Saturday, May 26, 2007

Blue Grit - A Great Read for Dismayed Dems

If you are half as discouraged as I am by the recent betrayal by the Congressional Democrats on the Iraq funding bill and if even Keith Olbermann's terrific rant did little to buoy your spirits, I'd like to recommend a wonderful book that is full of hope and courage and direction for these sorry times we are existing in. The book is Laura Flander's Blue Grit True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians. The book is dedicated to June Jordan and when I read the openng quote I thought, yes, this speaks to me at this particular moment:

And because revolution always takes place on the basis of great hope and rising expectations, I am not too worried about the future. One way or another a whole lotta change is gonna come. Through happiness realized or through and beyond the pain of betrayal, we will become the beneficiaries of our faith.

And even without revolution, we will prevail because we have proven to the world, and to ourselves that we are not "fringe elements" or "special interest groups"or so-called "minorities." Without us there is no legitimate majority: we are the mainstream. We have become the "people."

And let our elected leadeship beware the awesome possible wrath of a mighty, multifoliate, and faithful people whose deepest hopes have been rekindled and whose needs have not been met.

--June Jordan, "On the Night of November 3, 1992," Affirmative Acts: Political Essays

Another good quote from Blue Grit:

"If liberal funders spent half the time studying the sucesses of the Left that they spend obsessing over the Coors foundation, they'd be better informed, not to mention cheerier."
Laura Flanders, Blue Grit, p. 101

Keep the faith, folks, keep the faith...

Friday, May 25, 2007

A Life of Living Magically

[Photo: Chester Higgins Jr., NYTimes]
On May 23, 2007, I left Tulsa, OK on a Southwest Airlines flight to Islip, New York with a stop in Kansas City and a plane change in Chicago. In Tulsa I began reading The Year of Magical Thinking and I finished it that night in my friend George's apartment in Patchogue on Long Island. At age 48, I am one of the few people my age who can honestly say I've never lost a person highly significant to me, with the possible exception of my mother's older sister who died six years ago, two days before she would have turned 82 years old - she was buried on her birthday. I have, of course, lost all four of my grandparents, all before I graduated from high school, and when I was in fifth grade my best friend's mother committed suicide. This made an impact on me mostly because I was in the house when she shut the garage door and turned on the car. I remember the groggy head I had when the fireman came upstairs to rouse my friend and me from our carbon-monoxide-tainted slumber. After leaving my best friend's house that morning, I remember my dad and I walking across the field where a man kept ponies that we used to try to ride, he was trying to get some fresh air inside me, I just remember a special walk with my dad.

Reading Didion, who has always been one of my favorite writers, had my mind reflecting on a time in my life when I was living in New York City, working at People Magazine in the Time-Life Building. I spent a lot of time with a college friend who also lived and worked in the City, she worked at the Whitney Museum around the time that the Whitney was mounting the Edward Hopper Exhibit (early 80s). We used to do what I imagine young, underpaid, educated people do when they find themselves living in the greatest city in the world - we had fun in cheap and frivolous ways. We knew just about every restaurant that allowed us to bring our own bottle of wine and we walked from Chinatown to the upper east side where my friend lived in a Catholic girl's rooming house (a cheap, safe alternative that pleased my friend's Catholic family). We dined on hors d'oeuvres at gallery openings and sold review copy books (collected from the hallways at People magazine) in Greenwich Village. It wouldn't be until many years later that I would discover that this vibrant, fun-loving friend of mine from college was dead. We had lost touch with each other, I hadn't spoken to her for probably ten years. I don't think I would have known, but a mutual friend of ours "googled" her name and an obituary came up. In an instant life changes....

As I already admitted, death has touched me only tangentially. Both of my parents are still living and I have not lost a close friend or a member of my immediate family, still the death of my college friend caught me off guard, she was 45 years old, an art history major in college who decided after several years out of school to go into medicine, tackling medical school in her late twenties and graduating at age 31, serving her residency in Iowa before settling in Boston where she practiced and taught at Harvard.

While I was on Long Island, after spending a day in the City and thinking back on the brief time of my life when I used to live in Manhattan and my college friend with whom I used to hang out, I thought about going and seeing her parents who also live on Long Island, West Babylon to be exact. We used to go out to her folks' place on the weekends and stuff ourselves with wonderful homemade Italian food - both of my friend's parents are first-generation Italians. When I learned about her death, a full year after the fact, I bought a card and thought about sending a check to my friend's memorial fund, but never got around to sending it. So while I was in the neighborhood I thought I would go by and see her parents, and I did. I learned that my friend died of leukemia, in spite of being an internal medicine physician herself and getting the best possible care in Boston. I saw the pain in her parents eyes and felt the loss that must come only when parents lose a child. Together we told stories of my friend, their daughter, and we looked at old photos of her smiling a beautiful smile, my friend was a gorgeous woman - dark Italian good looks with a jaw line and cheek bones to die for. In an instance a life ends and many lives are changed forever.

I cannot imagine losing my parents who are both 75 years old and in good health, thank goodness, but I know someday it will happen, and I don't imagine that I'll know how to react, how I'll feel. That is one of the points that Didion makes in her memoir.

At the end of the amazing performance that is the one-woman show at the Booth Theater on Broadway, Vanessa Redgrave reads the following words directly from the book on which the play is based, "Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die.... We might expect if the death is sudden to feel shock. We do not expect this shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both body and mind." To the contrary, I do anticipate losing both my mind and my heart when my parents die, but I'm also fairly sure I will go on, I will continue, but it's true that I have no idea how I will manage this. Even after reading this incredible book and seeing the equally amazing play, I simply have no idea.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

See Momma in Madison!

Momma in Madison, Wisconsin...

If you, like me, were stuck wherever you live and weren't able to get to Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday night to see Steph at the Barrymore Theater, never fear - they took a few videos and they are available at the MIC 92.1 web site. Check them out! It's not the same as being there, but it is the next best thing. Here are a few still shots from Momma's May 2006 appearance in Madison:

In Praise of Unsung Heros

REBEKAH BAKER - Unsung Hero

This morning I am sitting at home waiting for a repair person to come over and hopefully fix my refrigerator freezer which quit working a couple months ago. As I sit here it occurs to me that there are many people who make my life more bearable, and not all of them have their names in lights or have a nationally syndicated radio show with their name blazened across a web site.

One of those folks I'd like to dedicate this post to today is Rebekah Baker, Associate Producer of the Stephanie Miller Show, who labors tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that callers can get through and talk to Steph, makes sure that there are always interesting and entertaining people calling in on the celebrity hotline, and makes reservations and other travel arrangements for Steph whenever she is on the road as she is today (for those fans of the SMS who are able to get to Madison, Wisconsin, Steph will be appearing at the Barrymore Theater at 8:00 tonight - check her out!)

Rebekah Baker is one big reason why the Stephanie Miller Show has taken off like it has - her efficient, yet friendly, manner on the phone is often remarked on by callers, and her ability to juggle many tasks simultaneously is a true testament to her organizational skills. Rebekah not only is the associate producer for the SMS, but she also produces two other radio shows: Handel on the Law and a The Tech Guys, so she is lucky to get a single day off every week. Rebekah also designed and maintains Stephanie's MySpace page - another fabulous resource for all things Steph. Check it out!

This is just a reminder that there are many people in our world who make it all happen each and every day and whose presence goes unnoticed precisely because they are so good at doing a seamless job. Here's to Rebekah Baker and her doggie "I" who I'm sure would like to spend more time with her mom, but appreciates her as much as the rest of us Steph fans do. Yeah Rebekah - you go grrrl!!!