Life is Good

I’m wrapping up one of those rare weekends where I really feel in touch with all there is to appreciate about life (maybe it has something to do with finally getting my economic stimulus check…) In honor of that, this post is going to be all about good things.

First, my budding thespian son said tonight, “instead of commercials, I think the radio should just have tips about life.” “Like what?” I asked. “Like telling you to reuse your plastic water bottles and stuff.” Budding thespian, budding environmentalist, I could hardly be prouder.

I listened to a podcast interview with Laura Linney (sigh…) today in which she had this well-balanced thing to say about critics: “I'm one of those people who think theatrical criticism is very important. It's important for the historical record, it's important for the business, it's important. However, it's completely unfair to look to a critic to tell you how to feel about your own work. That's not their job. It's psychologically foolish. [But] we're all susceptible to it because we're all human.” Another reason for me to love Laura Linney.

I skipped right over this item in Style this past week about Rene Marie and the National Anthem. But then I heard about it from two different other media outlets and went back to read it again. How does this fit into the “good thing” paradigm? Because I think it’s a good thing to debate, particularly among performers. On one hand, when you are hired to do a job, it’s unprofessional really to do something that is not that job and because of that, I side with Obama on this one in the final analysis. However, I also love this kind of thing that shakes people up. So many aspects of our heritage, history and culture are just blandly or blindly accepted and only when someone does something unexpected do people really examine that aspect. For instance, isn’t it ironic that the line “land of the free” was written when slavery was very much in place and thriving in America?

One last good thing: I interviewed Rene Marie many years ago when she was about to appear in “Ella and Her Fella Frank” at the Barksdale and she’s really a sweet and amazing person.