I'm Ba-ack.

I was just re-reading some of my old posts. Fun.

Been going through a "self-improvement" phase again. I've got to take charge of my life...tired of "going with the flow." Especially when the "flow" is not bringing me where I want/need to go. Okay, so I am getting some yoga dvds and plan to start doing at least 10 minutes of yoga a day to start. I've started these breathing exercises, too. Then I will add some meditation just after the yoga. I've gotten to the point where I can't sleep late, so getting up early seems to be the best time for this. I've been walking about half an hour at least 3 times a week - that goal is to walk every day. So I am going to get up off my fat butt right now and walk. Before it gets too stiflingly hot. :)

More later.

Merry Christmas!

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Garlic Festival

Here are links to the vids I recorded at the Garlic Festival. In one of 'em, you can hear Nan Patience talking about the turkeys...one of the funniest things I hear all day!

Garlic Man

Garlic Festival Part Deux

AWOL Soldier

Apparently, there are many US soldiers who oppose the war. Here is a message from one who went AWOL, talking about what the people of Iraq are like and why he went AWOL. Not graphic.

A freedom of speech issue?

Here's one for a discussion... What do you think?

Homeless Youth

This issue might be my next theatrical project. It touches me deeply.

My Brilliant New Career

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!
I've been taking some dance lessons...check this out!

Battle of the YouTube MomStars!

Last fall, one of the guys on YouTube held a "contest," the Battle of the YouTube Stars, pitting some "weblebrities" against each other. This spring, another Tuber organized a battle of the YouTube Non-Stars. She paired up a bunch of Tubers with less than 1000 subscribers. It was a lot of fun, and she did another season of it this summer with all new contestants. Well, Now there is the Battle of the YouTube MomStars, organized by TheBennyZone, a twenty-something guy who, as a tribute to his own mom, wanted to celebrate all the moms on YT. Well, I am in that...yep...and I actually won the first round! We are now about to begin the second round. Once all 14 moms (we are paired off so there are 7 battles to vote on) have their video entry in, the voting will begin. We are waiting for 2 more moms. I have added a link over to the right to my channel, where you can watch my entry and other vlogs I have there. I have a series called Backstage Stories" (okay, not a very imaginative title - if you have any ideas, please feel free to share), in which I chronicle assorted behind-the-scenes bloopers from my 25 years in theatre. I respond to other peoples' videos. I now have 80 subscribers! Who'da thunk I'd actually have fans! But it's been great, and through this contest I've met some really interesting and kind people. One of my favorites is MacBraveheart from Scotland. She's in the MomStars, too, and somebody I know you all would like alot.

So, I've probably been spending too much time over there, but the feeling I get must be akin to what explorers feel when discovering a new world. This is the future. I don't believe it's going away. It's become an excellent way to promote your business or talents if you want, too. And it's free! So, I will continue to spend time there, but I am going to try harder to check in here more often, and to post.

If you read my article in LI Pulse about the YouTube gathering in NYC, you will know there is that need to connect in this physical plane of existence. SO - we need to do coffee sometime soon...maybe once Luna settles into her new routine! :)

What Celeb Do You Look Like?

There is a website at which you can upload your photo and it calculates which celebs you look like. The site also can be a tool for charting your family tree. Check out My Heritage. Here are my results:



You can also morph yourself into any one of the celebs you look like. It's quick and rally funny! Just another play on the computer in our "copious spare time!" ;)

"Minority Report" Could Happen

I read a disturbing article in Newsday the other day and have been meaning to post about it. "Homeland Security Exploring Mass-scanning System" describes the federal government's efforts to design a technological means to identify someone who is THINKING of committing a terrorist attack! I don't know if you saw the movie, "Minority Report" with Tom Cruise. It envisioned a future in which, through a combination of science and psychics, they could predict if someone would commit a crime in the future, and arrest them before they did it. I thought it was a pretty laughable movie...that is, until I read this article. Here is an excerpt:

Tools to fight terror?
Federal Homeland Security officials are exploring how technology can help screeners identify people entering the U.S. with "hostile intent" through two different programs:

FUTURE ATTRIBUTE SCREENING TECHNOLOGY (FAST) PROJECT SENSOR FUSION
Seeking a system that could detect deceptive behavior through physiological and behavioral cues including heartbeat, respiration and facial expression. Technologies used could include thermal imaging, infrared cameras and audio and eye-tracking.

PROJECT HOSTILE INTENT
Monitoring facial expressions and other behavioral, speech and physiological cues through video monitors to identify people "involved in possible malicious or deceitful acts" before they commit a crime. Would work in real time and be "non-invasive," without disrupting the flow of passengers.

And did you know this?:
"Behavioral detection is already used by specially trained officers in the Transportation Security Administration - with 273 arrests made as a result since June 2004, said spokesman Christopher White. That detection is done by individuals trained to recognize subtle facial expressions. "We're very encouraged by the program and we plan to expand it," White said."

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I'm still here!

Yeah, I know...I haven't been around her much lately. I've been busy with writing and theatre. We have three productions coming up: "Hate Mail" next weekend. It's a hilarious spin-off from "Love Letters." Then mid-September, we have "300 Stories of Sag Harbor." But Stacy's and my latest and biggest project is "Homofiles." We've been developing this play [and here is some text from the intro letter we've developed] with the goal of significantly raising awareness and understanding of gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender life as a normative state; exploring how and why discrimination and violence still exists here; and illuminating what sometimes lies beneath the thin veneer of liberality. The play will be monologue-driven and feature several adult actors portraying a multitude of roles. We plan to use the historic success of “Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues” as the inspiration to create a springboard for dialogue among diverse audiences.

The foundation of the play is built on actual interviews we've been conducting with men and women of wide ranging ages and ethnicities. It will give voice to the various dimensions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender life in America.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to. And looking for a real job. Since theatre just doesn't pay. Just in case anyone wondered...

Farewell, Harry

And so, the seventh and final book of the great Harry Potter epic tale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, arrived this past weekend. My copy, pre-ordered since March, landed in my PO box on Saturday, and I couldn't wait to dive in. I had re-read the previous two books in anticipation, and opened the treasured tome Saturday afternoon, ready to lose myself in Harry's world of magic and adventure, good and evil, honor and mischief, laughter and tears.

Simply because of its popularity, I resisted the lure of the Harry Potter phenom. Until, that is, just after the third book, Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban, was released in 1999. It was then that I finally decided to see what all the hubub was about, since it WAS a favorite genre, and picked up a paperback of the first book, the Sorceror's Stone (1997). I read the whole book in one day. There are books that are so good that when I put them down, they scream out to me so loudly that I can barely focus on anything else. JK Rowling's book was just that kind of book. As soon as I finished it, I went out and bought the hardcover of the next one, HP and the Chamber of Secrets and then the third, and I gobbled them up. Now I had to wait a year with everyone else for the 4th book, but I also had the films (that's for another blog)!

With the 4th, 5th, and 6th books, I tried valiantly to make them last, but read each within a day or two, not having the willpower to put them down for long. Rowling's writing style is very nearly hypnotic. Simple, yet elegant. Easy, yet challenging. Brilliant. As was the intricate, epic, seven-years long plot, not including background and set-ups from several previous generations. The themes are mythic, Joseph Campbell would have been impressed: the hero's journey, good vs. evil, human weaknesses vs human strengths. Wonderful messages imparted, better than in the lame fairy tales we heard as children. "It's not your abilities that make you who you are, it's the choices you make." - one of my favorites from the first book. I hear it's already required reading in some schools. I think that's just a beginning.

And so, here we are at the final book. All the questions over these last few years, the guessing...when Harry finally stands against his nemesis, who will walk away? Who among Harry's loyal friends will die? Is Snape, the seemingly evil Potions Master really Dumbledore's man? Or do his actions tell the truth? So many more questions, but these are at the front of any HP fan's mind. It is a testament to Rowling's talent that we have come to care so much for these characters. She has created such multi-dimensional, REAL people of them that we feel we have lived the last 7 years of their lives with them. We have grown to love them as our own friends and family.

I finished the final 3 chapters and epilogue this morning. I cried a lot during the last quarter of the book...yes, I am emotionally invested. I believe that Rowling ended the book the best possible way. There were other ways she could have ended it, but I am happy with this ending. And it is an ending, I believe. I hope she doesn't give in to the fans who are already starting up a campaign for more HP books. I myself look to the future for what Rowling has to share with us. I am hopeful that there are more wonderful tales from the mind that dreamed up the World of Harry Potter. In the meantime, I plan to go back to the beginning...

The Good News and the Bad News...

I know, I’ve been gone quite awhile. I feel like I’ve been sick for months! The day after my birthday, right after my second to last post, I had a very weird episode. For some reason, we still don’t know why, my body became dehydrated (despite the three bottles of water I had already drunk) – my heart rate shot up to the 140s (nearly double normal), my blood pressure was nearly inaudible (they eventually got a reading of 90 over 70), I was exhausted and short of breath. Ended up in the hospital for a couple of days. The good news is, turns out my heart is healthy and strong. What most likely happened is that the dehydration triggered a misfire in my heartbeat that started the whole racing heartbeat and low blood pressure. I'm on medication to keep it that way for now...but we still don't know what made me dehydrated. It's a mystery. THEN I came down with a crummy summer cold last week. So this is why I’ve been MIA. I feel like this week I am finally re-entering the world after a long time underground!

The bad news is...here is something scary I recently learned:

INTERNET DOOMSDAY CREEPS CLOSER
Steve Watson, Infowars.net, Monday, June 4, 2007

“Recent proposals in the U.S. Congress are taking a huge swipe at freedom in America once again by aiming to impose multiple different forms of crippling taxation and restriction on users of the internet.

“State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other Internet-service connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail, reports CNet.”

How did I not hear about this until just now? It's bad enough we have to pay to access the Internet, but now they are going to TAX us to get here? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

YouTube...again

Yeah, I don't mean to harp on it, but since LunaChick brought it up, and since I haven't posted in a bit, I thought I'd just touch on it. Sure, YouTube is certainly a world unto itself. I am writing a story for LI Pulse about the upcoming New York City gathering this Saturday - 7/7/7. YouTubers from around the world are flocking to Washington Square Park to meet each other and have fun. I'm looking forward to it, not only to get enough material for more than one article, but to meet some people I've been watching and corresponding with for nearly a year. Yes, YT is a community, with all the good and bad implications that go with that, but it is even more...I interviewed YT-er from Long Island yesterday for the story, and what a great guy. I'd been a subscriber of his for about six months, and he is just a regular guy who happens to be very talented and loves filmmaking. More than just a community, YT is also a venue for people to express themselves creatively. And people are. And some are getting discovered by more traditional media!

Which brings me to the part where LunaChick said she is more of a music person. YT is a great place to discover musicians who are just starting out! Instead of imbedding bulky videos below, I'm posting links to some of the artists I enjoy, and who you might like. Take notice. You may be hearing them on the radio soon enough!

Ysabellabrave - Maryanne has already been signed by Warner's boutique "E" line

The Velvet Hearts - a duo, piano and guitar, with a Randy Newman-ish-voiced singer who do folky-rock originals. Check out "Peace is a Loaded Gun." It's a powerful war protest song; you may want to just listen - the video images are pretty harsh.

TerraNaomi - she is playing the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium. ALso got signed to somebody recently.

That's it for now. But you can always go to the Musician Channels and discover someone on your own. :)

Laughing Litter

I DARE you not to laugh out loud!!



But it does make me tired just thinking about having all these at once!

Hip or Dangerous?

And now on a COMPLETELY different note...here's a fun game I must try myelf sometime. From an episode of a web comedy series, The Burg, set in Williamsburg.

Citizen YouTube!

You may or may not know that many, if not all, candidates running in the next big elections have their own YT accounts, making themselves accessible in ways never before imagined. They will be running the most personal, one-on-one campaigns in history. Here is one more example of how this website is bringing new opportunities to us "common folk." YouTube Debates

"The First Day of My Life"

by Bright Eyes - not a new song. But what a sweet hopeful little ditty, and what a sweet hopeful little video.

Feist

Here is another, more established singer/songwriter, although she still isn't as well-known as she should/will be. She has a different sound and I love her dancing in her videos. You can see all her videos at her YouTube site. Let me know what you think.

Memorial Day

Yesterday morning, Jim and I were hanging back in bed and listening to a radio show from Connecticut on 600AM called the Italian House Party with John LaBarca. It’s this old-timey show with this guy who grew up in Brooklyn in an old world Italian neighborhood with his old world Italian family. He plays anything from Italian opera to Frank Sinatra and it reminds me of my own childhood, even though my grandparents never lived in Brooklyn. When they came over from Sicily, they ended up in New Jersey on a farm. My grandfather grew grapes and made his own wine.

But anyway, Jim enjoys it, too, so we sorta snuggle and talk and listen to this hokey radio show. And since it is Memorial Day weekend, good old John began the show with “Stars and Stripes, Forever.” Boy, I haven’t heard that song in quite a while. When it was over, he got up on his soapbox and basically, the essence of what he was saying was that patriotism has nothing to do with political affiliation. That this weekend, we should try to remember the people throughout our history who have fought for our freedom and to honor them and be grateful. That regardless of how we feel about what our leaders are doing at the moment, this is still our country and it’s the best country in the world.

Umm. Yeah….I mostly feel that way, too, I guess. Yes. Surely, there is a lot wrong here, but I mean, there is a lot wrong everywhere. I really don’t think I’d want to live anywhere else. And there are good things. People tend to forget about the good things. So I will take my buddy John’s advice and take a moment to thank and honor those men and women who have fought for the freedom we enjoy today. I will, however, continue to dream of a future in which all war will be unnecessary.