NEWS ARCHIVES

2009:

[JUN 2] The Summer Fever pick link is fixed - sorry about that.  :-)

[MAY 31] I think I covered the big news in the mid-week updates.  :-) But in case you missed them, California, Germany and Belgium need to look at the tour list below. Also, in case you haven't noticed - tomorrow is June 1, so that means it's time for a new Summer Fever pick. This time I'm celebrating 30 years of Bad Girls.  :-)  (That would be the album and not the ... um... working girls. I'm pretty sure they've been around WAY more than 30 years.  LOL)

[MAY 31] Let's start off with something in the Donna is everywhere category. SeeMagazine.com posted some quotes from Yuval Taylor to promote his book, Faking It: The Quest For Authenticity in Popular Music [Amazon, Amazon UK]. The first quote that greets you is "I think Donna Summer ... is one of the great musical innovators and performers... and she is definitely not seen that way." (Hello, Rock Hall Of Fame? Are you listening?)

[MAY 31] Moving on to the land of covers, there is a new cover of On The Radio out in Europe by Rockwell.

[MAY 31] That brings us to the web news. Over on YouTube, look for new clips from Fernando including  remixes of Love To Love You and On The Radio.  Also check out the Donna Summer vs. Klaus Nomi mix of I Feel Love. On Multiply, Patrice has posted his mix of I'm Free, along with some of his photo creations, and ANdy has posted his mix of Carry On. 

[MAY 30] BELGIUM - your concert is confirmed!  Donna will be playing the Lokerse Feesten on August 1. Tickets are on sale now - see the Festival website for details. (My link will send you to the English version of the website. There are links on top of the  Lokerse Feesten page for French and Dutch if one of those languages is easier for you.

[MAY 29] BERLIN! (I mean the city in Germany and not the band.  LOL) I have good news for you guys. Donna will be playing at the Admiralspalast on July 30. Tickets will be on sale very soon through eventim.de and getgo.de. I even have a copy of the press release for you to read if you would like. (It's in English.) Please note that the press release is dated June 2, so when it says tickets are on sale "now" that's not the case today.

[MAY 29] While I'm here - I got 3 emails this morning from European fans about a show in Belgium. After the fiasco with the other dates that were announced prematurely, I'm checking that one out with Donna's people before I add it to the list here.  So when I hear something definite (either way), I'll post it. :-)

[MAY 28] CALIFORNIA! The Chumash Casino in Santa Barbara is reporting that Donna will be there June 25. Tickets are on sale now through the casino's website.

[MAY 24] Well, I thought I was going to come back sooner - but real life got in the way.  But I do have a couple of fan reports from Florida for you, along with a couple of photos. And in the web news section, I'll have some YouTube links for you too. :-)  For those of you who have been wondering - it is the same show as last summer, only in Florida it was a little shorter because a couple of songs were dropped. (That may or may not be due to the venue - some places are very strict about how long a show can last, and they will beat the artist with a big stick if the show runs long.  ;-) ) 

[MAY 24] Okay picture hounds, there are professional pictures from Florida posted here, some 2008 pictures posted here, and plenty of new and old pictures here. We've also got a very positive concert review put there courtesy of the South Florida Times.

[MAY 24] Paris - I'm told your concert is sold out.  :-) That means it will be a nice big party over there later this summer!  

[MAY 24] That brings us to the web news. First up is a new blog called The Best Singer: Donna Summer. It's written in Portuguese, so if that's not your language, run over to Google to get a translation. :-) Over on Multiply look for new mixes from Patrice, Jeffrey and Andy. On YouTube, look for new videos from Fernando (including a very interesting video he made for Be Myself Again) and a very cool video for The Hostage. There are also new videos from Florida: 2 clips of Hot Stuff from thanynathy and Phil, and 2 versions of Last Dance from Italman and Phil. (Don't be confused - the ordinarydiva account is mine, but I'm hosting Phil's videos for now.)

[MAY 17] As I write this, Florida should be for their diva right now - so we'll just have our own little update party here without them.  ;-)    News alert from Florida (thank god for text messages  LOL) - it's pretty much the same show as last summer with at least one subtle change that I know of so far. (More on that when the Floridians report.  :-) ) Okay, before I get to the regular news, I have a couple of new articles linked in the media section below. I also have a brand new Ken's Korner - and I think he must have a high fever or something because he's being (mostly) nice this time.

[MAY 17] Lets start off with more concert updates.  The tickets for the LA County Fair show won't go up for sale until sometime in July I'm told now. However, if you go over to LACountyFair.com, there is a link that will allow you to buy a membership to the End Of Summer Concert Series Club. Membership gives you a snazzy (non-Donna) t-shirt AND the chance to snap up your tickets a little earlier than the general public can.

[MAY 17] In the everyone likes to play with Crayons category -  one of the couples on Dancing With The Stars last week actually did their routine to Crayons. It wasn't Donna's vocals, since they never use the original recordings on the show - but it was her song. You have to love it when the new stuff gets picked up!  :-)

[MAY 17] In the Donna is everywhere category, one of the Eurovision contestants, Jade Ewen, is described as having (among other things) "the eternal cool of Donna Summer."    :-) Also the Gucci fragrance commercial has been spotted in Australia. 

[MAY 17] In the Mistaken Identity category - DJ Donna Summer, aka Jason Forrest is hanging out in Oslo these days. So if you Norwegians run into any Donna Summer articles over there, look closely to see who they mean. (Lately the press has been pretty careful to specify the DJ part though, so that's good.)

[MAY 17] Someone sent me a cool little link called TagGalaxy. When you go there you type in a tag like say.... "Donna Summer" ... and it will pull up all the Flickr hosted images that have that tag. You can find a bunch of fan concert photos that way.  :-)

[MAY 17] I think that brings us to the web news. Over on Multiply look for several new mixes by Andy, and some new audio and video from Patrice.  I know there is a bunch of new stuff at YouTube too, but at the moment they are doing maintenance so I can't get to my subscriptions list.  So I'll post that stuff when I come back with the Florida reports.

[MAY 13] Chicago - Ticketmaster put your tickets up for sale while I wasn't looking. Run, do not walk, to the Ticketmaster site now to get your tickets. 

[MAY 10] Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!  Bruce fans will want to look at the Family Matters section below.

[MAY 10] Okay, let's just jump right into concert info.  Canada - the tickets for the show in Windsor will go on sale May 20 via Ticketmaster. (Speaking of Canada - be very afraid guys!  I'm crossing the border for the Niagara Falls shows!)   Chicago - I thought your tickets for the Horseshoe Casino would be on sale already, but they are coming soon through Ticketmaster. I have seen a preview copy of the print ad for that show and I can tell you that they are still using the Crayons cover, and they are still calling it the Stamp Your Feet Tour.  :-) For those of you interested in going to the Horseshoe Casino show,  I believe you can sign up  for special offers at that venue by texting the word "venue" to 427724. Or you can go to the venue's website and sign up for their email alerts to get $20 off a pair of tickets to a show. And just a note to everyone planning to go to a casino show - don't forget that many of those venues have age restrictions for the shows, so make sure you check that out if you were thinking of bringing your kids.

[MAY 10] In the Donna is everywhere category, the new Gucci fragrance ad with I Feel Love has been spotted on CP24 in Toronto. And in Columbia, LuLuDisco has a fashion show. You can check out the videos on line.... and you might hear a couple of familiar tunes in them.  ;-)

[MAY 10] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on Multiply, look for Patrice's I Remember Yesterday mix and on YouTube,  we have The Wanderer video, a classic clip of I Feel Love, and some high school kids stamping their feet to... well, you know.  ;-) 

[MAY 5] Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Calling the great state of New Jersey.....  (sorry, I saw Springsteen last night.  LOL)  You guys will be seeing Donna at the Taj Mahal on August 29. Those tickets go on sale June 6 at noon via Ticketmaster.

[MAY 3] If you missed Thursday's update, the Foxwoods tickets went on sale yesterday through Ticketmaster. It looks like the front section is mostly sold right now, but there are still plenty of seats in the other sections if you are planning to go. And Bruce fans will want to see the Family Matters section below. 

[MAY 3] Classic photo hounds - getback.com has a few classic photos of Donna, plus a couple of old videos, including Love Is In Control.

[MAY 3] In release news...  almost a year since we got Crayons, we have a brand new Shout It Out coming! (It had to happen, right?  LOL)  It's the same old track list, but they've come up with new cover art - and this one's not bad. (But nothing will ever be as good as the one with the freaky eyeball cover.  LOL)  You can check it out at Play.com.  This one is due out on May 11 and it is being sold under the title of Fun Street. 

[MAY 3] There is a new book coming out this month by Giorgio Moroder and Alessandro Benedetti called Extraordinary Records [Amazon, Amazon UK]. It's a showcase of some 400 unusual vinyl records (shaped, colored, etc). I don't know yet if any of Donna's picture disks will make the book, but I guess we'll see what it hits stores.

[MAY 3] Sandisk has come out with a new MP3 player called slotRadio that requires no computer to use. You just stick a preloaded card in the player, and you have 1000 songs to listen to. They've just announced 4 new cards to go with the player, and they will have some Donna tunes on the oldies card. I just want to know when "oldies" became  MY music instead of my mother's music?  LOL

[MAY 3] In the Donna is everywhere category, State Of Independence got a mention on E's Chelsea Lately (the one with Tracey Ullman as a guest). Apparently the song is a favorite of Chelsea's boyfriend.

[MAY 3] In remix news, Jay Style has remixed Donna's version of La Vie En Rose. He's got 2 of the mixes posted on his site - just look for the player widget on the left side of the homepage.

[MAY 3] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on YouTube, check out Fernando's channel for some live footage and for his video for Be Myself Again.  Also look for live footage of On The Radio from last year's concert in Chicago, and Patrice's Power Of Love video. On Multiply, check out AJ's mixes of I Don't Want To Get Hurt, Patrice's Maxi Dance  mix, and a couple of videos from Steve.

[APR 30] Calling Connecticut - the Foxwoods tickets go on sale this Saturday (May 2) at 9 AM via Ticketmaster. If you are planning to stay over, Foxwoods is offering a special room rate for the night.

[APR 30] While I'm here... it's time for a new Summer Fever pick.  This month All Systems Go takes the spotlight.  :-)

[APR 24] I thought I'd do the update early since I have I have ticket info for some of the North American shows now, and it's so close to the usual update anyway. Niagara Falls and Horseshoe Casino tickets go on sale May 8, and the L.A. County Fair tickets go on sale May 15.  I believe all those venues use Ticketmaster in addition to their usual box office.  Coney Island will be free (yes you read that right!) but you can rent seats for $10. (It's a standing room general admission venue.) I'll let you know about the others as soon as I hear.

[APR 24] In the Donna is everywhere category - it was disco week on American Idol. So you know that means they were singing Donna songs.  :-) You can hear the contestants' versions of Hot Stuff,  Dim All The Lights and She Works Hard For The Money on YouTube.  And you can read about them in any of the 8 million news alerts I got this week.  LOL As a side bonus, Dim All The Lights is selling like crazy on iTunes thanks to the exposure.

[APR 24] Moving on to VH1, they are FINALLY bringing back their Divas concert series this fall. They are asking visitors to the VH1 site to vote for the divas they would like to see.  I can think of plenty of divas who belong on that show - one in particular who stole the show in 2000.  ;-)  (I just hope they don't make it a tribute to anybody - the show is always more fun when the divas are on equal footing.)

[APR 24] On to European tour dates - or the lack thereof....  I know Donna is still listed on the Montreux Jazz Festival site, but I just want to remind people that particular date is NOT on Donna's official schedule at this time.  Someone also sent me a link this week indicating that Donna  might play Barcelona. Like Montreux, that is NOT on Donna's official schedule.  If that changes, I will be DELIGHTED to tell you - but for now, don't get your hopes up.  Sorry guys.  :-(

[APR 24] Moving on to the web news....  over on YouTube, look for a classic clip of A Man Like You, several new clips from Fernando, and a Donna vs. Green Velvet I Feel Love In La La Land clip.  On Multiply, Steve has posted Klyk's 2009 Speedo mix of Breakaway, and Andy has posted an updated version of his She Works Hard For The Money mix.

[APR 19] So if you missed the mid-week update, Paris and North America will want to look at the tour list below. (Watch out Canada - I think I'll be crossing the border this year!)  :-) I've added links to the venues so we can all watch out for the on sale dates. Please note that for casino dates, the "high rollers" will probably get first crack at tickets, so if you have any friends or family who is a regular at one of those casinos, it's time to call in some favors.  ;-)  Also, Bruce fans will want to see the Family Matters section below.

[APR 19] Gucci has a fragrance out called Flora and of course it has a TV commercial to advertise it.  The interesting thing about the ad (well, for us Donna fans) is the music they used in the ad.  It's an all new take on I Feel Love and yes, Donna recorded new vocals for it. You can see the commercial on YouTube and you can read about it here. 

[APR 19] A writer by the name of Jerry Perry has sent me a screenplay he wrote that was inspired by one of Donna's tracks. He gave it to me to post here on the site for your reading pleasure. It's called State Of Independence, and it's in PDF format so you will need the free Acrobat reader to view it. (I think most people have that on their computer these days anyway.) Just keep in mind that it's a full length screenplay so watch out how much time you spend reading it at work. (I know you guys goof off over here on Mondays when you are supposed to be working.  LOL)

[APR 19] That brings us to the web news. Over on YouTube, when you are done watching that Susan Boyle clip from the UK (talk about mind blowing!) you can get back into Donna mode with a number of new mixes from Fernando, Glen Rivera's mix of Dance Into My Life, and Donna's Oscar night performance of Papa Can Your Hear Me. On Multiply look for several new mixes from Andy, and a new mix from Patrice. On the Donna Summer group at Bebo, they've gone completely poll happy.  :-) So if you are in the mood to rate a few tracks, head over there and make your voice heard.

[APR 16] GREAT news for Paris - I was just told to add that date back to the concert calendar!  :-)  July 7  is the date - buy your tickets now if you haven't already.  Some of you guys I emailed directly -  sorry to anyone I missed so far.  :-)

[APR 16] I have a few North American dates too.  We start off with Canada on August 20 and 21 at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, ON and then the  Coliseum at Caesar's in Windsor, ON on August 22. Then it's back to the US for August 23 at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, IN, August 27 at Coney Island in NY (yes, Coney Island - not the usual venues!), August 28 at Foxwoods in CT, and September 25 at the LA County Fair in Pamona. These are hot off the presses so I haven't looked to see if any of these have made the venue websites yet. I'll add links to the venues soon - I just wanted to post this (especially the Paris news) quickly.  :-)

[APR 12] I guess I should just get the bad news over with first. I got an email from the company that promotes Donna's tours. The European dates announced so far should not have been announced yet.  Apparently the promoter never fully confirmed things with Donna's people, so none of them are on her schedule.  I'm sorry - you have no idea how much it pains me to post this.  (And yes, I know the tickets are still posted for Paris and Switzerland. I'm not sure how they can do that without confirmation, but apparently they can.)

[APR 12] Now that all of Europe hates me..... there will be some US tour dates this summer. (And now Europe hates me more, I'm sure.)  I don't have a list yet, but we will probably be looking for street teams when the dates are announced. 

[APR 12] Let's move on to Stamp.  Ever since that song came out, there have been devoted groups of fans clamoring for the song to become a sports anthem for football, baseball, basketball, golf, or whatever. (Okay, maybe not golf - those guys don't like making a big sound.  LOL) Well, over on YouTube somebody saw a potential that most of us blinded ourselves to.  Instead of stamping your feet to win the game, how about stamping your feet for civil rights? All I want to know is why none of us thought of this before?

[APR 12] That brings us to the web news for the week. For those of you who like quizzes, 2 turned up in my email box this week. They are both hosted on Funtrivia.com. One is about song lyrics and one is about Donna's autobiography.  If mixes are more your speed,  check out Klyk's blog. He's added a number of Donna mixes over the last few weeks (plus lots of other mixes as well.) On Multiply, Andy and Steve have both gone insane with mixes and rare tracks. Not to be outdone, Patrice has cornered the market on 12" singles this week. (All this music is good for dancing off the Easter candy and Passover goodies!  LOL)  Over on YouTube, look for a nice clip of The Hostage, and a couple of clips from Stampyourfeet including that really nice CBS morning show interview from last summer.

[APR 6] Update on my charity auction - I now have T-Box offering to match the winning bid up to $150 with a donation of his own. So his match plus my match plus the winning bid could be big bucks for CMN.  :-)

[APR 5] Switzerland - did you catch the mid week update? If not, head to the concert section below.  :-)   Okay, before I get to the news...  Some of you will remember that a couple of years ago I did a charity auction to benefit Children's Miracle Network as part of the fundraising drive we do at my job each year. I sold what was in effect a blank CD called Pitstops: The Greatest Spaces Of Donna Summerssss. (Surprisingly Universal hasn't stolen that idea yet.  LOL)  Well, this year I'm doing it again. Only instead of selling a blank CD, I'm selling a perfectly ordinary magazine. It's the March 21 edition of Billboard (the very same one that was mailed to my house) which just so happens to be the week that Crayons returned to the Top 200 album chart. (Thank you Circuit City - at least a tiny ray of sunshine came from your closing.) The auction is live now on ebay (only I can't state there that it's a charity auction because I learned about that the hard way last time.)  I will match the winning bid (up to $100) with cash from my own pocket and I might even throw in a copy of Pitstops for the lucky winner. ;-) Whatever I get from the auction will be 100% donated to the fundraiser at my job.  I'm paying for (cheap  LOL) shipping for the winner - and even though I think my listing says that I will only ship to the US - for you guys, I'll ship internationally too.  The auction is here - sorry it's not as funny as the Pitstops one.  ;-)

[APR 5] An Italian magazine recently featured a nice article about Donna.  (Okay, I'm assuming it's nice since I don't read much Italian and since the person who sent it to me wasn't outraged by it.  LOL)  I'm actually just going to post the scans I got of the article partly so that my spellchecker doesn't go insane while I try to transcribe anything other than American English, and partly because there are some really cool photos that go with the article. There are 3 pages and each should open in a new window or tab for you. (Or use the right click and save option to just download the scans - which might be easier since they are huge..)  Page 1     Page 2   Page 3.  [Note to my visually impaired readers - screen reading software will not be able to make heads or tails of the article since it is posted in jpg format. Sorry.]

[APR 5] Believe it or not - that brings us to the web news for the week. Over on YouTube, Fernando has posted an I Feel Love mix and a Crayons video that I guess you could say was 30 years in the making.  LOL  (You will understand when you see the video.) Stampyourfeet (the artist formerly known as limoncello23) has posted his videos for Power Of Love, I'm A Fire and Melody Of Love. Also look out for a UK promo for the Divas 2000 concert with rare rehearsal footage. On Multiply look for Andy's instrumental mix of Love To Love You, Patrice's collection of mixes, and Steve's collection of stuff. (Was there some worldwide uploading event that I missed? Steve and Patrice both went nuts this week.  LOL)

[APR 2] So I thought I'd just log in tonight and change the Summer Fever page to the real one. (It's the collaborations of Mr. And Mrs. Sudano if you haven't seen it yet.) And I thought that was all I was going to do tonight. Then I got an interesting email from Pollstar.  So I'm happy to announce - SWITZERLAND: you guys will see Donna at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 18. Tickets are on sale now on the Montreux Jazz website (which is accessible in French, German and English.) Please keep in mind that they do have a disclaimer that the  event lineup is subject to change.

[MAR 31] Well, since somewhere in the world it's already April 1, I'm posting the Summer Fever pick for the month. 

[MAR 29] Florida and Italy - if you missed my midweek updates, then you need to look at the concert schedule below.   :-)  Now for everybody else - I don't have any more dates yet. As soon as I hear about any more dates anywhere, I'll post them.  But all you guys in Europe should be looking for TV, radio and/or print interviews in July.  If Donna is going to be in France early in the month and Italy in the middle of the month, that's the perfect time to sneak in some promo stuff for just about any European country.  :-) 

[MAR 29] Casablanca fans, Backbeat Books will be putting out a book about the rise and fall of Casablanca Records as told by someone who was on the inside of it all.  That is expected out this fall, and I'll give you more details as they become available.

[MAR 29] In the Donna is everywhere category, check out DiscoMusic.com's interview with Patti Brooks. Patti talks several times about working with Donna back in the day.

[MAR 29] Moving to the web news, over at YouTube, check out an interesting combination of Grand Illusion with stills from the movie Metropolis. While you are there, check out the fan made video for Try Me that uses footage from Live & More Encore, Last Dance live in Mexico, behind the scenes at Divas 2000, a nice cover of Our Love, and the entire 70s Celebration TV special posted by FilmsReel in 10 parts. (Last Dance is split over parts 5 and 6,  Hot Stuff is in part 2, and sharp eyes will spot her in the ensemble as the credits roll in part 10.) On Multiply, look for Patrice's mix of Dinner With Gershwin, andcheck Steve's profile to watch Thank God It's Friday as a rather short movie that only covers Donna's storyline. (And you can see a few other new additions over there as well.)  I'll be back in a couple of days with a new Summer Fever pick.  :-)

[MAR 26] Okay FLORIDA! You guys will get to see Donna at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood on May 17. Tickets go on sale April 3 at noon.

[MAR 25] Calling ITALY! I just got this link from one of the Italian fans and it looks like you guys will see Donna on July 19 as part of the Umbria Jazz festival in Perugia.

[MAR 22] So let's get the bad news out of the way - as expected, this week Crayons falls off both Billboard album charts. (The same thing happened to Janet Jackson, whose album also experienced a return to the charts due to Circuit City's closing.)

[MAR 22] Paris - Nostalgie radio is giving away 2 tickets to Donna's show this summer.  To win, you have to send in a photo of yourself in your disco clothes. The photo with the most votes wins the tickets. Details are posted on the Nostalgie website (in French, of course.)

[MAR 22] In the Donna is everywhere category, she played at at private birthday party for a billionaire's wife. (Hey, now I know how to get Donna to play at a party for me - I just have to marry a billionaire!  ;-) ) She also gets a mention in an interview with Sparks where the guys talk about I Feel Love. 

[MAR 22] Moving on to the web, ob Multiply Steve has been posting interviews and classic clips like a madman  :-)  and Andy has a new I'm A Fire mix. Over on YouTube, look for Starting Over Again from the 1980 TV special,  and a re-edit of the official video of Fame to make it fit with the Dan Chase full vocal mix. (Nice job.  :-) ) And for those who like paintings, Herman Van  Ankeren has added his First Lady Of Love portrait to his site. (Gee, I wonder who it might be a painting of?  LOL)

[MAR 19] This is just a quick update for Uruguay. There have been reports online that Donna will be performing there in April as part of the Concert for Peace and Tolerance event - that is NOT the case. Sorry guys.  :-(

[MAR 15] Let's go right to Billboard.  :-)  The good news is that Crayons has re-entered the Top 200 at #160, and it has climbed up the R&B/Hip Hop Album chart to #18 where it is listed as a pace setter.  Now the bad news is that Billboard attributes this (and some other recent chart activity by other artists) to the closing of the Circuit City chain. Those stores had everything at huge discounts, so people were grabbing up the bargains. Now that they have closed their doors - look for Crayons (and other things) to drop again.

[MAR 15] Every so often someone emails me looking for sheet music.  Well, I heard from a guy this week who has some sheet music available.  I didn't ask for his list yet, but if someone is interested, I'll hook you up with the guy. 

[MAR 15] In the world of fashion, Chanel had a show this week for the 2009 Fall line. One of the songs they used in the show was Love To Love You - a long version! :-) (If fashion is your thing, you can catch clips of the show on YouTube.)

[MAR 15] That brings us to the web. Let's start with YouTube. If you are a fan of limoncello23, then you need to know that his channel is gone. But you will find his new channel under the name stampyourfeet, where he's been happily uploading everything that he legally can.  On Multiply, look for  some classic clips posted by Steve, and Bentboy's remix jukebox.

[MAR 8] Believe it or not - I'm starting with chart news. I missed this last week, but Crayons re-entered the Billboard R&B chart (March 7th edition) at #74 and this week it climbs to #41.  :-)  Over in Brazil, Fame slips to #18 on the Top 30 Dance chart.

[MAR 8] The February 26 issue of the UK's QX Magazine has a short review of Fame. (The song also debuted at #19 in their club chart that same week.) You can read it on the QX website in PDF format on page 56 of the PDF file.  However, those of you reading at work might want to save QX for your home computer.  Some of the advertisements might get you into a little trouble with your employer - unless your employer encourages nudity.  LOL

[MAR 8] In the Donna is everywhere category, she gets a mention in an Australian crime novel of all places. The book is called Lady Killer and it's about a true case that happened out there. Here is the relevant quote: "Court stenographer Michael Campbell delicately punched the keys of the note-taking machine clasped between his knees as the Crown talked Bray through the tape. By day, Campbell sat silently covering major trials, but in the evening he was known to occasionally swathe himself in sparkling lame, blacken his face and don a wig, dressed as the the American disco singer Donna Summer. Campbell was planning a forthcoming trip to Las Vegas to see the real Ms Summer. He left theatrics in the courtroom to the barristers." By the way, if anyone catches Michael in court dressed up as Donna - send me the pictures and I'll post them.  LOL

[MAR 8] That brings us to the web news for the week.  Over at Donna Summertime, Sebastiano has posted an interview with Andrew Johnson - the  guy who sings I'm In Love With Donna Summer. (Look for  the original single and remixes at Amazon and Amazon UK. ) Over on YouTube, Fernando has posted another of his remix videos (this time for I Feel Love mixed with Giorgio's Chase), and limoncello23 has added a couple of familiar clips in high quality format. On Multiply look for Patrice's new mixes of I Will Live For Love.

[MAR 1] It's a brand new month so that means it's time for a new Summer Fever pick. This month A Love Trilogy hits the spotlight - now updated with streaming MP3 clips. 

[MAR 1] In the Donna is everywhere category, there is a show on Wednesday called Date or Fake on the German TV channel VIVA. During the intro to the show, they played a little clip of Crayons. (You gotta love it when the new stuff sneaks out there!) On the same day the Phoenix channel ran a show called The Power Of Music which had a segment about disco. They had some vintage interview clips of Donna - speaking in German about her image. I don't know if the show will be repeated or not, but if it is, try to catch it.

[MAR 1] There is a new U2 album coming out on Tuesday called No Line On The Horizon. I mention that because on it is a track called Magnificent in which Bono's vocals (according to one reviewer) sound like Donna.  I haven't heard the track yet myself, but I guess I'll be checking out the clips on Tuesday.

[MAR 1] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on Multiply, Steve is a posting fiend. He's added one mix and I didn't even count how many videos to his page this week. If that doesn't keep you occupied at work, then go check out Andy's page where he has posted a few new mixes. On YouTube, Fernando has also gone insane with 2 new video mixes and a classic live clip for you, and look for a live clip of the Bad Girls/Hot Stuff Medley from Westbury a couple of years ago. (Some of you locals might even spot yourselves in the audience.  :-) )

[FEB 22] I guess the place to start is with the charts. Unfortunately as of  March 7, Fame has fallen off the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.  In Brazil, it slips a couple of notches to # 5 on the Top 30 Dance chart for February 28.

[FEB 22] As most of you probably know, tonight is Oscar night when Hollywood recognizes the best of the past year. Naturally that's pretty much dominated entertainment media. TVGuide has chimed in with an article about Oscar winning songs and in it they list Last Dance as one of the most deserving wins. They even have a link to a classic performance of the song.

[FEB 22] Photo hounds, go check out BackstageGallery.com for some classic concert pictures from 1976. You can even order prints if you want.

[FEB 22] In the land of "these guys have  great taste" -  a number of new things have cropped up recently that have either been inspired by Donna's music, or that have been compared to Donna's music.  There is It's Blitz by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs which was inspired by the Donna/Giorgio Moroder collaborations, there is the new Peaches album coming this spring with a title that may have been inspired by a Donna track (at least that is the speculation of one writer), an upcoming Duke Pandemonium CD that is being hailed as being "as much Donna Summer as it is King Crimson...", and the new Lily Allen CD that has one reviewer saying that it "coalesces the dance floor malaise of Donna Summer and New Order, the whack-pop chirp of early Kate Bush and the grand fromage of ABBA...."  I guess these younger artists know where to go for inspiration.  :-)

[FEB 22] In the Donna is everywhere - see if you can spot the sample in this Ne Yo video.  I'll give you a hint: it's not one of the more commonly sampled tracks - even among Donna fan mixers. Or if you are in a movie frame of mind, go see Frost/Nixon.  Believe it or not, they play I Feel Love in the film. (And I have to say it's not a song that I would ever think of in connection with Richard Nixon.  LOL)

[FEB 22] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on Multiply, look for Fame mixes by Andy and Patrice, and an old Dutch interview posted by Steve.  Mix fans will want to check out fanmixer, Klyk's new blog.  On it you can hear a bunch of his Donna mixes, along with some of his other stuff too.

[FEB 15] Happy day after Valentine's Day!  Before I get to Donna, Bruce fans will want to see the Family Matters section below.  :-)

[FEB 15] Let's start with the charts. On the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for February 28, Fame drops to #34. I guess that run is over.  :-( In  much better news, Fame holds at #2 on the Brazilian Top 30 Dance chart.

[FEB 15] In release news, the Rona Barrett DVD is officially out now. I got my copy and here is the scoop. The DVD contains 10 interviews with celebrities that were hot in the late 70s or early 80s. Each interview is accompanied by a brand new commentary before and after the clip - and in Donna's case, it even includes a mention of Crayons. Donna's interview runs for about 8 minutes and she talks about Love To Love You, prejudice, the music industry and her first time singing in church. I'd say it was probably filmed in late 1979 or early 1980 - it's hard to say because the clip doesn't promote any particular album. If you are looking for more reasons than just Donna to pop for the CD, there are also vintage interviews with Cher, Priscilla Presley, Robin Williams, Carol Burnett and John Travolta, among others. And one dollar of each sale goes to the Rona Barrett Foundation for the Elderly Poor.

[FEB 15] In new old releases, the UK has a new Master's collection called Classic. It's 18 tracks of a few hits rounded out by album tracks from the Casablanca/Polygram albums. EIL.com has a photo of the cover (and the track list), and I believe the album is also available at Amazon UK. (The one I linked to has the right track list - but unfortunately there isn't any other info that makes it 100% certain it's the same one. 

[FEB 15] In the Donna is everywhere category - well, it was Valentine's Day. So you know her songs were being mentioned in articles all over the place.  LOL  Obviously, Love To Love You got a mention in one article, but the really cool thing is that Science Of Love got a mention in a widely published AP article about the chemicals that are released in a kiss. It's nice to know the new songs are being listened to by someone besides the regulars here.  :-)  In another unexpected mention, the group Yeah Yeah Yeahs has a new album called It's Blitz that is at least partly inspired by Giorgio Moroder's work with Donna. 

[FEB 15] I think that brings us to the web news for the week and have I got a clip for you. Go over to YouTube where you might remember that bonesraymond posted a fabulous clip of Donna singing Amazing Grace with the Nashville Symphony. Well, he's added a couple of other clips from that show - namely Smile, and a clip of I Will Live For Love that is completely different from any version of that song you've heard before. It's a ballad with full orchestration.  :-)  The clip is less than 2 minutes long unfortunately, but in my opinion it blows away every other version of the song I've heard. (That's it - next time Donna plays with a symphony, I have to find a way to get there!) While you are snooping around YouTube (and if you are like me - once you play one clip you have to look and see what else is new  LOL), check out this clip of Don't Cry For Me Argentina from Spain. Over on Multiply, Steve has posted a video of Donna singing A Man Like You, and a couple of other goodies, while Andy has posted a couple of new mixes, and Denis has posted his slow to fast megamix.

[FEB 8] If you missed Donna on Larry Flick's show the other morning, you missed a lot of fooling around  :-)  and you missed the announcement that there won't be any tour dates until the summer because right now she's helping Amanda get ready for her wedding.  (Congrats to Amanda and Abner!) 

[FEB 8] Let's head over to the charts. For the week of February 21, Fame is hanging in on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart at #13.  Over in Brazil for the week of February 14, Fame climbs to #2 on the  Top 30 Dance chart.

[FEB 8]  In remix news, check out the Edson Pride Circuit mix of Fame on  Edson Pride's MySpace page.

[FEB 8] Speaking of MySpace....  if you are a member (and have befriended Donna over there, you probably got a bulletin inviting you to Donna's official Facebook page.  If you aren't on MySpace (or missed the bulletin, well here is Donna's Facebook page.  If Imeem is more your speed,  she has a page there too,  and just to round out the list - this is her YouTube channel.  Maybe with all the official sites and all the fan sites we can finally have Donna take over the WHOLE internet!  ;-) 

[FEB 8] Let's go to Paris for a minute.  As you know, there is a concert coming up in July. When we get a little bit closer to the date, I'll set up a concert connection page for those of you who would like to meet up for the show, share a ride, find a French-speaking buddy to help you get around, or whatever.   :-) But right now, one of the guys on the forum has an extra set of tickets that he's looking to sell. The post is here (you don't have to join Delphi to read - if you are a member, you can reply to the post. If you are not, contact me and I'll send your message to Wolfje for you.) Also, I found out that Radio Nostalgie is running a commercial advertising for the show.  :-)

[FEB 8] Continuing with Paris, there is an article on Vivolta.com about the show. It ends with this interesting line: "Donna Summer sera en tournée à l'été 2009 dans toute l'Europe et en concert exceptionnel le 7 Juillet au Palais des Congrès de Paris." Now I admit that French is not my strong suit....  but I'd say that we will definitely be hearing more about Europe in the coming months.  :-) 

[FEB 8] A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a song called I'm In Love With Donna Summer by Andrew Johnson (Amazon, Amazon UK, iTunes). There are going to be remixes available for that song in the not too distant future, and Andy is working on a video. He's looking for a few Donna fans to help him out.  The idea is he wants to use footage of fans dancing to the song. You can read about it here on the forum and if you are interested in participating, respond to Andy in the thread.

[FEB 8] In DVD news, Amazon shipped my Rona Barrett DVD so I should be able to tell you about Donna's interview next weekend.  :-)

[FEB 8] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on YouTube, limoncello23 has gone upload crazy with some old clips and his new video for Crayons. Also looks for clips from last year's Ottawa Bluesfest from Backpackdave1. 

[FEB 2] I have to radio alerts for you. The first one is very time sensitive. (Sorry for the short notice!) Donna will be on Larry Flick's show on OutQ (Sirius 109, XM 98) TOMORROW February 3. The show runs from 7 AM to 11 AM ET and Donna should be on in the last hour. It was a really fun interview last time she was on, so this time should be good too.  :-) Now on Sunday February 8, tune into Melbourne's Joy.org.au for a replay of an interview they did with Donna to promote Crayons. (If you guys remember, Alan at Joy.org.au was the guy who let us preview the Crayons tracks a little early last Spring.  :-) ) That runs at 3 PM Melbourne time which converts to 11 PM Saturday here in New York and 4 AM Sunday in London. (Everybody else can probably make their own time conversions from one of those 2 times.)

[FEB 1] It's a new month so you know what that means.... it's time for the new Summer Fever Pick. This month it's the movie Thank God It's Friday. 

[FEB 1] Let's start off with the charts. On the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for February 14, Fame slips to #11. But over in Brazil, it climbs to #9 on the Top 30 Dance Chart.

[FEB 1] Germany.... I don't want you to freak out yet, but there is a promoter out there who is looking for venues interested in booking Donna. So something is cooking.... I expect we'll hear more about Europe when we get closer to the summer.  :-) (Listen - don't go hounding those guys unless you happen to run a theater that wants to book Donna.  Even if they have some stuff lined up already - they usually can't make the information public until a certain time.)

[FEB 1] Speaking of Europe - Paris, I hear that good tickets for the July 7 show have turned up again. If you don't have tickets yet, check out Rodrigue.fr and see what they have. 

[FEB 1] BorderlineMusic.com is listing a video compilation for DJs that includes Fame (The Game). 

[FEB 1] The Grammy Awards are just a week away, and Entertainment Tonight Online is already in the festive spirit with a photo gallery of past Grammy highlights. Included is a picture of Donna in her waitress costume.

[FEB 1] Valentine's Day is coming up soon, so  Adelaide Now has posted their list of the 10 Most Romantic (And Sexiest Songs) Of All Time.  Love To Love You makes the list with a YouTube link to a classic performance. 

[FEB 1] That brings us to the web news for the week. The first thing you need to do is check out this version of Amazing Donna.... I mean Amazing Grace. (It IS amazing!) Fernando has posted his videos for The Queen Is Back and It's Only Love. Over on Multiply, look for Patrice's mix of Now I Need You in video and audio formats.

[JAN 25] So let's start with the charts again. The bad news is that Fame slips to #10 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for February 7. The good news is that Billboard's website still shows the January 31 chart so you can still stare at Fame in the #1 position for a while longer. And if you read the January 22 Chartbeat column, you will find these paragraphs: "SUMMER'S PLACE: A 3-1 leap on Hot Dance Club Play for "Fame (The Game)" (Burgundy) gives Donna Summer her 13th No. 1 hit on this chart.
"Fame" is the third consecutive chart-topper from Summer's "Crayons" album, following "I'm a Fire" in April 2008 and "Stamp Your Feet" in July 2008.

This hat trick of No. 1 dance hits is Summer's longest streak of chart-topping titles since she had four consecutive No. 1s in 1977-78, ending with the pairing of "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" from May to July 1979."

[JAN 25] Looking at the (much warmer than New York - yes I'm jealous  LOL) country of Brazil, Fame is up to #11 on the Top 30 Dance Chart.

[JAN 25]  Speaking of Fame, the remixes got a positive review in a recent edition of Echo Magazine. They were especially pleased with the Dan Chase mixes. And the magazine Inside Out just started a blog.  The first entry is about Fame hitting number one. 

[JAN 25] In the Donna is everywhere category, there is a song out there by Andrew Johnson called I'm In Love With Donna Summer.  You can check out clips on Amazon, Amazon UK and of course iTunes.

[JAN 25] If anyone out there is interested in getting the Rona Barrett DVD I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the release date has been changed to February 10. I have it on order myself, so when it comes I'll let you know how it is.

[JAN 25] Music fans will be interested in a new service called Spotify that allows users in certain European countries to listen to the whole EMI, Universal, Sony, and Warner catalogs for free. Right now it's an invitation-only beta release, but you can sign up to get an email when it opens up to the general public. You can read more about it on Wikipedia.

[JAN 25] Moving on to the web, over on YouTube, check out a very young Donna Summer performing with the Family Tree. You have to wait until you are about halfway through the clip before you see her since she's acting as a backup vocalist. (Some of the Family Tree stuff will eventually come out on DVD - I'll let you know what I hear more.)  While you are over on Youtube, check out juliavicentin's channel for several 1990 clips of Donna in Spain. And don't miss the rare Brazilian clip from 1979 of Last Dance.  :-)

[JAN 18] As you all know, I'm A Fire was the first club single from Crayons, and it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.  When Stamp Your Feet came out, it also went to #1. Well, the only thing better that two #1 dance hits is THREE.  :-) For the week of January 31, Fame (The Game) hits the top spot on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.  (I think we'll just rename it the Donna Summer Chart, and leave it at that.  ;-) ) Now go celebrate by watching the video on Donna's site 100 times in a row!  ;-)

[JAN 18] In the Donna is everywhere category, she gets a brief mention in the UK magazine, Boyz. DJs, The Readers' Wives, have listed her and one of their dream guests - as well they should.  ;-)  You can see that on page 10 of the January 8 issue - available in PDF format online at the Boyz site. (That's page 10 of the magazine which works out to page 12 of the file.) She also gets a brief mention in an article about this year's Rock Hall Of Fame inductees.

[JAN 18] Believe it or not - that brings us to the web news already. At YouTube, Fernando has been having a few technical difficulties, so he's posted his latest video mixes on MySpace. (You probably have to log in to see them.)  Also at YouTube, if you are feeling over-caffeinated, check out the sped up version of She Works Hard For The Money.  (I just report them, I don't try to explain them!  LOL)  And that's actually it for the week.......  Talk about your slow weeks!  LOL

[JAN 11] Let's head right to the charts this week. It's all good on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. For the week of January 17, Fame rises from #8 to #4 and then for the week of January 24 it rises again to #3 (with a bullet.) :-)  On the R&B Album chart, the news isn't so good. After last week's phenomenal jump to #52, this week it drops out of the top 100.  What we saw was the impact of the Christmas sales - so apparently quite a few good little boys and girls got Crayons from Santa this year.  :-)

[JAN 11] Over at Perfectbeat.com, the guys have compiled their top 100 CD singles for 2008. Guess who owns the top 5 spots?   (I really don't need to give you a hint or anything, do I?  LOL)  And as long as I am talking about charts, Fame just entered the Brazilian Top 30 Dance Chart at #27. 

[JAN 11] In DVD news... no, NOT the one you have been asking about! Calm down! In DVD news, former gossip maven Rona Barrett has a disk out called Nothing But The Truth which features some of her interviews with various celebrities including Donna. (These would have been taped in the 70s or 80s, so we're talking vintage stuff.) So far it's available in Region 1 only.

[JAN 11] In the Donna is everywhere... or was everywhere? category, there are reports on the net that she is selling the house in Nashville. Personally, I think she just planted the story to keep me from finding the vault....   ;-)  

[JAN 11] I guess that brings us to the web news. Over at Donna Summertime, Sebastiano has updated his Top 40 with the latest fan votes. (He's also updated the look of his site.  :-) ) Fame is sitting at #1 over there, and I see Power Of One has made a strong debut. I wonder if that was inspired by that awesome limoncello23 video on Youtube? Over at Forever Donna, Sandro has updated with some new audio and video - including his own Forever Donna TV channel. :-)  On Multiply, Patrice has posted 2 new megamixes for your listening pleasure. And at YouTube, look for Fernando's latest video creations for On The Radio and The Queen Is Back as well as a classic clip of Lady Of The Night.

[JAN 2] Happy New Year!  Did you all survive the festivities (and subsequent hangovers)?  ;-)  Since it's the beginning of a new month, you know what that means - it's time for a new Summer Fever pick.  This month (since all the magazines and newspapers seem to be in retrospective mode) I thought it was time for I Remember Yesterday.  And just to give you a taste of what is coming later this year - Bad Girls will be a pick at some point in honor of its 30th Anniversary, and Crayons will be back in time for the show in Paris. (I would never let you guys party without your Crayons!  ;-) )

[JAN 2] Let's go right to the charts.  On the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for January 10 - Fame stays at #8. (Before you freak out that it didn't move - none of the top 26 on that chart gained or lost any ground. It was a really strange sight to see.)  And for more interesting news, you will remember that Crayons re-entered the Billboard R&B Albums chart at #90 last week.  Well, this week (January 10) is has JUMPED to #52 and Billboard has labeled it a "pace setter."  The party is not over yet guys!!!  :-)  While you are celebrating that, head over to Masterbeat.com where Fame is #2 on their list of the top releases for 2008. (Stamp Your Feet is #39 on that same list.)

[JAN 2] After #52, everything seems so anti-climatic.  LOL  But there is more news for you. In upstate New York, the Times Herald Record listed their top 10 area concerts. Donna's show at the Bethel Woods Center came in at #5.

[JAN 2] The celebrity birthday press continues - with Donna's name being mentioned in who knows how many lists of celebrity birthdays.  Of special note are D-Listed's "Birthday Sluts" that has a classic photo (and no, "slut" is not meant as an insult - that site calls everyone on the list a "birthday slut"), and an article that you can read in English, Spanish, or German.  There is also another German article, and another short one in Spanish.  If pictures are more your speed, n-tv.de posted a slideshow of old and new pictures - some that aren't seen very often.

[JAN 2] As many of you may remember, Dutch TV was airing a special on the top 2000 songs of all time. State Of Independence (and some new interview footage) was part of that special. Fortunately for those of us who couldn't see it on TV, there is YouTube.  :-)  The interview plays in English with Dutch subtitles.

[JAN 2] In the I can't believe it was almost 30 years ago category (yes, I feel old now  LOL) People Magazine has posted archives of some of its past issues. Included are the 1980 interview with Donna and a 1980 article about Neil and Joyce Bogart.  It gets better than that though. Not only can you read the text of the articles online, but you can download the WHOLE magazine in PDF format if you want to. Now THAT is something I wish all magazines and newspapers would do! (Just click the date on either of the pages I just linked to to bring you to the main page for that issue.  There will be links to other articles and a download link to get the whole magazine. If you are interested in other issues - they have stuff going all the way back to 1974.)

[JAN 2] I think that brings us to the web news. Over at DailyMotion.com, they have Donna's performance of This Time I Know It's For Real from Arsenio Hall. (By the way - I don't think I ever thanked Donna for not making the Crayons song titles as long and hard to type as the Another Place And Time titles.  LOL) On YouTube, you can't stop limoncello23. Now he's made a video for  A Song For You/ How Great Thou Art.

[JAN 2] And one last thing...... this isn't specifically related to Donna, but the New York Times posted an article on the state of the music industry today, and it makes for an interesting read. You will have to register to read the article - but registration is free.

[DEC 28] Paris - if you didn't get your concert tickets yet, you better act fast.  The higher priced ones are selling out quickly!  :-)  (I expect to hear from you guys after the show with your concert reports - I know it's been a long time for you!  :-) )

[DEC 28] Okay - let's move on to the charts. In the first official chart of 2009, Fame climbs to number 8 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for January 3. It's still got that bullet too.  :-)

[DEC 28] If anybody is having trouble getting the Live From New York CD (the new issue of Live & More Encore with the DVD songs included), you can contact Get Booked in Las Vegas.  They have some copies available for sale and if you call 702-737-7780, Wes will ship one out to you. Or if you are in the Vegas area, just stop in the store. [Note: while Get Booked does carry some good music - that's not ALL it carries.  So it's probably not the best site to explore if you are at your job - save it for your home computer.  ;-)  ]

[DEC 28] In the Donna is everywhere category, she gets a quick mention in an article about Moby. (He wishes he had written I Feel Love.) And she gets another quick mention in an article about Darrell Russ.  Of course that is on top of the 1 million (and still counting  LOL) articles listing this week's celebrity birthdays.

[DEC 28] In the world of internet radio, UU-BRU has posted its year end chart and Donna is there at #3 with Stamp Your Feet.

[DEC 28] That brings us to the web news for the week.  Over on Youtube, limoncello23 is at it again with a video for The Queen Is Back. (He's got a nice mix of the official video and other footage going there - Donna-rollers will want to take note.) You can also find classic clips of I Feel Love, Dinner With Gershwin, and MacArthur Park.  I probably won't be back again until 2009 - so everybody have a safe and happy New Year's celebration! (And don't forget - if you are drinking, don't drive and if you are driving then don't drink.  And watch out for those few who do both!)

[DEC 26] The weekly update is coming later this weekend, but for now I have something for PARIS, France.  :-) How does a show on July 7 at La Palais des Congrès de Paris sound? You can buy tickets online at Rodrigue.fr. Hopefully there will be a lot of European press to go with the show.  :-)

[DEC 20] Happy Holidays everybody!  This is probably the last update before Christmas unless some breaking news happens.  Before I move on to the regular news, I want to direct your attention to the TV section below. I have a couple of new listings there - including one for The Netherlands. And Wolfgang has updated his discography and bio just a bit. I also want to say that the E-Greetings For Donna page is officially complete and I will be  emailing the link to the powers that be right after I finish this update.  :-)  You guys can see it here. Thanks to all who contributed - all you regulars who have been writing since we started this, and all you new people who just wrote in this year.  :-)

[DEC 20] Let's go to the chart news. On the December 27 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, Fame climbs to #15 - still with that bullet! I suspect that's one that most of us will be dancing to on New Year's Eve.  

[DEC 20] As the year is wrapping up, some sites are posting their year end review of the 2008 releases. Jeremy Gloff has posted an excellent review on his blog. Here is a taste:  "I never would expect that Donna Summer would eclipse the big three…Janet, Madonna, and Mariah. But quietly she did. CRAYONS is a later-career masterpiece that shows its rewards with repeated listens."

[DEC 20] Photo hounds, you might want to check out this familiar face in Brenda Russell's photo album. (Don't bother with the full screen option - it doesn't make the photo any bigger.)

[DEC 20] In Radio news, Sirius/XM is bringing back The Strobe on January 15. So classic disco/dance is back on satellite radio.  I guess the listeners have spoken!

[DEC 20] In the Donna is everywhere category..... I was just watching a show on WE called Hollywood Does Christmas.  And they showed some professional shoppers buying gifts for the rich and famous on behalf of the rich and famous.  Donna's name was on one of the lists - unfortunately (or maybe fortunately after seeing the show  LOL) they never talked about what they got for her. (On a side note, if I am ever rich and famous enough for those shoppers to be picking out stuff for me - all I can say is this: If you see a $1500 pocketbook shaped like a dog that you think would be perfect, STOP taking whatever drugs you are on and take that $1500 and throw it into a soup kitchen, animal rescue place, or other worthy charity.  Some of the stuff I saw on that show...... sheesh!)

[DEC 20] Over on GayRomeo, the guys took a vote and came up with a surprising list of their favorite songs. Here's the list: 1. No More Tears, 2. Could It Be  Magic, 3. MacArthur Park, 4. I Feel Love, 5. Sand On My Feet, 6. Hot Stuff, 7. I'm A Fire, 8. I LOve You tied with Summer Fever, 10. I Will Go With You, 11. She Works Hard For The Money, 12. Stamp Your Feet, 13. The Queen Is Back, 14. Dinner With Gershwin, 15. Bad Girls tied with If There Is Music There and Whispering Waves, 18. Heaven Knows tied with Melody Of Love and Rumour Has It. 

[DEC 20] I think that brings us to the web. Over on Multiply, Jeff has been uploading videos like a mad man.  :-) ANd on YouTube, Fernando has uploaded a couple of his video remixes and TBoneTvChannel has posted a couple of classic Donna clips.

[DEC 14] As you can see the Christmas decorations are finally up.  :-)   Before I get to the news, I just want to remind you all that the deadline for the E-Greetings for Donna is the 19th - Friday.  (Don't even ask me where the month went, because I have no clue.  LOL) Send your messages for Donna to webmaster@donna-tribute.com or any other email you  might have for me. (I check everything!)  I would also like to thank all of you who sent in things for Donna's birthday surprise. You guys came up with some really good stuff and it's been all packed up and shipped off to Mary.  :-)

[DEC 14] On to the news. Let's go to the charts. I don't have the weekly Dance chart number yet, but the year end Billboard charts for 2008 are out.  Donna comes in at #11 on the Hot Dance Club Play Artists list and Stamp Your Feet comes in at #33 on the Hot Dance Club Play Tracks list. If you want to look at the complete year end chart list, head over to the Billboard website. 

[DEC 14] The awesome new Fame video has found its way on to YouTube now (not to mention my video gadget on the Crayons page.) So if you have had trouble embedding the Vimeo link from Donna's page on your blogs or whatever - try the YouTube link.  :-)

[DEC 14] HardCandyMusic.com has a post up about She Works Hard For The Money that includes video from the Chasen's documentary, Off The Menu, where both Donna and Onetta talk about the song. The video also mixes together concert footage of Hard For The Money and the official video. (And I think most of you long time fans will recognize where the concert footage came from.) and up until today they had a photo up that was taken this summer when a certain Diva performed to a sell out crowd.

[DEC 14] In the Donna is everywhere category, a local news website has an article about restored theaters on Long Island's East End. The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center is one of them. She also gets a mention in an interview with singer Darrell Russ.

[DEC 14] That brings us to the web news.  Over on Multiply there is Fame mania.  :-)  We have new fan mixes posted by Andy and Patrice. And the video has found its way onto a few profiles.  :-) (Is it bad that every time I run into it, I feel compelled to watch?  It's a good thing I can't play it at work!  LOL) And at Donna Summertime, Sebastiano has something to say about the Grammys. Beyond that, it's been pretty quiet on the web. (I think the impending holidays are eating up everyone's time!)

[DEC 8] So I have 2 things for you tonight. First of all, Fame is now the power pick in the December 20 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart. It's sitting there at #22  - still with that bullet. Now, if you would like to celebrate that, you can with the other piece of news tonight. Head over to DonnaSummer.com where Nathan Digesare has just uploaded the  video he made for Fame.  Look for that on the video page. (You probably already figured that part out.  LOL)  That clip is embeddable (is that even a word?) so you Donna-rollers out there might want to put it to good use.  ;-)

[DEC 6] Before I get started with the news, I just want to remind everyone sending in things for the book, I need to have everything in my hands on December 10 so I can get it in the mail to Mary and she can meet her deadline. (Don't forget - submissions will NOT be returned so send only copies or things you can part with!) Also if you are sending in E-Greetings for Donna and the family this year - the deadline is December 19. There is still plenty of room for greetings, so get writing!  :-)

[DEC 6] Okay, let's start with the Grammys. The nominations have been announced and you can see the complete list at Grammy.com. I can tell you right now though that you won't find Donna's name on it.  :-(   The awards will be handed out on "Grammy Sunday" February 8 at 8PM (ET/PT).  I plan to spend that evening playing Crayons non-stop.  :-)  

[DEC 6] Moving on to better things, DonnaSummer.com has been updated with 2 more items in the store. The first is a tank top (which I am tempted to buy now. I figure, since I bought the hoodie when it was too hot out to wear it, it's only right that I get a tank top when it's too cold to wear it.  LOL) The other is the yellow shirt with the big I'm A Fire eye on the front. 

[DEC 6] In release news, the Fame mixes have turned up on iTunes (at least in the US - I haven't checked the other stores yet) and at Amazon's MP3 store.  There is one small catch though - the iTunes listings won' tell you which mix is which. I guess they forgot to include those details when they uploaded the tracks.  Oops.  LOL   So for those of you who are shopping at iTunes, here are the list of mixes available with the running times.  You should be able to figure out which is which on iTunes by the track length.  Ralph Rosario Club (9:56), Ralph Rosario Dub (9:55), Dave Aude Club (7:34), Dave Aude Dub (7:18), Dave Aude Dub Instrumental (7:17), Dan Chase Full Vocal (6:08), Dan Chase Dub (5:23), Dan Chase Instrumental (5:29), Extended Ultimix (5:10), Ralph  Rosario Radio (3:55), Dan Chase Radio (4:00), Dave Aude Radio (3:47), and the original album version (4:03).

[DEC 6] In the Donna is everywhere category - she got a mention in a World AIDS Day post on the Knucklecrack blog.  Now I'm going to warn you that the blog post might be a bit explicit for younger readers, but adults out there should check it out.  Donna reference aside - it's a very touching post, and very relevant (unfortunately). 

[DEC 6] Also in the Donna is everywhere category, she got a quick mention in a Telegraph blog post  that took issue with the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Singers.

[DEC 6] I think that brings us to the web news for the week. At NathanDiGesare.com, Nathan has added a gallery of 2008 tour photos. Over on YouTube, look for a classic clip of Could It Be Magic from back in the day, a Donna vs. David Bowie Fame mix by Fernando, and a retrospective piece on Donna with lots of classic clips and interview footage with Giorgio Moroder (among others). And on Multiply look for Patrice's megamix of Jason Nevins mixes.

[DEC 1 again] I wasn't going to put this on the site because I didn't want to spoil any surprises for a certain Diva, but I got the green light, so I'm posting.  The family is putting together a special surprise book in honor of a significant birthday and if there are any fans out there with  interesting photos or newspaper clippings or ticket stubs (or whatever else you think might be of interest to Donna), you are invited to send them in to be added to the book.  Now here are the rules - whatever you send has to be something that can go into a book.  And (this is IMPORTANT)  it has to be something that you can give up - that means COPIES of photos or whatever. Don't send your prized originals because you'll never get them back.  And I have to have a tight deadline because the family has a tight deadline.  I want to have everything ready to mail on December 10 to make sure they get it in time.  I will email my mailing address to anybody who wishes to contribute. (Webmaster@donna-tribute.com  or any other addy you have for me is fine - I check them all.) And if there are any spies out there (I know who you are!  LOL) who decide to spill the beans to Donna - well.... I'll tell Mary on you. So there!  ;-p  As a side note - this is a whole separate thing from the E-Greetings for Donna which is still going on as scheduled.  :-)

[DEC 1] The new Summer Fever pick is posted. To the surprise of absolutely no one, it's Christmas Spirit.  :-) For this year, I've added a few extras to the page.  Also, if you haven't sent  an E-Greeting for Donna yet, there is still plenty of time. The deadline is December 19 and the email address is webmaster@donna-tribute.com. (Just put E-Greeting somewhere in the subject line.  :-) )  The E-Greeting page will go live shortly after the 19th and the link will be sent to the powers that be at the same time.

[NOV 29] In anticipation of a killer day at work tomorrow, I'm doing the weekly update tonight. (Plus I was revamping the next Summer Fever page anyway - that will go live on Monday.) Let's start off with some chart news.  :-)  On the December 13 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, Fame is the Hot Shot Debut at #33.  :-)  And yes, it has a bullet. 

[NOV 29] I Feel Love has gotten a couple of mentions in recent news articles lately.  The first was in an article about the top 40  synth sounds of all time. I Feel Love came in at #2.  The second article was a Daily Record story called "on My Nano" in which a Scottish actress lists a couple of the songs on her iPod. I Feel Love is the first song she listed.

[NOV 29] Believe it or not - that brings us to the web news. Over on YouTube, Fernando is a posting fiend this week. He's put up a number of  Fame video mixes to keep us all busy. And on GayRomeo, some of the guys are .... well,  I guess I better back up and explain before I say what they are doing.  There  is a meme on the web called "Rickrolling"  where people dupe others into watching the Rick Astley video, Never Gonna Give You Up. So the guys on GayRomeo want to try something similar that they call Donnarolling. Now they are not actually trying to trick anybody into watching  Donna videos - they are just sending links to anybody who might be remotely interested.  One guy in particular suggests linking people to Stor Dubine's Stamp Your Feet animation, but I can say that I have been Donnarolled a few times and I've been sent different clips each time.    :-)  I do have  one tiny piece of advice to anyone who wants to join the Donnarolling  party - if you are linking to a video, make sure the hosting site is one that doesn't restrict viewers to a particular geographic location or whatever. One of the links I got simply doesn't play for anyone outside Germany. If you pick a clip hosted by a site like YouTube, nobody should have any troubles watching the clips.  ;-) I'll  be back again in a day or 2 with the new Summer Fever Pick.  (You all know what it will be - but I've added extra stuff to the page that was never there before.)

[NOV 28] It's been a heck of week with the terrorist attack in India and the psychos trampling people ... I mean holiday shopping here in the US.  (So much for peace on Earth and goodwill towards men!) Anyway, this isn't the weekly update yet. I was here working on the E-Greetings page (there is still plenty of time to contribute!) and I decided to add a shopping page for the holidays. It should cover most of the current "must have" items for any Donna Summer fan.  :-) I'll be back later this weekend with the weekly update.  :-)

[NOV 23] Since there probably won't be another update until next weekend (unless something really cool happens), I'll take this opportunity to wish all my American friends a happy Thanksgiving.  :-)  As for the rest of you - take Thursday off. You can be honorary Americans for the day.  :-) Now before we get to Donna, there is some Sudano family news in the Family Matters section below.

[NOV 23] In Donna news, both her official site and her MySpace have links to buy the Fame remixes at Masterbeat.com. It's come to my attention that international fans have found themselves locked out of those downloads due to licensing issues. (You'd think in this age of instant global communication, the record labels, movie studios, etc would find a way to make things available to everyone at the same time. ) If you are one of those who couldn't use Masterbeat, or if you just prefer to have the mixes on CD, head over to PerfectBeat.com. They will ship to you.  :-)

[NOV 23] And speaking of Fame mixes..... on the December 6 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play charts, Fame is the top breakout track. In other words, it will probably chart on the 13th.  :-)

[NOV 23] In the Donna is everywhere category, She Works Hard For The Money comes in at #10 in The Frisky.com's Recession Playlist: 15 Songs About Cash. (Hmmm - it's a recession. Maybe she works hard for NO money?  ;-) ) Also, there is a book out called Couples Who Pray [Amazon, Amazon UK] that includes a few quotes from Donna and Bruce about their relationship. Amazon (US only) will let you take a peek inside the book to check out the table of contents and a few sample pages. (You can see some Sudano quotes on pages 6 and 7.)

[NOV 23] Here's one that will have most of you scratching your heads.  LOL  Maureen McCormick (best knows as Marcia Brady from the Brady Bunch TV series) has an autobiography called Here's The Story: Surviving Marcia Brady [Amazon, Amazon UK]. In it she talks about the Brady Bunch's (probably best forgotten) variety show from the mid 70s. Apparently they did a  4 minute intro where the kids sang a rather eclectic medley of songs that included Love To Love You Baby.  Now just stop and think about that for a minute. The Brady kids doing Love To Love You Baby......  it boggles the mind.   LOL For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Brady Bunch Variety Hour (you lucky devils!  LOL) there are some clips on YouTube. I haven't seen the one with Love To Love You, but you can kind of get an idea of what the show was like from the clips that are there.

[NOV 23] I think after the Brady YouTube clip it's time to get that out of all your brains.  LOL SO let's look at the Donna stuff on the web this week. First up is the original Love To Love You Baby from The Midnight Special, a SWS remix of The Queen Is Back complete with some rare photos, and a Moby vs. Donna Porcelain (I Love You Remix You Baby) mix. All of those are from YouTube and the first 2 should be watched in high quality (if you are able to.) Over on Multiply, Patrice has made his own edits of a couple of the Fame mixes, and Andy has posted his Christmas Medley Ornamental mix.

[NOV 23] And finally, as many of you know XM Radio and Sirius have merged. That is leading to some new channel lineups and unfortunately a number of dance stations have been axed. Strobe is gone, The Beat is gone, Chrome is gone.... and those were stations that played a lot of Donna. If you are a fan of classic dance, make your voice heard and let Sirius/XM know that you miss these channels. You can even sign the online petition that was started recently. For the last few years I have toyed with the idea of signing up for satellite radio since regular radio is really not fitting the bill for me most of the time. It looks like I'll stick to net radio and my iPod until the dust settles.

[NOV 19] For those of you who can't download at Masterbeat, or who prefer CDs to downloads - head over to Perfectbeat.com now.  They have the Fame mixes available on 2 CDs that go for 9.99 each.

[NOV 18] Did you see the new banner above? Then you know the news.  :-)  The Fame remixes are all available for download now at Masterbeat.com.  You can buy individual mixes for 1.99 each, or you can get the whole set for 9.99.  :-)  (Clicking the banner will take you right to the Fame page.)

[NOV 16] Somebody tell me how it got to be November 16 already!  Wasn't it just last week we were eagerly awaiting Crayons?  LOL Anyway, now is probably a good time to announce E-Greetings for Donna 2008. If you want to wish Donna and the family a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, or even just say hi - send an email to me (webmaster@donna-tribute.com) with the words "E-Greetings for Donna" (or something similar) in the subject line and I'll post them here on the site shortly before Christmas, and then I will make sure that the powers that be get the link.  If you are a webmaster and you want to build a page of your own, send me that link and I'll make sure they get it.  If you want to do a YouTube video - send me that link and I'll make sure they get that too. If you have a photo you want me to post, send it along and if necessary I'll crop it down to a good size for the web.  If you want to write in another language, all I ask is that you  don't send anything in a language I have to download a font for (Asian languages are tricky like that) and that you do your own spell checking. I'll do my best to post a translation via the translator at Google. Let's make the deadline December 19, so I have the weekend to finish up the page before I send it out. Most of you guys have been around for ages, so you know the drill.  :-)

[NOV 16] Moving on to some remix news. Perfectbeat will have a 2 CD set of Fame remixes hopefully this week. The tentative track list is: the album version, Ralph Rosario Radio, Extended Ultimix album version, Ralph Rosario Club, Ralph Rosario Dub, Dave Aude Radio, Dan Chase Radio, Dave Aude Club, Dave Aude Dub, Dave Aude Dub Instrumental, Dan Chase Full Vocal, Dan Chase Dub, and Dan Chase Instrumental. If you really can't wait - there are a couple of 9 track Fame cds on eBay...... but they might get a little pricey.

[NOV 16] In the Donna is everywhere category, Donna got a brief mention recently on the Dutch talk show, De Wereld Draait Door.  They were talking about the Sjef Van Oekel DVD release and they showed a clip of Donna doing the Hostage, plus they talked about a time when Donna mentioned that appearing on Sjef Van Oekel gave her career a boost back in the day.  :-) If any of you is looking to buy the Van Oekel DVD set,  check out VPRO.nl. It's a Dutch site, so if that's not your language you'll need the help of the Google translator, or a cute Dutch boy.  ;-)

[NOV 16] There is a book out called The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide To The Greatest Songs From Punk To Present. [Amazon , Amazon UK ] I Feel Love is right there in chapter 1, and you can read what they had to say on the Pitchfork Media website.

[NOV 16] In re-release news, Christmas Spirit will be back again this year as part of the 20th Century Masters Series - The Christmas Collection line. It's available online at Amazon , Amazon UK and a billion other online places all the time, but you should also be able to find it in stores that carry the 20th Century Masters Series now that it's the season.  (Darn it - I forgot to see if Target and Walmart had the Christmas music out when I was running errands the other day.)

[NOV 16] Blogcritics has started what they call iBurns - list of songs that should help you get a good work out.  The first one up was a disco list and it opens with No More Tears as the warm up track. That is followed by a number of classic disco era tracks including Hot Stuff and Heaven Knows (as an option track for a longer workout.) It's not a bad list of songs, but I can't help thinking that a song that repeats the words "Enough is enough" that often, should be the last song of the workout.  I think if it was me exercising (stop laughing, it might happen someday  LOL) I'd hear those words and say, "Donna and Barbra are right. Enough is enough. I'm going out for pizza instead."  ;-) 

[NOV 16] Moving on to rare collectibles.... I have a fan in the UK who needs to sell a couple of rare singles. (You know the economy is bad when fans have to sell their treasures!)  He's got the 7" singles for Wasserman on the German Polydor label, and the 7" single of If You're Walking Alone on the Phillips label. He's only willing to sell them as a pair, and he's asking for at least 1000 (UK Pounds). If you are interested, get in touch with Grant at gingerman AT topmail.co.uk. (He can provide scans of the items to interested potential buyers.  :-) )

[NOV 16] That brings us to the web news for the week. On Multiply, look for several new mixes from Patrice, and Jeff's extended single mix of Sand On My Feet. On YouTube look for a Donna vs. Rod Stewart mashup, and a high quality version of limoncello23's excellent Power Of One/Barack Obama video.

[NOV 9] Thank god the elections are over!  That sound you DON'T hear is the sound of my phone ringing with polls and begging for votes from the local politicians.  LOL  (Funny how every time they come up with any legislation about telephone soliciting, it always excludes political phone calls. :-p )  And if our new President-elect is reading this (because, he has nothing more important to do right now  LOL) -  if you are looking for entertainment for your inauguration, I know of a certain singer in Nashville who is pretty good.  ;-)

[NOV 9] Let's start with release news from Holland. (And let's watch my spellchecker explode!  LOL) The Sjef Van Oekel Discohoek shows are now available on DVD. It's a 3 disk set that is supposed to include Donna's appearances on the show. These are clips from very early in Donna's career where she performs The Hostage, Lady Of The Night and Love To Love You Baby.  (They are from at least 2 different episodes - possibly even 3.) Clips from the show were used on VH1's Behind The Music back in 99, so some of you guys outside of Holland may have seen a taste there. Or you can head over to YouTube to see The Hostage and Love To Love You.

[NOV 9] Also in release news, the Jason Nevins mix of Stamp Your Feet can be found on the new Les Mills Bodystep Program. So I guess now we cal all Stamp ourselves into shape.

[NOV 9] I guess I should say something about South America. Pollstar is still showing the dates for Chile and Brazil.... however, none of the venues are showing anything - and let's face it, they would have had tickets up by now. So I think it's pretty safe to say that Pollstar announced the dates before they were set in stone.  I think it's a pretty safe bet that they are not happening at this time. So let's hope 2009 is the year for international events. 

[NOV 9] Superseventies.com has a short article about MacArthur Park posted.  Believe it or not, that record hit number 1 almost exactly 30 years ago.  (It was November 11, 1978 for those of you who want specifics.)  So who else feels old now?  LOL

[NOV 9] In the Donna is everywhere category, she gets a mention in an article about Broadway. In it, the author mentions that Paul Schaeffer (of the David Letterman Show, among other things) co-wrote It's Raining Men with Paul Jabara as a comeback song for Donna. Of course when Donna passed on that one, it became a hit for The Weather Girls.

[NOV 9] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on YouTube, look for the Behind The Music special (uploaded in parts by Mondo75), and a fan made video for Grand Illusion. There is also a video celebrating Obama's election win that uses a familiar song. (I'd rather see it there than in a Pokemon movie any day.  ;-) ) On Multiply, Jeff is in Christmas party mode with some Rosie Christmas mixes, or if you can't deal with holiday stuff yet, then check out his collection of Stamp mixes. And Patrice has posted his edit of Bad Girls.

[NOV 2] Before I get started with the news, I'd just like to remind all my American friends that Tuesday is election day.  And you know what that means - starting on Wednesday there will be no more political advertisements for awhile! (Now THAT is a cause for celebration!  LOL) So go out there and make your voice heard by voting for the candidates who best represent your ideals. (Or by voting against the ones who seem most likely to mess everything up.  ;-) ) And in the excitement of the Presidential election - don't forget about your state and local races as well.

[NOV 2] In remix news, the upcoming Fame mixes have gotten a mention on the  Sweet MuZik blog. There isn't any new information, but they give the song an A-. I imagine it won't be much longer before we hear something from PerfectBeat as well.

[NOV 2] In sales news, this week's Ask Billboard column has the current sales figures for Crayons. To date it has sold 69,000 copies. 

[NOV 2] Photo hounds - there are some nice pictures from the Crayons tour posted on Flickr.com. 

[NOV 2]  The W Hotel chain has put out a compilation called The Sound Of Wonderlust that includes I'm A Fire. These CDs are available for sale to the general public on the W Hotel store website, and of course they are available at the hotels themselves.

[NOV 2] Overseas, Donna's music was featured on the UK show X-Factor. Contestants sang On The Radio, No More Tears, and the disco version of Could It Be Magic.

[NOV 2] Also overseas, there is a French magazine called Rock And Folk that gave Crayons a good review recently (which is amazing because they apparently have a history of writing less than favorable reviews of Donna's music. (She was never rock enough for their taste, I'm told.)  The review is accompanied by an interview.

[NOV 2] That brings us to the web news. Over on Donna Summertime, Sebastiano has replied to the letter on Donna's site with a letter of his own in the What's New section of his site. On Multiply, look for Andy's Fire Reload mix of I'm A Fire. On YouTube, Fernando has a new video mix with Donna dancing to Bonita e Gostosa by Freneticas.

[NOV 2] In fan news, Darrell Russ' Everybody's Looking For Something has been added to Clearchannel's New - where he has a chance to be picked up by mainstream radio. And on this site - look for an update to the biography section of Wolfagang's German discography.

[NOV 1] The weekly update will be coming tomorrow, but for tonight I have the new Summer Fever pick. In honor of the gorgeous autumn leaves photos I was sent last night, I've decided it is time to put Four Seasons Of Love back in the spotlight. (And like the Crayons page, this one has streaming MP3s instead of Real Audio.  :-) ) 

[OCT 24] The update is a little early because I have some news or you. Let's start off with DonnaSummer.com.  If you check out the news page, there is a brand new letter from Donna.  :-) And if that's not enough of the Empress for you..... FlairTV has posted a short (and new) interview with Donna on YouTube.

[OCT 24] In Grammy news, the voting process has started. Grammy voters have received the lists of songs, artists, albums, etc that have been submitted by the labels for consideration. As it happens, I was emailed by one of the lucky people who gets to vote and he gave me the list of Donna's pre-nominations. For Record Of The Year: I'm A Fire and Stamp Your Feet; for Song Of The Year: I'm A Fire and Stamp Your Feet; for Album Of The Year: Crayons; for Female Pop Vocal: Stamp Your Feet; for Pop Collaboration with Vocal: Crayons; for Pop Vocal Album, Crayons; For Dance Recording: I'm A Fire and It's Only Love; For Female R&B Vocal: The Queen Is Back; For R&B Song: The Queen Is Back; For Engineer (Non-Classical): all the Crayons engineers. Now keep in mind these are by no means anything close to the final nominations. These are just potential nominees for those categories (and believe me, there are PAGES of potential nominees for each category!) The LA Times has a blog with lists of all the potential nominees in selected categories for those who would like to see the whole field. The final nominees will be announced December 4. Kep your fingers crossed!

[OCT 24] In remix news, look for PerfectBeat to have Fame (The Game) remixes soon. Apparently there are already 3 mixes and they are waiting for one more. There is supposed to be a Ralph Rosario mix, a Dave Aude mix, and we'll just have to wait and see what the others are.  :-)

[OCT 24] I mentioned previously that Donna was slated to do the Carousel Of Hope Gale tomorrow night in Beverly Hills. Well, the Gala information has been updated and Donna is no longer on the list. (Whew! I am so glad I didn't buy that $100,000 table now.  LOL)

[OCT 24] Collectors will want to check this out. We have a Donna fan out there who is being forced by circumstances to part with one of his treasures.  It is an official certificate declaring March 18, 1992 Donna Summer Day in Los Angeles. You can check it out on Craig's List. The seller is Scott in Phoenix, AZ and he would prefer to sell locally - but he might be willing to make an exception for a diehard fan.

[OCT 24] Awhile ago I mentioned that Crayons is available at Target as a MusicPass card. (It's a credit card sized item with the Crayons album art, that when purchased allows you to download the songs and some bonus content like the EPK, and a couple of mixes.) Well, not Sony has teamed up with Winn Dixie, so fans in the Southeastern part of the US will be able to buy the cards there now.

[OCT 24] In the Donna is everywhere category (sort of), there is a short interview with Moby in the Independent. In it, he was asked about what song he would have written if he could have, and he said: "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer. It's so simple and remarkable, somehow managing to be platonic and dirty at the same time.

[OCT 24] That brings us to the web news for the week. On Multiply look for Patrice's Donnaremix. And over at Donna Summertime, Sebastiano has posted an interview with Zelma Davis about her version of No More Tears (not to mention other things - some Donna-related and some not.) Look for that in his Question Time section.

[OCT 24] And once again, I'd like to remind my American friends to take some time to educate yourselves on the issues and then go out and vote on November 4. (Or even sooner if you live in a state with early voting.) Personally, I'm very disappointed that neither candidate has proposed a huge Donna concert to celebrate his inauguration.....  so now I'm being forced to base my vote on minor issues like foreign policy, the economy, healthcare and human rights.  ;-)

[OCT 19]  The store at DonnaSummer.com has been updated. In addition to the hoodie, tote and Hard For The Money shirt, there and also men's and women's  Crayons shirts, a couple of hats, the Crayons photo and of course the CD itself. If I recall, that accounts for all of the tour merchandise except the I'm A Fire shirt and the tank top.

[OCT 19] Donna will be performing October 27 at a gala at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center to celebrate the Pere's Center For Peace's 10th anniversary. Also performing are Slash (from Guns N Roses), Andrea Bocelli and Mercedes Sosa. (Well, you can't accuse the organizers of not going for diversity!  LOL)  Pssst... Donna..... how about a fan report of Bocelli's performance?  We know you will be watching him.  ;-)

[OCT 19] In the Donna is everywhere category - look for Hot Stuff in the movie How To Lose Friends And Alienate People. And look for a mention of MacArthur Park in an article about "silly" song lyrics. (Actually, keep reading past MacArthur Park and look at the rest of the lyrics mentioned in the article and the comments - there are some strange songs out there!  LOL)

[OCT 19] In the land of covers, there is an Elize cover of Hot Stuff that is currently sitting at #7 on the Dutch Top 40. 

[OCT 19] That brings us to the web, on Multiply look for Patrice's Love Songs medleys, Andy's extended Face The Music, and a number of new mixes on Denis' page. On YouTube look for classic clips of Bad Girls, She Works Hard For The Money, I Remember Yesterday, and a duet of Lovin' You from Italian TV.

[OCT 19] In fan news, we have an artist out there called Robert Müller who has asked me to share a couple of his paintings with you. (I think you just might recognize the subject.  ;-) ) If you would like to contact him about the paintings, you can get him at r.mueller AT fineartspictures.de.

[OCT 12] Let's start with a little site news. I spent the afternoon doing a little upgrade to the discography section. Now there are Amazon widgets sprinkled throughout the section for albums that are available as MP3 downloads through Amazon. Obviously not all albums are represented (and some of the missing ones surprised me a little), but I did discover that a couple of interesting one-offs are available over there.  Sorry the purchase links won't work for international fans, but you should still be able to play the clips and even laugh at the Rosie Christmas widget. (For some reason that thing links to a different non-Donna song every time I look at it.  LOL)

[OCT 12]  Let's talk about remixes. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that there was a remix of Fame on Hosh Gureli's MySpace page. Well, that inspired at least one person to email PerfectBeat about upcoming remixes. Apparently they are working with Sony again to get some mixes out there, and as soon as they have enough to put together, they will be releasing a CD.  So save up some cash and stay tuned.  :-)  

[OCT 12] Donna will be one of the performers at the Carousel Of Hope Gala to benefit juvenile diabetes. She'll be joining the Jonas Brothers, Josh Groban, Kenny "Babyface" Evans and others on October 25 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA. If you would like to attend the event.... well, you still have about 2 weeks left to become rich and famous enough.  ;-)  (Tables start at $10,000 and go UP.)  

[OCT 12] For those of you who have been wondering about Sand On My Feet - it's still getting a lot of air play on Sirius radio's Starlight station.

[OCT 12] In a case of Mistaken Identity..... there is an article about a new comedy musical that uses hits from the last 30 years. One song mentioned specifically was "Donna Summer's I'm So Excited." I keep thinking that if Donna collected royalties for all the songs people THINK she did, she'd have enough money to bail out Wall Street all by herself.  LOL

[OCT 12] In web news, there are a couple of mixes out there on MySpace. DJ Zebo has posted a mix of Sweet Romance, and Omega Red has posted a mix of Crayons. Over on Multiply, look for 2 new mixes by Evets on Denis' page,  amd 3 versions of Bad Girls on Patrice's page. And on YouTube, look for an awesome fan video for Fame by limoncello23 (watch it in high quality - it looks much better that way), an Unconditional Love clip filmed at Disney, a karaoke version of Hot Stuff (for those of you who don't know the words  ;-) ), and Donna's performance of No More Tears with Westlife.

[OCT 12] Stor Dubine fans - he's in a competition for Aarting Toys. They are looking for the best designs to use for their toy line, and Stor has 9 designs in the competition. You can vote up until October 24 at aarting.com.

[OCT 12] And finally on a personal note to the spammer that keeps telling me to make money off my friends - my friends aren't for sale! (I don't need to sell them, I have several bank scammers willing to send me millions of dollars to help them smuggle money out of Nigeria or wherever.  LOL)

[OCT 3] First things first, I know it's a couple of days late - but the new Summer Fever pick is posted. This month I'm A Rainbow takes the spotlight, but you can still see the Crayons page as well if you want to.  :-) Also I have some Brooklyn news below for you and another Crayons review.

[OCT 3] Bad news for Europe, the word out of Italy is that Donna has cancelled some of the promo stuff over there so that she can support Bruce after the loss of his dad. 

[OCT 3] Art fans - there is a signed litho of Driven By The Music up on eBay right now. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Make A Noise Foundation. And speaking of fundraising, Tony Sacca has a syndicated TV series in which he interviews celebrities. He's putting together a PBS special called "The Best Of Entertainment Las Vegas Style" which will air on PBS some time in November. (It it almost certain that it will air during the pledge drives.) It is possible (but not definite by any means) that he might throw in clips of his interview with Donna. The special is being taped Monday and Tuesday so hopefully some time after that we'll know what clips were chosen.

[OCT 3] In release news, last week I mentioned a "new" CD called Live In New York. Amazon Germany has the track list. It is a variation of Live & More Encore. They dropped the 2 studio tracks and added the live tracks that were on the video but not the original CD. Then just for fun I guess, they mixed up the play order. (But they still left Last Dance as the closing track......  if I was going to rearrange things, I'd open with Last Dance just to mess with people's minds.  LOL)  Amazon UK has a listing for The Very Best Of Donna Summer - a 2 disk edited version of The Ultimate Collection.

[OCT 3] Music video fans, Universal-Music.com has a couple of Donna's classic video clips posted. Of special interest is the Love Is In Control video which is NOT on the Endless Summer video compilation and the Last Dance clip that VH1 used to use from time to time. They are excellent quality.  :-)

[OCT 3] In web news, look for an animated Power Of One video on YouTube. And look for Stor Dubine's videos on Animacam.tv. He's got 4 posted there - Stamp Your Feet, I Got Your Love and 2 non- Donna clips.  You can see them in high quality and more importantly - you can VOTE for them!  :-)

[OCT 3] Finally, on a personal note to my American friends - the Presidential (and other) elections are coming up in about a month. There is a lot of stuff going on right now with the economy, the war, etc. Make sure you educate yourselves on the issues and the candidates and then in November, get your butts out there to the polls and vote for the guy you think can get us out of this mess. (Or at least the guy who won't make it any worse.  ;-) )  Seriously - you need to vote, and it needs to be an educated vote.

[SEP 28] Condolences to the Sudano family. Bruce lost his dad earlier this month and he's posted a nice tribute to his dad on the news section of his site.  As always, if anyone would like to send messages to the family, I'll be happy to take them and pass them along - or Bruce has an email link on his site.

[SEP 28] The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame has announced the nominees for the class of 2009. They are War, Metallica, Run DMC, Jeff Beck, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Bobby Womack, Chic, Wanda Jackson and the Stooges.  Yup.... they forgot somebody.  :-(   Here's hoping for 2010.....

[SEP 28] Moving on to happier things, the ever popular (and ever sold out LOL) Wii gaming system has a new game coming out in a few days (in the USA) called We Cheer. The game lets you dance and cheer to a number of different songs - including Stamp Your Feet! So if you know any Wii addicts - now you know what to get them for Christmas.  ;-) Europe, you will get the game too but not until early 2009.

[SEP 28] In release news, a Dutch retailer (Bol.com) is listing a "new" CD called Live In NY that will be available on October 4. There is no track list posted but I'm 95% sure that it has to be Live & More Encore with different art. (They are using the Bad Girls cover portrait reversed.)  I'm only 95% sure because there is a little voice in my head saying, "What if this is a wildly re-titled Shout It Out?"  LOL

[SEP 28] And in UN-release news, the lawyers have done their jobs and If I Could Live Our Love Again has been pulled. Now we can go back to pining for the vault to be released legitimately.  ;-)   (Psssst...... if anybody interested, Barry Manilow has a really neat way of getting his vault out there. Once a week or so he posts an unreleased demo or whatever on his site, )and then tells the story behind it. So not only do you get to hear the song in whatever rough version exists, you also get to find out what project it was for and why it ended up in the vault.)

[SEP 28] In the land of remixes, we have a new one of Fame posted on Hosh Gureli's MySpace page. And while you are nosing around MySpace, check out Donna's page. Since MySpace has gone into the download business, they have a whole bunch of Donna's tracks posted now to keep the Crayons stuff company.  :-)

[SEP 28] I guess that brings us to the web news for the week. Over on Multiply, look for Patrice's extended There Goes My Baby video, and Andy's White Europe Extended mix of On The Radio. On YouTube, look for some new classics from mascguy4upsl,  and DJ Eko's extended version of I Feel Love complete with edited footage of Donna performing the song.

[SEP 28] And one last thing - in the land of Donna Summer fans, we have Darrell Russ who has a song out now called Riding Home From Baltimore that was inspired by Donna. He's asking fans to come over to artistpr.com to check it out and to vote for him. And then Mark Tara (who brought us Sometimes Like Butterflies on CD)  has a new CD coming out called Lola.  You can check out some of the tracks on his site, but I have to tell you that when it's out you are going to want to get an actual CD and not just a download version of the album. He sent me a copy to check out and it looks cool - like a tiny vinyl album complete with grooves!  (Yes I am apparently hopelessly retro.  LOL)

[SEP 21] With the tour wrapped up for now and the European promo stuff yet to happen - there's not a whole lot to report this week. But I guess the place to start is with the charts. Last week, Sand On My Feet debuted on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart - but unfortunately this week it fell off. But don't stop requesting it - it can always come back.  ;-)

[SEP 21] Speaking of Sand On My Feet, it's getting airplay in Paraguay on Radio Canal 100 FM.  :-) (The station also lets you vote for your favorite songs.  :-) )

[SEP 21] In the Donna is everywhere category, yesterday WGN ran an episode of the Best Of Soul Train with Donna promoting Cats Without Claws. (I can't believe that album is 24 years old already!)

[SEP 21] Here's one for the unsubstantiated rumor category, recently a friend of a friend was shopping in a Ruehl store and they claimed to have heard a mix of Driving Down Brazil.  Here's the thing, the guy isn't a diehard fan so he may have just heard the album version and just assumed it was a mix. But if any of you guys shop or work there, keep your ears open and let me know what you hear.

[SEP 21] That brings us to the web news. Over at SuperBulletNumberOne, Shawn has finally posted EVERYTHING that he has. So if you head over there and you find something missing - send it to him so he can add it.  ;-) (Hmmm - we might have to get him to start a Shout It Out gallery now.  LOL) Over on Multiply, look for Patrice's video for Science Of Love,  and Andy's Robotic Extended Mix of I Feel Love. On YouTube, look for a cartoon video of Romeo posted by Renatapadua5,  and annill posted my kid-less version of Take Heart.

[SEP 14] Before I get started, I have more articles for you below (including one really good interview that I know you guys will like.  :-) ) 

[SEP 14] Where should I start? I guess the best place is the charts. I thought we were done with charts for awhile, but I guess not.  :-)  Sand On My Feet debuts on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks at #30 for the week of September 20.  That is the third song from Crayons to chart in Billboard.  :-) So you guys know what to do - call your local stations!

[SEP 14] Speaking of charts, in honor of Billboard's 50th anniversary, they have compiled a list of the top 100 artists based on their chart success. Donna comes in at #24, but check out the whole list. I was a little surprised at how some of the rankings worked out.

[SEP 14] Here's one for the "where did that come from?" category. By sheer accident, a friend of mine ran into a new Donna EP on iTunes when he was upgrading to version 8.  It's 4 versions of an old demo (2 vocal and 2 basically instrumental).  I asked a couple of questions to the right person, and I have found out that this release was NOT authorized by Donna's people.  Expect to see it vanish into the mists any time now. 

[SEP 14] In the "bigger would be better" category.... (I see some heads nodding in agreement there  LOL)  Pete Waterman's website has some clips from the vault. One of them is an unreleased 12" version of I Don't Wanna Get Hurt....  but the clip is only about 30 seconds long.  (That's why I said bigger would be better.  LOL) There are similarly short clips of other artists as well.

[SEP 14] It's getting to be the time of year when the Rock Hall Of Fame picks the nominees for 2009. In anticipation of that, USA Today has a poll to let readers vote for the artists they would like to see inducted. Donna is one of the choices.  :-)

[SEP 14] I think that brings us to the web news. On Multiply, look for Patrice's re-edit of I'm A Fire, AJ's mix of  Science Of Love, The Pit vs. Donna She Works Hard For The Money 2008 mix on Bricko's site, and Andy's Donna Summer concert series with classic live clips. On You Tube, look for a couple of clips from the Hollywood Bowl from venturehundleys, and a classic clip of Love To Love You.

[SEP 6] I have a radio alert for you for tomorrow night. WBAI will be playing Sand On My Feet sometime during their Everything Old Is New Again show from 7 to 9 PM (NY time.) You can tune in online if you are not in broadcast range. Also, I have a few new articles for you below, some Brooklyn news, and if you were at a meet and greet for any of the following shows, your pictures are here: Jones Beach, PNC Arts, Salamanca, NY (only a couple on that one), Boston, Atlantic City (also just a few), Oakland, Windsor, Alpine, Saratoga, Chicago, Reno and Baltimore. I've also updated the Minnesota page.

[SEP 6] Let's start off with Chicago - mainly because this makes me laugh. Apparently a couple of people at the recent concert got into a "wine-and-cheese splattering melee" over an apparently prime spot in the lawn.  Now I have to explain that it's not the fight itself that makes me laugh - it's the "wine-and-cheese splattering melee" description that does.  I just get this image in my head.... "Hey you! You took my spot! Don't make me have the butler throw the Beaujolais at you!"  Yes, I'm demented.  ;-)

[SEP 6] OUT magazine has posted its list of the 100 Gayest Albums.  Donna makes the list with Bad Girls and Once Upon A Time.

[SEP 6] In the land of covers, there is a new one of Hot Stuff by EliZeon the Dutch charts.  It's not bad - you can check out the video here.

[SEP 6] For a blast from the past, Billboard.com has a chronological listing of every number 1 song on the Hot 100 from 1958 to 2008.  If you check out the page for the 70s there are some VERY familiar songs on it. (Not to mention a few that I hadn't realized were number 1 hits, and a few downright scary songs.  LOL)

[SEP 6] I think that brings us to the web news for the week. Over at Multiply, Patrice has posted a slideshow from the tour set to There Will Always Be A You. On YouTube, look for  a classic clip of Could It Be Magic, and a Summer2K slideshow set to The Queen Is Back.

[SEP 1] I have new pages up for Chicago and Minnesota [link now fixed], and I have more pictures from Oakland. Also, since it's September 1, it's time for a new Summer Fever pick. So to celebrate my 30 years of fandom..... (yes I was a fan way before I was born  ;-) ) I'm bringing back the album that got me started - Live & More. (Vinyl only please.....  ;-) ) For those of you still looking for the Crayons page, it's still here too. I just thought it was time to let something else take the spotlight again.

[AUG 30 (barely  LOL)] Well, I said I would post fan stuff from recent shows "tomorrow" - I just thought I would sleep first. But since I'm still waiting for  chkdsk to finish doing its thing on the laptop, I thought I might as well work on the site on the desktop. (Plus it gave me something to do while KFAI was playing "Crap From The Past" - an aptly named show if I ever heard one!  LOL)  Anyway, I have stuff posted for both Los Angeles and Windsor now. And it looks like RealPlayer will happily record the  KFAI stream, so barring disaster, I should have that for you this weekend too.

[AUG 29] RADIO ALERT for tonight. Sorry for the no notice, but I just found out Donna will be on KFAI in Minneapolis tonight at midnight local time. (That works out to 1 AM in New York.) You can tune in online if you want to listen.  :-)  (I plan to try to record it - but the lap top that I usually use for that stuff seems to have picked tonight to self destruct and it's much more of a pain to do with the desktop. We'll see what happens.)

[AUG 29] Photo hounds, MSNBC has finally posted some of the summer concert photos they received. As of this morning, there are Donna photos on pages 2 and 3 - although the page numbers may change if they add more. (I didn't count the photos, but it looks like there are more Donna photos than there are for any other artist other than American Idol.) Also, I had previously posted a bunch of my concert photos on a public Shutterfly collection. Well, now I've added this year's photos and Shutterfly has upgraded the way they are shared. If you want to download them, that's cool - if you want to order prints, that's cool (I get no money for that by the way), but if you want to post them some place, all I ask is that you credit the site.  :-) Oh and I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but 101.9 Lite FM has photos from the Baltimore concert posted.

[AUG 29] In release news, Sony Hong Kong has put out a new compilation to celebrate the Olympics. It's called The Olympics Album: One World One Dream and Donna is represented by Stamp. (This is the first compilation to include any of the Crayons tracks I believe.) If you are ordering the album, be very careful about which version you get.  They have several and this is the only one with Stamp.

[AUG 29] Roller coaster fans - Universal Orlando is building a new roller coaster to open next summer and they have an online survey to pick the music that will play on the ride. One of the possible selections is She Works Hard For The Money.

[AUG 29] In web news, look for a 2006 video/interview from Vegas on Google video. On Youtube look for a Los Angeles concert review posted by The Hollywood Report, classic clips posted by limoncello23, Hollywood Bowl clips posted by Bahbahluu, Alex0Cat, covinalover and virg777, and the finished Stars on 45 video mix by Discoimperium.  On Multiply, look for Jeff's Driving Down Brazil mix, Carl has a Donna vs. Hard Fi She Works Hard To Beat The Cash Machine, Andy has No More Tears from Oakland, and Sergio has pictures and things from LA.

[AUG 29] I'll be back tomorrow with stuff from LA, Canada and whatever else turns up. I was going to do those tonight... but it looks like I'm in the land of laptop repairs.  :-(  

[AUG 23] I've updated the Santa Rosa, Saratoga, and Oakland pages with more fan reports for you.  :-) And I have a couple more articles below for you. Also, since I had this question in my email box, I might as well post it here too for others who have the same question. It's about the hoodie for sale on Donna's site.  The question was, is it a zip up one or a pullover one and the answer is that it is a zip up one. I took a picture of the front for you so you can see what that looks like:

(You can click it for a larger version)

[AUG 23] The French-German TV station, Arte, ran a program recently about the 70s and disco - of course Donna got mentioned.  ;-)  The second part of the show airs on August 26 so check your local listings. Also - all the European fans should be keeping an eye on their TV and radio listings soon.  Last I heard Donna had hoped to do some promo stuff over there this fall and fall is practically here.  :-)

[AUG 23] In the Donna is everywhere category, the German soap opera, Alles was zählt, used Stamp as background music for one scene.

[AUG 23] Over on YouTube, Alex0Cat has sneaked in a little taste from the Hollywood Bowl (not for people avoiding tour spoilers), DiscoImperium010 has posted a preview of a video mix he's working on for the Stars On Donna mix. And I ran into this little clip of the next generation of Donna fans. On Multiply, Andy posted photos from the Oakland show, and at DonnaSummerBebo, look for more videos. (Check out the video mix of Sand On My Feet.)  I'll probably be back again in a day or so with more fan reports for you.

[AUG 20] I have some professional photos from the Santa Rosa show for you, courtesy of the Wells Fargo Center For The Arts. I'll have fan reports for you soon too. Jerry has posted a couple of pictures online as a slideshow from his Donna trip to California.

[AUG 20] Over at DonnaSummer.com, the online store has added the hoodie. The photo they use only shows the back. The front has Donna's name on the left side (in the same font as they use on the Hard For The Money shirt) And then under that in smaller letters it says "I'm A Fire"  and there are the mandatory crayons scribbles in the background. The colors match the colors used on the back of the hoodie. It's gorgeous, it's very soft, and I can't wait for the weather to cool off enough so I can wear mine.  :-)

[AUG 20] And one final thing tonight for internet radio fans. BlackpoolGayRadio.com is launching Saturday night (8PM GMT) and they will be playing Crayons tracks all weekend. Check them out if you can. I'll be back in a day or 2 with more updates.  :-)

[AUG 18] First of all - I have the photos from the cake party in Oakland.  :-)  (Thanks Eduardo!) The other thing I have to add tonight is that the Entertainment Tonight clip was an edited version of the original appearance to promote Crayons. It's the kick off to ET's Diva Week. (And just as I knew they would - they went with Donna talking about her suicide attempt back in the 70s.  Good old predictable ET.  LOL We'll be seeing that clip for years!)

[AUG 18] This is a relatively quick update before work since I have a few minutes. I've just added a little to Oakland, and I've made a Reno page. Also check out Nathan DiGesare's site - he's updated his tour blog to include the last couple of shows. (And I think I may  have found my quote for next week too.  LOL) And while I'm here, I have a new article for you below - and don't forget about Entertainment Tonight this evening. One more thing - Oakland fans, if you were backstage then your photo with Donna is here.

[AUG 17] I'm back.  The plan was to update this afternoon - but then a sick coworker caused me to stay at work much later than I normally would have.  :-(   Anyway - I don't have all the fan reports yet because some of my Oakland guys are partying in Santa Rosa too. (Monday is going to be really bad for those guys!  LOL)  But, before your imaginations run any wilder than they have been (I just read the forum even though I didn't respond yet  LOL) - the thing I couldn't talk about until today was a surprise that had been cooked up for Donna that was presented to her last night.  Obviously if I had said something on the site yesterday, there was a chance (especially with the time difference) that the surprise could have been blown.  I'll go into more detail on the page I'm setting up - but what happened last night was that one fan (Eduardo - head of street team SF)  presented Donna with a Crayons cake.  I'm still waiting for the official cake reports from the guys, but I've started a page with a little background and a photo of the cake. (It's gorgeous!) And of course I will be adding photos and reports from the guys after they've had a chance to come down off their Donna-highs.  

[AUG 17] Speaking of pictures - if you were backstage at Jones Beach, PNC Arts, or Boston - your pics with Donna are here.  And speaking of Oakland - I have the first fan report from there for you, with a few pictures. I also added a little to the Saratoga page. I'll be back again soon with more fan reports and anything else that turns up.  :-) 

[AUG 17] I just wanted to post a link that has apparently been mentioned at a couple of the recent concerts.  It's SaveDarfur.org. If the situation in Darfur concerns you (or if you just want to learn a little about what's going on over there), check it out.

[AUG 16] I'm doing the weekly update tonight, but I strongly suspect I will be back tomorrow for Oakland. I know there are a bunch of very excited guys heading to the show tonight, and I know that there will be partying afterwards..... and I know something else that I won't talk about until tomorrow.   ;-)  In the mean time, I have a few new articles listed for you below.  They are split up into the safe one and the spoilery ones.  (I'll catch up on the other fan report pages then too.) Also, Donna is supposed to be on Entertainment Tonight on Monday according to Rock On TV.  I have no idea if they filmed something new (or edited something new from footage they already had) or if this is just a straight repeat of something they already aired. I guess we'll all find out soon enough.  Oh and for those of you looking for the concert connection page... well I added a link at the top of this page finally.

[AUG 16] In chart news..... well, nothing is happening on Billboard at the moment.  :-(  But if you look at AmericasMusic.com, Sand On My Feet is at #39 with 63 plays on the radio.

[AUG 16] In web news for the week, on Multiply Steve has posted a number of classic video clips and the Almighty Mix of That's The Way It Is. On YouTube, imafire has posted a couple of clips from the Vancouver show, Summer4all has several videos combining his manipulated images with classic tracks, and some deranged lunatic  ;-) has posted Donna's (very short) interview on News 12 Long Island. (Yeah, the sound and video aren't synced right - that's what happens when you use cheap software I guess.  LOL)  Please note that News 12 says that Donna's CD is coming out in September. So those of us who think we have it and who think we have played it hundreds of times already, must be dreaming.  ;-)  (I send them an email about that.)

[AUG 15] I have a quick update on the post-concert party in Oakland at Bench and Bar.  They plan to waive the cover charge for anyone who presents their ticket stub. And you will be given access to the VIP bar near the entrance.  They've added Donna to their playlist - look for that to start around midnight.  If you run into Hector - thank him for getting this all set up.  :-)

[AUG 14] Okay - I couldn't resist...... I posted some fan reports from Vancouver and Saratoga. Those who know the show line up will want to see the change made in Saratoga. ;-)

[AUG 14] This is just a quick update tonight. First of all, I have a couple of articles for you below. Secondly - and this is time sensitive for Long Island fans - News 12 has been running a segment with Donna from the Westhampton Beach show. I only just found out about it, but it seems to run at about 10 minutes before the hour. I'm hoping to record it next hour. (That's the only thing that's booted the Olympics off my TV screen lately!  LOL)

[AUG 14] This next one is for those of you going to the Oakland show this weekend.  As I mentioned in a previous update, Hector is planning pre and post show parties. The plan is to meet at 7 in the Paramount Theater lobby and party there until show time. (They have beer, wine, etc.) And then after the show, everyone can meet at the Bench And Bar (which is practically next door to the theater). Bring your ticket stub because Hector is trying to arrange for a reduced cover charge. They are going to work in as much Donna music as they can - but unfortunately they already had a Latin themed night planned already which means a little less Donna than they had hoped for. 

[AUG 14] And now for some non-time sensitive news.... the store at DonnaSummer.com has added a Sand On My Feet tote bag to the inventory. International fans - if you are having trouble setting up an account, shop as a guest. As long as you select your country first, it will stop asking you to fill in a state. I'll be back in a day or two with either the weekly update, or show reviews, or even both.  ;-)  

[AUG 14] In radio news, the Fab One has posted the latest list of airplay. Stamp Your Feet is getting airplay on KNHC (Seattle), S036 (Sirius), KNRJ (Phoenix), KRCK (Palm Springs), KNGY (San Francisco), X081 (XM Radio), WKTU (New York), WVNS (Nashville), WDRE (Hamptons, Riverhead), and WSPK (Newburgh). Sand On My Feet is getting airplay at WMJX (Boston), WLTJ (Pittsburgh), KISC (Spokane), KUMU (Honolulu), WRSA (Huntsville), KKMY (Beaumont), KKBA (Corpus Christi), WHLG (Ft. Pierce), WJXB (Knoxville), WSRS (Worcester), WJKK (Jackson), KTSM (El Paso), and KWAV (Monterey, Salin).  Keep sending in those requests!

[AUG 10] It's weekly update time - which means we all take a break from Olympic coverage for a little while.  ;-)  By the way, if any of the athletes are reading this - remember the important thing isn't how many medals you win, but how many copies of Crayons you buy. (That IS part of the Olympic oath, right?  ;-) ) Before I get started, I have a little Brooklyn news for you below, some articles, and updates to the Ottawa and Mohegan Sun pages. 

[AUG 10] Over at DonnaSummer.com, they have finally started working on the web store. So far there is only one t-shirt posted there, but I'm sure the rest of the tour merchandise will follow soon.

[AUG 10] In the land of covers, Amber and Zelma Davis have recorded a cover of Enough Is Enough that you can grab at Perfectbeat. (The CD cover is very familiar too.  ;-) )  There is an EPK for the song where the girls talk about both Donna and Barbra. (Those quotes start at about 4:40 into the video.)

[AUG 10] In the Donna is everywhere category, Donna got a brief mention in an episode of Chelsea Lately recently, and on the Lifetime show How To Look Good Naked, a recent episode used Crayons as runway music.  :-) You have to love that the new songs are getting out there!

[AUG 10] Moving on to the web, over on Multiply Denis is back and he's a mix of one of the  new songs. You will want to stay away from it if you are avoiding tour spoilers though - he uses live clips from the tour. (That's why I didn't give the name of the track.  ;-) )  And Andy has posted 4000000 mixes of Heaven Knows..... okay, that's a slight exaggeration.  ;-) And on YouTube, Fernando has posted his rather moody Love To Love You remix.  :-)

[AUG 7 again] I just got this charity auction listing for you. The prize is 2 tickets to the Chicago show at Ravinia and a meet and greet with Donna. Proceeds will go to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy fund. The auction closes on Sunday so get those bids in soon!

[AUG 7] Let's start off with some concert news. First of all, I have a couple of fans with extra tickets on their hands. Kevin has an extra ticket for Reno (center section in about the 5th row). If you are interested, contact Kevin at shawn_oconnor AT neutronindustries.com. Then Eli has an extra ticket for Oakland in Row O. If you would like to take it off his hands, Eli can be reached at  onedivoboy AT aol.com. And finally, if you are heading to the Chicago show at Ravinia, beware of traffic hassles. Apparently there are construction projects on I94 and I294, so allow extra time to get to the venue.

[AUG 7] Looking at the Billboard charts for a minute - Crayons re-enters the R&B Album charts for the week of  August 16 at #90.  :-)

[AUG 7] In street team  news,  The San Francisco team had to cancel last weekend's excursion due to illness, so look for them out and about tomorrow night after work. If you see them - say hi. 

[AUG 7] In auction news, there is a Driven By The Music litho up on eBay at the moment. I also see that there are quite a few tickets up for sale there - most for the Hollywood Bowl shows (and some VERY expensive.) 

[AUG 7] MSNBC.com has invited readers to submit their summer concert photos for possible publication on the site later in the month.

[AUG 7] As usual, I have accumulated a couple of articles for your reading pleasure.  They are in the usual place. I expect to see more things turning up as the second half of the tour starts tomorrow.  :-)  I'll be back again this weekend with the weekly update and whatever else falls into my lap.  :-)

[AUG 3] Where is the summer going? Yes it's August and yes, I still haven't changed the Summer Fever pick.  I think I'm addicted to Crayons.  LOL  I did add a couple of things to the page though - like the picture of the promo Sand On My Feet that was on eBay and the cover picture for It's Only Love that Amazon.com is using. The Crayons page now has a few tour spoilers - but those have been hidden so that most people won't see them if they don't want to. (You'll wee what I mean when you look at the page.) I've also updated the Baltimore page with one more fan report, and thrown in an interview from June's Performing Songwriter magazine.  Soon I'll have a few more photos from Mohegan Sun as well - but I have to drag out the other computer to scan those. (A perfectly good scanned and HP refuses to put out Vista drivers for it!  Grrrrrrrr.......) 

[AUG 3] I have more articles (and a pair of slideshows)  listed for you below. All but one are spoiler-free.  :-)

[AUG 3] On to the charts. On the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for August 16, Stamp Your Feet drops from 29 to 49.  :-(  But on the international Billboard International Dance chart - it climbs back up to #30 from #40.  And over in Poland, Crayons debuts at #74. 

[AUG 3] In release news, It's Only Love has been on Amazon.com as part of the Crayons downloadable album for a little while now,  but now it has a separate listing of its own - complete with a cover picture. It looks like exactly the same track that's on the album, so I don't know why it warrants another listing. But we may find out Tuesday - the "new" release goes on sale that day.  Over in the UK, there is a Wollworth's exclusive collection called The Collection which has 15 of Donna's classic tracks.  The thing that makes it more interesting is that it is said to include the longer version of Heaven Knows - one with Donna singing solo on the first verse instead of with the Brooklyn Dreams. 

[AUG 3] Speaking of releases... someone just told me about a new (to me anyway) site called Discogs.com.  Aside from having huge lists of records that have been released (in many cases with a lot of additional info such as the credits), it also serves as a marketplace for people wanting to buy and sell hard to find stuff. (It looks like they use a rating system with the sellers, so that's a nice plus too. )

[AUG 3] In the Donna is everywhere category, Driving Down Brazil was played at a recent Brazilian fashion show - and it got a nice reception.  :-) And at Amsterdam's Pride, one of the floats was playing the Granite & Sugarman Mixshow version of Stamp. And over on RuPaul's blog - look for a classic clip from Donna's 1980 TV special. 

[AUG 3]  I think that brings us up to the web news for the week. Over at DonnaSummerBebo - look for a number of new classic video clips. On Youtube, look for a few new video mixes from Fernando  a manipulated photo slideshow set to Brooklyn, and a very TGIF video for Something's Missing.  On Multiply, look for new mixes by Andy. 

[JUL 29]  I've finally added text to both the Atlantic City and  Westhampton pages, and I have another report from Rama. 

[JUL 29] While I'm here, let me cover a little news for you.  :-)  First up, collectors will want to check out Scott's MySpace page. On his pictures page, he has an album called "going going... gone" with photos of 2 items in his collection that will be going up on auction in the near future.  They are a gold trophy presented to Donna by NARM in 1978 for having the best selling album by a female artist, and the official certificate declaring  March 18, 1992 Donna Summer Day in Los Angeles.  They are both gorgeous items and it's a shame he has to sell them, but I'm sure someone out there can give them a good home.  When the actual auction starts, I'll post a link for you here. 

[JUL 29] I didn't have this the other day, so I'll give it to you now.  On the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for August 9, Stamp Your Feet slips to #29.

[JUL 29] WireImage.com  has a few photos from Donna's recent Atlantic City shows. (Not for people avoiding spoilers!)

[JUL 29] Los Angeles fans - K-Earth 101 FM is having an on air contest to give away tickets to see Donna at the Hollywood Bowl. So tune in to find out how to win, or sign up for their listeners club.  :-)

[JUL 29] And finally (for today anyway  LOL),  Eduardo's San Francisco Street Team will be out a third and final time in the Castro District next Sunday, August 3rd. They will be out promoting to the general public Donna's Saturday, August 16th Paramount Theater concert in Oakland, CA. Please feel free to stop by and say "Hi".

[JUL 28] An update is coming - but I'm exhausted. So for now I just posted a few pictures from Westhampton Beach. I'll have a report on that for you soon (that was an adventure - you have no idea! ) along with my Atlantic City report and various items of news that have turned up.   :-)  (If I'm this tired after seeing 5 shows - I can't even imagine how Donna and the crew feel after playing 15. Yikes!)

[JUL 26] Before I crawl off to bed to get some sleep before work tomorrow, I thought I'd throw my photos from last night up.  I LOVE being able to bring the camera with the manual settings......  it actually does what I want it to.  LOL  I'll write a report of the show too - but I need a little more time. 

[JUL 24] Since my computer time will be very limited this weekend, I'm going to do a quick weekly update now and then I'll follow up when I can with anything else that turns up.  First up - I have started a page for the shows at Casino Rama.

[JUL 24] Moving on to chart news, for the week of  August 2, Crayons slips off the Billboard R&B album chart, while Stamp slips to #40 in the International Dance chart. I don't have the August 9 Club Play chart yet, but that will be up by the time I can update again.  :-)

[JUL 24] In radio news, I'm A Fire seems to be fading away.... sigh. But we still have these stations playing Stamp: KRCK Palm Springs, KNGY San Francisco, S036 Sirius satellite, X081 XM radio, KNRJ Phoenix, KNHC Seattle, WKTU New York, WVNS Nashville, WKCI New Haven, WKIE Chicago, WDRE Hamptons/Riverhead (Long Island!), WFLY Albany, and KKUU Palm Springs.  Then we have these stations playing Sand On My Feet: WLTJ Pittsburgh, WMJX Boston, KUMU Honolulu, WJKK Jackson, KWAV Monteray-Salinas, KTSM El Paso, WJXB Knoxville, WSRS Worcester, and WRSA Huntsville. If any of those are your stations, give them a call or send them an email.

[JUL 24] And now for a quick look at the web news...  On Multiply, Patrice has posted his Crayons remix.  And on YouTube, Rugged4nownyc has a number of clips from the Jones Beach concert. (Obviously those would NOT be for people avoiding spoilers.  ;-) )

[JUL 23] Let's start with 2 extra tickets to the Santa Rosa concert. They are section B row J and if you are interested, contact Eli for the details. (onedivoboy AT aol.com)

[JUL 23] I have a few more articles for you down below.   :-)

[JUL 23] I've started a page for the Seneca Casino show in New York, and I expect to hear from some happy Canadians soon. One thing that one of the Canadian fans noticed was that after the show, the merchandise booth SOLD OUT of Crayons.  :-)  What can I say? When people hear the songs they are hooked! And if you check out my YouTube page, I sneaked in a couple of very short clips from Jones Beach. 

[JUL 23] Oakland - one of the guys is planning a pre-concert party at a place yet to be decided and a post- concert party at Bench And Bar at 2111 Franklin St.  Hector (the guy behind the parties) knows the bar owner and will be speaking to him about playing LOTS of Donna.  :-)  So if you are looking for something to do after the show, check it out.  (And when they come up with a pre-show location, I'll let you know.)

[JUL 21] I started the Jones Beach page.  :-)  There will eventually be tiny clips of a couple of songs because I decided to play with the video mode in my camera for the first time. Unfortunately, YouTube won't let me upload anything right now because of system maintenance - but I'll get something up there when I can.  :-)

[JUL 20 again] I just added photos to the PNC page.  I'll have to work on the Jones Beach page tomorrow. I also have some (terrible) photos of the merchandise booth on that page. For those who want to see the tour merchandise but not tour spoilers, this is a link to the first photo and this is to the second. (Clicking them will open a new window with JUST those photos and nothing else.) By the way - I think PNC has been the most photographed show so far, so I was a little more selective about which ones I used. There are a number that give you a nice overview of the staging in action.  And that's all I'll say about that here.  LOL

[JUL 20] I'm a little behind this weekend..... can't think why?  ;-) I think I'm going to post this update in parts, so let me start with all the normal update stuff and then I'll move on to show stuff later if there is time. One thing I do want to say about the shows now though, is something that seemed to come up a couple of times over the last two days.  Just so you know - there is no opening act. If your ticket says the show is at 8 then you need to be in your seat at 8. Some people have shown up later thinking that they were only missing a comedian or something and they ended up missing part of Donna's show. So be there on time!  Also, most venues still have a few seats left, so if you haven't bought a ticket yet - what are you waiting for?  You will kick yourself forever if you miss this tour.  :-)  (By the way - I fixed the links in the list above.)

[JUL 20] Let's go right to the charts. Over at Billboard for the week of July 26, Crayons slips 2 spots to #82 on the R&B Album chart while Stamp Your Feet climbs 2 to #28 on the International Dance chart.  For the week of August 2, Stamp is at #9 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. In Brazil, Stamp holds the top slot on the Dance chart for the second week in a row.  :-) 

[JUL 20] I think that brings me to the web news, and this will sort of be a long list. Let me break this up into the spoilery stuff and the safe stuff for you. On the safe list is DonnaSummerBebo. They have new videos, and new polls. They are very into Science Of Love over there so if you have an opinion on that one, head over there and let them know.  :-) On Multiply,  Jeffrey has posted his extended mix of Fame (The Game), Patrice has posted his 12" 80s remix, and Steve has posted a vintage clip of Love To Love You. (Note that I am linking you directly to that video. That's because Steve has a ton of pics from PNC Arts and if you go into his page through the "front door" you will see them. And that's probably not a great idea for those of you who want to be surprised.) 

[JUL 20] And now for the web stuff that has show spoilers. As I said above, Steve has 8 billion photos from PNC (some of which may be stolen for this site  LOL) on his multiply page, Andrew has  pictures on his MySpace page, and over ion YouTube - it's all about the shows!  Check out a couple from luciolefirefly, a couple from LaBelle63 (no, we didn't have an earthquake on Long Island - it was just really windy!  LOL), a couple from Zivenki, and one from Phil (who is apparently a big fan of silent movies.  LOL) Please note that the vast majority of those are just short clips to give you a taste of the songs, and I happen to know that there is more coming.

[JUL 19] I posted my report for the PNC show.  There will be photos eventually - I have a bunch that I just have to edit for size when I get a chance. With out getting too spoilery, there were a couple of significant changes to the concert line up last night.  ;-)  Also, I took a couple of photos (that did not come out well!) of the merchandise booth and those will get posted somewhere so you can see what's available. (Actually, I may shoot for better photos tonight if I can get the camera past security.)

[JUL 18] I have another list of articles for you below.  I will be offline for most of today because I'll be spending the day in NJ..... gee, I wonder why?  ;-)  

[JUL 18] I have a fan with extra  front row tickets to Casino Rama - section F5. If you are interested, contact Marino at marino.scarmozzino AT aig.com 

[JUL 17] Let's start with a time sensitive one.  I just found out that Donna is supposed to be on the Wendy Williams Show tomorrow (July 18). It airs live in the NY area at 10 AM on FOX. Other places should look at the show's website for the time and channel.

[JUL 17] Moving on - I have a report (and pictures) from Baltimore!  For those of you who have been wondering about Bruce - he was seen at the show. (As were the grandkids.  :-) )

[JUL 17] San Diego! I have a fan with 2 tickets (3rd row center)  who is now unable to go to the show. If you would like to take them off his hands, email Eli at onedivoboy AT aol.com. 

[JUL 15] Now I can finish the update I started yesterday.  LOL I have more articles posted below for you - and they will be marked so that you can tell which have spoilers.  I've also started a page for Ottawa fan reports (including pictures!) I don't know what happened with CBS this morning.  They sneaked in a late update to their schedule that left me watching no Donna for 2 hours.  LOL  (On the other hand it's not all bad - I found out they are doing the mosquito spraying by me tonight so I can make sure my windows are closed. )

[JUL 15] In the Netherlands, SchiffersFm has posted Be Myself Again in their "Tips Van Hans" column.

[JUL 15] Let me give you a little chart info while I'm here. On the July 26 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, Stamp Your Feet slips 3 to number 8. And in Brazil it hits #1 for the week of July 12. (The fans are partying in Brazil now!  :-) )

[JUL 15] I have a fan out there named François who made his own custom CD booklet for Crayons with the lyrics from Donna's site combined with the photos from the real CD booklet. He has graciously allowed me to share it with you here. Just right click this link and select "save as".  It's a PDF so you will need the Acrobat Reader to view it.

[JUL 14] I don't have time to update as much as I'd like to tonight, but I did add a few more photos from Mohegan Sun for you. Tomorrow night I will have some news from Ottawa.  :-)  And US fans (and maybe some Canadian fans) don't forget to tune into CBS Early Show tomorrow morning at 7 AM. :-)

[JUL 13] I have more for you from the concerts - all of which will go on pages for the various venues so that nobody has any surprises ruined for them.  But I will say this..... I heard that the Boston crowd was very rowdy and enthusiastic. That's cool - but there are a whole bunch of other cities on this tour that I want to address now. Ottawa..... Baltimore... Salamenca....  Rama.... are you going to let BOSTON make more noise than you? Much as I like Boston, I think you can out- scream them.  (And you will notice I left NY and NJ out of the list. That's  because I will be at those shows with a cattle prod and Ken's middle aged drag queens.  There WILL be noise made in NY and NJ or there will be severe consequences!  ;-)  )  And as for you August tour cities...... you better start practicing now. I expect my house on Long Island to shake when the screaming starts in California!

[JUL 13]  So here's the list of updated (or added pages) for today:  Boston, Bethel, and the Street Teams in action. Also check out the articles list below, and the Family Matters section for a Johnnyswim update.

[JUL 13] Canada - this one is for you. Your iTunes (yes the Canadian iTunes that all of you love to hate  LOL) now has It's Only Love available. The song is not available on US iTunes so US fans will have to go to Amazon.com for that download.

[JUL 13] Target is now selling a Digital Album Card for Crayons. For $12.99, it gives you  a code to download the songs and the EPK. They are DRM protected, so once you download them, the track only work on the one computer.

[JUL 13] And some early web news for you - Jeff has posted his review of the Bethel concert on his Multiply page and Andrew has posted his photos from Boston on his MySpace page. (Look for the little link that says "pics" under his  "last log in".  MySpace will make you log in to see them!) And I have added both the Larry Flick and Richard Simmons interviews to my Multiply page. Over at DonnaSummertime, the new Top 40 is posted and there are a dozen new entries. (Gee, I wonder why?  LOL)And of course Nathan DiGesare has added to his tour blog.

[JUL 11 part 2] And now for something completely different.... no wait, that's Monty Python.  And now for the main update.  Where so I want to start? How about with tour stuff. First of all, I have updated the concert connection page. Also, and this is important) I have a gentleman named Rick with an extra $100 ticket to Jones Beach. He's like it to go to a real fan and not to some bozo who will sit there and pretend not to have a pulse all night, so if you need a ticket - get in touch with richitown AT aol.com. And  I also have some Family Matters news for fans of Amanda/Johnnyswim.

[JUL 11 part 2] San Francisco fans - look  for the street team to be hard at work again tomorrow at the Castro I believe. If you are nice to them they will probably tell you all about the show Donna is doing in Oakland. (Actually, they might tell you about it if you aren't nice to them.  LOL) 

[JUL 11 part 2 Let's look at the Billboard charts. For the week of July 19, Crayons is at # 80 on the R&B Album chart and Stamp Your Feet is up 2 to # 28 on the International Dance chart. As I said last week, Stamp is at #5 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart for the week of 7/19 and as soon as I see the 7/26 chart I'll let you know where it is. 

[JUL 11 part 2] In radio news, we are now tracking another song. :-)  Sand On My Feet has been picked up by a few AC radio stations. They are Magic 106.7 in Boston, KWAV (1520 AM) in Monteray-Salinas, Mix 98.7 in Jackson, MS, B97.5 in Knoxville, and K92.9 in Pittsburgh. Stamp Your Feet is still getting played at these stations: KNGY in San Francisco, XM 081 (satellite radio), KNHC in Seattle, WKTU in New York, Sirius 036 (satellite radio), KNRJ in Phoenix, WNYZ in New York, WKIE in Chicago, WVNS in Nashville, and KKUU in Palm Springs, CA. And I'm A Fire is hanging in there on Sirius 036, KNHC in Seattle and KKUU in Palm Springs. If any of those are your stations, give them a call. 

[JUL 11 part 2] Getting back to the tour again - the Meadowbrook  US Cellular Pavilion in New Hampshire has posted photos from the concert the other night. Click the link if you are not worried about spoilers. (If you were backstage at that show, your picture is also posted on that page.)

[JUL 11 part 2] And speaking of tours...  as you know (or will know if you keep reading down), I was at the Mohegan Sun show the other night. While I was there I had the chance to ask a question.  So I asked the number one question from my email - "Donna, are you going to Europe?" She's hoping to get there maybe in September. So you guys have not been forgotten!  Before you email me again for 1000 more details  LOL - I didn't get any more specifics than that. The entire state of Connecticut was backstage waiting for a picture with Donna, so there wasn't time to chat. But she knows that you guys want her and you haven't been forgotten.   :-) 

[JUL 11 part 2] If you saw the blog post on Donna's MySpace about winning tickets to Atlantic City, MySpace in their infinite wisdom disabled the link. I suspect that since the site that was linked to was musicslut.blogger.com, the content filter picked up on the word "sluts" and thought it was porn spam.  If you would like to enter the contest, you can cut and paste the url off of Donna's blog instead of clicking it, or you can just use this link. (And if my webhost is reading this - that's NOT a porn link. It's a perfectly innocent music blog.)

[JUL 11 part 2] I'm looking at my folder of Google alerts and it looks like I have a bunch for you again. Let me weed out the duplicates and post the list for you below. (Actually, make that 2 lists. I'll separate the ones that have concert spoilers from the others for you.) 

[JUL 11 part 2] In the Donna is everywhere category, Stor Dubiné is exploring new aspects to his art. He's done some pictures based on Munny toys and if you look at the ones he's created there is one based on a very familiar diva.  ;-)

[JUL 11 part 2] That brings us to the web news. Let's start with Nathan DiGesare. His tour blog continues with entries for the last couple of shows. (He's also updated the look of his site.)  On Multiply, look for a whole bunch of classic video from Steve, and tour photos from Andy. (Those will have spoilers - but you probably guessed that.) On Youtube, look for a couple of mixes from Summer4All and a Stamp vs. Disco Lies vs. Let Me Think About It mix from MAndrews Truth.

[JUL 11] I'm back - but I have not come down to planet earth yet!  LOL  If you haven't made arrangements to see the show yet, you need to do that RIGHT NOW! (And that's as specific as I will get on this page. You will have to click a link to read more.  LOL) The show is fabulous and you don't want to miss it! Most of the venues still have tickets left so it's not too late! Now let me upload this and then get to work on the main update. Let's see it's been 2 days so I should have 11 billion more articles by now.  LOL

[JUL 9] I'll be officially offline until late tomorrow, but when I come back it will be with my own fan report.  :-)  In the mean time, I leave you this YouTube link to keep yourselves amused. (Don't click it if you are avoiding spoilers for the show!)

[JUL 7] Hot off the presses - I have photos from Wolftrap!  See the Vienna page..... unless you are avoiding spoilers.  :-)

[JUL 6] I said I'd be back.  ;-)  The Street Team page is now updated with a few more photos, the Amazon widgets have been updated to include It's Only Love (that will be the last track on the list if you scroll down on either of them) and here is a new widget on the Vienna fan report page with songs that Donna was doing at the show. (The original album/single versions - not anything actually live from the show.)

[JUL 6] If you missed my holiday announcement - I still have the code to buy 1 ticket and get 1 free at PNC Arts or Jones Beach. If you email me  for the code, I will give it to you and enter you for a chance to win one of 2 promo CD singles.)  The buy 1 get 1 free offer ends July 7 and my drawing will be July 8. 

Also if you are looking for tickets to Gilford, NH, go to the Meadowbrook US Cellular Pavilion's website and use the code 6sweetshows to get $10 off.

[JUL 6] Speaking of concerts, I know many of you have been waiting with bated breath for the reports from opening night in Vienna, VA.  (I could tell when I started getting instant messages that said "have you heard anything yet?"  instead of "hi".  LOL)  The reports are starting to come in and I have to say that I was totally surprised that Donna sang all the tracks from the Shout It Out Collection.......   ;-)  (I'm just teasing - she left out Little Marie.  LOL)  In keeping with my no spoiler policy on the main news page, if you want to hear about the show just head to the Vienna Fan Report page.  What I will say on this page is what was in the press release - the show really is a mixture of old and new stuff. (I won't call it a chocolate chip cookie though because then I'll just get hungry.  LOL) You will definitely hear the new songs and you will definitely hear some of the classics - so everybody should be happy.  :-)  I will also give you the merchandise report. They had the Crayons CD, a couple of t-shirts (including one with the big I'm A Fire eye!), a black hoodie (you will want that at Jones Beach, Boston and Baltimore - it gets cold on the water at night  LOL), and an 8x11 postcard.  It would not surprise me at all if down the road some of those things became available on Donna's site.

[JUL 6] In release news - American fans can now get It's Only Love at Amazon's MP3 store. So if you didn't get it at Circuit City, now is your chance.  :-) I'll be adding that to my Crayons widget on the splash page and above after I get all the main updates done.  I'm also going to make a widget for the fan reports page with all the songs from the tour - that's mainly for the new people who might not have everything yet. 

[JUL 6] Let's go to the charts. For the week of July 12, Crayons is at #71 on the R&B Album charts. (That's up 2 from last week.) Unfortunately it fell off the Top 200 Albums. And Stamp Your Feet debuts at #30 on the International Dance charts. For the week of July 19, Stamp Your Feet drops to #5 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. Looking at some of the international charts, Stamp Your Feet is #1 on the Brazilian Dance charts and on the Venezuelan KysFM chart. And at BBC Radio1 in the UK, Crayons debuts at #24 on the R&B album charts.

[JUL 6] I have another list of articles for you. (And I suspect that we'll have even more now that the tour has started.) Look below in the print/web section.

[JUL 6] Check out Torgen's blog for a video review of Crayons from June (in German) and then an update from July 4 with interview clips in English.

[JUL 6] If you want to catch some classic Donna videos - check out Lite FM in NY. They were one of several stations celebrating Donna's music this weekend and they posted 5 videos on their website for listeners to stream on demand.

[JUL 6] And I think that brings us to the web news for the week. Nathan DiGesare is back to blogging about the tour.  :-)  He's posted his entry for last night's show in Vienna, VA - look for more posts as the tour progresses. Over at Super Bullet Number One, Shawn has added a whole bunch more 12" sleeves and other goodies. (If your iPod is missing cover art for some songs - this is the place to look!) At Forever Donna, Sandro has updated with new Crayons animation for the splash page. On Multiply look for new videos from Patrice, new files from Steve, and lots of foot stamping from Jeffrey. Then when you are done there, the YouTubers have added some new things as well. Look for some classic clips from apgrbb, mixes from DJSummer2K, and some new goodies from Fernando - including Donna vs. David Bowie clip that is kind of weird, but in a way that works.

That's it for right now. I'm going to take a break and then be back later with photos from my Fire Island street team excursion and some new Amazon widgets. (And anything else that I may have forgotten.)

[JUL 4] I'm going to work on the main update tomorrow - mainly because I want to spend time watching the illegal fireworks by my house tonight.  LOL  But I did want to update tonight with a special time sensitive item. As you may know, I was out promoting the local concerts today. I had flyers with a special buy 1 ticket get one free deal for PNC Arts in NJ and Jones Beach in NY. Those offers expire on July 7 (Live Nation's rules - not mine!  LOL) I also had a few (VERY few!) CDs to give out to people in Donna drag.... but I didn't see any.  :-(  So here's what I'm going to do. If you would like to go to either show and you need tickets (and would like to take advantage of the buy 1 get 1 deal), email me before July 7 and ask me for the code. I'll give it to you and then I'll throw your name and email address into a hat and when July 8 rolls around, I'll pick 2 lucky victims... I mean winners  ;-) at random to get a Crayons Sampler CD. (They are a 4 track CD with the original  album versions of Stamp Your Feet and I'm A Fire, the Jason Nevins mix of Stamp, and the Solitaire Club Mix of I'm A Fire. It comes in a cardboard sleeve with the Crayons cover art. These are promotional CDs only and can't be bought in stores.)  When I email you back the code to buy tickets - that's your confirmation that you are entered for the CD Samplers. ] See ya at the shows!

*Mandatory legal mumbo jumbo: Contest not open to my relatives (too bad - you should have sucked up to me when you had the chance.  LOL) Void where prohibited by law.  No purchase necessary (but, it is strongly recommended  ;-) ). Decision of the webmistress is final. Objects in the rearview mirror may be closer than they appear. Do not remove this tag under penalty of law..... am I getting carried away?  ;-)

[JUL 3] Happy July 4 everyone! (So what if it's not a holiday in your country - take the day off anyway!  ;-) ) I have some time sensitive news for you. Sirius 37 (The Strobe) will be having special guest DJs for the whole Fourth Of July weekend. Donna will be one of them. I suspect that since they have a number of guest DJs, that everyone just recorded stuff that will be played at various times throughout the weekend. Also, NY fans will want to tune into WALK radio and Lite FM. Both have concert tickets to give away this weekend.

[JUL 3] And in concert news, as you all know the tour kicks off this weekend at Wolftrap. Because of that, there is a new press release.  If you are trying to avoid spoilers about the show - don't worry,  the most detail you get is that we'll be hearing new songs and old songs. (And I think pretty much everyone reading the site had figured that out already.  ;-) ) I'll be back this weekend with full update.  :-) And don't forget that there is still time to grab tickets for all the shows!

[JUL 2] Okay - my contest has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, but I do have something cool for you guys.  If you were thinking about going to the concert in Gilford, NH, but you didn't get your tickets yet - I have a deal for you. Head over the the Meadowbrook US Cellular Pavilion's website and use this code:  6sweetshows  to get $10 off the price of your ticket.  The show is coming up very soon, so grab your tickets NOW.

[JUL 1] Well, my contest has been postponed a little - I'm just waiting for some links and things.  :-)  In street team news - I didn't get to Fire Island last weekend thanks to real life, but that means I will be there for the Invasion Of The Pines, peddling great deals to Jones Beach and PNC Arts. (Look for the street team t-shirt and the bright red sunburn at the Pines ferry port.) I have a very limited supply of promo singles to give out, so if you come in Donna-drag and are willing to pose for a picture with me for the site, I'll give you one. (But those supplies are VERY limited so it's first come first serve.) Also, if you happen to be on the NJ Turnpike and you notice a picture of Donna on a certain booth not too far from PNC Arts..... well, just say Donna's name to the toll collector. If he hasn't run out yet - he'll hand you a flyer with the buy 1 get 1 free ticket offer to PNC Arts.  In other street team news, we've had parties in Boston and Providence, and the guys were out working Pride in San Francisco. I have photos from all of those events on a new photo gallery page. I also have a bunch of professional photos from 2006 courtesy of the guys at the Wells Fargo Center For The Arts in Santa Rosa posted on what will be the Santa Rosa fan report page. If you are in that area, they still have some great seats left for this year's show so go snap them up!  :-)

[JUL 1] I have a fan in the UK who happens to have one extra ticket for the Saturday show at the Hollywood Bowl. If you are interested in talking to him about it - send me an email and I'll forward it on.  I also have another gentleman looking for a pair of reasonably priced good tickets to the Hollywood Bowl. (In other words - he doesn't want to pay what the brokers are charging. I can't blame him for that!  LOL)

[JUL 1] In other tour news, Nathan DiGesare is still with the tour this year and he's got an interesting mention of it on his news page:  The new music, surprise elements that have been added to the show is something you are not going to want to miss. This without a doubt will give the fans everything they have dreamed for in a DS show. Is it July 9 yet? ;-) (That's the first show I'm going to.) While we're talking about the tour -  for anyone going to any of the shows - if you want to write a report, send it in and I'll publish it on the site. I'll have a page for each venue as time goes by.  Also I'm going to try very hard to keep a "no spoiler" policy on the news page. In other words, I won't tell you much about the shows on the news page itself so that people who want to be surprised won't have their surprises accidentally ruined when they catch up on the news.  I'll try to keep song lists, etc confined to the actual show report pages. And on the forums,  I'd like to request that you guys keep discussion of the shows confined to specific threads so that people who want to read can, and people who want to be surprised know what threads to avoid.  :-)

[JUL 1] In my last update I neglected the international charts. So let me cover a few now. In Venezuela, Stamp Your Feet is number 1 at KysFM, in Greece Crayons debuts at #30 on the sales charts, and in Brazil Stamp Your Feet is #7 on the  Top 40 Dance charts. Sadly, Crayons has yet to chart on the UK album chart so go blackmail your neighbors into buying a few copies.  ;-)

[JUL 1] UK fans - your iTunes now has the in studio video clips for Stamp, The Queen Is Back and Mr. Music available for sale for 1.89 each.

[JUL 1] Congrats to Michael Campbell, winner of the DonnaSummer.us Crayons review contest. Way to go Michael!

[JUL 1] Okay, that brings us to the list of articles - posted below in the usual place.  :-)  And in TV news, you can still vote to see Donna's concert repeated on the Today Show Friday. 

[JUL 1] And I almost forgot to mention - the new Summer Fever pick for July is..... well, Crayons.  I just didn't have the heart to pull it down yet.  LOL

[JUN 29] Just a quick update on Donna's appearance on Sirius today. Although Richard Simmon's show runs from 3 to 6, I just got a press release saying that Donna will be on at 5. So plan your recording times accordingly.  :-)

[JUN 28] Let's start off with a satellite radio alert. Donna will be on channel 102 at 3 PM tomorrow on Richard Simmons' show. So tune in if you can  :-)

[JUN 28] I have a couple of new articles posted below for you. (Is it me, or do new articles come out daily lately?  LOL) Also, the June 27-29 Metro NY daily paper had the playlist for DJ J. Gauthreux who is doing the big dance on the Pier party. Stamp Your Feet was his top pick, so if you are partying at the Pier keep your ears open for it.  ;-)

[JUN 28] I'm just going to jump into the web news now because I will probably be updating tomorrow, and it not, then Monday night for SURE. So over on YouTube, look for a new mix by DJSummer2K, a bunch of classic stuff from Dutchgigilo, and a couple of new goodies from Fernando (fzkny). On Multiply, look for new stuff from Patrice and Steve.  And I don't remember if I mentioned this here or not, but all 4 parts of the free Crayons podcast live on my Multiply page too. So if you can't use iTunes, you can check them out over there.)

[JUN 27]  I think this will be another weekly update in parts.  LOL  Let's start off with the Concert Connection page. I finally started it! Basically, if you are going to a show and you want someone to carpool with, or someone to hang out with - send me an email telling me which show you are going to, what you want (a ride, to meet fans, whatever) and what contact information I can share. Speaking of concerts, I said in one of my recent updates that I planned to be on Fire Island this weekend promoting the NY and NJ shows.  Thanks to some car trouble, I might have to push that back to July 4. Now if you want to go to either the PNC Arts or Jones Beach shows and you didn't buy tickets yet - what are you waiting for?  ;-) Actually, I know what you are waiting for - you are waiting for the special deal that I have. It's a limited time offer to buy 1 ticket and get 1 free. If that interests you, look for me and my broken car on Long Island, or my other street team members in NY and NJ, or shoot me an email.  Also, look for a contest VERY soon to win a pair of tickets to the show in Gilford, NH. I should have those details on Monday night. 

[JUN 27] Speaking of contests, the Crayons Review contest at DonnaSummer.us is winding up very soon. Votes will NOT be accepted after June 30, so if you haven't voted yet just remember that the clock is ticking away.

[JUN 27] I think that brings us to the latest list of articles. I have them posted below in the usual spot. (I have a question for those of you who read the site at work - how do you ever get any work done these days?  LOL)

[JUN 27] And while I'm here - let's check the Billboard chart action. On the Hot Dance Club Play chart for July 12, Stamp Your Feet sits at number 1 for the second week.  :-)  On the July 5 charts, Crayons is at #184 on the Top 200 albums and at # 73 on the R&B Albums chart. Now I know some of you are interested in sales numbers. I don't have current numbers for Crayons, but I can give you an idea of the state of the music industry right now. You need to look in 2 places.  The first place is HitsDailyDouble.com. On their sales page they try to predict (usually with fairly decent accuracy) where albums will chart on the Billboard Top 200. The "power index" column is the sales. (Depending on when you go there, they might not have final figures posted. There is a notice on the top of the page that says if the chart is finalized or if it's still in progress.)  And on the forum, the Fabulous Albert has posted sales figures for Billboard's Top 10 with notes about sales increases ort decreases.) 

[JUN 26] Head over to DonnaSummer.com and check out the music section. There is something new there that many of you have been waiting for - LYRICS!  Now go study them before the concerts start.  ;-)

[JUN 25] This is just a quick update for the San Francisco area. First of all, Energy 92.7 is asking listeners to vote for their favorite song. So far Donna is in second place with 30% of the vote.  Second of all, those of you going to San Francisco Pride on June 29 should be on the look out for Eduardo and his crew. They will be out promoting Donna from 2 to 5 with a few little goodies for fans.   ;-)  If you run into him - tell him hi from me.  :-)

[JUN 24] The Today Show is planning to rerun one of the Summer Concert series concerts for the July 4 holiday. And they are letting viewers vote for the one they want to see.  (You can vote on the website, or by text message to 46833 - pick 3 for Donna.) All bias aside (yeah right!  LOL) I think it's only fair they they repeat Donna's concert since all of New York City missed out because of the crane accident.

[JUN 23] Yes, I have a few MORE articles for you.  LOL (I think they are breeding!) Also, while I'm here, UK fans will be happy to know that Crayons is the album of the week at BBC's Radio 2.  They will be playing tracks from the album all week long. (And if you  live outside the UK, you can stream the station online.)

[JUN 23] Part 4 of the Crayons Podcast is available on iTunes now. And for the iTunes challenged, check out the widget on my Crayons page. Also, on YouTube, Toby Gad has clips of Donna and of JohnnySwim on his video blog.

[JUN 21] Well, I THOUGHT I posted all the articles yesterday, but I have more for you - check the media section below.  (How many of you have gone blind from all the reading? And to my blind users - how many of you have gone deaf from all the articles?  LOL)

[JUN 21] Let's hit the charts for a minute. The last Billboard chart I was waiting for was the July 5 Hot Dance Club Play chart.  :-)  Stamp is sitting there at number 1 - still with a bullet! I hope that means it will sit there another week or 2. So for those of you who are tracking the success of Crayons - add in back to back number 1 dance hits.  :-) One more thing, it has come to my attention that Crayons' number 17 debut was Donna's highest debut on the Top 200 Album chart ever. And the fact that Crayons is still on the Top 200 chart after 3 weeks means that Donna has already had more chart success than the other Burgundy artists. :-)

[JUN 21] Looking to international charts, Crayons debuts at #85 on the Swiss charts, making it her first appearance on that chart since 1989. In Italy, it debuts at #42, in Germany it's  #73 (with a bullet!) on the Top 100 albums, and in Argentina, Crayons debuts at #11. On the Danish Radio Diablo site, Stamp Your Feet  is number 8. For all you chart hounds out there, here are a couple of links you need to know about: Billboard.com, Allcharts.org, and iTunes.

[JUN 21] In radio news, here are the current US radio stations playing Stamp Your Feet: KNGY (San Francisco), X081 (XM Radio), WKTU (New York - more on KTU in a second), KNHC (seattle), WKIE (Chicago), WVNS (Nashville), WRKS (New York - new add!), WFMK (Lansing), WKRQ (Cincinnati - new add!), WTFM (Johnson City), KYKY (St. Louis), and KKUU (Palm Springs.) If any of these are the stations you listen to - call in those requests!  Now on internet radio, we still have Diverse Universe that will play anything you happen to request. It's back up after some technical issues. And on Live 365,  UU-BRU  has a nice little write up on Donna on their main page, but more importantly, if you check out the playlist, Stamp is sitting there at #1. They also play a song called Slide Over Backwards credited to someone named Hattie Mae Blanche Dubois.  ;-) (That one hasn't made the top 50 yet, but give it time. HEY! It just started playing as I was writing this - and I didn't even request it yet.  :-) )

[JUN 21] In concert news, WKTU in New York has tickets to give away for PNC Arts center and Jones Beach on the air and on their website this weekend. And I will be on Fire Island next weekend as part of the street team efforts with special limited-time only deals for those who didn't get their PNC or Jones Beach tickets yet. (Pray to whatever god/spirit/force you believe in for sunshine on Sunday!  LOL) 

[JUN 21] In release news, I've been told that Sand On My Feet is being shipped to AC radio next week with promotion starting in early July probably. So get ready to start requesting that one.  :-)

[JUN 21] In the Donna is everywhere category - Stamp was played during a dance segment of America's Got Talent.  :-)

[JUN 21] I went this far, so I might as well make this the official update.  LOL So let's get to the web news for the week.  First up, Nathan DiGesare has the current tour schedule posted on his site and it looks like he'll be giving readers the behind the scenes scoop again this year.  :-) Over on Multiply, Steve has posted a couple of videos (one recent and one older) for your viewing pleasure, and  Andy has posted a number of new remixes of new songs. On YouTube, Fernando has posted his video mix of The Queen Is Back, and Stor Dubine's awesome Stamp video has moved, so update your bookmarks.  ;-)

[JUN 20] The weekly update is yet to come, but I thought I'd post a few things that have fallen into my lap this week. See the list in the media section. :-)  Also,  we're still putting together street teams to promote Donna. We especially need some people in Virginia and Santa Rosa - so let me know if you are interested.  :-)

[JUN 20] While I'm here I'll give you the latest Billboard news. On the Top 200 chart for the week of June 28, Crayons slips to #158. And on the R&B chart is it #54. Stamp Your Feet falls off the Hot Singles Sales chart, and while I said last week that it is #3 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart for June 28, I haven't seen the next chart to see if it continued its climb.  I'll post that when I get it.

[JUN 17] For those who missed it last night, the Nightline segment is now on ABC's website and on YouTube (if ABC doesn't work outside the US.) Wait back that up a little - the clip on the ABC website is longer than what aired.

[JUN 17] Also on YouTube..... most of you regulars know Stor Dubine. He's the guy who did the really cool animated videos for I Got Your Love and Does He Love You. (If you never saw those - find them on YouTube - they really are amazing.) Well, he has put his creative powers into a new video for Stamp Your Feet. Watch it, enjoy it, then go post it everywhere that will allow you to post a video.  Let's take over the whole internet!  :-)

[JUN 17] In concert news, The Daily News has some tickets available for a whole bunch of Donna's shows. So if you didn't get your concert tickets yet, what are you waiting for?

[JUN 16] I just (very unexpectedly) found out Donna was on ABC's Nightline tonight. Obviously this comes too late for East Coast fans, but if any of you are reading this in other times zones, you should be able to catch it.  She was in a piece called "Play list".

[JUN 15] GREETINGS SANTA ROSA! Your tickets are on sale now through the Wells Fargo Center website. (If that link is not working, try this one instead.) Get those credit cards out and snap up your tickets now! Also, we are looking to form a street team for Santa Rosa (not to mention all the other places on the tour list.) If you are interested in being on a street team or even captaining one, let me know. And before you ask what I'm talking about - look at the next entry. That will explain all. Oh by the way - if you 'd like to hear the radio promo for the concert - I have it here. I have a video one that will be on YouTube later tonight too.  ;-)

[JUN 15]  Okay - as you all know the tour starts July 5 in Wolftrap. (And if you didn't know that, you must be new here - and if you are, you have A LOT to catch up on! Don't worry - it's all good.  ;-) )  As I was saying, the tour starts soon and with that in mind, first I'd like to remind you that tickets for the whole North American tour are on sale now, and many venues still have good seats available. (Especially Gilford, NH - I think that one has slipped under the radar of the New England fans. I know my first reaction to that date was, "where?") Anyway what I'm trying to get to is that we will be assembling street teams of locals to go out and plug the shows and the album at clubs or wherever Donna fans hang out in your area. Pretty much, as a street team member, you would have to hand out flyers and CD samplers and just get the word out.  And as a street team member you would get the satisfaction of knowing that you helped Donna take over the whole world ;-) and maybe some other cool thank you too.  Also, if you have any good promotion ideas that would work in your area, or places and events that we should target - let me know!  If you are interested in helping out or if you just want to throw some ideas at me - send me an email (webmaster  AT donna-tribute.com or any other email addy you happen to have for me) preferably with "street team" in the subject line and make sure you tell me what area you are in so that I know what show you are promoting.  (Because it would be really stupid for me to send you flyers to promote say  Gilford if you are working in say Santa Rosa.  LOL)  And I will have more details on this as things develop.  :-)

[JUN 15] Speaking of concerts, this week I will be setting up a concert connection page for people who want to carpool, share extra tickets, party after the show, whatever.)

[JUN 15] Let's move on to the regular update stuff. We'll start with some articles first. I have 2 new ones living in my article archive -the People Magazine one that I've been meaning to type up since it came out, and a Gay Times article from the UK that I typed up from a scan on the forums.  Then there are a bunch more that already live on the web somewhere - those are listed below in the media section.

[JUN 15] Calling the UK - you have your own mini-Donna Summer site now to promote the album. The cool thing is - if you join the mailing list over there you have a chance to win 1 of 10 signed CDs. (And I'm 99% sure they mean signed by Donna and not signed by some random person in the street.  ;-) )

[JUN 15] In release news, Crayons has hit Australia. That version also includes It's Only Love - but there is one thing that sets the Aussie release apart from all the other ones so far. It comes in a plastic jewel case instead of eco-pak the rest of us got.  If anyone is interested in getting that version, one of the local guys recommends jbhifi.com.au. I looked at the site and they do ship worldwide. Crayons has also hit Argentina, and you can get MusiMundo.com. Also in release news, iTunes has FINALLY made an "iTunes Essentials" collection for Donna. They have one or 2 strange choices mixed in there, but if you are new to Donna go check it out. (And if you are a long time fan, you probably already have most of those songs.)

[JUN 15] Let's move on to charts. Over at Billboard, on the June 28 Hot Dance Club Play chart Stamp moves up to number 3 - still with a bullet.  The other Billboard chart info I have is for the week of June 21. Stamp debuts on the Hot Singles Sales chart at #38. While over on the album charts, Crayons falls to number 38 on the R&B albums chart and to #103 on the Top 200 albums.  Internationally, Stamp moves from #28 to #20 on the Brazilian chart and it debuts at #38 on the Canadian chart. And over on iTunes (Europe) the peak chart positions so far for Crayons are: France #9 (pop chart), Belgium #5 (pop chart), Italy #3 (pop chart) and #6 (overall), Spain #1 (pop chart) and #4 (overall), Sweden #4 (pop chart) and #9 (overall), Finland #7 (pop chart), Ireland #9 (pop chart), and Switzerland #9 (pop chart). On a side note for all the chart watchers out there, there is a site called AllCharts.org that will give you the chart info for quite a few countries.

[JUN 15] In radio news, Q92.5 in Montreal has picked up Stamp and Radio 2 in Belgium is playing it in their show De Dansbar. Here in the US, the following stations are playing Stamp:  WKTU (NY), WKIE (Chicago), KNHC (Seattle), X081 (XM), WVNS (Nashville), KKUU (Palm Springs), KYKY (St. Louis), WTFM (Johnson City), WFMK (Lansing), and WSMW (Greensboro). I'm A Fire is getting airplay on S036 (Sirius), KNHC (Seattle) and KKUU (Palm Springs.) And speaking of radio, San Francisco fans shold be happy because the completely awesome Energy 92.7 has made Donna their spotlight artist for the month.

[JUN 15] And that will bring us to the web news (finally!  LOL). Damien has updated L'Unives de Donna Summer with his new It's Only Love (IFL mix). On Multiply, Patrice has added a new photo creation. And at YouTube, Fernando has added a couple more videos that combine music from Crayons with classic performance footage and the Star Spangled Banner performance from 1999 has turned up. I will be back - probably soon with anything else that pops up. And since I forgot to say it before - Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. You know who you are..... at least I hope you do.  ;-)

[JUN 11] This will be a relatively quick update.  First of all, if you have iTunes, then you need to know that part 3 of Donna's podcast is up. And if you don't have iTunes, then head over to my Crayons page where all the podcasts are currently streaming. (It looks like there will be a total of 4 - so only one more left.) Now if you live in the UK and you have iTunes, then you have an even better reason to head over to iTunes.  The UK iTunes is selling Crayons already.  :-)  (So much for waiting until June 23!) And the cool thing about the iTunes version of Crayons is that it comes with a digital booklet with all the liner notes and photos. 

[JUN 11] Speaking of iTunes - now that Crayons is over all (or at least most) of Europe, we can get an idea of how it's selling over there.  As of this afternoon, on the iTunes pop album chart it was #9 in France, #7 in Belgium, #4 in Sweden, #3 in Italy and #1 in Spain. If you look at the Top 10 album chart over all), Donna comes in at #9 in Sweden, #6 in Italy and #4 in Spain.  :-) I'll be back a little later this week with all the press out of Europe.

[JUN 9] RED ALERT for Germany (and internet radio listeners): Donna will be interviewed on WDR2 TOMORROW (Tuesday June 10) between 21:05 and 23:30 local time. (That works out to between 3:05 PM and 5:30 PM New York Time.  The rest of you can probably figure out your time based on either German or NY time.) If German isn't your language, the link you are looking for to stream the music is the one that says "WDR 2 hören".  And if you are looking for something to do while you are waiting for Donna, scroll down the WDR page a little further and look at the column on the right.  Near the bottom of the page is a little Donna quiz you can try.  

[JUN 8] See, I said I'd be back again. :-)  Today I added more photos to the Chicago Experience page, I added photos to a new page for the recent New York events and I started a page for messages, reviews or anything else you guys want to share. Wolfgang's German discography has also been updated to reflect the Stamp single and the German chart information. And before I get to the news, when I updated yesterday, I messed up a couple of the Canadian radio stations. It should have been EZRock.com and 99.9MixFM.  Sorry guys. (I can't even blame those typos on the cat - she is currently snubbing me.  LOL)

[JUN 8] Brazil - you finally have a firm release date. It's June 16 and you will be getting the version of Crayons that includes It's Only Love. Check it out at Americanas.com. And speaking of Brazil, Stamp Your Feet hits #28 on the Brazilian Top 30 Dance Chart for June 14.  :-)

[JUN 8] We have more photos online from the Chicago Music Experience courtesy of the host himself, Dedry Jones. Catch those on his website, or his MySpace page. As for the video that was films - they are still editing it and hoping to hook up with one of the cable stations so it can be broadcast.

[JUN 8] I was asked yesterday about sales figures for Crayons.  Going from the numbers posted on HitsDailyDouble.com,  it looks like Donna sold about 22500 the first week Crayons was out and about 11,600 the second week.  To put that in perspective with other Burgundy artists, Gloria Estefan's CD sold about 22,700 the first week and it debuted at #25 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums (and then fell out of the top 50 the second week.) Chaka Khan's CD sold about 34,500 the first week and debuted at #15. The second week it sold about 17,800 and dropped to #40 (and then dropped out of the top 50 on the third week). And Aaron Neville sold about 21,000 CDs his first week for a #37 debut (then he fell out of the top 50.) 

[JUN 8] Over at DonnaSummer.us, the judges have voted and Doug has the official top 10 fan reviews ready to post some time tomorrow so you guys can pick your favorites. (You guys made it tough to choose! All the reviews were well thought out and well written. :-) )  So check out Doug's site tomorrow to see the top 10 and for other announcements. 

[JUN 7] I said I'd be back today. ;-) Let's start with even more articles linked below in the media section. And then let me clear up one little thing that has been turning up in my email. Donna will NOT be on The View on Monday. It dropped off her schedule at some point probably because of scheduling issues (on either side.) I don't know when or if it will be rescheduled because it won't be too long before the show wraps for the summer.  (Most of the day time talk shows take a break in the summer time, so for those of you who are hoping Donna will do Oprah or Ellen or any of the other shows, it's probably not even remotely possible until the fall at this point. Could I have made that sentence any longer?  LOL)

[JUN 7] In chart news, Stamp Your Feet climbs to #6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for the week of June 21.  On the Top 200 Album chart for June 14, Crayons drops to # 43. (That is COMPLETELY normal these days. New albums chart high the first week and then drop the second week. Some of the guys on the forum were analyzing the sales figures and the week 1 to week 2 drop for Crayons was not nearly as much as the drop for certain other high profile artists, so Donna is doing pretty good.  :-) On  a side note, I'm trying to figure out when we all decided to become accountants as well as fans.  LOL)  Over on the R&B/Rap Chart, Crayons drops to #15. In Germany, Stamp debuts on the singles chart at #88. It's her first appearance on that chart since I Don't Wanna Get Hurt charted in 1989. (On a side note, German fans will want to take a look at the Mix1 page for Donna. ) In Canada, Crayons debuted at #89 on the top 100 albums and at #13 on the top R&B albums. And on the World Dance Charts, I'm A Fire is sitting at #6 after peaking at #2 a couple of weeks ago.

[JUN 7] In release news, the US iTunes now has 7 mixes of Stamp Your Feet available for sale.  They are the Jason Nevins radio mix, The Escape/Coluccio radio mix, Ranny's radio mix, Jason Nevins extended mix, Escape Coluccio club mix, Ranny's Big Room mix, and the Granite & Sugarman club mix.  As always, if you feel so inclined, leave a review on iTunes for the mixes - or if writing isn't your style, just mark the reviews you do like as "helpful".

[JUN 7] In radio news, I'm told that Canadians will want to call in their Stamp requests to chumfm.com, ezrock.com, chfi.com, 99.9mixfm.com and muchmoremusic.com. So if any of those are your preferred station, give them a call or send them an email.  :-)

[JUN 7] I think that brings us to the web news. Over at Donna Summetime, Sebastiano is holding a contest for the ITALIAN FANS ONLY. He's giving away 5 copies of Crayons to fans who can answer one simple question on his "ultime notizie" page. (I'll give you a hint - the answer isn't I Will Survive. I tried sending him that answer and he gave me a broken copy of Shout It Out for my efforts.  ;-)  Over at YouTube, IndyCote has posted his videos from the Chicago Music Experience, Fernando (fzkny) has posted his videos from the Today Show, and DJSummer2K has posted Donna's performance on Letterman.  On Multiply, Carl has posted a Donna vs. Celine Dion mashup, and fan mixer BentBoy (aka Cavin) has joined the Multiply family and made a number of his old mixes available.  I think that's it for now - but I will be back again tomorrow with a whole bunch of fan stuff from recent events.  :-)

[JUN 6] SPOKANE - I just found out  that your tickets are on sale now through TicketsWest.com.

[JUN 6] Let's start off with a new slew of articles - thanks to a performance in NYC and the release of Crayons in a number of countries this week.  The vast majority of them are linked below, but I also have one from Mexico that has been added to the article archive. (Note the author of that one - he's a regular on the forums.  ;-) ) The article is posted in the original Spanish, so if that's not your language you will have to use an online translator or find a Spanish speaking buddy.

[JUN 6] DC area fans will want to check out the latest promotion in that area. Atmos Events is having a giveaway where the grand prize is a pair of tickets to see Donna at Wolftrap.

[JUN 6] If you are entering the review contest at DonnaSummer.us - you have until 8 AM tomorrow morning (US Eastern time!) to get your entry in. Also - make sure you include your city and country so that Doug knows which iTunes he has to use to buy the gift card. (If you already entered and didn't include that info - just send Doug another message. We have about 15 entries now, so there is a little competition now.  :-)

[JUN 6] Remember awhile back there was talk of actress Tasha Smith doing a biopic on Donna. Well, I have a little news about that. Clay Cane's blog has a little interview with Donna  and a phone call from Tasha Smith.  The bottom line is - it's not happening. 

[JUN 6] And finally for today - Donna will be on XM Radio's Artist Confidential on June 30. They loop it all day long on XMX and you can listen in online if you are an XM subscriber. (They offer internet only subscriptions and even a free trial.) I was at the taping and you guys will NOT want to miss this.   :-)   I will be back tomorrow with PLENTY more.  :-)

[JUN 3] Before I get to the news, I sneaked in a couple of new photos on the Chicago page last night. Also - don't forget to tune into Sirius' OutQ tomorrow in the 9 AM hour. (That's Eastern time.)

[JUN 3] Italy (and internet radio listeners) will want to tune into RAI Radio 2 on Saturday June 7 at about 3:10 PM (local time). They will be playing a couple of tracks from Crayons with comments. (Very positive ones I'm sure - RAI Radio 2 is a big Donna supporter.  ;-) ) If Italian is not your language, the link that says "Ascolta Live" is the one that starts the streaming.  :-)

[JUN 3] In Mexico, there is good and bad news.  The bad news is that you have to wait a little longer for Crayons - now you get it June 17. The good news is that the June 1 edition of Ovaciones had a nice 2 page spread on Donna.  :-)

[JUN 3] Over here, if you missed Donna on David Letterman, well - go to YouTube.  :-) (I'm telling you, Stamp gets better every time Donna sings it!) And at WKTU's website - they have posted photos of Donna in the studio with Diane Pryor.

[JUN 3] And finally, over at DonnaSummer.us, we finally have 10 entries in the fan review contest. Of course that still makes in insanely easy for Doug, Brian Edwards, and I to pick the top 10. So if you want to make us work a little (or if you just want a shot at a $300 iTunes gift card) get over there and send Doug your entry.

[JUN 2] Calling all Sirius listeners. Donna will be on Larry Flick's show on Out Q on Wednesday (June 4) in the 9 AM hour. If you don't have Sirius, you can always sign up for a free 3 day trial.

[JUN 2] UK fans - Stamp Your Feet is now on iTunes UK as a 2 track single. It's got the radio edit and the Jason Nevins radio edit.

[JUN 1] At long last, I've posted the fan reports from Chicago for you. I've even got a few pictures to go with it.  :-)  Sorry it took so long. And as long as we're talking about events, WireImage.com has a ton of pictures from the Today Show. 

[JUN 1] In chart news, Stamp jumps to #13 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for June 14 and it's got a bullet.  :-)

[JUN 1] The articles keep rolling in. Check the media section below for the newest reviews and articles. 

[JUN 1] The Summer Fever page has been updated with a few new things that I have stolen from various people.  ;-)  (Thank you Sebastiano, HarriSonic and Warner!) It's fast becoming the biggest Summer Fever page ever.

[MAY 31] Hello to everyone I saw at the Today Show - and to those who I know were there but couldn't get to. (They packed us in like sardines, didn't they?  LOL) I've got a ton of ground to cover today. First of all the new Summer Fever pick is Crayons. (Please note that the url for that page is a little different than it is for all the other Summer Fever pages - that's because I want to keep that page available for quite awhile.) I've also got a whole bunch of new articles listed for you below, and some news in the Family Matters section. And if you noticed, right below the links to navigate my site (above), I've also thrown in quick links to get to Donna's official sites - just in case I do something stupid like say "go to Donna's MySpace for..." and I forget to hyperlink it.  ;-) 

[MAY 31] Now the big question? Where should I start?  LOL Let's go with Billboard.  As I mentioned before, Crayons is #17 on the Billboard Top 200 albums for the week of June 7.  What I didn't mention is that it is also #5 on the R&B charts.  Let me put this in perspective for you. This makes it Donna's first top 20 on the album charts since 1983 (when She Works Hard For The Money peaked at #9) and it's her highest ever chart position on the R&B albums chart.... well, since 1983 anyway.  (That's as far back as the Billboard online archives go reliably. ) Previously, She Works Hard For The Money was the highest charting album on the R&B charts when it peaked at #22.  I also believe that this is Donna's highest chart debut since about 1983 as well.  Crayons also debuts at #20 on the Billboard Top Digital Albums chart. And as I said last week, Stamp is #25 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.  You can read a press release about Crayons' chart success on Donna's MySpace page (in the blog entry that starts off "Thanks to you...")

[MAY 31] Ok, let's move on to concerts. Pollstar has updated the South American tour listings. So Rio - you are getting an extra show on Monday November 17 at Vivo Rio. :-)  

[MAY 31] Part 2 of the free Crayons Podcast is now on iTunes. If you are iTunes challenged, HiwayRunner has kindly made a player for them:

[MAY 31] Ourstage.com is holding a contest for cheerleaders, dance troupes or any group of people who think they can put together a routine to Stamp Your Feet.  Grand prize is $5000 - just think how many CDs or concert tickets you could buy with that!  ;-) Fans get to vote for the top 10 videos and then Donna herself gets to pick the final winner.

[MAY 31] On Thursday night, Donna taped an episode of the XM Radio show, Artist Confidential. The show airs on Mondays on the XMX channel at 8PM. I don't have the date yet for Donna's episode, but I do know that it won't be June 2 or June 9 - other artists are slotted for those dates.  I was lucky enough to be at the taping and it is something you won't want to miss. It was part interview and part live performance (with the band and not to a track!). When it airs, you will get to hear Donna sing I'm A Fire (that one is gonna be great on tour!), the Bad Girls/Hot Stuff medley, Science Of Love (did I just hear a few jaws drop out there?  ;-) ), Stamp Your Feet and Last Dance. Despite being on the mend from a nasty bout of the flu, Donna sounded really good. (I don't know how she does it - when I get sick, I spend the whole time sounding like a frog.  LOL)  You guys are going to love the interview too. She talked about a lot of different things and there were quite a few laughs along the way.  If you don't have XM radio - don't worry, you can listen online. You will have to get a subscription to do it though. That should be no problem though. An internet only subscription is only 2.99 a month or you can sign up for a free trial. Once I find the date, I'll let you know.  :-)  [ A BIG THANKS to the person who got me in there!!  :-) ]

[MAY 31] Over in Sydney, Australia there is a release party at Slide on Oxford St on Friday June 6 from 10 PM until... well, probably until you all get thrown out!  LOL Kate Monroe is the guest DJ and there will be Crayons giveaways.  They are expecting a crowd so get there early. :-)

[MAY 31] Yesterday I gave you links to the Today Show performances (for those who missed it), those clips are also available on Donna's official site now and on LOGO's NewNowNext blog. LOGO has an extra clip I didn't notice in the other places yet - the interview inside the studio that aired later.  You need to listen to that one because there seems to be a very interesting plan afoot for  the tour. ;-)

[MAY 31] Don't forget about the contest over at DonnaSummer.us. Doug is taking fan reviews for Crayons, and so far we only have 6 reviews. Which means it is INSANELY easy to get into the top 10 right now and almost as easy to win that $300 iTunes giftcard. (However, as the designated Paula of the judging team, I reserve the right to talk about reviews that aren't there.  LOL ) There are 8 more days until the deadline so if you want to enter, you better get busy!

[MAY 31] In web news, at YouTube, fzkny has sneaked in some of his own footage from the Today Show as has rugged4nownyc. On Multiply, look for new mixes from Patrice and Carl. Over on Bebo, look for the CBS morning interview in addition to the polls and things that are always added.  :-) (And if you missed it, you NEED to see the CBS interview.) I think this is it for today..... I was about to say I'll be back tomorrow, but actually after I upload this update I'm going to get started on the fan page from Chicago. So I guess I'm not really leaving?  LOL

[MAY 31] The June 9 issue of People Magazine (the one with Shania Twain on the cover) has a 2 page spread on Donna with some new pictures and a new interview.  I haven't seen the article online yet (it might be too soon) but if it doesn't turn up soon, I'll put it up here.

[MAY 31] The reviews are still coming in.... Playback, Dallas Morning News, CDUniverse, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Courant.com, Lesbiatopia, Disco Delivery and Kansas City Star. Metacritic.com has assembled a bunch of reviews to give an overall view of the critics. And look for an awesome video review on Amazon.com.

[MAY 31] SIngersroom.com has a short article about Crayons' chart debut. The NewsObserver has an article about Donna's musical styles. (Yes that is "styles" - plural!  :-) ) And Ask Billboard has a question about Crayons' sales.

[MAY 31] German fans should look for an interview in the magazine Siegessaeule.

[MAY 30] I just got back from the Today Show, so I have a lot to catch up on before I do a big update, but I wanted to post this one thing now. If you are in New York and tried to watch (or record) Donna on the Today Show - well, all you saw was a bad crane accident. All is NOT lost though. The Today Show website already has Donna's performance posted, so you can catch it there. And can I say that going by what I saw today and last night (more on THAT later) - we are in for one heck of a tour this year! And don't forget to tune into the Today Show tomorrow - they will probably be showing at least some of Donna's performance then..... unless they are still covering that [insert your favorite swear word  LOL] crane. I sort of want to be back tonight with lots more updates - but I have a feeling that there won't be enough time to catch up. So tomorrow will be a big update for sure.

[MAY 29] This is yet another quick update - after this I will be offline until ... well at least until after the Today Show and maybe until late Friday. (Stupid job!  LOL) Donna was on KTU yesterday, and if you missed it (like I did - let me rant about working for a living again  LOL) you are still in luck because they have it on the KTU website. (I hope it works outside the US - if not, I'll see what I can do this weekend.) Also, she was interviewed for CNN. You can see that as either text or video. Enjoy the Today Show - and I'll see you guys after that. (And while I'm offline - keep checking Donna's MySpace for any breaking updates. :-) )

[MAY 28] Here's yet another quick update....  :-) The Billboard album chart is out. Crayons debuts at #17 making it Donna's first top 20 album since She Works Hark For The Money in 1983. (That one peaked at #9)   Go Donna!!!  And over at WKTU in New York, Stamp is one of the top 5 requests - so keep those calls coming in.  And if you aren't a KTU listener - keep calling your local stations.  Let's get it top 5 EVERYWHERE!   :-)

[MAY 27] This is a very quick update tonight, but a very important (and time sensitive one!) for NY area fans!  If you are heading to the Today Show taping Friday - STOP. Before you do anything RUN to your email program and fire off an email to  DonnaOnToday@gmail.com with your first and last name.  50 lucky winners (and their guest) will get to watch the show from the VIP section. Don't wait - do it NOW!  By the way, I will be at the taping so if you see me, come on over and say hello. (Actually, I will probably be there on VERY little sleep, so if you see me, kick me or something to make sure I wake up in time for the show.  ;-) )

[MAY 26] This is just a quick update for those who can't get enough Donna.  :-)   If you go to iTunes and search for "Donna Summer Crayons" you should turn up a podcast which is Donna talking about the album. The one up there now is listed as part one, so there will be more coming. I know it is on iTunes US and UK so far and probably other places as well. The podcast is 100% free, so for the iTunes challenged, I have posted it on Multiply. 

[MAY 25]  As most of you know, Donna was interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning today.  This one is not to be missed..... so if you happened to oversleep, or if you happen to live outside the US, then you'll just have to sneak over to YouTube.  ;-)

[MAY 25] Over in Italy, you guys get Crayons on June 6. The day after that tune into Rai Radio 2's Hit Parade where Crayons will be the album of the week.  And look for the magazine Musica & Dischi the first week of June.  There will be a review in it - one written by a fan.  It should be quite an Italian Crayons party!:-)

[MAY 25] And speaking of Italy, Sebastiano at Donna Summertime has posted an exclusive interview with Toby Gad. You'll  get an inside look at the making of some of the tracks from Crayons.  I will be back soon with info from the Music Experience in Chicago and whatever articles pop up over the next few days.  :-)

[MAY 24] Wow - I took a day off.  LOL I'm back to work tomorrow, so that means it's back to late night updates (or early morning emergency updates.)  I will be at the Today Show concert next week, so if you can find me in that mob of people come on over and say hi. (And keep all your fingers and toes crossed that it's a nice sunny day!) We've got a few more articles to read this week, including an interview from Oz. All of those are listed below in the media section. I've also got a special report from the Energy 92 E-Room with Donna from last night.  And for anyone who is going to the Music Experience in Chicago tonight, send in your report and I'll post it on the site. :-)

[MAY 24] We have another release party that I just found out about. It's tonight in Seattle at Neighbors. Sorry for the short notice.

[MAY 24] In chart news. Stamp Your Feet jumps to #25 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for June 7. I expect to see some album chart action when the charts show up later this week. (I hope it makes a really strong debut despite the fact that my aunt took it out of the library instead of buying a copy. Aunt Rose - I'm talking about YOU!  Don't make me send Ken's Drag Queens over there!  ;-) )

[MAY 24] In classic release news, DanceRecords.com now has the I Feel Love/ Love To Love You disk back in stock.

[MAY 24] In web news (sort of) Philippe from Mes dessins de Donna Summer is having another exhibit in Guadalajara. This one is at La Mitotera Coffee-Gallery on May 28. If you are in that area, stop in and take a look.  :-)

[MAY 24] Also in web news, Damien has brought back L'Univers de Donna Summer. And for those of you looking for lyrics, the posters on the Donna Summer & More forum have put their heads (and ears  LOL) together to transcribe the words to the new songs. Sandro has compiled them all and posted them on Forever Donna.

[MAY 24] Moving on to the usual suspects, over on Multiply, Patrice has posted a few goodies including Donna's appearance on American Idol. While Steve has posted Donna's appearance on Entertainment Tonight and her interview on Tavis Smiley.  Over on YouTube, you can find Donna on Entertainment Tonight, and minimal amount of searching will probably bring up the entire American Idol finale - in various clips spread out over various accounts.  Somebody remind me again how we ever lived without the internet?  LOL

[MAY 24] Sydney's Daily Telegraph has published a new interview with Donna.

[MAY 24] More reviews: Seattlepi.com, BlogCritics.org (I love this one!), the Regina Leader Post,  TheCelebrityCafe.com (another good one!), and LOGO's NewNowNext.

[MAY 24] Another Idol article with a quote from Donna is in the Ventura County Star. And USA Today reviews the Idol finale and cites Donna's final note in Last Dance as one of the highlights.

[MAY 24] I haven't found this online yet, but Donna is featured in More Magazine - the one with Kim Allen on the cover.

[MAY 22] Some American Idol coverage: CNN.com, CinemaBlend, AP News, Village Voice blog, Newsday's blog (grrrrr - Ken, call the Drag Queens!), USA Today's blog, and Newsok.com.

[MAY 22] Last night's Idol got around 32 million viewers. It also caught the attention of just about every media outlet that ever existed so Donna is getting mentions everywhere. I'll put up a few links in the press section below. If you missed the performance last night, it's already turned up on YouTube and the YouTube video has already found its way to Donna's MySpace blog. Also in the land of video, check out Yahoo's Primetime. They have an Idol recap with a few clips from Donna's performance (mainly because the host likes to make fun of Ryan Seacrest and he was out there dancing for Donna's performance.)  If you are happy with photos, check out WireImage, Getty Images and Yahoo. If you are going to watch the broadcast in your country - Donna is on about a half hour into the show, and the finale ran a little long so allow for that if you are taping it and you care about who wins.

[MAY 22] The Fort Lauderdale release party at Georgie's alibi has been postponed until tomorrow, May 23. A neighboring club, Boom, will have their release party on Saturday May 24.

[MAY 22] Let's move on to some release news. Dutch fans, you can expect Crayons in your stores on June 11. And over at Amazon UK, the import version of Crayons  (that is the American version) has been delayed to June 24. (So much for cheating by ordering the import to get it sooner! LOL)  You will probably have much better luck with Play.com. Also, US fans - if you download the whole Crayons album on iTunes, they will throw in a digital version of the CD booklet in PDF format. Also, if you previously bought Stamp Your Feet, they will give you a discount to "complete the album."

[MAY 22] In chart news, On the May 31 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, Stamp Your Feet debuts at #48. Note - it was not one of the breakout hits last week, so it went straight to the chart.  :-) Elsewhere, on the sales charts for Tower, Amazon and iTunes, Crayons is doing VERY well. I hesitate to give actual numbers because they tend to change rapidly. (I think Amazon updates every hour.)  And then there is the whole issue of genre - iTunes has it near the top of the pop chart whereas Amazon put it at the top of the R&B chart. iTunes will show you the current chart right on the main store page for music. (The default chart is for overall sales across all genres, and then you can select a different genre.) on Amazon (and I think Tower too) you can see the sales rank right there on the item page.

[MAY 22] There is a "new" DVD coming out next month called Donna Summer - Disco Queen. (Hmmmm - somebody didn't get the memo that it should now be "empress".  ;-) )  They use the Once Upon A Time photo for the cover, but when you get to the track list it's just Live & More Encore. (And I'm not sure, but it may be the edited one that ran here on PBS and that has been released in Brazil and probably a few other places under other titles.)

[MAY 22] If anybody missed Donna on Tavis Smiley the other night, the full transcript, audio, and a short video clip are all available on Tavis Smiley's site. You can also download the audio on iTunes for free. (That's US iTUnes - I haven't checked the international ones.)

[MAY 22] Finally - I told you in one of the recent updates that Doug at DonnaSummer.us is running a contest. Well there has been a slight revision to the contest that I think you will all like: First of all, the grand prize is now a $300 iTunes gift certificate.  Second of all, there will be 3 judges to pick the 10 finalists that you guys can vote on. They will be Simon, Randy and Paula.... sorry, I watched too much Idol coverage today.  LOL  The 3 judges will be Doug, me and Brian Edwards. (He worked for Donna for a whole bunch of years until he moved on to other things.) We haven't decided who will be the mean one yet...  ;-)

[MAY 21 PM] Welcome American Idol fans! If you are hear because you liked the song she just did, it's called Stamp Your Feet and it's from the new album Crayons. Click either title to get it at iTunes. (She also did Last Dance, which can also be grabbed on iTunes.) And for more about Donna, feel free to explore this site or check out Donna's official sites at DonnaSummer.com and MySpace.com/DonnaSummer.

[MAY 21 PM] Calling OZ! If you want to see Donna on American Idol it's.... tonight in your time. May 22 at 7:38 Pm on 108FOX8 and 9:38 on 150FOX 8. Donna is on about a half hour into the broadcast so plan accordingly.

[MAY 21 PM] For my regulars, how weird is it that I am now tagging updates as AM and PM?  LOL I've updated the discography section with the rest of the Crayons details and with the liner notes.  I've also added another review to the media section below. Also, Donna's MySpace is now streaming 5 of the Crayons' tracks.

[MAY 21 PM] In radio news, the following radio stations have either just started playing Stamp Your Feet or are continuing to show it support: WKTU (New York), WKIE (Chicago), KNGY (San Francis0, KNHC (Seattle), WVNS (Nashville), WSMW (Greensboro), KOST (Los Angeles), WHUD (Newburgh, NY), KKUU (Palm Springs) and WNYZ (New York).  The stations playing I'm A Fire are: Sirius channel 36, WSPK (Newburgh, NY), KMYI (San Diego), KNHC (Seattle), WFLY (Albany) and WKCI (New Haven).  If any of them are in your area - call in those requests!

[MAY 21 AM] I wasn't going to update until later, but this one shouldn't wait. At least 2 Fox affiliated stations have announced what Donna's site and I were trying to hint at yesterday - that Donna will be the surprise guest on tonight's finale. So make sure you tune in! I do have one small request though - when you go on all the various forums to talk about Donna's appearance, PLEASE try not to talk about who the winner is tonight so that you don't spoil it for people who can't watch it right away.  ;-) The show airs on FOX at 8 PM here on the East Coast, but since it's live, I don't know if that affects the time elsewhere or if other places just show it on tape later. If you are not sure when it airs in your area, check your local listings!

[MAY 20 still] Okay - I finished (for now) the Summer Fever page for Crayons. It's not the official pick until June, but with all the Crayons-mania going on now, I wanted to bring it out now for all of you.  I expect it will get updated or adjusted as the summer goes on. :-)  I'll be back sometime tomorrow, probably late because I have stuff to do in the afternoon then I want to catch the American Idol finale to see who wins. (I haven't watched it in..... wow, since Donna was a guest judge a couple years ago  LOL, but they finally sucked me in again.)

[MAY 20] Did you guys get your Crayons yet?  ;-)  First things first - if you are subscribed to Donna's site, you should have gotten an email this morning saying that Crayons is out to day and that we should be looking for Donna on our favorite show tomorrow. (I'm impressed - my favorite show is the old Twilight Zone. It must have been hard to build the time machine so she could be on that....   ;-) )  Before I get to the rest of the news, I have a few more links below for reviews. And I will have the Summer Fever page for Crayons posted a little later tonight. I'll also have the liner notes added to the discography section as soon as I get a chance to type them up.

[MAY 20] In other official update news, PureTone has posted something in honor of the Crayons release today, and Donna's MySpace page has been updated with a couple of new blog entries and a superhug app.

[MAY 20] If you have not been to PopMatters.com today, you need to go there now. They have followed up yesterday's great retrospective on Donna's career with a very nice interview. Your homework is to go read that - there will be a quiz later.  LOL Oh - and leave a comment. Let them know that you  like reading about Donna.  ;-)

[MAY 20] For those who are wondering about the Circuit City edition of Crayons, you CAN get it in the store - you don't have to mail order it.  However, you need to know that the 9.99 sale price is only good for 5 days AND a lot of stores only have a limited number of copies in stock. So if you co there and don't see it - ask for it. Get a raincheck if you have to. But don't give up.

[MAY 20] Over on iTunes, Crayons made the what's hot section of the main store page - and they revamped Donna's artist page with Crayons art.  :-)

[MAY 20] I have some news for Australia today. I got word that the Sydney Morning Herald will have an interview with Donna soon. (They've already done it - now it has to be typed up and published.  :-) )  The Sydney Star Observer also interviewed Donna and that one will be in the paper next week. One thing that was mentioned in one of the interviews is that Donna hopes to go Down Under some time later this year. (Alan, I hope you are reading this!) 

[MAY 20] In TV news, I know quite a few of you tunes in to the Tavis Smiley show last night. If you missed out I know a couple of locations air it a day behind, so you may still catch it today. If that doesn't work for you, there is now a video clip, the audio, and a written transcript of the interview posted on Tavis Smiley's site. Also, while I was goofing around with iTunes last night, I discovered that the shows often turn up there for free after a few days. (That's US iTunes - I haven't checked to see if that show is exported to other countries.)  And if none of that works for you, I've heard that some careful searching on YouTube just might turn up the clip.  ;-) 

[MAY 20] In other TV news, a fan in the San Francisco area saw a TV commercial for Target that featured Donna's album. He said they showed clips from the Stamp video along with some graphics and that it was all very nicely edited. 

[MAY 20] In the Netherlands, Crayons is talked about on Herman's blog on Hyves.nl.

[MAY 19] One more day! Are you guys ready?  :-)  Just a reminder for most of you that Tavis Smiley runs on PBS tonight. Check PBS.org for the time and station in your area. (It seems to run mostly between 11 PM and 1 AM depending on the area.  Here in NY it is on channel 13 at 12:30 and I just found out it gets repeated at 1 PM tomorrow.) For those who can't watch it, Tavis Smiley's website usually posts video clips and a full transcript at some point after the broadcast.  So everybody should be able to check it out in one form or another. 

[MAY 19] While we are all anticipating (or even already enjoying) the new stuff, PopMatters.com has taken the opportunity to do a retrospective on Donna's whole career. It's written by Christian John Wikane - the same guy who wrote the excellent SoulTracks.com review of Crayons and it is liberally sprinkled with new quotes about Donna from various people in the music industry.  It's a long article, so you might not be able to get away with reading the whole thing at work, but it is definitely worth the time!  After you read it, don't forget to leave a comment.  It's a nice ego-boost for Christian, but more importantly it tells PopMatters and its advertisers that Donna brings in readers.  One more little tiny detail.....   ;-)   There will be another part to that tribute tomorrow. So you will want to go back to see that too.

[MAY 19] Over in Germany, Torgen from SAT1 Frühstücks Fernsehen did a "Backstage Monday" feature in which he mentioned the US excitement over Crayons. He even showed a clip of Stamp.  :-)

[MAY 19] Baltimore! 101.9 is giving away Donna Summer tickets. Tune in or check out their website for details. (Or do both!)  

[MAY 19] A few more reviews have turned up for Crayons. I'll link to them below in the media section. As usual, the reviews that have turned up so far have varied from glowing to less than enthusiastic because, of course, reviewers all have different tastes in music.  I don't think there is a review out there by anybody about anything that hasn't made some reader stop and say, "Is this guy on crack? Even I could write a better review than that!" Which brings me to Doug at DonnaSummer.us.  He's asking fans to try their hands at writing a proper review for Crayons.  And he's not just asking - he's making it a contest. The rules are posted on his site, but in a nutshell it works like this.  You send him your review.  In 17 days he (along with at least one helper - me) will take all the reviews he's gotten and narrow them down to 10.  Then those 10 will be posted so the fans can vote for the best one. The winner gets $100 iTunes gift card. (That will buy a whole bunch of Crayons!  LOL) Please note - you must send your reviews to DOUG to be entered in the contest.

[MAY 19] What you can send to me, is any messages you might have for Donna or quick comments celebrating the release of Crayons for publication on an e-greetings for Donna page. (Just like the Christmas one - only without Santa Claus.  LOL)  I'll be taking comments for that all summer long and I will make sure the powers that be get the link and know to check it periodically.  :-)  I will be back tomorrow - maybe even later today, who knows?  LOL 

[MAY 17] Let's call this one the official weekly update.  ;-)  Before I get to the news, I have some more articles posted for you below and a new Ken's Korner. Also, if you are looking for ways to prepare yourselves for Crayons on Tuesday, you need to check out Doug's list of the 10 things you need to do.  ;-)  If any of you actually do #8, send in your picture either to me, or to Doug at DonnaSummer.us and one of us will post it.  :-) Also, over at the official site, they have stopped streaming all the tracks for now. I suspect that site will be continuously tweaked right up to Tuesday.  ;-)

[MAY 17] In release news, The I'm A Fire Remix on the Circuit City exclusive is the Baggi Begovic & Soul Conspiracy Mixshow.  And the Amazon MP3 version of Crayons  includes the Matty's Soulflower Club mix of I'm A Fire. Speaking of bonuses - I'm hearing conflicting things about Circuit City. Some people have been told that you can only get the exclusive version at the online store and that they will be limiting the number that can be purchased. On the other hand, people who have already ordered from the online store have not reported any limits. AND - at least one person was in a store that already had the CDs with bonus tracks out on display already. (But don't try to buy one from them early - he couldn't get it because the cash registers have locked out sales of Crayons until Tuesday.)

[MAY 17] The Georgie's Alibi in St. Petersburg, FL is also having a release party for Crayons. This one is on May 23 - and they have a nice big announcement on their website.  :-)

[MAY 17] In Belgium, Crayons is making news on teletext headlines and in newspapers. It sounds like the newspaper articles are pretty much the same ones that have been popping up online - but it's nice when you can hold an article in your hand. 

[MAY 17] In the Donna is everywhere category, China Forbes has a song called 78 that mentions Donna. (Maybe if you play it backwards it says "buy Crayons on Tuesday."   ;-)  Okay, I admit it, I'm obsessed.   LOL)

[MAY 17] I know a lot of you are familiar with Google news alerts - I get some really good stuff from those. But I have to tell you that sometimes I get the weirdest things from them. And I thought I'd stare 2 of them that made me laugh. The first one is basically the same article we've been seeing all over the place, but this one particular alert had the headline (in all capital letters no less!) "DONNA SUMMER - SUMMER POKES FUN AT HERSELF".  Now why wasn't that splashed all over CNN today?  LOL  The other one that got me was a summary of a few unrelated articles. But just the way they ran the headlines together cracked me up. It said "Donna Summer is back after 17 years - Escaped killer on the run." You know, thank god Donna came back after 17 years to scare that escaped killer away.......    LOL

[MAY 17] Okay - let's do the web news for the week. Over at Glee.com, Wes has started a Donna fan group.  So if you hang out there, stop in and check it out. Over on Multiply, Patrice has posted a couple of new goodies to listen to while we wait for Tuesday. He's also started a blog for Donna Summer fans that has a lot of his artwork posted on it.  Also, AJ and Jeffrey have posted plenty of tracks to keep you busy, while Steve has posted his review of Crayons.  On YouTube, look for a 90s clip of Hot Stuff, some classic clips from fzkny, Brazilian clips from SambaSoul, and a mix from DJSummer2K. On Bebo, the Donna group over there has a whole bunch of new polls - including one where you can vote for your favorite Crayons track. 

[MAY 17] I'll be back......tomorrow or maybe the next day. (I don't expect much to happen on a Sunday.  LOL) I'm also planning to do something I haven't done before  - if all goes well, I will post the Summer Fever pick for June early. So there will be 2 picks up for about 10 days. The new one will be Crayons (of course) and while I do have enough stuff to make the page complete now, I plan to keep updating it as we find out more interesting things - so it will be a page in progress all month long. (And probably beyond - I plan to leave that one accessible all summer long.)  I hope to make that page public some time Tuesday after I have my CD in hand and can scan the art for myself.  :-) 

[MAY 16] I told you I'd be back again.  ;-) At this rate I'll have to pick a random update this weekend to be the "official" one.  LOL The big news for today is DonnaSummer.com.  You need to go there NOW.  Well, unless you are one of those people who are trying so hard not to listen to the new songs until they have the CD in their hands. Those people might find too much temptation at Donna's site.  ;-) 

[MAY 16] For those among you who are weak and can't wait until Tuesday (like me LOL), if you want to see the CD booklet, Marshall has posted photos of it on the Diverse Universe Radio website.  While you are there, request some Donna - UNLESS you are in NY and are glued to KTU for Bad Girls weekend. That kicked off at 5 tonight, so there will be lots of Donna over there this weekend, with lots of chances to win concert tickets. Or if you are in the San Francisco area, you should be glued to Energy 92.7 where you can win a chance to be a part of their Donna Summer E-Room. (The E-Room is a small intimate venue where they will have Donna SING for the lucky winners. Did I just hear  Energy's server explode as you all logged in right now?  LOL)) She was also on the radio over there this morning with Fernando & Greg. (Sorry I didn't know in advance or I would have told you.  It's hard to stay on top of the radio stuff so if any of you guys hear about an interview coming up in your area, just let me know and I'll try to get the info out in time.) Over in Belgium, Radio 2 was going to play  Stamp between 10 PM and 1 AM. (I might be posting this too late for you to tune in though.  :-( )

[MAY 16] The track listing for the Circuit City exclusive edition of Crayons has been confirmed.  The 2 bonus tracks will be It's Only Love and a remix of I'm A Fire. (But the site doesn't specify which mix.)

[MAY 16] Over at Clay Kane's blog, he has announced that he will be interviewing Donna at some point. He's asking readers to submit questions that they would like to see answered. And speaking of press..... I have a couple of articles listed in the media section below. You know, for after you have explored Donna's site fully.  ;-)  I'll be back again tomorrow. 

[MAY 15] For those of you eagerly awaiting PerfectBeat's Stamp Your Feet single - part one is in their online store now. Thi sone has the Jason Nevins radio edit, the Escape/Coluccio radio edit, Ranny's radio edit, Jason Nevins extended mix, Escape/Coluccio club mix, Ranny's Big Room mix, Granite & Sugarman club mix, Granits & Sugarman Mixshow, and the Discotech mix. Part 2 will be released in the next couple of weeks.

[MAY 15] In radio news - New York fans better tune into KTU all weekend long.  That are having a Bad Girls weekend where you can win concert tickets and passes to the Crayons release party on June 3. I expect to see familiar names on the winners list.  ;-)  Elsewhere, Energy 92.7 and WSMW 98.7 in Greensboro have added Stamp Your Feet, and it's still doing well in New York and Seattle. Overseas, Ostsee Welle Hit Radio in Germany is playing Stamp also.

[MAY 15] In release party news, Fort Lauderdale, your party will be on May 21 at 11 Pm at Georgie's Alibi. (It was originally supposed to be the 23rd, but it was changed to the 21st.) 

[MAY 15] I'll be back again.... tomorrow.  LOL  But before I go, a couple of people have expressed an interest in sending messages to Donna to celebrate the Crayons release. So I'll start accepting messages for that as of the 20th and I'll just build a page and add to it all summer long.  I also plan to add a page for the concert dates for those of you who want to meet up before or after the shows. So if you want to be part of any of that - just send me a message with something in the subject line to make it easy to sort out. :-)

[MAY 14 again] Oops - I have a late addition for you. Energy 92.7's Fernando & Greg are playing the new tracks and giving away some Donna tickets. If you are in the San Francisco area (or if you can listen in online), send them a message.  You can listen to them from 6 to 10 AM Pacific Time. If that's too early for you, tune into Ali from 10 to 3 PM. She'll be playing them too.  And if that's too early for you - then you keep pretty weird hours. LOL

[MAY 14] I feel like every day it's a weekly update!   LOL  Let's start off with a time sensitive one.  If you are in New York, there will be a release party at Pink (199 Bowery at Spring Street). Doors open at 10 and they will have giveaways courtesy of Sony.  Sorry for the short notice, but I just found out tonight.

[MAY 14] In concert news - HELLO BRAZIL and CHILE!   Pollstar reports that you guys will see Donna on the following dates:  Saturday November 15 in Santiago, Chile at the Arena Santiago, Tuesday November 18 at Vivo Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then Wednesday November 19, Friday November 21 and Saturday November 22 at HSBC Brasil in São Paulo. I don't know about tickets yet, but I'm sure some of the locals can help me out with that info.  ;-)

[MAY 14] In TV news, look for Donna on Entertainment Tonight and ET Insider on May 22. The shows are syndicated, so check your local listings for the time and station in your area. (They usually run back to back because Insider is as much a long commercial for Entertainment Tonight as it is a show in its own right.)

[MAY 14] Chicago - I know the majority of you guys bought your tickets already, but if anyone out there still needs tickets to the Ravinia show, the box opens up for walk up sales this Saturday. This may be your final chance to get seats in the pavilion, so don't miss out!

[MAY 14] People.com has a little article about Crayons and clips from 2 songs. 

[MAY 13] Let's start with first things first - if you've been keeping up with Donna's MySpace, then you know about The Leak on VH1. :-)  And if you don't know about it, just go Donna's page on VH1 where you can listen to the entire Crayons CD in glorious streaming audio.  One little note though - they only have a certain number of listening slots, so if you can't connect just try again later. I'm sure they are getting hammered by a few crazy Donna fans.  ;-) Now go open your VH1 player and then come back to read the rest of the update.  ;-)

[MAY 13] This one is for Mexico and internet radio fans.  :-) Tomorrow night (Wednesday May 14)  at 9 PM local time, Señal 90 will run a special on Donna starting with her years in Germany. So catch that if you can.  :-) (The time conversion should be less painful than it was for Aussie radio - at least for those of us in the US.  LOL) On a related side note, the Crayons release date for Mexico is June 9.

[MAY 13] In other Crayons news, there is an awesome review on SoulTracks.com.  It was written by the same guy behind the equally awesome Wanderer article that was posted on PopMatters.com last year.

[MAY 13] On USA Today's Listen Up Blog, Stamp Your Feet is the pick of the week, and LOGO's New Now Next has a very nice  little article about Crayons.  :-)

[MAY 13] And finally, if you need some visuals to go with the music, MyPlay.com now has the videos for The Queen Is Back and Mr. Music.  They are the same videos KTU has on their site, but now the international fans can see them too.  I guess I'll be back... tomorrow.  LOL

[MAY 12]  Now that things are back to normal - let's cover some news. First up - MINNESOTA! Your tickets go on presale on June 6 at 10 AM via Ticketmaster. The sale to the general public starts on June 7 at 10 AM.

[MAY 12] Connecticut fans - there will be a release party at Partners in New Haven on May 17 at 10 PM. It's your chance to celebrate with all the other Connecticut fans.  :-)

[MAY 12] In official site news, Donna's MySpace has been updated with the Entertainment Tonight interview (the edit from the ET website and not the one from the broadcast.) They also added some wallpaper for those of you who haven't created something of your own.  ;-) And Burgundy finally added Donna's tour dates, the Stamp video and the EPK.

[MAY 12] For those of you who are wondering about Crayons bonus tracks, I've heard a report that the Circuit City bonus will be It's Only Love - the extra track that seems to be on the international releases. They may also sneak in Stamp or I'm A Fire mixes at some retailers as bonus tracks.

[MAY 12] Aussie fans, Hum Records in Darlinghurst MAY have Crayons slightly ahead of the US release. Apparently they try to have things in time to coincide with US releases. Even if they don't have it until May 20, that should still be a bit earlier than I thought you guys were getting it - so if you live in that area, stop in and check them out.  :-)

[MAY 12] UGH!  Sorry about the disruption to the site, but I upgraded my hosting plan and foolishly believed the customer service rep who told me I would not have to re-upload the whole thing. I also had not anticipated it taking a whole day before I got publishing control back! But at least things are back to normal now.   :-)

[MAY 9] Before I get to Donna, I have some Bruce news for you guys in the Family Matters section.  And I have a couple of articles posted in the media section below.  I also want to remind you guys to tune into Joy 94.9 in Melbourne at 3 PM Melbourne time on Sunday May 11 for Cafe Latte. (That works out to 1 AM in New York and 6 AM in London, and the rest of you can probably calculate your time based on either of those.) Thanks to your support, Alan will be dedicating the second half of the show to Donna again. There will be previews from Crayons sneaked in as well.  :-)

[MAY 9] XM Radio listeners, Donna will be interviewed  on UPOP channel 29 on May 16 on Ted Kelly's World Party.

[MAY 9] Okay - if you missed Donna on Entertainment Tonight, fear not - there is a sample of the interview on the ET website. And I don't know about other places, but here in NY, ET is repeated at 9:30 the next weekday morning. So you can catch it here on Monday morning. They used to repeat it late at night and that may still be the case in other locations, so check your local listings.  I also expect to see at least a couple of clips on ET Weekend because they usually recap the week's events. Look for Donna again on ET on May 20 when she will get to perform live. (Yes you will have to turn your CD off for a little while to watch the TV.  LOL)  And one other side benefit to the ET interview is that newspapers are picking it up too, so Donna is getting even more exposure.  (I just got an Austrian article a few minutes ago that was taken from the ET interview.)

[MAY 9] Moving on to radio news, I don't have hard numbers for you yet, but according to some of the locals, it's doing well on KTU. It played at least 3 times this afternoon..... all at times I had the radio off!  Does KTU hate me?  LOL Over at Mix FM, Stamp is at #13 on their chart.  :-) You guys know what to do - if your station is playing Stamp, keep requesting it and giving the DJs feedback. And if your local station isn't playing it - then you need a better local station.  ;-) (By the way, if you are looking for The Queen Is Back and Mr. Music videos on the KTU site - they are gone for now. I strongly suspect that they were posted prematurely.)

[MAY 9] In release news, CDWow is listing Crayons as available for dispatch on May 19 to UK fans (not to mention fans in other parts of the works.) The track list they show is the standard 12 track US release though and I believe all the other European sites (like play.com) so far have listed a 13 track version. So I leave it to you to decide if you want the 12 track release quickly, or if you'd rather wait and get the 13 track release..... or you could be like me and just buy everything as it comes out.  LOL  Actually, now that I think of it, maybe I should recap the release dates we have around the world so far. (There is so much news lately that I think some things are getting hard to find.)

In date order:

May 20: USA and Canada
May 26: Denmark
June 6: Germany
June 9: France
June 10: Spain
June 23: UK
June 25: Japan

[MAY 9] Now if you would like to try to win a copy of Crayons, check out TheSavvyBoomer.com. All you have to do is leave a comment and the blog owners will pick someone at random to get the CD. 

[MAY 9] I guess that brings us to the web news.  :-) On YouTube, look for God Bless America, a classic performance of Last Dance, and AJ's latest mix. On Multiply, look for new mixes posted by Carl and AJ, and new photos from Patrice. On Bebo, the Donna group over there has gone poll happy - which is a good way to pass the time while we wait for May 20.  ;-) And last but not least, Shawn has updated SuperBulletNumberOne with a ton of album and single covers. If your iPod is missing artwork - this is the place to go! I'll be back again.... tomorrow?  The day after?  Who can say these days?  LOL

[MAY 6 still!] First of all, that shiny new KTU banner above is clickable (not to mention stolen right off their site.  LOL).  It will bring you to the KTU homepage where you can listen either to the Stamp mix, or the live stream.  :-)  If you are tuning in, make sure you drop KTU a line and tell them how much you appreciate them making this new mix available. And if you haven't tuned in, what are you waiting for? (On a technical note - I find the stream works a little better on Internet Explorer than Firefox sometimes, so if you have any difficulties, just switch browsers. ) And one other little tiny detail that  you might have missed..... KTU has the VIDEOS for Mr. Music and The Queen Is Back.  They are just like the Stamp video - but if you missed the Australian preview the other night, this is your chance to finally hear The Queen Is Back and it's the first chance for all of us to hear all of Mr. Music.  When KTU comes through - they REALLY come through for us!!!!     :-)   (To find the videos - click the "on demand" menu then pick "videos on demand" and then you will find Donna under "D". They have a few classic songs up too so you can have a whole Donna party if you want.  :-)

[MAY 6] CHICAGO - this part of the update is for you. Donna will be in your area on May 24 to tape Dedry Jones: The Experience With Donna Summer, AND there will be a CD release party (and CD signing) at the Harold Washington Cultural Center. Check out the Music Experience website for details. 

[MAY 6] I think my last thing for tonight will be Amazon.  It's listing an imported CD single for Stamp Your Feet as being available May 20. Perfectbeat should have  the Stamp remix CDs available soon too. (Don't worry - they haven't forgotten about them.  LOL) I'll be back.... well at the rate things are going, tomorrow.  LOL

[MAY 6] I posted last night that KTU would be playing a new Stamp mix this morning after 10.  They are - but they have done something WAY better than that. Go to ktu.com - there is a big Donna banner announcing the Jason Nevins remix and if you click it, it will stream on demand!  So run over there and tell KTU that they are awesome! 

[MAY 5 again] If you signed up at DonnaSummer.com, then you should have received an email this morning.  :-)  If you didn't sign up, then what are you waiting for?  The email cleared up the Entertainment Tonight thing - she will be on on May 9 (Friday). So check your local listings for the time and channel in your area and then set those recorders! 

[MAY 5] If you are in the New York City area (or can listen to internet radio) tune into WKTU tomorrow after 10 AM.  They will be playing a new mix of Stamp Your Feet. 

[MAY 5] Good morning LOS ANGELES - the Hollywood Bowl tickets go on presale at 10 AM this morning and then to the general public on May 10 at 10 AM via Ticketmaster.  Sorry for the short notice.  I can't tell who is sponsoring the presale, so I have no idea what the password is. I know Citicards have been doing presales where you use the first 6 digits of a Citibank card. I also know Nokia has been doing them too, as well as Amex. 

[MAY 4] I have another TV listing for you. I heard from one fan that Entertainment Tonight was advertising that Donna would be on the weekend edition on May 10. I heard from another fan that she was on tonight. Now in NY, it does air again at something like 2 AM, so I'll tape that one to check out for myself - it may just be that the second fan saw a rather extensive promo for next week. (which is what I think the first fan saw.)  Have no fear of missing it though - if the interview is good, ET will drag that footage out for YEARS.  LOL  

[MAY 4] Last night's Donna night on Cafe Latte on Joy 94.9 was such a hit that Alan is doing it again next week at 3 PM Melbourne time. Once again he will dedicate the second half of his show to Donna's music and he plans to let us hear It's Only Love which is on his copy of the album, but it has not been listed on the American release yet. (That might turn out to be the Circuit City bonus track.)

[MAY 4] Barnes And Noble has sound clips from all the US Crayons tracks posted. They seem to use clips from the beginnings of the songs - which is unfortunate in on e case because the clip ends after Donna sings 4 words!  LOL

[MAY 4] I meant to mention this yesterday, but Rupaul has posted Donna's EPK on his blog. (Gotta love Ru!) 

[MAY 3] I guess I got a little excited by the EPK on MySpace, because I completely forgot to change the Summer Fever Pick.  LOL This month, while we are all looking forward to a new release, I thought it would be a good time to recap the older stuff - so the Greatest Hits take the spotlight.  Before I get to the news, check out the TV listings below.  I have the list from Donna's MySpace page plus one more new addition. And I've added some stuff to the press section below.

[MAY 3] So I guess I should start with the video. A video for Stamp Your Feet (along with the EPK video) has turned up on MyPlay.com. It's another video that can be embedded in MySpace pages and some blogs. (Apparently both Multiply and Delphi don't play nicely with that video player, but it does work in many other places. So you know what to do.  ;-)

[MAY 3] I've got a hot rumor from Toby Gad's website. He says that Donna will be appearing on the American Idol finale. I don't see any mention of that anywhere else yet, so I'm calling it a rumor for now in case the papers aren't signed yet, or in case Paula Abdul misread her notes again or something.  ;-)  If I hear anything more, I'll let you know.

[MAY 3] In release news, Crayons is right around the corner.  :-)  I'm hearing that HMV in Canada will have it May 20 (that should be a relief to Canadian fans after the delays with I'm A Fire and Stamp!). It will be out in Japan on June 25, and in Denmark on May 26. Stamp Your Feet is finally out (as a digital single) in Europe on iTunes and Tesco (for the UK fans).

[MAY 3] Moving on to radio... at the moment there isn't too much going on with Stamp Your Feet, but I'm A Fire was picked up by WFLY in Albany, Pulse 87 in NY and KNHC in Seattle.  Sirius continues to play it regularly as well. On XM, DJ Mark D on 81 has a weekly radio show and he kicked it off with I'm A Fire. Over on internet radio, we have a couple of stations playing Stamp Your Feet. Check out  UU-BRU , World.FM, and of course Diverse Universe Radio.

[MAY 3] With Crayons rapidly approaching, release parties are starting to pop up. If you are in Detroit, check out the party at Diamond Jim's Saloon.  They will have CDs, concert tickets, posters - you name it - to give away.  And if you go there, say hi to Tom Gilliam.   :-)  In Boston, the party will be at Club Cafe on  May 23. They also have plenty of goodies to give away and you can enter to win online - but you have to be there at the party to claim your prize.  I know we have a few club owners and DJs who visit the site - so if you are planning a Crayons party (or even an after concert party) let me know where and when and I'll post it.

[MAY 3] In classic release news, the Thank God It's Friday DVD is out in Spain with a choice of English or Spanish audio. So region 2 fans can now get a copy of their own.  :-)

[MAY 3] In the Donna is everywhere category, she is quoted in an article about the Santa Barbara Bowl: Disco diva supreme Donna Summer remembers the first time she saw a show at the Bowl: “It was in the late 1980s, and my husband and I drove up from Los Angeles to see Sting. The music was great, and just when I thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, sitting there listening to this great band and looking at the ocean, out came a beautiful full moon, and I thought, ‘How much extra does that cost?’” 

[MAY 3]  And that brings us to the web news for the week. Over at Super Bullet Number One, Shawn has added a few things to the 75 and 77 sections. At YouTube, fzkny has added a few new videos to his playlist, USAClassics has added a couple of official classic videos, and Erika7s has found a way to help out those who were having trouble playing the EPK on MySpace. At Multiply, Patrice has posted several new videos and a few people have posted links to the EPK video. (I think they all wanted to embed it in their pages but it didn't work over there.) Finally, at Bebo, look for more new videos to keep you entertained at work. (I know a lot of you are sneaking in your Donna news at work!  LOL) I'll be back.... probably very soon.  LOL

[MAY 1 still!] I guess I'm not done with the update after all.  LOL  This one is a bit time sensitive so I want to get it out there. JOY 94.9 in Melbourne, Australia will be playing some tracks from Crayons on a special Donna Summer themes show at 3 PM on Sunday May 4. It streams online, so check it out if you can. (That's 3 PM local time - it works out to 1 AM here in New York and 6 AM in London. Check TimeAndDate.com if you need help converting to other time zones.)

[MAY 1] I'm probably the last person in the universe to see this (damn job!  LOL) but if you haven't seen the latest update to Donna's MySpace page, then you need to go there NOW. (I know if you have an older computer, MySpace takes awhile to load, but this is worth it - actually it is MORE than worth it!  :-) ) Actually, you know what?  I wasn't going to do this because I don't want to rip-off the official sites (too much  LOL) but for those of you who do have real trouble with MySpace, the direct link to the video is here. (You can embed it in blogs and things too - there is an option on the player to get the code for that.  Just in case some of you have some good places to post it.  ;-) )

[MAY 1] In other news, we have another Donna Summer forum out there - Donna The Queen. It is run by Sandro from Forever Donna who apparently understands that we need at least one more place to celebrate!  :-)

[APR 30] Donna's MySpace lists a couple of TV appearances to watch out for. These are all taped on the East Coast and I'm sure down the road there will be some West Coast shows as well. OK, first up on May 25 at 9AM is CBS Sunday Morning.  I'm not sure if that airs live or if they use taped segments - so I guess I'll have to tune in one day and see. Then on May 30 (as you all know) Donna will be doing the Today Show Summer Concert series. That one is, of course, aired live from New York.  On June 2 she will be on Letterman.  That airs at 11:30 PM but they usually tape it earlier the same day. You can get tickets for the show - but be advised that Letterman is a popular show, so they may be hard to come by.  And finally (for now), Donna will be on The View on June 9 at 11 AM.  That also airs live in New York -  most of the time anyway.  You can get tickets to The View, and in the past they've been pretty fan friendly. Just keep in mind that if you are going, you will probably have to try for standby tickets because the show date is coming up pretty soon and they usually want requests to me made 3 months in advance. It would also not surprise me in the least for a show like ET, or Extra or Insider to grab Donna for a 20 second clip while she's in town.  Oh yeah - I almost forgot that VH1 is based in New York too. If they decide to tap her for something, they will probably do it during this block of appearances.

[APR 29] Calling NEW JERSEY and LONG ISLAND -  both Jones Beach and PNC Arts tickets go on special presale starting TOMORROW (April 30) at 10 AM. (As of this writing only PNC is showing up on Ticketmaster, but Jones Beach is showing up on Live Nation.) The presale ends on Friday and the regular on sale date will be Saturday May 3 at 9 AM.

[APR 28 again] WESTHAMPTON - your tickets go on sale May 7 through the WHB PAC website. They range from $300 to $500. (That is almost cheaper than a tank of gas these days, right?  LOL)

[APR 28] Good morning LOS ANGELES - one of you local boys gave me the heads up  that the Hollywood Bowl tickets go on sale Saturday May 10. I think they usually go up through Ticketmaster, or you can check the Hollywood Bowl website. (As I write this, Ticketmaster is not showing the listing yet for Donna, but they do show other events at the Bowl.)

[APR 26 again] Okay - NOW this is the official update!  LOL Before I get started - I  have some Family Matters stuff below for fans of various Sudanos. :-) If you haven't been here in awhile, there are now more concerts that are either on sale or  that have definite on sale dates. I decided to mark all the listings below that are on sale or are going on sale soon just to make it easier for you guys to spot. (And for me when I'm updating.  LOL)  I've also got a couple of articles listed for you below.  In addition - with less than a month to go for the new CD, I suspect that we will be getting a lot more articles, reviews, TV appearances, etc. in the very near future.  So brace yourselves! If you thought things were busy around here before - you haven't seen anything yet!  :-)

[APR 26] I guess we should start with release news.  I heard from one of the UK fans that they are expecting a CD release of I'm A Fire on June 30.

[APR 26] In radio news, the following stations are playing I'm A Fire: WKCI in New Haven, CT, WSPK in Newburk, NY, WBLI on Long Island, KKUU in Palm Springs, channel 36 on Sirius and channel 81 on XM.  Stamp Your Feet is playing at these stations: WKIE in Chicago, WVNS in Nashville, WVBW in Norfolk, WFMK in Lansing, and WDVD in Detroit.  If any of these are your favorite stations, call them up and make some requests!   :-)

[APR 26] That brings us to the web news for the week. And it's a remix party!  :-)  The famous fanmixer Q is back in business and he's made a really nice downtempo  version of I'm A Fire that has everybody raving. You can hear it on his Multiply page.  Then at DonnaSummer.us, the infamous Doug has made his own I'm A Fire [CORRECTED LINK]mix from the accapella track. (Except for the drums and the vocals, that's Doug playing all the parts.) Looking at the rest of Multiply, Steve has posted a few classic clips, Denis has posted one of his medleys (and yes there is plenty of Donna in it  LOL), and Patrice has posted his version of Maybe It's Over. Over on YouTube, fzkny has gone insane and posted a ton of classic clips, while Summer2k has posted his mix of I Got Your Love. Over on Bebo, look for several new videos and 2 new polls.  :-)

[APR 26] This is not the official update yet, I just wanted to put up some time-sensitive stuff now for you.  First up - tickets for the SARATOGA, CA concert go on sale TOMORROW via Ticketmaster at 10 AM.  (Yes, I said TOMORROW - get those credit cards out!) The tickets for MOHEGAN SUN go on sale on Saturday May 3 at 10 AM - also through Ticketmaster.  I believe there is a good chance that Jones Beach, NY and PNC Arts in NJ will go on sale at about the same time, so stay tuned.  I'll be back later or tomorrow with the full update.  :-)

[APR 25] I thought I'd share a little release news with you.  Sony Spain is listing Crayons for June 10. They also have a track list with the running times for the songs. And the list has an extra track that we haven't seen before.   :-) So here we go: Stamp Your Feet (3:35), Mr. Music (3:14), Crayons (3:20), The Queen Is Back (3:30), Fame (The Game) (4:03), Sand On My Feet (3:51), Drivin' Down Brazil (4:42), I'm A Fire (7:10), Slide Over Backwards (4:10), Science Of Love (3:48), Be Myself Again (4:19), Bring Down The Reign (4:33), and It's Only Love (6:57).

[APR 25] In Stamp news, the German retailer Musicload says it will have the song available for download on Monday (April 28).  Hopefully that date will stand for the rest of Europe - and maybe even other places too. (Canada - I have my fingers crossed for you!) Sony Germany mentions that Stamp will be out as a CD single on May 16 with Crayons following on June 6.  For those of you who don't speak German, Wolfgang gave me this translation:  "The successful singer DONNA SUMMER is hard on work on her new studio album of all new material - it's the first in 17 years! CRAYONS is set to release on June 6th, 2008. Right on time and suitable to the European [soccer] Championships Donna will rev up with the first single STAMP YOUR FEET: The track, co-written by her with Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen, Kylie Minogue, Pink) and Danielle Brisebois (Natasha Bedingfield, New Radicals, Kelly Clarkson), is rhythmically absolutely infectious and, according to Donna Summer, was originally called “The Player’s Anthem.” “It’s the whole concept of being a player in life, coupled with the idea of being a player on an actual field, the whole thing, dealing with the pain and doing things even though you are afraid. Players get taken off to the sidelines and bandaged and thrown back in the game because it depends on them to win the game. We’re all ’players.’"

[APR 25] In chart news, I'm A Fire drops to #11 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for May 10, and to #40 on the Billboard Global Dance Tracks chart for May 3.

[APR 25] Crayons is reviewed in the current edition of Instinct. It says: "I set out to write a review of Donna Summer’s first album in 17 years without referencing the diva’s disco past, but let’s face it - that broad probably has glitter balls for jugs at this point. Thankfully, the grande dame of the dance floor doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on history, choosing to throw out a few sly reminders in "The Queen Is Back" ("So many years ago, on the radio...") before moving on to fresh, current-sounding numbers like "The Science of Love" and "Stamp Your Feet." And, yeah, the latter has a bit of the Fergie/Stefani schoolyard holla-rin’ going on, but those two skinny bitches can get on their knees and kiss Donna’s platinum ass! Working with Kylie collaborator Greg Kurstin as well as J.R. Roten was a smart move; Crayons is the hottest set of pop jams from Donna since her late ‘80s output with Stock Aiken Waterman."

[APR 25] We have a new Donna Summer website out there called Super Bullet Number One. It's an archive of all the album covers and many of the single covers from over the years. It's all organized by year and by album and the graphics are the perfect size to use in iTunes. I'll be back this weekend with the rest of the web news, some family matters and anything else that turns up in the mean time.  :-)

[APR 23] Hello OTTAWA! The Bluesfest tickets go on sale this Saturday (April 26) through the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest website.

[APR 23] As long as I'm here, I'll throw in a little more news. Let's start with Italian radio. On Saturday April 26 RAI Radio 2 in Italy will be playing Stamp around 3:30 local time. You can tune in online - just go to the website and click "ascolta live." Since the guys at RAI are big Donna fans, I suspect Stamp will get as much airplay as they can get away with.  ;-)

[APR 23] On this side of the ocean, a couple of stations have picked up Stamp You Feet. WKIE in Chicago, WVBU in Norfolk and The Beat on Sirius is playing I'm A Fire pretty regularly now. If any of these are the stations you listen to - start calling in those requests!  Now, if I say I will be back this weekend, it's almost guaranteed that I will need to update tomorrow.  LOL  So see you on the weekend.  ;-)

[APR 22] This update is for BRITISH COLUMBIA. Your tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster on Thursday April 24 at 10 AM. 

[APR 22] As long as I'm here I'll throw in a few more updates. First of all - I have no idea what's up with Stamp on the international scene.  The official site still says it is supposed to be available as of April 21 but I have yet to see it on any of the international iTunes yet - and the UK seems to have lost I'm A Fire too. If I hear any updates on that situation, I'll let you know.

[APR 22] In radio news, Stamp has hit the airwaves in Belarus. (It seems that Eastern Europe loves Donna!  :-) ) On this side of the pond, I'm A Fire has been added to KKUU in Palm Springs. And on Satellite radio, look for Stamp Your Feet on UPop  on XM radio. (Actually if you want to see where Donna is playing on XM, check out XMFan.com.  They even have links so you can make requests at your favorite XM station. 

[APR 22] And finally in chart news, I'm A Fire is at #6 on the Brazilian Dance Club Play chart.    I'll be back this weekend, or sooner if anything cool happens.  :-)

[APR 18] I'm actually not sure where to start.  LOL Let's go with Stamp Your Feet. Donna's website reports that it will be available to international fans on April 21 (or 22 if you are one of those countries with Tuesday release dates.) Theoretically that should mean Canada too - but we all saw what happened with I'm A Fire. Ugh. If you can't get a legal copy of Stamp Your Feet next week where you are, drop me a line and I'll help you out. UK residents may want to check out Tesco next week. They already have I'm A Fire, so I'm sure they will have Stamp  too. The only thing is that their downloads seem to be in Windows Media format - so Mac users should probably stick to iTunes.

[APR 18] Let's jump over to Brazil for a  minute. KamyMusic.com.br reports that Donna will be performing in São Paulo in November. I don't have a date yet, but as soon as I have something I'll post it for you. :-)

[APR 18] I don't know what kind of bizarre update this is when updates to Donna's official sites are the third thing down on my list  LOL, but  yes there are updates to both MySpace and DonnaSummer.com.  On MySpace, look for a couple of buddy icons and avatars you can download to use on forums and instant messengers. You'll find those on the bottom of the "About Donna" section. (They actually caused me to change the buddy icon I've been using for the last million years!  LOL) Oh, and I don't remember if I mentioned this, but the MySpace page has a clip of Stamp Your Feet now too. Over on DonnaSummer.com, they've switched from I'm A Fire to Stamp for both the sound clip and cover image. It's also got a mention of Donna's upcoming appearance on the Today Show Summer Concert Series. 

[APR 18] Okay, let's get back to Stamp Your Feet. A Swedish retailer is listing a 2 track CD single of the songs for May 16.  They are also listing Crayons for May 20 in case you are in the mood to do a lot of pre-ordering.  ;-)

[APR 18] In radio news, New York has a new rhythmic top 40 station called Pulse 87.7. They are trying to be a little more clubby and contemporary than some of the other local dance stations - but more importantly, they told one listener that they will start playing Stamp Your Feet next week.  :-) (I wonder if my car radio can get that one?) And speaking of New York radio - I know some people are getting a little antsy because WKTU hasn't played Stamp yet. (At least they haven't when I've been listening. Maybe they wait for me to turn off the radio?  LOL) The Fabulous Albert (radio spy extraordinaire) has this to say about KTU:  <<Donna is one of KTU's most played artist; in 2008 (January to Present) Donna ranks # 14 on KTU most played list . The following 5 titles: "On The Radio", "Heaven Knows", "MacArthur Park", "Last Dance" & "Love to Love You Baby" have been played over 425 times since January 2008. KTU has always been very supportive of Donna and has played "Love On and On", "I Will Go With You" and other tracks that other similar stations did not play.>>  In other words - be patient and don't give up!  It's still early in the game.  :-)

[APR 18] Speaking of requesting things... I just found out that the cable TV station LOGO has a video show. (Wow! Somebody still plays videos! Who knew?  LOL) Anyway, they had a mention of Donna's new CD on their blog, so some of the guys have been posting comments over there to both celebrate Crayons and to remind the guys at LOGO that Donna is very popular. So maybe this summer we will see a Stamp video on that channel. (I'm glad I had to upgrade my cable package now!  LOL)

[APR 18] I guess it's time to talk about I'm A Fire. I have good and bad news about that.  The bad news is that for the week of May 3, it slips to #9 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. But the good news is that on the April 29 charts, it debuts at #32 (with a bullet!) in the Billboard International Dance Club Play chart.

[APR 18] Okay - STOP THE PRESSES! There I was innocently wrapping up this week's update and this link popped up on the forums. As you can see - there are no details yet, but if you look closely it says that there will be a Circuit City exclusive version of Crayons with "bonus tracks." So now I have to ask (yet again) - IS IT MAY 20 YET?????    ;-)

[APR 18] I think that finally brings us to the web news. Over on YouTube, check out the new  DJ Andy demo mix of a certain song you all should know by now.  ;-) There is also a DJ Brush mix of I'm A Fire - just in case you are already bored with the 17 official mixes we all bought.  LOL And for those of you in a more classic frame of mind - there he a karaoke Hot Stuff video on YouTube tight now. (Yes, Donna is in it.) Over on Multiply, Patrice has posted 3 new tracks for your listening pleasure and a new picture as well.  And Jeff has sneaked in his own new extended mix of a certain single.  :-)  (Why do I think we're all going to have sore feet by the end of the summer?  LOL)

[APR 18] And on a side note, you know how Donna's MySpace page says she has 317 trillion friends (or whatever the number is right now)?  I figured out how to fix the count like that. (And I did something a little like that on my page.) If you are a MySpacer and want to know to customize your friend count, send me an email and I'll tell you what code to put in. 

[APR 17] Calling BETHEL, NY! Your tickets go on sale April 26 (Saturday) at 10 AM through Ticketmaster.  And WINDSOR, ON - your ticket's go on sale April 29 through the casino's website.

[APR 17] While I'm here I guess I'll update you one the other news that's been coming in.  Let's start with I'm A Fire. The CD singles are the #1 and #2 sellers for the week on PerfectBeat's homepage.  They blew out 2 shipments of the CDs already and are expecting only ONE MORE shipment this week. Once those are gone - they will be gone for good. Because I'm A Fire has done so well, PerfectBeat says they will have singles for Stamp Your Feet at some point in the upcoming weeks.  As soon as I hear more details, I'll let you know.

[APR 17] In radio news, XM station, UPOP, has played Stamp Your Feet. They also plan to interview Donna in a couple of weeks.  Long Island station, WBLI has started playing I'm A Fire and WFMK in  Michigan is playing Stamp Your Feet. Radio Diablo in Denmark is also playing Stamp, Sirius' The Beat is playing I'm A Fire, and Eye97.com (internet radio) is playing Stamp Your Feet. So radio is slowly starting to catch on. :-)  Let's see if we can speed that along a little with a few requests. Pick your favorite Donna-friendly station (local or satellite) and ask them to play the new songs.  :-)

[APR 17] In the world of remixes, DJ Escape has the Escape/Coluccio Mix of Stamp as the number one song on his playlist. I don't know if that will be an official mix or if it's just one he made for his own shows, but I guess we will find out soon enough.

[APR 17] If you signed up for Sony Rewards, this is the week that you can enter to win tickets to the Crayons release party in New York.

[APR 17] For those of you looking for ringtones of the new songs - a couple of US cell providers are offering them on their websites, or you can go to Donna's MySpace page and order them there. (Look at the end of the "About Donna" section.)

[APR 17] I don't usually do web news on a mid-week update, but there is a hot new mix of I'm A Fire by Summer2K out there. You can request it on Diverse Universe Radio, or you can check out the mix on YouTube, or even on MySpace.  I'll be back this weekend with the main update. :-)

[APR 15 again] In other news, May 16 is next month and not tomorrow.  LOL  Yeah, I was a little sleepy this morning when I updated.

[APR 15] Stamp Your Feet is now available at the US iTunes and other download vendors. The German version of Amazon is listing a CD version of Stamp for May 16. (Tomorrow!)  I suspect that Europe will have the download version available next week (like they did with I'm A Fire) - and Canada.... well, I hope it's there next week.  I'm still scratching my head over your situation.

[APR 14] Attention SARATOGA, CA - your tickets go on sale Sunday April 27 at 10 AM. See LiveNation.com for details.

[APR 14] Donna's MySpace page has been updated. Now it has a list of tour dates, and all the friend requests have been approved.  (242 trillion friends - who got to count them all?  LOL)

[APR 14] Just a reminder - Amazon.com has Stamp listed as being available tomorrow. (Or April 22 - depending on which date you believe.  LOL) 

[APR 12] Let me start off with a couple of announcements. First of all, I have a few new article links for you below.  I also have some Taihisha news in the Family Matters section. And I'll probably be back tomorrow with some tweaking to the radio page.  Oh and before I forget - for those of you who have been listening to Diverse Universe Radio, some of the request restrictions have been lifted. Apparently a grumpy server was at fault and now everything is back to normal. So you can request all the Donna you want - although I will guarantee that 99% of the time you request Stamp, it will already be in the queue to play!  LOL

[APR 12] Okay - let's get the bad news out of the way first. Atlanta - Ticketmaster is reporting that the July 1 show is cancelled.  I suspect scheduling issues are the reason.  Sorry guys.   :-(

[APR 12] In chart news, I'm A Fire slips back to #4 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for the week of April 26.  But in Brazil it's up to #11. And over in Russia, it's #15 at Radio Unost.

[APR 12] The guys at Perfectbeat.com have said that they blew through almost all 2000 copies of the limited edition I'm A Fire CDs in just 2 days.  I knew they would go fast, but I didn't expect them to go that fast!  LOL

[APR 12] On to happier things - Let me remind you that Stamp Your Feet will be available for download starting April 15 (Tuesday). At least, that's true for the USA. Other countries may have to wait a week.

[APR 12] Speaking of releases, as you all know the announced release date for Crayons is May 20.  That will unfortunately not be the case for every country. I found out that Mexico was given a release date of June 9. and Germany is showing a release date of June 6.  Now if I had to guess, I'd say that all of Europe should get it at about the same time as Germany (allowing, of course, for variations in which day of the week new stuff comes out. ) And I would guess that the rest of South America should get it about the same time as Mexico.  But as I said - I'm just guessing at this point. As soon as I hear something concrete for other countries, I'll post it here. (Canada - after I'm A Fire,  I don't even know what to guess for you!  If you live near the boarder come on over and get a copy on May 20th.)

[APR 12] Here's a late-breaking release item - someone just sent me a link to HotTracks.com. There is a compilation there (Hot Tracks 27-2) with yet another I'm A Fire mix. You can hear a clip on the site.

[APR 12] There is yet another article out there on BandWebBlogs.com. It doesn't really say much that we don't already know, but there is a larger version of the photo from the Burgundy site posted there. Their track list for Crayons also lists Fame (The Game) instead of Run With It, and they have a list of tour dates at the end. Most of that list is exactly what I have listed here on the site with 2 exceptions. They have June dates listed in Nashville, TN and Marksville, LA. Neither venue's website lists Donna as as the other early dates have been cancelled, I suspect that those dates are not actually part of the official schedule.

[APR 12] In Belgium, Radio 1 is doing a poll on the best voices in pop music. To vote, select "FAB 50 De strafste stemmen" and then "naar het stemformulier".  There you will find a list of artists - with one notable name missing.  Pick 2 that you like and then go down to the bottom of the page and fill in your name (naam), e-mail, phone (telefoon), and at "jouw artist" you can add the name of any artist you like who wasn't on the list.

[APR 12] Let's take a look at a classic release for a second. There is a wonderful article about Once Upon A Time posted on the dance music section of About.com. If you haven't seen it already, you should go take a look at it.

[APR 12] In the Donna is everywhere category, check out this interesting technology article - in particular the last line.  ;-) And in a more expected place, the German magazine Stern printed an interview with Kelly Rowland in which she said: "Donna Summer is a fantastic Diva - I also adore Patti Labelle and Barbra Streisand."

[APR 12] I think that finally brings us to the web news. Over on Multiply, Philippe has posted his new animated On The Radio video. And on YouTube, fzkny has posted a couple of new video mixes for your enjoyment. Over at the Donna fan site on Bebo, look for new videos. And on MySpace, look for Nik Ramli.  He's got a bunch of concert photos and some other Donna goodies posted there.

[APR 10] So I was playing around with some interior pages and I figured as long as I was here I'd throw in a little news. First up is an article from Washington DC's Metro Weekly.  It's a nice article that borrows heavily from Donna's MySpace page, but there is one thing there that I know you will all want to see - yet another new photo.  :-)  (It might even be the one they took the I'm A Fire cover from.)

[APR 10] In the rumor category, I have a hot one that can't be verified yet. There is a post on the So And Thus blog that says that the Hollywood Bowl concerts will be recorded for a DVD release.  I mention it only because I know the post is there and some of you have seen it and have been talking about it, but I want to stress that at this point it is UNCONFIRMED.

[APR 10] And finally I have a word to the wise...  as some of you know, there was a fan made video that used  Stamp on YouTube.  Sony/BMG has had that video pulled for copyright reasons. So if you are into making fan videos that's something you need to keep in mind.

[APR 10] Diverse Universe Radio is still playing Stamp Your Feet in heavy rotation. Thanks to the inundation of Donna fans, I've noticed that they had to make a few changes to the request process. First of all, a request won't be accepted if the song is already in the queue to be played. It also seems to limit the number of songs in a row the station will play by the same artist, or from the same album, and you can only make 5 requests every 90 minutes. Having said that - I know many of you went there to hear Stamp, but there are a ton of other cool songs there too. (I'm really liking the new Cyndi Lauper track they have.)  Thanks to Marshall for putting up with us and to those of you who are tuning in, after you request Stamp (and find out that it's in the queue already  LOL) definitely look at the other things they have to offer over there.  You won't be disappointed.

[APR 9] Hello ONTARIO! The Casino Rama tickets go on sale Tuesday April 15 at noon via Ticketmaster.

[APR 9] Don't forget that PerfectBeat will have I'm A Fire starting tomorrow morning. There are 2 separate disks. CD 1 has Baggi Begovic & Soul Conspiracy Original Mix, Baggi & Begovic & Soul Conspiracy Mixshow, Matty's Soulflower Club mix, Matty's Soulflower Reprise Mix, Matty's Soulflower Beats, Matty's Soulflower Acapella, Craig C Mixshow, and Lost Daze Remix.  CD 2 has Solitaire Club Mix, Solitaire Instrumental, Craig C Burning Club mix, Craig C Burnin Vocal Mastermix, Rod Carrillo Leave It On The Floor Mix, Rod Carrillo Grove Dub, Redtop Extended Mix,  and Redtop Dub. That should keep you all busy until we get Stamp Your Feet.  ;-)  I expect that their site will be very busy tomorrow, so be patient if it seems to load slowly or anything.  :-)

[APR 9] While I'm here, I may as well share this awesome article with you. I'll give you the link to the article on Yahoo, but it's being reprinted all over the net. It's about I'm A Fire being the number one dance song, and I hadn't really thought about this until it was mentioned in the article, but this number one means that Donna has had a number one dance hit in every decade since the 70s. She is the ONLY artist who has done that! (Take that, everyone else!  LOL) One other interesting thing is the track list attached to the article. In the article, the song Run With It has been replaced with Fame (The Game). Time will tell which is the current list.  :-)

[APR 8] Calling BOSTON!  Your tickets go on pre-sale Thursday April 10 at 10 AM to Friday April 11 at 10 PM via Live Nation or Ticketmaster. The main on sale date is Monday April 14 at 10 AM. 

[APR 8] I did a little housekeeping around here yesterday that I didn't publicize yet. The links page has been updated a bit and I've added a list of Donna-friendly US radio stations so you can figure out which ones in your area are worth tuning into. (I don't care how much good info your local all news station has - if they don't play Donna they aren't worth tuning into!  LOL)

[APR 7] I was planning to just work on some interior pages today, but I just have to share this because it's cracking me up! There is an online radio station called Diverse Universe Radio. They just got Stamp Your Feet and they seem to be happy to play it as many times as it is requested. I swear to you I've been listening for only about 45 minutes or so and I've heard it at least 4 times already - without requesting it once myself! And when they aren't playing Stamp Your Feet, they are throwing in a bunch of other Donna mixes too. Actually - right now they are playing the Stars On 45 Donna Medley which if I recall is by Summer2k. Tune in and check it out.  And if you want to make a request, click on playlist, then use the alphabet links to find artists (they are arranged by FIRST name), click on an album and when you get a list of available tracks with a "request' button. Click the request button of your choice.  I'll go back to my hidden updates now.  LOL  (Sorry o the guys at Diverse Universe for sucking up all your listening slots - we found you while we were in the throws of EXTREME cases of Summer Fever.  I hope we didn't burn out your server.)

[APR 6] Wow! I spent all day indulging my inner sci-fi geek, only to come home and find all sorts things happening here.  :-) Talk about a great day!  LOL [On a non-Donna side note - if you ever get the chance to hear sci-fi author Harlan Ellison speak, jump at it! He's a funny guy with a lot of great stories to tell. I saw him several times this weekend and he had me laughing to the point of tears.] 

[APR 6] On to Donna - where do you want me to start? Hmmmm...... let's go with Stamp Your Feet. As I mentioned the other day, it is going to radio next week. And as the first official single - we will be able to buy it VERY soon!  :-) Amazon.com has the MP3 version listed.... well, on one part of the page it says April 15 and on the other it says April 22. I expect it to show up at iTunes on whichever of those 2 dates is correct also. I haven't seen any other listing through official channels yet, so I don't know if it is going to be like I'm A Fire where is came out here first and then (almost) everywhere else a week later. Don't worry, if we run into any issues with specific places like we did with I'm A Fire, I'll help you guys out. There is also a nice cover image posted over there - it's a variation of the Crayons album cover photo. Also, while we are talking about Stamp Your Feet, I know some of you are going to want to call your local radio stations to request it.  Rocky over on Imeem has a few helpful tips for getting your request taken seriously.

[APR 6] Moving on to MySpace - it looks like we have an official Donna Summer MySpace page now.  :-) There is  a whole bunch of new info about some of the Crayons tracks - all of which I will be stealing for an upcoming Summer Fever page. (At least I'm upfront about my thievery!  LOL) But seriously, go look at the page. There are some really good quotes about some of the songs - and a list of writing credits for those songs. (I'll wait for you - go look now....   ;-)  )

[APR 6] Before I move on to more news, I think I should clarify the Billboard chart situation because I'm getting lots of questions in my email about it.  Billboard.com will only show you the current chart which right now is the one dated April 12.  Subscribers get the chart info a week earlier, so they have the April 19 chart. That's the one where Donna is number 1.  I don't want to print the whole chart here, but since some of you have expressed an interest in seeing Donna at number 1, I'll give you the top 5.  

[APR 6] Moving right along, PerfectBeat is putting out a CD single of I'm A Fire. It's actually going to be a 2 part limited edition CD with all of the mixes on it. As far as I know, Perfectbeat is the ONLY retailer who will have this CD single and they won't have it until Thursday (April 10). So you won't find a listing for it just yet (but don't let that stop you from browsing around the site anyway - they have lots  of cool dance music. :-) ) Also, note that they are on California time, so if you are in Europe, or you are in New York and happen to be up early Thursday and you don't see the listing right away - give the guys over there a chance to wake up and get it listed.  (I'm not saying they WON'T have it listed early, I'm just saying that IF they don't just allow for the time difference.  :-) ) And if you are interested in getting it, expect that it will sell out quickly. 

[APR 6] Let's move on to Oprah.  She threw a 3 day party in Florida recently at Trump's Mar-A-Lago and a certain diva we all know and love was one of the performers. I hope this means Oprah is enough of a fan to plug the new CD on her show at some point. (Now THAT would be good for sales! :-) )

[APR 6] Let's take a look at some different charts for a minute. Over in Brazil, their top Dance Chart has Donna climbing to #15 this week.  That's up from # 21.  :-) In Russia, I'm A Fire is number 15 on this chart   and in Latvia, Stamp Your Feet is apparently close to charting on the Kurzemesradio site. (I'm having some language issues over there, so I'm not 100% sure what I'm seeing there - well, other that Donna's name.  LOL)

[APR 6] In release news, the Endless Summer video has been reissued in Brazil under the title Donna Summer.  If you are in Brazil, you can get it here, but if you live somewhere else you might want to try CDPointe instead. Please keep in mind that the last time it came out, it was NOT digitally remastered so even though it was on a DVD, it was still VHS quality. If you need some ordering help and you don't speak Portuguese, Sandro posted a handy step by step guide in this post.

[APR 6] In the Donna is everywhere category, she got a mention in a Moby interview in Los Angeles' IN Magazine. Moby said, "The single best piece of electronic dance music was 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer. Every  couple of years I ask her to do something. But for some reason, I don't think she wants to make  disco music anymore. I'm tempted to pull a bait and switch and bring her into the studio and ask her to record a gospel or R&B song and take the vocals and put them on a disco track."

[APR 6] A few updates ago I mentioned a French film called Disco. Well, I found out that Donna is on the soundtrack to that movie - with Last Dance. The soundtrack is on the Columbia label which just happens to be a Sony imprint.  :-)

[APR 6] I think that brings us to the web news for the week.  :-)  Over on Bebo, the Donna fan site there has added new polls, a clip of Stamp Your Feet (done as a video) and of course some news updates. If you are on Bebo, go check it out. Also for you users of GayRomeo.com, there is a Donna group over there too that's worth looking in to.  :-)  Over on YouTube, check out the hot new video mix of Sunset People by Glenn Rivera. He takes clips from the movie Sunset Boulevard and puts them to Donna's Sunset People to very good effect.  :-) (And while you are there, nose around his other videos too. He made plenty of non-Donna videos that are also good. :-) ) Also check out the very cool I'm A Fire video mix by colorsbynumbers that uses the Soulflower mix. Over on Multiply, Carl has posted a couple of mixes of Love's About To Change My Heart and Steve has posted a video of Donna performing Macarthur Park, and the Stamp CD cover. I'll be back.... well, as soon as I need to be.  :-)

[APR 4 - still] Well, I couldn't pass this up.  Guess which song is #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play charts? Do I even have to tell you the answer?  LOL  It's I'm A Fire AND PureTone has updated its site to make note of that.  :-)  Also of note, PureTone has  a link to Donna's official tour list.  I haven't checked it line by line yet, but at a glance it looked like what I have listed below. And they are promising that we will get lots of Donna on TV and in print.  It's gonna be a great summer! 

[APR 4] And now for a little Stamp Your Feet news. PureTone has said it ships to radio next week - so start talking to your local Donna friendly stations. Let them know you are listening and that you want to hear it (and any other Donna tune they might have  handy too. :-)) I'm spending my weekend exercising my inner geek at a sci-fi convention (no I don't dress up!  LOL) so the regular update won't show up until Sunday night.

[APR 4] Sorry Lake Charles - Ticketmaster is listing your June 27-28 shows as being cancelled. I'd say it's got to be a scheduling issue.

[APR 3] NEW HAMPSHIRE! Your tickets go on sale this Saturday April 5 at 11 AM through the Meadowbrook US Cellular Pavilion's website.  If you are an Inner Circle member of the pavilion, you can buy your tickets sooner. See the website for details.  Oooo - and just as I was typing this, the Today Show played a bit of Spring Affair.  

[APR 2] Calling SARATOGA,CA! You will see Donna on Wednesday August 13 at the Mountain Winery.  And RENO - your tickets for August 15 are on sale NOW through the Peppermill website.

[APR 2] And now for the reason I originally planned to come back - the Summer Fever pick. I hope you all enjoyed the April Fool's page, but it's time to post the real pick.  This time I am picking Live & More Encore.  :-)

[APR 2] If you are a member of Sony Rewards, you can enter to win 10 (yes 10) tickets to the Crayons launch party. Along with that the winner gets 10 signed CDs, 10 roundtrip coach airline tickets to New York from anywhere in the continental US, 5 luxury hotel rooms for 2 nights, and $2500 spending money. Oh yeah, and you get a meet and greet with Donna. :-) When the winner is announced, I expect it to be one of you guys!   :-)

[MAR 31] I know it's still March 31, but somewhere in the world it is already April 1 - so I'm bringing you the new Summer Fever pick.  I thought that you might like to learn a little more about Crayons.......   ;-)

[MAR 30] I've been doing a little work on the discography tonight -  in particular I added the tracks for Crayons and Wolfgang has sent some updates for his German discography.  :-)  But while I'm here - the Billboard Dance Hot Club Play chart for  April 12 is out.  I'm A Fire climbs to #4 and it still has a bullet. (Hey Burgundy - I expect to see an update tomorrow that says I'm A Fire is now a Top 5 song.  ;-) ) 

[MAR 30] BUFFALO! You will see Donna at the Seneca Allegany Casino on Sunday July 20. Tickets will go on sale May 27 through Ticketmaster - or sooner for high rollers I'm sure.  ;-)  I'll be back late tomorrow or early Tuesday with the Summer Fever pick and whatever other internal updates I have time for.

[MAR 30] Well, I'm back a few hours earlier than I thought - and I haven't even started the main things I was planning to do later.  LOL  But the Crayons track list is out and I didn't want to wait to post it. (I feel like I'm 15 again!  LOL)  Here we go, courtesy of Amazon.com:

1. Stamp Your Feet
2. Mr. Music
3. Crayons (featuring Ziggy Marley)
4. The Queen Is Back
5. Run With It
6. Sand On My Feet
7. Drivin' Down Brazil
8. I'm A Fire
9. Slide Over Backwards
10. Science Of Love
11. Be Myself Again
12. Bring Down The Reign

[MAR 29] I'm calling this the official weekly update even though I know I'll be back very soon with some updates to other pages on the site - and of course the new Summer Fever pick in a couple days.  :-)  Let me start off by saying that I don't have the Billboard chart info for April 12  yet - but I'll throw it up here as soon as I get it.

[MAR 29] Let's start off with concert news. The Seneca Allegany Casino in upstate NY lists Donna as "coming soon" with no specific date listed yet. I'll let you know when I hear more.

[MAR 29] Big news for Canada - you can FINALLY get I'm A Fire on iTunes!  Better late than never - but I hope they are a bit more prompt when Crayons comes out.

[MAR 29] I meant to mention on one of the other recent updates that you can now pre-order Crayons at Amazon.de. (That's the German Amazon.com) It was doing really well over there too.  :-)

[MAR 29] Over in France, be on the look out for a new film called Disco that opens April 2. Hopefully they will sneak in some Donna tunes somewhere.  ;-)

[MAR 29] This isn't specifically Donna related, but I have some news for the Paul Jabara fans out there.  There is a press release out there in circulation that mentions Paul's website, the fact that his Greatest Hits & Misses is on iTunes now - and most importantly, it talks about the musical (Last Dance) using his music. Apparently they plan to use a long vaulted song called We're Gonna Win which is an anthem for the fight against AIDS.  There is one quote in particular you need to read:  "There is a great secret in Paul Jabara's LAST DANCE. He composed an anthem for the fight against AIDS. A little known fact is that Paul founded the red ribbon campaign, setting a precedent now utilized for many causes. The never released song is called 'WE'RE GONNA WIN' and it is absolutely stirring! People will hear this song for the first time in our show."" 

[MAR 29] That brings us to the web news.  Over on Multiply, Patrice has added to his photo collection, Philippe has added a new video, and Denis has sneaked in a couple of Andy mixes  for your listening pleasure.  On YouTube, makintoch10 has added a couple of classic Donna clips, venezuelaplc has added a vintage clip of Donna performing Lady Of The Night. It is an EXCELLENT quality clip! And finally, fzkny has added a short video mix of a by now familiar song sample to his offerings.  :-)  I'll see you guys in a day or 2.  ;-)

[MAR 28] Greetings ATLANTIC CITY! Your tickets go on sale on Wednesday April 2 through Ticketmaster.

[MAR 26] This is what I love right now - every day I come home from work and there is something new to be excited about. So let me start with a TV appearance/live event.  Donna will be part of the Today Show Summer Concert series on Friday May 30. That show is aired live from  I think 7 AM to 10 AM these days and the concerts take place outside at Rockefeller center. Anybody can show up - it's free! But even though Donna wouldn't be on the show until probably 8:30 or so, you will want to be there EARLY to stake out a good location. (You can bring banners and things to wave - it might even get you on TV briefly.)

[MAR 26] In other news, Burgundy has updated their site today. On the news page they mention that I'm A Fire is a top 10 dance song. And if you go to Donna's page there, the press release is posted along with a new picture. One little note though - I use Firefox as my web browser and that made me refresh the page numerous times before the new picture came up.  So if you go there and still see the one with the sunglasses, just keep refreshing until it changes.  :-)  And speaking of pictures, I was sent a larger version of the one from the Hollywood Bowl ad. So I'll just post it here for you to see:

[MAR 25 - again!] I thought I was done for today.... but then I got this very interesting link in my email box. It's to a Russian Top Hits site and they have an entry on their list for Stamp Your Feet. But that's not ALL they have.  Look closely and you will see an icon for an available sound clip.   :-D  It's only about a minute long - but what a minute it is!

[MAR 25] I knew I'd be back early.  LOL ATLANTA!! Your tickets just showed up on Ticketmaster as available for presale starting tomorrow at 10 AM. (That looks like some sort of promotion through Citibank or something, so you'd need a code.)  The regular on sale date is Saturday March 29 at 10 AM.

[MAR 23]  Yes, this is the official weekly update - although it's hard to tell these days with all the extra updates I've been sneaking in.  LOL  One little thing I did the other day that I haven't mentioned yet, is I added links to all the venues on the concert listings below. I still have no ticket information for most of the dates, but now we all have sites we can stare at daily.  ;-)

[MAR 23] Let's start off with something hot out of my email box.  :-)  Crayons is now starting to show up for pre-order at places like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.  So if Amazon isn't your thing, then you have even more options now.  It's doing very well at Amazon at the moment - last time I checked it was ranked #444 in music - not bad for an album that isn't even out yet!  (I swear it wasn't me!  I only bought one copy  - so far!  LOL )

[MAR 23] LA Weekly printed an entertainment calendar recently for the Hollywood Bowl concert season. It included a brand new photo of Donna that we haven't seen before. Unfortunately I haven't seen a larger version of this photo yet, but if you have sharp eyes, you can see it here on the LA Weekly website. Just look for August 22-23. But be warned - it is really tiny!

[MAR 23] In chart news - we have a couple of non-Billboard charts to look at tonight. First up is the Toronto Star's Anti-Hit list - a list of tracks that aren't getting much radio support, but that are worth listening to. I'm A Fire comes in at #6 with this commentary: "Hard to believe the first queen of disco is now a grandmother who will celebrate her 60th birthday  on the last day of this year. You'd certainly never guess it after listening to all seven glorious minutes of this lead single, which revisits her glory days while making it clear she has no intention of taking up permanent residence there."  Then in Brazil, Donna makes the Top 30 Dance Club Play chart as a new entry at #28.  :-) And if that's not enough for you, I'm A Fire is #19 on the World Dance charts - with a bullet!  :-)

[MAR 23] In the land of blogs, A New Muse has declared Donna a style icon. The Daily Swarm has some excellent comments posted by fans - check out # 10 and #12 in particular.  :-)  And over on Amazon there is a place for fans to talk about the album - apparently it's a new feature they are trying out.  A couple of guys have posted already - so go join them if you are so inclined.  :-)

[MAR 23] So that brings us to the web news for the week.  Over on YouTube, look for a cool new fan video for I Got Your Love posted by colorsbynumbers. You also want to see Toby Gad's video blog for March 18.There is also a clip of She Works Hard For The Money taken from a Grammy telecast, and fzkny has a new video mix of Love to Love You Baby. And on Multiply, Patrice has posted a new gallery of pictures. I was about to say I'd be back next week.... but the way things have been going lately, it will probably be sooner.   :-)  It's times like this when running the site is even MORE fun!

[MAR 22] I'll be back either late tonight or late tomorrow with the regular update, but for now I have  two things I want to share with you guys.  The first thing is that Crayons is now available for pre-order at Amazon and Amazon UK. Other vendors shouldn't be too far behind.  The other thing I wanted to tell you is that on the April 5 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, I'm A Fire climbs to number 9 with a bullet. :-)  

[MAR 20] HOLY COW!  I came home from work and found out that Pollstar went nuts.  I have MANY new dates to share with you and the easiest way to do it is to go straight down to the list below. I don't have ticket info for most of them yet - but I'll post it as I get it.  Canadian fans - don't stop looking at the list when you get to your first date.  She's going back there a few times.

[MAR 19] This one is for you Oakland, CA - Donna will be at the Paramount Theater on August 16 (Saturday). Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster on Monday March 24 at 10 AM. Radio station 92.7 was giving away tickets - I don't know if they have more, so you will have to tune in and see.

[MAR 18] First of all - oops!  I accidentally put July 20 instead of August 20 for Alpine in the concert section below.  If you show up July 20, you will have a LONG wait for Donna.   ;-)

[MAR 18] So now for the real reason I'm here.  I just can't torture you any longer.....   it's time to unveil the surprise.  As you all know, earlier this year Mary Bernard put out her own CD of inspirational music. So I asked her if I could do an interview with her for the site and she graciously consented.  So with out any further torture... here is the first interview I've ever done with anyone - creatively titled, "An Interview With Mary Gaines Bernard." (On a side note - the video clip that I added to that page with sound clips was an experiment.  I like the way it came out, so I'll do something similar with Crayons and slowly I'll start adding videos like that to the Summer Fever pages I think.)

[MAR 17] Wake up SAN DIEGO, CA - you will see Donna on August 20 at the Viejas Casino in Alpine. :-)  Those tickets go on sale  this WEDNESDAY (March 19) at 10 AM via Ticketmaster. Sorry for the short notice, but I just found out now.  Also, Washington DC fans will be happy to learn that Wolftrap tickets go on sale March 29 at 10 AM. On a side note - watch for my special surprise this weekend. It's all done and ready to go.... I just want to torture you for a little longer.  ;-)

[MAR 16] Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my Irish friends (and those who are only Irish for the day.  ;-) )  My upcoming surprise is going to be published next weekend. I had hoped to get it done in time for this weekend but things got a little out of hand earlier in the week. It will be worth the wait though.  :-) What I do have for you is an update to Ken's Korner (that will undoubtedly not win him any popularity contests in certain corners  LOL) and a reminder to those of you who haven't been able to buy I'm A Fire yet - the EP goes on sale through iTunes and other download vendors on Tuesday for those of you outside the USA. And if you are inside the USA - what are you wanting for? iTunes has it NOW.  :-)  (On a side note, I finally figured out how to link to stuff on the iTunes store.  You'd think I'd have noticed that little "copy iTunes url" feature sooner. LOL)

[MAR 16] In I'm A Fire news, it's charting on a few DJs' lists. Check out DJ Wesley and DJ Matty Heilbronn in particular. It's also number one at WDA1 internet radio. And listen for it next Sunday (March 23) in the fourth hour of Larry Flick's radio show on the Sirius station, OutQ (Channel 109).

[MAR 16] In Crayons news, it gets a mention on a French blog. It doesn't look like there is any new info - but there are some photos there you guys will like.  :-)

[MAR 16] In the Donna is everywhere category, MacArthur Park was used in a German comedy show called Quatsch Comedy Club.  Also check out AlKasha.com and RocaSound.com for some nice Donna mentions.

[MAR 16] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on Multiply, you need to check out AJ's page. He's got a few mixes up and he's got this really awesome Donna PWL remix video that is well worth a look. Patrice has a new multi-artist mix with 2 Donna songs included, plus he's got a whole gallery of screen captures from Live & More Encore. And Philippe has added a video representation of Donna's discography. Over on Youtube, Yeroi has posted a clip of Donna singing A Song For You from a 1977 Venezuelan show. (If you check his profile, he's got a few other songs from that same show posted too. So does user Venezuelaplc.)  There is also a very funny interview Donna did with Greg Kinnear, and for you Giorgio Moroder fans, check out this clip about Love To Love You and I Feel Love.  And finally, Donna gets a brief mention in this Kylie interview. (Wait for the part where Kylie talks about the music she used to listen to all the time. )

[MAR 14] Well, I logged in to do a little housekeeping, but while I'm here I might as well mention that I'm A Fire climbs to # 14 on Billboard's Hot Club Play for the week of March 29.  :-)  And Baltimore - don't forget that your tickets go on sale tomorrow morning!

[MAR 14] Speaking of housekeeping -  the People Talk guest book has been cleaned up a bit.  The spammers were having a field day over there, so I may actually delete that feature at some point. I haven't decided yet.  The classified ads have been deleted however - they were also a spam magnet.  Pretty much any thing you wanted do do on the classified ads page can be done better on the forums or through me on the main site itself.  I  also got rid of a couple of old promo pages for past projects. Finally, on the splash page, the "interact with fans" link has been replaced with a link to the Donna Summer & More (formerly Endless Summer) forum, and clicking the site title will bring you directly to the news page. (Oh yeah - all that is in addition to some behind the scenes stuff I've been doing for my upcoming surprise.)

[MAR 13] Donna's site is updated with a little clip of I'm A Fire and the awesome cover art. 

[MAR 12] I came back tonight for Baltimore. :-) You guys will see Donna at the Pier Six Concert Pavilion on Wednesday July 16. Tickets go on sale this Saturday (March 15)  at 10 AM through Ticketmaster. 

[MAR 11... still] Okay - I got a reply to my email about I'm A Fire.  The international release date is March 17 - next Tuesday.  So just hang in there a little longer, and then if there are any problems with specific countries we'll deal with it then.  :-)  On a side note - look for an update to Donna's site soon. (Although now that I think of it - if you guys are like me, you've been obsessively checking it daily anyway.  LOL)

[MAR 11] Okay.... I'm A Fire hit US iTunes and Amazon this morning, but so far it hasn't turned up internationally. I have an email out asking about that, so watch this space for further developments.  Don't worry - whatever answer I get, we will get you guys legal downloads one way or another.  :-)

[MAR 11] As long as I'm here, I have a site announcement. Actually, make that a teaser.   ;-)  I have a surprise coming up for you very soon - something I've never actually done on the site before, so I'm excited. (And before you let your imaginations go wild,  it has nothing to do with Crayons or an advanced copy of the next Shout It Out.) I'm shooting for this weekend for the surprise, but if not this weekend then probably next weekend.  It will be worth the wait.  ;-)

[MAR 9] Happy Daylight Savings Time!  We're that much closer to spring now.  :-)  Don't forget that on Tuesday, I'm A Fire goes up for sale on Amazon.com (and probably other places too). So if you have a copy by other  means, go out and buy a legal copy to show your support (and so Donna can pay the mortgage.  ;-) ) And if you don't have a copy yet - well, now is your chance to get one.  :-)

[MAR 9] Let's start off with the chart news that I didn't have the other day.  For the week of March 22, I'm A Fire climbs to #23 on the Billboard Hot Club Play chart, and it's the power pick of the week.  :-)  

[MAR 9] In classic release news, CDUniverse has a listing for an import called Oro - Grandes Existos. There is no track list posted, but it seems to be a greatest hits package -  a real one instead of a Shout It Out disguised as a greatest hits set.  ;-)

[MAR 9] In  German news, the site SoulSite.de has a mention  of the new album. There is no new information there but I know of at least one fan who was thrilled to finally find something in his native language.  :-)  And the TV show Backstage Live had a little mention of I'm A Fire. You can watch it on the web - Donna comes in about halfway through the clip. (If I'm not mistaken, I believe they are showing part of fzkny's original I'm A Fire video too.)

[MAR 9] In the Donna is everywhere category, there is a TV commercial for Ruffles potato chips in Mexico that has animated potato chips (crisps if you are in Europe) dancing to Hot Stuff.   (And by some strange coincidence - Hot Stuff is the track that iTunes decided to play for me just as I started to type this.  :-) ) 

[MAR 9] That brings us up to the web news for the week. Over on Bebo, the Donna fan site there has had a few new additions.  Look for a couple of videos and a brand new poll. (Plus the awesome I'm A Fire cover is on prominent display.  :-) ) On Multiply, Denis is having a big I'm A Fire party with all the mixes posted for your listening pleasure.  (He's got some other new additions too if you still have time left after I'm A Fire.  ;-) ) Patrice also has a mix of I'm A Fire plus a few videos to watch, and Philippe has added his Crayons drawing and some other goodies. Over on YouTube, fzkny has another I'm A Fire video, there is a video for the David Vendetta version of Love To Love You, and I just discovered a 6 part documentary on the making of the Spirit Of The Forest record. (That was one of those all star choir records - but this one was to help protect the rain forest.)  They have no interview footage of Donna, but you see her in several clips taken from the recording session. Here are the links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

[MAR 6] Good news! I'm A Fire will be available for legal download starting Tuesday March 11 from Amazon.com (and probably other places as well.)  So for everybody who has the mixes by other means, show your support for Donna on Tuesday by purchasing a legal copy. :-)  You just HAVE to see the cover art too. (Go ahead and click it - there is a bigger version. :-) )

[MAR 6] Hello MINNESOTA! According to Pollstar, you will get to see Donna in Prior Lake on August 31 at the Mystic Lake Casino. No word on when tickets will be available yet.

[MAR 6] Getting back to I'm A Fire news, the second round of mixes is circulating. They are: Baggi Begovic & Soul Conspiracy Original Mix (9:01), Redtop’s Dub (7:51), Matty’s Soul Flower Club Mix (9:10), Rod Carrillo’s Leave It On The Floor Mix (9:26), Rod Carillo’s Groove Dub (8:30). The mixes are all so different from each other that I'm sure just about everyone will find one to their liking. :-)

[MAR 6] In chart news - I'm still waiting for the next set of chart positions to come out, but there is a nice little blurb about I'm A Fire in the March 6 Chartbeat column on Billboard Online. They say that I'm A Fire is Donna's highest Dance chart debut since This Time I Know It's For Real in 1989.  :-) 

[FEB 29] Wow - it's actually been a couple of days since my last update. The main reason I'm here tonight is that it's time to change the Summer Fever pick.  This month as we start preparing for a brand new album, I decided to go all the way back to the beginning and put the musicals back in the spotlight. 

[FEB 29] As long as I'm here, I might as well make this the official update. So, let's start with the charts. On the March 15 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, I'm A Fire is the hot shot debut at #28.  :-)  And speaking of I'm A Fire, the second wave of mixes are in the works and they will include Rod Carrillo's Leave It On The Dancefloor Mix and his Groove Dub.  So if you are out clubbing, keep your ears open for those.

[FEB 29] In the Donna is everywhere category..... holy cow, she really IS everywhere!  I have a mailbox FULL of news alerts announcing Donna's first studio album in 17 years. (And I'll try not to get all nitpicky that clearly they are forgetting about Christmas Spirit which was released 14 years ago.  ;-) ) Mostly they all just reprint parts of the official press release, but I'll post a small list of articles below. TV is even getting into the act - the CNN news channel even mentioned Crayons on the news ticker that runs beneath the programming.  :-)  And of course radio stations around the world are mentioning the new CD as well. We've got quite a buzz going! .....Oh, and I think in all the excitement, I may have forgotten to post a link to the Pure Tone website for you. (They are the guys handling the promotion. They also did the promotion for Chaka Khan's recent release on Burgundy.)

[FEB 29] In radio news, San Francisco fans can tune into the morning team at Energy 92.7 for their I'm A Fire fix, and in Portugual, Lisbon's Mix FM has added I'm A Fire to its rotation.  

[FEB 29] In case you need something to keep you busy until May, there is a UK 3 disk set called Here Come The Girls that features the work of top female recording artists like Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, and others. Donna is represented by Love To Love You and I Feel Love.

[FEB 29] That brings us to the web news for the week.  Over at YouTube, fzkny has added another I'm A Fire remix video to his collection. (This one uses video from Melody Of Love.) And also check out the live clip of Celebrate Me Home. The video quality isn't the best, but it's such a beautiful song! Over on Multiply, check out Patrice's I'm A Fire II mix.  I'll be back next weekend - or sooner if there is breaking news.  :-)

[FEB 26] Donna's new site is up. So far (besides the new look :-) ) all that's up is a chance to register for the site and a countdown to the CD release.  But expect lots more stuff to come as we get closer to May 20.  :-)

[FEB 26] Elsewhere on the web, you can read the official press release about Crayons. And about 8 billion news sites have picked up the story about the new CD, so Donna is getting mentions EVERYWHERE.  :-)

[FEB 26] HELLO ATLANTA! Your  concert date is July 1 at the Chastain Park Amphitheater.  Tickets go on sale March 2 at 10 AM.  As for everyone else - I'll post 'em as I get 'em.  :-)

[FEB 25] It's official! According to both Billboard and USA Today, Crayons hits stores on May 20.  :-)  Let the countdown begin!

[FEB 24] Happy Oscar Night!  Believe it or not, this will actually be the official weekly update. (Although whatever happens this week, I may be back a little bit early for the Summer Fever Pick.)  Let's start off with a request from the guys at WDA1.com. I mentioned that they were playing I'm A Fire in my last update and I mentioned that they take requests. What I didn't mention is that the best way to get your requests to them is to use the big yellow request button on their homepage. If you do it by email it takes more time for the guys over there to get it, and it makes more work for them.  You also need to know a couple of other things. Listeners are restricted to 2 song requests over a 2 and a half hour time period and they must be for 2 different songs. (They track IP numbers, so they can tell.) And if you request the song, you must stay logged into the stream until it plays, or the request will be ignored. I just did it myself, and it's actually easier to use the request page  than it is to type an email. And so far they are playing some cool songs.  :-)

[FEB 24] Let's move on to some chart news . (Yes, there is some already!)  Donna is poised to debut on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart probably for the week of  March 15. I'm A Fire is the top breakout track on that chart for the week of March 8. (The breakout tracks are the hot new tracks that are just bubbling under the charts.)

[FEB 24] Speaking of I'm A Fire (and pretty much everyone is these days  :-) ) there is supposed to be a second round of mixes in the works by people like Lost Daze, Soulflower and Rod Carrillo.  Once Upon A Time (about  a day ago - or even less  LOL) this site, had a clip of the Soulflower mix. However, I think they blew their bandwidth so some people were not hearing it. (You also need to have the Quicktime plug in to make sound on that site work - something that seemed to confuse my Firefox browser for some reason.)

[FEB 24] Let's move on to Crayons for a second. I heard from another fan who was at the Florida shows and this is his take on what Donna said about the album title: "The way I understood what she said was that, when a child begins to color with crayons he goes out side of the boundaries constantly. She said "out of the box", and for her this album is out of her box, comfort zone etc." 

[FEB 24] In the Donna is everywhere category this week, TMZ featured her photo in one of their then and now features.

[FEB 24] That brings us up to the web news for the week. First up, for those of you who use the Bebo website, a fan named Wayne has set up a Donna site over there. So make sure you go check it out.  :-)  Over at YouTube - well, it's a fire over there.  LOL  This is the clip most people have been passing around. And that one is good for listening to the song. But if you want something with more visual action, you need to see fzkny's version. There are also a couple of very short clips from the Florida shows posted by koolbeenz, and a clip of Ain't No Mountain High Enough - the finale from Divas 2000. Over on Multiply, Philippe has posted a video of Supernatural Love, Jeffrey has posted his Janiak extended mix of Unconditional Love, and Patrice has posted his mix of... you guessed it, I'm A Fire. And if you come visit us on the Donna Summer & More (formerly Endless Summer) forum, some of the other fan mixers are sharing their efforts as well. (The pros can do round 1 and 2 of the mixes, the fans can provide the rest.  ;-) )  I'll be back at the end of the week with the new Summer Fever page - or sooner if there is news.  :-)

[FEB 22] I wasn't actually going to update tonight.....  but then I thought I might as well go for the hat trick.  LOL   But seriously, I have a request for you.  I know that there are people out there who have copies of Donna's new songs (or think they are getting copies from someone, or have good blackmail on someone who might be getting them, etc  ;-) ) If you are in the category and you actually do find yourself with an advance copy of any of the new album tracks, I'm asking you to please NOT share them. (And I will kick myself for saying this, but I mean not even with me. Ouch, that hurt!  LOL)  The thing is, there is a whole plan to the promotion of the new CD and if we jump the gun we'll end messing it all up for Donna (and by extension, for ourselves.)  Also, think about the first time you went out and bought ... let's say Bad Girls. If you were like me and got it when it first came out, then probably the ONLY song you knew when you bought it was Hot Stuff. Wasn't it cool to bring it home that first time and discover that wow! Bad Girls is awesome too! And so is Love Will Always Find You! And Walk Away!  And so on until Sunset People. I want Crayons to be like that for all of us - a fun discovery of all the gems it has to offer.  :-)  (By the way, the above does not apply to anyone who gets an advanced copy of the next Shout It Out.  I think those are pretty safe to share because there will be no takers.  LOL)

[FEB 22] And here's another reason to not go looking for early copies of the album tracks - we still have I'm A Fire mania going on!  LOL  We have to let that run its course.  If you want to hear it on internet radio, run right over to WDA1.com. They have I'm A Fire in medium rotation and they take requests. (I wonder how many requests it takes to get a song into high rotation?  ;-) )  I've also seen the song either played on or at least mentioned by a whole bunch of blogs. (Hey - maybe I can finally realize my dream of having the WHOLE internet dedicated to Donna? Who needs news and stock quotes anyway?  LOL) A couple of the recent ones I've seen are Herman's in the Netherlands and DivaDivoDance. But there are a TON more. Go to Google and search for  Donna Summer and I'm A Fire and you'll get 10 pages of hits. (Maybe more by the time some of you see this.) And of course the song is playing in clubs - if your favorite club isn't playing it yet, then you need to have a serious talk with the DJ.  ;-) 

[FEB 22] And I probably should save something for the weekend update, but what the heck, Ill throw this in now too because I enjoyed it so much.  There is a really flattering review of the Florida concerts on BrowardTimes.com. Some of the song titles are a bit messed up,  but otherwise I'd say the reviewer is one of us.  :-)

[FEB 21] I'm back again so it MUST be Summer Fever!  LOL  I have more from Florida, including a review from a first time concert goer, and photos from Jonathan. I also have a special edition of Ken's Korner in honor of I'm A Fire.

[FEB 21] I also have a quick update on 109 OUT Q on Sirius radio. Larry Flick promoted I'm A Fire through out his show and finally played it at 10:30 this morning. (That's Eastern time - I don't know if it runs live or on tape in other places.)  He asked listeners to call in and talk about the song, and every comment he got was very positive. Now here's the best news of all, Larry is going to have Donna on his show sometime soon to talk about the new CD, the tour, and whatever else comes up.  As I hear more, I'll let you know.  :-)  I have more odds and ends for you - but I want to try to save something for the weekend.  LOL But who knows? I might end up being back tomorrow too.   ;-)

[FEB 20 again] Okay, so after calming down for 8 hours at work, let me start off by saying that the MenArt site I linked to is NOT in Germany - it's in Croatia. I think I was a little too excited to figure out what language I was looking at (and not understanding.  LOL)  I do want to add that one of the posters got the page translated and it says that they don't have the actual track list yet, but the songs they listed will definitely be on the album. It also lists a June 1 release date. For those who haven't looked at the page yet, MenArt lists: Stamp Your Feet, I'm A Fire, Crayons, Be Myself Again, Brazil, and Mr. Music. I have also seen a forum that adds, Unpredictable, I Will, and Reasons. And that forum lists a May 6 release date. I've also read a review (that I can't find at the moment) that says that I'm A Fire is the weakest of the tracks he's heard. Which  means there must be some KILLER tracks on the album!  :-)

[FEB 20 again] For those of us grooving to I'm A Fire  -  I got this club report from Atlanta: Donna's single "IM A FIRE" (Craigs Mix) was released to our DJ and he had to tell me about it. The club was packed- DJ announced here's a new single- If you can guess the "QUEEN' who recorded it-- your drinks are free for the night. Everyone knew the voice and the Name. I gave so many drinks away last night till it wasn't funny. It packed the dance floors and even the second level of the club upstairs was stomping and chanting DONNA! DONNA!- The song is hot- and will definitely be a long request for the DJ to play. I have another fan in Tampa who has been burning the track to CD and handing it to DJs at his favorite clubs. He even got Larry Flick of OUT Q on Sirius radio to post it on his MySpace page. For those of you who don't have the song by other means, check out the Solitaire mix at the Donna Summer Burgundy MySpace page.

[FEB 20 again] For those looking for a little about the official single coming up, Stamp Your Feet, check out the So And Thus blog.

[FEB 20 again] For those of you wondering about the title, Crayons, well.... Donna mentioned it in Florida. She said that it's like when you are a kid and you open a box of crayons with all the various colors and flavors to play with.  The CD is like that - it will have lots of different flavors of music.   :-)  Speaking of Florida.... that's supposed to be the reason I updated again tonight.  LOL  So let's start you off with a few photos on Getty Images, and then you can read the fan reports I have so far. (Please keep in mind that the Florida shows are actually the last dates of  the last tour , so no sneak peeks of the new album yet.  The new tour will start later this year and that's when we'll hear the new songs.)  I'll be back again, well, whenever I need to be back.  :-)   

[FEB 20] So, the plan was to update later tonight with what I have so far from Florida. And that's still the plan because I don't have time for a real update right now. But I couldn't let this wait. Fresh from my email box, the cover to the CD:

That is courtesy of Menart Records (not) in Germany which also provides this track list: Stamp Your Feet, I'm A Fire, Crayons, Be Myself Again, Brazil, and Mr. Music.  Also the date I keep hearing so far is May 6. I still consider that highly subject to change until I see it somewhere official, but that's the one I see everywhere else.  :-)  I guess I'll be back after work with Florida and a few other links I wanted to share.  (It's days like this I hate my job!  LOL)

Just like the sun reveals the sky,
Just like the torch becomes your guide,
I’m a fire, I’m a fire, and I’m burning so bright...

[FEB 16] So, I was going to wait until tomorrow to update so that I would have time to hear from at least some of the Florida fans first.  But how can I stay away when everything is happening?  :-)  So, yesterday's update gave you the names of the mixes for the new club single I'm A Fire. Well, yesterday the DJs received copies and let's just say the song is out there now.  And not only is it out there - is it HOT!  The Queen is back! (Not that she ever really left.  ;-) )  One of the guys on the forum actually got to experience it in a club last night and this is what he had to say: "Went to a club last night. DJ is personal friend.  Told me he had this Craig Mix. He put it on a few minutes later. He said here was the new  DS single. After about 30 seconds the place went berserk!!!! He ended up playing the entire  11 minute version another 5 times during the night and it packed the floor each time. The Supreme Queen of Dance Royalty is BACK!!!!!!!!!!" And pretty much every reaction I've read had been positive - ranging from "what a cool song" to "my jaw hit the floor and I can't pick it back up."   I've been doing this site for almost 11 years and I haven't seen this much excitement in quite awhile!  :-)

[FEB 16]  Okay, now that I got the big news out of the way, let's move on to the normal stuff for the 1 or 2 of you who aren't jumping around the room for joy. (And those 1 or 2 people really need to see yesterday's update.)  ;-)  First up, Mary fans will want to look at the Family Matters section below.  And everybody will want to see the media section for a new Donna interview. 

[FEB 16] Here's one for you guys in Canada. Donna will be performing at the David Foster Foundation's fundraiser, Crescendo, on March 29 at the Halifax Metro Center. She'll be sharing the stage with Natalie Cole and comedian Sinbad, and they will be backed by Symphony Nova Scotia. The event will raise funds to help Canadian families with children who need organ transplants.  The bad news is that they don't sell individual tickets to the show. You either have to buy a whole table (and those seem to be sold out) or you need to buy a weekend pass to the whole Crescendo event. More info is available at DavidFosterAtlantic.ca.

[FEB 16] I have an interesting little rumor out of the west coast. Apparently there is a guy looking to put out a compilation of Donna's more spiritual tracks. The tentative title is Unconditional Love and  he hopes to have it out next year.  I guess we'll see what happens. 

[FEB 16]  In the Donna is everywhere category, she got a mention on the Grammy Awards this week. Beyonce did a little number paying tribute to many of the great ladies who have graced the Grammy stage. She said, in part, "When I was a little girl I dreamed of being on this stage. But I knew I needed all the right elements. Like the beat of Donna Summer...."

[FEB 16] Donna also got mentioned in a couple of recent interviews. There was a St. Louis Today interview with Gloria Gaynor when she was asked who is the Queen of Disco. Her answer: "Whoever someone is giving it to at any given moment. Those titles are to be given by the fans or the public. I was elected it by the International Association of Disco DJs, who were fully qualified to choose me at that time. After that, other people thought Donna was the queen. I have no problem sharing the crown." And then there was a Hex Hector interview on SX News where he said, "I’ve been blessed with opportunities to work in the studio with some of the most amazing singers and entertainers put on this earth. But I have to say the only time I was ever star-struck was when I worked with Donna Summer on ‘I Will Go With You’. When she walked into the studio I was a mumbling fool!"

[FEB 16] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on YouTube look for a Donna and Joss Stone duet taken from VH1, an interview to promote Whenever There Is Love, MacArthur Park from the Hot Summer Night special, and a few new goodies from the vaults of fzkny. And if you do a little searching for Beyonce on the Grammys, you will even find  that performance I mentioned in the Donna is everywhere news.  On Multiply, check out Philippe's picture disk collection, WEN!NG's Tribute Mix on Denis' page, and Patrice's new mix of I Love You.  I'll be back during the week with news from the Florida shows, and anything else that happens to turn up.  :-)

[FEB 15] And now for a slightly belated Happy Valentine's Day for everyone.  :-)   But before I get to the real reason I'm updating let me say this first for the Mary fans out there. (I'd throw this down to Family Matters, but I know after you read tonight's news, you won't read any further down the page.  LOL) iTunes (and other places) have FINALLY fixed the problem with Mary's CD, so if you buy it now you will get I'll Go. If you bought the album as a download already and are missing that song, I have a copy now and can send it to you.  Just send me an email.  Okay.......  now fasten your seatbelts and hang on to your hats.....  :-)

[FEB 15] In my email today, I got a message from someone with a friend in the music business who saw this interesting little press release:  "The Queen is back! Legendary singer songwriter DONNA SUMMER is back with a NEW STUDIO ALBUM – CRAYONS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE MAY 2008 on BURGUNDY/SONY

Donna shows her love for the club community as she gives an early taste of her new album before the official single “STAMP YOUR FEET” goes to radio next month.

Donna Summer - “I'm A Fire” round one mixes:

1. I'm A Fire (Solitaire Club Mix) 7:12
2. I'm A Fire (Craig C's Burnin' Master Mix) 11:02
3. I'm A Fire (Redtop's Extended Mix) 7:21
4. I'm A Fire (Sebastian Original Album Version) 7:23"

The only thing I'll add is that after I got the email, I did a little snooping on the net and found this little announcement from the company pressing copies of Stamp Your Feet.  It's happening guys!  :-)  I will be back either tomorrow or Sunday with the regular update - which will probably be very boring compared to tonight's micro-update.  LOL

[FEB 14] Happy Valentines Day Washington DC.  :-)  You guys will get to see Donna perform at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA on  Saturday July 5. Members of Wolf Trap have an extra special bonus.  Donna's show has been chosen as one of the events for the Associate Theater Parties. So members can buy a special package that includes dinner and the show.  Right now tickets for the concert are only available to members, but look for that to change next month.  I already have one gentleman who is looking to hook up with other fans for this concert. (His name is Duane and anyone interested can contact him at: summerfan43 AT yahoo.com)  I think as more dates are announced, I'll set up a page for fans who want to meet up at the various shows.  I did that a couple years ago and some of you seemed to enjoy that.  :-)

[FEB 9] Before I get to the Donna news (and yes there is some  :-) ) let me start with a couple of announcements. First of all, fans of Bruce Sudano and Mary Bernard will want to see the Family Matters section below.  And fans (or enemies  LOL) of Ken will want to check out his new Ken's Korner. 

[FEB 9] Okay - let me start with this.  Somebody has seen the new release sheet from Sony. It lists Crayons by Donna Summer with a May 6 release. But before you freak out (I know, it's too late, you already did!  LOL) - please keep in mind that this could be subject to change without notice, AND this date has not been confirmed anywhere else yet.  This was too big not to report, but I still think we should call this a rumor and nothing more for the moment.  Having said that, I am told that we should be getting some news "soon." (And I put "soon" in quotes because time is relative, and when it comes to new CD info, even 5 minutes can seem like an eternity.  LOL)

[FEB 9] Here's a little warning for you guys in Austin, Texas.  The South By Southwest music festival has announced its line up. On the list if DJ Donna Summer - which is that other guy.  So if you run into publicity for that, it's not our Donna. 

[FEB 9] Back to the land of OUR Donna.  :-)  She was on Majic 102.7 in Fort Lauderdale in a phone interview.  The easiest thing to do here is just quote the report I was sent. (Thanks Steve!) "The local 60s/70s oldies station Majic 102.7 has been advertising Donna's concerts here and interviewed her by phone this morning after 9am. They talked to Bruce also. It was about 15 minutes long. By coincidence, the morning DJs names are Bruce and Donna. She laughed about that and sounded great. They asked her about the website, tour, and new CD!!! She said the website should be up in few weeks and they were tired of the old one. This is the tail end of this tour she said, so these concerts won't be much different from the last few. She will change the concert once the CD is released. They asked her about the name of the new CD, she didn't have the name of yet. She talked about Neil Bogart and Casablanca, and how he shot her career into orbit back then, and 3 songs on the new CD are being produced by Neil's son (forgot his name). They talked to Bruce for a few minutes, his new CD will be out in few weeks and a single is being released to AC radio shortly.

They asked what's it's like being married to Donna, he said she's very creative and it's very interesting. The best part of the interview was the end. Bruce (the DJ) told Donna she was robbed by Madonna getting into the Hall of Fame before her, and without her there would be no Madonna. She was very gracious and said she was honored to be nominated and maybe after the new CD she'll have another chance. That's about all I can remember."

[FEB 9] Anyone looking for some Donna tunes on the net, check out this megamix by P.J. Farrauto.  You have a choice of the 18 minute version or the 9 minute version. Or check out this blog with the 12" version of With Your Love.

[FEB 9] Here's one for you 12" collectors out there. (I'm talking about MUSIC here guys, this is a more or less family friendly site after all.  ;-) ) Universal has been reissuing some of Donna's 12" singles with the original Casablanca sleeves. So far they have issued MacArthur Park Suite/Last Dance, Hot Stuff/Bad Girls, and I Feel Love/Love To Love You.

[FEB 9] In the Donna is everywhere category, once again her music was a category on Don't Forget The Lyrics. This time the contestant picked that category because he said that the crowd was demanding it.  :-)  The guy won by knowing that the missing lyrics in She Works Hard For The Money were "treat her right."

[FEB 9] And that brings us to the web news for the week.  Over on YouTube, look for new classic clips from ingressolibero, fzkny, summerholiday44, and Sandro.

[FEB 3] Let me start off with a dedication.  Many of you remember Tom Gilliam from the fan club. Well, I got a  message from him this week with a special request that I dedicate a certain song to the memory of his mother who passed away last week. So this update is dedicated to Mary Bell Gilliam, may she rest in peace:

[FEB 3] For those who don't know, yesterday was Groundhog Day and unfortunately Punxsutawney Phil, the official groundhog, saw his shadow so that's supposed to mean that we are in for 6 more weeks of winter. I just want to say that if that causes the new CD to be delayed 6 weeks, then I'm going to go to Punxsutawney and make that groundhog into a coat!   LOL  But on the bright side, I did want to mention that while there aren't too many concrete facts yet, the album IS coming.  :-)  And just as importantly - there are a ton more tour dates yet to be announced, so look for this to be a very busy summer.  (Not to mention Summer.)  ;-)

[FEB 3] Someone sent me a link this week of Donna albums that are currently available for sale in France.  I'm not sure if I should be scared or amused that the first one that pops up if a Shout It Out collection.   On a side note, I think we're overdue for a new Shout It Out collection.  I'm betting we see at least one shortly after the new CD comes out. LOL

[FEB 3] So here's one for the Donna ISN'T everywhere category.  LOL  CMT's blog has an entry about journalistic accuracy and a story that went astray years ago. It seems that back about the time Amanda was born, some paper printed a report that one of the Oak Ridge Boys had just broken off his engagement to Donna. Well, the story was only partly right. It turns out the guy was engaged to a woman named Donna SummerS.  Which just goes to show that my teachers back in school were right - spelling does count.  ;-)

[FEB 3] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on YouTube, check out the DJ Jimmy M and Frank Mendez mix of One Of A Kind, a live clip of Melody Of Love, and a clip of Dinner With Gershwin. On Multiply, Jeffrey has posted a couple of extended mixes, Jorge has posted some of his drawings and photos of Philippe's exhibition in Guadalajara, and Scott has posted a couple of his mixes.

[FEB 1] It's that time again - time for a new Summer Fever page.  :-) This month I'm putting She Works Hard For The Money in the spotlight and I'm dedicating it to all my coworkers in the pharmacy because of all the chaos we are dealing with now.  (If anyone at your job ever tells you that a systems "upgrade" will go smoothly, you can probably call them either a liar or extremely naive. LOL)  While I'm here, I'll throw a couple of news items at you too as a warm up for Sunday.  :-)  And to start that off, Mary Bernard fans need to hop down to the Family Matters section for details on her new album.

[FEB 1] While I'm here, I thought I'd kick up the Summer Fever around here just a tiny notch.  ;-) The Hollywood Bowl website has a little promo for Donna's concerts there. It's just the usual little promo thing, but the important thing is that it mentions that in addition to the hits, Donna will be singing songs from her new CD.  :-)  So my question is, is it way too soon for me to camp out in front of my local record store?    ;-)  I will be back Sunday with the official weekly update - working on the site will be a welcome refuge from the football game.  LOL (For those outside the US - Sunday is the Super Bowl when even people who rarely watch a game tune in. So far, I have a perfect record for missing every Super Bowl game that has ever been played in my lifetime and I don't plan to change that now.  LOL)

[JAN 30] Hello Los Angeles! I just got word from one of the regular local boys that Donna will be at the Hollywood Bowl on August 22 and 23. (That's a Friday and Saturday.) Ticket info is yet to be announced, but he says it should be soon and of course they will be offered to subscribers first.  :-) (So if you are not a subscriber - go make friends with one now.  ;-) )   I'll be back later this week with the full update - including some big Mary Bernard news.  :-)

[JAN 27] I guess the best place to start is with new CD info.  :-)  No, we don't have a release date, but we have a blog entry that mentions a new song that is "gorgeous." (And that leads me to the obvious question - is it Spring yet??   ;-) )

[JAN 27] Just a note for Ticketmaster users (which I think is most of us in the USA),  if you click the iTunes link on their artist page for Donna - the first item up is the album Heaven In My Eyes which they credit as a Donna Summer album.  It is, of course, the Twiggy album produced by Donna and Juergen Koppers. But it's nice to see it listed as readily available.  :-)

[JAN 27] Speaking of Ticketmaster, someone showed me an article this week listing Donna's Florida concert date as February 19 at the Bank Atlantic Center.  That's not correct - the dates are still February 16 and 17. (And it is me, or are an awful lot of venues being sponsored by banks lately?)

[JAN 27] Here's one I mean to mention on the last update - JustCircuit.com has announced the winners of their awards and Hall Of Fame.  They voted Donna's performance at the One Mighty Weekend event as the "Performance Of The Year." (I knew those guys had great taste!)

[JAN 27] In the Donna is everywhere category, she got a couple of unusual mentions this week. One was a throwaway line in an article about economics and taxes.  The relevant part is: "Ron Paul would also eliminate taxes on capital gains and eliminate taxes on tips. That last one is a big deal to a lot of hard working single mothers, college students, heck, anyone living off of tips works hard for the money. (Ask Donna Summer)." The other was in an article about a list of  "ideologically harmful" groups that was compiled back in 1985 by the Communist Party's youth wing in the Ukraine. Donna made the list (along with my #2 diva, Tina Turner) for promoting eroticism and sex.  (Hey! I never thought I Believe In Jesus was that sexy......      ;-) )

[JAN 27] That brings us to the web news for the week.  Over at Ning.com, the whole xmultiplied site vanished. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm taking Ning off my Christmas card list.  ;-)  On Multiply, Jeffrey has posted a few new goodies for your listening pleasure. And on YouTube we have some classic clips posted by fzkny, Antonturboton and aalphan.

[JAN 27] And finally on a personal note, I'd like to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Adrian Parrado who just turned 5 this week. (Or some age that ended in a 5 anyway.  ;-) )   I hope you had a big party!!! (Or are you saving that for the concerts next month?  ;-) )

[JAN 20] I'm going to start off this week with some annoying news. Some of you remember the artist Jason Forrest who sometimes goes by the name "Donna Summer."  He stopped using it for awhile, but now he's coming out with a new album that will be credited to "DJ Donna Summer". He's also going to be performing live at a few places this year.  So any reference you run into to an album called Panther Tracks is about him and NOT our Donna.  And any concert dates you run into that are for unusual venues should be investigated before you buy your tickets. I'll sort stuff out as I run into it too.

[JAN 20] On to the real diva....  :-)  A little bit more has surfaced about the upcoming album. One of the people Donna is working with is "hip-hop violinist" Miri Ben-Ari. There are no details on the songs yet, but in an interview, Miri said "it's going to be amazing." (This is doing absolutely nothing to curb my impatience.  Is it spring yet?  ..... How about now?    LOL) 

[JAN 20] In remix news, DanceRecords.com now has Britney Spears vs. Donna: Breathe On Me/I Feel Love and the Castelli & Bravetti mix of I Feel Love.

[JAN 20] In the Donna is everywhere category, a UK show called This Morning had a little quiz the other day, and the question was, "Who sang the original hit song Hot Stuff in 1979?" They gave 3 choices for the answer: "A. Donna Winter, B. Donna Spring, or C. Donna Summer." (Of course the answer Donna Autumn.... hey wait! Why wasn't she a choice?   ;-) )

[JAN 20] Also in the Donna is everywhere category, the USA Today Listen Up blog has a little about Donna's record sales. 

[JAN 20] In radio news, Orlando radio station Sunny 105.9 has a poll where listeners can pick their favorite artist. Donna is one of the choices.

[JAN 20] That brings us up to the web news for the week. Fancast.com has a section for Donna's TV and DVD appearances. It's a nice list, but be warned that some of the things listed only feature Donna's music.  TV.com also has a section on Donna that has several photos where Donna bears an astounding resemblance to Diana Ross.  ;-) Over on Multiply, Marcel and Jeffrey have each posted a few goodies, and at YouTube check out Philippe, fzny and venezuelaplc for even more goodies. On  Myspace, Christopher has set up a new Donna Summer discussion group for anyone who would like to join.  Also in the land of new sites, Jay has gotten fed up with Multiply and started a Donna/Giorgio group on xmultiplied.ning.com and Rocky has a new Donna blog on iMeem.com. At this rate, the whole internet will be taken over by Donna and her fans!  [Insert maniacal laughter here.]  ;-)

[JAN 13] The 2008 concert dates are already starting to show up. :-)  Now we can add Highland Park, IL to the list on August 30 at the Ravinia Festival. Look for those tickets to go on sale this spring.

[JAN 13] Also in concert news, I have a fan named Gareth who was supposed to go to the concert in Florida on February 16. Unfortunately for him, real life has intervened and now he's looking for someone who would like to take the ticket. There is one little hitch - he was supposed to pick up his ticket at "Will Call", so I don't know if that will make it too difficult to transfer ownership of the ticket.  But if you want to give it a shot, contact Gareth at garyidavies AT aol DOT com.

[JAN 13] In sad news, Johnny Grant (honorary mayor of Hollywood) passed away this week at the age of 84. Many of you will remember him as the man who presided over the ceremony when Donna got her star on the Walk Of Fame.

[JAN 13] I Feel Love fans - there is a nice article about the song (along with a couple of video clips) posted on the Disco Delivery blog. There are a lot of nice comments to go with the article.

[JAN 13] Moving on to the Donna is everywhere category, she gets a mention in a German bestseller called Ich bin dann mal weg - Meine Reise auf dem Jakobsweg by Hape Kerkeling. In the book he mentions singing All Through The Night during his pilgrimage on the St. Jacob's Trail. If you listen to the audio book, he actually sings at least part of it.

[JAN 13] And in the Donna's music is everywhere category, the new movie Charlie Wilson's War features Bad Girls pretty prominently in a bar scene.

[JAN 13] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on Multiply we have  a BBC Radio 2 special on I Feel Love posted on the Apollo Zero Jukebox page. (Nose around his page a little and you will see that heexplains how to save the files if you are so inclined.  ;-) ) Also check out Hank's page for  his paintings of Donna and some mixes, and Patrice's page for his mix of Now I Need You. Over on YouTube, look for videos of Donna at the One Mighty Party concert from last year, a performance of This Time I Know It's For Real from French television, and a cute "cover" of Cold Love by one of Donna's younger fans.  ;-)

[JAN 6] I guess the best place to start is with a little release news. (No - not the announcement you are hoping for.  LOL)  Dave Koz is putting out a DVD version of his At The Movies CD within the next month or so. I don't know if it will include all the music from the CD yet, but I read an interview where Dave mentions recording  a show inside Capitol Records with Barry Manilow, Anita Baker, Johnny Mathis and Vanessa Williams. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see what other details turn up. (I believe the show is also supposed to air on PBS later this year - probably during a pledge drive.  So watch your local listings for that.)

[JAN 6] In annoying TV news, the Night Of Proms broadcast from December 31 won't be available online for us to watch. Apparently the TV company only bought the rights to play it on the air and not on the internet.  Someone who was able to watch said they aired Hot Stuff, Bad Girls and Last Dance. Too bad they left out the rest. 

[JAN 6] In the Donna is everywhere category, she gets a mention in another article about music that was banned (at one time) on BBC radio. She also got a mention in an article in Guideposts about a woman who started a walk aerobics class. She cited Donna's music as good to walk to.

[JAN 6] This is sort of old news in that I linked to the article last week, but the New Pittsburgh Courier article about the Rock Hall Of Fame has a few more comments added - and not all of them are from the usual suspects. I'd say Bob Davis hit a nerve.  :-) I got an email from him earlier this week in response to all the comments and apparently there have been a bunch of emails too.  ANd Bob sees this as a good thing. He said (in part):  "This activity around the injustice done to Donna Summer is a good indicator to me.
If more people care, then the processes that surround the honoring of artists will improve and become more fair.
As long as people don't care, then nothing will change...  In other words - if you keep speaking up, maybe somebody will hear.  :-)

[JAN 6] For those interested in the Philippine production of The Queen Of Disco: A Musical Tribute To Donna Summer thet I mentioned a couple weeks ago, you can check out the show's website and you can see clips on YouTube.

[JAN 6] I think that brings us up to the web news for the week. Over on Multiply, Jay has posted a number of Donna mixes and even some Giorgio stuff for the Moroder fans out there. Jeffrey has posted his first video attempt, and Steve has posted a video clip of Donna singing a cover of Joe Cocker's You Are So Beautiful from Night Of The Proms. Over on YouTube, look for videos of Ain't No Mountain High Enough (the finale from Diva 2000 - a great clip for fans of both Donna and Diana Ross  :-) ), and a classic clip of Love To Love You. 

[JAN 1] Happy New Year everybody! It's officially 2008, so where is the new CD?!!  ;-)  (Just teasing - I know we have to wait until spring.) But since it is a new month, it is time to update the Summer Fever page. So this time I decided to put Another Place And Time in the spotlight. In other news, I finally fixed the spellchecker on my web software so maybe there will be a few less stupid typos.  LOL

[DEC 30] Welcome to the last update for 2007. I can't believe the year is over already!  Of course that means that we can go full speed ahead into 2008, and as someone told me recently, fasten your seatbelts.  :-)   Before I get to Donna, I just want to say 2 things.  First, I have some news for Mary's fans in the Family Matters section below. And the other thing is that I will be back on some time Tuesday with the Summer Fever pick.

[DEC 30] Moving on to something time sensitive - if you can listen to Italy's RAI Radio2 (either on the radio or on the computer), they will be airing an interview and concert with Gloria Gaynor at 9:30 PM local time. Before you all yell at me and say "WRONG DIVA!"  ;-) she does talk about Donna at one point in the show. If you choose to tune in via the internet and Italian isn't your language - the link you are looking for says "Ascolta Live".

[DEC 30] In the Donna is everywhere category, a round up of happenings in Florida mentioned Donna's February show in a  very cool quote:  "The first gig going on about town that simply must be mentioned first and foremost is the Feb. 17th Donna Summer concert at the Bank Atlantic Centre. Now, this woman is on fire and has been smokin’ hot since the seventies. If she can’t get your mind off your troubles, then I’m afraid you may be hopeless."  :-) Also, Donna's gotten a mention in about 8 billion (so far  LOL) articles that list the upcoming celebrity birthdays. And if you can stand one more Rock And Roll Hall of Fame article - there is a good one at the New Pittsburgh Courier site.

[DEC 30] Speaking of Donna's birthday, if you are on Facebook, there are 2 Donna Summer groups.  One is Donna Summer Rocks and the other is just called Donna Summer. Nik at the "Donna Summer" group has designed and posted a birthday card for Donna, so check that out if you get a chance. (I gave the link for the group, but I don't think it will work unless you are logged in to your Facebook account.

[DEC 30] If you have a little time off for the New Year's holiday and want to spend it surfing the web, check uot the IMDB entry for Donna. They list a whole bunch of TV and soundtrack appearances - AND it looks like they finally ditched that incorrect entry for the movie Coming To America.  Also, Rock On The Net has a really detailed timeline of Donna's career that's worth looking at.

[DEC 30] And here's a weird one for you, Donna got a mention on TMZ when they mentioned playing This Time I Know It's For Real on a kazoo.  (Hmmmm - maybe a whole album of kazoo covers would make a great Summer Fever pick for April 1?   ;-) )  (For those who might not know what a kazoo is - check it out on the Wikipedia.)

[DEC 30] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on YouTube, look for new videos posted by fzkny and Philippe.  And at Multiply, look for new stuff posted by Shawn and Jeffrey.  (Note, Jeffrey's url has changed - he had some problems with his old account.)

[DEC 22] Since this will be the last update before Christmas (unless something important comes up) let me tae the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! (Or if Christmas isn't your thing - have a very happy Tuesday!  :-) )  And please do me one favor - if you are out partying, keep in mind that alcohol and driving don't go well together. 

[DEC 22] I'm sure some of you remember that Donna turned up on Toby Gad's video blog a couple of months ago. Well, he's posted his special Christmas edition of the blog (part 1) and he's got Donna on that too. (She's the first celeb up, so you can't miss her.  :-) )

[DEC 22] Users of the site Gay Romeo have voted for their Donna Summer top 20 for 2007. (You have to be a member to access it though.)

[DEC 22] In the Donna is everywhere category, she was on ET's Insider the other day. I missed it, but it sounded like they dragged out the footage from 2003 with Donna talking about recording with Barbra, and about depression.  Also in the Donna is everywhere category,  TheDay.com posted an article about what Santa keeps in his iPod. One of the songs mentioned was She Works Hard For The Money. (Go Santa!  ;-) )

[DEC 22] In the world of covers, the movie Priscilla Queen Of The Desert was turned into a stage musical in Melbourne, Australia recently. The soundtrack is now available for sale and it includes covers of Hot Stuff and MacArthur Park. And on an ice skating special that aired today, Brian Boitano and others skated to the music of Barry Manilow. Barry was there performing live for the skaters and for the finale he did Could It Be Magic. The reason I'm calling that a cover is that he did the disco version of the song. So I guess you could say that Barry was doing a cover of Donna's cover of his song. (Did I just make your head explode trying to work that out?  LOL)

[DEC 22] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over at Multiply,  there are new things posted by Philippe, Jeffrey, and Patrice. And on YouTube, check out the posting frenzy of DonnaSummerBR.  Or if the David Vendetta mix of Love To Love You is more your speed - that is now posted on YouTube as well.

[DEC 19] At long last the E-Greetings page is complete! Thanks to everyone who wrote. This has become a fun tradition here at the site thanks to all your participation. :-)

[DEC 19] As long as I'm here I'm going to do part of the regular update now in case things get a bit crazy this weekend.  :-)  To start things off, Ken has a new Ken's Korner for you. I also have another Rock Hall Of Fame article added to the list below. 

[DEC 19] The 2008 dates are starting to trickle in apparently.  :-) Pollstar reports that Donna will be at L'Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino in Lake Charles, LA on June 27 and 28, 2008.  It's not listed on the casino's website yet, but I'll be keeping an eye on that. 

[DEC 19] If you are in the Phillipines and are looking for a Donna fix, check out the new stage musical, The Queen Of Disco: A Musical Tribute To Donna Summer. It premiere's December 31 at Onstage Greenbelt 1with Jenine Desiderio playing Donna. Inquirer.net has an interview with Jenine posted on the site.

[DEC 19] In the Donna is everywhere category, she gets a mention in a Telegraph article about songs and lyrics that were banned by the BBC. (Hmmmm, maybe this actually falls into the category of "Donna isn't everywhere"?  LOL)

[DEC 19] I'll be back this weekend with all the web news and whatever else turns up between now and then. :-)

[DEC 15] If you have RealPlayer and want to listen to a little Donna while reading this update, check out Soul Patrol's internet radio show - the Donna edition of course.  ;-)

[DEC 15] So, the big news is still the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductions.  I know most of us are disappointed that Donna didn't get in this time, but personally I'm finding a little humor in the whole situation.  If you were reading the various music blogs when the nominees were announced, there were a bunch of people complaining that Donna (and others) shouldn't have been nominated at all  because she's not rock enough, or because [insert name of any rock band] should have been nominated first. And now that the official inductees for 2008 have been announced, the blogs are all saying Donna was robbed and she should be in the Hall Of Fame.  Talk about a 180 degree change!  LOL  (Hmmm - maybe that's the REAL purpose of the induction process - it's to make people argue!  LOL) I'll put links to some of the latest Hall Of Fame articles in the media section below, and for those who still would like to see the ceremony - it will air live on VH1 Classic on March 10. (And I REALLY hope Madonna sings her Future Lovers/I Feel Love medley.  ;-) )

[DEC 15] You have just a few more days to get your E-Greetings to Donna in to me. Just send your message to webmaster@donna-tribute.com and put something obvious like "e-greeting" in the subject line, and I'll post your message. The deadline is the 19th, so get writing!  :-)

[DEC 15] That brings us up to the web news for the week. Over at Donna Summertime, Sebastiano has finally updated his Donna Top 40. A Whole New World makes an amazingly high debut!  Over at YouTube, Sandro has posted some new VLADIS Art video mixes. And on Multiply, look for new mixes from Patrice, Jeffrey, and Denis.

[DEC 13] Well I said I'd be back today.  Only I was hoping to be back for a celebration.  :-(  The 2008 inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are Leonard Cohen, The Dave Clark Five, Madonna, John Mellencamp, and The Ventures.  Well, there is always 2009.....

[DEC 8] Let me start off this week by saying that the announcement for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees has been moved up to December 13. So I will definitely be updating that day.  :-)  In the meantime, keep all your fingers and toes crossed that the Hall Of Fame voters recognize what WE'VE all known for years.  

[DEC 8] In release news, Dutch fans should be on the lookout for a Night Of The Proms 2007 CD. It will have tracks by Il Novecento, Kide Creole, Macy Gray, John Miles, and of course Donna. She's got the final 2 tracks : MacArthur Park and State Of Independence.

[DEC 8] In the Donna is everywhere category, she gets a brief mention in Billboard.com's Chartbeat Chat (November 30) in questions about the Eagles.  She also gets a quick mention in a short review of the American Bandstand 50th Anniversary box set. 

[DEC 8] And finally, in web news this week - the guys have been a little busy.  ;-)  On YouTube, Sandro has posted 3 new classic clips, and fzkny has posted his Black Lady mix. On Multiply, Carlybabes has posted his Christmas greeting to everyone, Patrice has posted a few new tracks, Denis has posted a medley of Donna ballads, and Philippe has posted 5 new clips.  If that doesn't keep you busy this week, I don't know what will!   ;-)

[DEC 8] Don't forget to get your E-Greetings in!  The deadline is the 19th.  :-) 

[DEC 2] Well, this is a special update. Not because of what I have to say this week, but because my new computer arrived the other day and I got it set up (mostly) in time to do the update on it. This might mean a whole new set of typos!  LOL  

[DEC 2] Let's go back to Holland again. First of all, I've added more fan reports to the Night Of Proms page. I have some good news about the NOTP telecast on New Year's Eve -  it will most likely be streamed online after the initial broadcast. I'll get you more details on that as soon as I get them.  :-)  And if you go to the NOTP website, they have a nice new photo of Donna right there on the main page where you can't possibly miss it.  :-)

[DEC 2] In Hall Of Fame news, the voting is over and the inductees will be announced next month. John Mellancamp has announced that he received a call saying he was definitely inducted (not a surprise at all, in my opinion)  but my question is, how come he got called early? (And how do we get to find out early if Donna made the cut?  ;-) )

[DEC 2] In the Donna is everywhere category, an Inquirer.com article lists a number of artists who have performed corporate gigs and they mentioned Donna performing a killer version of I Feel Love for a mid-90s show for Computer Shopper Magazine. 

[DEC 2] That brings us to the web news for the week. Over on Multiply, Patrice is in full Christmas mode with a new mix and a new holiday photo montage. And at YouTube, Philippe has posted a new animation of Sentimental, and fzkny has posted his new video for There Will Always Be A You. 

[DEC 2] And on a final note - there is still just over 2 weeks to get your E-Greetings for Donna in.  The deadline is the 19th, so get writing!   :-)

[DEC 2] Oops - in my excitement to move files and see if Frontpage would play nicely with Windows Vista, I almost forgot that it's time for the new Summer Fever pick. To the surprise of absolutely no one, it's Christmas Spirit.  ;-)

[NOV 25] Before I get to the news I have a little site news for you.  First of all, I have some Taihisha news in the Family Matters section below. I've also been working on the E-Greetings page (for the 135 snoops who have checked in there so far  LOL), and I've added a couple of fan reports and a bunch of photos from Holland. Tonight is Donna's last night performing at the Night Of Proms, so it's a good time to thank all the Dutch fans who have been keeping me in the loop the last couple weeks. You guys rock! (I'm talking to you Frank and Tom - I probably could have made a whole email folder just for you!  LOL) By the way - there is still plenty of time to send in your greetings, so get writing!

[NOV 25] So, I guess I should get the bad news out of the way first... the single that was supposed to happen next month is not happening now. They found out just the other day, and honestly I'm not surprised.  With the CD coming out in May (2008 for the wise guys out there  ;-) ), I think a single now would be a bit premature.  It's better to get the buzz going a little closer to the release date. (Disclaimer: that's the opinion of a pharmacy technician and not a music business insider, so what do I know?  LOL)

[NOV 25] The other bit of bad news is that according to Donna's camp, the Tasha Smith biopic is not happening. (See Oct. 29 below if you don't know what I'm talking about.) I know the interview indicated that Tasha was going to do the film even without Donna's input - but realistically, if they wanted to use the music then they need permission, and there's no way they would get that without Donna checking out the script. 

[NOV 25] Okay, I'm done depressing you.  ;-)  On to more fun stuff, we have another Dutch interview out there on ad.nl. (If you use Google to translate it for you, I found that it didn't want to just translate the whole page for some reason. It worked much better if I just cut and pasted the text into the Google page.)

[NOV 25] In release news, EMI has put out 2 new compilations in Australia. They are Rocktober and Classic Hits. There is supposed to be a Donna track on the Classic Hits compilation, but I haven't been able to find a track listing for that one yet. In fact, I haven't found that one at all on the online music stores - at least, I couldn't find a Classic Hits compilation that I knew was the right one for sure. Rocktober doesn't have Donna on it, but it was released at the same time as Classic Hits and is much easier to search for. (My theory is that a retailer that has one will also have the other eventually.)

[NOV 25] In more Rock Hall news, the Cleveland Plain Dealer had a poll about this year's nominees, and just recently they published a few of the comments they got. An eighth-grader wrote in to say: <<The Rock Hall should induct Donna Summer, because she's obviously significant in the making of disco. From hits like "Last Dance" to "She Works Hard for the Money," Donna has sung it loud and clear with her powerful voice.>>  So I guess there really are some smart kids out there!  :-)  (For the international readers, an eighth-grader would be about 13 or 14 years old.)

[NOV 25] That brings us up to the web news for the week. Over on YouTube, fznky has posted some new clips, Philippe has posted a Christmas animation, and if you search for "Donna Summer" you will find a couple of cl