Stacy Horn

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.

He’s smart, funny, he’s seems to be honest (but how can I know) and … he’s smart. I go for the smart ones. It’s why I fell so in love with Obama—he taught constitutional law! So yeah, I’m sad that Barney Frank won’t be around after 2013. I’ll miss his commentary and perspective. Sigh. Would you consider moving to NYC?

Oh God, that reminds me. I was reading people’s ads on OK Cupid and this guy says he hates homosexuals in his profile. He just comes out and says “I hate homosexuals.” Uh, okay. (Hide me.) In direct contrast in heart and spirit, my choir director began his email to us this morning with this Martin Luther King, Jr quote. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

The aerial view I mentioned of my band playing outside on Monday night as part of the Winter’s Eve event around Lincoln Square. Thank you Gary Schutz of the American Bible Society for this great shot and for permission to post it!

Last night my band played out in front of the American Bible Society as part of an event uptown called Winter’s Eve. All up and down the streets around Lincoln Center bands and dancers performed, it was great. There was a wonderful happy, alive, festive feeling in the air. I have a video of an absolutely adorable little girl playing my drum during a break. I’d post it, but I know not all parents want pictures of their children on the internet. Someone who works at the American Bible Society got a great shot of us and the crowd from the roof and he said he’d send it, so maybe I’ll be posting that later.

Playing outside is my favorite thing and last night it was inexplicably in the sixties, while at the same time it was snowing down south. Uh-oh. End times.

I’m getting my hair colored FOR FREE this morning at Bumble & Bumble. By students. I’ve done this before though, for a free haircut, and the students are overseen every second by instructors, so I’m not too nervous. Okay, I’m a little nervous.

Here’s a shot of us from last night that I took from the back. I really want to post the aerial view though.