Friday Night Blues

   You can give me the blues to end my week any time, as long as it's the Brenda Meyer Band brand of blues. Caught their show for the first time last night at The Flea (on Kimbrough, formerly Harlow's), and I'm hooked.
   The band easily shifted from gritty give-me-another-whiskey old school blues to classic soul and R&B tunes with a blues twist that had the makeshift dance floor hopping with everything from two-stepping to Soul Train moves. There were no flashy costumes or glitzy light shows, just great vocals, tight harmonies, and musicians that know how to strut their stuff and pump up a crowd. Brenda, on lead vocals and drums, belted out the perfect mix of Bonnie Raitt's gravelly soul and the sultry sass of Bette Midler à la "The Rose." The slide guitarist wailed smooth as silk and hot as Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper at the same time; the bassist thumped the groove and kept the dancers grinding; and the keyboardist looked like he could be a dentist but when he pounded those keys, the finest Hammond organ sound came blasting through to round out the band's unique blues sound.
   The band is headed to Memphis for the International Blues Fest next week, and the show was a send-off to get them pumped up to compete. It was great to see a big crowd there, but the turnout of local musicians was phenomenal. I saw Stella Blue and Maddog Steve Call, Chris Albert of Techs and the Roadies, and folks from Nathan Bryce and Loaded Dice and the Norman Jackson Band. Brenda also pointed out Treva and the Troublemakers in the audience and that gang was dancing up a storm. The blues, and all types of music, are alive and kicking ass in Springfield, Missouri, and if you aren't out there digging it, you are missing out.
   The Flea was a dinky dive, but The Brenda Meyer Band was the bomb! Good luck representing the Ozark's blues scene in Memphis! I'll be catching you again when you get back. I've got my calendar marked for your show on February 16 at Jalen's, the perfect place for live music with plenty of room to boogie. The band starts at 8:00. You can sample their music at www.brendameyerband.com, including "Mississippi Water." I'd never heard it before, but I gotta hear it again. 

   

A dope, or not a dope, that is the question

   What do you think about all this Lance Armstrong hoopla? Personally, I'm fed up to my eyeballs with it already. It's not gaudy enough that Lance has to go on Oprah to blab his guilt about doping throughout his bicycling career, now the media is dredging up anyone that ever greased his chain or aired his tires to ask if they noticed anything suspicious in order to keep the headlines popping. Enough already. The man admitted he's a big fat liar -- why does he deserve all this attention?
   First, he uses performance-enhancing drugs and techniques to win the Tour de France seven consecutive times, among other cycling feats. Why he would do this is beyond me. I mean, the man was Superman in spandex and a helmet anyway. He had a lovely wife and three cute kids, then he had Sheryl Crow by his side. Not shabby. He had a three-way with cancer and won, then started the Livestrong foundation to help others with cancer. He was even on Wheaties boxes, for Pete's sake. What more can a man want out of life? Why would you take a chance on losing all that by cheating?
   Then, he vehemently denies doping over and over, to anyone and everyone, including under oath. That's what really angers me, how much and how strongly he lied. And how convenient that he finally tells the truth after the statute of limitations runs out for perjuring himself. For a long time I actually felt sorry for the guy, believing he was being unfairly persecuted for being the best. Well, no more. The dude is a major dope. I'm glad he's been stripped of all his titles and banned from the sport. But I don't think that goes far enough. Even his name, Lance Armstrong, sounds like a winner, sounds like someone people should look up to. I think he should be stripped of his name as well and be dubbed Dingleberry Dopington. That seems more fitting for a liar and a cheat. And maybe that will kill all the headline buzz as well. He's had way more attention than he deserves already.

Kiss Carrie Bradshaw Good-Bye

Love, love, love Carrie Bradshaw! Surely you know her, from “Sex And The City”? Played by the effervescently fabulous actress and fashion diva Sarah Jessica Parker? No?? Honey, how big of a rock have you been hiding under?

     I will admit: I came to the SATC party late. The series ran from 1998 to 2004, and I never watched it. Never. I was vaguely aware of it from all the Emmys it won, but in my mind it was some smutty show about over-sexed bimbos. It was on HBO, for Pete's sake, and you had to pay to watch that channel like pay-per-view porn. My bestie had mentioned from time to time what a hoot “the girls” were and I had enjoyed Sarah Jessica's free-spirited movie characters in “Footloose” and “L.A. Story,” but I never bothered to give it a try. Then one day in 2009, when my entire world was in the crapper and videos were my escape haven, I saw “Sex And The City – The Movie” on the library shelf. I checked it out. I watched it. More accurately, I devoured it. Knowing next to nothing about the characters or back story, still I was hooked. Even by Mr. Big, who hurt my girl Carrie when he couldn't get out of the car to marry her but redeemed himself in the end. In the closet. With double doors. I'll say no more, don't want to be a spoiler, except seeing that movie was a life changer. I had something to live for again. I had six whole seasons of Carrie Bradshaw's life to catch up on.

     Carrie Bradshaw. How do I love her and want to be her? Let me count the ways.

WORK: A writer for the fictional newspaper The New York Star, Carrie has a weekly column called “Sex And The City” about traversing the trials of relationships and finding love as a single gal in New York City. All that traversing takes her to the coolest NYC hot spots – clubs, restaurants, art gallery openings, benefits, fashion shows – in sky-high stilettos to cavort with celebs and fashionistas and all kinds of quirky characters. Fabulous! (In case you think I don't know any other words besides “fabulous,” I do. But when it comes to all things CB and SATC, no other word will do. Watch her. Watch it. You'll see.)

     I'm a writer. I could totally do that. I don't know much about sex and I'm certainly no whiz at relationships, but then Carrie doesn't have it all figured out either. That's why her signature phrase “I couldn't help but wonder . . .” starts the last sentence of nearly every column. So I'm willing to learn right along with her.

LOVE/LUST: Carrie has an on-again, off-again steamy romance with Big – a man with money who likes the finer things in life and abso-freakin-lutely will not be corralled by convention – played by hubba-hubba Chris Noth. Count me in big time! He is the buff bad boy you can't help falling for that makes falling, even when it hurts, so damn much fun. I have played some of Big and Carrie's sizzling scenes over and over so much that my DVD player actually groans when I hit rewind again.

     As if Big wasn't big enough to make me want her love life (he is!), through the seasons Carrie also hooked up with:

Seth, in a cameo role by Jon Bon Jovi (who just keeps getting hotter with age – so not fair). Carrie meets him in the waiting room when she tries therapy because the girls think she picks the wrong men. She finds out, after they have mind-blowing sex, that Seth is also Mr. Wrong: he is in therapy because he completely loses interest in a woman after sleeping with her. So long, Seth, but Jon Bon Jovi, you are welcome in my bed anytime. (Season Two)

Aidan Shaw, made irresistibly adorable by John Corbett, a long-time crush of mine since “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Aidan, a laid-back furniture designer, is the antithesis of Big: sweet, open about his feelings, and not afraid of commitment. All of which scares Carrie back into the arms (and Stanhope Hotel bed, the episode where my DVD player groaned the loudest!) of Big. Carrie and Aidan break up in Season Three, reunite and get engaged in Season Four, then split for good before the season ends when he wants to run off and tie the knot and she feels tied in knots because she's not sure she's the marrying type.

     Aidan is lovable, has a dog named Jack (I love dogs!), and can make me a big comfy armchair like the one Carrie cozies into for cocktail sipping and Vogue viewing. So if Carrie can handle Aidan calling her Pop Tart and eating fried chicken in bed for a season or two, I can, too.

Jack Berger (Ron Livingston) is a novelist Carrie meets through her publisher after her columns are turned into a book. They are a perfect intellectual match, effortlessly exchanging razor sharp banter, but can't match up in the sack until they try bringing their banter to bed. Once the sex gets good, the relationship goes bad when Berger can't handle Carrie's authorial success and ends it on a Post-it note. Yeah, a writer breaks up on a Post-it note: “I'm sorry, I can't, don't hate me.” Cruel, curt and clever, huh?

     Even though Berger turns out to be a jerk and isn't my type physically – too hairy, no five o'clock shadow at breakfast for me, thanks – I could go for a guy who stimulates my mind as much as the rest of me. And he rides a motorcycle, even more stimulation for the rest of me. So CB, I'm on board (and definitely won't be bored) with Berger as well. (Seasons Five and Six)

Aleksandr Petrovsky, Carrie's final season final fling, is portrayed by the sexy, sophisticated, and suave Mikhail Baryshnikov. Or Misha, as I affectionately call him ever since I got acquainted with his ballet brilliance and beautiful body in a college Intro to Dance class and came away wet after every class (and I don't mean with sweat!). While gallery hopping with Charlotte, Carrie meets Alek, an internationally-renowned Russian “light installation” artist. He romances her old-world style, including a snowy sleigh ride through Central Park and a black-tie slow dance at McDonald's, and convinces Carrie to move to Paris with him for his art show.

     Even though Petrovsky doesn't turn out to be the “ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other” real love Carrie is looking for, he can light me up anytime. At being romanced by Alek/Misha, I say, “Da!” At being whisked away to an expensive suite in a lovely hotel in Paris by a worldly, wealthy smoking-hot artist, I say, “Oui!” and “Ooh la la!”

FASHION: Dressed by the ever-quirky and outrageously fashion-forward costume designer/stylist Patricia Field, Carrie Bradshaw shot SATC style into the mainstream of the new millennium even bigger than “Dallas” did in the Eighties. Looking perfectly put together for anything and flawlessly fabulous in everything from a trench coat over Dolce & Gabbana sequined panties on the runway to an original Oscar de la Renta at the Met (and later McDonald's) to deep-cuffed skinny jeans over Manolos running for a taxi, CB pulled viewers in every week to indulge in the fashion as much as the storyline. Bras became chic accessories because she let them show from underneath revealing couture. Single-handedly, Carrie brought Candies back to life and put Manolo Blahniks and Christian Louboutins on every fashionista's wish list.

     Please, oh please, if there are any miracles left in this world let Pat Field be my fairy godmother and bring me the style savvy and entire wardrobe of Carrie Bradshaw! (But size it up, way up, to fit me!!) And the hair, gotta have the hair, too, to complete the look.

     Over six seasons, Carrie's do morphed from long rock star curls to sleek, chic chignons to messy chin-length bobs to every imaginable style in between and never once looked less than fabulous. And perfect. Or fabulously perfect. Better yet, perfectly fabulous. I know, I've got to come up with more words, but you get the idea.

THE GIRLS: More than anything else, I want to be Carrie Bradshaw because of “the girls,” her gal-pal posse that is by her side for every triumph and tribulation. As Big puts it, “You three know her better than anyone, you're the loves of her life and a guy's just lucky to come in fourth.”

     There's Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), the feisty, red-headed lawyer who favors logic over love and straight talks Carrie when she finds herself falling in big time affair trouble with Big and later loses her “self” with Petrovsky. Just like Carrie, I sure can use a tough touchstone like Miranda when I start screwing up my life.

     There's also Charlotte York-MacDougal-York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis), the artsy, always proper Park Avenue pal that believes true love exists and is forever finding ways to make it happen for herself and the girls. Just when Charlotte is on the verge of giving up – “I've been dating since I was 15. I'm exhausted! Where is he?” – she finds her Prince Charming in Dr. Trey MacDougal. Unfortunately, Charlotte's marriage to Trey doesn't last (like Trey's erections). But, her Tiffany engagement ring rescues Carrie from having to live in her Manolos when her building goes condo, and Charlotte's divorce lawyer Harry Goldenblatt turns out to be the true love she kept believing in. Charlotte is exactly the cheerleader chum I need for life's rough spots. Maybe her money can't buy me happiness, but it can buy a lot of Cosmopolitans and that's a start.

     I saved Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) for last. Because she's the best. With her free-wheeling sexuality (“I'm a trisexual. I'll try anything once.”) and say-anything sauciness (“I'm dating a guy with the funkiest tasting spunk.”), Samantha is the show's Next-Best-Thing-To-Sex dessert you feel guilty about enjoying but eat every last bite of anyway. She loves sex. She loves her body. And she's not afraid to let both be known.

     Samantha is beautiful, brazen, and hooked up with boy toy Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis), a hung hottie that even hangs tight with her through breast cancer. Of all the girls, and I do love them all, I would choose to be Samantha if I can't get “Carrie”d away. (Being a public relations pro, Samantha can really pop a phrase, second only to CB. She used that play on words in Carrie and Big's rehearsal dinner toast. Couldn't resist borrowing it.)

***

So the other evening my sweetie DMan is taking me out for a little wine tasting, then a wine-sipping visit with friends. An actual date night. Since most of my time is spent in grubby jeans and boring t-shirts for my job shelving books, I decided to channel my inner Carrie and spiff up. I slipped on a hot pink bra and left an extra button undone on my silky black blouse for a pop of pink “accessory.” I hauled out the gray high-heeled faux-croc mock booties that have been relegated to storage under the bed forever, paired them with dark boot-cut low-rider Levis. I mussed my hair and gave it a spritz of spray for that after-sex look Carrie pulls off so well. I even found the makeup kit I mostly use for zit coverage and shadowed my eyes in shades of gray, lined my lids with the least dried-up eye pencil. The final Carrie touch was a slick of pink lip gloss.

     There. As close to Carrie as I'll ever be. I looked in the mirror and . . . hideous looked back at me. Somehow I resembled a cheap hooker under the florescent lights at Wal-Mart after a long, hard night way more than the fabulous idol I was trying to emulate. The ancient eye liner was already flaking, leaving gray flecks on my cheeks. The shadow job I worked so hard on made my eyes look sunk in, as if I'd just been sprung from prison camp. The pink gloss gave my teeth a yellow(er) cast. The pink bra didn't even show unless I bent completely over since I have no cleavage to heave it out there. And I nearly broke my neck in those heels trying to pirouette in front of the mirror to witness this hideousness.

     Before my obituary read “death by heels” or I frightened DMan off for good, I realized right then it was time to kiss Carrie Bradshaw good-bye. As much as I hated it, I had to finally admit: CB I ain't never gonna be.

     I'll never have her looks, no matter how much makeup I put on. I'll never pull off her perfectly put-together style, even if Patricia Field showed up with a wardrobe truck full of Carrie's clothes in my size. My hair will always be too kinky to be rock star curly and too curly to be sleek straight, so trying to have Carrie's do is a don't. I'll never lie next to Big and watch him blow smoke rings at the ceiling after sex, never have Seth dump me after sex, never get to cheat on Aidan with Big, never get the Post-it breakup from Berger, and never get to dance (horizontally or otherwise) and romance with Petrovsky. And the girls? The only time I'll get to have my own gal-pal posse like the girls is when I pop them in the DVD player. My Carrie dream is over.

     But wait. I am still a writer. That's my only shot at living the CB life. Now if I can just figure out a subject I know about that's as fabulous as her “Sex And The City” columns. Huh? What could it be? I do know a lot about Carrie Bradshaw and “Sex And The City” – what could be more fabulous than that? And I do have six seasons worth of episodes, the “SATC: Kiss and Tell” official companion book, the trivia game, and the movie for research material. This might work.

     Pucker up, Carrie Bradshaw! The dream lives. 

Let Them Bones Play

Your bones. Have you thought about them today? Maybe you should. They may be all that's left of you when it's your time to go. I visited my Aunt Naomi today, and that's all that is left of her:  bones covered by nearly translucent skin. Cancer has taken the rest of her. So while you still can, let your bones play. Let them run shoeless through wet grass. Lift up your arms and twirl until you get dizzy and fall down laughing. Take your bones out to salsa or Electric Slide or do the Hustle. Wrap your bones around someone you love and share a big hug. Let your bones feel weightless floating in a pool or get them pounding bicycle pedals. Bones love to jump on trampolines or take a walk with a friend. Your bones may be craving the thrill of a roller coaster, the tickle of the ocean, or the chill of snow swooshing beneath them. Whatever is their fancy, LET THEM BONES PLAY. Then when it's your time to go, they'll be spent and satisfied and ready for a forever rest.
   Life be crrr-azy, Folks. Sometimes funny crazy, sometimes not. I'll get back to funny someday. Just not today.    

Don't wait until it's too late

   I'm not talking about waiting too late to buy last minute Christmas gifts here. You can still find plenty of stuff left in stores just waiting for a credit card swipe to turn it into a gift, but you never know how much life you have left. Do you? All the news this month about the school massacre in Newtown, CT, and the predictions of the world coming to an end had me pondering how quickly any life can change. Then something closer to home made that fact crystal clear.
   Until October, my aunt Naomi was a go-go-go kind of gal, always dressed in hip clothes and jangly jewelry and still working several days a week in retail even though she could have retired years ago. When some of the family had lunch together, she mentioned losing weight because she'd had trouble eating sometimes or little appetite but didn't think much of it because she'd had "stomach issues" all her life. But it got worse and eventually she wasn't eating at all. When she got too weak to drive herself, someone took her to the doctor, who found "a mass." Then last Thursday, she had surgery to check out the problem. The surgeon found cancer and sewed her back up, telling Naomi there was nothing that could be done and she had two weeks to live. 
   Today I sat with her in the hospital; she held my hand. I asked her how you deal with hearing that kind of news, and she said, "I don't know. I still don't know. I didn't expect this." Now she has to plan for her own death, plus make sure my Uncle Jesse, her husband that has Parkinson's Disease, will be taken care of in the nursing facility after she's gone. All she wants to do now is have a bowel movement so the hospital will release her and she can die at home. Her life changed that fast.
   In a way, Naomi is lucky. At least she knows what's coming. She can say good-byes and hopefully have no regrets. But most aren't so lucky, like those folks in Newtown that had no warning. So don't wait until it's too late to make your life

BIGGER

BETTER

BOLDER.

If your spirit has been whispering that it wants to sing, then sing. Loud and every chance you get. Climb a mountain, if that's your thing, or paint or learn to swim. Love with abandon, laugh until your sides hurt, and give hugs freely. You and I are still breathing and the world didn't come to an end, so we've got the chance to make our lives shine our brightest shine. Are you ready? I am!

   Merry Christmas, Yall! May it be your best ever!!

Tis the season . . .

. . . for crrr-aziness! Here's a few things I've noticed:

• Black Friday has morphed into Black Every Day since then. I drive by Battlefield Mall and the Independence Street strip of stores on the way to work and people are shopping like it's Christmas Eve crunch-time already. Folks, today is only December 3! You've got twenty days until Christmas Eve, including three weekends, to shop, so calm down and pace yourselves.
• The American Research Group Inc.'s website says the average American family will spend $854 on Christmas this year. Eight hundred and fifty-four bucks!! Where are people getting all this money to blow on Christmas gifts? That is two months worth of my piddly part-time job paychecks, no way am I spending that much. I guess I should take comfort in the fact that I'm not "average."
• This is the first time I can remember seeing folks strapping Christmas trees to their cars wearing SHORTS! It feels more like spring this holiday season than fall. This beach-babe-at-heart is loving it! Keep it coming.
• I saw an older man driving a pristine red 1970s-era yacht-sized Cadillac with white convertible top through my neighborhood the other day. Hanging from the grill was a Christmas wreath as big as a bird bath. If the man had been sporting a white beard to go with his long white hair, I would swear it must've been the Santa Mobile I saw. I smiled and waved just in case he was cruising to see who's been naughty and nice.
• Yesterday DMan and I were walking our neighborhood to check out a cul-de-sac where all the houses are decked out with lights and, according to their sign, the lights even dance to music when you tune in to a radio frequency. It wasn't dark so the display wasn't lit up, but from the amount of extension cords running everywhere -- there was even a heavy-duty rubber channel running across the road with cords in it -- that place will put the Griswald house to shame. At one house, there are two thirty-foot-plus trees with orange cords duck taped to the trunk running all the way to the top, not to mention lights strung on nearly every inch of the house. And the homeowner was up on a ladder stringing up even more lights! I wonder if that $854 spent on Christmas includes utility bills? City Utilities must love that neighborhood! We'll have to go back see the spectacle after dark. I may need to take my sunglasses so I don't go blind.

   Happy Holidays, Yall, and try to stay sane amidst all the Christmas crrr-aziness!     

No Black Friday for this gal

Hate the cold. H-A-T-E it. But the cold does bring out the most vibrant sunrise colors. Picture this – the most intense blues and oranges and pinks and yellows you've ever seen and amp them up like they've downed three Monster drinks and you'll come close to the sunrise I saw this morning. It was so good I kept on walking the beach and gawking, even though my skin had double layers of goosebumps through my multiple layers of clothes.

     So no Black Friday for this gal. I had a wicked-cool-colored Friday, as Sister K would say. Everything is “wicked cool” to her. And she does the Black Friday thing. Makes it like a party to get up early, then go out for breakfast after her shopping is done. Not me, I think it stinks. Thanksgiving used to be a holiday when stores would close and workers get time off. Now it's nothing more than Black Friday Eve, with the stores opening at 10:00pm, midnight, 3:00am, whatever. Forget about turkey and family – take a nap and rush off to work.

     Besides Black Friday crapping all over Thanksgiving, don't we have enough clothes and appliances and electronic junk to last a lifetime already? Buying more just because you get a door-buster price makes abso-freakin-lutely no sense. I think it's time to turn off the TV so we're not brainwashed by all those buy-buy-buy commercials, recycle those Black Friday newspaper ads, and be thankful for what we already have. It's cheaper, a lot less stressful, and kinder to the planet.

     I hate preachy, so I'll tell my own self to “shut up” right there.

-----

I was feeling particularly nostalgic for the beach this morning, so I was rereading my memoir entry from this day last year and decided to post it. Unfortunately the "crapping all over Thanksgiving" part of Black Friday is just as relevant now, with retailers trying to one-up each other to get more business yesterday by opening earlier than the next store. Besides Wal-Mart, that never closes on Thanksgiving anyway, around here the big winner was Bass Pro Shop that opened at 7am yesterday. Boo to you, Bass Pro, for being the greediest turkey on Turkey Day.

     If you want to read more of my memoir "Life Gone South (when I ran away to live at the beach and be a writer)", you can find it on Amazon and Kindle, including in the Kindle free lending library.

    Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and more crrr-azy fun things to do than shop!