HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!!
HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!!
It is June-teenth as I type this, with the longest day of the year just around the corner, the threat of swim suits, shorts, and cellulite whispering in the near distance, rainy skies in the East, blue skies in the West, unpacked luggage in my garage, and a smile on my face as I type you “hello” from my garden once more.
Here is an early summer visitor
What a Spring it turned out to be! Filled with lots of joy
and some sorrow, as life always seems to churn it out.
Joy was Tucson in April, working with this astonishing group young performers called the Pastime Players, under the guidance of the amazing director/performer/humanist, Ms.Susan Claassen. These young artists, all with developmental challenges of one sort and degree or another, put on an amazing concert, in which Michele Brourman and I were fortunate to be guests artists (the theme was” Over the Rainbow,” and we were the good witches of the West . )A documentary about them has just been completed, with a title song written by the two of us called SUCH GOOD FRIENDS. It’s a good song, and a terrific film, if you get the chance to see it. MOST inspiring.
We got to fly to Tucson, record with the kids, and then perform in concert with them. I tell you… I have never worked with a more disciplined, cheerful, professional bunch of performers. No cel phones going off, no delays while people straggled in with Starbucks containers, no complaints because someone had more lines or a better costume than anyone else. They rocked! We ALL rocked.
And the concert was an SRO, standing ovation hit!
Here is the cast photo… see if you can spot Michele and me.
Sorrow was the loss of one of our cat kids, Harley…our comedian…the Purr Machine…Thunder Bob…
It is always amazing what a huge hole the absence of such a small body can produce. The soul is ALWAYS larger than the fur containing it.
But there was barely time to breathe before
THE BIG ADVENTURE!
Pack the bags and head for TUSCANY!!!!
That’s me in Sienna.
That’s me and the GELATO of Sienna. Save me now!!!!
Two wonderful days getting acclimatized to a different time zone…stumbling into the mille miglia, the Famous Antique Auto Race…sitting in the Campo watching all these Art Deco Bugattis from the 1930′s race around the square. (In case you didn’t know, antique cars are my JONES! Anything pre- 1960 sets me drooling.)
And THEN…
Il Chiostro…
The Singing Workshop at San Fedele, which is the reason I was there. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
Picture this…a 12th century monastery on the top of a hill in the Chianti region of Tuscany that has been completely and elegantly restored (a la Four Seasons Hotel) by a lovely young man and his wife with a noble dream to build a haven for workshops in art and cooking and poetry and photography and music. (It only took him 7 years to complete it…once they discovered the painted-over frescoes in the dining hall and the bones of monks in the basement and had to deal with CAREFUL restoration.Check out the website: www.borgosanfedele.com)
And my dear pal, Suzanne Kiechle, a master teacher on the world of vocal production, and I were the music team.
I mean, who WOULDN’T want to work with such a team????
When we weren’t singing in the chapel, with the perfect acoustics, we were touring wineries and small hill towns and hiking through ancient CELTIC ruins and eating fantastic local fare. The students were wonderful…ages 19 to 72…some professionals seeking a tune-up and some not. One woman gave herself a 65th birthday present. She had never sung a song IN HER LIFE! Her rendition of “You’ve Got A Friend” at the final concert was awe-inspiring. The whole thing left me weeping with joy at the miracle of music and how it unites us all.
AND they asked us back for next year. So darlings…heads up! You TOO can come to Tuscany and have a week of Paradise. I am just saying, I’m only saying!
Okay…and then the P.S. adventure.
We met my cousins from California for a night in Florence. Never been to Florence.
Yow!!!!!!
They were invited by a friend of a friend who lives in Florence to come to her “little club” for a drink and dinner, and we tagged along.
Well, her LITTLE CLUB is the Palazzo Torno Buoni…a time share for gazillionaires in a series of refurbished 15th century palazzos ion the heart of Florence. The 30 foot ceilings! The frescoes! The Up scale Italian interior design! (Who ever knew a toaster could be SEXY?????)
And when she discovered we were singers, she asked if we would come test the acoustics in the room they were redoing where, it turns out, the first opera was written!
More 30 foot ceilings and frescoes and mosaics and the most astonishing acoustics.
George (in case you haven’t known, he is my husband ) and I have a tradition of singing AMAZING GRACE anywhere in the world where there is an echo…caves, wine cellars, wine BARRELS. So we sang AMAZING GRACE in this astonishing room and it was truly church! Whew!
And the food wasn’t half bad either,
Or the statues in the Square.
Or the Duomo, the main cathedral, which cemented my conviction that God had several gay designers from Vegas working 24-7 to get all those Italian churches created.
The Pink marble. The Black marble in stripes. The gold. The cherubs! Whew!
One final glass of Prosecco and off to Scotland!
But I’ll save that for NEXT BLOG! One can only stand SO MUCH of another’s “what I did on my summer vacation”.
Now I’m home, unpacked with lips sewn shut until we take off for a couple of concerts over July 4th weekend at the Barrington Stages in The Berkshires. I have never BEEN to the Berkshires! I can’t wait.
And then to Yale the first week in August for a week of teaching.
So that’s my Spring so far.
Oh, yes.
A new member has joined the family…PJ ( short for “Paint Job”)
He is feisty and hilarious and has brought light back into the house.
And something else that came into the house.
We were sitting back relaxing two nights ago watching something restful on TV..oh, yes… TROPIC THUNDER…very funny and very loud. In a moment of quiet I noticed the big cat, Rufous, staring at something in the corner of the living room. It wound up being THIS GUY!
A four-foot king snake who had meandered in, much to our amazement, After we figured out he wasn’t after the cats or dogs, and they weren’t much interested in HIM either, we had to figure out how to get him out of there! He wouldn’t volunteer to get into the offered paper bag, there were no gloves large enough to fit George’s hands (oven mitts were out of the question) so I had to do my best Steve Erwin and grab my gardening gloves and pick him up and carry out into the back yard.
That was fine,.
Until he came back in the next morning and headed for the couch ONE MORE TIME. This time I carried him across the street and dumped him in the field.
An hour later I saw him sliding back across our driveway headed for the door, being chased by an irate blue jay. I slammed our front door shut, and at last he seems to have decided to find another apartment, and we haven’t seen him since.
I LOVE LIVING IN THE COUNTRY.
(Now, had it been a SCORPION, I would STILL be ON the dining room table, shrieking!)
And the BIG NEWS….
CHANSON is NOW AVAILABLE
on my website,
and will be on Amazon and in stores
July 14th,
Bastille Day!
How perfect!!!
My artful recommendations for June…
BOOKS:
WHITE TIGER by Aravind Adiga (It won the Mann Booker Prize. What a peep at India!)
THE PLACES IN BETWEEN by Rory Stewart The story of him walking across Afganistan. Quite remarkable.
MUSIC:
THROW DOWN YOUR HEART…Bela Fleck in Africa. Awesome!
MOVIES:
UP in 3 D. What a blast!
MIRROR MASK ( a rental….a visual journey of total astonishment!)
And here is a PS …
We on the West Coast have had this remarkable resource for sheet music called Hollywood Sheet Music for so many years. The wonderful folks there have helped EVERYONE find that one great song they so desperately need for auditions, weddings, barmitzvahs.
The economy hit them badly too. They closed their store, but have opened a webstore that is great. So I am including their website in this blog. You need them. They need you.
Take a look! www.hollywoodsheetmusic.com
That’s my story and I am sticking to it.
I send you love and this image of coexistence…refugees
from the Santa Barbara fire…
