My lens and me…

I was planning to head out to Pittsburg for NYE, but I’m all blocked up, and a 6 hour train ride would do me no good right now.  So happy new year from my cozy chair, soy cocoa in hand.

Peace,
Melissa

My 2007 Xmas Tree

Happy holidays!  Xmas…Channukah…Kwanza…Solstice…whatevah…

Life is good - love my apartment, my art, my filmmaking, my joy of living!  It’s wonderful to realize happiness is a choice, and the easy part is choosing it.  (It’s getting rid of the things that don’t support my happiness that has been a long chore, near completion).

2008 - I’m looking forward to it, in more ways than one.

Ornaments Up Close

Blessings and peace,
Melissa

I recently did several spots about Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel. Check out more of them on YouTube.com!

Peace,
Melissa

 

 Mike Gravel 30 Sec Spot 2 [0:31m]: Play Now | Download (207)

I’m working hard on the first pieces of video for the new site Broadway.tv.  Its going to be a fantastic resource, full of reviews, interviews and entertaining pieces on the people who make Broadway tick.

I’ll have a link up when the site launches, later this month.

Peace,
Melissa

J. Booze, Twinkling Away…

Another great event at XS in York, PA.  Pix soon to be uploaded in the photography section.

Peace,
Melissa

The Sounds in LA

Tristan Prettyman opens in San Francisco, San Diego and Long Beach

G Love & Special Sauce headline in San Francisco, San Diego and Long Beach

I’m back home…pix of the shows soon to be uploaded in the photographer section.

Peace,
Melissa

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
- Harold R. McAlindon

My life has been a study in blazing. Sometimes I scorch as I blaze. Sometimes I barely glow, dimmed and alone and wondering where the darkness is leading. The way before me has never been set or solid, lit or leisurely. Hard work, harder times, hardening heart against the anger that comes from all sides for not being a polite cog in the machine.

And then its clear, the tiny voice in my heart, led by love, courage and determination, to do what is right and good. I hold on to that at times, when I get knocked off kilter, or when the opportunity to gain advantage in an improper way presents itself seductively. The fear that comes out as hate towards me can be deafening, but for that one tiny light of love. I spread, I embrace, I tackle and confront.

This little light of mine sure does know how to shine. Bonfire bright and supernova explosive, it can outsize me and burn off the worry, the fear and the frustration. To hold, alone, to what I need to be and believe, despite a whirlwind of spin and media madness, is both a blessing and a curse. I have not chosen to be talented, to be driven, to be wholly who I must, but there is no other choice. Crazy is the term applied sometimes, even by myself. The mad and majestic share the same kind of perception - crazy enough to see a vision and determined enough to seek it out.

I’m a catalyst, a maverick, a troublemaker. I know it, and while for the longest time it vexed me, I grew to love what I am, for my role is necessary, especially in these times of mass media zombification. I’m the bug in your ear, the pebble in your shoe, the sun bright and blazing in your eye. Sometimes whisper soft, most times hammer hard, I make change happen around me, often not even of my own will, but in reaction to who and what I am.

And when I shine, the universe blessed me fireworks and bombs bursting in air. I draw light in darkness, an alchemist of art. I am blessed and grateful, for both the bitter and the sweet, and more for the other fires I can light in and under others.

Peace,
Melissa

Gratitude 12 2 2007 - M. Ulto

Grateful…

I am grateful
Grated, crushed, reborn
Full of light, love, purpose
Struggle has polished me
Not diamond hard but
Soft like old jeans
Sweet smelling and lovely
Deep as down
Lightly substantial
Loosely connected
To all things, I’m understood

I am peaceful
Though storms tore me
Lies rend me still
Hate has been bile
Expelled by the Universe’s hand
Thumping my back
Each whack a lesson
Each cough a crime undone
Each tear forgiving forever
Wings brushed my wet brow
And blessed me whole

I am abundant
With dreams and visions
Comrades and friends
Who remind me when silence falls
That I am never alone
Money has no hold
Give me a mansion
And I will fill it with orphans
Give me a diamond
And I will sell it back
To fund truth and beauty

I am free!
I can sing, I can speak, I can dance
I can say things many want unsaid
I can feast on fruit
And wheat bread
And be sated by the blessing
Of my love, my art, my soul
Of course I’m crazy to many
Who cling to old things
And strive for old ways
And choke on words not their own

I am
I am the I am
I be, I see, I live, I love
Nothing holds me
For it all belongs
Sometimes for moment
All time for eternity
And in between
There is the music of voices rising
Eyes opening wide
And this world alive in me anew

Peace,
Melissa