April Fool’s Day Contest! March 19, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Humor.comments closed
Hear ye! Hear ye! Gather round . . .
Between March 25th (my brother’s 50th Birthday!) and April 1st, I will be posting 15 April Fool’s Day stories.
After each post, I’ll ask readers whether the story is Fact or Fiction . . . the absolute Truth or a Tall Tale for April Fool’s Day.
To enter the contest, post your best guess for each story in the Comment Box located below the story.
On April 2nd, I’ll tally up your answers and announce the top three(3) Winners.
What will you win? . . .
Bragging rights!!!
You’ll be able to claim . . . “I’m nobody’s fool!” 
Stay tuned!
Links to Posts (as they are posted):
9. Go Brown???
12. What A Hack!
13. Phone Sex
What Is In You . . . Let It Out March 19, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Life Balance, Mindfulness, Music & Dance.comments closed
A short time ago, I received an e-mail from Heron Dance about Billie Holiday which resonated with me ~ touching as it did on the value of allowing our own lights to shine:
Billie Holiday’s life was one of extreme poverty, prostitution, drug abuse, time in prison and abusive relationships. She was a black female vocalist working during Jim Crow and experienced heartbreaking racism. Despite that, perhaps in part because of that, her work as a jazz vocalist has a power that transcends time.
In 1936, she was hired to perform at the Grand Terrace in Chicago for seventy-five dollars a week. She accompanied Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra and accepted the gig full of enthusiasm. But after a very few performances she was fired and denied payment.
She sang too slow, according to the club’s owner, Ed Fox. Babe Matthews, whose singing was more appropriate for dancing, was hired in Billie’s stead.
Afterwards, her manager, Joe Glaser, reportedly told her, “You’ve got to speed up the tempo, you gotta sing hot stuff.’
Billie refused, ‘I want to sing like I want to sing . . . that’s my way of doing it.”
Rather than capitulating, she followed her own vision. Today, Billie Holiday is regarded by many as the most influential jazz singer who ever lived. In 1948, eleven years after being fired in Chicago, Billie performed to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall. Babe Matthews who took Billie’s place at the Grand Terrace is largely forgotten.
Roderick W. MacIver, who wrote the Heron Dance article, continued by saying:
I don’t think Holiday’s influence is due to the quality of her voice. She was a good singer, but her voice was often thin, raspy and lacked range. Her power came from her devotion to her inner song, her inner rhythm, which she stuck with during the hard, barren years and during the chaos of the rest of her life.
That vision, that inner rhythm, comes in part out of a willingness to confront your fears. It takes courage to offer your art to the world, and to stick with it through indifference and even rejection. It takes courage to enter your inner world and bring to the surface what you find.
(The Billie Holiday story and notes above come in part from John Chilton’s biography, Billie’s Blues: The Billie Holiday Story 1933-1959.)
What is in you . . . let it out.
“Make your own kind of music. Sing your own special song. Make your own kind of music . . . even if nobody else sings along.” ~ The Mamas & The Papas
Aah . . . that’s better!
Related post: Ruby Hunter Revealed Her Soul In Her Music (Global Mysteries)
Spirit Lights The Way 