Month: December 2011

Oh God. I started this post, but then I stopped to read this horrifying article about honor killing. I’m still traumatized by this excellent but upsetting story that Anne Garrels did for NPR in 2005. A 16 year old girl had been abducted and raped and then returned to her family. Her cousin, one of the men who killed her said, “She knew the customs, but I don’t think she expected we would kill her. She was crying. I saw in her eyes that she thought we would take her in our arms and say, `Thank God you are safe.’ But she got bullets instead.”

I’ve never recovered from that. Those words haunt me. They murder an innocent child instead of the people who kidnapped and raped her? Who is this man? I know by his words that he’s haunted too, he knows on some level he did the wrong thing. How can things like this continue?

Music is one of the things we have for solace when it all goes to hell. I’ve been putting examples I’ve found of this in my book. I saw this great tweet that someone sent to Gareth Malone, the choir conductor who does that BBC series, The Choir. The guy has a family member fighting in Afghanistan (speaking of honor killing) and he said: “Don’t cry. Sing.”

Our last performance of the season is today. I’m a little sad.

My niece, Ellie Horn, initiated a benefit to put up a sign commemorating the fact that Rachmaninoff had lived and worked on Long Island. Thank you for the beautiful shot, Kevin Krooss!

I got my hair colored for free on Tuesday as part of the Bumble & Bumble University Model Project. It’s such a great deal. They do a wonderful job and it’s free free free!! I’m going back next Friday for a free styling session and to get this product put in my hair that makes the color last longer.

I took the picture on the left just now. I’m still a little damp from swimming and showering. It looks so much lighter than the picture on the right, which I took as soon as I got home from having my hair colored. The one on the right is closer to what it really looks like. It’s a dark medium brown.

They also informed me that my skin tone was “medium.” I’ve always thought of myself as having olive skin in color, but fair. I’m not fair-skinned they told me and I also don’t have olive skin. They also said at first that my eyes are hazel, but they’re brown. A medium brown. They took another look and agreed with me.

Tonight is our first holiday concert! While I sing this season I’m writing about singing this season. It’s kinda schizophrenic. Or maybe it’s more correct to say it’s kinda MPD. I have to do it and observe it. Actually it’s very mindful (the way I meditate, MBSR).

Bottom line, one of the pieces we’re singing tonight has this line and this line is what it’s all about:

Ye shall have a song, and gladness of heart.

Even in the worst of times, I’ve discovered, ye shall have a song. So, I’ll see some of you tonight! From Tuesday night’s rehearsal.