Happy Birthday Lena

Legend. Trailblazer. Icon. Lena Horne is all of this and so much more. Today she is 91 years young. My earliest memory of Lena Horne is as the luminous Glinda The Good Witch in The Wiz. To me she was the highlight of the movie! A couple of years back, I saw a clip of a big party that MGM had for all the stars in the 40's. There in the middle of all those sea of white stars sat Lena sitting elegantly and beautiful. I wondered how she really felt. Miss Lena had to endure racism in many forms. Her scenes in most of her movies for MGM were cut out when shipped down South so as not to offend the white audiences. Her most famous movies at MGM as ,one of the few Black performers under contract, are Stormy Weather and Cabin in The Sky. Being a talented and beautiful actress and singer in the 40's could only get her so far. Despite that, Lena Horne went on to flourish in television and theater; also as a recording artist. She is an Grammy and Tony award winner.
Lena Horne, the actress, the singer, the activist is a woman to be respected and remembered. As an African American Actress, I am grateful for her commitment to always show us in a positive and wonderful light. I feel as the first true Black Movie Star, she paved the way for generations of actress to come. Here is Lena Horne signing her signature song: Stormy Weather

Check out more about Lena at IMDB.com or www.lena-horne.com

Romance

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I watched last night on TCM, a classic romantic tearjerker called All This and Heaven Too starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer from 1940. Bette and Charles are magic together. It just fueled my dreamy and romantic feeling I woke up with this morning.

So, I decided to post one of my all-time favorite romantic scenes from Superman.I was nine when the movie came out and instantly fell in love with Christopher Reeve. I thought he was so handsome and wonderful. When he passed in 2004, I was heartbroken. Only in the past two years, have I been able to watch his movies without getting sad.

I must confess there are still nights that I gaze out my window. I imagine myself flying with my own Superman. So here it is. Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder as Superman and Lois Lane flying together.

Travel Dreams

Since I was 17, I fell in love with the dream of going to Paris, France. Strolling down the boulevard while eating sumptuous chocolate pastry with a fine Parisian man by side. I am renewing my dream. For my next birthday, I want to be in Paris. So it's my mantra for myself Paris in 2009. I believe there is always a way to get where you want to go. Sometimes the path appears or you blaze your own path!

My other travel dream came to me when I turned 25 or 26: Tahiti. Something about being in the South Pacific is romantic and exotic to me. I always ask people do you know anyone who has ever been to Tahiti? It's rare for people to know anyone who does. To be able to walk on the white sands and float in the crystal blue waters. To be in another culture full of people of color who have life and vibrancy sounds heavenly to me.

These are my two big Travel Dreams that I plan to make into reality. There is one thing about me, I feel no dream is too big. I have been watching Oprah for the past two weeks about The Law of Attraction. I'm inspired to do a visioning board for my Travel Dreams.

So I do Paris for 2009 and Tahiti in 2010.I wish for all of you a weekend remembering or discovering your own Travel Dreams.

Books

I love books and libraries. When I was at Howard, one of my favorite places to be was Founders Library. I loved the feel of the grand old library with it's large windows and oak tables. My local Library is one of my haunts now. I'm there at least twice a week picking up books. Yes, I know I am a serious Library geek!

I revel in being a reader. I wanted to share a partial list of my favorite books. Since 2007, I started a book list.Sometimes I read a book then forget the author's name and get frustrated trying to remember the name. So now with my list, I keep track of all my best reads. There is a mix of styles and themes here.

Pleasure Seekers by Rochelle Alers
Poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldrige
Seven Tears from The Sea by Teri Farley
This Pen for Hire: Jaine Austen mystery series by Laura Levine
My Soul is a Witness: African American Spirituality edited by Gloria Wade Gayles
Casanegra by Blair Underwood with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes
Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
Passing by Nella Larsen
Blue Bloods & Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz.
Steering By Starlight by Martha Beck
Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow
The Calling series by Caridad Pinero
Passport Diaries by Tamara Gregory

Happy Reading to all. If you pick up any of the books, let me know what you thought.

Muse

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My muse has been tantalizing my Aquarian brain. I am already wading into my creative waters and seeing what I like to do first.

I have a rough draft of a fantasy novel, meditations to write and merging all my one woman show ideas into one workable show to work on. Of course, finding some good acting work. After the sonnet show, I want to do more theater. It has to be good theater, no crap that I can do in my sleep. Get good film work and get paid for it. I have a whole slew of movies and books have been waiting patiently for me to dive into.

Yes my inner Muse is flitting all over the place. Sparking me to do this and that. So this week I'm going to play around. I'll see what catches my fancy and my eye. Who knows what creative opportunities I will draw to myself. Summer to me is the time to indulge into deep creative passions and fantasies. The long hours of bright sunlight and blue sky is perfect for all of this.

I shall see where my Muse is to take me this summer.

Friday

It has been and still is a great week for me. I want to thank all of you for your warm wishes and prayers for me during my show!! I was very nervous when I got cast.I wasn't sure how I would be able to give Uncle Will all that he asks. That I might have taken on too much. I found that the challenges of doing the sonnets only have made me stronger as an actor. I have enjoyed every minute of it this journey.

Being on stage for me is like being outside of time and just one with the words and myself. I've been wanting to do more Shakespeare and this has just whetted my appetite. My life as an actor is not always easy. It is a week like this that makes it all worthwhile. Tonight, will be my final performance for now. I look forward to a future of performing in more Uncle Will and other great acting projects.

Happy first day of Summer to all of you and have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday. Once again, thanks for all the love you all have given me.

Opening night

Tonight is opening night for me. We had a long rehearsal yesterday. So I am so ready to do the show. You can rehearse to the cows come home. Performing in front of a live audience is totally different. The energy from the audience, from yourself and your fellow actors just mix to make it so alive. There is no greater high than being on stage for me.

Tonight and the next two nights, I will fuse my soul with Uncle Will and do my best to bring his sonnets to life.

Am I nervous? Yes. I am scared? Yes. Am I Happy? Yes and that is the most important. I am always happy when I'm acting.

It is also a Full Moon tonight as well. The Honeymoon which I think is where the word comes from since a lot of people get married in June. I feel this will make the night even more special.

Everyone have a wonderful Full Moon night. Wherever you are at nine pm tonight. Just say a prayer or send some energy for me. That's when the show begins. You can never have too much positive vibes sent your way!

Sweet Love, Sweet Lines, Sweet Life!

I have two more rehearsals then Wednesday is the show!! The whole experience of working on the sonnets is so different than what I imagined. There are six of us in the cast and each of us have four sonnets. I have read the sonnets many times but to hear spoken out loud is amazing. Uncle Will went through some deep stuff in his life to write these. The sonnets are full of love, rage, madness, shame, redemption, revenge, hope. All I can say to people is don't sleep on the sonnets. Many of the themes of his greatest plays are in these as well.

When I see the choices of the sonnets we all made, I wonder if they picked us instead of us picking the sonnets. The ones I have resonate within me. I am line by line being transformed. I welcome it though I had to go deep and dark within me at times. That my friends is scary and overwhelming at times.

I may be scarce with the blogging this week. If any of you find yourself in Manhattan and want to see some Uncle Will, please do come. Come up to me after the show and introduce yourself to me! I am very friendly. All the info is in the flyer. Just click on and it will get bigger so you can see it better.

Don't worry, it's not Shakespeare with phony British accents and being high brow. No this is Shakespeare for the people. He wrote his works for regular people because he was one too. Only over the centuries has it evolved into something that people feel is something exclusive and refined. I feel Uncle Will would approve.

Tagged!!

Wow, I got my first tag from Sharon.This is so cool. So here I go.

1. What is your occupation?
Actor

2. What color socks right now?
Not wearing any.

3. What are you listening to right now?
I'm watching channel 7 news

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
A delicious donut. I really need to eat dinner.

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
No.

6. If you could be a color what color would you be?
Cerulean Blue

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
My mom

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yes I do. She is one of the first people who left a lovely comment on my blog. Made me feel so good.

9. Favorite food?
I hope chocolate counts!!

10. Favorite drink?
Sprite.

11. What is your favorite sport to watch?
I love to watch surfing!!

12. Have you ever dyed your hair?
Yes, I'm going to recolor my hair tomorrow in fact.

13. Pets?
I have a lovely tuxedo cat named Mabel. She is the best.

14. Favorite Author?
OOh, that's hard. I love to many authors to have one favorite.

15. Last movie you watched?
Summer Stock starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. They are on my favorite screen couples.

16. Favorite Day of the year?
My birthday of course. It's always magical for me.

17. What do you do to vent anger?
I blast music that gets my blood going and let all the stuff come out of me.

18. What was your favorite toy as a child?
One of my favorites was my blue elephant bath toy. I kept him till his features had faded away.

19. What is your favorite time of the year?
I love winter because my birthday is in January.

20. Strawberry or Blueberry?
Blueberry.

21. Do you want your friends to participate?
I'll see.

22. Who is most likely to respond?
Not sure.

23. Who is least likely to respond?
Still don't know.

25. When was the last time you cried?
Just about three hours ago. Working on my sonnets for my show next week brings up a lot of emotions.

26. Who is the friend you had the longest that you are going to tag?

27. Who is the friend you had the shortest that you are going to tag?
Both ladies I have only know for a while, they both have always kind and sweet to me. So I tag Beverly and Caridad.

28. Favorite smell?
Rose

29. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?
Cheeseburgers!!

30. Favorite car?
I always wants an old fashioned big car from the 50's in cherry red.

31. Favorite Quote or motto?
Always trust your instincts.

32. Number of keys on your key ring?
About six or seven.

33. How many years at your current job?
I'm a gyspy actor, so I go from job to job.

34. Favorite day of the week?
Thursday.

35. How many states have you lived in?
Both in New York and Washington D.C.

36. Which political label most closely reflects your views?
I guess liberal.

37. Worst injury you've ever had?
Broke my arm when I was six years old.

38. What is your favorite book?
Can't pick a favorite too many I love.

39. What were you doing at 12:00 last night?
Coming in from rehearsal last night.

40. What famous person, dead or alive, would you most like to meet? I have a couple.
Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland, Shakespeare, Nat King Cole, Laurence Fishburne, Lenny Kravitz, Gerard Butler and Diahann Carroll.

Rehearsal

I am writing by the waxing moon's light. It is after midnight. I just got home from rehearsal. I am emotionally spent. Uncle Will aka Shakespeare is a demanding task master. I've always known this but tonight I got my but whipped good and proper.

It's been an emotional week for me. All these feelings bubbling up. Instead of able to access this, I just got all locked up inside. Uncle Will wasn't having that. You got pay the piper, to call the tune. So I opened up and all the flood gates opened up. I felt so vulnerable and exposed. My fellow actors were all so cool and supportive, as is Ken my director.

When I was coming home on the train, I swear I could hear Uncle Will say: Now, you understand what I want from you. I have given you the words now fill it with the feelings. If I go deep, so must thou.

All art is created from who we truly are. When we don't show up for whatever reason, the work suffers. That means that like I relearned tonight, you have to sometimes walk in the dark with your heart open to let the creativity fly. You have to go there because that is what the part requires.

Happy Birthday Judy

When I was a little girl, there was nothing better on a weekend afternoon to find a Judy Garland movie on. I loved her and I still do. She had a quality that lit up the screen. She could do it all comedies, romances, drama. And that voice is pure magic.

Though she struggled in her life, she was able to always put it aside and be the consummate performer on screen, stage, television and records. I've always admired her tenacity to keep going when others always wrote her off.

Now, this may be odd for a Judy fan to admit. The Wizard of Oz is not one of my favorite Judy movies. Perhaps I saw it too much as a kid! Anyway, her best screen partner was Gene Kelly. Judy and Gene had sparkled together on screen. I wish they had did more than the three movies they starred in together. Two of the three are part of my favorites of Judy's. Here are to me her must see films and these include musicals and drama.

Judy's Best:
Meet Me in St. Louis
The Clock
The Pirate (with Gene Kelly and The Nicholas Brothers)
Easter Parade
Summer Stock ( with Gene Kelly)
A Star is Born
Gay Purr-ee (cartoon)
A Child is waiting

Happy Birthday, Judy. You are still loved and missed.

The Door has Been Opened

Politics has never been my forte. It is interwoven into the fabric of our lives. I had to note what has happened this week. The race between Obama and Clinton is for the history books.

With Obama as the Democratic front runner officially. I think of all my ancestors who lived and died as slaves and dreamed of freedom. Even relatives after slavery, who did their best to build a life and instill pride in being black which still resonates in my family today. Could they ever have imagined this day? I wonder. It is here.

What Halle Berry said about winning the Oscar for Best Actress can be applied to now: "This moment is so much bigger than me. Because the door tonight has been opened."

Friday Jam

I've made a bit of peace with the events of yesterday. Can't dwell on things. I had an interesting week. Getting more into Uncle Will's Sonnets and starting again with an old friend.

So this song from back in the day fits my current situation perfectly. Have a great weekend. Enjoy Second Time Around by Shalamar.

Hoarding

I don't know how many of you know about compulsive Hoarding. Oprah had a show on this where they had to help a couple clean out from all the clutter of the house. Compulsive hoarding isn't about having maybe a junk room where you put everything there. Imagine your whole house like that. Where you only have maybe a small space for yourself to sleep and eat. Everything else is all your stuff. It is a psychological order and become quite serious if left untreated.

I have family members who suffer from this in an extreme.There health is in danger. To the point, now my mom had to go and get outside help. I had to make a choice that made my two relatives feel I betrayed them. Even now, my heart hurts to think hear her disappointment in her voice while speaking to me today.

I couldn't sit by and idly watch them sink into madness and degradation. There are times you have to be disliked to help someone you really love. Guess that's what they call tough love.

So today I'm feeling sad. Life can't always be sunshine and roses. I wish all of you have a better day than I am having.

New Moon

Today is a new moon. It is a sign of fresh beginnings. Being I have a touch of the mystic in me, I like to keep up with the phases of the moon and the energies behind them. Tonight when you look up to the sky, you won't be able to see the moon. She is up there. As the nights go on, the moon will become more visible.

It is going to be a creative and fun night for me. I start rehearsal for a show called Sweet Love, Sweet Lines, Sweet Life. It's about bringing Shakespeare's sonnets to life. I've spent most of last week living with about seven sonnets. Practicing them day and night; So I can get them down into my soul. Tonight, the next phase of hard work begins. I'm looking forward to rehearsal and what will be discovered.

Also,I am supposed to hang out with an old friend. I am happy and excited about seeing my friend. I can't think of a better time to reconnect.

Tonight will be special. I hope yours will be too.

Movies

Sex and The City! I loved the movie. It was totally faithful to the series. To me it felt like a good long episode. I was glad to see Jennifer Hudson there adding some color! It made a whopping 55 million dollars. That is a great opening weekend. Because of that, there may be more female dominated movies that will be greenlighted by the big studios. Whatever makes box office gold becomes the indicator of movies to come. Whether that will includes actresses of color is another story. Back to SATC.

Hats off SJP,Kim Cattrall,Kristin Davis,and Cynthia Nixon for bringing Carrie,Samantha,Charlotte and Miranda back on to the big screen successfully. The ladies and their men made my Saturday.

I don't know how much people who never saw the show would enjoy it. They do a nice little opening in the beginning to bring everyone up to date with the ladies. I never really had a favorite of the four. I loved them all in their quirky and wonderful ways.

I also got to see Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Good fantasy flick, though I feel the first one is my favorite so far. The weekend before, I saw Indiana Jones. To me it was pure fun but it wasn't as good as Raiders or The Last Crusade. It was sure a lot better than Temple of Doom!! That was a stinker.

Watching Sex and The City had me craving for all black best friends movie. Been a long time since we had that? The last movie like that I can remember was Waiting to Exhale. If I'm wrong on that, please let me know. I'm really trying to rack my brains on this.

That's all on the movie front for me. As the summer goes, there will be more movies to talk about. What is your favorite movie so far this summer?