Jazz Thursdays In Forest Hills

The Chamber of Commerce and local sponsors are putting on a free, outdoor Jazz Festival from 7-9:30pm on the first 3 Thursday evenings in August. The concerts will be held on 70th street, AKA "Restaurant Row."

Next Thursday will feature trumpet master Valery Ponomarev, who emerged on the international jazz scene when he defected from Russia to join the late, great drummer Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. Valery has gone on to record and perform with top stars including pianist Duke Ellington, drummer Max Roach, trombonist Curtis Fuller, saxophonist Benny Golsonand, etc. He has appeared on CNN, PBS, National Geographic Today...and next he'll be on the Red Gun blog!

Thanks to the Chamber of Commerce and community sponsors for bringing Forest Hills together over good music and food. And if you get too hot with all that jazz, stop by Novo 64 for a free hand fan.

Real Estate That Keeps It Real: Triumph Charity

Squidoo.com is a website that allows users to make their own page-- it's a bit like myspace in that it's user generated content. The big difference is that the money raised from every page on Squidoo.com can be donated to a non-profit of your choice. You get a statement at the end of every month that tells you how much money your page donated, and you can even write the donation amount off on your taxes at the end of the year. Not bad, eh?

Triumph Property is on Squidoo as Triumph Charity-- check out their page (called a "lens") at www.squidoo.com/triumphproperty. Make your own lens, or even a thousand lenses (there's no limit) and send the url to talia(at)triumphproperty.com so we can link to you.

The blurb they wrote on their lens sums things up nicely, and we hope other real estate companies will follow suit:

We have 5 offices in New York, filled with busy people designing, marketing, buying, and selling property. Our goal is to help others live beautifully, and that takes a lot of people, time, energy, and money. But what about those who don't have the same resources or opportunities that many of the rest of us have? We're not elitist snobs who have forgotten about the rest of the world-- Triumph is a real estate group that keeps it real. That's where Triumph Charity comes in: every month, we'll choose a non profit organization to donate our Squidoo funds to (feel free to e mail us your recommendations).Our goal is to have 500 people make 1 lens on Squidoo (it takes 10 minutes and can be about anything-- property, ice cream flavors, your puppy-- you name it). Every lens on Squidoo will earn money through Google ads and things you link (use the Amazon module to recommend books, the i tunes module to recommend music, etc. You get the idea).Whenever someone buys a product through your link,the sponsoring comany will send funds to the Triumph Charity non-profit. And at the end of every month, you'll get a statement saying how much your lens earned for charity-- feel free to write it off on your taxes.Skeptical that a little change can add up enough to make a difference? Check out the math:If every lens earns 50 cents a day, and 500 people take 10 minutes to make 1 lens, that will equal almost $100,000 per year.Not bad for 10 minutes of "work"! In 5 years, that amount turns in to almost half a million.
Lenses never go away, so they'll be earning money for charities for as long as the internet and google exist.Don't feel limited to only making 1 lens- you can make a 1,000 if you want. The more the better!

PS: Squidoo doesn't send spam, so no worries about signing up.

Subprime Shenanigans

The US fallout in subprime loans has certainly caused some problems, and there's no denying that it was the culprit in the global market plunge. However, I didn't see any traders jumping out of windows on Wall Street this morning. For most of us, here is what the market bust translates to:

● It will be more difficult to get a loan if you have bad credit. Yes, subprime borrowers-- this means you! You're likely to be considered a subprime borrower if you have a credit score under 650, have declared bankruptcy in the past 5 years, or are 24 months late in paying back your loans.

● Interest rates for loans on homes over 400k are rising, even for those with great credit. However, rates have gone down on small loans for prime buyers.

● REITs have suffered, but depending on what sort of real estate investment trusts you've invested in, it might just be a waiting game or an opportunity for cheap shares. Talk to your financial advisor.

The big worry is that these supbrime shenanigans will spiral into a recession. Alan Greenspan has dished out a comforting estimate that we have a 66% chance of bouncing back just fine. In fact, the report this morning is that Asian markets are already recovering from the lapse.