Back to the Future II

I thought I was going to write something nice about last night's Boston Pops Christmas concert (it was my first of the season) and I will later, but torture has taken over my mind. CNN is my homepage and there is always a poll of some sort. I know it is not scientific in any way because it appears you can vote as often as you like. But yesterday's caught my attention. Apparently 55% of the respondents think waterboarding/torture is o.k. under some circumstances. Why I should be shocked, I don't know, but I am. I am very, very sad that fear has taken over. The BIG LIE has won out and we as a people apparently now believe it is o.k. (See
What Would Machiavelli Do? The Big Lie Lives On by Thom Hartmann http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0826-02.htm ) Waterboarding is torture. Torture is cruel and does not lead to truthful responses. In case you are pragmatist and aren't against torture because it is harmful to your own humanity, you should be against it because it places our own troops in danger.

Watch this story to see waterboarding...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/11/agent.tapes/index.html

I pray we choose a President who will stop this madness.

Slow down, you move too fast...

We have come to the second Sunday of Advent which means two more to Christmas. A friend from church gave me a wonderful Advent Calendar. It is titled "Slowdown. Quiet. It's Advent!" It is reminding me that in the midst of all the rush, rush to try (yes, try) to take at least a moment each day to think about what is of true importance in life.

What have I thought about today? When I was little I loved a Golden Book that I remember as being titled "I Like Bugs" (it's in my favorites list). Every couple of pages began with "I like..." The list included bugs, dogs, cars, and more, but ended up with "I like people." That is how I think all of us start out. Loving people or all kinds. That is how I still feel. It isn't stuff or things that have brought me the most happiness. It is people. Everyone from Mr. and Mrs. McGlaughlin who ran the hardware store in my town and who I remember from probably the age of 3 and Louie the butcher in the little grocery who gave me slices of bologna whenever my mother was at the meat counter to my newest singing friends. Maybe I should start a people blog. (How may blogs can one person have?) It would be a constant reminder of what is important in life.

The Silly Season has begun...

How did it get to be December already? We just had our Gingerbread Village for Habitat for Humanity at All Saints' Church. The hall was filled with every kind of gingerbread house one could imagine, including Fenway Park! Our town newspaper editor was wonderful and ran photos of our run-away Gingerbread Man for several weeks before the event. This year the theme was "A train runs through it..." There were electric trains running through the village in the center of the hall where the replica gingerbread buildings were set up. The librarians made the Adams Library and it looked just like the real thing. There were several church replicas, a school house, and the community college. Next year the theme will be Hansel & Gretel (or maybe fairy tales in general) to go along with the production of the opera Hansel & Gretel which will be the same weekend.

This week starts my grueling rehearsal schedule for two productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Boston Pops Christmas concerts, and coming in to the home stretch of Verdi's Requiem. I love, love, love singing, but this may be a bit much. It is a relief though from the woes of the world and the Presidential campaign.

St. Nicholas Day is coming up, which marks my 32nd wedding anniversary. I can't believe a life-time has gone by so quickly.

Back to the Future...

Welcome to the Spanish Inquisition...So, our new Attorney General can't say whether "waterboarding" is torture. I think the committee should have used it on him and then asked him if his opinion had changed. It might have helped clarify his thinking. If our soldiers had this inflicted on them I am sure we would define it as torture. What person in their right mind would think otherwise? What's next? The Catherine's Wheel?

At this point I am with Mercutio - A plague on both their houses. Those who do not believe it is torture and those who believe it is, but still supported the nominee, cannot be trusted.

I am so done with the Democratic leadership. I am ashamed of my party for its lack of leadership on the most important issues of the day. It is not enough to sit back and point the finger at the Republicans. It isn't an original idea, but if they aren't fixing the problem, they are the problem and it is time for them to go.

What a country II continued

I guess I spoke too soon about the student response to the Taser event. There have been marches and protests. It makes me feel a bit better, but not much.

An e-mail went out this morning to Democratic organizers in our congressional district exhorting us to work on the congressional campaign and saying that Bill Clinton will be in Lowell campaigning on behalf of the female candidate...right. We all know the only reason he will be here is because of his wife. As I said before, I highly doubt that a Republican has a snow ball's chance of winning. The only thing here for Bill is garnering votes for Hillary. Side note: I had lunch with a friend yesterday and when I asked him who he supported now for President, he said none. He too is tired of holding his nose at the polling booth. Here's a highly intelligent, educated guy who sees no point in voting. He's my latest recruit to my "if you don't like the candidates, go to the polls to show you care, and turn in an unmarked ballot" plan.

Re Bill (and by association, Hillary): I have Clinton fatigue, although every time I see him or hear him speak on television I do get a rush, but it is the kind you have if you see an old badboy boyfriend. If you are sane you realize it is just nostalgia and fantasy, not reality. Reality is that he slept with your best friend, has since left her, and is with the new flavor of the month. Who need's Mr. Baskin Robbins?

What a country II

In the last couple of days there have been three news stories that have made me think that from the bottom to the top we have lost our bearings.

Story 1: A 70 year old woman in Orem, Utah was hand-cuffed and arrested because she didn't tell police who were on her property who she was and resisted arrest for..........................................
NOT WATERING HER LAWN! C'mon, arrested for having a brown lawn? What were these people thinking? And I want to know why she had any duty at all to answer any questions? Uh, maybe they had an arrest warrant already? A well-known attorney is now representing the lady. This should be on Court TV.

Story 2: Security guards at a college event where our Senator, John Kerry, was speaking, found it necessary to TASER a young man who wouldn't give up the microphone fast enough. They tasered him after about 4 security guards had him on the ground and he was crying out, "Bro', don't Taser me, don't Taser me." No one in the audience seemed the least bit outraged by this. Kerry didn't move and said (prior to the Taser jolt), something like, "I'll answer his question. It's ok." Gee, how forceful, what clout. This whole fiasco made my heart hurt. It seems this young man has pulled "pranks" before, but so what? There has to be a better way of dealing with someone like this than inflicting an electrical shock. If college students don't react to this, I know we are now a nation of sheep. Educated sheep, perhaps, but sheep all the same. It wasn't Kent State to be sure, but back then the student body as a whole had conviction and passion and were willing to stand up for something. Apparently not any more....baaaaa

Story 3: When did we come to be ho-hum about our country out-sourcing our military? Blackwater is a private "security" company working, in among other hot spots, Iraq. Or at least they were until yesterday when the Iraqi government banned them after a firefight that killed 8 civilians. I always knew Blackwater was there, but I thought they were protecting the private contractors (not that I thought that was a good idea). Boy, was I jolted to read that Blackwater was protecting our Ambassador. I thought that was the job of the Marines and the Diplomatic Security Services. Those are the guys and gals I would trust with my life, not the folks from Blackwater who could be from any country in the world. It is completely shocking to me that we can't even provide protection for our own diplomats. If anything would send a signal showing weakness, this would be it. Soldiers of fortune types have always been linked to thug dictators in my mind. Just when I thought things couldn't get much worse, I now guess George Bush can be added to the list...

What are we voting for?

We just had a primary election to fill the seat of our Congressman who stepped down to take a job in the public sector. There were 5 Democrats to choose from and 2 Republicans. The candidate I was supporting was the only true progressive, the only candidate who has always been against the war, and the only candidate who supports single payer health insurance AND the only Clean Elections candidate ever elected to the House of Representatives in Massachusetts. He lost and in true Democratic unity style he was out campaigning for the victor the next day. Not me.

I am disgusted that only 20% of the electorate bothered to vote. I'm disgusted that lots of people didn't even know there was an election. I'm disgusted that money and family name recognition trumps all. I am ready to start a campaign for all those people who say they don't like any of the candidates, for all those who are tired of voting while holding their noses. Here it is: If you want to send a real message follow these steps -

1. Register to vote
2. If you don't like any of the candidates go to the polls anyway
and pull a ballot, but don't vote for anyone.

The records will show that you cared enough to go to vote, but you didn't want to vote for the lesser of two evils or to hold your nose. If we keep being "good Democrats" (or Republicans) and voting for whomever our Party's candidate is no matter what, we get what we deserve as much as the people who don't vote get what they deserve.

Sammy Kahn (I think) wrote a song that applies to my feelings about my beloved Democratic Party after this election:

"I'm through with love
I'll never fall again.
Said adieu to love
Don't ever call again.
For I must have you or no one
And so I'm through with love..."

Christopher Scott Brumfield's Art is Alive in New Orleans

Christopher Scott Brumfield's newest exhibition opened in New Orleans during White Linen Nights and I wish everyone could see it. His ceramic work is sometimes kitchy, sometimes romantic, sometimes disturbing and sometimes all of those things at once. He should be an exhibitor at the Venice Biennale. His website is:

www.christopherscottbrumfield.com

Here are some links to recent reviews:

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/current/art_rev.php

http://www.nola.com/lagniappe/t-p/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1188541353239140.xml&coll=1

http://blog.nola.com/dougmaccash/2007/08/white_linen_night_success.html#more

Labor Day

Just a quick note to recognize Labor Day. My hunch is that most young people are clueless about Labor Day. Most of them are the beneficiaries of the hard work of labor unions, but they aren't members of any union themselves. My favorite bumper sticker says, "Labor Unions, the people who brought you the weekend". It is easy to be dismissive of unions if you have never suffered the hardships of working without them. My grandfather began his life in the United States just as unions were growing. He knew what it was like to work 7 days a week with no benefits of any kind. I come from a strong union family and I am proud of that. Both grandfathers, my paternal grandmother and my father worked for U.S. Steel in Pittsburg, California. I thank God for the union that fought for pensions, healthcare, a safe work place, and lots more. We all owe a debt to them for making life better for all of us.

Matsui's 2nd Birthday!

Yesterday was my Welsh Pembroke Corgi Matsui's 2nd birthday. Unfortunately we couldn't celebrate with any special treats because he has developed allergies and now is on a single protein diet. I feel terrible for him because he can't even have a chewy bone. It is very frustrating to try to figure out what is causing his itching. Considering he could easily live at least 15 more years, it wouldn't be a pleasant thing to have to endure allergies needlessly. I thought the steroids he is taking were stopping the itching, but today he has weepy red eyes. Coincidentally, I have allergy symptoms starting up again too. There must be something in the air...but what? He can't be a bubble-dog.

Matsui is my second Corgi. My husband really didn't want to get another dog after Tristan died, but I sort of begged and started looking for a puppy, sending him photos of puppies I had found, etc. and the next thing he knew we were driving to Connecticut to pick up our pup. He was 11 weeks old when he came home with us, so we didn't really have very much real puppy time. If you are wondering about the name, his mother's name is Sushi (I didn't make these names up) and so the breeders gave all the pups Japanese names. Yes, I know that Matsui is the name of a Yankee, but really, baseball players get traded all the time. What if his name had been Damon or Nomar?

Matsui is a black headed tri and a very handsome character. He "talks" a lot more than my beloved Tristan did and I like that. It isn't barking; he makes little throaty growly (not growling) sounds when he want to communicate with me. If only I could speak Corgi. If I could have any wish (besides Pageant wishes like "world peace" or happiness for my children, that sort of thing), I would love for my dog to be able to talk to me. Guess that's not really going to happen, but it would be a wonderous thing!

Now out to enjoy a beautiful Labor Day Sunday. Maybe we will take a walk.

Chow!

P.S. Go here to see the best Corgi website ever: http://www.zippyweb.com/

What a Country

Hurricane season is back and if Katrina is dim in your mind, just watch this video clip from the http://www.whenthesaints.org/ website and sign the petition to Congress. I don't know how to express how angry I am. The houses are, for the most part, still standing. The devastation was as a result of the water, so for God's sake Bush and Congress, fix the levees and start a massive rebuilding program. I don't care whether my tax dollar is used to give these poor people homes. The damn FEMA trailers cost something like 100K each and now they are giving off toxic fumes. It is just unfathomable that in TWO YEARS we couldn't have built actual homes for people for that kind of money. I repeat FIX THE LEVEES and BUILD HOMES. If we weren't spending all of my future grandchildren's money on a criminal war, we would readily have the money for rebuilding New Orleans. From my view point New Orleans is going to be our version of Rio de Janeiro with its horrific favelas if we don't take care of this now. Where are all those "compassionate conservatives"? Hmmm...let's see, planning on building a great big wall around the Garden District?? And to think that a couple of posts ago I was talking about Greece being almost like the Third World...

Arrogance, Ignorance, and Incompetence

Go right now to the Vanity Fair site and read Graydon Carter's scathing piece on the Bush administration:

http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2007/09/graydon200709

The question that has been nagging me is what happened to all the people who marched against the Viet Nam war? Most of us are still alive and kicking. Why have we rolled over? Why have we let the Republican's systematically dismantle or almost dismantle everything we spent the 1960s fighting for? Have we totally forgotten JFK and Johnson's Great Society? The Civil Rights Movement? Head Start? What the heck has happened?

It's late, so I'm not going to write any more tonight, but I just didn't want to forget Mr. Carter's great bit of writing.

Peace

Language difficulties and baseball

I was so surprised to see that someone (J95) commented on my post about the fires in Greece. I looked at his blog, but it is in Greek. I am embarrassed, once again, that I do not speak a second language fluently. Everywhere I have traveled outside of the U.S. the people speak English (and usually at least one other language besides their own). How many Americans speak anything other than English? My Italian is fine for travel, as is my French, but that's it. It is my greatest wish to actually be fluent in Italian, but I think I am probably too old to achieve true fluency, especially without living in Italy.

In my family my grandparents only spoke Italian when they didn't want us to know what they were talking about. How great it would have been if they had taught us the language instead. My grandfather emigrated here in 1909 from the village of Norma, Italy. Unlike many other Italian emigrants in my hometown of Pittsburg, California, he didn't long to go back to "the old country." He became an American and that meant speaking English. He did live by "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," which meant when in America, do as the Americans do: speak English. I admire this and think it is best. I mean, when I am in another country, I do not expect everyone to speak English. However, I do wish I could sit with my grandfather today and learn Italian from him. What I can do is get started by using the Rosetta Stone language program available FREE through the Chelmsford Public Library. (How great is that? You just enter your library card number and you can access the language programs for several languages from your computer at home!)

Thinking about my Italian grandfather and his love of America, it still makes me laugh that an Italian born immigrant who never played sports and worked in the open hearth at U.S. Steel all his adult life, would sit and watch baseball, the most American sport, on television from his chair in the living room in a cloud of Italian cigar smoke. I was in high school when I discovered that he knew all the names of the San Francisco Giants and actually watched the games.

This stream of conciousness leads me back to Greece. How? Because J95's profile said he isn't interested in "softball." This isn't surprising for a Greek. Baseball (and softball) are virtually unknown in Greece. I was working on a project in Greece for the Olympics and had the opportunity to speak with many Greeks about baseball. I asked everyone I came into contact with what they knew about the game. No one could tell me anything about it. I shared a cab with a Greek translator and an official from MLB. The translator was a woman. When I asked her what she knew about the game, she said, "I know what volley ball is." The MLB guy and I knew it was downhill from there, but I then explained the basics of the game to her, much to the amusement of Mr. MLB. To his credit, he did say he was surprised I did such a good job of getting the basic game across.

There is an amateur baseball league in Greece, but I don't think any of the players were placed on the Greek Olympic team. Instead Americans of Greek descent were recruited to play on the Olympic team. Valerie Kontakos, an American film maker, made a documentary about the Greek Olympic team which I haven't seen yet. It is called WHO'S ON FIRST: "What happens when Greece, a country with no background in baseball, is suddenly required to field a team to compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics?" I thought it was a crime that the Greeks who actually play the game for their country weren't allowed to be on the team. The only way baseball will become a sport in Greece (along with softball) will be if children play the game. Hmmm...who will be the Johnny Appleseed of baseball in Greece, bringing bats and balls and gloves to kids and teaching them the game? If anyone has any idea, let me know...

Greek Fire

I have been following the tragic news about the fires spreading across Greece. I am not a Greek American, but I have many Greek friends and I have gone there on business many times. I like the country very much. Sadly, over 60 people have died in the fires and people have been reduced to trying to beat those fires out with branches which then catch fire. Why the Prime Minister didn't IMMEDIATELY declare a state of emergency and commandeer every bull-dozer in the country to dig fire trenches and get every member of the military out fighting fires IMMEDIATELY is beyond me.

It appears that it is accepted practice for developers to intentionally set forested land ablaze. Why? Because Greek law prevents building on a great deal of forested land, but it doesn't say that once deforested by fire that it can't be built upon. A day or so ago it was announced that two people were arrested...a 77 year old woman who was cooking in her backyard and a 65 or 67 year old man who did do something rather suspicious, but is the government kidding? There were many fires, maybe 200, that were set simultaneously along a 12-14 mile stretch. An old lady cooking in her backyard?? How stupid do they think we are? Perhaps now that the story has become an international one, the Greek government will be embarrassed and get their act together. (My experience says that won't happen, but I can always hope.) Greece is a beautiful, beautiful country, but it is like a 3rd world country in many ways. The people desperately want to be part of the modern world, but they haven't been able to bring the culture as a whole into the 21st century. Here's a bit of irony: the Greeks tell the story of the burning of Smyrna by the Turks and legitimately want Turkey to acknowledge this, but now the Greeks are burning their own country down and they can't blame the Turks for this one (although there has been some talk about investigating whether the fires were started by "terrorists," but the implication is they mean non-Greeks, not greedy people who want the land to build on and don't care whether they murder people to get it.)

Nature will bring back the forests (if the land isn't paved over first) and I do truly pray that the best in human nature will bring Greece's politicians to their senses.

Starting Here, Starting Now

Only 11 more rehearsals before the opening of the cabaret show I'm in with two of my friends. The show is Starting Here, Starting Now by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire. We are doing this as a fundraiser for Westford Chorus at The Java Room in Chelmsford. It is a real test to try to move from singing legit to making that music theatre sound. I wake up in the middle of the night with the music running through my head, so it must be starting to stick. I hate looking at this in writing, but I was the Assistant Stage Manager 30 years ago in NYC on the original show. Singing the songs brings back lots of memories to say the least. It will be interesting to see if the music is still fresh or seems dated to the audience. There are two recordings of the show. The only one worth listening to is the original cast recording with George Lee Andrews, Loni Ackerman and Margery Cohen.

http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Here-Original-1977-Off-Broadway/dp/B000002W3D

(George went on to be in the original cast of Phantom of the Opera and low these many years later he is STILL in the show. How weird is it that for decades I have been meaning to go to New York and see Phantom. With my luck there will be an announcement that the show will be closing and I won't be able to get tickets...) Back to SHSN, the London cast recording is painful to listen to, but unlike the NY cast recording, it has literally all of the songs.

http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Here-1993-Original-London/dp/B000005BH4

Nancy, Bill and I have been working hard on getting our version of the show together. We have a great trio backing us up. Now that tickets are on sale we realize there is no turning back. It is truly on with the show...now I'm off to rehearsal...

My first entry...August 25, 2007

I stumbled on blogspot and decided to test it out. I have read lots of other people's blogs, but never thought to try this myself.

Why did I name my blog "Mezzo Drama"? Well, I'm a mezzo and I live a dramatic life. I have been studying voice for about seven years and went from singing once in a while with friends to singing the role of Carmen with a community choral group, something I would have never thought possible. That's me on the left in the photo. Singing is what keeps me almost sane. If I keep this blog thing up, I am sure I will write more about that.

Ciao