A NIGHT WITH ALGOMA COMMUNITY BAND

Best wishes as Wednesday winds down!  Where do I even begin to catch you up on the adventures of the last few days--an online journal is a good place to start.

First off, a shoutout to my friends of the Algoma Community Band, especially director Tom Mueller, who hosted me at their rehearsal tonight as they're preparing for their big performance coming up in a few short weeks.  It was great meeting so many of you, and thank you for allowing me to speak to your group!  We did some recordings and an interview and looking forward to posting that soon.

Since the late 1970's, Algoma Community Band has brought music to the lakeshore.  Playing concerts year-round, building up local talent as well as drawing musicians from surrounding counties, ACB. is an important part of the rich history of Algoma.  ACB also provides scholarships to students who desire to pursue music, helping them with college expenses.  What an awesome organization!  To read up more on the good things at work here, please visit their website: Algoma Community Band

Over the course of these last few weeks, it been really cool how many of you take the time each day to vote for me.  It really makes my day getting a quick email or FB message or text with your encouragement and thoughtfulness.  And whether its a friend or stranger anywhere in town here, your smile and a few simple but powerful words: "I've been voting for you" really lift my heart.

Also, wanted to say hello and thank you to my friends in Alaska who have been supporting me in my run to be the new CW14 Star!  I didn't realize until tonight that 'the Last Frontier' was a VOTE KURT state.  As your state flower is the Forget-Me-Not, I really appreciate you remembering a Wisconsin guy during voting.

PLEASE SEND COMMUNITY STORY IDEAS

Happy Sunday folks!  And look! We made it to March!  Cross old Feb. off the calender.  Done and gone!  My love/hate relationship with winter takes on a more positive perspective by the time March offers the first glimmers of spring hope.  

Winter is such a mixed bag of things.  Visually, awe-striking and often beautiful.  Fun in the outdoors.  It's also terrible on our cars, hands and skin, dangerous on the roads and ice and sometimes too dark for daytime hours.  But, as George Harrison reminds us "Here Comes the Sun" and right around this time of year, I especially cherish this song.

Changing gears!  Here's my question for you today: 
What would you like to see in some of these upcoming videos?  

Currently, I'm working on a few more YouTube videos, and they're mostly for fun.  But, while a lot of northeast Wisconsin is tuning in to the CW14 Star Contest, its a solid opportunity to promote a few of the things, people, organizations and events in our area that make our communities great!

So what are they?  Do you have a group, small business, interesting person etc. in mind?  Do you have a story idea of something/someone unique to our area?  

I've created a special email account specifically for this.  Please email me your ideas and suggestions to: cw14starkurt@gmail.com

The cool thing with this is if I advance in the Top 5, I can continue to produce these short YouTube videos, and hopefully some of these story ideas can be passed up to CW14, and maybe we'll be able to get a segment in the works on actual TV.  Can't guarantee anything, but it's a thought, and something I'd like to see happen.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE THE CW14 STAR?

In less than 40 hours we kick off the voting of Round 2 to determine who stays in the CW14 Star search!  I am feeling excited and incredibly blessed to be in the competition still, surrounded by great people, and just experiencing the goodness of day-to-day life.

So, the question has come to me in multiple ways, but the hardest-hitting question is when it's asked: "Why do you want to be the CW spokesperson."  As opposed to questions "why are you right for the position" or "what do you like about the job", the question of what I want really hits home.

I want to get past cliche talk, but in so many ways it is a dream in the making.  To entertain, bring smiles to people's faces, it's something I guess I've always been able to do and enjoyed doing.  From earlier years of life, I suppose I saw this as something that would happen when I grew up.  As a kid you don't really think anything through in detail, but more importantly, as a kid you knew how to dream and dream nobly and dream big!

As this dream has taken shape, I've had the privilege of entertaining audiences on stage as comical and villainous leads.  In film I've been given the opportunity to act, but also to direct.  Whether creating a character or creating a world or a story, there is something extraordinary and supernatural about creating something.

To jump into television as the potential CW spokesperson is a different experience and consequently, a different challenge.  This is me, striving to be articulate, on the ball, and still me.  I noticed a change over the weekend, where this role on TV feels a lot more natural, and I hope it translates over the air waves well.  It is with sincere gratitude I thank the people I've been working with, who've made me feel comfortable and welcome at the studio and in the CW promotions.

So, back to that question of "Why do you want to be the CW spokesperson?", I can honestly say I think it's where I'm supposed to be.  Or as the head of Paul Mitchell-The School in Green Bay told me last Friday, "I started this up eight years and haven't worked a day since.  When you love what you do, you never work a day of your life".  An opportunity like this spokesperson job comes only once in a while. 

I can say in my lifetime, I've had a few of these great opportunities--most recently, working as a lifeguard and swim instructor at the local YMCA.  So many days I've left work knowing I have the best job, best boss, best co-workers and patrons.  In the dead of winter, I spend my days in 80 degree temps while the rest of Wisconsin shovels out.  I am one of the few people who can wear shorts and sandals to work, soak in the hot tub, swim any time, drink coffee, chat with interesting people and listen to my favorite oldies music--all in a day's work. I have the satisfaction of knowing the small sacrifices I've made like staying up on CPR training and exercising daily can and has made a difference in the lives of those who need me.

To leave a job I enjoy and am passionate about and leave the people I care about could only come about at a time when I feel convicted that the moment is right to take the next step to where I'm supposed to be, in a career, in the dream and in the gift of self.

I hope I can use all these opportunities and blessings, and offer something good to the world with them.  

SOME EXCITING UPDATES

As we're gearing up for another round of voting to see who our Top 5 will be, I wanted to give you the quick heads up on some things to look forward to...

Our .60 studio recordings should start their run sometime this week on CW14, likely mornings and weekends.  Also, these recordings should also run on our site www.cw14online.com  Check them out and read up on the contest!  Also on the CW14 site you can watch the makeovers of the Top 10 in a new video uploaded recently.

New pictures are up from the day at the studio, thanks to Maria Parmigiani!  Those can be found at the CW14Star Facebook page.

Like them or hate them, the VOTE KURT YouTube videos, are coming back as well.  They are my gift to you, and a practical and hopefully fun way to remind you to vote daily.  I have about a day's turnover time from writing a short script, recording and editing, and uploading online, so I foresee a few more hitting the scene.

There is more to come!  Check back daily.


  

CONTESTANTS IN TV LAND

CW14 Star Contenders in Studio

(Photo Courtesy of CW14)

Ever wonder about the inner workings of your favorite local news and TV shows?  Especially after the long production hours that went into the 'Confessions of a Sailor' film, I'm now always curious about what goes in to creating that picture and sound on your home television, computer and phone screens.  

This morning I got the behind-the-scenes experience of the CW14 and WLUK FOX11 TV studios.  The CW14 Star Top 10 Contenders were invited to the TV studio to do two recordings in preparation for Round 2 of open voting.  The .60 second tapings will air on CW14 weekday mornings and weekends during this second round.

Today's events were a very helpful part of the whole decision-making process.  I felt very comfortable with the people, the setup of the studio, cameras and teleprompter, and also my delivery of a monologue.  Whether or not I translated well onto the TV screen is yet to be determined.  I defer that to your judgement and the station's.  I know for a fact it beats my original audition tape so I'd say its a win!

In the studio I got to see the sets of WLUK FOX11's Good Day Wisconsin, Living with Amy and Sports Edge.  We weren't there long before several special people dropped in for a surprise visit.  Good Day Wisconsin morning anchors Rachel Manek and Pete Petoniak and reporter Emily Deem came into the studio to meet and welcome us and wish us luck!

A NEW WEEK DAWNS!

Good morning, folks!  Wishing you a happy Sunday and an awesome start to a new week.  I can't speak on anyone's behalf but my own, and going beyond everything simply in this competition, I'd like to point out there's no telling the great potential that this next week has in store.

We are out six days from the Open Voting Craze of Round 2!  Wow!  

On Monday morning the Top 10 CW14 Star contenders will be dropping by the CW14 and WLUK FOX11 studios a few blocks away from Lambeau Field.  What sort of things are we cooking up there?  Wait and see!  Keep an eye for us and what's to come: Visit CW14 Website  

Please note that open voting begins online this Friday, March 1 at noon.  Voting will continue through Sunday, March 10 11:59pm.  Just like last time, you can vote once a day, each day with a valid email address.  Unlike the first round of voting, the voting totals will not be posted visibly.  We will not know how each contender is doing in comparison to the others.  

Voting will make up less than 49% of the factors determining who moves on to the Top 5.  Additional considerations will be our judges' panel, the station's input and grading on our creative assignments.  I'm looking forward to that, particularly the creative assignments.  

LOOKING AND FEELING LIKE A NEW MAN

Krauss and stylist Annie at Paul Mitchell-the School

(Photo Courtesy of CW14) 

Well ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't treated yourself to (or been treated to) a Paul Mitchell makeover yet, I hope you do.  After such an experience, it's my hope that every person at some point in their life can partake in the marvel that is a makeover--out with the old, bring on the new!

After braving the hazzardous conditions of Snowstorm Felicia, I arrived at Paul Mitchell-the School to be greeted warmly by their upbeat team and a generous cup of freshly brewed coffee.  They had me at hello!  As most of us staggered in from the storm, the CW crew took our 'before' pictures to compare with the 'after' pictures that would be taken in the afternoon.

My stylist's name was Annie, a very personable and talented student at Paul Mitchell.  Working mostly on her own, but under direction of her teachers, she discussed the possibilities with my hair, got a game-plan and went to work.  In this dry wintry weather, what bliss I discovered in three shampoos and rinses, including a Paul Mitchell minty shampoo that my scalp is still tingling about!

I told the group later that they were miracle-workers. Anyone who saw me this morning beforehand knows what I'm talking about. 

The coffee cup, though at times ran dry, never stayed empty for long.  The CW crew took care of that.  Also, when they were ordering in Jimmy Johns for lunch, they added a sub for me on the order, because I hadn't had lunch either.  Among their other notable heroics of the day, because the school itself closed with all of Green Bay due to bad weather, the Paul Mitchell team took on the elements so that they could be there just for us today.

So I say: Thank you Annie and the rest of the talented staff at Paul Mitchell-the School for making a guy feel like a million bucks on the inside and out!

So, what's my new look and style?  Stop by the CW14 Website at www.CW14online.com, check out CW14 Star's Facebook group or maybe catch a glimpse of the fun on FOX11 tonight at 5pm.  Stuff will be posted continuously this week in preparation for Round 2 of Voting!