ANGELA GHEORGHIU

The 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony.......Each year this Ceremony fills me with tears of happiness and this year, in particular, I was overwhelmed with emotion to see the President and First Lady surrounded by talent that I admire, deeply......And....what a wonderful show it is! Grace Brumby was the first great Operatic Singer in my cultural experience.....I had heard Eileen Farrell on old recordings at home as a teenager, but it was Grace that brought it home to me.....I rushed to Arnold Hornbuckle's Music Shoppe to purchase her recording of "CARMEN JONES", only to find NO recordings by black artists....not even Lena Horne or Billie Holliday! In 1963, in Nashville, I discovered.....next to Maria Callas' Carmen.........Grace! At the Kennedy awards, Ms. Brumby's eyes welled with tears as Angela Gheorghiu sang in her honor.......

PATIENCE WITH EXPECTATIONS

"Let's see....hmmmm.....if I wait, patiently, Reed will come in and make a cup of coffee......Maybe he'll notice that my bowl is nearing empty and fill it up with shrimp or crab legs......"

the very last tomato of the year

This unusually configured tomato, the surprise from the now-collapsed plant that grew on the deck, will be in the very last BLT sandwich of 2009.....my mouth is watering......

FISHERMAN WITH A PAIR OF MONKEYS

 

This old Japanese Ivory Carving has lived in an old shoe box on a basement shelf for many years.......Now, it's been on my kitchen counter for a month as I figure out how to best restore it to it's aesthetically decorative, if useless, appeal.....