Category Archives: Reading

Phantom of the Opera

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“We never said
Our love was ever green
Or as unchanging as the sea
But if you can still remember
Stop and think of me”
Andrew Lloyd Webber

Recently on the TCM network, they highlighted the work of the great Lon Chaney. I am quite familiar with Chaney’s work but one movie I had not watched was the 1925 silent film, The Phantom of the Opera. This American silent horror film was an adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel of the same name. I was captivated by this movie and Chaney’s performance as the Phantom.

What surprised me as I watched the movie, was how it transported me back to a time when I was honored to see live performances of The Phantom of the Opera not only once but twice. Back then, I was obsessed with the music and for weeks I played nothing but the Broadway soundtrack in my house, in my car and even on my walkman. My 4-year-old son became familiar with all the music as well and learned the lyrics to every song just like mom.

Sarah Brightman sang the iconic title duet and played Christine Daaé alongside Michael Crawford in the Ahmanson Theatre production of The Phantom. After watching the silent film and craving to watch a musical version of the movie, I found a 2011 video production on line.

As I watched this updated performance, I found myself remembering all the lyrics to this iconic music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. But, the music hit this musical empath emotionally different after 35 years, especially the opening song, Think of Me.

Thirty-five years is a lifetime to some people who never make it to thirty-six. Webber’s poignant lyrics to his song, Think of Me hit home; remembering all the people I have lost the last three decades since my first experience listening to the music from The Phantom of the Opera.

Shine On

If you would like to watch the Royal Albert Hall, London England production of The Phantom of the Opera, click on the link below: https://archive.org/details/The_Phantom_of_The_Opera_Full_Stage_Show

A Champion For Women

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“”The truth will set you free
But first it will piss you off.” 
Gloria Steinem

Last Wednesday, September 2, 2026 the World lost another passionate talented and intelligent woman. Gloria Steinem, the American journalist and political activist who became the face for feminism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died at age 92.

Born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, Gloria Marie Steinem inherited an activist tradition. Her grandmother served as chair of the educational committee of the National Women Suffrage Association and also helped rescue members of her family, who were Jewish, from Germany during the mid-1930s.

Steinem graduated from Smith College and moved to New York in 1960, where she was often sexualized and dismissed while searching for reporting jobs in a male-dominated journalism industry. “We need a reporter, not a pretty girl,” she says she was told by an editor at Life Magazine.

By 1962, one of her first articles was published in Esquire Magazine, an exploration of birth control and shifting sexual beliefs among college students. Themes that would continue to appear in her later work.

Gloria’s near century on earth were years well lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end. Steinem was a feminist icon who spent the better part of a century advocating for women’s rights in the workplace, especially equal pay for women as well as the right to abortion and sex education.

Her name and face became synonymous with the fight for women’s rights. She continued to be a vocal proponent of feminism and other liberal causes; like anti-war activism well into her 90s. She devoted her life to the pursuit of equality and political change. She worked tirelessly for over 70 years to ensure each generation built upon the work of the previous one.

I will be forever grateful for her many accomplishments helping woman. She fought so I could choose whatever I wanted to do with my life rather than be confined by traditional gender roles. Something she said that I have lived by is:
“Do what you love so much that you forget what time it is when you’re doing it.”

She changed women’s lives by opening up possibilities we never imagined. “Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.” As she also stated: “Women are not a special interest group; they are half the population.”

She lit a torch many years ago. It is now our responsibility to keep that torch lifted and lit into the future.

Rest in peace Gloria. You will be missed as a champion for woman.

Shine On

E. B. White

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“I arise in the morning torn between
a desire to improve the world and
a desire to enjoy the world.”
E. B. White

E.B. White was born on July 11, 1899, in Mount Vernon, New York. He was an American essayist, author, and literary stylist, whose eloquent prose appealed to readers of all ages.

White graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1921 and worked as a reporter and freelance writer before joining The New Yorker magazine as a writer and contributing editor in 1927.

He married Katherine Sergeant Angell, The New Yorker’s first fiction editor, in 1929, and he remained with the weekly magazine for the rest of his career. White’s essays for The New Yorker  quickly garnered critical praise. Written in a personal, direct style that showcased an affable sense of humor, his witty pieces contained musings about city life, politics, and literature, among other subjects. White also wrote poems, cartoon captions, and brief sketches for the magazine, and his writings helped establish its intellectual and cosmopolitan tone.

While writing for The New Yorker magazine, in 1929 White collaborated with James Thurber on Is Sex Necessary?, a spoof of contemporary sex manuals. He also wrote a monthly column for Harper’s magazine mostly about rural life.

As an undergraduate at Cornell, White had taken a course with Professor William S. Strunk Jr. Strunk used a text he had written and published at his own expense, a thin volume titled The Elements of Style. 

White edited it, revised it, and added the chapter “An Approach to Style,” offering such advice as “Place yourself in the background; do not explain too much; prefer the standard to the offbeat.” The book sold widely and became a college campus fixture for the next twenty years in several editions and continues to be the go to book for writers.

My introduction to E. B. White was his 1952 book, Charlotte’s Web when Mrs. Monroe, my third grade teacher read the book out loud to us in class. I enjoyed this book so much, I remember reading his other two children’s books, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan now all considered classics. These three books featured lively animal protagonists who seamlessly interact with the human world.

E. B. White’s influence was great, particularly in his popular essays, which served as models for two generations of readers. In the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the New Yorker was judged by critics to be a model of elegant yet simple style in nonfiction, and White was in no small measure responsible for this reputation.

To this day, I admire White because he combined a clear, beautiful writing style with deep empathy for animals and everyday life. He died at age 86 years old on October 1, 1985 in North Brooklin, Maine but left a World of admiring readers of E. B. White.

Shine On

Dolly Parton, We’ll Always Love You

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“Songwriting is my way of channeling
My feelings and my thoughts.
Not just mine, but the things I see
But also the people I care about.
My head would explode if
I didn’t get some of that stuff out.”
Dolly Parton

Today is just not as sparkly. It’s a sad day for the entire World. We lost a woman who gave us joy and happiness beyond belief. Dolly Parton died at age 80 and in those 80 years, she gave so much of herself to the World. 

She gave us beautiful music. Music is the only art form that has the capacity to touch everyone and Dolly truly touched everyone with her lyrics and songs. Parton composed over 3,000 songs, including one of my all time favorites, “I Will Always Love You”, a two-time U.S. country chart-topper and an international hit. She made over $10M in royalties from the 1992 Whitney Houston hit. She generously used that money to invest in a Nashville strip mall in a historic Black community, affectionately referring to the property as, “the house that Whitney built”.

She gave us wonderful movies to remember her by. She gave us literature for young readers who didn’t have the means to buy books, donating over 300 million books to children. She contributed millions of dollars to charity including the development of the COVID vaccine during the pandemic. 

In August 1974, I was just a teenager when I heard on the radio, Dolly Parton’s song, Love Is Like a Butterfly. The song was written and recorded by Dolly and was the first single and title track from her album, “Love Is Like a Butterfly”. It was her fourth number one hit on the country charts as a solo artist.

Her Butterfly song stayed with me all these years because of my love of butterflies. Point of fact, it touched me so much that on March 14, 2026, I created a video for my Instagram account highlighting this song. National Learn About Butterflies Day is celebrated every March 14th encouraging us to look for a blur of color as butterflies begin migrating across the country.

Her music and movies I have loved and enjoyed all my life. My poetry and music I’ve created is highly influenced by her own music and style of singing.

She always wrote from the heart. I admired her most for her strength, honesty, humor, free spirit, humbleness, dedication to her husband for over 60 years, her beauty, and her classiness. Not to mention, she was tenacious when it came to her beliefs and dreams.

Too often we don’t realize what we have until it’s gone. Today around the world, millions of people will no doubt be grieving from the loss of a true iconic treasure, Dolly Parton. We’ll always love you.

Shine On

Here’s my favorite Dolly YouTube video from September 19, 1979 Tonight Show.

Shine A Light on Knowledge

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“It is in knowledge that man has found
his greatness and his happiness.”
James Smithson

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, encompassing 21 museums, 21 libraries, and the National Zoological Park. Founded on August 10, 1846, through a bequest by British scientist James Smithson, it operates as a federal trust instrumentality dedicated to the “increase and diffusion of knowledge”.

Congress authorized acceptance of the Smithson bequest on July 1, 1836, but it took another ten years of debate before the Smithsonian was founded. Once established, the Smithsonian became part of the process of developing an American national identity; an identity rooted in exploration, innovation, and a unique American style.

James Smithson, the illegitimate child of a wealthy Englishman, had traveled much during his life, but had never once set foot on American soil. Yet, he decided to give the entirety of his sizable estate, which totaled half a million dollars, or 1/66 of the United States’ entire federal budget at the time, to a country that was foreign to him.

Some speculate it was because he was denied his father’s legacy. Others argue that he was inspired by the United States’ experiment with democracy. Some attribute his philanthropy to ideals inspired by such organizations as the Royal Institution, which was dedicated to using scientific knowledge to improve human conditions. Smithson never wrote about or discussed his bequest with friends or colleagues, so we are left to speculate on the ideals and motivations of a gift that has had such significant impact on the arts, humanities, and sciences in the United States.

Smithson died in 1829, and six years later, President Andrew Jackson announced the bequest to Congress. On July 1, 1836, Congress accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation and pledged the faith of the United States to the charitable trust. In September 1838, Smithson’s legacy, which amounted to more than 100,000 gold sovereigns, was delivered to the mint at Philadelphia. Recoined in U.S. currency, the gift amounted to more than $500,000.

Now, in the 21st century, thanks to the work of Smithson and his vision for the world 180 years later, the Smithsonian is still a beacon to shine a light on knowledge.

Shine On