TO HEAR MY MUSIC NOW - WWW.MYSPACE.COM/CANDYEKANEBAND

Seven Time San Diego Blues award winner, Candye Kane will embark on a three-week tour of the Netherlands from October 26 to November 12.

Kane has assembled a stellar band for this amazing and philanthropic tour, United by Music. www.unitedbymusic.nl The band features former Mighty Flyers Bassist Bill Stuve, Canadian saxophonist Johnny Ferreira, Harp player Billy Watson, Boogie woogie pianist Sue Palmer, trumpeter Robbie Smith, Guitarist Heine Andersen and Drummer Evan Caleb.

United By Music, in the planning stages for over a year, features native Dutch singers who have overcome various levels of disabilities, performing onstage. These young adults competed with other young hopefuls, for a chance to appear onstage with the Candye Kane band. All will perform songs in English. The repertoire includes blues standards, Candye Kane songs and some of the guest singer's own original compositions. This inspirational program has been a transformative experience for both the singers and musicians involved, as they overcame obstacles and stereotypes and came together to share the healing powers of blues music.

While in Amsterdam, Kane will record a track with Ana Popovic. Kane's spring 2007 release on RUF Records, her eighth CD; will include the song "Female Trouble" written for the John Waters film of the same name, by drag queen diva, Divine. Kane's upcoming release will be produced by blues legend Bob Margolin and features guest guitar performances by Popa Chubby, Nick Curran, Junior Watson, Poison Ivy of The Cramps, Dave Alvin, Sue Foley, Kid Ramos and Bob Brozman. The bulk of the recordings will be done in early January 2007 in Hollywood's New King Sound studio.

December will find Candye back on the road in the states, visiting the

Northwestern part of the USA, with dates in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and beyond.

For press information contact:

Nancy Edwards: rufpublicity@tampabay.rr.com

For photos of the United by Music tour: www.unitedbymusic.nl

CANDYE KANE ON TOUR

10/27 Special Needs Tour of the Netherlands/www.Unitedbymusic.nl

10/28 Baarn/ kickoffshow/ ASVZ Groep 7:00 pm
10/29 Nieuw Dijk/ Dieckse Heeren   Fatima 2:00 pm

10/30 amsterdam/ recording session with ana popovic www.studiodekeuken.nl
10/31 Rotterdam / De Kuip/ ASVZ Zuid West 7:00 pm
11/01 Den Dolder / Robbedoes / Reinaerde 7:00 pm
11/02 Alkmaar/ Atlantis / De Waerden – 8:00 pm
11/04 Udenhout   Vincentius / ASVZ Zuid West 7:30 pm
11/05 Baarn / Circustent / Amerpoort Asvz
11/07 Lelystad /de Pijler / triAde
11/08 Sliedrecht   de Ark / ASVZ Zuid West 4:00 pm
11/09 Sliedrecht de Ark / sponsorshow 6:00 pm
11/10 Sliedrecht de Ark / ASVZ Zuid West

11/18 San Diego, CA/ Tio Leos/ Candye's Scorpio birthday party!!! With scorpios Sue Palmer, Steve Wilcox and other special guests! All scorps get in half price!

11/19 Leucadia/ Calypso restaurant with sue palmer

11/24 Solana Beach, Ca/ Belly Up Tavern happy hour 530 –8:00

11/25 Long Beach, CA/ The Blue Café ! with laurie morvan, klezmer juice, izzy cox

11/29 Seattle Wa/ The Wet Spot/ www.wetspot.org

11/30 Bellingham, Wa/ Wild Buffalo

12/1 Port Townsend, Wa/ The Upstage

12/2 Salem, Oregon/ Leftys Pizzeria

12/3 Portland, Or/ Starkys

12/4 Portland, Or/ Duffs Garage

12/8 Philipsville, CA/ Riverview Inn

12/9 San Francisco, CA/ Biscuits and Blues

12/14 San Francisco, CA/ Good Vibrations Holiday party www.goodvibes.com

12/16 Huntington Beach/ New Blue Café w: Devil Doll, Klezmer Juice

12/17 Leucadia/ Calypso restaurant with sue palmer

12/30 Tracy, California/ Private Party

12/31 New Years EVE! San Jose/ JJs

1/8 – 1/17 record new cd in hollywood at www.thenewkingsound.com

Jean-Paul Gaultier recently used a plus sized model in his Paris runway show. Velvet D'Amour, an American - Paris based actress and model, took the runway in an apparent statement about the Spanish ban on anorexic looking fashion models.

D'Amour was quoted as saying "Diversity is what is important. Whether you are saying a model is too fat or too skinny, it's still wrong." D'Amour, regrettably, seems to be missing the point.

To put skinny discrimination and fat discrimination in the same category does a disservice to people all over the world who deal with this issue daily. YES, occasionally a thin person is accused of having an eating disorder but generally, thin people are the ideal and are depicted in all media as normal and happy, while fat people are laughed at, scorned and made to feel invisible. Skinny people in general, as I am sure Velvet knows firsthand, are not ridiculed and debased, discriminated against and openly joked about in the workplace and in the world.

Although Gaultier may have used her once, to emphasize his outsider status, she was merely a punctuation mark to make an insider joke. Gaultier, who is most famous for the corset bra he designed for Madonna, has only used a large-sized model once every decade; maybe. He does not have a plus-sized line of fashion, or any plans to initiate one. Although large sized women comprise more than 75% of the fashion buyers in the United States, I doubt you will see a sudden trend towards inclusion of large-sized women in the fashion industry.

Although D'Amour has been invited before to model during Parisien designer week, once for Galliano and now JPG,  she will likely not be invited back. Although she is beautiful and courageous for taking the runway in front of so many thin worshippers, she was a pawn in a game of sizist fashion politics. Jean-Paul Gaultier is simply part of the problem. He doesn't really care about large sized women or our invisibility in the fashion world. If he truly did care, he wouldn't have used a fat girl to make a negligible point. He would launch his own large sized fashion line in an attempt to include us in the dialogue, and put his heart and money where his mouth is.

The fact that other designers have finally decided to take notice and limit some of the unhealthy, anorexic, bone thin fashion models on the runway is a step in the right direction towards changing cultural attitudes about body type.  I wonder if she used her ample opportunity with Gaultier to encourage him to start a large sized line that included her and her plus size sisters? He certainly has the clout and power to make major changes in the fashion world, but instead seems content to make provocative statements while doing nothing to change the status quo.

Lets face it; most of the time, no one is complaining when someone is too thin and wears a bikini at the beach. But when a fat girl does it, the public scorn is almost palpable.  I have had girls laugh right in front of me when I walked into the public restroom. "Oh my God! Did you see what she was wearing?" they pronounced loudly from the stall next to me. (Suddenly because I am fat, I must be deaf too!) These same girls are kissing my fat ass after my show is over and gushing over the music as they buy cds in an insincere attempt at redemption. I have had teenage boys yell at me from passing cars, as I ride my bike down Pacific Coast Highway. "Its not gonna work, Fatty!!" they proclaim as I ride red-faced to my destination, pretending not to hear them.

At the same time, I have had fans who struggle with anorexia and bulimia cry as they tell me that my song "The Toughest Girl Alive," or "Big Fat Mama's are back in style" has changed their life and their attitudes about themselves.

The fashion industry's insistence on cramming ultra-thin models down the  hungry collective throat of the world is a dangerous practice. Teenage girls grow up feeling inadequate and loathing their own bodies. Eating disorders are at an all time high. Some young girls have even resorted to suicide because they felt so ugly and fat. The fashion industry should wake up and smell the sweet n'low in their coffee and be accountable for the sickening trend they have perpetuated. People will still buy haute couture and prêt a porter fashion if its modeled by average, curvy and dare I say, fat women. In fact, I believe the high brow fashion designers will sell even more product when they market their wares to the majority of us who have imperfect bodies, instead of the anorexic few.

Jean- Paul Gaultier- a friend to fat girls? I don't buy it. Not only because it is insincere but because it doesn't even come in my size.

The latest crisis in the Middle East has brought out the collective fear of the entire world. Panicked talk of WWIII and Israels alleged over-reaction has brought out the same old arguments and anti-semitic rhetoric, blurring the lines between Israeli policy, the occupation of Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran into a big stew of misunderstanding and assumption. Why do the Jews beat up on poor, defenseless Arab nations? Why does the United States continue to back up Israel with funding and munitions? Why dont we let them solve their own problems? Why do we even have to have a Jewish State?

The volatile history of this region is clear, even to those who have never studied Middle Eastern affairs. Jews and Arabs have lived and fought in this area for 4000 years, long before the British Occupation in the early 1900's. The state of Israel was established in 1948 but governments and militants with an agenda have exploited the region and its peoples to their own advantage long before that, preying on people's fear, misinformation and religious differences to advance their various causes.

Now in the latest fray, violence erupted when the Palestinians dug a tunnel under the security wall in Israel, killing two soldiers and kidnapping a nineteen-year old Israeli. Israel reacted with her usual might, strategically targeting the homes of alleged militants and bulldozing buildings in Gaza and the West Bank. But this was not the business as usual, tit-for-tat retaliation that has numbed us to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. This time, it was different. Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon jumped into the brawl, murdering eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two more. With Hezbollah rockets poised to strike Israeli cities, Israel started bombing Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, stranding Americans and Europeans and ruining their vacation plans. One female evacuee on CNN, asked whom she blamed for her impending evacuation from Beirut said, "I hate Israel. Theyre so stupid. They ruined my vacation and for what?" Unfortunately, her statement reflects a whole attitude about this crisis. "Go ahead and blow each other up, kidnap and murder innocent people, but dont mess with my holiday!" Another evacuee said, "Why does the United States condone this kind of violence?"

Now that Lebanese and possibly Iranian militants, have jumped head first into the fight against Israel, to defend their Palestinian brethren against the evil U.S. and Israeli empire, this is a question that begs to be answered; Why does the USA give so much aid and money to Israel? Some blame the powerful Israeli American lobby, AIPAC. Some blame the same old "Jewish conspiracy" that has supposedly always existed. The fact is, Israel HAS been given large amounts of aid by the USA, and more aid than any other country outside the USA. This is amazing when you consider that only 4% of Americans are Jews. 4% hardly equals a Jewish conspiracy. In fact, a quick look at a map of the world will tell anyone that Arab nations outsize tiny Israel and the United States Jewish population tenfold.

The Palestinians have also been given billions of dollars from Americans, British, European and Arab special interest groups. Most of that money is sitting in a Swiss bank while the late Yasser Arafats wife lives in exile from Palestine, enjoying the sun in the south of France. She refuses to return to Palestine, because she doesnt want to give any of the money back!! That money could have been earmarked for Palestine's refugees; many who have lived their entire lives in tents in refugee camps. Arafat could have used the money to build homes for his own displaced people who hold onto hope that they will someday get their land back. He could have said to the people "Look, someday, we might get our land back, but meanwhile, we cant have you living in the dirt. Lets build some homes for you and shore up our educational system so we can become an economically viable country. Lets build a Hard Rock Cafe in Ramallah and build some resort hotels in Gaza so we can become a tourist destination. Lets develop our own land so we can be seen as a civilized state. Lets stop spending money and energy blowing ourselves up at bus stops and school cafeterias, and lets make our country a respected and better place to live, educate our people, so we can stop being victims and start being a force to be reckoned with." Arafat didnt do that. He failed his country, inflamed the rhetoric and blamed others for Palestines problems all the while lining his own pockets. Arafat was named one of Forbes richest men while his people lived in tents without running water. This is not the fault of Israel or the US government, though flawed both sometimes are.

Most of the land owned by Israelis, once belonged to Palestinians. There were aces and acres of olive groves and most of the land parcels were purchased from Palestinian farmers at a fair and equitable price. Much of the land in Israel that is "occupied" was empty land with no irrigation or development. It was only until the Israelis put in running water and built the land up, did the Palestinians suddenly want the land back. Israel did occupy some empty land illegally and slowly but surely, withdrew from Lebanon, has been withdrawing from the territories and will continue to do so, despite the fact that they are still being targeted by Hamas and Hezbollah with suicide bombs and rocket fire. This concept negates the whole "occupation" excuse for war. Israel is ending the occupation, yet continues to be the target of violence. Israel purchased much of the land fair and square, yet continues to be vilified as occupiers. My great grandfather once owned a building in lower Manhattan. He sold the building for $20,000, which was a fortune back in 1940. Now the property is worth millions. I hate it that my grandfather sold that building but I dont stand around lamenting that the new owners razed it and built luxury condos. I dont claim that the land belongs to me and was stolen from my family. It was his choice to sell the land and the new owners have improved it, as was their right.

Presidents Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Putin have condemned what they called Israels "over-reaction." I submit that if French or Russian soldiers were being murdered and kidnapped and there were rockets poised and ready to be launched into French and Russian cities, these presidents might take the same action to defend their countries. I am certain that if Mexican militants kidnapped our National Guard troops today and pointed rockets towards my city of San Diego, the USA would bomb Tijuana without even batting an eye. It happened before during the Cuban Missile crisis.

There have been mistakes and atrocities committed by both sides during this long and horrible Intifada. Put a rifle in the hands of an overzealous teenager and there may inevitably be some tragic consequences. But Israel has tried to be as careful as possible when targeting the homes of suicide bombers. While Israels government and military make mistakes and continue to make mistakes, it is not condoned to go into Arab schools and blow up innocent kids. When Israel makes mistakes, they apologize or at least acknowledge the mistake. They do not get bonuses from the government for killing innocent people, the way suicide bombers families are given a bonus if they kill a bunch of Israelis. Palestinian militants will blow themselves up in a Pizza restaurant full of tourists. Hezbollah targets Israel by daylight to maximize the casualties of innocents. Palestinian fighters often booby trap Gaza and West Bank buildings with explosives,   knowing full well that innocent families will die when the Israeli soldiers come into the buildings. Palestinian children are in the streets throwing rocks at tanks during Israeli operations. Where are the Mothers and Fathers of these children? Why arent they demanding that their children come home where they are safe, instead of letting them roam the streets while tanks roll by? Why isnt their government saying "Save your precious lives. Lets rebuild our country and fight this fight another day?" Because there is a basic difference in the value of human life; Human life is expendable with Hamas and Hezbollah. Murder is justified even if it means killing other Muslims for the cause of the Intifada. You cant negotiate with an enemy who is willing to blow themselves to smithereens and take YOU with them.

I have never heard a Palestinian American publicly condemn the act of suicide bombing. I have never seen a suicide bomber held accountable by their own government; because suicide bombing is condoned as a valid form of protest. As long as this is true, Israel must fight back. Pretty soon, we Americans will be fighting back too when militants make their way to our shopping malls and Wal-Mart stores and start blowing themselves up for their cause. This is the inevitable consequence of a war where there is no value placed on human life.

The fundamental difference between Israel and the Arab Nations is this; In Israel, you can find catholic churches, christian churches, synagogues and mosques. In Palestine, there are no synagogues. In fact, there are no synagogues in any of the Arab nations. This is the glaring difference between the Arab nations and the Israeli democracy. This is why the United States continues to support Israel. We dont need a Jewish conspiracy to have a reason to support freedom of religion and democracy. Thats what this country was founded on.

I have been to Israel many times. There are all kinds of Israelis who are not Jewish. There are christian, muslim and atheist Israelis. There are wiccans and buddhists and hindu Israelis. There are polish, french, russian, african, australian, vietnamese, ethiopian, morrocan, saudi, iranian, iraqi and palestinian israelis. Ever heard of a wiccan, iranian prostitute? She would be stoned to death in any Arab country. In Israel, she is free to practice her beliefs. That is why people of all faiths and races migrate to Israel. There are great jobs and opportunities for peace loving people including Arabs, in Israel. This is partly why Palestinians lamented the building of the wall. It made it harder for them to get to their jobs in Israel; jobs where they are paid much better than in their own communities in Palestine. Until the Palestinian government prioritizes and decides to create jobs and opportunities within its own future state, for its own citizens rather than fund fanaticism, this problem will continue to get worse.

Maybe we Americans should all give up our houses to the Native Americans? Arent we all occupiers in a sense? They lived here first and this was their land. They too were maligned by the government and pushed off their own land. But they finally got wise and started building casinos that have enriched the lives of their people and given them economic clout. The Palestinians need to build a Harrahs in Ramallah and start spending the money to educate their people. Then and only then will the situation change.

You and I will not be able to change a situation that has been twisted and exploited by both sides in one dialogue. But I think its important to have this dialogue with each other, and perhaps enlighten ourselves or at the very least, agree to disagree. There is an excellent book called "One Palestine Complete" by Tom Segev about the occupation of Palestine under the British mandate. It actually blames the British for the division between the Arabs and the Jews in that area.  The BBC in its relentless daily condemnations of Israel, takes no responsibility for it's own governments divisive and anti-semitic actions in the name of Imperialism.

Until each one of us, including Jews and Arabs worldwide are willing to stand up and take responsibility for our failures, mistakes and needless acts of violence, the violence will continue, unfortunately unabated. And when the beach front Harrahs and Hard Rock Cafe are built in the Gaza strip and tourists are finally made to feel safe in Palestine, I hope to be one of the first bands to play there. I will proudly play "Let there be Peace on earth" and hope for once that its message will finally be heard, loud and clear.

Holocaust Remembrance Day in Warsaw

My first official tour of 2006 starts tomorrow in Krakow, but I had a day off here in Warsaw and I decided to take a tour of the city, starting with the Jewish Section (or what is left of it.) I didnt even realize that it was Holocaust Remembrance Day until I turned on the TV this morning and saw footage of Israelis stopping their cars in the middle of the streets and getting out for a moment of reflection as the sirens blasted for two entire minutes. Knowing that it was a day of remembrance, made the tour even more special and poignant.

I have always wanted to visit Warsaw, the city depicted so movingly in the movie, The Pianist, with Adrien Brody and mentioned in detail by one of my favorite writers, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Warsaw once had the largest Jewish population in Europe. After six million Jews were annihilated during the Shoah, the Jewish cemetery, tragically, still holds the largest concentration of Jews in Europe.

Our tour guide was a darling Polish boy named Adam. He wasnt Jewish but he had an extensive knowledge about Judaism and its customs.  He was sensitive and kind and said he has many close friends who are Jewish. He looked pretty good in his kippah too as he walked us through the different memorial sites and tried to explain the nazi occupation and the atrocities against the Jews in excellent English.

The sun shone hot and the temperature was about 74 as we approached the Monument to the heroes of the Ghetto. It seemed unfair to have such a beautiful sunny day while we discussed such indescribable horror.

 The Warsaw Ghetto was created by the Nazis on November 16, 1940 and eventually imprisoned over 450,000 people in an area meant for about 60,000. The Nazis first built a barbed wire fence around the area and then a 15 foot brick wall to keep the Polish Jews in, and the rest of the world, out. The Warsaw uprising of 1943 was a choice that noble and heroic Jews made, to die honorably while fighting, or choose suicide, rather than die at the hands of a brutal and merciless nazi. Starving, emaciated and armed only with homemade or smuggled weapons against automatic machine guns, this group of heroes fought off the Nazis for close to a month from the confines of the ghetto.  Reliefs on the monument depict men, women and children struggling to flee the burning ghetto, together with a procession of Jews being driven to death camps under the threat of Nazi bayonets. There were large bouquets adorning the monument today, hundreds of candles and a large group of Israeli students waving the Israeli flag and singing in Hebrew. They were a welcome sign of defiance and survival.

Next we visited the Umschlagplatz monument, a former train depot where tens of thousands of people a day were deported to certain death in Treblinka, Majdanek or Auschwitz. 100,000 Jews had already died from starvation and diseases in the inhumane living conditions of the ghetto by the time the Nazis started the daily deportations of thousands. The monument is extremely emotionally stirring with hundreds of names of the victims etched in white marble in the shape of a cattle car. They chose to list only the first names so that Poles and visitors can see that many of the people who were murdered had traditional Polish names such as Vladivaw and Vladimir. This gives the Jewish victims a more human face rather than identifying them by their often distinctly Jewish surnames. Our guide believes that Treblinka was the cruelest of all the camps, whereas Auschwitz is undoubtedly the more famous. 

At Treblinka, Jews were duped into believing that they were being taken on a journey of relocation, up until the last possible moment. The Nazis went so far as to install a phony train station counter with actual names of departing trains to keep the Jews calm as they were told to shed all their clothing and jewelry and step into their showers of death. There, they were slowly gassed to death with carbon monoxide, which was cheaper and took much longer than the Cyclon B gas used in other death camps. They had fifteen or twenty horrifying minutes to realize that the shower they were promised was an elaborate lie and death was imminent.  By forcing Jews to enter the gas chambers with their arms up, thus squeezing in as many bodies as possible, the Nazis were able to efficiently slaughter 10,000 people an hour.

We then visited the Jewish cemetery at Okopawa street. It covers 33,4 hectares and was established in 1806. It miraculously escaped bombings and the wrath of the Nazis. Countless other Jewish cemeteries were razed and the gravestones broken up to pave roads and build walls, but this peaceful resting place remains as eternal proof of the magnitude and the variety of the Warsaw Jewish community. It was the biggest Jewish cemetery I have ever seen outside of New York and Israel.

Next, we visited the last actual remnant of the Ghetto wall. It is just a portion of a battered and chipped 15 or 20 foot brick wall but it is symbolic of the insurmountable odds that European Jewry faced under Hitlers tyranny. I touched that wall and left a stone for all the innocents who died wishing they would see the other side.

 We ended our tour at the beautiful Nozyk Synagogue built between 1893 and 1902. It was the only shul in Warsaw to survive the holocaust and now is home to a thriving Orthodox Jewish community of about 10 to 15,000 people. There is a Yiddish theater around the corner from the temple and a kosher market.  There is also a bar under construction where they will have live klezmer music nightly.

Whenever I am on tour, though I dont usually have much time in my schedule, I try to visit the synagogue or Jewish sector of each town. I have seen synagogues in Frankfurt, Athens, Rome, Marseilles, Istanbul and Paris. I have taken the Jewish Prague tour and visited cemeteries in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Jewish Warsaw was by far the most interesting tour I have ever taken. The Poles seem to be genuinely remorseful and miss their Jewish community. Recently, the Polish government sued to remove the word Polish from association with death camps. The camps were located in Poland because of the Germans, not the Polish and they want to make that clear.

I recommend a trip to Warsaw for anyone who is Jewish, Jew-curious or simply interested in history. Though it is an uncomfortable subject, it should not be relegated to once a year on holocaust remembrance day. We should never forget, lest it happen again to any peoples; in Europe, Rwanda or God forbid, the good ol US of A.

For more information:

http://jewish.sites.warszawa.um.gov.pl/wstep_a.htm

Howdy Everybody! We are fixin' to leave for our European tour on Sunday; (my son Evan on drums, Bill Stuve on bass, Heine Andersen -guitar and Smedley B piano) Every time I go, I feel so blessed and think that this could be the last time, so I want to savor each and every moment! I am excited especially about getting to visit Poland as I have never been there. Warsaw was the center of Jewish life pre WWII so I am anxious to explore what little is left of their legacy.

The summer is filling up with some exciting shows. As usual, the Gay community and the rockabilly kids are keeping me alive. I have six festivals for the GLBT community this summer and am still negotiating with Toronto and San Diego pride so I will keep you posted. My cd is # 7 on the gay channel on Sirius radio. Thank GOD for this wonderful community of tolerant and free spirited people who love my music and support me. My San Francisco pride appearance will be with the SF Gay Mens Choir and I am especially thrilled to be singing with this great group of singers. I am also doing a great rockabilly car show in L.A. later this summer, The Blessing of the Cars, as well as the Sunset Junction Street Fair with Dave Alvin and Hank Williams III. They close off Sunset Blvd East in Hollywood for this festival and it is always fantastic. Bill Wax at XM radio and some other wonderful blues djs continue to support my music as well. I really want to thank them for their continued support.

I want to tell you about the tour we will be doing in the fall in the Netherlands called United by Music. It is like an American Idol show  (except not mean spirited or bitchy) for disabled people. They are having auditions now and the winners will get to sing with an American blues band on a tour. (thats us!) I am very excited about this tour and the response has been fantastic. We will do a press conference about it on May 15th when I am in Amsterdam. We did one show like this last summer in Sliedrecht and I invited some of the disabled kids onstage to sing with me. The crowd loved it and so did the kids, so it seemed logical to try it again in a bigger and better way. It is all being organized by my friend and fan, Joris Wijngarden. If you know any Dutch journalists or photogs who may be interested in this project, please send them our way so we can notify them about the press conference. This project will be a wonderful thing, especially because I believe that the love and applause from a crowd can be magically healing. I also think its symbolic since these people face huge challenges in their every day lives and my challenges seem tiny and insignificant compared to theirs! there is a website under construction www.unitedbymusic.nl  and there is a documentary planned to chronicle the tour and to follow around three of the people who will be in the show. I am very excited about this wonderful opportunity to help people and to make music together.

acrylic heart vigilante

I took off my phony nails this morning.

Chipped them off with a sharp file and pried them off with my teeth.

I soaked them in acetone and rubbed furiously with the built in-plastic brush surrounding the mouth of the EZ-Off jar.

They flew through the air.

Striking me in the face.

Narrowly missing my left eye.

Crash-landing in my hair.

They were stubborn.

Some refused to come off.

Clinging to my natural nail for dear life like some manufactured barnacle -

gripping and sticking with super glue tenacity.

When I finally peeled off the last one,

My real nails were war torn and weather beaten beneath.

Ashen, grated and sore, with patches of old red polish like blood-

tender spots where the flesh was almost exposed through my paper thin baby nails.

Like an acrylic finger nail, smooth and lacquered,

I have glossed over my heart-in love.

A sculptured faade presented to the world.

My shiny, designer-store bought confidence, flashy and successful

Well-maintained.

Everyone marvels at its craftsmanship,

The sheer size.

My plastic display case heart,

Insulated in isolation.

Loved and sought after, never chipped and broken.

Until someone chips away at my resistance

Breaking through with a sledge hammer

To reveal my ginger fragile heart,

Pulsating and vulnerable.

At first glance, looking just like a textbook aorta.

But at closer glance, it can be seen;

a huge gaping hole

 that can never be filled by acrylic and silk wrap

No matter how many manicurists and love vigilantes have tried.

2/18/99

A few miles from my home in Oceanside, every summer, it is harvest time in the strawberry fields.  From sunrise to sunset, you can see the brown people picking thousands of strawberries in the hot noonday sun, backbreaking work that no American born person would do unless they owned the farm or loved to garden. While all the tourists enjoy the sandy beaches and Lego land, while the yuppies drive their Hummers to La Jolla Cove and the San Diego Zoo, these hardworking people are hunched over hour after hour, males and females alike, until every strawberry is picked. Not many people would be desperate enough to take a job like this but these illegal immigrants are grateful when they are given this brutally hard labor for wages my teenager would laugh at.

When they were very young, my sons would ask questions about the men who stood on the side of the road day in and day out, waiting for work while we were carpooling it to school. "Who are they, Mommy? Where do they get the ten-speed bikes? Do they steal them?" When the boys were old enough, I took them down to Mexico myself to show them the appalling conditions these people live in everyday. From our air conditioned car I explained how hundreds of people risk their lives and the lives of their loved ones to sneak across the borders in the trunks of cars and sometimes boats, crawling through underground tunnels, walking across deserts in 100 plus degree heat, swimming across rivers and hiding in barrels, boxes and modified truck beds like common cargo. While we sleep in warm beds with running water and electricity, cable television and toasty central heating, these human beings live in inhumane conditions worse than most dog houses. I watched my kids grow wide eyed as they witnessed firsthand, entire families living in home made shacks thrown together with cardboard boxes, discarded tires and trash can lids; mothers and children combing the streets, barefoot and in rags selling tacky homemade trinkets and chewing gum for pennies, just to survive. It is worse after the rains come, when entire neighborhoods haphazardly built on the hillside, come sliding down and litter the Tijuana streets below. What little shelter these poor souls had is washed away with the mud and debris as if their makeshift lives never existed at all.

 I told my boys "You can bet that if we lived in a cardboard box on a hillside, that I would do anything I could to try and get you kids a ticket to a better life." They wisely shook their heads and never asked again about the men standing street side and waiting for some job, any job.  I meant every word I said.

Now our government is proposing that we label these resilient people "felons." That anyone who aided an illegal immigrant would be aiding and abetting a felon. These are hardworking people who are mothers and fathers, daughters and sons. These are my eldest sons grandparents. These are my best friends parents. Illegal immigrants are not aliens. They are human beings. They are not felons. They are people, who want a piece of the American dream. Felons are rapists, murderers and drug dealers. Felons are drunk drivers and robbers and thieves. If illegal immigrants are felons, then every immigrant who came to this country should be labeled a felon. George Washington? A criminal! Betsy Ross? A common crook! Anyone who is not a Native American Indian would be described as a felon under the terms of this law. These felons are the people who wash our dishes in restaurants, babysit for our children, clean our bathroom floors and pull our weeds.  They are the people who risk everything just for a little chance to make their lives better.

Yes, there are legal ways to enter the United States. But since 9/11, it has become even harder for people to migrate legally. These are people who aren't able to wait for years to find out if they are one of the paltry few allowed legal entry into the USA.  These are people who would die waiting. People of privilege get into our country first; people with light skin and an education. People like our governor, Austrian immigrant Arnold Schwarzenegger, who backs HR 4439 to solve the illegal immigration issue here in his adopted country.  This is the same country that Arnold dreamt of; the country that made it possible for him to marry a Kennedy and become a billionaire. This is the country my great grandparents escaped Ireland for and the country that lured the pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. In this country, we celebrate our diversity, brag about our freedom of religion, and our inclusivity.  We proudly show off the Statue of Liberty, calling out to the huddled masses, the tired and the weak. Today the Statue of Liberty cries real rusty tears of shame down her peeling, grey façade. While we criticize Israel for building a wall to keep suicide bombers out,  we build our own walls to keep hard working families in - abject poverty. They aren't coming over to blow themselves up on our busses and in our shopping malls. They are literally dying to come over just to take a shitty job. Anyone opposed to illegal immigration should have to pick strawberries in the sun for one day and then go sleep in a cardboard box. 

My friend Tab Hunter has written a book about his life called Tab Hunter – Confidential. It is on the New York Times Best seller list and it really is an interesting read. My first exposure to Tab Hunter was from my mom's 45 records. She had his big hit Young Love among her collection. I later met Tab's partner, Allan Glaser twenty years ago when I was working as a phone sex girl in Marina Del Rey. Allan was producing a movie for 20^th Century Fox called Sorority Confidential about phone sex and the college girls that worked the phones. He interviewed me for a part in the movie and hooked me up with his writers for the project.  Unfortunately, they lost the funding for the movie and it never happened but Tab and Allan went on to write, produce and direct the fabulous Lust in the Dust movie starring Tab, Divine and Lainie Kazan. Tab has said that Divine was his favorite leading lady which is pretty incredible considering he co-starred with Sophia Loren, Lana Turner and Natalie Wood to name just a few. Tab and Allan had a beautiful home back then, in Benedict Canyon where they invited me to a fabulous dinner. They were the first gay couple I ever met and I remember being so impressed by their kindness, warmth and genuine love for each other. They have since moved to Montecito and I reunited with them at the Jewish Community Center here in La Jolla when Tab was here last week promoting the book. It was wonderful to see them both again. Tab and Allan have been together for 23 years! While he does address his gay lifestyle in his book, Tab doesn't want to be a gay icon or role model. He relates to sexuality as a human condition and doesn't like to label people gay or straight. Tab lost his brother in the Vietnam War and is extremely patriotic and I think a bit conservative in his own way. His book is amazing though, and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in early Hollywood and the studio system that created the stars of the 50's. And the pictures are GORGEOUS. What a hunk he was and at 75 he still looks great! Once again, Tab is living proof that gay men are often the sexiest and best looking. http://www.tabhunter.com/