moment in your life, as your tendency to yield to emotional trauma can multiply so many times that you drive that friend or lover away from you, which both of you must justify as “s/he doesn’t really love me.”   Why would people succumb to such temptation? “I think, therefore I am!” Surely, criticism is not powerful to give, and is easy to adopt, and is a “hidden standard” (which is not welcome in any relationship we desire to create) yet we take it on,
without an understanding of the consequences that evolve.    This ability, to instantly evaluate your reaction to critical thoughts to provide a warm, genuine response often of a humorous, joyful manner takes years of constant awareness and sincere, unconditional love for mankind. It is far from easy to say, but exceedingly difficult to achieve, much like a wide receiver’s opportunities to field a long pass which produces a touchdown and victory. The joy is not just in winning, but playing the best we can each and every time.