(©better
December 8, 1999
Page 3
Vickie Winans brings soulful
gospel sounds to Portland
_______ CONTRIBUTED STORY
for
T he P ortland O bserver
“Encore! Encore!” has been the joyiul cry o f
the spiritually uplifted masses following the
incredible 92 week ( and still counting) top-
chart run o f the best-selling, Grammy, Dove,
Stellar, and Lady o f Soul Award nominated.
Excellence Award winning, CGI gospel album,
Vickie Winans: Live In Detroit.
. A c ritic a lly acclaim ed achievem ent o f
outstanding proportions, it raised the bar ofher
live-in-concert gospel album to a level that
• could only be equaled and subsequently
surpassed by her anointed sequel, Vickie
Winans: Live In Detroit II.
Once again the beautiful, charismatic lady with
the m agnificent soul stirring voice and
unwavering faith in the Lord delivers a timeless
CD ofheavenly quality and spiritual substance.
“From the first song to the last shout, I felt
G od’s presence, which inspired me and
everyone involved to make this the best album
I’ve ever recorded. It’s my victory album,”
admits Detroit bom and based Vickie Winans.
In addition to being one o f the industry’s most
respected artist, she manages her own career
and is also the vivacious host o f the syndicated
decade-long running gospel variety show.
“Singsation.” As President ofViviane, Inc.
her Detroit-based management company,
she books and performs 200 or more shows
a year. However, Vickie says her favorite
“job” is being the proud mother o f her
sons, hit producer Mario “Skeeter” Winans
and M arvin “C oconut” W inans and
“Nannie” to her 2 year old grandson, Mario
II.
Produced by Vickie and industry veteran
Steven Ford, Vickie Winans: Live In Detroit
II was recorded before a rafter shaking
audience on October 16, 1998. The venue
was the beautiful Straight Gate Church in
Detroit, Michigan, where the first live set
was recorded. The album, which is visually
represented by a state-of-the-art, collectors
item, two-hour companion video, features
the spirited lead single, “Already Been to
the Water,” which, like one o f Vickie’s
past hits, “Long as I Got King Jesus,”
reaches deep down, bringing his light and
joy to the heart, spirit, and soul. “It has me
singing Jesus with all my might,” Vickie
says, her charming persona amplifying her
words.
“I think we say Jesus 50 to 60 times back to
back in the song! You see, I’m not ashamed
to call His name,” she beams!
Vickie Winans
Companies cracking down on workers who send offensive e-mail
27 percent o f the country’s major
companies checked employee e-
Washington County’s sheriff faces mail in 1999, up from 15 percent in
discipline for sending a lewd e-mail
1997. A recent survey says 84
about “The Rules for Bedroom percent o f the nation ’ s workers send
G o l f ” to c o u n ty em p lo y ees, personal e-mail from work and 90
including a county commissioner.
percent adm it to recreational
An employee at a Portland software- surfing at the office.
maker is fired after accidentally Increasingly, employers consider
shipping an unflattering e-mail sending jo k es via e-m ail or
about a colleague companywide.
vacation-planning on the Web to
E a rlie r th is y ear, P o rtla n d ’s be akin to sitting atop the Xerox
Concentrex, which makes banking machine and pushing the copy
software, sent a stem message about button, experts say.
its policies to employees. A worker “The nai veti and novelty o f e-mail
was fired after hitting the wrong and the Internet in the workplace
button and sending a distasteful e- is wearing thin,” said Portland
mail about a colleague to everyone consultant Barbara Lilly, author
(h the company.
o f the book “The Eway o f Email:
Then there was this week’s news How to Act, Write and Stand Out
(hat the New York Times Co. had On-line.” Lilly helps companies
fired more than 20 employees at a create effective Internet policies.
Virginia payroll-processing center “Em ployers have realized its
for exchanging “inappropriate and power as a tool and a weapon.”
offensive” electronic messages.
As a weapon, the Internet can
With Internet and e-mail rivaling c reate a h o stile w o rk p lace
the te le p h o n e fo r w o rk p lace environment where racist, sexually
communication, there are signs e x p licit and o th e r o ffensive
nationwidc^sjgnstfiat employers are content popping up on computer
cracking down on e-mail abuse and networks can lead to lawsuits by
cyberslacking in general. O regon- workers, she said.
is no exception.
n *
And it’s hard to use the Internet as
A ccording to a new American a tool when personal chitchat and
Management Association survey, surfing seriously strain networks.
A ssociated P ress
causing crashes in the middle o f the
day. Pricey hardware upgrades are
usually the only rem edy, say
Portland-area systems managers.
For example, Clackamas County,
where employees send about 20,000
e-mails a day, was recently forced
to spend $30,000 on an e-mail server
that could handle the heavy load.
A recent N ewsweek article on
cyberslacking cited a figure o f $ 1
billion a year in wasted computer
resources and billions o f dollars
more in lost productivity in the wired
workplace.