Concert Milk

Wonder what happens when they play Stockhausen?



Heading off soon for the Cambridge grocery run. Realized recently how foolish it was to live in dread of heat & humidity - one of those things I can do nothing to change. Guess I'll just jump into & out of cold showers & ride around on the subway or something.

I'd luv to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair

Photos today, of flying teddy bears, sun bathing Potter, game boards, etc. from 19, 20, & 21 March.2011. And one of my favorite scenes from Young Frankenstein.*

Amazing what adding a half hour a day to practice time will do for technique & sound. Just imagine what I could do if I made myself practice 3 hours a day (twice what I'm doing now). Not sure my left shoulder would survive, however. It twinges even now, though the yoga stretch my acupuncturist suggested I do does help. And walking 30 minutes/day also makes a great improvement in my left hip pain. Wasn't it Bette Davis who said old age is no place for sissies? She also apparently said "I'd luv to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.”







*

I perform this way

Weird Al Yankovic's take on Lady Gaga's "I was born this way." I think that's not his body.



My mama told me when I was hatched
Act like a superstar
Save your allowance, buy a bubble dress
And someday you will go far
Now on red carpets, well, I'm hard to miss
The press follows everywhere I go
I'll poke your eye out with a dress like this
Back off and enjoy the show!

I'm sure my critics will say it's a grotesque display
Well, they can bite me, baby -- I perform this way
I might be wearin' Swiss cheese or maybe covered with bees
It doesn't mean I'm crazy -- I perform this way

Ooo, my little monsters pay... lots 'cause I perform this way
Baby, I perform this way
Ooo, don't worry, I'm okay... hey, I just perform this way
I'm not crazy, I perform this way

I'll be a troll or evil queen
I'll be a human jelly bean
'Cause every day is Halloween
For me...

I'm so completely original
My new look is all the rage
I'll wrap my small intestines 'round my neck
And set fire to myself on stage
I'll wear a porcupine on my head
On a W-H-I-M
And for no reason now I'll sing in French
Excusez-moi, Qui a pété? (Who cut the cheese?)

Got my straight jacket today, it's made of gold lamé
No, not because I'm crazy - I perform this way
I strap prime rib to my feet, cover myself with raw meat
I'll bet you've never seen a skirt steak worn this way

Don't be offended when you see
My latest pop monstrosity
I'm strange, weird, shocking, odd, bizarre
I'm Frankenstein, I'm Avatar
There's nothing too embarrassing
I'll honestly do anything
But wear white after Labor Day
'Cause baby, I perform this way

Hope you won't think it's cliché if I go nude today
Don't call the cops now, baby, I perform this way
No reason I should regret all the attention I get
I'm not completely crazy, I perform this way, yeah

I perform this way-hey, I perform this way-hey
I'm always deviating from the norm this way-hey
I perform this way-hey, I perform this way-hey
I'm really not insane -- I just perform this way-hey

Here's the original (the music starts around the 2:50 minute mark):

Pave paradise

and put up a parking lot.

In memory of mom's actual, factual birthday & the house that was our home for so many years and is now a driveway. I don't remember ever looking out those windows on the third floor on that side of the house - nor do I remember every seeing the trees in the front that big. Seeing as I probably never saw it after 1989, when the folks retired - or maybe I just never noticed how much bigger they'd gotten since the photo is dated 1992. Who ARE those people?

Memories of our forebears

From Bobby McFerrin's interview, Catching Song, with Krista Tippett: "[W]e are embodied memories of our ancestors. I have my father in me — I have information in my head. I know my dad; I can tell you stories about my dad because he told me them or I watched them. And he in turn has a memory of his father, and so on and so on. So I began to think, well am I — you know, am I accessing a memory when I sing? . . . it's like an ancestral memory, like, we all have it, you know. So how far back does it go? I mean, maybe it goes all the way back, you know."

Photos today from 18.Mar.2011. The first from Center St. pres de chez nous, & around Dudley Square en marchant au acupuncture. Que je suis francais aujourd'hui!

In memoriam: Dad

I remember our small sail boat we had for awhile at the cabin. These photos are from Aunt Buzz, so I think they must be from the Berger's abode in Canada. I wonder if this is a sunrise or a sunset.

In memoriam: Mom

"Her face, for a long time now, rested only against walls or stood upright on tables in framed photographs, and he scarcely remembered a conversation they had, just a sentence or two."

from "Someday this will all be funny"
by Lynne Tillman

Fortunately I have my family and friends to help me remember.

Not just for gays any more

Totally fabulous! er I mean awesome.

Be Here Now

While Mr. Trautwein's carrer has certainly been higher profile than mine, and the effects of the virus on his body more severe, his experience with the disease and reaction to it closely mirror my own. If you don't have time to read the entire article, here are the last couple paragraphs:

"My intimacy with health care in America has been costly and exhausting. I know these are small prices to pay for life.

What I’ve gained is precious. Above all, the constant companionship of plague has taught me that life is about living, not cheating death. Fighting disease is required and struggling with life inevitable. But I accept the outcomes now, whatever they are. My disease does not make me special, nor does my survival make me courageous.

On that day I walked from the hospital knowing I had “it,” I was given a great gift: the realization that we all dangle from that most delicate of threads and that the only way to live a life is to love it.

I haven’t died on schedule, and I’ve been learning not to live life on one either. "

Les Paganini

I'm not usually fond of folks moving around over much during performance but in this case . . .



The finale, c'est incroyable, If only we could do this when forced to play this piece @ weddings.

One if by land

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