This book covers the life changing events that have shaped who I am today. Writing this book has also given me a chance to reflect and learn from my experiences. In this book I share my thoughts and feelings with affection. The book is divided into four sections: Poems From a Gypsy: Family Memories; Reflections of a Gypsy; and Friends I Hope to Meet in Heaven. I hope sharing my insights and growth will be meaningful to you. Tom

Reflections of a Gypsy Soul is where you write down you deepest thoughts and desires, your plans for the future, bits of poetry, snippets of song, whatever is the essence of your being.

poems and reflections from the road

Proud of his roots in Brooklyn and New York City Oreste Renato Rondinella was Professor of Educational Studies (presently Professor Emeritus) at Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J. He decided to utilize his knowledge and passion in teaching to satisfy a long time desire to disprove the axiom “those who can’t do, teach!” He wanted to make a statement that this wasn’t true for those dedicated to the teaching profession. In 1983 Oreste returned to school for a post-doctoral degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. Subsequently, he directed two Marriage and Family Centers, Allegra Counseling Centers that were successful. He continued to teach for about ten years during this time. However, Oreste began to experience a great hunger and desire to write and retired as a professor- psychotherapist to write full time. He has completed three books: Sin Is Necessary, Illusion vs. Reality---Sounds Within and Without, and is completing Intrigue in Rome. Dr. Rondinella has traveled extensively in the last twenty-five years and conducted research and interviews that contributed to his books. As of October 1, 2003, Dr. Rondinella has resumed his independent practice of marriage and family therapy including individual psychotherapy.

Gypsies have for centuries been simultaneously vilified and romanticized—associated with criminality and dirt, but at the same time with color, magic, and music. Gypsy music is popular around the world and often performed with gusto at major events, including at weddings in Bulgaria, jazz bars in Paris, and festivals in the United States. In Gypsy Music, Alan Ashton-Smith explores why this music has such wide appeal, surveying the varied styles that are considered to be gypsy music and asking what links them together. The book begins in the Balkans, home to the world’s largest Romani populations and a major site of gypsy music production. But just as the traditionally nomadic Roma have traveled globally, so has their music. Gypsy music styles have roots and associations outside of the Balkans, including Russian Romani guitar music, flamenco and gypsy jazz, and the more recent forms of gypsy punk and Balkan beats. Covering the thirteenth century to the present day, and with a geographical scope that ranges from rural Romania to New York by way of Budapest, Moscow, and Andalusia, Gypsy Music reveals the remarkable diversity of this exuberant art form.