Choose DonorsChoose.org!

if you want the chance to do something GREAT for public school kids, the fab-u organization DonorsChoose.org ,which was "conceived [by Charles Best] in the cafeteria of a Bronx public high school", is for you!

They are trying to win millions for our kids--and here's where you [American Express Card holders] can help:

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Last week, we made the Top 50 of the American Express Members Project. Now we’re in the Top 25, and it’s time to vote once more.
You are critical to winning up to $5 million for public school classrooms, so please vote now for our submission:
"Teachers Ask. You Choose. Students Learn."
If you voted last week, your vote this round will take about 30 seconds. If you’re voting for the first time, registration will take a couple minutes and you can refer to these simple instructions.
This round of voting ends in tomorrow. On behalf of the thousands of schoolchildren whom you could impact, thank you for voting now.

Sincerely,
Charles Best and the DonorsChoose Team

P.S. Please reply to this email with the word "Yes" so that we can thank you for voting. We will not email you again unless we make it to the Top 5 finals.

P.P.S. Please forward this email to all your friends, asking them to vote for us at this critical moment!
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Vote for our children.
Be the "citizen philanthropist" you were born to be.
Pray for peace.

Blessings,
DivaCardista
blessedstarcards.com

summer movies!!

Hey there!

Just a midday holla to let you know that you really should see the fantastical animated gem that is Ratatouille!

No, you don't need to have Michael's Ben as your ringtone to be into this kind of film.

While it is rather photo-realistic, shall we say, about all things rodential, Ratatouille is hysterically reverential about what it takes to really pursue your heart's truest desire.

And, Lord have mercy, if Paris-centric humor makes you smile and/or if you can at least scramble an egg, you should have seen this twice by now.

What a beautiful & funny grown up animated film.

And, before it leaves your DivaCardista's mind, do rent/find Surf's Up. That's another bit of animated genius that's way better than you will have anticipated.

Pray for peace.

Blessings,
DivaCardista
blessedstarcards.com

it's hard to keep a good woman down

i'm here jammimg to classic Queen Latifah [and her "European partner"] & thanking the good Lord for a good breeze in a week noted for its 90+ degree weather. Whooeee.

taking a break to holla bout the happy phenomenon that I've noticed in my heavy Broadway viewing of late--

sisters are holding it down!

from Tonya Pinkins to Angela Landsbury and Marian Seldez to Fantasia (by way of Oprah), whether it's magical thinking you're after or if you just need it to rain real bad since, after all, it's 110 in the Shade, it's a sister thing happnin on the great white way.

Welcome into my Queendom, come one come all...

110 in the Shade
when we found our seats at Studio 54 last week to see "110 in the Shade", we could barely contain ourselves whenever Diva Audra McDonald spoke, much less sang. mercy. the cast is excellent, but Audra is extraordinary. really.

spring awakening
one of the few reasons to sit through the too many Tony Award-winning teen sex / masturbation musical set in bad old Germany (so that makes it ok, right? it's all about the setting, after all...) is newcomer and LaGuardia Arts High School student Lilli Cooper. nice strong voice, good acting, and very pretty. she'll do well, i'm sure.

ok. i was clearly not in the demographic intended for this show, as i spent many a moment looking as far away from the dead center stage action--eww--as possible...but, i did actually appreciate [well deserved Tony winner] bill t jones' choreography/stage movement, and the set design, and, shoot, the costumes, and, dare i say it, even the performers, just not the "eww" factor that had the teens & tweens totally enraptured, titillated [as Chester Himes would say] and absolutely giddy. how do i know this? we could hear them giggling during the sexual scenes and stomping and hooting during the tremendous applause, especially at show's end.

this very same factor, by the by, had the other half of the audience--we who are nobody's prude but just don't necessarily need to see a teenage boy lose his whole hand inside of a teenage girl to get the fact that they are finna "do it", as twere--leaving the theatre as swiftly as possible at show's end, making eye contact with no one as if to say, let us never speak of this again.

made me wish i had Tyler Perry on speed dial. (Madea wda beat every child on that stage.)

the color purple
interestingly enough, my church sisters were down the street to see Ms. Fantasia in "The Color Purple" at the same time i was watching those intensely irritated girls sing well and frantically stomp about their mamas who bore them. go see this show! i've only heard amazing things about what Fantasia brings to an already fabu show.

grey gardens
dang. missed it. but not for lack of trying...

spamalot
you want to have a fun evening of theatre? go see this happy hodgepodge of in-jokes, Monty Python references and sight gags. just go. you know you need a laugh. and Marin Mazzie is just pure-d funny. [of course, the d stand for Diva!]

and, speaking of divas...

radio golf
now, your DivaCardista initially went to see this piece because of our alumNoir hero pal and brilliant star Harry Lenox, but stayed because...well...in significant part because this was August's last piece. I tell you, every time I see the Hotel Edison--where he took many a meal and wrote many a brilliant theatrical scene--I get all wistful. August was the man. (more about him in another post.) but radio golf stands well and is an excellent show. i wish Diva Tonya Pinkins had more to do, as she did in "Caroline, or Change" or even "Wild Party", but she takes the scenes that she has and, as always, works them well.

ahhh...it's a great time for theatre, y'all. whatever your flavor.

enjoy the day.

Blessings,
DivaCardista
blessedstarcards.com