Like many of my generation, my first exposure to Bonnie Bramlett was when she was a featured player on Roseanne for a couple of seasons in the early nineties. To my knowledge, she only sang twice on the show, but both times were amazing. I used to pray they'd let her sing in every episode.
Little did I know what a legend she was. Bramlett was one-half of the duo Delaney and Bonnie in the late sixties and early seventies before embarking on a solo career (Sweet Bonnie Bramlett being her first solo album, in 1973). Prior to meeting and marrying Delaney (who sadly passed away in December of last year), Bonnie was the first and only white member of the Ikettes, the back-up singers for Ike and Tina Turner. In the last forty-odd years, she's put out several albums and done some acting here and there.
And that voice! My God! I can't even describe it. It's like her soul is in her voicebox.
Click here to hear Bonnie bring down the house, singing the hell out of "You Really Got a Hold on Me", from Roseanne.
And here's a more recent number: Bonnie doing "Superstar" live onstage. Many artists have covered this song (notably The Carpenters and Bette Midler), but they ain't got nothin' on Bonnie. The pristine emotion she lets loose with this number is devastating. The heartbreak -- and the talent -- in this performance will knock you out of your chair.
Learn more about the amazing Bonnie Bramlett on her website.
"…For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect, and anticipate their great shame, and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes, if they continue that way of support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone...I’m very, very proud to live in a country that is willing to elect an elegant man president, and a country who, for all its toughness, creates courageous artists."
It’s my favorite time of year: OSCAR TIME! And I have predictions!
Wanna hear ‘em? Here it goes:
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Frost/Nixon Milk The Reader Slumdog Millionaire
Who Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire.
Who Should Win: Though I don’t think any of these films are worthy of a Best Picture Oscar, I think the finest on this list is surely Slumdog. The film is ridiculously unrealistic, but therein lies its charm: it is, after all, a modern day fairy tale. The two best films of last year, Rachel Getting Married and Revolutionary Road, were, sadly, not nominated.
Dark Horse: Milk. I found the script wildly uneven, but Gus Van Sant’s direction was inspired and the performances were nothing short of miraculous. I could see this winning for two reasons: A) the snubbing of another Big Gay Movie, 2005’s brilliant Brokeback Mountain (did Crash REALLY deserve a Best Picture Oscar?), may have given some Academy members a guilty conscience; and B) in the aftermath of Prop 8, Hollywood wants to show its support for 'da gays.
BEST DIRECTOR NOMINEES Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon Stephen Daldry, The Reader Gus Van Sant, Milk
Who Will Win: Boyle.
Who Should Win: Boyle. Again, because Slumdog is the best of this lot.
Dark Horse: Van Sant. For explanation, see my above reasoning as to why Milk is a dark horse for the Best Picture award.
BEST ACTOR NOMINEES Richard Jenkins, The Visitor Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon Sean Penn, Milk Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Who Will Win: Too close to call. Penn and Rourke are neck and neck.
Who Should Win: Mickey Rourke. Never in my life would I have thought Mickey Rourke deserved an Oscar over Sean Penn, but, alas, this year is an exception. Both were brilliant in their respective films, and I’d be happy with either of them nabbing the statuette. And Penn’s performance was studied, brave, and fiery. But when it comes to plunging the depths of human emotion, Rourke has all these guys beat. He takes his larger-than-life character – former pro wrestler Randy “The Ram” – and subtly, honestly makes him someone with whom we can all relate. It’s one of the best performances I’ve seen in recent years.
Dark Horse: There isn’t one. This is between Penn and Rourke to the bloody end.
BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married Angelina Jolie, Changeling Melissa Leo, Frozen River Meryl Streep, Doubt Kate Winslet, The Reader
Who Will Win: Winslet. She deserved a nomination for Revolutionary Road, but winning for The Reader is a pretty good consolation prize. Plus, she’s one of our greatest younger actresses and has been nominated five times previously. She deserves the award more for her body of work and less for this singled-out performance.
Who Should Win: Anne Hathaway. Her performance in the astounding Rachel Getting Married was pitch-perfect. As a just-out-of-rehab black sheep in her upper middle class suburban family, Hathaway is a raw nerve of energy, an open wound exposed to the air for the first time in ages. I adore all these performances, and Streep and Winslet have always been favorites of mine, but no one here can touch what Hathaway did in Rachel.
Dark Horse: Meryl Streep. Never, ever count Meryl out of the running for any award. When it comes to actresses, there has never been a greater one than Streep.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEES Josh Brolin, Milk Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
Who Will Win: Ledger.
Who Should Win: Ledger. If for no other reason than to give him the award he deserved to win for Brokeback.
Dark Horse: Brolin. With his roles as Dan White in Milk and what’s-his-name in W., this year showed the acting chops of this talented thespian.
Who Will Win: Cruz. With Winslet’s supporting turn in The Reader inexplicably up for the leading category award, Cruz stands the best chance of winning. She’s also won a slew of critics’ prizes for this performance. And again, two of the year’s most incredible supporting performances were from Rachel Getting Married: Rosemarie DeWitt and the great Debra Winger, but they were both criminally overlooked.
Who Should Win: Viola Davis. Even had DeWitt and Winger been nominated, there still wouldn’t be a contest in my mind. Davis deserves this award, hands down. In an all-too-short, explosive scene, she walks away with the entire film—not easy to do when you’re playing opposite Meryl Streep. Davis’s work in Doubt is one of the greatest supporting performances I’ve ever seen. Vulnerable, fearless, emotionally naked, and ferocious, this is a legendary performance.
Dark Horse: Amy Adams. Though I don’t think she merits an Oscar for her work in Doubt, Adams is an amazingly talented, intensely likeable actress. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Academy noticed that by giving her the statuette.
Sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office today, I leafed through an issue of Rolling Stone from last summer. For some reason, my doctor's office--part of a Harvard hospital--cannot provide current reading material. Only seven-month-old donations from the homeless shelter.
Anyhoo.
Then-presidential nominee Barack Obama was on the cover, and the issue was filled with election drama, Obama versus McCain.
And I took a great big sigh of relief. For once, America got it right. Even in the midst of our current turmoil, I am so, so glad we elected the right man for the job.
I guess your beauty doesn’t bother you, you wear it easy and walk across the driveway so casual and right it makes my heart weigh twenty pounds as I back out and wave thinking She’s my summer peaches, corn, long moondawn dusks watermelons chilling in a tub of ice and water: mirrored there the great midsummer sky rolling with clouds and treetops and down by the lake the wild canaries swinging on the horse mint all morning long.
There are no stars tonight But those of memory. Yet how much room for memory there is In the loose girdle of soft rain.
There is even room enough For the letters of my mother’s mother, Elizabeth, That have been pressed so long Into a corner of the roof That they are brown and soft, And liable to melt as snow.
Over the greatness of such space Steps must be gentle. It is all hung by an invisible white hair. It trembles as birch limbs webbing the air.
And I ask myself:
“Are your fingers long enough to play Old keys that are but echoes: Is the silence strong enough To carry back the music to its source And back to you again As though to her?”
Yet I would lead my grandmother by the hand Through much of what she would not understand; And so I stumble. And the rain continues on the roof With such a sound of gently pitying laughter.
"To call him a dog hardly seems to do him justice, though inasmuch as he had four legs, a tail, and barked, I admit he was, to all outward appearances. But to those who knew him well, he was a perfect gentleman." -Hermione Gingold
Monkey mind is a Buddhist term describing a mind that jumps from thought to thought like a monkey jumps from tree to tree. The monkey mind is not content with existing in the present moment, but rather engages in the thoughts that pass through.
25 Things To Know About Me
1. I'm a freelance writer. I don't just write for my living. I write for my life.
2. I read constantly.I've learned more from books than I've learned in any classroom.
3. I love quotes.
4. Here’s one: “I love humanity but I hate people.”(Edna St. Vincent Millay)
5. Despite #4, I am a practicing Buddhist.Enlightenment is a long way off.
6. I’m vegan.I love animals.I don’t belong to PETA.
7. I’m straight-edge…and gay.Oh the irony!
8. I’m happily married to Vegan John.The theme of our wedding was monkeys.
9. I live in the Green Mountains of Vermont. I love it here, and I don't even know how to chop wood.
10. Poetry is the reason I get up in the morning.
11. Meryl Streep is God.
12. In my first memory, I am drowning.
13. I am entirely too sensitive.And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
14. I hate parades.
15. I love hot tubs.
16. Big, warm, fluffy sweaters make me happy.
17. I’m worried about America.Very worried. But I have great faith in humanity in general and the Obama administration in particular.
18. Another quote: “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.” (Edward R. Murrow)
19. “Breaking the Waves” is my favorite film.
20. “The Golden Notebook” (Doris Lessing), “Diary of a Young Girl” (Anne Frank), and “Becoming A Man” (Paul Monette) are among my favorite books.
21. I sometimes love to read trashy romance novels of the historical variety. They just don't make big-pecked heroes like they used to.
22. “The Simpsons” is a work of genius.
23. Ditto “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.
24. I believe I have a right to my opinion and the right to express it.I believe you do too.
25. A quote: “I don’t trust people who don’t laugh.” (Maya Angelou)
