[BlindTlk] exciting news

Sat Nov 21 20:26:24 UTC 2020

Wow that’s incredible. You know I got a chance to see Chris Botti in concert on 15 July 2011 at the San Francisco Davies Symphony Hall with my dad and it was awesome I didn’t get a chance to actually meet him but I got a free complementary ticket for me and my dad to go just because I reached out and he liked hearing the fact that my being inspired to keep up with my playing trumpet, meant a lot to him. And also same with Arturo Sandoval which I'll tell you how I was able to go to a gig of his and become his friend and under his mentorship. he’s one of the greats in trumpet player history.
Basically one of the greatest trumpet players of all time.

It was August 20, 2016 that I met my friend Arturo Sandoval. My friend and I had bought tickets several weeks prior to this gig unfortunately she couldn’t make it so someone else had to take her spot which was fine.

A Night With Arturo Sandoval And My Former High School Private Trumpet Lesson Instructor Steve Mullins
This was a truly awesome night I shall never forget. I have looked up to Arturo since I was 10 years old.
My friend Micheal Williams took my other friend, Sarah McIntyre's spot and we were seated center stage aisle “’A’,”  seats 12 and 13 at the Lesher Center For Arts in Walnut Creek, California, and Arturo Sandoval was looking at me whenever he sang and briefly when he played the first song on trumpet. We were in the orchestra pit. We have some videos 3 of them just bits of something. One is of Arturo and I talking about our favorite song by Bunny Berrigan my mobility song when I was 3 years old which I told him briefly about but the video cut out but it is on our favorite CD which I had brought called "Trumpet Evolution" which someone bought me for Christmas one year, that he signed for me saying, “Chela God Bless You A. Sandoval,” the song we talked about was "I Can't Get Started With You."
The other video of us is when he was fully demonstrating a tool I have of his called the Sandovalves which is supposed to help with improving my playing techniques. That was the full video. The other two videos are of me playing a partial solo on "Misty" on my former trumpet lesson teacher's trumpet with my mouthpiece, and of my former teacher singing part of "My Funny Valentine." I played near Wells Fargo Bank in Walnut Creek with Steve’s guitarist name Pete. There was a fountain nearby I believe and you could hear it in the background.
Just for your information I didn't get to sleep until 2 in the morning and got ready for church at 6 that morning after the concert. It was worth it! Arturo wants me to play "Straight No Chaser" in the key of F next time he is here again. We have one another’s contact information. I am now his friend, but not just any friend either, no, I am his "Internet," friend. He told me my Spanish sucks but then proceeded to tell me his English sucks as well so we promised one another to help one another out, he with my Spanish and music and I with his English. We talked for 40 minutes. He is a Christian but he can sure smoke a Cuban cigar and cuss but he sure knows how to encourage you and that is exactly what he did for me. He kept nudging me and kicking my leg whenever negativity came out of me. He spoke to me as if I were one of his family members and he is very down to earth. He definitely set me straight and I am renewed as a musician. He knows how to knock some hard core sense into you. He literally tried to make a man in the audience smile after he challenged us to have the TV off at night and to not watch CNN, but before he sang Nat King Cole's "Smile." He also cracked my back when he gave me a hug and I guess I needed that because I had been in pain since mid-June and I guess I had been holding onto stress and needed that much so I thanked him for cracking my back. He gives big hugs and probably sensed something misaligned and just went for it! And pop, it went! He told me he loved me and I just smiled. I nodded my head. He liked how nicely dressed I was and said I looked very beautiful. So, between Steve Mullins and Arturo Sandoval, there is no escape from my passion and love of playing my trumpet and furthering my techniques. Arturo wants me to use the Sandovalves on a daily basis whenever I take breaks and wants me to do the chromatic scales the first 7 notes back down from F sharp to C and he wants me to start at 120BPM and then increase by 10 beats faster and go up through 200BPM.
Wow! What an amazing experience that was!
Here are the youtube videos of this night. One is of me playing part of “Misty” and the other is of Arturo demonstrating the Sandovalves.
https://youtu.be/YBPxah8cKQc
https://youtu.be/cSvDY9HalrE

Fast forward to when I was able to see him again in concert with my dad and my former trumpet instructor Steve that was also awesome experience at Yoshi‘s in Oakland and yet again the same place with my friend that couldn’t go the first Time to Walnut Creek also at Yoshi‘s in Oakland. We were going to see him yet again me and a few other people that hadn’t seen him in concert before but then COVID-19 happened and we had to shelter in place. Oddly enough though I had bought a DVD of the movie that was about him a few years back. I wanted to watch the movie I thought it had audio description but it didn’t so I want to tell you also about another experience I had and I shared this with my friend Arturo and he was extremely touched by the experience I had.

“For Love Or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story” Movie Review From An Aira Explorer’s Perspective
Chela Robles
March 31, 2020
BACKGROUND
     I’m totally blind, living in Concord California and I utilize an assistive technological toolbox every day to help me accomplish various tasks and dreams.
     First of all, I use various screen reader software on multiple platforms and braille displays in addition to Openbook scanning software to do various proofreading and just reading material. I’m an alternate media specialist at a public high school, Santa Teresa, in South San Jose, which gives me a long three-hour commute to and from. Currently though, I’m looking for another position in a tech firm in the accessibility department, a temporary position, leading to a full time job with better benefits.
     One of these technological tools in my toolbox to make certain tasks easier and smoother to do is the Aira subscription-based service from La Jolla California near San Diego. This was first available to the public on January 29th 2015, co-founded by Suman Kanuganti.
     I use it for certain parts of my trips to and from work and, sometimes, while at work as well, when I cannot get a coworker to assist me for whatever reason with a task that requires sight and is very visual.
     I read up on more about Aira after listening to a series of podcasts talking about Aira on the Blind Abilities podcast back in October 2017, then I called the number of the talked-about “game changer.” After talking to a blind end-user and a sighted person who helps blind people, I was thinking I needed to get this, but how and is it at all possible? Sure enough, I was convinced. With help from one of my grandmothers, I was able to sign up to use Aira November 2017. Oddly enough, that’s when I started my first job at Santa Teresa High School in South San Jose.
     Aira uses some terms that are new to several people who don’t use this service. One of the terms is “explorer.” That is the end-user who has some form of vision loss, whether it is classified as low-vision, or totally blind as in my case. The other term is “agent,” which refers to the sighted person helping an explorer with whatever tasks they need help with.
     It works like this: I download the “Aira” app on my smartphone, create an account, then make a call to get help with whatever I need. It is a video feed that this system uses, similar to FaceTime, but better in my opinion, because the agents are trained and become certified to help the blind with completing tasks, ranging from small and menial, to awe-inspiring big tasks. No task is too small nor too big to complete with the aid of Aira, which stands for Artificial Intelligence Remote Access to visual information, which would otherwise be missed easily by someone like me. It doesn’t replace a cane or guide dog or human guide, but rather, it enhances the task at hand by interpreting crucial information to the explorer.
FAST FORWARD
     Today, March 31st 2020, I called Aira because I wanted to watch a movie. I could not find a description track option for it on DVD, which I bought for $13 from Amazon during the summer of 2014, while my folks were in Italy. The movie is called “For Love Or Country,” which is about my dear friend and trumpet mentor, Arturo Sandoval, born in Cuba, who is now a citizen of the USA!
     It’s like having a friend with you when you want his or her help or, in my case, if you want to watch a movie that is not audio described. I call the app my “pocket people” because you never know, like Lyft, Uber and most importantly, chocolate, what you’re gonna get. Every call is a new adventure just like every day is a brand new day!
     Before Aira, when I watched “For Love Or Country,” I relied on background sound and music cues between dialog, but with audio description, it’s like reading an Audible book which makes it very entertaining depending on the narrator.
     So, when I called, I got Kyle today. He was very nice and cheerful and wanted to watch the movie with me. He said he loves trumpet, so we jumped right in. I love Aira because the people are so friendly and personable, like a real true friend should be, eager to help, no matter the task at hand.
     As we watched the movie, Kyle was describing the scenes to me, reading any text that appeared that he could see and he told me when there was a flashback— which too many to count. He engaged me with the movie and even described Marianela’s figure form and the dress Arturo bought for her. It was a great eye-opener for me to know and understand what the dictatorship in Cuba is like and how socialism works. More importantly, I was seeing the movie today in a new, brighter way. It makes me greatly admire and respect my mentor and friend, not just for his accomplishment in coming here and his beautiful and awe-inspiring music, a true gift from God, to share with the world, but his determination is just very contagious!
CONCLUSION
     Thank you, Aira, for making yet another “Wow” moment happen for me #OnMyTermsForGreaterIndependence!
     To learn more about Aira, you can go to http://aira.io where you’ll see testimonials and hear a sample video of how it works along with their contact information.

By the way the agents name not to be confused with Kyle Kozlowski was another Kyle, with the last name Stofen. He was very nice and a while past since I used Aira last and I had called about getting a pic of me and my trumpet Ricochet labeled and described, he answered my call and he had questions about Arturo Sandoval and my own trumpet playing. I think it’s really neat how experiences like this can really bring people beyond themselves and even together to help in certain situations again thanks for sharing that story. I do hope that you get a chance to meet Buck as well.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 21, 2020, at 11:27 AM, Judy Jones via BlindTlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Very good.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindTlk <blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Madison Martin via
> BlindTlk
> Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2020 10:53 AM
> To: blindtlk at nfbnet.org
> Cc: maddymartin at mymts.net
> Subject: [BlindTlk] exciting news
> 
> Hi all,
> I know that most of you don't know who this guy is, and this isn't blindness
> related, but I just had to share. As my last post to the list was negative I
> figured I'd share something positive that's happened in my life. I've been a
> baseball fan for 5 years, and the Jays TV announcers are really grate at
> what they do, if it wasn't for them I can honestly say that I wouldn't still
> be watching baseball. When I first started watching I knew nothing about the
> game (the rules
> etc.) or anything about the players. Through them I learned about the game
> and more importantly got to know the players. The one announcer in
> particular (Buck
> Martinez) is really entertaining, but also really good at describing the
> game!
> Anyway I've been wanting to write to him to tell him what a grate job he
> does and that sort of thing, but I never had the nerve to do it, I was
> afraid that he wouldn't understand or wouldn't respond. Anyway a few months
> ago I just decided that I was going to bite the bullit and do it, so I went
> online and found his mailing address, but it was during the season so I
> didn't do it because I figured he'd be too busy. Well then one of my
> favourite hockey announcers retired, and that made me even more determined
> to connect with Buck.
> Well when I went online again I couldn't find the mailing address that I'd
> found previously. I'm a member of a few Jays fan groups on FB, so I posted
> to see if anyone knew or could find Buck's mailing address. I got tones of
> comments with tones of suggestions, but the one that made it happen was one
> of the members of one of the groups offered to copy my post and tweet it to
> the guy (Jamie
> Campbell) who hosts the Blue Jays Central pre and post-game shows. He
> responded and contacted Sportsnet (which is the chanel that carries all Jays
> games and employs the announcers) and they reached out to Buck and explained
> the situation and he agreed to give them his personal email address to give
> to me, as long as I agreed not to share it with anyone, not that I would've
> anyway. I'd reached out to Sportsnet twice previously, both times during the
> season, and I guess my email got missed as they receive so many messages.
> Anyway, not sure why I was afraid to write to him, he's been grate and he
> understands how important good announcers are to people like me who can't
> see!!!! Wish I'd just written him a letter 5 years ago! Plenty of sighted
> Jays fans (including Dad) love him too!! Anyway that's the story. Thank
> goodness for Twitter and for Jamie being a nice guy, I sent him a thank-you
> note along with the lady who tweeted him. Now I just hope that we can get to
> another Jays game and meet Buck before he retires (he's 76 or something),
> I'm not looking forward to the day he retires, no one will ever be able to
> replace Buck. Just couldn't resist sharing! 
> Madison
> 
> 
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