Today John Fricke is 55. John Fricke is the world renowned author and expert on The Wizard of Oz and Judy Garland. I first met John in June of 1989 at the Judy Garland Fesival in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He had just produced a great documentary, Judy Garland: The Concert Years, and was a featured guest speaker at the event. John was and is, one of the most personable and articulate people I have ever met. A group of us befriended him and spent evenings watching rare Judy Garland television appearances back at his hotel room using my old clunky VHS camrecorder. John would give us a history about the appearance and speak of Judy with great knowledge and reverence. Over the years John and I became friends and I have a special place in my heart for this man. Happy Birthday John!

There is an interesting biography and interview with John here and another here.

Recommended Books by John Fricke:

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History Judy Garland: World’s Greatest Entertainer 100 Years of Oz : A Century of Classic Images Judy Garland: A Portrait in Art & Anecdote

Well the attack on gay priests has begun in the Catholic church. If there was any hope of me feeling welcome there, it is now lost. Full Story

Kudos: PlanetOut

Yahoo! News “Push hard, push fast” next time you give CPR to someone having cardiac arrest, say new, simpler guidelines in a radical departure from past advice. Putting the emphasis on chest compressions instead of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the American Heart Association now urges people to give 30 compressions — instead of 15 — for every two rescue breaths.” Full Story

I am reading a great book on blogging called Who Let the Blogs Out? by Biz Stone. It answers a lot of questions about the history of blogging and it is a must reference for anyone who blogs or is just getting started. What I find interesting is that his blog is so simple and isn’t put together well. There is little information about him, no contact information, no comments allowed, and if you leave his front page there is no easy way to get back to the top! I expected much more from him after reading his book. You can read his blog here.

Just took a new survey on gay marriage. I don’t know how long it will be up, but why don’t you take it.

From the Mass Bay Bears site

Join the Mass Bay Bears on our excursion to reasonably-priced swedish-contemporary furniture & housewares. IKEA in other cities is a hugely popular Bear-spotting spot, let’s kick off our local one in Stoughton. By Dec. 2nd the crowds should be under control & the shelves restocked. We’ll be meeting in the front lobby at 7pm for shopping, then reconnecting at 8pm in the trés chic café for $5 Swedish Meatballs dinners & $6 salmon ones. This will be a fun casual way to meet new Bears & stock up for the holidays.

Full Story

Just watched another episode of this crazy show. I can’t believe the things they say on this show sometimes! Fox News may be conservative, but Family Guy sure isn’t! My favorite character is Stewie. He reminds me of Sir John Gielgud in childlike form.

Yahoo! News

“The proposed amendment seeks to undo a November 2003 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that deemed it unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to gays and lesbians.”

Full Story

Well here we go again. I am so upset that people I don’t know, and don’t know me, might get a chance to decide whether I can visit my partner in the hospital, obtain joint healthcare, have bereavment leave should one of us die, and over 1000 other benefits heterosexual couples take for granted. But does anyone marry because of benefits? Perhaps…but we got married because we love each other. We were married after nine years on May 28th, 2004. Why is this anyone else’s business other than our own? Why do people want to deny me the right to happiness that they so richly enjoy? Do you believe in your heart that some people are more deserving of basic rights than others?

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.                                           –Rev. Martin Niemoller

Please Support Marriage for Gays and Lesbians Especially if you live in Massachusetts! Equalmarriage.org Massequality.org

Today I cooked dinner for my mom, brother and aunt. Boy, am I tired! How my mother and mothers everywhere do this year after year is amazing. It is so much work. I feel guilty for all the times I just sat around and let my mother do everything. Not only that, I never really appreciated what an art form it really was. What I find so difficult is trying to get everything out at the same time! I really needed an extra 4 burners or 3 more microwaves. Not to mention I was exhausted from the day before… preparing stuffing, baking pies, and cutting vegetables. And after you get all this done, and everyone sits down to eat, it is over in about 30 minutes! Days of preparation, shopping, organizing, all for a 30 minute meal. It really is a little surreal. What happens next is even worse! Piles of pans, grease drippings on the floor, utensils strewn all over the counter, thermometers and food stuck all over your good china lie in wait for you to clean. There is so much stuff it all won’t fit in the dishwasher and you are forced to wash some stuff by hand. All the while you are bursting at the seams from the recent stuffing you gave yourself and either want to lie down or throw up! Just when you have cleaned up, made space in the fridge for leftovers that seem not to fit and are ready to press the button on the dishwasher you remember that you will mess the place up all over again when you bring out the leftovers and everyone makes turkey sandwiches! I tell you it is insanity! Go out next year!

Grizzly Men – Otters and wolves and bears. Oh my! Who knew that bears would become so mainstream as to warrant an article in a popular New York magazine! I kind of liked it when we were more underground…sort of a secret society. Well that’s progress.

Please Delay Departure by Betty Ann Fisher
I thank the Lord for every day That I am here on earth, and pray He wont decide to let me go Before I see the Autumn glow.
And after that I pray again That I can stay around for when The earth is blanketed in white And then to see each starry night.
He knows I ‘ll ask for one more thing That I’ll be here to see the Spring To greet each morning bright and new And then, of course, there’s Summer too.
When warm winds whisper in the trees And flowers are a-hum with bees I’ll want to hear the church bells chime Oh yes, I like the summer time.
I wonder if He’ll think it fair If I send up another prayr That after I have romped in clover I’ll still be here when Summer’s over.
I’d like to witness, Autumn’s show And then I really love the snow And then Spring sunlight on my cheek It’s just Eternal life I seek

Title poem from my mom’s book, Please Delay Departure.

What a great show! I just watched my first episode tonight of Supernanny and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t think I would with all the stupid promos I saw for it. The nanny, Jo Frost, is quite good and seems to really know her stuff. She takes a deep look at the family dynamics and is very aware of the messages we send our children. I expected a piece of fluff, but found myself fascinated by the psychology of it all. The way our parents handle the simplest things really can affect how we turn out as adults. It should be required watching for all parents and parents to be.

Check out a clip from my latest Disney trip video.

The song is sung by LeAnn Rimes to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland. You may order it here.

Tonight I saw the touring company of The Lion King, at the Providence Performing Arts Center. What can I say? I must be insane. I didn’t like it. Maybe it is because I really loved the animated film and know it so well…or maybe it’s because I have seen two staged shows of it at Walt Disney World…one of them, even with puppets! Firstly, I really had a hard time figuring out whether I should look at the actor or the puppet. I found myself longing for an all puppet show…where I couldn’t see the actors, or an all actor show, like Cats. I also didn’t like the fact that the puppet/costumes were inconsistent throughout the different characters. For instance, the lions had intricate headpieces (especially Scar); while the lionesses had faces that sat on top of their heads. I also couldn’t figure out why Mufasa and Simba didn’t have claws, when Scar had them on his hands, or should I say paws. See what I mean! And why do lions pull out swords when they fight, and then only sometimes…oh I am so confused! My next gripe is that I feel that the new songs lay there like lead! For the most part, they were uninspiring and in my opinion slowed down the pace of the show. While I am on the subject of songs I would also say that there is way too much “Swahili” or whatever the language many of the songs were in. While the voices were pretty, I have no idea what a good portion of several of the numbers were about. Sure, give me some African flavor, but please…I only know English! From an acting standpoint, the show is a challenge. How do you act and not just come across as just indicating thought and action when you have a puppet in your hand? I think you don’t. I felt that there was very little real communicating between the actors on stage, probably do to the fact that they have to concentrate on making the puppets indicate that they are the ones communicating. Puppet and actor onstage together just cancel each other out in my opinion. This splitting of focus keeps the audience at bay and we are just not pulled into the story. There was also far too much, what I like to call, Uncle Tom’s Cabin staging, in reference to the ballet in the musical The King and I. Many characters run in place, react to unseen forces and the whole time I am thinking l am watching someone act out something at a charades party. Did I like anything? Let’s see…some of the costumes where quite clever and colorful. I especially liked the woman/panther costume, her head controlled the panther’s head and it was really a cool design. Some of the staging was interesting. The wildebeest stampede was very clever given the limitations of using a stage. The voices were fine for the most part, but the principal actors seemed to not have much emotion behind their songs. There was a lot more life and enthusiasm from the chorus. The one exception I would say was the women who played Rafeeki, she was first rate all around. Well that’s my impression. Yes, I know that it won a ton of Tony awards and thousands have seen the show and loved it. I also know that I have seen a lot of theatre, both on Broadway and off, and that this particular show was a challenge for me to stay awake… and from the 3rd row no less! Perhaps if it were a different story, and not from an animated film that I know very well I might have enjoyed it more. I don’t think so.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | US used white phosphorus in Iraq When will the lies end! Just last week I heard some offical denying that we used this stuff over there. I thought that we weren’t like Saddam Hussein and didn’t use chemical weapons!