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Blog started in Jan 2005: 1st entries for Write in Every Genre. Then the REAL ME begins |
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It Hurts When I Stop Talking Sometime in Fall of 1998, when a visit from Dad was infrequent, and primarily at the mercy of his 88 Toyota making the 50 mile journey, I was being treated to lunch. The restaurant was my choice, I think. Sisley Italian Kitchen at the Town Center mall was somewhere my dad had not yet tried, so that was my pick. Either I was being treated to the luxury of lunch and adult conversation without my husband and 5 year old son in tow, or that's just how the moment has lodged in my memory. The more I think about it, they probably were there, but enjoying the Italian food too much to bother interrupting. Daddy and his lady friend at the time, Anne, came up together and made a day of it with me and the family. We were eating together and talking about some of my scripts, stories, coverages, poems and other creative attempts that really were not seeing the light of day. I think I'd just finished a group reading of The Artist's Way and was in a terribly frenetic mood over my writing. I think I'd just given them an entire rundown on a speculative Star Trek script. My Dad asked me point blank, “Why don’t you write it?? Anne agreed. It sure sounded like I wanted to write it. Why wasn't I writing seriously? It's what I'd set out to do when earning my college degree in Broadcasting many years earlier. Heck, I should, I agreed non-verbally. “I will.” But, I didn’t. Blogs can be wild, unpredictable storehouses of moments, tangents, creative dervishes, if you will. I'm getting a firmer handle on my creative cycle. My mental compost heap (which is a catch phrase from Natalie Goldman or Julia Cameron - I can't think which, right now) finally seems to be allowing a fairly regular seepage of by-products. That may be a gross analogy, but I give myself credit to categorize my work in raw terms. It proves that I'm not so much the procrastinating perfectionist that I once was. Still, I always seem to need prompts and motivation. Being a self-starter is the next step. My attempt to keep up in the Write in Every Genre Contest at the beginning of the year seemed like a perfect point to launch the blog. |
The Soundtrack of my Life In May of 2019 I facilitated a four session workshop in Mindfulness, teaching more the science behind how our memory and learned habits help or inhibit our best functioning in the moment. I started each meeting with a song and dance -- just to really keep the energy high. There's few songs I like better for its energy than George Michael's anthem, Freedom '90. My participants didn't get a professional, edited video performance from me...just me being willing to Acapella and engage the the hips The 2017 Pitch Perfect sequel features a performance of just Freedom, but I have selected this brief video promo which hints at the effective use of Freedom in the denouement of Pitch Perfect 3. Freedom blended with that first Pitch Perfect stand-out "cups moment" sung by Anna Kendrick is a neat little medley. If only I could be part of a ensemble and just need to nail a bit of some iconic piece, as most of them are doing. Yet, pretty sure that is even more exhausting than performing live once, huh? Pitch Perfect 3 cast (featuring Anna Kendrick) and The Voice 2017 contestants singing George Micheal's Freedom '90 & Cups (Pitch Perfect’s “When I’m Gone”) Songwriters: A.P. Carter / Luisa Gerstein / Heloise Tunstall-Behrens |
The Soundtrack of my Life ..."Ten dolla' Founding Father".... Hamilton -- haven't seen it, now anticipating I will see the movie Disney announced this past week. Thankfully, recorded from a Broadway staging, not recreated for the screen. I have always been on the crest of the wave advocating for inclusion. Even though I have not been able to see the theatrical production of Hamilton, I admire Lin-Manuel Miranda in the way he lifts up others, and sticks to his life-long alliances and values even in his growing success. I see that in his creating this musical, and in his standing up for the people of Puerto Rico during governmental crises. And this sets up "Weird Al" Yankovich Hamilton Polka. As I have made clear in this musical set, I love me some parody. Here is a master, like the forever Oscar-contender that is annually at work and annually recognized, but never takes the stage. So no surprise, Weird Al had to give a long-form love letter to the musical Hamilton. I didn't really know he'd done it but a friend goes and sees his performances regularly, so this is why I had to see what the corkscrew-curl accordian-player has played with lately. "Weird Al" Yankovich Hamilton Polka |
The Soundtrack of my Life Camp Granada almost seems like a real place, I was a kid that made short camp trips, generally into the mountain regions for a weekend or a week at most. I was never sent away for a season, like I think they do more in the Northeast. Camp as portrayed in comedy is typically the social anxiety inducing Summer Camp. Living in California, however, we are travelling to Catalina Island in Winter, backwards kind of things like that. Although I did do day care Y-camp during Spring Break, since both my parents worked. Come to think of it, I was taught funny little songs there -- more comedy training at a young age. Comedian Allan Sherman was faceless to me, as he like Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks were from an earlier time as far as I was concerned, and I knew them almost exclusively through radio play and comedy albums, not the visual media. I have a long time friend, and in her house, radio,records and books were the main source of entertainment consumption. So much so, that by the time she and I were in high school together, MTV was available at my house, but not hers. When she wants to suggest that it might be time for a visit to see her in Oregon, I can count on a link to Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah. So silly songs, not voguish rock idols were our shared appreciation. (Well, Billy Joel is an exception, but then he's one of those excellent singer-songwriters, essentially a poet.) Terrible or great of me to invoke Billy Joel and Allan Sherman in the same bit? Not at all. All music that is strongly based in the lyrics, not as much in the melody share in that seed of idea to be communicated, written to its full intent, then performed. If you could stitch together Allan Sherman gigs into a quilt of neurotic childhood, I think you could make a case for why I am able to appreciate Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire. I didn't think this was the direction this was going -- but who can say what the human brain will mash together (and, now I have to share the excellent Avengers parody invoking the genius of Billy Joel, as that was a big 2019 moment as well) Allan Sherman (1963) "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah"  |
The Soundtrack of my Life Parody music....I realize I was primed from a young age to love it and seek it out. Children's Television Workshop, producers of Sesame Street and The Electric Company on PBS sprinkled their educational skits with comedy references to popular music. Additionally, as I inched toward the teenage years, Sunday nights were devoted to tuning in to Dr. Demento (if my thirtysomething parents were hanging out with a particular couple, whose son also listened to the program whenever he could). I reconnected with him last year, and although we didn't reminisce about our late night binge-listening of comedy album jewels, it brought those times to the forefront of memory. I have other friends that sprinkle my social media with the links to other specific Dr. Demento selections. And I will explore a few in this set. Not everything musical comedy variety is from my distant past. All types of new comedy is in creation constantly. I have rarely caught Key & Peele skits in the past, since I don't do cable TV. And tied with that choice, I often end up seeing blockbuster films several years later. The 2012 film version of Les Miserables is a good example -- I might have rented it, but more likely I borrowed it from the public library a year or two after its theatrical release. So, I offer up here, Key & Peele's parody of One More Day from Les Miserables on my radar in 2019 because that is when I finally watched Jordan Peele's Get Out. Sometimes my entire media diet is comprised of "leftovers tossed in the freezer" for later consumption. George Carlin, I am sure would encourage me to "well, smell it..." to determine its suitability for consumption. Key & Peele and cast (2013) - Les Mis "One Day More" |
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