HALIMAH COLINGWOOD, aka Halimah the Dreamah, has been making music all her life, even claiming that when she was born, instead of the usual scream on entrance into the world, she sang a high C, shattering all the windows in the delivery room. 

Her stories of a life in music are many and varied and feature the duo Blackburn and Snow from mid-sixties San Francisco, at a time when she went by the stagename of Sherry Snow. Many of her Bay Area acquaintances went on to become internationally famous artistes (although Halimah somehow only told us of her being in the room with Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey and Bob Dylan after the podcast was done!) 

With two singles and an album’s worth of songs completed – eventually released in 1999 as Something Good for Your Head by Blackburn and Snow – Halimah turned away from the music business after a profound inner prompting which began a spiritual journey that took her to Indonesia, and a Shepherd’s cottage in Scotland. This was not before she’d also become a vocalist with the highly regarded Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, a period she speaks of with affection.

After some time in Europe, Halimah and family moved back to the USA where she is now settled in Arcata, California. Along the way she returned to college to study philosophy, which she wryly describes as ‘something very practical’, and co-founded the Redwood Interfaith Gospel Choir – whose track He Made a Difference is our intro and outro piece. She also DJ-ed on the local radio station for many years with her Ethnic Excursions show. 

Her motto, borrowed from the I Ching, is Perseverance Furthers. We couldn’t agree more!

Blackburn and Snow: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYAKa9ZSpPw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Cw0KxRLwY&list=RDH2Cw0KxRLwY&start_radio=1

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks (with the song Halimah sings on our podcast):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTz7nABgIH4&list=OLAK5uy_lMEgr_MuA_OdLKR7oWkHJ2B0Z-KATGbkY&index=1

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

​Our special guest in this episode is the PRIME NUMBER 29 which gives us the chance to mention the 29 other guests we've had on our previous podcasts. And what guests! OK, on this occasion we probably overuse 'amazing' and 'incredible', but then these descriptions are actually justified.

Plus 29 the number is also pretty amazing and incredible: tune in for some very interesting 29-related facts and figures which you can astonish friends and family with.

Add to this the​ fact that the intro and outro songs are created with the help (well about 92% of help) from a very smart Artificial Intelligence, and we think you'll be intrigued and entertained by Creag​eivity 29.

PS: Our AI singer couldn't quite get her tonsils around the name of every guest, but she did reaonably well, don't you think?

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

One of the secrets to MIKE PAILTHORPE’s survival and success in music, education and - at one time, publishing – is simple: ‘Just talk to people.’

Mike grew up in Hounslow, and at school, started punk band The Milk (our first podcast track) which went on to play numerous Rock Against Racism gigs, with the encouragement of established bands Misty in Roots and The Ruts. 

Mike then, ‘Retired from punk’ to study English at Queen Mary College London, and from there found himself in Worthing, on the South Coast of England. With what seems like typical serendipity, he walked into a factory and got a very boring job, before being called by a book distributor to deliver books… and start a journey of fearlessly talking with people!

While in the book trade, Mike was also playing music, built his own recording studio, and then began work at the famous Jacob’s Farm residential studio.

The late 90s saw a tempting to offer to set up a Music Technology course from scratch, which after modest beginnings now has “over four million quid’s-worth of equipment” and runs degree-level courses. 

Mike’s family are all music makers, “A result of a home more full of musical instruments than toys,” and he has never stopped playing and exploring music. In the podcast we hear the Gospel choir, SPRING INTO SOUL that he helps run, along with a song by VICKY RAYNER AND THE REST, with Mike as bass player.

Creageivity 28 is an inspiring and uplifting listen, with a guest who seems to have a special ability (which at one point he likens to Forrest Gump) to be in the right place at the right time.

Music, all courtesy Mike Pailthorpe: 

Wake Me Up by The Milk 

I Open My Mouth by Spring Into Soul

Protect You by Vicky Rayner and The Rest

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

GABY WEINER has held various professorial and honorary research positions in universities in the UK and Sweden. Publications include Just a Bunch of Girls (1985); Feminisms in Education (1994); Closing the Gender Gap; Kids in Cyberspace, Reconstructing and Deconstructing Lives; Tales of Loving and Leaving (2016); Harriet Martineau and the Birth of the Disciplines; and Reintroducing Harriet Martineau: Pioneering Sociologist and Activist. In recent years she has also been an active contributor to the Lewes Holocaust Memorial Day Group and Martineau Society.

In this episode of Creageivity, Gaby talks particularly about her own family history, brought to life in Tales of Loving and Leaving, centred on the amazing stories of her father’s experiences across Europe, and her Grandmother’s murder in the Treblinka death camp. Harriet Martineau is something of a specialist subject for Gaby, and she makes a great case for why this almost-forgotten beacon of feminism, journalism and activism is overdue recognition.

Intro and outro music is a recording of Putta Nera by Giorgio Mainero (1585-1582) played by Gaby and the University of the Third Age recorder group.   

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Ashton Applewhite is the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism and a co-founder of the Old School Hub. She has written for Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times; speaks widely at venues that have included the United Nations and the TED mainstage; and is at the forefront of the emerging movement to raise awareness of ageism and make age a criterion for diversity. In 2022 the United Nations named Ashton one of the Healthy Aging 50: fifty leaders transforming the world to be a better place to grow older.

In a wide-ranging and lively discussion Ashton challenges preconceptions and makes points that everyone of any age should consider - and it's fun too!

Music with thanks to Pixabay: 'Playing the Old Guitar' by NOVIFI

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Architect and Designer, Londoner PETER BOSSON attended Hornsea Art School before going on to the Royal College of Art and gaining a degree in architecture. Working as a consultant for Olivetti (then the largest computer manufacturer in the world), Peter studied the lack of ergonomic thinking in computer and office design and saw the need to “Connect the disconnect between furniture and IT.”  The research conducted with Olivetti engineers lead to significant changes in how we now all work with computers. 

By 1990, Peter and two colleagues had founded the Colebrook Bosson Saunders design agency, creating ever more elegant ways of supporting and interfacing with computers and screens. The company’s products can be seen all over Europe and the USA, part of Peter’s drive to “Get rid of imprecision.”

Since his retirement Peter has had more time to pursue his passions of playing classical guitar, and drawing. He and his wife Liz - “40 years married and still going strong” – have designed and built their own Passive House on the South Coast of England. That’s ‘passive’ as in requiring no heating at all, and in our podcast Peter has a lot to say about how governments, local authorities and house builders could do so much to produce more efficient, effective and comfortable homes.

Is Design with a capital ‘D’ now over? Peter says that “Nothing’s rubbish anymore.” But why Colebrook Bosson Saunders products were named after Northern Rugby League Clubs remains an unrevealed mystery.

Enjoy hearing about the Architecture of the workplace and Peter’s journey through a highly creative life.

Some of Peter’s design work is at: https://pergoworkstyle.com/brand/colebrook-bosson-saunders/?srsltid=AfmBOorFFJoAh5ELQGDDJBtq7VqZseallpWahzmQMlydy0uNzc178VKE

Music from Pixabay by DVIOR SILVA with many thanks 

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Brian Reynolds: A Storyteller Who Plays to Win

Brian Reynolds is an LA-based writer, director, and choreographer of movement—whether it’s the perfectly timed punch in a stage fight or the subtle, loaded pause between two characters on screen. With a background spanning theater, film, stage combat and storytelling, Brian has a knack for crafting narratives that balance sharp wit with emotional depth. His work moves fast, crackles with wit, and keeps audiences on their toes—whether they’re watching a film, a play, or a cleverly executed finesse at the bridge table.

His most recent feature film, The Nanny, which he wrote and directed, made waves on the festival circuit, collecting multiple awards and securing a sales agent. A storyteller at heart, Brian thrives in the unpredictable world of independent cinema where resourcefulness and relentless creativity are as vital as the script itself.

Brian Reynolds tells stories, whether through film, theater, or the elegantly played hand of a well-bid bridge contract. His career is a testament to the power of creativity, the joy of competition, and the art of making every move count.

Tune in to Creageivity 24 to be uplifted, stimulated and entertained!

https://thebridgeteachers.com

https://www.tubemanent.com

Music: Las Vegas theme courtesy Mykola Sosin, pixabay
 
 

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Musician ELI DOKSON converted from high school trumpeter to electric guitarist after seeing the Beatles perform live: “Everyone else was standing there screaming, and I was just standing there staring,” he recalls. And so began a lifelong passion for playing guitar, which Eli still continues at the age of 75, gigging regularly in the area around his home of Crestone in the high desert of Colorado, USA. In Creageivity 23 Eli gives Adrienne a lesson in the basics of chord structures, and why anyone can play the blues if they know their I, IV, and V. He also tries to convince Harlan of the genius that is guitarist Robben Ford, although all three are agreed on the lasting brilliance of Bob Dylan.

We hear excerpts of two tracks from Eli’s solo album A Dream I Can’t Forget: Center of the Sky and Holding Out for Love. In between there’s also a song from one of Eli’s many bands, Earthmen, with a track titled Parallel to Yesterday from their album Touch. 

When not guitaring, Eli describes his life taking care of horses at the stables he has run with his wife Joanna for around 30 years, and where he says he is, ‘In charge of manure’. However it’s to the joy of musical creativity and performance that Eli returns at the end of the podcast, as he reflects on the advice given to him by another respected musician. 

Creageivity 23 offers a relaxed stroll through Americana music – including reflections on listening to the Grateful Dead, back in the day in San Francisco. 

Photographs of Eli courtesy of Mat Lit, photographer and editor of The Creston Eagle: MattLitPhoto.com 

Music written and performed by Eli Dokson and friends, used with permission.

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Our guest for Creageivity 22 is MONICA CLARKE – also known as Ouma Monica, meaning Grandmother – who was born and raised in South Africa during the brutal and repressive Apartheid regime which separated people according to their skin colour. By the 1980s Monica was an activist for the African National Congress, smuggling revolutionary literature and funds into the country – which led to her life being threatened, and escape to Britain, where she was given political asylum. 

Monica has worked as a nurse, midwife and lawyer, based in London. She is also an accomplished writer and storyteller and is particularly keen to recount stories of oppression, both in the past, and currently. 

Her book The Hottentot Venus tells the truly shocking story of Saartjie Baartman (a Khoi Khoi ancestor of Monica’s) who in the 1800s was trafficked from her home in South Africa, to be displayed like a zoo animal in London and Paris, where she died in tragic circumstances. Another of Monica’s books, Apartheid & Me is written specifically to educate and enlighten younger readers about the horrors of racial inequality in South Africa. To Have not, to Hold is also set in Apartheid South Africa, and charts the struggles of a young woman within a violent marriage. 

In our podcast, Monica talks about her own background in a country riven along racial lines, as well as another theme, based on her experience of the love and hope of caring for a partner with aphasia. Even in the midst of extreme difficulties, Less Words, More Respect shows that ‘there is a future worth living for’.

Ouma Monica’s experience and creative output spans difficult times and subjects, but she tells her stories with a lightness and humanity that is heartwarming. Tune in to Creageivity 22 for some marvellous storytelling and a big warm smile!

Monica’s website: https://www.monicaclarke.website/home

Austin Macauley Publishers: https://www.austinmacauley.com/author/monica-clarke

Monica on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicaclarkewriterstoryteller/?originalSubdomain=uk

Music: Unlock Me by Prazkhanal, with thanks

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Filmmaker MARY DICKINSON has an astonishingly long filmography working as a Producer and Director, mainly for the BBC’s flagship Arts programme, ARENA. During her seven years of art school, culminating in an MA from the Royal College of Art, Mary rapidly abandoned her teenage dreams of becoming a painter. Instead she experimented with decaying food as sculptural statements, performance art, and developed an interest in human mortality and the rituals of death. 

As Mary tells us in CREAGEIVITY 21, she realised that these preoccupations would not necessarily provide a steady income, and after the Royal College joined the film unit of the National Coal Board, working on educational and safety programmes. This led to a career defining 24-year spell with the BBC, working in Music and Arts, and Community Programmes. During this time she became attached to Arena, the highly influential and respected arts programme, steered from 1975 by Alan Yentob. Mary tells us of the first Arena programme she produced and directed, Old Kent Road, which defined her approach to having documentary subjects tell the story in their own words (now a common technique, but in the 80s a big break from presenter-led programmes). 

We also hear of films made with comedian Alexei Sayle, comic strip artists Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and the story of Masters of the Canvas, about painter Peter Blake’s obsession with the masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki. These are just a few among very many entertaining and challenging films made by Mary while at ‘The Beeb.’ 

Following a period working in the Independent TV sector, Mary briefly retired, before having a ‘Eureka Moment’ on Catford railway station in London, and launching herself back into a new collaboration which will soon be submitted to film festivals and other public screenings.
Fasten your seatbelts folks and tune in to Creageivity 21 with MARY DICKINSON!

Music with thanks: Steampunk Victorian Orchestra by Humanoide Media

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!