Welcome to the website.

IT'S A FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY TODAY.

But first, it's Friday so I wanna let all of you here in New York City know that I have all the paperwork to be sharing music and laughs with you guys in Central Park tomorrow afternoon. Let's keep our fingers crossed for the weather. I missed you guys last weekend, so I'm really looking forward to putting my guitar on my shoulder and hangin' out.

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YES, I WILL BE IN CENTRAL PARK TOMORROW! Hope I see you out there!

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Now, today's update is for everyone... all of you here in NYC and those who are checking in here from different parts of the country and different parts of the world.

Y'see, I wanna say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SID, MAN!

I wrote a song called "Keep Hope Alive". I wanna tell you how that song came to be. Ever see this guy hangin' out there with us. (He's out there with us almost every week.)

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That guy in the park... his name is Sid. Today is my good friend Sid's birthday. Sid is a very cool man.... done some really cool things to change this world.

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If you wanna smile today, keep reading and then watch the video a little further down the page.

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ABOUT SID BERNSTEIN!

Like it said in the song, he's a "possibility-junkie", just like me.

To me personally, he started out years ago being an anonymous fan on "The Hill", but now we're very close, and he's beloved by so many people on "The Hill" in Central Park. He's there almost every week. He'll probably be with us tomorrow, But Sid doesn't ever check the internet. So, I will print out any birthday messages you guys send and deliver them to him personally. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Y'see, Sid is living an amazing life. Seriously. He's done so much to make this world a better place it's just amazing and he keeps dreaming new dreams. (That's one reason I put his name on so many things I do.)

But, for the few of you who don't know... Sid changed American music history forever when he introduced The Beatles to America.

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Besides that, he brought The Rolling Stones here... ABBA... countless others. He also played such a huge and underrated role in breaking the racial barriers down in this country by being the first promoter to book white and black acts on the same rock 'n roll bill. (He also made James Brown the very first rock n soul act in Madison Square Garden.) He discovered and managed The Rascals. He's also been humbly on the front lines of political activism from the rise of the Nazis, to the current corruption of the American government, from the civil rights movement to the recent assault on The Constitution... he speaks with presidential candidates and people who have no voice. And he has always spoken out where and when there's been a need. Over his lifetime, he's been some amazing places with some amazing people. (Anyway... you just hafta read his book.)

So, Sid has been a promoter, a producer, a manager, an activist for Truth and Reason... he's been immersed in the music business his whole, long life. But he's never played one note and... he's never written a song.

Until now.

Sid calls me about 5 times a day... just to say hello, or to send Love, or to chat about food. But mostly he calls to share another BIG dream with me. He's still making plans to make this world a better place... every day. One day Sid left a message on my voice mail that became the inspiration and hook-lyric for the song I mentioned. This particular day, instead of leaving one of his patented 5-minute messages, left this... just a few words... and all he said this day was,

"David - -
Keep hope alive. The best is yet to come. Keep... hope... alive.
It's Sid"

And then he hung up.

So, I wrote a song and it's on my most recent album. I wrote it because I wanted it to be the first song in this world on which the credits will read as follows.

Words and Music: Sid Bernstein and David Ippolito

It's today's FREE download. If he's in the park with us tomorrow, let's all sing it for him for his birthday!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE SONG

Cool?

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Okay... if you wanna send Sid a Happy Birthday message, SEND IT HERE and I'll pass it on.

Cool?

Alright.

But of all the song I've written, one of Sid's most favorite is a song called "Next Time Around".

He loves it so much that one day in Central Park... I got him to sing it for the crowd! Check out this video. (Now, the audio is a little shaky in the beginning. It was a windy day. but stick with it and you won't be sorry. I think it'll make you smile today.)

Click to watch video

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Now, you might be one of the people who's checking in here for the first time. (There are always a bunch of newcomers here at the site, especially in the Summer season. Bookmark it every day and check back. I'm gonna start bring more video to this page again very soon.)

GIMME A SHOUT HERE!

(Actually, gimme a shout for any reason at all!)

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I'm a lucky man.

If you're new you can always go back and browse through THE ARCHIVE as far back as you wanna go. I mean... thanks to my friend, my webmaster, and resident evil genius James Marino, you can historically go back through this website all the way back through the Bush years right up until the present. It's really kinda freaky how much content is here on this site.... cartoons, free songs, Photoshop images. Very cool.

And the Photo Galleries just keep growing. (Maybe you're in there!!!).

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AND HERE'S A REALLY FUN GALLERY FROM LAST SUMMER!!!

Click to visit last year's gallery

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BTW -- "The Something'th Annual Year End Concert" is booked for Saturday night, December 10th. I know it's early, but I wanted to let you know if you're one of those people who travel down from Buffalo, or in from Pennsylvania, or Maryland, or Germany just for this gig.

The internet has made the world a very small campus and that's a really cool thing. Mostly, if you check back at this website every day, I hope you feel that... "It's Just Us" feeling. You're not alone.

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That "Broadway" thing...

Okay now you can find out how YOU can be a part of this new project here.

In a nutshell, we're putting together something that we hope is headed for Broadway or... Jupiter... or... I don't know. But it's gonna be done someplace. Broadway legend, TONY WALTON, a man who has more Tony Awards and Academy Awards than I have socks, is behind it 100%... so now it's just about getting the right team together and working it. I'll be inviting all of you to another one of those small, unplugged work sessions very soon, so keep checking back. The last 2 filled up in a matter of hours.

Here's a little 10-minute video from Tony and his wife... explaining the project.

Click to watch the video

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And here's a link to visit if YOU wanna be a real part of this process.

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Here are a couple of different fun galleries to check out.

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HAVE FUN TODAY!!!!!! (And be cool to each other, okay?)

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Thanks for everything.

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Peace ☮