Gucci Gums

Ok. So maybe the goal of "daily-ish" has lost its lustre for this temporarily dentally daunted yet ever divine Diva. (But I figured I'd better write something before Dick Clarke began his mike check, if ya know what i mean...)

Last we spoke it was all about one of the results of making my nuveau trustifarian lifestyle hold true to the goal annual philanthropy. Now? Due to several decades of lackadasical encounters with dental floss & hard living on the run, it's all about learning to love oatmeal, bananas & tylenol anew. Oy.

Imagine my shock turned acceptance after waking up at 4am on Friday (Hello December!) with a mouth full of blood (think: Black Dahlia poster), which required an immediate 9am revisit a mi dentista, who was more than willing to remedy my situation begun a mere 24hrs prior with several more whipstitches, from back to front and tied with what looks/tastes like about four more tiny black bows along my gumline.

What did I do during those five hours between discovering my erstwhile dryer-fresh pink satin pillowcase smeared with my own personal hemoglobin & gurling my concern to the dental tech/office workers over the phone at 8:57am that morning? Worked on [what turned out to be smudged & unsaleworthy] cards till i fell back asleep, of course.

But as soon as I got the word, there was your fashion forward though bleary eyed DivaCardista in a lovingly slept in black t-shirt and soft fuzzy pink patterned anti-sweat pants in which she works & sleeps & imagines lands unknown plus a black hat, boots & coat back on the train with a gentle crush of upscale nine-to-five-then-drinks folk.

"Too much. Too many people, too much. Huh huh huh huh."

Not to mention that I was to be on a bus to a spiritual retreat with a bunch of Jesus loving folk who were not so spiritual as to allow late comers to hijack their 12noon ETD. So duly suctioned and stitched, I got back to my boro, changed into "going to a spiritual retreat" clothes, took a cab to the bus, and off we went.

On time & eggggzausted. But I did get "rest for my soul".

(Big up to my bible quotin'/soup totin' roomate who took care of me when i cdnt.)

So now its me & Sassy "above the blue and windy sea", working out the best way to get back to the passion of life.

Upcoming:

• more integrated card sale related data here for you unique & beautiful people...
• poetry as it comes...re:
• feelings stirred by "trigger happy polices"
• ma
• body & soul
• da holidays (but of course)

&

• war & peace

"Are you pretending/ it looks like the ending?" Sassy asks.

Let's hope not. Sheesh. Enough.

Let's make with the eggnog & The HoneyMooners Marathon already.

Hope it's been peaceful where you are.

Holiday Blessings,
DivaCardista

PS: You need a fabulous holiday card? Check www.blessedstarcards.com.

Mention code DivaC & get a FREE card with any three holiday cards purchased. Ho ho ho!!!

The Color Purple? Hell Yes!

Your DivaCardista just got calm enough to type after seeing the perfectly lovely Broadway show (at the Broadway Theatre) The Color Purple. And if you and all of your friends haven't, you simply must.

First of all, we -- DivaCardista and her 40 new best friends from The Hotchkiss School -- saw the matinee this past Sunday and what a time we had.

Then, the Lord blessed [through a friend of a friend who just happened to be the Director of The Color Purple] so that we were able to get a backstage tour after the show.

Now just how fabulous is that?

And, let me tell you: for this to be a fairly understudy-heavy performance,
those understudies held it down! They did the doggone thing! Bravo! Brava!

And that ensemble is simply too marvelous for words.

And how humble is Lou Myers?

Simply listed as Ol' Mister in the Playbill and "just" part of the Ensemble online, muli-talented, multi-lingual Lou Myers, the man whom DivaCardista has loved since he came in to the Huxtable household talking about his onion sandwich & then went on to fry up onions and tough love in A Different World, could have "demanded" more in terms of billing & "star treatment", but saw the big picture (I bet) and decided to get in where he fit in. So although Mr. Myers had just about a scene and a half altogether...BrotherMan took those three/four lines and two/three entrances and worked them, doyouhearme?

More can learn from he.

Onliest thing that I would change would be to put some elevators up in that mug! Bad enough that large groups have to wait six months or more to get tickets, which, actually, we are really happy about because it means all them superdupertalented on&off stage folk remain employed in the telling of an important series of stories first woven so beautifully by Mz. Alice Walker & re-rendered so truly by Mz. Marsha Norman,

but for those patrons who are neither decathelets nor in posession of crampons & grappling hooks, those staircases can be a bit much.

Yet, even with that having been said, especially since I can't get the score out of my head, even if you have to wait, even if you have to climb for a while, even if it cuts into your Starbucks budget a bit, just go.

Your soul will thank you.

Blessings,
DivaCardista

Can This Be Real? (You Down wit OPP?)

Since I like to keep in touch, though busy as a mug, here are a few of the things that pass through a Diva's mind on a rainy Thursday (in no particular order):

• Them Fancy Feast InFauxMercials!:

Um, it is me, or

a) are we treating cats better than we treat our own mothers on Mother's Day?
Think about it:
when was the last time you had gourmet salmon & shrimp? On crystal, no less?
(And no, Chicken of the Sea on a White Rose paper plate doesn't count.)

b) shouldn't there be some cat food ad with

50% more field mouse!

somewhere on the label? (I'm just tryin to keep it real, gnome sayin?)

• "Maybe I'll Whip You [if You Misbehave?]":

Whip Appeal? Perchance. Let it Whip? OK. (great beat, easy to dance to...) DivaCardista will even let the perennial favorite slide: Lovely Aisha's phonic contusion which promts the oft quoted

"sound like she said sound like she said
Beat Me"

as heard over Mr. Wonder's happy "Isn't She Lovely" harmonica solo.

But, not to be all 1865 about it...

Am I really supposed to be cool with a stage full of beautiful brown people harmonizing and soulfully making music to support a white guy riffin & runnin himself into an r&b froth over & over again about the possibility of a [tee hee] whipping (of any description) following the probability of his lover's misbehavior?

"Most records sold" quoth Ms. DeGeneris. Hmm. Looks to me like "Sexy" needs to go Back and read HEmotions or go see The Color Purple so he can hear Sofia's message loud and clear:

I love Harpo, God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead
before I let him or anybody beat me.

or to quote the DivaCardista Director's Cut of Love Story

"Love means never having to say
Whip me
and
I Will Cut You."

& finally (for now)

• When Kofi Speaks, Folk Should Listen:

When this thoughtful, reserved, wise, even-tempered, erudite man talks about
...er... Our Persia Problem & starts to sound like Usher

"People screamin it won't work
Time and time [you] say
I'm gonna leave
But [you] can't let [this] go..."

we all best be scheduling some extra prayer time tonight!

Blessedly,
DivaCardista

Yearning to Breathe Free

Ah, September! That special time of year when a Diva's mind turns to feverish thoughts of just how are we gonna get Ma on @*&% Medicaid!!

And if you've not journeyed down the sweet and [mil]dewy paper trail that leads one to Medicaid Lane, well, darling, you simply must.

But enough about the seeming infinity of data that flutters round as we endeavor to catch up. Let's be about the actual Catching Up, shall we?

Just before these delightfully white walls began to close in on my person, DivaCardista opted to break out (or be clowned) and began her inaugural Friendship Tour!

Both delight and psychophysiospiritual necessity, my tour loosed me from the Atlantic and led me clear across to the Pacific and those fantastic Hollywood Hills. Thank you Lord, for, you see, once the wheels of that jumbo jet touched the tarmac, my shackles broke and my spirit was set free.

And didn't your DivaCardista play La Tourista to the hilt. We went to the Rose Garden, The Science Museum, saw our first IMAX film (scared me half to death, everything just about to eat everything else...thank you, Mr. Brad Pitt aka The Narrator...next time, warn us about the grizzliness about to ensue up under the beautiful blue, ok?), wove through USC campus, went to a fierce wrap party for my multitalented Television Writer pal Anthony (held in some delightfully offbeat architectural oddity that looked like The Goth Hilton)...and, most importantly, spent time with my fantastic friends at their gorgeous home with a kidney shaped pool and, yes, room for a wee pony.

Speaking of which, I really loved waking to the pitter patter of two and a half year old feet. Said feet belong to none other than wee Diva Olivia Pearl, my friends' pride & joy. And did she and I have a blast! My favorite part was when we fingerpainted together. Now that was great, as it has been a minute since I've worked in that medium. She is truly a bright light in this world and I am so glad to have finally met her.

During my stay in LA -- just three nights/four days, because of the whole fish & house guest theory -- my friends & I had the happy opportunity to see fantastic Miss Fantasia just doing it right in the record-breaking Lifetime special "Life is Not a Fairy Tale". Mph mph mph! What a wonderful piece. She and Miss Debbie Allen did the doggone thing! And the fantastically ubiquitous Miss Loretta Devine (whom, I am happy to say, I also saw last night on "Everybody Hates Chris" as Chris' maternal grandma) better just go on with her badd self.

And then it was off to see my goodfolk in the Midwest.

Rolled up in Chicago, feeling all kinda good from LA only to experience new delights in the truly new & improved downtown Chicago. Got to see the amazing outdoor sculpture known as The Bean; The jazz was just great; the beach was...well, janky, but still enjoyable as my entrepreneurably lovely galpal Ally took me past it and onto my first (drumroll please) totally tricked out sailboat! (And I helped!) Learned a bit about rigging & physics all whilst chilling in the middle of the freshwater pond known as Lake Michigan.

I even got to see my Chicago alma mater and one of my dear professors, who is gently recovering from a bit of a fall.

Dear folk, all.

And then, enriched, enlivened & considerably refreshed, I returned to my little home near the Diva in the harbour just in time for the next verse of the neverending song that is @*&% Medicaid.

All in all, We truly hope you & yours enjoy this Labor Day Weekend and the last breeze of summer.

Blessings,
DivaCardista

Was it HOT Enough For You?

Now that the heat has THANKFULLY dropped to a happy summery 85 or so degrees and I don't need to run and stick my head in the freezer between keystrokes, here are some of the things your DivaCardista has been up to:

MOVIES:
I went to see the Wayans "Little Man" and laughed out loud for the first time in about a week. (In the heat, too hot to laugh.) It's good to see a Wayans movie every so often. They are so silly. Crafty, too. It was a typical Wayans movie plus a heaping helping of Warner Brothers' Baby Buggy Bunny with a soupçon of Robert Townsend to make the hard edges a bit softer and to bring the requisite tear to the eye.

Plus the theatre was cool.

Also...

In search of something else in my 11x21 manse I found a new favorite: "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". (Thank you, Mr. Kellogg!) Now by this point everyone knows that Ms. Monroe was actually quite the smart cookie, however breathy. But hardly anyone talks about her dancing.
Girlfriend could move! Jane Russell could hold it down when she had her featured solos, but when she was next to Marilyn, Dear Jane looked like a teamster in drag. (Overly harsh? Maybe. But you watch them together as the film progresses and tell me if you don't see what I see.)

The casting was great, because as soon as Jane got too acidic, here comes the breathy sweetness of Marilyn. And even those with a few lines were on point.

But, um...

What was the deal with the Bondage Girls on the chandelier? Much less the gymnasts in the scene by the pool? & what's with those 1953 pre-spandex/pre-speedo mostly flesh tone shorts? Maybe we are simply too young to fully understand Director Hawks' intentions in those moments, but overall, this classic is funny, fascinating, tuneful and nobody's fluff piece. Of course, I would love to see it done today with a muti-culti cast. Beyonce would make a hysterical Loreli.

HOT THINGS:
There was this tea that called itself "Hot Love" that I tried lately that tasted more like hot socks.

Which brings us, of course to the demise of "Hot Feet" the recently closed Earth, Wind & Fire dance outing on Broadway. I think that one of the reasons it closed so soon is because it focused its title on those who would be moving to/through the music. Not on the music, which would have drawn more people. If they called it "Gratitude" or "Reasons" or "Love's Holiday" DivaCardista believes in her heart that this show would still be playing. If you can say the title and begin humming immediately, well, there's half of your marketing right there.

Ah, me. Well, I have to go upstate to a family picnic. Should be fun.

So long as the Good Lord doesn't decide to turn the heat back to broil.

Stay hydrated!

Blessings,
DivaCardista

Fake PayPal SPOOF Alert!!!

Now you know it is too hot for all this.

And thus I write today.

While taking care of business over at blessedstar cards, I get the following letter allegedly from PayPal. So, not knowing, I take the bait. And I even transfer some money while I'm on the "site". Only to discover PayPal has absolutely NOTHING to do with these e-thieves!

So, here is

• a warning
• a copy of the FAKE PayPal letter. (please DO NOT USE links. ONLY for demo)

"Subject :
RE: Message ID 8101035 - Alert Message

Dear valued PayPal? member,

We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your
PayPal account may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting
the security of your account and of the PayPal network is our primary
concern.
Therefore, as prevention measure, we have temporarely limited access
to sensitive PayPal account features.We encourage customers to get their
information up-to-date and change password often.PayPal has assigned you an
unique tracking number. Unique tracking number :327440471Please review your
information after loging in. Use only your assigned unique URL.Click this link
to access your unique URL (! please read below for security tips) and gain full
access: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run
For
more information about how to protect your account, please visit PayPal's Security Center.We
apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your assistance
in helping us maintain the integrity of the entire PayPal system. Thank you for
your prompt attention to this matter."

Can you believe this mess? Now I have to take time & energy to do damage control.

Now, to their credit, the real PayPal has responded with great sensitivity and speed.
Still, I pray this doesn't happen to you.

And if you remember nothing else, remember this:
PayPal always addresses you by NAME. Never a number or "valued PayPal member".

Please pass this on so that we all can have a good August, safe internet transactions and, above all, peace.

Blessings,
DivaCardista

Even Better Than Miss Black Person USA!

On this beautifully sweltering last day of July I want to give a shout to Lehigh Valley in the great state of Pennsylvania for voting that great woman of good works Mrs. Helen Willis, RN, (Godsister of DivaCardista) NAACP Woman of the Year & for her mayor declaring it Helen Willis Day!

It was for this cause the family & I jumped into the family BMW this past Saturday and made our way to the celebration whose theme was Vote Your Values and Value Your Vote. What a wonderful celebration with such a necessary message.

So glad to be in the number.

Now, it really is a heatwave, good people of the Northeast, so as you go about doing good works these next few days, do stay hydrated and take good care of yourselves!

Blessings,
DivaCardista