My #1 Eat Clean Inspiration: Annette Larkins

lean, strong, vibrant, healthy - with a glowingly pretty, wrinkle-free complexion and plenty of energy to spare. who wouldn't want that? then again, i suppose the real question is, would you be willing to give up eating garbage to have all of this?

the first time i saw this story in the video below about mrs. annette larkins, it freaked me out so much, i didn't eat meat for a week. i'm not the kind of person that can't make it without a hamburger ever other day but if what little meat i consume is damaging me as much as i think it is, i'm ready to make the jump - if not to veganism, most definitely to eating clean. as a matter of fact, i stumbled onto the eat clean program after i saw this. it's been slow going since then but thankfully, i haven't looked back.

this 70 year old lady - a resident of miami/dade county, by the way - has maintained a raw vegan lifestyle for 27 years. she grows what she eats in her backyard - everything from nuts to aloe - which she calls her fountain of youth. she simply doesn't eat anyting that's cooked.

absolutely no cosmetic surgery whatsoever. amazing, right?

here she is with her husband of 54 years.

people usually assume that she's his kid. he takes medication for diabetes and high blood pressure daily. he looks like he's falling apart - especially in comparison to her.

i honestly believe that after a certain age, you can't eat and drink whatever you want without paying a high price for it - especially nowadays when so much of what we consume has been genetically modified and is loaded to the absolute hilt with salt, fat, sugar, additives, antibiotics, preservatives and lots of other colorful and interesting things that our great-grandparents would never consume.  they'll put anything in food these days. anything.

i'm growing towards eating clean and after 3 very solid go-rounds, i'm very nearly there - totally over starches like rice and potatoes, carbs like pasta and fast food like mcdonalds. i can even keep salt and sugar and fat at arms length without freaking out too much. i do have a permanent weakness, however, for chicharones. (God help me.)

don't get me wrong. i've always stuck to a pretty healthy regimen. the thing is, i've hit a fork in the road, so to speak. i have to work harder to maintain it all and i feel myself giving way sometimes - eating the wrong things, not hitting the gym for a week, falling off in one way or another. when this happens, i see and feel it almost immediately. 

i can't slack off anymore. i've got to get a grip. i mean, seriously. look at annette!

Today's Sermon

here's a video sermon (!!!) from today's service, with pastor carter conlon of times square church -- Prayer For a Desperate Hour.  watch, listen in and be blessed.

wait - whodidwhat, now?

apparently, myspace is making a comeback. this should be interesting. (hm. better find my passwords and update my junk...)

The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo.

the charleston sc short list

i can't leave here without these five things:

1. benne wafers
2. muscadines
3. black pudding
4. palmetto roses - my favorites!
5. vidalia onions - i know the season for growing them is over, but maybe someone has pickled a few...

progress: fitness, clothes, life

“Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess.” — Edna Woolman Chase

good news, sports fans: i'm getting my body back.

every season, i fight for it all over again -- the size 4 body i had when i came to new york city a million years ago. i don't fight for it out of vanity, either. sure, it's a job requirement. pulling this off certainly feels like a full time job. and yes -- after years of living hand to mouth with absolutely no insurance whatsoever, i consider maintaining a lean, strong, healthy body with exercise, clean food and vitamins to be preventative medicine. the real reason is that i'm simply too cheap and/or broke to buy new clothes.  i love my vintage dresses, pencil skirts and what little designer items i have too much to throw them away.  i'm not trendy enough to keep up with what's hip.  wearing the latest fashions takes a lot of money. most of that stuff looks pretty tacky on me, anyway.

why, it's almost as though i'm about to get a new wardrobe because i'll be able to wear all these clothes i haven't been able to fit into in ages.  more on that some other time.

what's my big secret? i stopped eating garbage and got my butt to the gym everyday. i try to make it happen in the morning because although i love the way exercise makes my backside look, i really don't like doing it. and no, i'm not a morning person.

here's an interesting little clip about how little exercise it takes to change your life.

Source: youtube.com via Queen on Pinterest

ten things

i'm getting ready to skip town with blood. in my head, my bags are already packed -- sort of. one of them is practically empty to make room for all the stuff i'd like to bring back, like kirschwasser and kindereggs (just in time for halloween!) and of course, something strange and unexpected, like a vintage pair of lederhosen. (just in time for halloween!) who knows what i'll find, if i look hard enough.

believe it or not, i need a separate zippered container in my suitcase for all of my beauty products -- because frankly, my left leg could drink up one of those travel sized bottles of lotion overnight, all by itself. and no, i'm not even going to get into how thirsty my thick, thick hair is in its natural state.

this is my latest list, spun out of me haphazardly on the way to the gym:

1. zantac
2. grether's pastilles blackcurrant glycerine drops
3. universal adaptor
4. digital recorder
5. humidifier
6. slippery elm tea
7. small (but powerful!) mini-speakers
8. collapsible water bottle
9. collapsible to-go container
10. motrin

there's got to be a better, more efficient way to travel internationally -- without paying a lot of fees. maybe this is it.

I don't get it

Why would Mr. Peanut want to know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll?

Good hair

(Thanks, Chrissi J!)

see how beautiful harlem is?

stunning, right? taken earlier this afternoon as i was zipping down the cherry walk on my bike. enjoy.

saturday classics

when i was a kid, it wasn't really saturday unless i spent the morning watching bugs bunny in my pajamas. so of course nowadays something in me wants to oversleep, crash land on the couch in my underwear and watch cartoons.  i can't think of a better way to start the weekend.

i don't understand people who think that television is bad. i think there's something fundamentally wrong with them -- especially when they watch tv shows on whatever computer they use.

it's not an idiot box. it's whatever you make of it.

i love bugs bunny -- but more importantly, i love chuck jones. he was and still is a constant inspiration. through those wb cartoons, i learned about opera, slapstick, vaudeville and consequently, the proper usage of the lazzi from the classic commedia dell'arte tradition.  because you really can't do comedy without understanding the anatomy of the lazzi -- and nothing teaches it to you like a good bugs bunny cartoon. 

of course, i learned a lot of novelty tunes and tin pan alley songs. sometimes i even sing them on my gigs. more on that some other time.

a few thousand words

i almost forgot.

here are a few stellar moments from a performance of an as-of-yet untitled piece that i'm growing with dancer/choreographer francesca harper. its an exploration of billie holiday's life and times through movement, music and multimedia. these moments photographed here found us dancing to the sound of her speaking voice, edited from an interview that she did with mike wallace, accompanied by pianist jeremy bacon.

we did this at the first ever harlem arts festival in the newly renovated marcus garvey park ampitheater. huzzah!

this performance has clung to my heart ever since for several reasons. first of all, it happened on my birthday. i really felt as though something wonderful was born on that stage that day. or maybe it was growing out of the pit of me all along. what it was, i can't say exactly. i remember feeling especially overwhelmed by it all. and grateful.

secondly, i danced -- something that i was always made to feel that i was incapable of doing. more on that some other time.

interestingly, francesca has instigated all of this movement in my life -- or at least, tilted my perspective enough to make me believe that i can do it. and i am doing it -- professionally. i met her at a boardwalk empire audition for jazz dancers. we both got the gig and i've been kicking up my heels (more or less) ever since. it's so important for me to challenge myself, to do things i've never done before, to push myself outside of my comfort zone, to try new things. if i don't, i will not grow. and if i don't grow, then really, what's the point?

 as kenyatta beasley watched me dance with the francesca harper project, i think he was totally overwhelmed.   "i didn't know you could do that," he kept saying, like a mantra.

"neither did i," i replied breathlessly.

and lastly? afterwards, kenyatta remarked, "you danced for me today. you dancing was a gift you gave me." and him saying that felt like the best birthday present i had ever gotten and would ever get, ever ever ever.

Lillian Lopez, Rest In Peace

 I couldn't help but take notice when I heard about the passing of Lillian Lopez today, at the age of 76, from cancer.  She was an original member of the 70s dance group Odyssey, the one who sang their biggest hit, Native New Yorker.  I quite liked the group. I thought they were breezy, lush and elegant.

It is understood that emotional connectedness to a song - having it belong to an important person or situation, for example - is what sells it and keeps it alive. Immediately, my mind floated back to the moments when I would ride around the city with Ralph on our way to God knows where, blaring this song. The way that he would stop, sometimes in mid-conversation, to sing these particular lyrics emphatically will be forever engrained in my memory.

And love, love is just a passing word 
It's the thought you had in a taxi cab  
That got left on the curb  
When he dropped you off at East 83rd

Click here for a colorful and interesting blog/blurb/review of their self-titled album. (Totally forgot about the Good Times episode.) Interesting tidbit: they were managed by (a then unknown) Tommy Mottola.

Election Protection? There's an app for that!

there's a jillion apps out there for everything that you can think of -- from the mind-numbingly idiotic to the daily necessity. sorting through a veritable sea of options at the flick of an eye is the way we define ourselves digitally and stitch together the ordinary moments in our modern lives. in the best case scenario, an app will make the world -- or at least, your world -- a better place.

along comes election protection, an app that puts all the information you need to know about voting -- including the rules and regulations for each state! -- in the palm of your hand. this could seriously hinder voter fraud and give everyone an instant civics lesson.

from their website:

In order to meet the needs of the Digital Age, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Association of Latino Appointed and Elected Officials Education Fund, New Organizing Institute, Rock the Vote and Verified Voting Foundation have joined forces to deploy the Election Protection Smartphone Application to provide all information and resources, in English and Spanish (branded Ya Es Hora), that voters need to fully participate in the 2012 elections.

what a brilliant idea.

stats say that most people who use cell phones prefer smart phones, most people of color use smart phones and the smart phone usage is strongest amongst african-americans aged 18-34. why not reach people of color right where they are -- on their smart phones.

i suppose that would shed some light as to why black folk and latinos dominate twitter, for example. but i digress.

wouldn't it be great if everyone had this app?

pause, shift gears and go

i'm eating clean for the next 30 days -- and working out diligently every single day with my boxing coach -- to jumpstart my system, dropkick myself into fall and give myself a boost physically. whatever seasonal sluggishness i feel needs to dissipate. i have way too much work to do.

i even joined a workout group, to keep me on the straight and narrow. the sticky part? taking "before" pictures and weighing in every week.

everything feels like a new beginning, somehow. the rain is off and on all week and i want to feel sad about it but its washing away the filth in the streets and making everything new all over again, especially when the devil beats his wife. 

yeesh. it almost feels as though i'm saying goodbye to the sun.

Happy Labor Day, y'all!

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."  -- Albert Einstein

I hope everyone found a way to enjoy what has become the unofficial last day of summer. The great news of the moment is, now that the season is pretty much over, i've found a way to grill in the ghetto.  And I didn't do it on the sidewalk.

I can't believe summer is about to be over.  Time is flying, crazy fast. If you're in Gotham, here's some things to do in the month of September that might soften the blow.

big dreams, scary moments

Source: Uploaded by user via Queen on Pinterest

 

I don’t know where my ideas come from. I used to think I dreamed them up but sometimes when I take a long walk, they jump me in the street and drag me away. I resust, of course. But I know when they stick when I can’t stop thinking about them. Unfinished songs -- bits of lyrics and imagery and feeling -- spilling all over my clothes and making my hands sweat. A twist to a one act that I would never have considered if I hadn’t gone down that street and run into that guy and had that conversation. Hearing an argument and writing it down compulsively.  Sneaking away from a bunch of screaming, cavorting friends to sing a strange melody into my phone. How ever do they want me, pretty much.

Tuning into all of this is where the fun begins. Having the discipline to organize all that flotsam and keep chipping away at all of it until it grows into art – well, that’s fun, too. What am I saying. Nevermind my student loans, hanging from my neck like an invisible noose. When things are purely creative, it’s a fun life.

And now, as everything shifts –body weight and waiting games and weighty matters, summer into falling into the back of my closet, the sun moving away from me dejectedly – I am starting all over again, as usual. Twitter – yes, Twitter – has presented several challenges that are going to clean me up and out just in time for me to be bright and shiny and new in time for the new year.

Joan Crawford was right. Everything is discipline.

blitzkrieg!

Source: nihilism-ij.tumblr.com via Queen on Pinterest

i'm headed to the deutchland in a few weeks to sing/perform/have fun/cut up with guitar icon james "blood" ulmer so there's a lot of german words spinning through me at random these days.  i don't care if everyone speaks the good king's english. i intend to pick up a phrase book and learn how to say a few basic things while i'm there. stuff like, what is that and don't touch my stuff and where's the bathroom and what time is it and get away from me. (heh.) yeah, stuff like that.

i'll level with you: when i was a small tot, dreaming of becoming a chic, sophisticated chanteuse/performer, set adrift in the world whilst drowning in flowers and champagne and happiness -- i thought i'd be the toast of paris,  not berlin.  but berlin, as it turns out, was -- and still is -- quite the decadent little metropolis, and germany is a very trippy place.

oh. we'll be in austria, too.

the line-up:

mark petersen - bass
g. calvin weston - drums
james "blood" ulmer - vocals, guitar
myself - vocalist

my phone won't work over there but (hopefully) i'll have internet access and if i do, expect some crack up stuff. in the meantime, here's one of my favorite songs from blood -- "church: are you glad to be in america?"

once in a blue moon

the blue moon is making me sway in broad daylight.

i can feel it pulling me towards what can only be described as my permanent cliffhanger, the one that lurches along, free floating just above my head, just out of reach.  a series of what ifs spill all over me, out of breath and scurrying to fall into place.  they know where to go. they know how to get there. it's all i can do to get out of the way, stay out of the way.  don't block the blessings, someone said to me in passing the other day. 

 i am filled with the kind of wanderlust that only a true pirate can understand.

all at once, i feel lighter and stronger and more realized and more vulnerable than ever.  i am filled with energy and i am completely exhausted.  i am losing weight. i am gaining ground. i am filled with joy. i love everyone -- even the people i can't stand. (crazy, right?) even in my sleep, i hit the ground running. i make lists, endlessly. i box and when i do i think, am i getting any better at this? and then i look at my stance, i look at my left hook, i look at my body and i see progress. i can't even begin to tell you how good it feels to hit something over and over again. hard. (hulk smash!)

everyday is boxing. everyday is practice - voice, piano, guitar. everyday is rewrites - libretto, one act play, lyrics, short stories, novella. everyday is a long walk and thinking aloud with a confidante. everyday is making beautiful art out of nothing. everyday is the dream made real.

all of this is churning inside me violently whilst i sing and dance and win pie baking contests and have fun in the sun.

the blue moon won't happen again until july 2015. i hope you make this one count, where ever you are. as for me, i will sit and spin contentedly and wallow in the strange velocity of my life.

photos and video coming soon. (really!)



(when the weather is nice, my writing desk is at the chipped cup.)

the hard work of eating clean

this is my third time on this eat clean program merry-go-round. you can do the pre-cleanse and the post cleanse. you can do it with shakes and supplements.  you can do it with an online forum and you can call an 800 number and/or email councelors for support and information and a ton of encouragement. or you can simply not eat certain things for 3 weeks and see how it affects you physically.

here's how it works. for 21 days, i remove certain foods from my diet: salt, sugar, sweeteners, anything that's processed and loaded with bad fat but also things i may unknowingly be allergic to (because most people are) like white rice, corn, peanuts, soy, oats and whole wheat/wheat gluten, as well as most meat (beef, chicken, pork - eating wild game is encouraged) and seafood (i can have cold water fish like salmon and trout). oh, and no coffee or tea. or citrus, except for lemon. and no nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, etc). no dairy, either. yeah. no cheese. and no alcohol. or cigarettes. or recreational drugs.

what can i eat? pretty much everything else.

this time around, i've discovered that i love buffalo, rabbit and ostrich. eating those things is really not that deep for me. when i was a kid, we ate plenty of game. venison was a constant. so was squirrel.  i really love just about every green vegetable there is, especially bitter greens, wheatgrass and kale. i drink water instead of soda or other sugary drinks. i've made a shot of green vibrance a daily habit. yes, i'm losing weight. going to bed hungry still feels like mission impossible but it's doing wonderful things for my constitution, my energy level, my skin, all of it.  my acid reflux problems that plague me whenever i don't eat right are totally nonexistent when i don't eat at night. poof! gone. just like that.

it takes time to break bad habits and create good ones. what's bigger than this is my newfound ability to listen to my body -- give it what it needs and remove what isn't necessary. some days that's an easy thing to do. some days, it takes a herculean effort to not inhale a gigantic bag of potato chips with a side of sour cream and wash it down with a coke.  with the possible exception of thick cut country bacon, how i look and feel and how healthy i am far outweighs any momentary joy that eating delicious food ever gave me.

i have to admit -- the first time i did the eat clean program, it was a shock to my system. the second time was a struggle. i thought this time around would be a good chance to do it again to recalibrate myself physically as a birthday present to myself.  my remaining week on this program led me to a strange set of crossroads and a massive epiphany: if i want to stay lean and strong and healthy and vibrant, i am going to have to keep this up for the rest of my life.  the closer i adhere to the program, the better i look and feel. so which road would i choose: eating clean or eating with abandon?

of course, it doesn't have to be one extreme or another. but this requires a lot of moment-to-moment discipline from me and that feels daunting. and exhausting.  don't get it twisted.  irregardless of whatever you are born with -- after a certain age, you get the body and the good health that you are willing to work and sacrifice to attain. being fat and unhealthy is a choice. that's really all there is to it.

very meal is a decision, every bite of food is a struggle. i hit the gym every single day.  i am fighting for the body i want and the good health that comes with it.

joan crawford was right. life is discipline.

i've got a beautiful feeling...

every day is drenched in sunshine and possibilities. even the rain means growth and nurturing and promise. if new york city is this lovely and amazing, the south i know and love and miss must be stunning -- replete with blooming scented trees, shady groves and azaleas everywhere. when everything around you is this beautiful, you really can't help but feel that beauty, too.

and so of course -- musical theater geek that i am -- the day finds me skipping through gotham like a sepia-toned shirley jones with an afro, singing that song from the musical oklahoma! you know it, too. everyone knows that song.

heh.

i was tipping through midtown the other day and when i turned my head, i saw this.

beautiful, isn't it.