So Amazing

Not only is real life stranger than fiction, but real life can serve up huge doses of stress, frustration, angst and blues when showing out. It’s been straight kicking my ass for a good month now if I have to be honest. I haven’t posted in forever and I actually really like to blog. By now I thought I would be so advanced in my tech-web quest that I’d be pod-casting and having cocktails with Steve Jobs, but it seems that as usual I will be the last one on board for what seems like another great leap toward media democracy and individuality.

Talking about casting...I just got back from a very relaxing weekend in Sag Harbor. I just learned how to fish about a month ago... and yes there is an art to it. I love it and have a natural affinity for spincasting and catching. I caught a large fluke (19 inches long!) my first time out. Wasn’t so lucky this time around though as the most I caught was a cool breeze. I have some great pix that I will post later (lemme get back in the swing of writing first!) On Sunday I went out for the first time at night IN a lake, water came up to my waist and it was one of the most frightening experiences ever. It was pitch black and I kept feeling these crawl over my feet and these kept bumping against my legs. At least I can say I did it and I will probably do it again. Someone back on shore called me an angler and so now I’m hyped and have to make good on my new identity….especially since angler grrrls, at least in the Hamptons, are damn near non-existent. Shopping grrrls, go-to-lunch grrrls, and even surf grrrls, oh yes! Now that I’m back in the city I can tell that I left a lot of the ick that was making me so tired and stressed back in the ocean. Big –up to Ochun and Yemaya, the Yoruban goddesses of lakes, oceans, rivers and seas for the cleansing (today being 07.07.05 it is soooo appropriate!).

Big-Up also to Luther Vandross, he’s in a better place now. There will be a second memorial service for him today. Yesterday hundreds of folks lined up to pay their respects at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on the upper eastside here in Manhattan.



His music just keeps coming up on my iTunes today even though I have over 1,000 songs and it’s on shuffle. Now that’s the power of Spirit for ya! A musical force like no other—Luther’s music always takes me higher. In terms of his vocals and his arrangements of classics like Anyone Who Had A Heart and If Only For One Night written by the very underrated 80’s soulster Brenda Russell, he was able to capture the emotion of a phrase in a single note. The only other male singers that got it like that are Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye and Prince, even though I believe there are more women who have this genius (i.e. Whitney Houston, Minnie Riperton and Roberta Flack), generally there just aren’t too many who summon the spirits and bring the magic when they sing quite like Luther did. May he rest in peace and for the rest of us still here, take it from me, let us try and snag some quiet moments with nature. It’s the only way to take the punches that real life loves to hand out and makes getting through the personal and professional blahs, heartaches, disappointments just a little less frightening.

Today’s iTunes shuffle: The Glow Of Love – Luther Vandross, Hello- Floetry, There’s Nothing Better Than Love – Luther Vandross, For All We Know – Dianne Reeves, Jah Work – Ben Harper