Video published by Daniel’s Music Foundation here on YouTube (link is external)
Smile-o-meter Friday: Episode 1 (Friday, September 18, 2020)
[Upbeat Music – Smile-o-meter Friday Theme Song]
[Image of show’s logo in white text “Smile-o-meter Friday With Daniel & Ken” on a bright blue background with translucent white circles.]
[Image - Father and son duo, Ken and Daniel, seated in the “studio” in front of a cheery yellow wall, with a square Smile-o-meter Friday logo on the wall between them. Ken is on the right, wearing a blue color button-down shirt, and Daniel is on the left, wearing glasses and a burgundy color button-down shirt.]
[Daniel:] (Waving his right hand) Hi! I'm Daniel.
[Ken:] And I'm Ken, Daniel's dad. We're an unlikely duo who represent a couple of often overlooked stereotypes.
[Daniel:] (Tapping his right hand on his chest) Disability and…(cheekily pointing to Ken) Ageing.
[Ken:] (Smiling) Thanks for dragging that out, D.
[Daniel:] (Smiling) You're welcome.
[Ken:] In any case, we thought we'd do a video series called Smile-o-meter Friday
to bring a little sunshine into the world. So, who are we?
[Image – Photo of the Trush family in the boys’ bedroom with a poster of two NBA basketball players decorating the wall behind them: Ken with his wife Nancy, hugging their young sons, Daniel and Michael in round glasses.]
[Ken:] We were a very typical family.
[Image – Photo of Nancy with very young Daniel and Michael in front of a large round yellow slide at Sesame Place.]
[Ken:] I married my college sweetheart, Nancy, had two sons, Daniel and Michael,…
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio. Daniel is nodding and looking at Ken as Ken is speaking.]
[Ken:] …and we did all the normal things that families do. Until March 9th of 1997, when our whole world turned upside down. (Turning to face Daniel) Daniel, do you want to tell everyone what happened that day?
[Daniel:] (Nodding his head as Ken looks on) Sure. So, on March 9th of 1997, while I was playing basketball one Sunday afternoon at my school gym, one of my five undetected brain aneurysms burst inside my head.
[Image – Photo of a tired-looking Daniel sitting in a wheelchair in the hospital, with mom Nancy beside him, and both his grandmothers standing around his wheelchair.]
[Daniel:] I went into a coma, and I was in a coma for 30 days.
[Image – Photo of Daniel seated in a wheelchair in a different hospital room, with a brown-color strap across his forehead to steady his head against the headrest of the chair, with his father, brother and therapist flanking him. Five doctors and hospital staff are standing in the room looking on.]
[Daniel:] And I was in the hospital and rehab…
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Daniel:] …for a total of 341 days. But who's counting, am I right? (Daniel looks at Ken and they smile at each other.)
[Ken:] Actually, we were all counting. Our whole family. Mom, Mike, (looking at Daniel) we were with you those 341 days. Hoping, and praying that you would wake up, come home, and have a meaningful life. And look at you now.
[Image – Photo of Daniel in front of a stand-up microphone, singing on the stage at Guastavino’s Restaurant, the venue of Daniel’s Music Foundation’s Annual Spring Benefit, accompanied by DMF Artistic Director Gerry playing the guitar next to Daniel, and a string quartet from The Juilliard School seated towards the front of the stage.]
[Daniel:] Thank you.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] But you know, we truly are an unlikely duo.
[Image – A white vertical line appears in the middle of the screen separating them into two sides: Daniel on the left, Ken on the right. Daniel and Ken take turns speaking, turning from the camera to face each other as they banter back and forth. Words appear on the screen as they speak.]
[Daniel:] I like to sleep late.
[The words “Night Owl” are superimposed on Daniel’s side of the screen]
[Ken:] I like to get up early.
[The words “Early Bird” are superimposed on Ken’s side of the screen]
[Daniel:] I'm young...
[“iTunes” superimposed below “Night Owl”]
[Ken:] …and I'm old.
[“Vinyl” superimposed below “Early Bird”]
[Daniel:] I like to watch TV and funny movies…
[“TV & Movies” superimposed below “iTunes”]
[Ken:] …and I like to read.
[“Books” superimposed below “Vinyl”]
[Daniel:] I live in the moment…
[“In the Moment” superimposed below “TV & Movies”]
[Ken:] …and I'm analytical. I like to plan things out.
[“Spreadsheets” superimposed below “Books”]
[Daniel:] I get tons of hugs every day…
[“Hug Magnet” superimposed below “In the Moment”]
[Ken:] …and I get a few hugs every year.
[“High Fives” superimposed below “Spreadsheets”]
[Daniel:] I was born in Manhattan…
[“Manhattan” superimposed below “Hug Magnet”]
[Ken:] …and I was born over the bridge in Queens.
[“Bridge & Tunnel” superimposed below “High Fives”]
[Daniel:] I have a quick wit…
[“Costello” superimposed below “Manhattan”]
[Ken:] …and I'm your straight man.
[“Abbott” superimposed below “Bridge & Tunnel”]
[Image – Daniel and Ken back in the studio. The vertical white line and list of words disappear from the screen.]
[Daniel:] (Looking left towards Ken) With all of these differences, remind me again why we're doing this?
[Ken:] (Laughs) We actually do have a lot of things in common. We both love music.
[Yellow music notes, red heart shapes, pink plus signs and purple dots appear on screen in between Daniel and Ken]
[Ken:] We both love working out.
[Image of a man lifting weights appears on screen in between them]
[Ken:] We both love helping people.
[Image of a red heart cupped by two uplifted hands appear in between them]
[Ken:] And, we both love dunking chocolate chip cookies and milk.
[Image of a chocolate chip cookie dunked into a glass of milk appears in between them]
[Daniel:] Don't tell me you're gonna start talking about how you used to be able to dunk a basketball in high school and college.
[Image – Video of Ken and Daniel in the studio shrinks down to the bottom of the screen as Ken looks up holding his left hand to his chin, reminiscing about his younger days playing basketball competitively. A collage of three black & white photos of Ken in his basketball uniform appears around Daniel and Ken as the song “Best of My Love” by The Emotions plays: Ken sitting on the bench (left photo); Ken with his hand up on the basketball rim right after dunking the ball (middle photo); Ken with 3 teammates (right photo).]
[Daniel:] Snap out of it!
[Ken:] (Shaking his head) Sorry, sorry. I was having a flashback. Where was I?
[Daniel:] (Chuckling)
[Ken:] Oh, right. Right, right. We do have a lot of similarities. We can't forget…
[Image – Daniel’s Music Foundation logo, which includes an arch (half circle) made up of musical notes, with a treble cleft in the middle, and three musical notes on either side. DMF’s tagline “Changing Lives Through Music” appears below the logo.]
[Ken:] …how we've dedicated our lives to Daniel's Music.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] We started Daniel's Music over 14 years ago because we couldn't find a music program serving individuals with disabilities in the New York City area.
[Daniel:] We started with one keyboard class and only five musicians (Daniel holding up his right right hand) back in 2006.
[Image – Short videos of several DMF instructors drumming, playing keyboard, shaking tambourines and dancing, with students of all ages and abilities participating in various classes at DMF’s Music Center]
[Daniel:] And today, we have our very own big, beautiful 8,700 square-foot music center
up on 101st and Lex serving well over 300 musicians.
[Image - Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] And, over the last few months we started the DMF Virtual Community…
[Image – Daniel’s Music Virtual Community logo, a variation of the Daniel’s Music Foundation logo which includes an arch (half circle) made up of musical notes, with a treble cleft in the middle, and three musical notes on either side]
[Ken:] …where we provide on-demand videos…
[Image – Video of DMF instructor on screen surrounded by a variety of musical instruments (organ, piano, guitars and drums). She is conducting a music & movement class by holding a spice jar in her left hand as a music shaker and shaking her arms all around, to show how participants can use everyday home objects to follow along in the DMF On-Demand Video music lessons in their own time.)
[Ken:] …virtual events…
[Image – Screen shot of 25 small photos of different participants during a DMF Virtual Community live music event conducted via Zoom]
[Ken:] …and lessons.
[Image – Videos of DMF instructor with guitar on one screen and a student with her own guitar in another screen enjoying a virtual one-on-one music lesson]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] We also offer a disability awareness program…
[Image – Short videos at the DMF Music Center of instructors and students laughing and having fun showing off their dance moves, and a teenage musician playing drums and waving to the camera with a big smile on her face]
[Ken:] …to schools and other organizations where we build a bridge between the community we serve and the general public.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] Now let's talk a little about some of the segments we have planned for each
episode.
[Daniel:] First up is: Did You Know?
[Image – The words “Did You Know?” large black letters on a white background slide up from the bottom of the screen. Illustrations of both Daniel and Ken deep in thought appear. They share the same thought bubble above their heads that includes a “thinking” emoji (a round yellow face with its right hand resting by the chin, with its thumb and pointer finger extended)]
[Ken:] Interesting, historical, and fun facts about disability and music.
[Daniel:] Did you know…
[Image – Map of the U.S. in black with the words “40,000,000 People” in white numbers and letters in the middle of the map]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Daniel:] … that there are over 40 million people living in the United States with a disability?
[Ken:] That's about one in eight people.
[Image – Icons of eight people, four male and four female, slide up from the bottom of the white screen. Seven of the people icons are black in color and the eighth icon is green in color.]
[Daniel:] Wow!
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] And the main segment of each episode is called: Adventures with Daniel and Ken…
[Image – The words “Adventures with Daniel & Ken” in black type on the top left corner of a white background slides up from the bottom of the screen, Illustrations of Daniel on the right, smiling and sitting with him arms outstretched in the folds of a paper airplane, flying over a green and blue globe of the world below him. Ken is sitting in another paper airplane below the globe on the left.]
[Ken:] …where we travel across the globe to discover a diverse range…
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] …of talented and interesting people.
[Daniel:] First stop: Zimbabwe!
[Image – Globe of the world showing a map of the United States, with a round red circle identifying the location of New York City. The globe spins to the right, and a red line travels from New York City and lands in Zimbabwe on the map of Africa.]
[Ken:] We can't wait to introduce you to some of the super-talented musicians we discovered there.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] And we end each episode with a segment called:
[Daniel:] Food For Thought
[Image – The words “Food For Thought” on a white background slide up from the bottom of the screen. Illustrations of Daniel winking, with his face peering through the middle of a bright yellow pineapple, and Ken holding up a big slice of watermelon with a smiley face on it.)
[Ken:] A thought-provoking quote or sentiment for you to reflect on.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] This week's quote is:
[Daniel:] Mile by mile, it's a trial.
[Image – White words on a blue background slide in from the left and right sides of the screens: Mile by Mile It’s a Trial]
[Daniel:] Yard by yard. Man! It’s hard.
[Image – White words on a brown background slide in from the left and right sides of the screens: Yard by Yard Man it’s Hard]
[Daniel:] Inch by inch, it's a cinch!
[Image – White words on a green background slide in from the left and right sides of the screens: Inch by Inch It’s a Cinch!]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] Our family used this mantra throughout Daniel's recovery. (Looking right to Daniel) But, Danny, why don't you tell everyone how you used that quote in 2007?
[Daniel:] I used that quote in 2007 to complete the whole New York City Marathon.
[Image – Photo of Daniel wearing a helmet riding on a handcycle (hand-crank wheelchair) on the New York City Marathon course along Central Park South which is lined with spectators. Dad Ken, walking on Daniel’s right and brother Michael to his left, served as Daniel’s running guides in the race. They are all wearing red T-shirts with “GO DANNY” written on them.]
[Daniel:] All 26.2 miles.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] How long did it take you?
[Daniel:] It took me about seven hours and 45 minutes. But, I finished!
[Image – Photo of Daniel crossing the Marathon finish line inside Central Park, with Michael and Ken celebrating behind him]
[Ken:] What a beautiful and amazing day that was!
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[Ken:] Well, that wraps it up for this week. Thanks for tuning in. And remember: Listen, learn, and try to understand differences. And…
[Daniel:] Keep music in your life!
[Daniel and Ken:] (Pointing their fingers towards the camera with big smiles on their faces) See you next time!
[Music – Smile-o-meter Friday theme song]
[Image of show’s title “Smile-o-meter Friday With Daniel & Ken” on a bright blue background.]
[A final slide includes white words on a black background:
THANKS FOR WATCHING!
TO LEARN MORE VISIT DANIELSMUSIC.ORG]