...from the work you do...proclaimed Toshi Reagan during tonights performance, and I feel as though I've awakened.  Write that on my ceiling, says my inner voice, in blues and greens and yellows...

It's amazing what music does to me.  I felt it like a sign, a prophecy, a message on New Years when I was invited to an annual circle of songsters.  I smiled and sang and swayed for hours translated as seeming moments in my serotonin soaked mind.

Smiles - permagrin even, dancing, trancing out to rhythms.  A sense of myself that sometimes feels older than my body. 

I need more of this in my life.  Gatherings of people with instruments and voices and everyone singing praise and joy and pain and love.  Music is a battery in my watch, and I'm always looking for a higher voltage.

Music is the light in my Church, hell it is my Church, sometimes.

...and I prayed and was blessed at the altar today.  Thanks to the huge shinning stars that guided me....

This year, for my recent birthday, my best friend cashed in on her year on Broadway to score tickets to the Broadway revival of Hair.  6th row center, on the aisle. Star seats...or at least journalist seats (had anyone asked one of us was an "Intern from the Colbert Report" but, we were extremely stealth).

Now, the variables are such, and I admit them willingly, albeit with a slight blush of embarassment:

I'm not particularly musical theater-y. I am particularly obsessed with Hair.  I know all the words to all the songs, except the ones that were added for this show. 1 or 2 ditties might even be in my song book...Suffice to say, Hair Nerd Here.

And this production is spectacular.

The point of this story, and my reason for sharing it on a "Social Networking" Wesite, is this:  Towards the end of the 2nd Act, the most talented soulful sexy man, whose bass notes rattle the inside of my chest, ran off the stage and past me down the aisle. He caught my eye and I turned my head.  And lo, there he was looking at me with a wild hairy grin.  He took my hand, pulled me out into the aisle, knelt down and picked me up.

Now, If you know anything about this show, you'll know that the actors exit offstage, into the audience and ...mess with people.  But as I gazed in this significant actors eyes from a foot above his head - literally swept off my feet,  I felt incredibly special.

He let me down slowly, danced me a bit, asked the audience in my area to clap for me, and as he sat me back in the chair he told everyone, "she's goin' home with me tonight." ... And I would have, if he wasn't gay.

I mean, I danced on the stage after the show, I looked for this guy.  I Facebooked him.  How else would I find out his S.O? (Which also lead to the realization that this guy really was agood actor). 

The point of my story is this: All a girl wants is to be swept off her feet. If a guy has the guts, the saucyness, to do that and make us feel special, unique, adored, respected - We will probably go home with you, and it does not matter how tall you are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So...the older I get in this city, the more I believe we are all manifesting a Peter Pan syndrome to some degree. Personally, ever since I hid under that table as a six year old and vowed never to grow up, I've heard the refrain sound in my head at various and appropriate intervals.

Of course, I also work in an artistic world where the creative ideal idolizes the child-like. But, I think, I enjoy the complex ideas and emotions of my adulthood even if I occasionally miss the simplicity that I adamantly believed in as a child.

Ultimately, I'm looking to couple the two: To bring some grown up complexity to my internal girl princess and to allow the girl princess creative license in my grown-up life. Responsibility, Passion, Creativity, Independence, not necessarily in that order prove my reliable value set.

And so the search continues for the youthful creative spirits who have grown up just enough to live responsible, emotionally complex lives without loosing that healthy sense of play, simply joys, and abundant curiousity...Hopefully, I'll uncover some who want to practice the art of sharing.

I was noticing that the journal entries with the lengthiest replies are those that deal with body image and our countries obsession with weight, most particularly in females. I believe we will be a truly evolved culture when we transcend the body and the most evocative conversations involve the mind and spirit.

I'm wearing my "I Love Asparagus" tee shirt, which is bright green and usually instigates laughter - which, I must say, I don't understand. I take asparagus very seriously. I mean, it's tasty, phenomenal grilled with Parmesan, and completely appropriate for Earth Day. So really, what's so funny?

Rating isn't new to the internet, every dating site uses some method to "rate your mate" and create better dates. Personally, I enjoy this particular site for its environment (kudos to the Cupid Masters for creating such and entertaining and lounge-y atmosphere).

Still, I'm a bit befuddled by the methodology at use in establishing the match/friend/enemy percentiles, and how does OK know if I'm more or less aggressive, clean, energetic, ambitious, or artistic? And what if it makes a mistake? To whom does one complain? What action is taken? Who follows up? When we traded in those messy muddy first weeks of dating for a computer analysis, don't we compromise certain nuances: the joys and devastation's of investigating an actual human with a rash of complicated and often conflicted value systems and ways of being?

Ultimately, in this age of technology where conversation occurs in type and courting is electronic, has a mysterious algorithm become the new victorian society- the cultural powerhouse that decides which debutant and which handsome young bachelor should partner up? If so, could someone please introduce me? I think I've been misunderstood....

I must confess, I have felt rather deflated since participating in the unsuccessful anti-war protests a few years ago, and with the dismal political climate now in the US. I have felt within myself a declining resistance to an inevitable, and fast approaching, apathy. And if actions represent beliefs, I succumbed.

My actions declined to include only a lackadaisical consumer-activism and a vehement ban on the use of toxins and chemicals in my home. Still, I feel inspired by a recent interview with Grace Lee Boggs on Bill Moyers Journal.

As usual, I feel woefully uninformed about Grace Lee Boggs, but am inspired by her ideas of leadership and revolution: "We have to change our concept of revolution. It's about how we transform not just Bush and Cheney but ourselves.''

Boggs believes that transformation is occurring through simple projects, like local community gardens, that when compounded globally amount to an evolution of humanity, �The things that we have to restore are so elemental: not just food�but a different way of relating to time and history, and to the earth.�

Suddenly, I have a new sense that my seemingly tiny, apathetic actions have consequence. And I, like Grace Lee Boggs, �see hope beginning to trump despair�.

For anyone else so inspired: Boggs movement is called �The Beloved Community Initiative�. More information can be found at www.projectchange.org. Also, here is a youtube link to the Bill Moyers interview: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DzeezIsTZ_o

Based on its involvement in world affairs (past and present), do you think the United States deserves to get attacked by terrorists?

• Yes
• No

This one might get me in trouble, but here goes...I think violence is only very rarely, in extreme circumstances a way to solve problems. So obviously, I can't support terrorism in any capacity. However, I do believe that the US reaction to Terrorism (and perhapst its preceding behavior) did little to discourage acts of violence. Bottom line, we've gotten ourselves into a cycle of violence, and sadly, I'm not sure of the answer.

When it comes to right and wrong, which of the following do you think has the greatest impact on your belief system?

• Religion.
• Family and/or friends.
• Laws.
• Self interest.

What happend to logic, research and analysis? In making decisions - have we really become a culture that would rather rely on others ideas than creating our own? It worries me.

Is exposure to sexuality damaging to the minds of children?

• Yes
• No

I really think this depends on the scenario in question, and how much shame the child is subjected to. Sexuality without shame can be great and very natural for children. Of course, inappropriate sexual behavior with and around kids, is inappropriate and incredibly damaging, but does that need reiterating?

Upon reading comments by others, I'm compelled to redefine. I completely agree that the guidelines for acceptable sexual behavior change as a child matures. There are absolutely certain standards of sexual ettiquette and law that are doctrines defined by religious and cultural groups, that is a much longer conversation, but I do believe in most of the legal standards (in New York State) that define Sexually Appropriate and Inappropriate behavior with Children. I sometimes take issue with Statutory Rape Laws, but those are on a case by case basis. Why do I sound like a lawyer suddenly?