FAREWELL...BEA ARTHUR

Beatrice Arthur, the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star in the hit shows "Maude" and "The Golden Girls" and who won a Tony Award for the musical "Mame," died Saturday, April 25th. She was 86.

Arthur was born in New York City, but she grew up in Cambridge, Maryland. She became a medical technologist before World War II, when she volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps, becoming one of its first female recruits.

On a personal note, no one can delivery that "silent take" before a punchline so well. You'll be laughing before the punchline and laugh even harder when it's delivered. You'll be truly missed.

DISNEY's 1st AFRICAN AMERICAN PRINCESS:TIANA

That's right folks! Joining Snow White, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Cinderella, Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Belle (Beauty & the Beast) and even Jasmine (Aladdin) and Mulan in the team of Disney Princesses will be Tiana from "The Princess & the Frog" set to premiere in November 2009. She will be Disney's very first African American Princess. I am extremely excited about this.
There is already 'talk" of it turning into a Broadway Musical! (What won't Disney put on Broadway? "101 Dalmations: The Musical" is already casting!)

PLEASE VOTE #16

One of my Godson's is participating in a marketing competition. Please, please read below and vote for #16. Thank you for your help!

Dear Friends,

One of our companies, Balaya, is involved in a competition, which if we win, would mean huge things for us. I won’t bore you with all of the details, but it’s BIG.
Bottom line, part of this competition is a video contest. Balaya and about 20 other companies made one minute videos to describe themselves. The company whose video gets the most votes moves on to the next round. Would you watch ours and vote for it afterwards? We think it’s pretty funny, and hope you might too.
The video can be viewed here:

http://tagtvonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=137

Balaya’s video is number 16. Please give it a look, then click the “Vote here” link near the top of the page. Pick Balaya from the dropdown menu and hit submit. Voting is open until April 29.

Thanks so much for your consideration!
Jerry Lustan
The Balaya Team
http://www.balaya.com/
P.S. If you like our video, and would be willing to pass this info on to any friends or colleagues, we would certainly appreciate that as well!

MUFFIN TOP

Just recently, Aria was getting dressed out of her school uniform and into street clothes. She was running around asking where a certain pair of jeans were.
I said, "What about the ones that I just washed? They are out of the dryer and I folded it. It's on the couch."
She looks at them and said, "I am looking for the darker pair of jeans that are capris."
I returned, "What's wrong with the one's on the couch?"
She says, "I haven't worn those jeans since I was 8 years old and they are small."
I then say, "No they aren't. They were huge when you wore them at 8. So, they should fit fine now."
So, she puts on the jeans from the couch just to appease me in front of the living room mirror and then quickly takes them off again. "I have "muffin top", she says and returns to looking for the darker pair of jeans.
I exclaimed, "What?"
She then explains what "muffin top" is.
It's when you have "extra" hanging over the pants.(Pictured above)
I never heard of this, but found it so hilarious and kinda cute in a way coming from Aria.
It must be a big trend that never dies, cause I have been seeing "muffin top" for many years. :)

25th HELEN HAYES AWARDS

My daughter, Aria was extremely excited about attending this year's Helen Hayes Awards because I promised her, "If I get nominated, you may go this time." Well....technically, I was nominated under the category, "Outstanding Ensemble for Resident Musical." So, Aria went to her first Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony last night and the 25th annual Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony to boot!

It was very nice to see my daughter all glamoured up with her hair and make-up done, the jewelry gleaming, working the high-heeled shoes, a sequenced cocktail dress and grandma's fur coat to top it off.

As usual, the ceremony ran an hour too long with the special recognition of Artistic Directors, the memoriam of actors that have passed away, The Washington Post Award and the new "Outstanding Actor Award in a Resident Play" renamed the Robert Prosky Award.

Actually, I found the musical numbers highly entertaining starting with the opening spoof off of "Lion King Opening", the "Fiddler on the Roof/Tradition" spoof about the people that make up a theatre production, the "Guys & Dolls/Fugue for Tinhorns" spoof to honor the HH sponsors and even the "Camelot" spoof to sing the 80 plus artistic directors to their seats.

Then something weird happened. They ended the evening singing, "Seasons of Love" from "Rent". People started to laugh thinking this was another spoof. but it wasn't...just awkward!

Overall, the evening was very exhilarating even though "Jerry Springer: The Opera" didn't snag any awards. Congrats to my friends in Signature's production of "Les Miz".

It's always nice to be with everyone and anyone who is someone in the theatre scene of the DC metropolitan area It's just one big reunion for theatre folks.

CROCS at POTOMAC MILLS

YEAH!!!! The Crocs Store is finally in the area at Potomac Mills.
I bought a pair of my favorite shoe, "The Venture"
$20.00 cheaper than what I pay for them online. Only $15.00 at the store.
I swear by these shoes. They got rid of some heel pains I was getting. They are made of that same lightweight molded foam rubber that absorbs any shock you may be experiencing. These particular shoes are very fashionable and don't look ugly like the ones with the holes. For the record, I have never owned a pair of those Crocs with the holes. My daughter, Yes with the shoe trickets as well to go in the holes.

DEPRESSED? LET'S GO to the MOVIES...

Lately, I have been trying to find things to do while waiting for Aria to finish each day from her show at the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre. I have been driving around seeing alot of businesses close around the Woodbridge area Just days ago, the Exxon on the corner of Jefferson Davis Highway and 123 closed. Pumps gone and store boarded up ...How depressing?! Woodbridge can be compared to the life of a rusty nail within days.

So, I have been wasting time at the AMC Potomac Mills. Here's the movies I have seen thus far.

Since Beng and Aria hate horror movies, I decided to go indulge myself in some horror movies. I went to see the remake of "The Last House of the Left". This type of horror movie is all about revenge on the "Bad Guys". It's really strange cheering for the most gruesome death on the "Bad Guys". It kinda makes you a Sado-Masochist.

On the other hand, there is supernatural horror. I went to see "Haunting in Connecticut". It's based on a true story much like "The Amityville Horror". Tjhough the story has a conclusion probably dreamed up by Hollywood.

Then it was enough of that and into a different type of supernatural film..."Knowing" with Nicholas Cage. It was a good movie, but wait is up with movies lately and Aliens? Are movies being influeneced by Scientology?

Last night, I really was waiting to catch something new. I didn't think I was going to make it to see the teen comedy, "Adventureland", since I was already 15 minutes late, but I guess movies have alot of commericials these days cause I got there at the beginning of the movie.

This movie was far from a comedy, but more of a sadden love story.

The movie was hard to swallow at first due to these reasons:

1) It was suppose to be 1987 and it felt more like 1979

2) These were students going into grad school and it felt more like high school.

3) The art of the movie itself was edited much like that grainy 70's porn feel rather than an 80's porn feel. The difference of 70's porn is shot on film and hairy actors with feathered hair and 80's porn is shot on video and overly manicured actors with permed mullets. Thanks to my friends who supplied me with the AMC movie cards. Overall, I have been enjoying my escape to the movies.