Some of my favorite things

I've always enjoyed watching attorney, Lisa Bloom (Gloria Alred's daugter and only child) as a legal analyst on TV, whether it be on an entertainment show or on CNN/HLN. She's a champion for victims' rights, and I love the way she thinks. It turns out that she is marrying a friend of my girlfriend, Georgina, so I was able to meet her at Georgina's birthday party a few years ago. Not only is this Yale Law School graduate crazy smart, but she is beautiful to go along with it. She is a lifetime vegetarian, and now a vegan, runs marathons, and looks amazing at age 50. Lisa really is quite an inspiration. I can't wait to read her first book.

Growing up in Northern Wisconsin meant that I loved ice skating, and spent a lot of time on the ice each winter. We would skate at the outdoor rink at Pioneer Park until our feet felt like hard rocks and where we could not take it anymore. I have vivid memories of spending many Friday nights in the warming house thawing out my numb feet so that I could get back out on the ice. I never had lessons, but I think I could have been a decent skater had I had that opportunity. One of my idols back then was the graceful Olympic Gold Metalist, Peggy Fleming. I wanted "to BE Peggy Fleming." I was actually able to watch Peggy skate in person at the Staples Center in LA in the mid-90's. Obviously, Peggy was no longer in her prime, but she was just as graceful as ever, and I was thrilled for the opportunity to watch her skate in person. Thank you, Jen and Larry Levine for that treat!

James Spader

James Spader has been my favorite actor since I saw him in "Sex Lies and Videotape" in 1989. The independent film made both him and the director, Steven Soderberg, famous. James won the "Best Actor" award for this role at the Cannes Film Festival. Previous to that, he had worked in several supporting actor roles in films with the likes of Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, John Cusac, Robert Downey Jr., to name a few. After SL&V, James went on to do countless films, usually playing eccentric, and at times, smarmy roles, which is one of the things that has made him so intriguing to people (not to mention that he was drop dead gorgeous). James is from Boston and had remained living there and in New York all of these years, so we would never see him in the tabloids or in Hollywood, although he was always working. To my delight, in 2004, James joined the cast of "The Practice" and then moved on to star in "Boston Legal" along with William Shatner. I was thrilled that I was able to watch him each and every week on TV! After working on "Boston Legal," "The Practice," and winning three Emmy's, Boston Legal ended and James went back to New York to do make his Broadway debut in the play "Race." Cut to 2011, I recently learned that he is now joining the cast of "The Office" so he will be back in LA again. It looks like I'll be adding another TV show to my watch list!

Oh, I forgot to mention that I just might have ( OK, I did) sneaked onto the outdoor set/location when Boston Legal was being shot across from my office in Pasadena apx. three years ago. It was lunch time, and after walking through a bank parking lot to enter the set, I was standing around the catered lunch table hanging very closely, I might add, to the other actors, Candace Bergen, Mark Valley, and William Shatner, whom I could not have cared less about, when I spotted James. His back was to me, but he still looked beautiful in his navy suit and blonde hair. I was thinking about how I was going to approach him, pondering, knowing that I would soon be found out and kicked off the set. As I was watching him from behind, he turned ever so slightly so that I could see his profile, and much to my chagrin, it was a James Spader DOUBLE! Immediately after that, I was spotted by the production assistant, and she asked me the usual questions, who was I, etc. I went into my sob story about how long I've been a fan and that I just had to meet him. I was totally pathetic, and I'm glad that I was alone, and not embarrassing any of my friends. To my amazement, the PA was actually a little sympathetic to my plight and was kind enough to tell me that James was due to be on set at 1:00 PM, and at the same time, she was asking me to leave. So I left.

I never did get the nerve to go back at 1:00 PM that day.

Random Thoughts

I stole this image from another blog. I've had this same thought so many times. It's absolutely annoying to me when I am friendly to a man in line, in the grocery store, etc. and then he immediatly starts talking about his wife. It's embarrassing and quite presumptious, actually.

Michael Peters, Dancer/Choreographer

Michael Peters, the son of an African American father and a Jewish mother, was born in NYC in 1948. As a teenager, my ex, Herb, was one of the summer camp counselors back in New York where Michael attended summer camp. Michael would eventually become an Emmy award winning dancer and choreographer, and grew to be very successful throughout the 70's, 80's, and early 90's. He and Herb had each moved out to LA for their own reasons,not related to each other. They would not cross paths again until 1994.
My favorite work of Michael's is his choreography of and dancing in Michael Jackson's "Beat it" and "Thriller" videos. He can be seen dancing in the front in a white suit and sun glasses in "Beat it." In 1994, Herb heard that Michael would be teaching a dance class at the studio in LA where our daughter trained. The three of us went to watch him, and he and Herb were able to say hello again after all those years. We watched as Michael taught the dance class, snapping his fingers and moving quite slowly. It was obvious that he was not well. Herb asked him if our daughter could join the class, and Michael looked at our daughter who was 9 at the time, and in his less than amused voice and with his "diva" look, said "If she can hang." Hang she did, and I wish that I would have taken photos that day. Things had come full circle. That was in August of 1994, and within a few weeks of that encounter, Michael passed away from complications of AIDS. He was 46. The "celebration" of his life took place the following month at that same dance studio. The studio was packed with so many people from Michael's industry. Numerous people told funny stories about how Michael really was a diva, complete with his own little attitude, how he loved wearing his pink tights, and how he did everything on his own terms. Herb was able to get reaquainted with Michael's delicate little mother for a quick moment. She was now in her 80's and had just buried her only child. She was wearing an AIDS ribbon on her dress like so many of us. Although we all drank champayne and danced in an effort to celebrate his life, it was still so very sad. Another one gone too soon. I will never tire of watching Michael Peters dance. RIP.

One of my favorite dance songs in the mid-80's was "We don't have to take our clothes off" by the gorgeous Jermaine Stewart. At the time, the only thing I knew about the song is that it was fun to sing and dance to. I recently learned that the lyrics referred to the AIDS scare of the 1980's. The first time I heard about AIDS was at a party in Chicago in 1981. A social worker was describing to us what it was, and telling us about her work with some of the affected patients. Moving forward from that point, I would watch many of my male friends die from the disease. Some friends told me that they had literally lost all of their friends.


Jermaine Stewart died in 1997 of Liver Cancer caused by AIDS. He was 30. RIP

Rhythm and Blues

My first memory of hearing R&B goes back to 1970, when at the age of 12,
I was listening to my radio in my room at night. The song was "Hey there lonely girl" by Eddie Holmon. This continues to be my favorite type of music to this day.