Fashion And The Catholic Imagination

Last night was the star-studded Met Gala to benefit New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and signifies the grand opening of the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibition: "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination."

Yes, there were tons of stars on hand, strutting the finest costumes imaginable, but the only star who interested me is the immeasurably talented writer/producer/actor Lena Waithe.

Lena showed up and showed out in her custom-designed gay pride cape. I tell ya, she's as out and proud as any human being has ever been. God bless her.

Lena's hit show, The Chi, comes back for it's second season on Showtime in the fall. And her new comedy, Twenties, will make its debut on TBS shortly thereafter.

You go, Lena! You've got a whole gang of us rainbow-colored caped crusaders rooting for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#Stonewall
#Pride
#LoveIsLove

Uncle Bill's Surprise 80th Birthday Update!

The family piled into my brother's SUV this morning and headed down to Kentucky with Uncle Bill all strapped in!!!

From the look of my niece's smiling face, it's safe to proclaim they arrived to Kentucky safely!!!!

I see my brother and Uncle Bill are having a BLAST!!!

God, please continue to bless him and everybody who loves him!!!!

Singing On His Own

The television landscape is inundated with singing, competition shows, but I don't watch any of 'em.

What I do, though, is take a peek at individual performances that go viral.

And the audition of Calum Scott, on Britain's Got Talent, blew me away!

A little backstory: in 2015, Calum's younger sister auditioned for the show directly before his audition. She was not chosen to move forward in the competition, so, since he was next, the judges thought he'd feel incredibly nervous. Maybe he did, but his performance didn't illustrate such.

As his sister stood in the wings, watching his audition, he proceeded to rip the roof off the auditorium.

Honestly, his performance moved me so much, I added it to my YouTube playlist.

Simply stunning!

SURPRISE!!!!!!

Tomorrow, my family will be traveling to Kentucky with my Uncle Bill (my father's baby brother) in tow. He thinks they're going to visit with one of our cousins. Instead, all my siblings and cousins are going to surprise him for his 80th birthday.

His actual birthday was last week, so he'll never see the surprise coming.

Uncle Bill is the last of his siblings. All the others are running around in Heaven. I hope! Haaa!

I called him on his actual birthday, but he didn't pick up, so I left him a voicemail. I don't suspect he ever listened to it, but regardless, I wish him well and hope tomorrow is one of the HAPPIEST days of his life!

HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY, UNCLE BILL!

NEXT!

Today I spent the better part of the day, sending out e-mails to voice-over agencies, in search of representation.

Well, I sent out one e-mail at 4:53 PM, and the agent replied at 5 PM.

Yep! She could have simply replied: "Don't call us, and we won't call you." Haaa!

After I read the note, I immediately went to the agency's website and listened to some of their voice talent. Admittedly, every sample I listened to was stellar. Absolutely stellar. In my humble opinion, though, the difference between their samples and mine was simply the production value. Not the voice. I would put my voice up against any voice actor's. Yes, some can do far more voice characterizations than I can, but what I CAN do is equally as good as theirs.

Enough about that, though. I kept sending out e-mail after e-mail regardless.

What I know for sure is that I can be rejected by a THOUSAND, more agencies, and be the exact cup of tea of only one.

And that's just fine.

'Cause all I need is ONE!

NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dang it, did that woman really listen to my sample?????

'Cause, shoot, I sounded GOOD!!!!! :) :) :)

Heart To Heart

Since September 2017, I knew he was battling a beast of a challenge: open heart surgery.

His medical emergency came as a shock to everybody (including himself) because he has always been so conscious about exercise and what he eats.

Well, he had his first surgery back in September, was told it was a success, but some time afterwards, was told otherwise.

He went back under the knife in January 2018.

Then he disappeared from social media.

Well, now, he's BACK! And what a story he has to tell.

I never linked up with him after the first surgery. And mainly because I assumed he wanted to be left alone to recover, and to sort out his feelings. I was probably partly right.

This time, I HAVE to reach out to see him!!!!!

I believe now, more than ever, he truly has some wisdom and insight to share.

BROOKLYN MCLINN, I wish you the very best.

And we'll be chillin' sooner rather than later!

The video below announced his TRIUMPHANT RETURN!

Who????

This Bill Cosby case only reaffirms for me the belief that the ONLY person in our lives we can ever TRULY know is OURSELVES.

In my humble opinion, people only tell us what they want us to believe.

If they want us to believe the truth, they tell us the truth.

If they want us to believe a lie, they tell us a lie.

Or tell us nothing.

Simple as that.

I also realize that people can be KIND, LOVING and GENEROUS to some, while being CONNIVING and VINDICTIVE to others.

Everybody is multi-dimensional.

I suspect I've done things in my past (and maybe still in the present) that some folks wouldn't believe I've done (or do). And vice versa.

All I know is that I live each day determined to treat others the way I want to be treated.

But I don't feel an iota of obligation to explain to anyone what I truly feel about ANYTHING that doesn't directly involve them.

So, I'll continue telling folks what I want them to believe.

Which oftentimes is the TRUTH.

But sometimes not.