Happy New Year! (Good Riddance, 2009)

Originally published January 2010

Good riddance, 2009! It's about time you left, you with your self-aggrandizing martinets, your liars, your feckless fools, your vicious slanderers, your greedy bankers and your pandering patriotism police. Goodbye to the sadness and the loss and the constant churning up of fear — of unemployment and terrorism and ... shall we say it? ... socialism! 

Let's hope we're saying goodbye, too, to the political concept that health care is a profit-making right of insurance companies. And let's hope we're saying farewell to the media's conviction that the public is so bored that it clamors for unending coverage of empty balloons and golf-playing adulterers, of right-wing jingoism and left-wing incompetence. What the public clamors for is more popcorn! (I have this on good authority.)

Ah, 2009, you did have a few good moments. The Yankees did win the World Series and retook their rightful place at the top of the baseball food chain. And your Chronicler did go back on stage after a 20-year intermission. These were definite pluses in a year that ripped away much-loved people and valued ideals.

All in all, 2009 deserves to be thrown in the trash heap with other garbage years. 

Welcome, 2010! May you bring in new hope and fulfillment, and may our goals be the ending of war and the erasure of hatred. May we usher in peace and the love and concern for our fellow human beings and the other beautiful life forms that inhabit our planet. May good will to all replace the "What's in it for me?" mantra that we've heard so much this past year.

Good health. Love. Good friends. Joy. I send these wishes for the new New Year.

Happy Holidays 2009

First published December 2009

Now that Christmas Rappings has closed, the holidays approach with increasing speed. PM and the gang are working hard, and while there probably won't be a Saga this year (it is awfully late to start writing one),   they are definitely a part of this year's Christmas activities.

The hovel has been taken over by an 8-foot tree, which fills out most of the living room. It is a joy to look at and the Douglas fir is fragrant beyond description.

The Chronicler will be baking more pecan snowball cookies, plus some more oatmeal and cranberry cookies, all in an effort to produce more ho-ho-hoing than harrumph-harrumph-harrumphing. 

Christmas Rappings at the Judson Church, 2009

First Published December 16, 2009

In December, 2009, I was privileged to be a part of Christmas Rappings at Judson Memorial Church, a wonderful production directed by Russell Treyz, with musical direction by Brent Frederick. It was a wonderful experience. This is what I posted on pmsaga.com while we were in performances.

CHRISTMAS RAPPINGS at the JUDSON CHURCH

Yes, Virginia, there is an alternative to Handel's Messiah. And it's Christmas Rappings, a wonderful theater piece by Al Carmines originally done in 1969. Hey, I am not knocking the Messiah, but does it have belly dancers, or a tango? This staged oratorio does, and it has the added attraction of having your Chronicler as a cast member! The music and soloists are fantastic (no, PM will not be appearing — she's still in rehearsal for the Night Before the Night Before Christmas Concert, as per usual — but the soloists in this show send glorious notes to the church rafters, and who knows, Purple Monster might indeed BOING!!! in to see her Chronicler in the chorus). 

You can read what Fox News had to say about our show at this link. Only four more performances, as of Dec. 16. 

The Judson Memorial Church in the Village is worth visiting in its own right. The stained glass windows are lovely.

We opened Dec. 4 and are doing 12 performances, ending Dec. 19. This link leads you to a PDF version of our flier. There are only 99 seats for each performance, and even though all of them are "reserved," there have been empty seats each night. I suggest getting to the theater a half hour before performance and I bet you'll get in. It's worth it!