Bambi Meets Godzilla
I first saw this classic animation at a film festival in Chicago in 1972. It had a lasting impact on me. But I suspect the impact on Bambi was much more permanent. Marv Newland created his first animated cartoon in 1969.
Archive by Author
My Beautiful Mommy
I was born a happy child. My laughter came early and has always rang loud and proud. But tragedy befell a too new life. I was taught hard lessons that made me serious too. My mommy was sick, and she had tried to hurt me. But what hurt me more than the beatings was that she was taken away from me. No matter what she did, she always would be my beautiful mommy.
I was raised by my Grandma, my father’s mother. Between six months and 6 years I learned by her side that life was hard but it was also what I made of it. She taught me that I could do anything I wanted to do with my life. Most importantly I learned that I didn’t have to be defined by the tragedy. I loved my Grandma. She gave me the mothering that all children crave and I thrived. But when my mother came home, I was torn away from the only maternal love I had ever known. That was something that took me way too long to forgive my birth-mother for taking away from me.
My mother’s name was Shirley. The very first character I created when I became a performer I also named Shirley. I will never convince anyone that this is not psychologically significant, but the fact is I just think that “Shirley” is really a funny name. I tell my story about my mother and the creation of character for the Japanese TV show “New Yorkers”:
It is so good to watch this video today. Here I stand living proof that I must have had a mother. I am grateful that I had a chance to reconcile with her before she died. That gave me the freedom from the tragedy at last and wings to take flight into what seemed like a brand-new life. Despite her illness, Shirley taught me a lot about life, about love and family. On this Mother’s Day I pay homage to my mother and thank her for giving me this life. I love you Shirley. You were and always will be my beautiful mommy.
Through The Looking Glass
STEUBEN, “Our Love” original crystal sculpture
There is something about the sound that crystal flutes make as you make a toast to your beloved. On this the eve of a Royal Wedding, when a whole nation will weep tears of joy and make wishes for a love that will last forever, one wonders what do you get the couple who has everything?
It is their wedding day; every bride a princess, every groom her Prince Charming. This day is a fairytale come true and you delight in picking that perfect gift, that timeless treasure. You want your gift to be remembered. I can think of nothing more classic than a gift of beautiful glass.
Maybe it’s the fantasy of the glass slippers or how the world looks when you peek through exquisitely crafted crystal vases. Or maybe it is just that the happy couple adds the color to such a gift that will be treasured forever.
In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything,
and two minus one equals nothing.
Mignon McLaughlin
Here’s some links to my favorite crystal wedding gifts:
Steuben Verve Collection
Steuben Love Birds
Steuben Tortoise Martini Glasses
The End of the Internet
It was just another day. Another day in the life of a very curious soul. But unlike any other day, this was the day I clicked on my very first hyper-link. And on this day my life changed forever.
The year was 1997 and I was trying out the Internet for the very first time. I had a 56k modem and was using something unfortunately named Dogpile. Browsing was so slow that I was quickly driven mad and didn’t try the Internet again until I upgraded to ISDN speed and Netscape in 1998.
By 1999 I was reading Michael Lewis’ “The New New Thing” and doing research on a T-1 line and got very excited about this unparalleled research tool. Little did I know that soon I would get caught up in a web of desire and possibility I never before thought possible.
Enter Google.
Just after I get my socks knocked off, Google blows my mind. I read all about it in the New Yorker magazine, like a good Manhattanite. It was the promised land. It was science. It was art. Since 2003 I haven’t had to go the the Library of Performing Arts, nor to Colony Records to do music research.
Post the Google Books Project I have been able to track down obscure references; even buy e-book versions so that I can have the resources immediately for less than ever before. To say that this technology was disruptive was a vast understatement. But even Google could not prepare me for Twitter.
Twitter was open, whereas Facebook was closed. Twitter was elegant whereas MySpace was an assault on the senses. I immediately was fascinated. The lure of short-form literature and the links; oh the links! I step into my Twitter streams each day like a brisk morning shower, covering me with news and information, ideas and thought-provoking questions.
I spent the first year people watching; observing all the different ways people were using Twitter. Fascinating, sometimes frustrating, but always fabulous, Twitter offers something for everyone. And no matter what the “topic of the day” is I will find someone in my streams posting a link to that very thing.
Of course there is Facebook too and I just started playing with Foursquare. I am sure there are brain-childs in the making as we speak. I am beginning to think that we will never, ever reach the end of the Internet. I hope that we never do!
photos by Thomas Hudson Reeve © Kat Caverly Enterprises
Down in the Mine
with Peter Cook
A hilarious “Beyond the Fringe” Peter Cook monologue.
“All in all I’d rather have been a judge than a miner. And what is more, being a miner, as soon as you are too old and tired and sick and stupid to do the job properly, you have to go. Well, the very opposite applies with the judges.”
The Litte Band of Two
Check out Amy and Nick’s YouTube Channel: Karmin Covers
Tickle Your Fancy Penguin
Pure sweet JOY!
Hoppy Hour
Photo of Kat Caverly
by Thomas Hudson Reeve
To say that I love celebrating the holidays is quite an understatement, and Easter is no exception. The legend of the Easter Bunny can be traced back to the Teutonic deity Eostra, the Spring Goddess of fertility, whose symbol was the rabbit.
German immigrants introduced the “Oschter Haws”, and the folklore of the Easter Bunny to the United States in the 1700s. Children believed that the Easter Bunny would lay a nest of colored eggs if they were good.
