Bathsheba Monk
Bathsheba Monk Explains Everything
Sugar Heart
I was in Israel a long time ago, engaged to a Jewish boy who wanted to live there--to jump to the end, the boy and I didn't last--and it was Valentine's Day on the kibbutz and I was running around like a moon infected crazy delivering tiny candied hearts to people in the communal dining room who didn't know what a valentine was and didn't care and threw the tiny hearts engraved with inane love messages over their shoulders, shrugging. I was breathtakingly young and dumb and REALLY thought these people should be educated on the elevating power of love, not even considering that St. Valentine was a Christian saint. But what did it matter? Isn't love always a good thing? Nowadays, a bunch of people in my family are evangelical Christians and so Valentine's day is lost on them too, as, they have educated me, St. Valentine was a Catholic saint, and evangelical Cs don't pay homage to saints. They don't send cards, give flowers, receive assurances that they are someone's special love--all this with a sour fervor in order to deny a saint's power--when it would be a lot more fun to just go ahead and have a heart.
Pre-Holiday Discount for Memoir Writing Conference 2012
The Memoir Writing Conference being held in Bethlehem, PA, April 28, 2012 is offering a twenty dollar discount until December 3. It's going to be a good time and, for a short time, just a little bit cheaper. Happy Holidays.
Gary Cooper, Gary Cooper
G. Bruce Boyer, one of our fabulous presenters at the Memoir Writing Conference 2012, has a new book coming out now. The book is called Gary Cooper, Enduring Style. A book signing will be held in NYC on November 15, the invitation is enclosed. I hope to see you there.
Memoir Writing Conference 2012 Spotlight on Susan Straight
I am so pleased to be hosting with ArtsQuest the Memoir Writing Conference in April 2012 at the Steel Stacks in Bethlehem, PA. We have a tremendous line-up of talent and experts to help you get your memoir in shape to send it out into the world or to just get it started. Award-winning, best-selling author Susan Straight will lead the session on place in memoir. Susan is the author of, most recently, Take One Candle Light a Room. Here is a link to her site where you can read about her and her books. Here is a link to the website where Susan writes about her beloved piece of earth--California. And here is a link to the Memoir Writing Conference 2012 website where you can sign up for both the conference and the limited-seating dinner the night before with Susan, Betsy Lerner and Micah Sidagh.
Secret Weapon
I've been really critical of the Spider Man fiasco...I mean, how much time and money do you need to put on a musical? The way it works with me is that I am a complete judgmental jerk then I hit the same obstacles I was so critical of which is what happened with my musical-in-development, Lois's Wedding. I am going to be one really smart old lady, all this wisdom. Anyway, after much development, the composer, the brilliant and talented Mike Krisukas and I decided to blow it all up and start again. Himmel Gott! But now I got a secret weapon in the person of Jeff Weiss, who you may know as the Obie-winning playwright-actor who just happens to live three blocks from me and who has taken an interest in Lois's Wedding, lucky for me. Did I mention he was brilliant? And not just because he thinks I'm brilliant, hahahah. More later, but the official word--from me-- is that Lois's Wedding is on track and preparing to explode on the scene.
High Wire Acts
Spider sliding down his five foot stand of silk, which traverses the roof of our giant porch to the tip of the Dusty Millers in vases on our old oak table, then working his way back up like a mountain climber on his life line; squirrel tiptoeing across the cable line with a chestnut in his mouth. It's worth the effort to get up before eight o'clock and hang out on the back porch to see how others live..
Dana McGowan, Jennifer Apple, Tom Kelleher, Josiah DeAndrea, and Chelsea Mojallali...Nude Walker street performers
The Nude Walker street performers wonderfully tell the tale of Max Asad and Kat Warren-Bineki, Duck Wolinsky and Jenna Magee and the feisty Houda Asad. Our New York City gig is over now, but look for us in the fall in NYC and Philadelphia.
NUDE WALKER STREET PERFORMERS YIELD TO GAY PRIDE PARADE....
....AND MAZEL TOV. SEE YOU NEXT WEEKEND IN CENTRAL PARK, LOCATIONS AND TIMES TO BE ANNOUNCED.
The Nude Walker Street Performers in NYC
The Nude Walker Street Performers and moi were in NYC this past Sunday. June 19th from noon to two we will be on the High Line in NYC. From two-thirty to four we will be in Washington Square Park. See you there. Pics taken by Spanish fashion photographer Franklyn Espinal who just happened to be walking by and was taken by the Nude Walker characters played by Jennifer Apple, Tom Kelleher, Josiah DeAndrea, Chelsea Mojallali, and Dana McGowan. Vanessa Lancellotti, director of the theater group, Punch, put it all together. 
Is that YOU in there....
Did an informal poll of friends and acquaintances and the results are that 95 percent of them are on anti-depressants. So are their pets. So, am I friends with Abilify or Zoloft or Prozac or Betty Sue? What is all this stress everyone can't deal with...I think that's called life which is messy and confusing and disappointing at times and joyous and wondrous a lot and heartbreaking more often than not and I'm not just talking about the personal heartbreaks of interpersonal feuds and finding out your kid deals and does heroin but the major heartbreaks of nuclear reactors run amok and societies waking up from a stupor and saying "I am a man" and getting mowed down with machine guns for their trouble and finding out that the ONE MAN who could apparently save the world economy is a rapist and then where are we going to be? Pass the pills.
