lornagrl

Some thoughts on the death of Michael Jackson..

This has affected me more than I thought it would. (not that I ever thought about the death of Michael Jackson. )

I'll admit it.  I have been rolling my eyes for years at "wacko jacko". But I was a big fan of his in the early eighties.  I purchased his Thriller album (on LP no less).  I worked in the Guiness Hall of World Records in Nashville, TN while I was in high school, and when MJ broke the world record for selling the most albums, we installed a life-size wax exhibit of Jackson in his Thriller garb, complete with a replica of the Thriller set, and a VHS of the Thriller video playing in the background. When we launched the exhibit - neighborhood kids gathered in the front of the museum to break-dance and moonwalk.  Young kids would continue to come to the museum for months to see the Michael Jackson exhibit.  Many of them, I could tell, were poor, and didn't have the money to pay the $3.50 admission ticket. ( Some lived in the projects nearby) Sometimes, I would let them in for free. 

But as the years passed, all these strange stories about him emerged. I'm sorry to say that in the quagmire of all the crazy plastic surgery stories, the child molestation charges, the baby dangling - in all the weirdness - I had completely forgotten how UNBELIEVABLY gifted and talented he was. 

I have watched this YouTube video about 20 times. It is a shining example of how brilliant he was.  He comes out onto the stage and with minimal props, special effects and costumes he does a "kick ass" performance of Billie Jean (one of my favorite songs) and brings a huge audience of all different shapes, ages, colors and sizes to their feet (and some to tears).  Do you think there are many artists who could do this today?  I don't think so. 

My number....

Jade Goody died Sunday morning.  It seems very strange to me.  She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August 2008.  I remember seeing it on the news.  There were photos of her looking absolutely devastated and terrified and I knew exactly how she felt.  I felt so badly about her and I didn't even really know much about her.  I loathe reality television shows. I also wanted to send her good vibes and tell her..it's okay.  You'll do some chemo, maybe radiation, your hair will fall out but it will grow back.  It may even grow back curly.  You will get through this...

The weeks after I was diagnosed are all a blur.  What I do remember is  I spent hours and hours scouring the internet for other blogs.  I wasn't interested in statistics.  I never trusted them anyway.  I wanted to read about others who had been through it and pulled through.  I came across Karen's site.  Karen George found a lump in her breast but her Dr. didn't see the need to send her for a mammogram or a biopsy.  The Dr. even told her not to worry if the lump got bigger.  A year later, the lump was bigger and she developed a hacking cough.  Tests later revealed that the cancer had spread to her lungs and bones.  I sent her an email to see how she was doing and that I had been recently diagnosed.  This is the email she sent back..

I’m so sorry to hear that you were recently diagnosed with this terrible disease.  I know exactly how you must be feeling.  The uncertainty, the fear.  But I hope that it will ease your mind to know that I am currently in remission.

I had a pretty bad diagnosis.  Stage 4 with mets to my lymph nodes, lungs, and bones.  After 8 rounds of chemo, a lumpectomy and lymph node dissection and 6 weeks of radiation, I was cancer free.  Or so I thought.  About 10 months later cancer was rediscovered in my brain.  I had nine tumors, one was over an inch in diameter!  I had another 15 rounds of radiation and now I am once again in remission.  My doctors are completely amazed by my recovery.  In fact, I’m training for a marathon right now.

I want to tell you this because right now, I know it must seem completely overwhelming to you.  But, you can get through this.  It might be the hardest thing you ever have to do, but you can do it.  I am a huge proponent of Mind over Matter.  I believe with meditation you can assist your treatment and tell convince yourself that you will be healed.  Convince your mind, and your body will follow.

Please let me know how things go as your find out more about your staging.  Take care of yourself, Lorna and give me a call if you need to talk.

A few months later I learned that Karen's cancer came back.  It has spread to her ovaries.  She died in August of 2008. 

Tomorrow morning, I am going to see the plastic surgeon to have my nipples tattooed.  I was supposed to do this back in November but work kept me from it.  I kept putting it off for some reason.  I didn't know but I think it's because I hate going to the Dr. now.  After the procedure tomorrow I am going to my six month visit to the oncologist.  I have nothing to report to her.  I feel fine.  I'm not achy, or sick.  I'm not tired.  I have a healthy appetite.  I go to work everyday.  I see my friends.  A pill once a day.   A shot once a month.  That's it. 

Two women, one who gave me encouragement, another who I would have liked to given encouragement to, they are both dead.  I seem barely scathed.

Is my turn coming?

Heartbreaking....

This is heartbreaking....

A lost baby whale thinks that a yacht is it's mother.  The poor thing keeps trying to suckle the boat. 

Elliot, you disappointed me....

I know I haven't posted in a while.  I work on a computer all day, creating e-mails and sometimes the last thing I want to do when I get home is look at a computer screen.  It's been very, very busy.  One day last week I worked until 8pm.  They were kind enough to send me home in a car, but I continued to work from my laptop until about 9:30. 

I did want to point out that I am deeply disappointed in Elliot Spitzer.  So much so, that I'm thinking about writing him a letter.  I had such high hopes when he was elected.  I remember years ago I had a huge dispute with a nameless cell phone service provider and I told them "I'm going to send a letter to Elliot Spitzer's office about this."  (He was the New York State's Attorney General at the time, and did a fine job too.)

I guess that doesn't have the same ring to it anymore.

Happy Birthday Dad...Castro resigned.

It seems fitting that Fidel Castro has resigned on what would have been my father's 66th birthday.  Dad  told me that he was in the air force during the Cuban missile crisis but what he did exactly, he would never say.  My father died of lung cancer in 2001.

As for a post about Castro, I couldn't possibly do a more clever post than Lauren.

Working in the nude...

This story piqued my interest because I used to make my living as a nude artist’s model.

That’s right.

I got my first modeling job when I was eighteen. I was looking for a way to pay the bills between acting gigs and I didn’t want to wait tables. Some friends of mine told me about it so I asked them to call me if they wanted a night off.

I wasn’t sure I would have the guts to stand naked in front of strangers. I felt a wave of panic as I approached the podium but It went away as soon as I dropped the robe to the floor.  I started with thirty-second poses to warm the class up and instinct took over.  It all came naturally to me. One of the students remarked during the break that I seemed like I had been doing this for years.  He was surprised it was my first night.

The work was easy to get.  I suppose it’s hard to find people willing to take their clothes off in the south. The pay was pretty good and I could set my own hours. When I moved to Orlando, Florida in 1991 I was able to get work right away by calling a few colleges and art schools.  I would often get work via word of mouth from art instructors and other students.  Once in a while I would be called to work for private artists but I had to be very careful with that.  I would only accept work if they were referred to me by someone I knew very well.

Working naked is a strange way to make a living.  Friends would ask me if I ever felt self-conscious. Some colleges had a “no nudity policy” and would request I model in a leotard or bathing suit.  That felt far more awkward.  Once I was modeling at Disney animation.  They would hire me to model for their animators so they would stay  limber. (once in a while they would put me in a costume.) Once I was standing nude in the middle of a conference table while the artists were scribbling on their sketch pads and  a secretary got quite a surprise when she walked in to bring a message for the art director. 

The nudity was not what made the job difficult. The challenge was boredom and pain. Five minutes would seem like an hour and in modeling there is no such thing as a comfortable pose. After twenty-minutes, limbs would fall asleep and muscles would contract.  I remember getting up from a long sustained pose and collapsing straight to the floor. The circulation was cut off on my left leg and I didn’t even know it. It was ten minutes before I could feel any sensation. 

I pretty much retired from modeling when I move to NYC.  I worked a little bit in art galleries in Brooklyn but I stopped because the pay wasn’t good enough. 

I guess more people are willing to take their clothes off in New York City.   

The Poe Shadow

The infamous Poe Toaster has left his annual gift with no mishap  even though nearly 150 spectators were on the scene. 

Each year on  Edgar Allan Poe's birthday a stranger leaves a rose and a half bottle of cognac on the writer's grave.  It is believed  the tradition started in 1949, but a former church historian and advertising executive has claimed he developed this scheme as a publicity stunt in the 70's.  However Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum disputes this. Nevertheless, I'm sure it's a great show.

I picked up The Poe Shadow at Barnes and Noble this weekend.  It's a fictional account of a lawyer investigating the mystery around Poe's death.  It was assumed Poe died of alcoholism but the cause of death has never been confirmed.  Poe was found wandering, and incoherent in the streets of Baltimore  in clothes that did not belong to him and taken to Washington College Hospital where he died four days later.  One theory is he was a victim of cooping, a practice  common at the time where people were forced against their will to vote numerous times for a specific candidate. Victims were often drugged, plowed with drink, and taken to various polls which may explain the strange clothes.

Perhaps next January, I will take a take a trip to Baltimore.

I can't believe I am mentioning Paris Hilton on my blog..

CNN reports that a college student recently acquired Paris Hilton's old cell phone number.  The college student was bombarded with text messages from fans and other walks of life.  This brought back a memory of a mixed number fiasco that I was involved with a few years back.

When I first moved to NYC about ten year ago all of my friends stressed the importance of having a 212.  Nobody is going to take you seriously unless you have one.  Or so I was told and perhaps foolishly believed.  This was a bit of a problem for me because there was no way I could afford NYC rents. I lived then (as I do now) in Brooklyn.  718 baby!!

So I signed up for a voice mail service that furnished me with the coveted 212 number.  Now this was merely a voice mail service not a phone that I could just answer.  After a few months, I started to get these strange messages.  Mostly they were from guys speaking in very low and very timid voices asking me to call them back.  Now I did have postcards with my photo and this phone number on it (to send to casting directors) and I understood that I was going to get the occasionally crazy phone call.  This was part of the business and quite frankly another reason I got a voice mail service. 

As if this wasn't disturbing enough, I would also get phone calls from various men, shall we say..pleasing themselves and then hanging up.  The strange thing was is that I had caller ID on this voice mail so I always knew where the call was coming from.  Also, all these phone calls were coming from different phone numbers and different people and there would seem to be a flux of these calls every six weeks or so.  The situation seemed very strange and so I decided to brave it by going to a pay phone and returning one of the breathers phone calls.  The conversation went something like this.

Breather: Hello

Lornagrl: Hi, I'm sorry to bother you, but I noticed that you left a message on my voice mail asking me to call you back.  I know this sounds strange, but I've been getting a lot of these phone calls over the past few months and I was wondering if you could shed some light on this situation as I have absolutely no idea why I'm getting these phone calls.

Breather:Oh...Um...Do you do phone sex?

Lornagrl: Well actually, no I don't. May I ask why you think I do?

Breather: Well, I found your number in an ad. 

Lornagrl: Would you mind telling me where you saw the ad?

Breather: Sure...Hold on...

...and I was actually put on hold for a few moments while breather went to fetch I am certain a very dog eared and sticky magazine from under a mattress somewhere in Pittsburgh.

Breather: It says to call 202-555-6374* for *&@?!!.

...So there it was. My voice mail number was 212-555-6374.  Just one digit off.  So much for the
prestigious 212..

*phone numbers have been changed to protect the innocent..

RATS!!!

This is the most disgusting story I've heard all week. 

It gave me nightmares!!..

Poe Toaster strikes again....

Since 1949 a mysterious stranger has left a rose and half a bottle of cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe to commemorate the writer's birthday. It is believed that the original Poe Toaster passed away in 1998 and that the ritual has since been carried out by his sons.  In recent years spectators have been interfering with this tradition by attempting to tackle the Poe Toaster and discover his identity. 

This year the tradition was carried out with almost no disruptions.