The Barn Blog

Our speaker was Tom McCandless, an investment professional with over 25 years of experience, including over 20 years as a nationally ranked institutional financial services analyst. Tom gave us a detailed history of the stock market and shared his perspective on today’s financial crisis. He referred to much of what we’re going through as “unchartered territory” yet showed how certain aspects follow predictable trends. He explained the difference between Technical and Fundamental Analysis and gave some advice on how much of ones portfolio should be invested in the stock market. Tom’s PowerPoint Presentation, including his stock recommendations can be found in the Investments area of this website (lower right).

Sgt. John Cullen, USMC (retired) gave an exciting presetation on Military History. He began with a short biography of his military career and told some engaging stories. John described his passion for military history and gave a presentation on the history of the conflict in the Middle East, beginning with the story of Abraham from the Old Testament. Some of the audience members chimed in on occasion, filling in some blanks and challenging certain statements. A lively discussion ensued, including an emotional viewpoint from Khalil, who is of Palestinian descent and was born and raised in the Middle East. Afterwards, Mike Palumbo gave a brief talk on his experience in the Navy, serving on board the U.S.S. Stark. He brought some memoribilia and told some entertaining stories. This was probably the most well attended barn night to date, with over 35 men, some of them staying until 3am.

Classic Car Night was presented by Ken Martin. We had 3 cars: A 1967 Corvette, a 1967 Chevelle SS, and a 1972 Buick Skylark. The owners of the cars each gave a 20 minute presentation as we gathered around.

Charles Hayes, local resident and founding member of the barn led a discussion on the subject of drugs — legal, illegal, over-the-counter, and prescription. He discussed their relative dangers and benefits, and policies that could increase awareness about them while reducing their harm. Charles focused on the topic of psychedelic plants and chemicals, some of which are used legally in religious ceremonies and are once again being used in legal scientific research to treat such medical issues as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) in victims of violent crime and war, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), cluster headaches, opiate and alcohol addiction, and end of life depression and anxiety.

An open discussion ensued in which there was some controversy, especially from two attendees who are former law enforcement agents. Of particular interest was how best to talk about drugs with young people. For the most part everyone kept an open mind and left with some good information and new ideas. After the presentation, Charles gave out signed copies of his book, Tripping: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures.

Jim Fatsi from Motion Golf, who is a PGA teaching professional told us about his state-of-the-art technology for analyzing and improving your golf swing. Jim shared some of the most common mistakes golfers make and how to correct them. He answered numerous questions about stances, swings, putting and ways of improving one’s game. As a courtesty Jim extended a limited 25% off promomotion to all friends of the barn. For details see the lower right section of this blog entitled “Golf”. A highlight of the evening was the police arriving at 1am and ordering the Barn Band to unplug.

   

Peter Tocco, local resident and barn goer lead a presentation on the Martial Arts. Peter has been training in the Martial Arts for over thirty years has attained the rank of 6th degree black belt in Goju Ryu karate.  Peter’s training has taken him across the Unites States and abroad as both a martial arts competitor and as a self defense instructor for several federal law enforcement agencies and specialized military units.  Peter was also the owner and chief instructor of the House of Karate II Dojo (school) where he taught children, teens and adults for over five years before professional commitments made it impossible for him to maintain his teaching duties.

Peter spoke to us about many aspects of the various martial arts including their origin, differences and modern day development. He focused on practical applications, the physical and spiritual impact, and selecting the best style for ones needs.  There was a question and answer session and some impressive demonstrations. We ended with some board breaking where besides Peter, three volunteers broke boards with their hands.

Mike Palumbo attended his first barn night a month ago and he immediately offerred to host an event. Mike was a police officer for a number of years and then became a lawyer. So he was able to share his unique perspective with us. He began the talk with a general discussion of estate planning, a topic of particular concern to those of us with again parents. We talked about wills, irrevocable trusts, gifting and various strategies for passing on inheritances and protecting assets. Then Mike shared some practical information about DWI and DUI law. What to say and not to say to the police officer. When to take or refuse the breatholizer test. The presentation ended with a lively discussion about prostitition and how police in Westchester are setting up sting operations for both prostitutes and men who frequent them. All in all it was an informative talk and we all left with a lot more knowlege of the law than when we arrived.