Happy Thanksgiving

I'm live blogging this morning from the. Detroit Thanksgiving Parade. It's cold but at least it's not snowing or raining now. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Sabrina Malheiros ~ Estacao Verao

Thank God for my Ivan Lins Pandora station or I might not have ever heard Sabrina Malherios. This is my favorite song right now. Everything about this song is right: the singing, the beat, the music.

Sixty to Snow

Earlier this week, I was enjoying temperatures around 60 degrees and now the weather has taken a turn for the worst with snow and wind. What a mess! 

Music Stuff

I was listening to Harry Connick, Jr.'s version of "Stardust" last night and the piano solo in that song by Ellis Marsalis is truly a beautiful thing to hear. I saw the Marsalias family in concert years ago in Philadelphia and, seriously, Ellis can outperform all of his sons and they're all very talented in their own right.

I've also been listening to a Brazilian singer named Sabrina Malheiros who is excellent. More on her later.

Winning? Hardly!

When I heard last night that Charlie Sheen was going to announce today that he's HIV positive, I wasn't surprised because I'd read this on one of my gossip sites a while ago. When Charlie was at the height of infamy after being fired from Two and a Half Men and going on TV proclaiming how he was "winning" I was hospitalized in New York (because, seriously, the city was killing me from the inside) and I remember being in my hospital room watching Charlie speak with a reporter from MSNBC or somewhere about how he was on top of the world and everyone who didn't see things his way as a loser, blah, blah, blah. Now I'm not one to kick a man when he's down, but this guy has been so fortunate and been given so many breaks in life that it's hard for me to feel sorry for him. He comes from a famous family, has had a great career, attractive wives, healthy kids, and he just seems to have squandered everything. Having HIV is not a death sentence the way it used to be and I certainly hope Sheen is able to get the help he needs, but I can't lose any sleep over him when there are so many other people who are deserving and in need of help and sympathy and there are so many more pressing problems in the world right now.

W. Kamau Bell

I went to see comedian W. Kamau Bell speak at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art yesterday and his show was interesting, funny, and insightful. He largely discussed racial issues in the country, but with a great deal of humor. I never watched his show when it was on TV, but I had seen him on other people's shows. I believe I saw him on the Daily Show once. He's entertaining. Check him out if you get the chance.

Baggage

I know the news right now is largely depressing, so in my own little corner of the internet, I'm going to try and bring some good news. I've finally (FINALLY) finished the book I've been working on. It's been a long haul with many starts and stops but it's done. It's called Baggage and it'll be out early next year. More news to come on that. Yea! I'm working on the next one (that's already about 50% done) so it shouldn't take another year to get that puppy finished. I've been taking an 8-week writing class this fall that's supposed to help you create your first 50 pages. I'll be lucky to get 30 out and I'm not that happy with those. The class ends this week and it's been fun. It's interesting to read what other people are working on. I don't know if helped me very much and I'm not sure I'll even develop the story I started working on for class into something larger, but having a class that forces me to write on a weekly basis and submit my work on a bi-weekly basis has been helpful.