Happy Feb????Mar????
HAPPY FARCH!!!!
HOORAY FOR SPRING!!!!!!
(For those of you in the East!)
Well, Happy 2009, at any rate.
Have you pulled the covers up over your head?
Have you stopped reading the paper?
Have you returned to watching re-runs of Happy Days instead of CNN??? Do you feel like this?
I THOUGHT we would be celebrating the new Administration…the New Year. And I find everyone in the doldrums, stocking up on peanut butter and Advil. Oy!
Well, let’s get on with it. 2009 is HERE. What else can we do but wake up every morning and consider THAT a miracle!
I celebrated the New Year and the inaugural in fine style. From a couch in New Zealand, where the entire country was mesmerized by our elections. They couldn’t get enough. The first five pages of all their newspapers was about OUR news!
We got up at 4 am on Inauguration day and watched everything.
Can we talk about Aretha’s HAT???????
I WANT ONE!
I found out recently that the whole Yo Yo Ma cello quartet section was finger-synched. It was wayyyyy too cold for them to really be playing. The piano would not hold a tuning and the guitar was frozen.
THAT’S why I live in California!
Later on, as I was walking down the beach…January being Summertime in New Zealand…total strangers would walk up and ask if I was American. When I said YES they would fling their arms around me in joy.
Even the Kiwi police officer who stopped us for driving too fast (we were happy, doncha know?) didn’t give us a ticket, but stuck his hand through my window and congratulated us on our new leader.
Ha! Now I don’t have to pretend to be Canadian anymore!
Upon returning Stateside, I repacked my bags, re-set my watch (it’s 5 hours earlier tomorrow in New Zealand. YOU do the math.), overcame jet lag
( which a pal defines as your soul trying to catch up with your body), and flew off to the Big Sooty of New York to do some concertizing at the wonderful Metropolitan Room…introducing more new Jacques Brel material.
Yes, Virginia, the Brel CD, CHANSON, is ALMOST there.
Like the stimulus package, she is taking her own sweet time.
But she will be downloadable come the end of March and in stores in June.
(I even have dreams of vinyl for all my geek friends who still own turntables. They are coming back, you know.
The only thing we are NOT doing is 8-track tapes. And those of my friends who still own THOSE, are truly geeks!)
And she is a BEAUTY! I do believe the best CD I have ever made.
I hope by now the newly designed website is up and on your screen.
I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the millenium.
I will be on You Tube, damn it! I will have a My Space site!
I may conquer my phobia and join the ranks of Face Book. I am terrified of it, but maybe …..
(You will never see me TWITTER however, unless Rufous Sewel walks into the room. Then you will see me drool.)
Speaking of Rufous, DANGEROUS BEAUTY ( he was the romantic lead) is progressing, much to my amazement.
We have had the extreme and amazing good fortune to have the fabulous AnnMarie Milazzo ( she of East Village Opera Company fame…Grammy nominee for vocal arrangements for SPRING AWAKENING)… _and her equally fabulous musical partner, Ben Butler, agree to do some vocal arranging for us. Awesome is all I can say. And if you don’t know about the East Village Opera Company, you should. They take the great operatic arias and rock them in ways you cannot imagine. Truly creative and musically delicious.
In the “up coming” hopper are several concerts and my teaching of master classes in Tuscany in May. If you are at all tempted.,..think about it…a week of singing and laughing and drinking wine and eating great pasta in a newly refurbished fabulous monastery near Sienna…check out the website: www.ilchiostro.com
The dollar is up (sort of) and the euro is down and you should COME! That’s all I’m saying.
Speaking of things financial…this one caught my eye.
Stimulus Payment Info.
“This year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.
Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.
Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:
If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.
If you spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs.
If you purchase a computer it will go to India.
If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala (unless you buy organic).
If you buy a car it will go to Japan.
If you purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan.
And none of it will help the American economy.
We need to keep that money here in America. You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer and wine (domestic ONLY), or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the US.
The other amazing thing we were watching in New Zealand was the miracle of the plane landing in the Hudson River. Again, all the world was riveted…this time by a miracle…not a tragedy. How refreshing to see GOOD NEWS in the papers!
And then someone sent me this.
Subject: Fw: Conspiracy Theory – What brought down the plane in the Hudson River?
And speaking of things political international … I found these wise words:
Four Great Religious Truths During these serious times, people of all faiths should remember these four great religious truths:
1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God’s chosen people.
2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world.
4. Southern Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters.
Oh, what a world, what a world, as Elphaba the Witch used to say, when she was Margaret Hamilton.
Priceless Observations Department:
Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself,’Lillian, you should have remained a virgin.’
- Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)
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I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog: – ‘No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.’
- Eleanor Roosevelt
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Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.
- Victor Borge
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Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
- Mark Twain
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By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
- Socrates
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I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
- Groucho Marx
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My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.
- Jimmy Durante
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I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.
- Zsa Zsa Gabor
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Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
- Alex Levine
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Money can’t buy you happiness .. But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.
- Spike Milligan
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We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.
- Will Rogers
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Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
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By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he’s too old to go anywhere.
- Billy Crystal
How true…how true..
Here are my culture recommendations for Spring:
Books:
SON OF A WITCH by Gregory Maguire …the sequel to WICKED ( NOT the musical…the book…MUCH darker and beautifully written)
IN SEARCH OF SIMPLICITY by John P Haines …a truly amazing true story travel/adventure book by a loving and thoughtful man.
Movies:
Well…aside from the Oscar winners, which need no recommendations from me (although I LOVED BENJAMIN BUTTON!)
…the most esoteric thing I have seen is HEIDI, A FURRY TAIL…the story of Heidi done with live dogs dressed in leiderhosen. Truly whimsical.
Music: I just discovered Jacob Mraz. Wow!
I send you my best wishes for the Spring…for peace of mind and beautiful mornings and financial security and hope…always hope!
And some days to run through the grass feeling like this!
Good thoughts on a rainy day
Attitude
There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘I think I’ll braid my hair today.’
So she did and she had a wonderful day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.
‘H-M-M,’ she said, ’I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today.’
So she did and she had a grand day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail.’
So she did, and she had a fun, fun day.
The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.
‘YAY!’ she exclaimed.
‘I don’t have to fix my hair today!’
Attitude is everything.
Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle .
Live simply,
Love generously,
Care deeply,
Speak kindly…….
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…
It’s about learning to dance in the rain.