A Great Big Diva!

Paris and a Jazz Opera: Anxiety Sets In!

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There's no turning back now! I am close to departure date and all in all I am in good shape though I haven't packed yet. I have written a list and checked it twice. I have listened to this Opera so much that I hear the melodies in my head day and night. I find myself tapping out the rhythm of the songs. Luckily, I love the songs very much and have great admiration for the composer so it's a joy actually. With each melody or song lyric I memorize comes great elation and relief. Yet I am still …

Paris and a Jazz Opera: Don’t Worry, Be HaRpy!

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Happy New Year! I know it's been ages since I last wrote and to be quite honest there hasn't been too much new to tell except I did present a staged reading of one piece from my one woman show and it was well received. The response was almost overwhelming. I performed it during a cabaret show I did in late November. Since then I have mostly been scraping by as I experience some of the toughest economic times of my life. I have been poorer in the past, but I had no bills in those days. Yet, I …

Kindness, Knowledge, Empathy, Tolerance and Discourse: Healing Race Relations. It Takes Work.

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Kindness, knowledge, empathy, tolerance and discourse. The recent Ferguson decision and the subsequent violence that erupted in that town has brought race relations to the forefront once again. I have witnessed some of the most ignorant assumptions and racist remarks that I have not seen since Barack Obama won the presidency. It seems that many White Americans do not understand Black Americans. And it's almost enough to make me think that many don't care to. But being the eternal optimist I …

Robin Williams

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I have a feeling that the impact of Robin Williams suicide is going to be felt harder as time goes on. I have known for hours now and it's only now that I can speak on it and I wept. We didn't know him but his comedy & his work made him familiar. And you just knew he was a sweetheart. He was the true Liberal, the whirling dervish, a one of a kind smarty pants whose career we all watched grow from TV's "Mork and Mindy" to Oscar winner. And it seemed that he had it all - I can't imagine the …