Thursday, May 17, 2012


Sunday, January 3, 2010

Christmas, Snuggies for super tall people, and books about THE DANCE


Alright, so I got that crappy flu thing over Christmas, which really sucked, since one of my favorite songwriter friends, Stephen Michael Schwartz, led a Christmas sing-a-long after dinner at my house, and I couldn't really join in.....aargh... However, my lovely sister Bev, who, even while preggers somehow looks disturbingly like Heidi Klum, gave me the Patrick Swayze book, "Time of my Life", for Christmas, which made me feel much better. I read that thing in two days wrapped in my White Elephant gift (a snuggie - which was clearly made for people over 6 feet tall... I have to hold that thing like a ball gown up off the floor as to not completely wipe out....) from Christmas Eve. May I mention now that this years white elephant game was so viciously terrific? It almost got violent over the Obama Chia Pet.

Ok, back to Patrick and his book. We love him, "Dirty Dancing" even happened to be on TV while I was reading it, so I got swirled into a multi-media Swayze blitz. Fine with me. Brave guy. Seriously. That is not a disease you wish on your worst enemy. And, kudos to Lisa Niemi for upholding her husbands image and dignity. She is one classy lady. The book is polite and lovely and strong and inspiring, and, well, Patrick was a ballet dancer. He had me at plie.....

So, after I gobbled up that book, I carefully (as not to wipe out in my snuggie for Amazons)
walked to the bookshelf, and fetched "Dancing on my Grave" by Gelsey Kirkland, which my Mom gave me when I was a non-hip moving, tight bun wearing, 5 nights a week cecchetti ballet student. I clearly didn't read it then, and, thank god! Let's see, drugs, sex and Baryshnikov... juicy reading now, but, when your 12.... 13? I do believe someone forgot to peruse the pages before gifting it to a pre-teen. Kirkland all but gives operating instructions on the multitude of ways to get coke into your blood stream....anyway, I've trucked that book from Detroit to New York to multiple apartments and houses in Los Angeles, so, I figured I should read it. And, I'm so glad I did!!! It truly is great, intelligent, poetic, brutally honest reading (I NEVER give true spoilers, so, forget it). She is so open about everything and everyone around her, it's startling. I hope she's got some friends left...

"Dancing" was published in 1986, and the main theme still holds true: Women are "difficult" or "bitches" or "problematic" while daring to use their voice. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, those words will be replaced with "strong", "smart", "forward thinking", and "Love her! She challenges us to expand and not settle!". A girl sure can wish........

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