What Halloween Costume Should You Be?

Your Haloween Costume Should Be

A Sexy Bunny

What Should You Be For Halloween?

Hmm! I've never thougth of being a bunny. After seeing Bridget Jone's Diary, I'd thought it'd pretty much been done, but I might have to rethink that thought for next year. Maybe I can be a vampire bunny!

Halloween Treats

Happy Halloween everyone! I thought I'd share with y'all some of my favorite spooky movies and books in celebration of Halloween.

The Lair of the White Worm starring Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, and Amanda Donohoe. Based on the Bram Stoker novel. Yes, Bram Stoker wrote other horror stories other than Dracula, most of which are unknown. What can I say about this movie? You have to see it to believe it. It is probably one of the campiest horror films I have ever seen.

The Mummy by Anne Rice. The only Anne Rice book that I can tolerate. Read about Ramses and Cleopatra running around snapping necks in 19th century England. A hoot and a half.

Dracula by Bram Stoker. Ignore all the many movies based on the book (unless you watch the Frank Langella version) and read the original.

The Calling series by Caridad Pineiro: If you like your Vampires dark and brooding this is the series for you. I never thought a category romance series about Vampires could be so good. Kudos to the editors at Silhouette from taking a break on their babies, cowboys and amnesia, and publishing a sophisticated tale about modern day Vampires living in New York. So far, there are three books in the series, Temptation Calls, Darkness Calls, and Danger Calls.

Mary Janice Davidson's Undead series: The lighter side of the Vampire. Starring Elizabeth (Betsy) Taylor, the newly (and reluctant) Queen of the Undead. Gotta love a Vampire who adores shoes! And Erik her consort isn't half bad either. This series is so good, they're now publishing them in hardcover.

Gothic - A film by Ken Russell. This film is a retelling of how Mary Shelley came to write the novel Frankenstein. Mary, her new husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Byron, Dr. John Polidori and her step-sister, Claire Clairmont are staying in a villa in Switzerland one dark and stormy night. To entertain themselves, they decide to tell ghost stories. Okay, like the Lair of the White Worm, this movie is campy in the extreme, but then it's a Ken Russell Film. Worth it just to see Julian Sands as Shelley standing out on the roof naked in the rain.

My final pick is Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood. In this movie, Vincent plays an actor who decides to kill off all the theatre critics who've given him bad reviews over the years one by one. But here's the kicker, he uses Shakespeare as his guide for their deaths. Diana Rigg plays his devoted daughter.

As you can see by my choices, I've gone for the lighter side for Halloween fare. Basically because I'm a wimp. Movies like Carrie, The Ring, The Grudge scare the absolute crap out of me. I already have to sleep with the TV set on, when I'm by myself. After watching one of those movies, I have to sleep with the light on as well. I could barely make through the Scream trilogy.

I do much better with books. Christopher Golden has a trilogy set in Sleepy Hollow, NY, that I'm dying to read (no pun intended), and I used to read John Saul all the time when I was younger, until I got too freaked out.

Even silly movies like Resident Evil (the first one) scare me to death.

What are your favorite horror movies and books?

Things that make you go hmmm!

This is a short blog today. I have a raging headache which I wish I could say was hangover related but I think might be the beginnings of a migraine. Yeah! Just what I need right now. And last night I came home from work to find out that my toilet had sprung a leak. I tried to plug up the leak by wrapping a plastic bag around it, but it's like trying to plug up a hole on the Titanic. A valiant effort but the ship is going down. Of course, the super was no where to be found on a Sunday, so I have to pray that the bags hold until I can call the management office tomorrow to get a plumber to come look at it. Thank god, I work two jobs. In fact, I'm working Halloween to make even more extra money.

In the meantime, I want to recommend a movie for y'all to see. It's called CAMP. It came out a few years ago. Basically it's one summer at performing arts camp in upstate New York, but you don't have to be a performer or have gone to a similar camp to appreciate it. If you've ever gone to sleepover camp, you can relate. I loved it, I can't believe that I've owned the video for two years, and just watched it for the first time.

I also ran into an old friend of mine recently. As we were catching up on each other's lives, he mentioned that he's thinking of running for state office. Now, I've known this guy for 12 years, and I never would have imagined that he had any interest in politics. Immediately, my little plot atenna went up, and never let down as he was telling me his plans. I, of course, instantly saw that this was a good opportunity for me to see what a campaign is like up close. Apparently, I'm also incapable of having any ordinary conversation without thinking about how I can use it in my writing.

And then yesterday, I'm watching I Love the 80's 3-D for I think 1989, when I learned some disturbing info about Disney's The Little Mermaid. It appears that the reverand who marries Ariel and Eric, has a boner during the ceremony. I'm not kidding, they freeze-framed the shot, so that you can see his little cartoon woody. Does Michael Eisner know about this? What other suprises are lurking in those innocent Disney cartoons?

I have to go lie down now and recover from the shock!

What kind of eyes do you have?

RAVEN EYES

You have Raven
Eyes!
Positive Traits: Intellectual,
Wise, Experienced, Honest,
Trustworthy
Negative Traits: Pompous,
Condescending, Withdrawn, Pessimistic,
Depressed

Your eyes are the windows to your soul. What type of eyes do you have?
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Embarrasing Moments

A friend sent me this in an email, and I thought it was cute:

Little David was in his fifth grade class when the teacher asked the children what their fathers did for a living. All the typical answers came up: doctor, policeman, salesman, etc.

David was being uncharacteristically quiet, and so the teacher asked him about his father.

"My father's an exotic dancer in a gay cabaret and takes off all his clothes in front of other men. Sometimes, if the offer's really good, he'll go out to the alley with some guy and have sex with him for money."

The teacher, shaken by this statement, hurriedly set the other children to work on some coloring, and then took Little David aside.

"Is that really true about your father?" she asked.

"No," said David. "Actually, he works for the Bush administration, but I was too embarrassed to say that in front of the other kids."


I laughed my head off when I read that. Out of the mouths of babes!

Livin la vida loca

Thank god, it's Friday. The pretend boyfriend and I will be spending the weekend, snuggled up in bed, getting to know each other again. Those long distance relationships can be tough! But somehow we make it work. Of course, I have to discipline him for leaving me alone for so long. This picture was taken just after we'd had another argument about my moving to England. See, he has an 8-year old son, so he can't really move here without losing valuable time with his son. He's had offers to do Broadway, but he really doesn't want to miss out being with his son. He's a devoted parent, which I find very sexy but very hard, when your pretend boyfriend lives across the Atlantic. I told him that I couldn't possibly move until after my term as RWA NYC President was over. I'm very dedicated to my chapter, and I couldn't just dump them willy-nilly to move to England to be with an incredibly handsome, sexy guy could I? So we're at an impasse right now.

In other news, apparently I'm on some International email list for money-laundering. Normally, I get the usual junk email offering me low-interest mortgage rates, debt-relief, pornographic sites, and surveys, but I've gotten 3 emails so far this week allegedly from real banks asking me if I could just park $50,000,000 in my bank account for a few months. Sure, no problem, that won't send any red flags to the IRS or the government. Come on, would you be suspicious if large sums of money somehow ended up in the account of a woman who can barely balance her checkbook?

What is the weirdest email that anyone's ever gotten?

Return of Real Estate Porn

This is Anne Rice's house in La Jolla, CA. Isn't it a beauty? I couldn't resist sharing it with you. I'm not a big fan of her books apart from The Mummy, which is a hoot and a half, but I admire her taste in real estate. She used to own various properties in New Orleans, including the house that she used for the Mayfair witches in The Witching Hour, a book that I loathed but I couldn't put down.

Yes, Real Estate Porn is back. I just discovered that there is a whole web-site called Curbed devoted to those of us who have the addiction, and Michael Gross just wrote a book on 740 Park Avenue, destined to be a classic like Stephen Birmingham's book on The Dakota (read it, it's fabulous, you can find it in the library).

I actually once thought about becoming a real estate agent. The Queen Bee used to be a real estate agent. She wrote her first book while working at Corcoran. I'd even inquired at various real estate agencies (in New York you need to be sponsored by an agent to get your license) but I read in New York Magazine that the market is flooded right now with agents, so I'm going to take a pass for now, but I may eventually take the plunge and get my license.

To further my addiction, I recently discovered this show on TLC called Moving Up while working on Saturday night. I actually had to watch it for work, and I fell in love with it. The premise is that say for instance, I bought Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt's house (let's just say they're still married) and the bought Madonna's house. We each renovate our new abode to our taste, and then the previous owner comes back to see what you did to their house. You then get to watch their reactions on a video monitor. It's fabulous to see what people say particularly when they don't like what the new owners have done to their house. It's almost as much fun as Trading Spaces when people see what Hildy has done to their room. Cardboard furniture anyone?

This photo to the left is from Tuxedo Estates in Tuxedo, New York, a planned community by Pierre Lorillard in the late 19th century. Get this, the guy who it was built for, his last name was Poor! Yes, the house is referrered to as the Poor Palace. However, the Poor Palace isn't poor, the price is a whopping $10,000,000 for this house. You definitely have to be rich to own the Poor Palace.

Tell the truth, have you ever lusted after an apartment or a house that you've seen in a magazine. Do ever feel the urge to run to Home Depot after watching Trading Spaces or another home improvement show.

Confess!

I love the 80's really...

The 80's are back with a vengeance. Just look at this press release:

NOAH’S BACK! RICK SPRINGFIELD RETURNS AS DR. NOAH DRAKE ON ABC DAYTIME’S “GENERAL HOSPITAL”Award winning musician and actor Rick Springfield returns as “General Hospital’s” Dr. Noah Drake, the role he originated nearly 25 years ago, it was announced by ABC Daytime. His first airdate will be December 2.

Wow, Rick Springfield returning to GH! I was a huge fan of GH during the 80's (still am kinda but that's a completely different blog), now he's returning to the show. I'd like to think he's going to get a chance to mix it up with Bobbie Spencer again (they were involved in a torrid love triangle wtih Tiffany Hill. Bobbie even faked blindness to keep Noah).

I was never a huge fan of Rick Springfield, although I liked his music. Who doesnt' love 'Jessie's Girl'? Still, I was much more of a Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Culture Club, Depeche Mode fan back in the early 80's. But it's great that ABC and GH are mining the show's history for a change, instead of systematically destroying.

John Stamos has a new sitcom, Madonna has a new album, Rick Astley was on MTV's Pimp My Ride (has not aged well but I still love 'Never Gonna Give You Up'), Lorenzo Lamas is on The Bold and The Beautiful, and now I Love the 80's 3D is back on VH-1. Donald Trump and The Apprentice. Anyone remember him and Ivana (pre plastic surgery)? It's hard to believe that he still has the same hair. That's even scarier than the 8 years we had to suffer through Reagan and Bush.

Lisa Kleypas has a great article on what she was doing in the 80's over at Squawk Radio. It's hard to believe we're all waxing so nostalgic about a decade that's only twenty years in the past.

I graduated from high school and college in the 80's. Yes, that makes me really old. Most of that time was spent in London where I learned all about Page 3 girls, Bronski Beat and English bacon. I got up early to watch TV with the English family I lived with to watch Charles and Diana get married.

I first learned what to do with my curly hair in the 80's, although I still wore huge rollers to make it big and poofy. I didn't wear leg warmers unless it was to dance class but I did wear leggings and big sweaters that made me look like the Tasmanian devil. Shoulder pads? Check! The bigger the better. Linebackers in the NFL had nothing on me and my friends. Let's face it, the 80's had to have been the ugliest fashion decade on record. Just take a look at a Christian LaCroix bubble dress and you'll know why.

Remember when cassettes finally replaced 8-Track tapes, and then CD's starting coming out? Laser discs (bigger versions of DVD's) and the very first VCR's which were huge! We didn't get ours until 1985, but it was like someone had invented fire for the first time, we were so amazed. Not to mention getting our first microwave.

I've been thinking about the 80's because I'd thought to set my YA in that decade, before it completely morphed into a different novel, but I do plan to visit the 80's at some point, even if it's a Time Travel.

Relive my Electric Youth!

Anyone have any really good memories (or bad) about the 80's?

Editors, the good, the bad, and the not so nice

Disclaimer: all my experiences with editors thus far, have been the editors I work with at the market research firm. This does not apply to fiction editors at publishing houses, who could be totally different. I look forward to someday finding that out!

Okay, so here's the way it works at my job. I watch a TV show that I've been assigned. Take for instance, last night, where I had to watch Untold Stories of the ER on TLC. Sidebar, this show is one of the strangest shows I've ever seen. The doctors are real, the stories are real, but the show is a re-enactment of the story. So the doctor has to act what happened in real life, along with a bunch of probably non-union actors who are just happy to be working.

But I digress. After I watch the show, I have to write 12 questions, 3 questions for each quarter of the show. Because the show has 3 storylines, I normally try to write one question for each storyline, if possible. After I'm done, I let the editor know unless he or she has already started to edit as I write, which is strange.

You'll go back to check on a question, and find out they've already edited the crap out of it. Some editors are really good about working with you on your questions, and explaining to you why they changed certain things. I've even had an editor ask me if it was okay to change one of my answers! Wow, that was pretty cool. Most of the time they change the answers because yours were too short. All the answers have to be of the same length.

Then there are the other editors who just completely rewrite everything that you wrote, which I kind of hate. Can you imagine if you turned in your manuscript to Jennifer Enderlin and she rewrote the whole book? Wouldn't you be annoyed?

The worst editors are the ones who think they know everything, and can't wait to tell you what you did wrong. In fact they take pleasure out of it. I had one editor who was working from home berate me at almost two o'clock in the morning about what she perceived as my deficiencies as a writer. Of course, all of it was under the guise of helping me, but it sent me home in tears, I was so upset. Over questions!

Because we have so many different editors working on a given night, I've had to learn to adapt to each one's peculiar little quirks. One guy is the quintessential slacker dude who speaks really slowly. He's actually one of the coolest editors. Then there's the Lisa Loeb look-a-like right down to the glasses who rewrites everyone.

I've also learned to deal with the constant editorial changes at the office. Initially we were taught short questions, short answers. But recently the editors have decided they want the answers to be fuller, so for example the question might be (for King of Queens) What did Doug do while sitting on the couch?

Originally we would have had the answers be: Ate potato chips, watched TV, Took a nap, Argued with Arthur.

Now the answers would be: Ate potato chips while watching the baseball game, Took a nap while waiting for dinner, Argued with Arthur about news program, read a magazine while waiting for Carrie to come home.

Most of the editors at work are great, but when it's 2:30 in the morning and you've been working since 7:30 and the editor wants you to change your answer set, it's easy to think of getting a voodoo doll with their name on it. Or when they make you write a question about Outback's Bloomin' onion even though the character on SNL didn't really mention Outback Steakhouse (apparently Outback has the name copyrighted even though there's a football play called the Bloomin' onion. See the things that you learn from watching TV!)

So, I totally feel that when I do get published, I can deal with anything the editor throws at me, since I've been doing it five nights a week. Hopefully I won't be sleep-deprived doing them.

Got a good beat, and you can dance to it

When I was a kid, I used to watch American Bandstand every Saturday morning. I thought it was fabulous, and I always wanted to be one of those kids who danced on the show every week. Soul Train never did it for me, maybe because I thought Don Cornelius was creepy. But American Bandstand I loved, there was just something about Dick Clark. He never tried to be cooler than he was, you never saw him trying to wear hip clothes or growing his hair long and wearing peace signs or love beads. He just loved music and loved presenting it to audiences.

My favorite part of Bandstand was the segment where the played new music, and he asked a guy and a girl to rate it. Inevitably someone would use the phrase, 'it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it.'

I was thinking about this the other day, when I realized how often I just listened to a song for the beat, and didn't really pay attention to the words. A couple of years ago, I was at the Long Island Romance Writer's lunch when one of my tablemates starting talking about how she's very careful about what her daughter listens to. She mentioned the song 'Milkshake' by Kelis and what the song was about. I had absolutely no idea that this song was about oral sex. It completely went over my head, because I was too busy grooving to the beat of the song. Oops! After she told us that, I started thinking about the lyrics I remembered and it made sense.

The same thing happened to me in college. I was dancing around our flat in London to Cindy Lauper's 'She-bop' when my flatmate Chip told me that the song was about the art of self-love.

"Really?" I said, sounding I'm sure hopelessly naive.

"Yeah," he replied, "Didn't you hear the bit about the pages of Blue Boy magazine."

Umm, yeah, but I just didn't think about it. Duh!

Have you ever listened to a song, and completely gotten the lyrics wrong? I knew a girl in high school who thought the lyrics to the Eric Clapton song was 'Lay down salad,' instead of 'Lay down Sally.' And that doesn't even make sense! Another guy thought the G0-Go's song 'Our Lips are sealed,' was 'I love Cecile!'

Question of the day, have you ever heard a song, and then been completely suprised by what the song was about? Or have you ever completely gotten the lyrics wrong?

What Peanuts Character are you?

You are Schroeder!

Which Peanuts Character are You?
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Rachael Ray: Spawn of Satan?

Has anyone noticed that Rachael Ray is everywhere lately? She's got 4 shows on the Food Network, something like 11 cookbooks, a new magazine, cookware, and now comes the news that Oprah is going to be producing a daily show with Rachael Ray starting Fall 2006. She's being touted as the new "Martha" since the bloom is off the rose of the old Martha since that whole prison thing. So now of course comes the backlash.

There are actual websites devoted to hating her. Wow, you know you've made an impact on people when they create "I hate _" websites. Here's one that gets mentioned all the time here.

Let me just say up front, I'm not a big Rachael Ray fan. I find her annoying and grating, and I hate the cute little phrases that she comes up with like "EVOO" for Extra Virgin Olive Oil and "Yum-O." She's just a little too perky for my tastes, but considering how much coffee she apparently drinks, it now makes more sense. Yet despite her obvious flaws, I don't think she's as bad as people make her out to be. She's certainly not the spawn of Satan that people would like to believe.

Someone actually complained about her show "40 Days a day" that she spends too much money on food. Hello, it's a travel show, and most of the places that she takes you to are fairly reasonable. What do viewers expect? That she hit every Denny's and McDonald's around the world. $40 a day is pretty reasonable when you're traveling, particularly in Europe, where you have to take into account the currency rate. Could you travel and eat 3 meals a day on less?

Yeah, you probably could but it would be extremely difficult. Particularly if you're traveling to a big city. But yet this woman complained that Rachael Ray should spend less and donate the money to charity!

I have one thing to say to these people. If you don't like Rachel Ray, don't watch her TV show, don't buy her books. End of story!

People complain that she's not a trained cook. Well, guess what, neither is Martha Stewart. Yes, Martha was a stock broker before she quit her job and became a caterer in CT. Actually, that's probably what sets her apart from all the chefs on the Food Network. People look at her and think that "if she can cook a meal in 30 minutes, so can I." Whereas if Mario Batali or Emeril were to do a show on 30 minute meals, I would just sit there in awe, but I would never try the recipes for myself.

Critics also complain that she's messy in the kitchen. Actually, I find that endearing. Hey, so are most people when they cook. I know that I personally have crap all over the place when I cook. If you're trying to cook a meal in 30 minutes, you don't have time to clean up as you're cooking.

She's overly enthusiastic for people who prefer the dry, sterile way that Martha cooks. She has much in common with my personal favorite, Nigella Lawson, another food tv star who has no formal training other than just learning by doing.

My biggest complaint with Rachael Ray is that she's missing a segment of her audience. There are tons of single people out who don't cook, who would rather order in, since most recipes are for 4 or more people. And halving recipes isn't always that easy. I'd like to see Rachel Ray do 30 minute meals for singles.

I have to admire Rachael Ray. She came out of nowhere (upstate New York), with no real skills other than a love of food and cooking, and has managed to create an empire. She's no dummy, opportunities presented themselves to her, and she seized them. Isn't that the American way?

What do you think? Rachel Ray, just an annoying TV personality or Spawn of Satan?

All About Me!

ALL ABOUT ME

Found this on Vanessa Virtue's blog. Since it's making the rounds, I thought I'd add my two cents to the mix.

1. When you look at yourself in the mirror, what's the first thing you look at?

My hair. I have curly hair, so I'm always trying to see if I'm having a good hair day. Then I look at my eyes. They're chocolate brown and I'm told they're my best feature.

2. How much cash do you have on you?

$30. I went to the cash machine last night after work.

3. What's a word that rhymes with "TEST"?

REST. As in, what I don't get enough of lately.

4. Favorite plant?

Lilacs. We used to have several Lilac bushes at our house upstate when I was growing up, and I just loved the smell. I always associate them with my Dad because they only bloom in like April or May and my dad's birthday was in May. I just love the smell and the color.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?

Don't have a cell phone for the States. I'm a complete Luddite when it comes to all that, although I really should get one.

6. What is your main ring tone on your phone?

A nice normal ringing tone since it's my home phone.

7. What shirt are you wearing?

Purple ribbed sleeveless sweater.

8. Do you "label" yourself?

I hate labels, because it puts people in boxes.

9. Name brand of your shoes currently wearing?

Nine West. They're black leather open-toed sling-backs.

10. Bright or Dark Room?

Bright. I like sunny rooms.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?

Vanessa Virtue, very cool chick.

12. Do you know what an 8-track is?

Yup. I'm a child of the seventies, of course I know what an 8-track tape is. We had tons of them.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?

Sleeping, thank god.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell phone say?

No cellphone, IM, or Blackberry.

15. Do you ever click on Pop-ups or banners?

Not the porn ones!

16. What's a saying that you say a lot?

"Call me mad-cap."

17. Who told you they loved you last?

My friend Natalie.

18. Last furry thing you touched?

A mink teddy bear.

19. How many hours a week do you work?

45 at day job - 20 at night job, and countless hours at my writing.

20. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed?

None. The last time I took pictures it was of my clothes to sell on Ebay.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?

Every age has been good and bad for different reasons, so I can't really choose. I'm actually liking my 'gulp' forties.

22. Your worst enemy?

Myself, definitely.

23. What is your current desk top picture?

A photo I found on my computer of a really gorgeous sunset.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?

"How do you spell your last name?"

Why English is so hard to learn

This was sent to me by my friend Patrick, who lives in London.

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? Is it an odd, or an end? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

P.S. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

Black Movie Awards

I watched the first part of the Black Movie Awards last night on TNT for work, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I was moved by the acceptance speeches and the tribute to Sidney Poitier. I never knew that he'd been knighted by the Queen or been Ambassador to Japan from The Bahamas. How cool is that?

The show was dignified, classy and boring as hell. Cedric the Entertainer tried to keep things lively in his opening monologue, but even he gave up after awhile. There was no badly written banter between presenters that usually makes you cringe at most award shows. No pre-show on BET or TNT so that viewers can ooh and aah over the outfits. I guess since TNT only gave them two hours, they couldn't waste time on frivolity.

What struck me the most about the show was how few of the biggest names in Black Hollywood weren't there. No Denzel, no Halle, no Jamie Foxx. No Chris Rock. Cuba Gooding Jr., Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson (the hardest working man in show business), Charles Dutton, GAbriellWhoopi Goldberg, Lou Gossett Jr., Pam Grier, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll, Spike Lee, John Singleton or any of the many black directors working in Hollywood. The biggest names were Don Cheadle and Edward James Olmos who helped introduce Sidney Poitier. The inaugural Black Movie Awards and they couldn't show up? Instead stars from TV shows like CSI New York were presenters.

There was a lovely presentation to Kimberly Elise as a Rising Star, presented by Cicely Tyson, but how much nicer it would have been to have Denzel (who's worked with her twice) and Oprah (where the hell was she?) speak or at least a taped message. Maybe because of time constraints things were cut (like Best Actress and Director), but still?

The new musical The Color Purple was honored, and instead of Oprah (who's a backer) or Whoopi (the star) we had Margaret Avery (where's she been the past twenty years?) introducing the cast in a musical number.

The awards themselves were not that attractive, consiting of a giant open sculpture of Africa with a strip of film through it. Why not name the awards after a pioneer of black cinema like Oscar Micheaux? I know, there are already Oscars but if this award show wants to be the Black Oscars, there going to have to step it up a notch. It's not good when you can't get the biggest names in Black Hollywood to show up. Heck, even Mel Gibson has pre-dated speeches for The People's Choice Awards if he can't be there.
A great idea, but seriously lacking in the execution.

What Broadway Musical do you belong in?

Got this from Barb Ferrer's website.


Rent

What Broadway Musical Do You Belong in?
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Getting Perspective

Vanessa Virtue had a really great blog today about getting a little perspective. You all can read it here.

Not only has there been an earthquake in Northern India (39 aftershocks were reported after the initial quake) killing 50,000 people, but there's another tropical storm in the Carribean, Wilma, not to mention bird flu which could kill up to 20 Million people or more. There's potential here to lose more lives than in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Scientists recently discovered that the influenza epidemic back then was also caused by bird flu.

Of course, the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world, we don't have enough vaccine to take care of everyone who needs it.

But what do I see on television? People wondering whether or not Nick and Jessica are splitting up, whether Ashton and Demi are really married, and if TomKat's baby is the result of a turkey baster.

What's going on? When did we stop caring? Last month we were all about Hurricane Katrina. Are we just overloaded with causes, that we just can't deal? I mean this month is Breast Cancer month, everything's pink, but does anyone care?

Then this morning, I read that Madonna of the cone-shaped bra, standing on the side of the highway naked Madonna, is chastizing the world for it's wickedness. Can you say hypocrite much? Apparently studying Kabbalah the past few years, has purified her of all the dumb ass things that she did.

I admit I'm just as guilty of spending too much time thinking about celebrities. My apartment is littered with old copies of US Magazine, In Style, People, Celebrity Living, In Touch etc. So I plan on donating the money that I would have spent on crappy celebrity magazines to the Red Cross instead..

In the meantime, anyone interested in donating to the Earthquake relief fund can do so here.

Tomorrow, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled blog.

In Memoriam

Gabrielle posted earlier at her blog, that romance author Jude Deveraux's son was killed on October 6th.

My heart goes out to her. I cannot fathom what it must be like to lose a child, particularly one that was so long in coming. I've lost many people in my life, my parents, my brother and many relatives, but the loss of a child is in a category all it's own.

There's a guestbook at the Washington Post where people can post their condolences.

http://www.legacy.com/WashingtonPost/Guestbook.asp?Page=Guestbook&PersonID=15311527

There's also a short article in a local paper. You can find it here:
http://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/articles/2005/10/08/news/news2.txt

I've been a long time fan of her older books, and I recently reread a Knight in Shining Armor which is a classic of hers.

My deepest sympathies for her loss.

Search for joy in your blog

Okay, Monica Jackson has tagged me to search for joy in my blog. Unfortunately, I don't appear to have ever used the word joy! Happiness, excitement, but no joy! What does that say about me as a person and a writer?

Do I not have joy in my life (besides the dishwashing liquid) or do I just not use the word to apply to my life? So I searched for the word 'joy' in the dictionary. Here's what I found:

Joy
Pronunciation: 'joi'
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French joie, from Latin gaudia, plural of gaudium, from gaud, Ere to rejoice; probably akin to Greek gEthein to rejoice
a : the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : DELIGHT
b : the expression or exhibition of such emotion : GAIETY
2: a state of happiness or felicity : BLISS3 : a source or cause of delight- joy·less /-l&s/ adjective- joy·less·ly adverb- joy·less·ness noun

So, this caused me to think about what brings me joy in life. Well, a really good book that makes me excited about writing brings me joy. Watching my friend's little boy discover the world brings me joy, hanging out with my friends brings me joy, a good bowl of lobster bisque brings me joy.

Seeing people do good things brings me joy. A really great idea or a good day writing brings me joy. Playing with a puppy brings me joy. I guess I'm not used to expressing it verbally with the word joy. It seems such a simple word sometimes and I can get all writerly and what to use other synonyms. Showing off that I know how to use Thesaurus.

So, I now pass the baton to the following people:

Kelly Callihan
Gabrielle Luthy at Diary of an Adult Runaway
and last but not least, Megan Frampton

Have fun ladies spreading the joy!

What type of Seducer are you?

Elizabeth, the dateless, here with yet another blog quiz which again begs the question: Why can't I get a date?

Your Seduction Style: Sweet Talker

Your seduction technique can be summed up with "charm"You know that if you have the chance to talk to someone...Well, you won't be talking for long! ;-) You're great at telling potential lovers what they want to hear.Partially, because you're a great reflective listener and good at complementing.The other part of your formula? Focusing your conversation completely on the other person. Your "sweet talking" ways have taken you far in romance - and in life.You can finess your way through any difficult situation, with a smile on your face.Speeding tickets, job interviews... bring it on! You truly live a *charmed life*

What Kind of Seducer Are You?