What a Feeling
RIP Irene Cara, 63, star of stage, screen and television, who captivated so many when she broke big in Fame (1980). Born in the Bronx as Irene Cara Escalera, half Cuban, half Puerto Rican, the youngest of five children, she was a natural from the get go, a finalist at three in the Little Miss America pageant. Her career began on Spanish-language TV. At eight she appeared on The Original Amateur Hour, and later The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. In ‘70-’71 she was a regular on the Love of Life soap opera. In ’71 she became a regular on PBS’ The Electric Company, doing 130 episodes. She portrayed the title character in Sparkle (1976). There are 43 titles under her name at IMDb in the category of Actress, 109 in Soundtrack and 10 in Composer. Fame, which she did not write, was a worldwide hit and rose to #4 on the U.S. chart, followed by Out Here on My Own, which topped out at #19. Those songs catapulted the film’s sountrack to multi-platinum status. She performed both at the Oscars, Fame taking home the statuette. In 1983 she co-wrote the lyrics to Flashdance…What a Feeling, which hit #1 and was a sensation across the globe. It brought her both an Oscar and several Grammys, including Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. On stage she appeared in productions of The Wiz and Jesus Christ Superstar. She continued performing until 2018. Here’s a quote attributed to her: “I love taxis. Cabbies are the best therapists, good listeners, good talkers, working-class people I hope never to lose contact with.” Awesome, madam. Thank you. Facts also from Wiki, photo from Google Images:
Headline from foxnews.com: “Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett faces calls to recuse herself from LGBTQ case over Christian faith.” Is she the only Christian among the nine?
I had another vivid dream this morning. I was seated in a classroom, where the professor had written three logic problems on the blackboard. I was clueless. He chided me for never saying more than a word and insulted me. I said, civilly: “You don’t know me.” I asked the help of the woman beside me. She said she wished to devote the remaining four minutes of the class to preparing verbal responses if called on, and moved to another seat.” I know what inspired the dream. Yesterday morning I had trouble rising from my morning refresher. I suspected I was coming down with something, noting symptoms. This has happened so many times in the past decade or so. Sure I’d have a cold or the flu when I woke, I would be fine in the morning. This time it was different. When I was getting ready to go out, I experienced several false starts, recalling something I hadn’t done. I thought Covid had finally caught up to me. I was worried about it all through the time I did the book shop and through the night. And today I seem fine. It’s weird, but I’m not complaining.
Since the forecast called for rain, I decided to devote time to finding a parking space to accommodate the floating book shop for the next few days. It didn’t take long. One of the prime spots was open as I rolled up. Yay team!
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