It's Holiday Season, and I'm Full of GLEE!

I have to take a moment to rave about my new favorite show. As with every show I end up watching regularly, I was a latecomer to the Glee phenomenon, not catching on until the 7th episode. But once I had seen them pop, I just couldn't stop.

A comedy set in small-town Ohio, Glee follows the EXTREMELY talented (if offbeat and nerdish) members of the high school Glee Club through the trials and tribulations of high school life: unrequited love, bullies, the odd identity crisis, and fake pregnancies. True, I haven't watched from the beginning, so I can't comment on plot development or continuity. The writing seems consistent, and though it is not amazing, there are moments when the humour catches me by surprise.

What keeps me watching, aside from the sharp humor, is the sheer pleasure of seeing a group of talented individuals get jiggy with it on TV. Not for a generation has serial television embraced song and dance with such panache, and I can't help but be grateful to the Fox network for bringing the Glee Clubbers into my living room. This is series television's antidote to the mind-numbingly endless stream of reality television, and it leaves me wanting to boogie through my living room after every show.

I'll admit it: I'm an official Gleek.

Thanks for stopping by.

Celebrating a Living Legend

I had the pleasure a couple weeks ago of learning that Bill Cosby had been chosen to receive the Mark Twain Award for Contribution to American Comedy. As I watched the taped tribute and ceremony, the realization dawned on me that when I was growing up, Bill Cosby was everywhere. I watched him on television every morning in the children's show The Electric Company, right after 3-2-1-Contact and Sesame Street. Every afternoon, my family guffawed and snickered our way through the Huxtable family's antics on The Cosby Show. In between television shows, I watched him dance and get silly as he plugged Jello. And every night, when my mother had run out of stories and lullabies, she would put on a tape or a record for my sister and I to fall asleep to. There were a few to choose from, but the most popular was our Fat Albert record. I lay awake every night not falling asleep to Bill Cosby's brilliant wisecracks and one-liners. His "Hey, hey, hey!" still rings in my ears and brings a smile to my face.

As I look back on my life as a parent, and as a performer and a storyteller, I realise that Bill Cosby's influence is there throughout everything. It is there in my timing, in my pacing, in the books I read, in the way I handle my children. Echoes of a man I watched perform so long ago, in so many incarnations, are seamlessly interwoven with all of the other influences - teachers, parents, books, films - that have changed me and shaped me throughout my life.

I still have a long way to go, but I am a better performer for having grown up with Bill Cosby in my living room. And the world is a better place for having had him in it.

Thanks, Dr. Cosby. You deserve this award.

And thanks for stopping by.

Lots of flus means not much news

You've probably noticed my absence from the blogosphere in the last several days. Our house has been infected with what feels like every flu and cold imaginable, and of course, as the Mom, I was the only one left standing to wipe noses, administer medications, serve soups, and generally keep it all together.

Now that my hubby is back to work and my son is going back to school tomorrow, the end is in sight, and I can have the laptop back! So look for new posts in the coming days.

Thanks for stopping by,
Ishta