Something to Ponder

The hubby and I were introduced to Paul Winter by my stepmother. We are now avid fans of his solstice concerts, held every year at St. John the Divine. In fact, we'll be getting up at 3am this Saturday to attend this year's Summer Solstice concert (one performance only!). Anyway, because I am on the Paul-Winter-fan mailing list, I received this, which I thought was worth sharing:

PARENTS PARTY
A Message for Father's Day
Paul Winter
Mid June, 08

The political campaigns of the last several months have given me pause. All the
divisiveness has inspired me to ponder more deeply one of my favorite subjects: the
universals – the things people care about in common all over the world, the common
ground where we might stand, and even dance, together. At this point in my journey I've become quite clear on what may be our most universal value. It's kids. So I have this vision of a Parents Party, an unofficial league of all parents of the planet, and not just parents, but everyone who loves children.

I came into the realm of parenthood somewhat later than most of my contemporaries. I
was 56 when my first child was born, and it wasn't long before I got a new name: "Daddy." I've been quite proud of this name. It has a special ring to it. Then, when I was 65, our second daughter came along, and now once again there's a toddler running around the house, calling me by my new name. So I think this title's going to stick. And what better one could I hope for? Governor? President? No thanks. "Daddy" is as good as it gets. It resonates of a relationship, a role. It's an honorific.

So now, wherever I am, walking through an airport or along a city street, and I hear a little voice calling out "Daddy," I turn around, automatically. And even though it's someone else's child, I feel some sense of relatedness, and it makes me feel glad. As I continue on my way, I wonder about that Dad, and imagine how, if we met, that it wouldn't matter if he and I disagreed on most everything under the sun; I'm absolutely certain that we would agree that what's most important in our respective worlds are these little persons who have come into our lives and awakened our fountain of love. And that the highest priority in each of our lives is to do what we can to provide a safe and healthy world for them, and their life-journey. I can't imagine there's a Dad, or a Mom, anywhere on this planet, who doesn't want that for their child.

Why can't we have our modes of governance based on this universal? In this realm, this common realm of love, there are no political differences. We don't have some people calling their love "liberal" and others saying theirs is "conservative. " It's beyond all that. Love is love. And I think that's where we all really want to live.

So I dream of this Parents Party, spreading spontaneously around the world. It will have no organization, no fundraising, no propaganda – none of that debilitating stuff. It'll just be a word-of-mouth thing, person-to-person. We'll just talk about our kids and get out the photos and have a good smile together. We'll know what to do then. And we'll keep this old Earth spinnin'.

The Things You Notice When You're Paying Attention

So, I'm sitting here, minding my own business, watching "Frequency," when I suddenly realize that Gordy Jr. is being played by a very young Michael Cera of Arrested Development, Juno, and Superbad fame.

Later Gator!

Just a quick post to let you know programming will be temporarily suspended while I jet off to Boston for work for a couple days.

Oh, What a Night!

(I meant to post this yesterday, but for reasons that will reveal themselves later, never got to it.)

Wow.

Obama did it! I am incredibly psyched that he pulled it off.

And while he was doing that, I was at the True Colors Concert at Radio City Music Hall.

To be honest, I got the tickets based mostly on the fact that the Indigo Girls were going to be there and this is their only tour date in the NYC-area. That they weren't headlining was slightly offset by the fact that Cyndi Lauper and the B-52s were. So I recruited a couple of people to go with me and didn't think much more about it. I didn't go to the tour website or learn anything else about it until we were there.

It was quite a night.

First of all, being the cheap person that I am, I had gotten upper-upper-upper mezzanine tickets. But, as we were trekking up to our seats in the boonies, an usher stopped us and asked if wanted to sit in the orchestra. ("Um, no. We want to keep our crappy seats please.") So we turned around and went back downstairs to approximately 20th row orchestra. Cool.

Then there was the lineup:
The whole thing was emceed by Carson Kressley, of "Queer Eye" fame. He was entertaining, but I certainly wouldn't go to or see anything just because he was there.

The Cliks - clearly an opening band, they weren't my favorite, but the lead singer (Lucas Silveira) definitely has that "thing"--magnetism, confidence, a killer voice--that should mean we'll all be hearing more from him in the future.

The Indigo Girls - they only did about 5 songs (Galileo, Pendulum Swinger,* one I can't remember the name of, Kid Fears, and Closer to Fine) but they were fabulous as always. Made me long for the days when I would go to their concerts at Wolftrap. Next time they're there, I think a road trip is definitely in order.
[*"Pendulum Swing" is their song inspired by the Bush administration which--in a nod to the Dixie Chicks flap--they were very clear to say in their intro, "Hey. It's only a pop song."]


Kate Clinton - a lesbian feminist standup comic. I'd heard her name before but never seen her stuff. She was great. Very "New York-intellectual."

Regina Spektor - I had never heard her before and she was freakin' amazing. For her first song, she came out on stage alone, picked up a mike and started singing. She tapped the microphone to create a beat line, but was otherwise unaccompanied. After the first song, she moved over the piano and you could tell she had been classically trained. Both vocally and musically, she was incredibly versatile and creative. At one point, she was playing the piano with one hand, playing a chair as a drum with the other AND singing. Talk about multi-tasking. We were beyond being surprised when she got up and played guitar for another number ("Of COURSE she also plays guitar.")

Rosie O'Donnell - Needs no introduction, of course. Unfortunately, she was not in top form. I think the whole "View" fracas (which I didn't follow) really got to her.

The B-52s - What can I say? One of the high points of my concert-going experiences is now dancing to "Love Shack" being sung live by the B-52s and bang-bang-banging on the door in sync with the band. Just fun.

Margaret Cho - Mostly made me realize that it's ironic that lesbians and gays get lumped together all the time because they really don't have much in common.

And, of course:

Cyndi Lauper - Cyndi was fabulous. She was probably the best performer of the evening. Lots of energy, lots of joy, a great voice. I loved her as a teenager, but have to admit that I haven't listened to her stuff in years (partly because I had her on vinyl and so she never made the transition to my iPod), but I foresee some digital downloads in my future.

And then there was the cause. The True Colors tour was created by Cyndi Lauper (per the tour website) "to raise awareness about the discrimination the GLBT community still faces and raise significant funds for the organizations that work everyday on their behalf." Throughout the evening, there was a message of tolerance as well as a push to get out the vote.

As I said to my friends as we were leaving, "What a night. Great entertainment AND a socially responsible cause."

One final note: In my I-didn't-research-this-thing-beforehand state of mind, I assumed the concert would be 2 or maybe 3 hours long. It ran FIVE HOURS. Amazing.

Chowdah Begone!

Last week in this space, I reported that I had actually gained 3lbs, which I am fully attributing to all the New England Clam Chowder I consumed over Memorial Day weekend while we were up at the Cape.

I am happy to report that this week I am down 3.8lbs, which is my "chowder weight" plus a little extra.

I can't find anything Scrabble-related that weighs 3.8 lbs, so I'm going to cheat a little this week and use something from the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought..." feature on Amazon, namely:


All hail the cult! (And clam chowder. Believe me, it was worth the temporary setback.When my cult leader asked me what I did differently this week to rack up such a big loss, I simply replied, "I didn't eat clam chowder." )

It's the Little Things

Back at work after a GREAT weekend.

What made it great, you ask?

Well, part of it, believe it or not, was the fact that I had time on Saturday morning to actually RUN ERRANDS. I got to go to the post office, the shoemaker, AND the dry cleaners. While I was doing that, our lovely cleaning service was cleaning our apartment and so, after errands, I had enough time to get my eyebrows waxed and get a pedicure. Considering that I haven't had time to do ANY of these things in the past several months, getting them all done in one morning left me positively euphoric.

And that was just one small piece of the weekend.

Friday I spent the afternoon with a dear friend getting caught up and acting like "ladies who lunch."

Friday evening the hubby and I saw Bill Maher at NJPAC. Hilarious and on-point. (My favorite line: "Let's see, we've had War--Iraq, Flood--Katrina, Famine--the current food crisis...all we need is Locusts and Bush is officially the Anti-Christ.")

Saturday afternoon, we saw "Thurgood" with Lawrence Fishburne, which was EXCELLENT. Made me proud and ashamed to be an American in the same moment. Powerful stuff.

Also Saturday afternoon, we had a late lunch/early dinner at Becco, one of my favorite restaurants. (Yes, all you cult fans out there, bonus points were used.)

Saturday evening, I saw the Neo-Futurists, which was definitely experience. One that I might try again sometime.

Sunday, we bought flowers for the terrace planters (finally!) which I planted and then sat down to enjoy. It was the first day I've had time to sit on our terrace this year.

Sunday evening, I had my writers' group and then went to see my friend do Leonard Cohen covers at the Slaughtered Lamb.

All in all, a fun-filled (and yet very relaxing) weekend. Yay!

A Moment of Silence

In recent years, the hubby and I and my mom and her husband have gone up to Ptown almost every year and usually off-season. We love the quiet, the beauty, and the feeling of having the town to ourselves.

Because it's the off-season, most of the restaurants in town are closed, particularly the breakfast places, and so that's how we discovered the Post Office Cafe (which my husband swears makes the world's best pancakes) and its spirited manager Dixie. During a typical weeklong stay, we eat at the Post Office five of the seven days. Exchanging banter with Dixie has become one of the highlights of our trips and one of the things we looked forward to each year.

And so, we were very saddened this weekend to learn that Dixie tragically died from a fall a couple of weeks ago.

If you Google "Dixie" and "Provincetown," you'll get a sense of how well-known and loved he was. And there are certainly many others who knew him better and longer than we did. But I couldn't let the death of the only person who ever called me "bitch" and got away with it go unremarked.

Dixie, we'll miss you. P-town is a little bit emptier.