Anne Pitoniak

Actress Anne Pitoniak, 85, originally from this town, Westfield, MA , has died... she played the mother co starring with Kathy Bates in the original 'Night Mother on Broadway in 1983. She once said, "from 'Night Mother I learned to listen to my children by what they were not saying. Once a lesson from theater is awakened in you, it will never leave you."

Margaret Rutherford

Having an English mother, I grew up watching Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple as Agatha Christie's elderly homespun detective Miss Marple every time it happened to be on TV.... a brilliantly funny actress, She played that role in 4 films from 1961-1964. Margaret Rutherford always made me feel it was fun to get older and become more eccentric.-The Miss Marple theme music that began each of the four films she did was also fantastic-harpsichord mixed with a early 60's swinging beat ..here is a great quote that gives you a sense of how this great British actress thought:

"I hope I'm an individual. i suppose an eccentric is a super individual. Perhaps an eccentric is just off centre- ex-centric. But that contradicts a belief of mine that we've got to be centifugal."

Dr. James Richards- cat expert dies protecting a cat

Veterinarian James Richards died yesterday at age 58 from injuries he sustained from being thrown from his motor cycle avoiding a cat in the road on Sunday. Richards was the director of the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine and his specialty was cats- what a beautiful person he was. I think he kinda looks like a cat...here he is with a cat who hung around his office called "Dr. Mews. "

Blessy in the spotlight

Blessing is enjoying the sunlight today-how nice to see the green again and buds and blue skies......

The Shangri-Las: past, present and future

Does anyone doubt that the Shangri-las were the coolest girl group? I have been thinking about "Leader of the Pack" lately as I listen to a Carpenters live album from 1974 in Japan and Karen Carpenter does her version of it, which is unbelievably beautiful in its own right. She must, as a child, have seen them on TV on such shows as the Steve Allen Show (1964) which you can view on Youtube and the seeds of her own strength and talent were planted there watching them.
Lo and behold Mary Weiss , the lead singer, has a new album out (Dangerous Game)! This shot of her is from its cover.....I really love one of the songs called "Break it for me one more time"....
The Shangri-las were from Queens, NY and met in grammar school there. Sadly, the Ganser sisters (who backed up Mary's vocals) both died prematurely-Mary Ann died from encephalitis in 1971 (at only 23) and Marge from breast cancer in 1996 (at only 46). So, let's celebrate Mary's great solo album this year.....

The Host

The Host ( directed by Bong Joo-ho) is a brilliantly orchestrated South Korean monster movie (with all the crowds pointing and running and mayhem-though ever shot is a fresh and clever addition to the genre) and an incredibly moving story of the extent one family will go to save its youngest member and honor its bonds to one another....this film does not even have a happy ending per se, but the struggle to find the young daughter is so heroic ( each member of the family does something exceptionally brave ) that it renews a feeling of faith in the world and I can't remember feeling quite so happy leaving a film theater.

a light from within

"People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Cindy Sheehan on fear

Personally I feel since 9/11/2001 we have slid into a heightened machismo state in this country- the swagger came back, the us versus them - hatred weaved its way (as it always does) into homophobia (the whole anti gay marriage movement that won an incompetent president a second term), sexism- the female as enemy (the Dixie Chicks, Cindy Sheehan, Helen Thomas, and, of late, the women's basketball team at Rutgers.... ) so Cho Seung -Hui's macho video sent to NBC before he murdered 32 people seems another grotesque chapter to all that. His ridiculous poses with guns are more than just his individual mental illness. When will it end and we get back to sanity in this country and how we behave in the world?
I am very impressed by women who have stood up in these times and said no to this blood lust. Cindy Sheehan was in Indianapolis a few days ago and gave an interesting comment on fear:

"Fear is an irrational emotion. I refuse to be afraid. Everyone has to decide what their comfort zone is and step outside of their comfort zone...Find out where your comfort is and go past it...go over it and then stretch it out and keep going over it. Just tell them- I'm not afraid of you."

Rainy Days and Mondays..and Tuesdays and Wednesdays...always gets me down

when will it end? It does remind of a Carpenters song...

how Blessing spent this rainy day

noise disturbances

I thought I would rollerblade a little yesterday in between the sleet storm of Thursday and the flooding predicted today. I love the Manhan Trail in Easthampton and try to park in a quiet spot of it by a new condo complex built in the last few years. These people probably spent a fortune to live there as Easthampton sells it soul to yuppies and greedy developers. Well, in one of the run down houses nearby some moron was blaring his stereo out of the window. It is hard these days to know who is worse, but I really hate noise disturbances. It is the another form of anti social behavior like removing all hopes of affordable housing. These were my thoughts rollerblading yesterday when I was trying to GET AWAY from everything. Still, I had a nice time and love rollerblading by the cute swans and ducks there, breathing in the fresh air and trying to remember that there is substance somewhere-in nature, in fresh air, in the simple beauty of life.....

The Autobiography of Howard Hughes

This is one of those interesting stories from the 1970's-Clifford Irving's attempt to become rich by pretending to be taking down transcripts for Howard Hughes for his autobiography in 1971. I saw the film ("The Hoax") based on the story yesterday and it was an excellent study of personal corruption- a good writer who can't get published so fakes another's (Hughes) words; a man who will sacrifice anything for his ego wants taking everyone in his personal life down with him. Here is the best shot from the film as a pic of Hughes, the now paranoid recluse who corrupted his way through life as well, looks down on Irving.....

Karen Carpenter quote about wanting to play drums

"I had no idea whether I could play them or not, but I wanted to and I was very determined...but the band director said, "That's not really normal". Of course all you have to tell me is that something's not normal and I'll go for it."
Karen Carpenter


Seeing the community band last night reminded me of my own experiences in band and found this wonderful quote from Karen Carpenter, a role model for me when I was a teen. She should never have tried to be normal in my opinion-she was too unique. When I was in junior high, my band director told me I had a "bad attitude" for refusing to fight for chair position in the flute section. I still don't believe in competition or what is 'normal'.

Chant and Jubilo

This evening I went to hear the Greater Westfield Community Band and really enjoyed it. I don't mind listening to some pitch problems here and there because people are there out of a love of music and I always find going to community bands and choruses a moving experience. They played a piece called Chant and Jubilo by W. Francis McBeth that I can remember playing when I was in Junior High School band in Corpus Christi, Texas some 30 years ago and that really was such an emotional memory for me. I played the flute then.

Charles Schulz birthday quote

"Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed." Charles Schulz


true for birthdays and rollerblading.....

"I gave an order to a cat and the cat gave it to its tail." Chinese proverb


I imagine Blessing and i share almost the same birthday-mine is today-and as she came into my life at age 7 weeks at the end of last May, she was probably born around the the 7th or 8th of April last year. Her big thrill these days is to pull socks out of the sock drawer and leave them on the bed. She never does this while I am at home, so imagine it is some sort of gift -that, or she is bored out of her mind......

Luigi Comencini

Luigi Comencini, the Italian film director whose empathetic films and documentaries centerered around the feelings and experiences of children died Friday. He once said ,"They are a kind of species unto themselves, generally defenseless and oppressed by adults." Both of his daughters, Christina and Francesca, became film directors as well....

Hope and the Easter Bunny

This has been an interesting Easter in that for the last few days as I have been driving around, I have seen several people in either bunny ears or Easter bunny outfits waving and holding signs that simply say "Peace" - I think that is brilliant- out of death, physical or of the spirit, can come hope and a new chance for one little person and the world to value and pursue what really matters.

Lily Tomlin

I have a film production degree and know how hard it is to work on an undisciplined and chaotic set, so it is upsetting to see that someone has put up outtakes from the 2004 film, " I Heart Huckabees" on Youtube to show Lily Tomlin getting extremely upset during production. She is the consummate professional- a genius, and I wish people cared more about the facts or the human being than seeing a celebrity meltdown. I can only say the sorry and abusive director will be long forgotten after this dies down and Lily Tomlin will always be onto new and brilliant creations.
Btw, the record collecting has begun again now that i bought an old record player and one of the albums I just found was Lily Tomlin's 1977 album, 'On Stage",-does anyone remember her routine "Lud and Marie Meet Dracula's Daughter"?(aka "Please stop talking about that cake!") which she refers to as, "about my mother and father but I've changed the names to protect them". LOL.

'Mandy', the figurine with a mandolin

I had mentioned I would post a pic of the figurine I bought last weekend at a flea market....which I have now nicknamed Mandy...I didn't realize how sort of creepy this little figurine was until I tried to take a digital photo-like something out of a Karen Black TV movie from the 1970's. Also, maybe because of the porcelin reflecting light back, it would not focus on it (maybe out of fear)-anyway, here are a few shots-I think you'll see what I mean....

Three years ago today

Three years ago today, Cindy Sheehan's son Casey was killed in Iraq. One of many many thousands now. when will it end? We are just a small part of the world.
This is an excerpt from her essay today on afterdowningstreet.org:

" I didn't know that a person could scream so long and so loud without having a heart attack or stroke. i didn't know a person could survive such a psychic shock. I didn't know a person could actually become a stronger person after such a debillitating pain."

Sister Aimee McPherson

Last night there was an interesting American Experience biography on Aimee McPherson, the Pentecostal evangelic from the 19 teens through the early 40's. It is well worth seeing, if you missed it, for the sheer phenomenon of personality cults. With the donations of who knows how many, she built her own personal shrine in L.A. called Temple Angelus, which was like a huge entertainment theater. Like most people who reach the status of personality cult figure, a sense of her as a real person is vague. Likewise, next week's American Experience is on Rev. Jim Jones, who in 1978 orchestrated the mass murder-suicde of his 900 followers (which included parents poisoning their children along with themselves. I have come to believe the saddest thing to witness or be around is what happens to people who will not think for themselves.

flea markets

I was at one these last Sunday. I always feel sad about how easily people discard history particularly family history and could not take my eyes off a couple of wedding photos in a beautiful glass frame. The photos looked like they were from the 1940's. One 8x10 was of the bride; the other of the bride and groom. It was on a high shelf and I kept looking at it because of that beautiful glass frame-who could part with this? Where was it once? Besides that, there were rows and rows of things that once meant something to someone ; really sad , I think, that we are such a disposable society-ok when it is junk, but the family photos in flea markets really get to me.
On the other side, I spoke to a man there who had had a flea market stall somewhere or another for the last 35 years and preferred that to a formal job and I bought a lovely Japanese figurine playing the mandolin, whose pic I will post next time.