1. Blog Marathon

So, no time like the present to catch up on some writing. This is the first installment in a two part marathon. Enjoy and please visit my brother John's blog and read his post about San Diego's mayor. I posted a comment to his blog that I would like you to read. I am hoping that I get some traffic out of it. It seems as though my life is not a very popular read. Guess I could start writing in some juicy details...
We'll save that for another day. Read my brother John's blog here and be sure to click on the comments to read what I had to say.

Good Day

Just wanted to let you know that I still have thoughts that I want to express to you all. In fact, I have so many that I have some titles of posts I want to write, but I'm finding it difficult to find the time. I should be doing something else as we speak... calling for tickets to a friend's show tomorrow, checking my email, going over music for Thursday's class, calling my friend Eddie P to setup a coffee date, and calling OB. So, with out further ado I will let you know some of the titles to wet your appetite and then I will find the time to write them:
1. Good Day (I know, it's the title of this post, but it was really going to be about what a good and fun audition day I had, but I realized that I would want to write too much and then I wouldn't get anything else done... kind of like what's happening now.
2. Reflections on Good Conversation (OB and I have been having some really amazing conversations about life and career and philosophy)
3. Pictures from the Coterie Tradeshow (I built this entire booth myself and it looked so cool. Not to mention the frame that I designed myself from the parameters I was given... yeah, it's nice to like my job.
4. Tuna Fish
5. The Name Game (which is so delayed because I want to talk about so many things)
6. An Open Letter to the Citizenry (who vote) in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina (this is sure to be a good one)
So please check back often and hopefully I'll get my ass in gear!

Short Post

What a beautiful day today was! It was a fall feeling at the end of the summer. I like the autumn best. It reminds us that change is good and with a few months off the world is reinvented. I wish I could have spent the whole day in Central Park. Happy Rosh Hashana to all those celebrating this week. It's a new year! Make a new resolution (even if you're not Jewish)... you only have to keep it until the end of the Latin year and then you can make a new one. It sure makes it easier to follow through if it's only a few months and not the whole year. I am going to try to be healthier. I made it to the gym two days in a row and I have been eating really well. I want to look my best for my headshot session which I am hoping to make the first week in October.

Being Lazy

I've said that I would post so many things and I haven't. Really I'm just being lazy and I just don't feel like it. But, I was kind of feeling bad for abandoning the ol' blog; not to mention the last blog I did was not well received by the party it was intended for and it's been up now for 5 whole days. Sorry Jim, that's what you get, I suppose, when you complain about your sister's very own special birthday post for you- the post stays up just a little too long. I love you (all the time) and your sarcasm (sometimes). I will do my best to better manage my time and to update so that my few readers actually have something to read and so the pictures that you don't like, Jim, (which I happen to love!) make it to the archives sooner.

It's been a good week, but busy. Class went well on Thursday. I made myself and the whole class cry while singing the dorkiest song, How Do I Live... It's not so dorky if it has a good story behind it, just one of the most valuable things I'm learning in class. And, if I do say so myself I came up with a damn good scenario. I know I've mentioned before but I really love the class and I have decided to remain in it for another session. Things I have to really focus on:
1. Learning to really make a song my own. I enjoy and restrict myself to the notes on the page far too much.
2. Get out of "singer mode" and really commit to the scenario (this one is especially hard for me because I am constantly critiquing my sound and what's coming out of my mouth).
3. Remembering that I am really good when I work hard and commit to the material. It is sometimes a battle between what I know and my self-confidence/ self-esteem.
4. Trying not to beat myself up on how I sound on the recordings of class. I listen and cringe and I'm far too hard on myself. But, really I'm just scared.
5. Truly learning that FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. There is no need to be scared. I have what it takes. Far easier said than done.

The weekend was kind of laid back and fun. I returned some Cd's and a movie to the Performing Arts Library. Just a note, movies from the library are only for a week. And it's a $1 a day fine for any overdue movies. Oops! I decided that my $10 "donation" to the library will probably be well spent. There are worse places to spend ten dollars. Mere and I walked around Lincoln Center afterwards. There was a street fair, but it was for wealthy people. I tried on a vintage looking 20's hat that I just loved and asked the price- $215. I politely saw my way from that booth. It was nice to look at everything, but it was definitely "window" shopping. Then we high-tailed it to Target, Daffy's, and Macy's where we could actually do some shopping. Between the two of us we had one pair of shoes, some ibuprofen, shampoo, and a can opener. Whoo! I know! What crazy shoppers we are! My shoes are absolutely beautiful though, and I got a fabulous deal on them. They retail for $250, I found them online for $199 and I got them at Daffy's for the bargain price of $59.99. I'm so happy with them. They look so much better in person and even though the heel is about 3 and1/2 inches they are surprisingly comfortable. I wore them out Saturday night with OB. He likes them too. He has really impeccable taste, and I really value his opinion.

Sunday, I had to memorize a song for my audition today and so OB gave me a few hours to do that and then he made us dinner (I helped a little, but he did all the real cooking). It was so good. We had a veal roast and some homemade bismati yellow rice. OB has quite an imagination and is an exceptional cook. He sauteed onion and scallion in a saucepan in a little olive oil and then added uncooked basmati rice to it, added turmeric (a spice I have never heard of), garlic salt, red pepper, salt and pepper and then added water to cook the rice. Brilliant! We watched The Lord of the Flies, drank some wine and called it an early night.

Today, I rose early and went to a Fiddler on the Roof audition that a director for whom I have previously worked called me in for. I auditioned for the role of Tzeitel. Then I went work. That's it for the update and it is surely more than I planned on writing.

My Brother Jim

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!! Jim and John, my two older (and only) brothers are pictured at the left. Jim is the one on the left and John is the one on the right. That's funny especially if you know them. In fact it seems backward, but if you think about the image being a reflection they are both on the appropriate sides... James, Jim, Jimmy is my oldest brother and I love him dearly. He turns another year older this year and I can say I believe another year wiser. This past year has brought a lot of strife to Jim and his family, but he has handled it all with a quiet dignity that I respect in him. He is a cancer survivor. His non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma is in remission!!!

And now we can pick on him for being soooooo old and only one year away from the big 4-0.

I'm not sure how I came to have this picture except that I know I was left alone in the house with mom for 3 years and I found it and took it. I always thought it was super cool and very retro (Yes, Jim that is a reference to your age.) He was born in the last weeks of the summer of 1968. All the information below was gathered from Wikipedia. The year he was born saw:

January- At a White House conference on crime, singer and actress Eartha Kitt (who I was lucky enough to see in the Wild Party on Broadway in 2000, she brought the house down!) denounces the Vietnam War directly to President Lyndon Johnson.

February- The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight.

March- The Congress of the United States repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.

April- (a busy news month, it seems).
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward.
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
The musical Hair officially opens on Broadway.

May- The Catonsville Nine enter the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, take dozens of selective service draft records, and burn them with napalm as a protest against the Vietnam War.

June- U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy dies from his injuries the next day.
James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.

July- Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.
African-American militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, Ohio.

August- The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President.
Police clash with antiwar protesters in Chicago, Illinois outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. President, and Edmund Muskie for Vice President.

And on September 6, 1968- Swaziland becomes independent from Great Britain. And James Beck was born the first of four to my mom and dad.

I know that sometimes it's hard to be a member of this family, but we love one another more passionately than we argue our politics. Always know that you are on the path you are supposed to be on. You are a culmination of all events and personal interactions past and present. Change one thing about yourself, your life, or the world and your life would be greatly altered. Every bump in the road is a reminder that you are human and every rainbow in the sky is a reminder that there is something greater than ourselves at work in the world. I love you Jim and I hope that you and your family have a beautiful day. Happy Birthday!!!

Jim, Jenny and I in the back yard before Jim's prom.

If you make funny faces into my camera, it gives me permission to publish them!

Ten on Tuesdays

1. I went to a Caribbean Carnival Parade for Labor Day. It was a lot of fun! Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pictures and video from my phone. If I figure that out, then I promise to share. It was quite an experience.

2. I moved all my stuff back to my apartment today, with the help of OB! I really wouldn't have been able to do it without him.

3. Jazmin has left for her My Fair Lady Tour. Go and see the tour when it comes to your neck of the woods! Jaz, you will be greatly missed! Have tons of fun and break a leg!

4. I am learning some really hard songs for my class on Thursday. I decided that for the last class I would do the songs that scare me the most. I can conquer my fears by facing them head on. I sang through them all tonight with my friend Doug and I feel far more confident. I'll let you know...

5. The songs are Wizard and I from Wicked, Life of the Party from Lippa's Wild Party, and a pop song... How Do I Live as sung by Trisha Yearwood (or Leeann Rimes, but I prefer Trisha).

6. I have discovered some things about myself that I don't think I would have ever noticed before because I was living my life in such a frantic state. It never seemed frantic while I was participating in it, but I never took a moment to breathe. Now that I have, I feel like there are parts of myself that I am more open to and things about myself I never wanted to face that I now can.

7. I promise to list the names for the naming contest tomorrow.

8. I would love to create some type of controversy so that my site would get more hits and people I don't know would suggest middle names for me, but alas I guess I'm not very controversial.

9. I'm sure there are things that I could talk about that might get me more hits, but how open can one person be on a blog with a real name attached to it. I've got so much that I want to say, but I restrain myself out of fear of hurting anyone's feelings. I am very curious how people write memoirs. Maybe I will come up with alternate names and places to protect the innocent...

10. Is your interest piqued?

Viva Las Vegas?

I am so glad to be home. I have been to Vegas one other time, but I was sick so I spent all of my free time in bed. This time I got to really see it. I have to ask, what in the world do people see in this town? It has few redeeming qualities in my opinion, but I'll start there. There are pools, the water show at the Bellagio, and Broadway (which I'm not so sure is so great except that it employs actors). Yep, that's about it.
I don't mean to offend anyone who really enjoys Vegas, but it just is mostly disgusting to me. I was there on business, but we had a lot of off time. I spent most of that time alone. Vegas is definitely not a place to experience alone especially as a woman. I decided that I would walk the strip from my hotel, The Riveria, to the Luxor which is at the opposite end of the strip. A friend from college is in the revue at the Luxor and I was waiting for her call. In between each hotel or anywhere there was construction were Hispanic men and sometimes women handing out cards to all the men passing of naked women. The way that I knew what was going on was because several of the people were wearing t-shirts that said, "a woman to your room in 20 minutes." Disgusting. Add to that the billboard I saw coming from the airport that gave a phone number to call if you are the victim of sex slavery. Prostitution is a crime against women and it is so gross that it is so advertised there. The fact that the women don't have to actually walk the strip for work actually makes it easier for men to take advantage of them. It means that the only people they come into contact with are their pimps and the men that pay for sex with them. I have to say I was surprised at how many people made Vegas their family vacation. How exactly do you explain to your child what those men are doing and what their shirts mean? Vegas really should be a place exclusively for adults.
People smoke everywhere. When you step out of the elevator and into the casino there is an overwhelming smell of smoke. Yuck! Thank you Michael Bloomberg for making New York non smoking. It isn't until you are subjected to a place like Vegas that you realize how nice it is to not be barraged with smoke every time you go out.
Gambling is a confusing past-time to me. It is probably because myself and my family have been directly affected by the negative aspects of gambling. My dad is a recovering gambler. My dad would gamble to the point where he would have to come to his thirteen year old daughter and ask for money. I didn't realize at the time what was going on. I only knew that I had babysitting money and sometimes I would give it to my dad so he could fill his gas tank. We didn't discover until a few years later exactly how bad it was. I observed many people gambling while I was in Vegas and it just seems so sad to me. The majority of the people playing slots were by themselves shoveling money into a machine that offered no intellectual stimulation, but the hope of thousands of dollars all at the push of a button. Something for nothing. There were definitely different groups of gamblers. There were those with the money to lose. These people could go into private rooms with high limit slots. There, people put hundreds into the machines instead of dollars. These were the type that already shopped at the Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and the Manolo Blahniks. It didn't matter if they won or lost. Winning means more money and losing just means an expensive night out. There were the people that really have fun with it too, but I didn't see them at the slots. They tended to be at the card tables. There is some skill involved in cards and if I was good at those games I might be tempted to play. But, the saddest to me were the people by themselves who poured money into the slot machines with no smiles on their faces and a blank stare at the machines that held their dreams and took their money. I know why people do it. It's obvious. All the materialistic things you ever wanted could be bought with money and the distortion comes when you start to believe that your happiness can be achieved through money.
And last, but certainly not least is the fact that Vegas is a desert and it is environmentally unsustainable. People flock there to live and it is not a viable environment. I think that Hurricane Katrina provided a unique opportunity for us as a country to examine the sustainability of the places we have made our homes and continue to make our homes. People have begun to realize that maybe the bowl that is New Orleans is not a safe or sustainable place to make a home, but we also have to add to that places that the population is swelling like Vegas that were not meant to be a place where so many can live. Water will eventually be depleted, and I can only imagine that the people to get the water will be the wealthy and the casinos. You can read about Arizona's water woes here. Because it is cheap today doesn't mean that it will be tomorrow and the people left in these places when they dry up will be the poor, just like in New Orleans.