Don't tell me not to live
Just sit and putter
Life's candy and the sun's
A ball of butter
Don't bring around a cloud
To rain on my parade! (‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’/Julie Styne)
1942, Barbra Joan Streisand born.1964, Funny Girl premiered on Broadway. 1968, Funny Girl premiered at the movies. 1968 and a half, I fell in love with Barbra Joan Streisand. No, one comes out of the closet as a fan of Barbra…one does not come out of the closet loving Broadway musicals…no one comes out of the closet enjoying sounds, sights, colors, and storytelling with lavish costumes…I was born Caucasian, brown hair, brown eyes (damn my father had blue eyes), I had my tonsils (removed at 5 years of age), still have my appendix (my sister Bonnie was rushed to the hospital and I remember to this day that she wanted to wear her pretty pajamas), I was a very good track and field competitor, I almost failed Geometry, BUT give me a writing project, ask me for a creative idea and to embellish it, I AM YOUR PERSON. To this day, anything BARBRA is still exciting for me, except for the fact that until the day she turned 67, and I turned 60, I had never realized just how close in age we both were…I had considered her a MILF! (only kidding, but actually thought of her as the same age as perhaps an older relative. (I am sad to discover so many people I adored are in fact closer to my age or younger!) Oh, and by the way, there was never a closet I chose, but society preferred to build one for me, and sadly at first I accepted the offer!
For those who are Streisand adverse, and swear they NEVER ever liked her or viewed ‘Funny Girl,’ the scene in which the song ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ takes place has Barbra, putting her foot down, and taking action…first a streetcar, then a train and finally a Tug Boat, as she panoramically is shown leaving Manhattan…sort of breaking free (kind of a prelude to the movie “Titanic, minus the iceberg and Leonardo DiCaprio) My point being, that Barbra had enough, was finished and decided to leave. She may have told us via lyrics and music by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, but her actions made the drama movie beyond if only and took the audience toward more of “A YOU GO GIRL!”
The pace of evacuation flights out of Kabul accelerated today after a double suicide-bomb attack that killed 13 US troops and 72 Afghans – the deadliest day for US troops in more than a decade. Joe Biden addressed the masterminds behind the attack in an update to the nation yesterday, telling them: “We will hunt you down and make you pay.” (The Guardian) I support President Biden. I believe his intention is for good and better to triumph. I think most elected officials identifying as Republicans could give a shit about good and better. Life is not a musical, but perhaps it might be. President Joe Biden, don’t tell us what you may or may not do regarding these TERRORISTS, JUST DO IT. Tell us about after they have been destroyed. Watch a musical. Oftentimes saying goodbye is saccharine and sugary, actually doing the deed and then singing about can cause a standing ovation!
