Posts

Showing posts from March, 2017

Save Ferris at Harlow's in Sacramento: Crowd Brings Singer to Tears, Music Takes Writer Down Memory Lane

Image
Twenty years ago when Save Ferris hit the mainstream with the ska release It Means Everything , I hit play over and over on my portable boom box. Monique 'Mo' Powell was everything to me. Here was a frontwoman who had the pipes to really belt it, singing lyrics I related to (or thought I did at 13 to 14 years of age) backed by a horn and rhythm section that put me in the groove to dance. Mo was the epitome of hip in my heavily mascaraed blue eyes. I was so enamored with the band that when I had an assignment to give an oral presentation of a poem or song that represented a certain literary style, I cracked up my teacher with a dramatic reading of "SPAM."  (It's pink and it's oval. SPAM! I buy it at the mobile. SPAM! It's made in Chernobyl.)  I can only guess I used the song as an example of rhyme. (I do remember I read Green Day's,"Hitchin' A Ride" for its alliteration, one of my favorite stylistic devices.) Not long after bringing

Thrifty Thursday Revival: The Little Black Dress

Image
I am a bad blogger ... in my personal life, at least. I blog professionally for a number of companies, and my clients love me. I hit my deadlines, create engaging content, and drive traffic. I write for newspapers, magazines and online publications. I ghostwrite for doctors, veterinarians and lawyers. And when the workday ends (usually sometime in the wee hours of the morning), I just don't feel like writing about myself. I'd rather binge Fargo season 2 on Hulu than make my aching hands and wrists type another word. But I finished Fargo last night; the prescription pain pills for my arthritis and tendinitis are helping, and I did just have a birthday and score some killer thrifty deals. Plus, my friend Barry Wisdom, who passed away in September, was my biggest cheerleader for this blog; he helped me name it, and I know he'd want to me keep on writing on. And so without further pontificating, I present the revival of Thrifty Thursdays. For my 33rd birthday, I treated mys