Saturday Morning Waikiki

A  L  O  H  A !

F E A R

Shrinks from everything

 G R A T I T U D E

Grows

Everything Good.

" Too many people 

overvalue what they are not 

and undervalue 

what they are. "

Malcolm S. Forbes

> < } } (°>

' Take Peace & Smiles - Leave Your Comment '

Thanks for visiting!

                                Warmly, cloudia

Money Song

A  L  O  H  A !

 “ Pilgrimage to 

the place of the wise 

is to find escape 

from the flame of 

separateness.” 


Rumi

" Your task is not

 to seek for Love,

 but merely to seek 

and find 

all the barriers 

within yourself that 

you have built 

against it. "

Rumi

“ To praise the sun 

is to praise 

your own eyes. ” 

Rumi


 ><}}(°> ~


Today's song,

"Love Bites"
by Def Leopard,

came on 
the radio
this morning.

I knew it in 4 notes.

The flashbacks began
soon after.

Imperceptibly
my body rocked;
Sinuously.

Some things
you never forget.

New in Honolulu,
late 1980's,
parting that curtain
separating noon sun
from dank
strip club. . . .

Wasn't THIS
ALWAYS the song
playing? Look,
Savanna is on stage
not awake yet.

I flew in from Kona,
danced noon
to midnight
Friday & Saturday.

Had adventures
after hours
till early Sunday's
morning flight.

Made a lot 
of Kala
(money)
with that song!

Long may it
make me
wave!

If today's topic
"Cloudia stripping for money"
is news to you,
click on the book 
at the top of this blog
and read my whole,
very cool,
Hawaii story.

[ Hope I haven't
lost anyone!
But hey,
gotta speak my truth,
and at this age
I like to reminisce
about show biz dayz. ]

We just got to 
the illusive
500 Friends' Faces
in the sidebar.
!!!HooRaY!!!

Just in time
to  learn some truth
all from a song;

Thanks friends.
Please DO come back
tomorrow
when normal
uplifting
programing
continues.

Warmly, Desiree
er, I mean Cloudia
(heh heh)

Fifty Years On

A  L  O  H  A !

Fifty years ago 

yesterday, 

over 250,000 civil-rights 

marchers came to Washington DC.

To march for jobs, voting rights,

 and social equality.

The marchers, from all over America, 

heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s

 “I Have a Dream” speech that day.

But the TV news cameras

 had already left.

 Those famous words were NOT 

in the written speech,

or prominently reported. 

Majorities of white Americans

 around that time told pollsters

 they thought that

 Dr. King 

was a troublemaker. 

"  - We would do well to recall

 that day itself also belonged 

to those ordinary people 

whose names never appeared

 in the history books,

 never got on TV.

Many had gone to segregated schools

 and sat at segregated lunch counters,

 had lived in towns where they couldn't vote,

 in cities where their votes didn't matter.

 There were couples in love who couldn't marry, 

soldiers who fought for freedom abroad 

that they found denied to them at home. 

They had seen loved ones beaten 

and children fire- hosed. 

And they had every reason 

to lash out in anger 

or resign themselves to a bitter fate.

And yet they chose a different path. 

In the face of hatred, 

they prayed for their tormentors. 

In the face of violence, 

they stood up and sat in 

with the moral force of nonviolence.

 Because they marched, 

America became more free 

and more fair, 

not just for African-Americans 

but for women and Latinos, 

Asians and Native Americans, 

for Catholics, Jews 

and Muslims, 

for gays, 

for Americans with disabilities.

America changed 

for you and for me.

And the entire world 

drew strength from that example, "

President Obama

Yesterday,

 50th anniversary 

of the March on Washington

50 years. Half a Century.

It has been a long road.

I was glad to be a child,

too young to face the terrors

of a ride a bus through angry counties,

to register voters, to face police dogs,

spittle, shouts, shots, fire, explosion,

like Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney

had. Link

Thank You for sharing my memories,
for listening to my experience
of history;
and thanks for 
sharing Your Own!

Your Friend, cloudia

Lifetime Friend

A  L  O  H  A  !

"Keep true

 to the dreams 

of your youth. "

Friedrich von Schiller

Farewell Noodle  (what it is here: LINK )

" A loving person 

lives in a loving world.

 A hostile person

 lives in a hostile world. 

Everyone you meet 

is your mirror."

Ken Keyes

" You can't build joy

 on a feeling 

of self-loathing. "

Ram Dass

Every August I post a tribute 

to a great friend,

a lifetime friend,

 that I lost a long time ago.

I never fail to think of him during his birth month,

 and smile at his "issues" about sharing it

 with National Clown Month!

You were no clown Carl.

I'll never forget you.

I was 15 in a new neighborhood.

The High School I attended was a big, modern red brick factory, a "good" school. But I found it rather dehumanizing.

While the Beatles sang, and I attended the first Earth Day in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, my school was run by crew-cutted, career educators who believed in instilling certain values in the boys and girls in order to stem the tide of psychedelic social rebellion that they abhorred.

Criticism had not yet been supplanted by "self esteem."

Then I met a boy 

who lived a couple of miles away

 and attended another school,

 where he was the butt of abuse

 for being dark and quiet 

with amazingly expressive brown eyes.

Carl's House, Google Street View

The bullys loved to see

 pain register

 in those eyes

and they called him 

The Mexican.

He was actually Jewish,

 with a grandfather who had escaped

 poverty, sanctioned abuse, 

and a forced 20 year stretch 

in the Russian Army,

 by leaving Russia on horse back;

 and who had a picture of himself 

smoking a hookah with some sepia 

Turkoman traders. 

"Fuck the Czar" he always began

 when asked about those days.

 I cannot hear anything about the Czar 

on the History Channel or anywhere else 

without muttering "Fuck the Czar" 

under my breath in tribute to the old man.

One time, Carl (my friend)

 tried to shock grandpa

 by inviting him to smoke 

some hash with us.

"Hashish?! He asked incredulously.

"You want to smoke hashish!? - 

Hashish you EAT!!!!!"

We laughed about that for years.

Heck, I still do!

We were both carrying some baggage, OK, 

full baggage-cars FULL of baggage.

We hid out together in his bedroom 

and he taught me everything 

about classic films, though people called them

 "old movies" then, 

and they papered late night TV 

clotted with commercials.

He showed me the classic movie goddesses and heroes.

We learned about history, sociology, and culture.

Together we gasped at Busby Berkley's choreography,

and Cagney's style.

We especially loved the film noir of the 50's

 which spoke well to the lingering, sooty

 Philadelphia that we lived in.

Our lives entwined.

Sometimes we'd drive to Chinatown

 in his mom's Mercury at 3 am for Wor Shu Op

 (Pressed Duck) at the old South China on 10th street.

 One night, Jerry Stiller (Frank Costanza LINK) walked in

 to get take out; he was performing in town 

with his wife: Stiller & Meara. 

Their kid, Ben, was in footsie pajamas - 

not comedy movies - back then.

Carl and I learned about life together. 
We grew up
 a bit.

"Your boyfriend's gay" 
my helpful parents pointed out. 

Eventually, Carl graduated, went to college,

 and moved to New York City

 as he had always dreamed. 

He was a professional sign language interpreter

 in the courts - learning everything

 about a fascinating reality.

He was free of his abusers,

 had respect, 

and had learned to respect

 himself.

It was the best time ever

 to be a gay man:

The 1970's in Manhattan!

He was so excited 

when they asked him to be

 one of the first sign language interpreters

 to perform on the front 

of the Broadway Stage.

There he was in the playbill!

Chopinsky had been shortened to Chopin.

He was beautiful, sought after, 

and sharing the stage with Tommy Tune,

 Honey Coles and

 Twiggy 

in "My One and Only."

Just one of many productions

 that featured him.

During intermission,

 the hearing audience 

was buzzing about how they

 couldn't take their eyes off

 the guy signing.

And Tommy Tune 

was dancing at his peak then!

Then lots of guys started to get sick.

Carl's kidneys failed and he went on relief

 and on dialysis.

His outer beauty (so important to us then)

 dimmed - but his soulful eyes

 grew only richer and deeper.

I can close my eyes 

and look into them still.

I visited him before moving to Hawaii.

But we would always stay close.

So much of each other, 

so many memories and landmarks 

shared. . . .

Carl died in the AIDS epidemic.

A famed psychic 

once told me that two friends 

who have passed 

accompany me through life.

Perhaps I'll tell you about 

the other friend on another occasion.

But I know the one of them

is Carl.

We used to say:

 "If I close my eyes, you are still there.

There is more to our friendship

 than what can be touched or heard."

So true.

I often wonder how middle-aged me 

looks to forever young 

and handsome Carl. 

Some day we'll laugh about it.

If your friend(s) of adolescence 

are still in this world,

 call them today. 

Tell them Carl and I 

say "Aloha."

You can read more about our times here: LINK

A L O H A, True Friend

                                                cloudia