Creature Comforts

Creature Comforts. Literal creature comforts. I think if I'd had my pets with me in L.A. for the past 3 weeks, I wouldn't have been so distressed about every little thing that went wrong or was done wrong to me. It's just been a rolling frustration train. The flight back to JFK was 3/4 turbulent. I get back to NYC and try to unwind by seeing a movie w/my sweetie, and instead my mobile phone gets flushed down the toilet @ the theater (yes, I reached in and rescued it, but it's a soggy goner). See? Even in NYC (or on the way to NYC), things go wrong and infuriate. The difference being, I get to come home to my apartment of 12 years, cuddle with my cats and kiss my girlfriend. Instant anti-anxiety pill. Did I mention my meds were stolen by the infamous TSA personel as they handled my bags? So, I'll get another prescription and then a pedicure at my neighborhood nail place where they know my battered feet well... I can let it roll off my back, or feet or cats. You get the point.

The reason for my return East (aside from the need to aleviate extreme withdrawal symptoms)? The screening of "Two Hands," a doc short by Nathaniel Kahn about the remarkable pianist Leon Fleisher. How's this sound for a swanky evening?
1. Private screening of "Two Hands" @ Makor.
2. Triumphant concert by Leon Fleisher @ Avery Fisher Hall.
3. Celebratory dinner with extraordinary people @ Cafe Des Artistes.


Nathaniel Kahn, Leon Fleisher & Katherine Jacobson

I think I can handle whatever L.A. throws at me for the next stretch. I'm Big Apple-fortified for now.

Like The Way I Do

Tasha and the other Lesbian Overtones rock the Go NYC house!

Well, I did it. I sang my first solo with The Lesbian Overtones at the Go NYC Magazine 4th Anniversary Party! I belted out Melissa Etheridge's anthem of adultery "Like The Way I Do." Too bad nobody could hear it.

I was the lone Overtone at the soundcheck, and the monitors and mics were great, but during the show there was a ton of feedback on the mics and nada on the monitors. We couldn't hear ourselves and only the first row or so of sweaty lesbians caught an earful. It's a shame, because we rocked in a newly reconstitued form - 2 of our beloved 'Tones went off to pursue their educational and filmmaking dreams - to be replaced with 2 new sparkling musical personalities. I will be the next to go. So, our gig at Mo Pitkins this Tuesday night will be my tearful last. I'll always be a Lesbian Overtone at heart, even on the Western shore of this Sapphic country.

The evening wasn't a total bust - my picture kept flashing overhead and on monitors throughout the club as one of the 100 Women We Love (always good for an ego boost) - while I hung out with many of the women I love:

Dasha, Laura, Sarah, Erin       and        Liz Dahmen a.k.a. Terry Tone

Jen Howd, Michelle Wolff, Julie Neumark

So, be there for my farewell performance, because really, no one does it Like The Way I Do:
Coming Out
October, 24 2006
8:30pm at Mo Pitkin's
34 Avenue A, New York, 10009
Cost: $5

Fear is just a lack of imagination

That really IS Melissa Etheridge jamming at MSG

Melissa Etheridge concerts, like the one last night at Madison Square Garden, are like primal scream therapy: cathartic, felt in the gut, deeply emotional, and in this performer's case, unabashedly sexual and spiritually uplifting. Hair still closely cropped after her bout with breast cancer treatment, "The Ridge" rocked the house with oldies, indignant anthems and joyful tributes. Thank you American Express Gold Card Events for the awesome seats!

For a brief moment, my sweetie and I thought we might get to actually meet the rock goddess as tag-alongs to Shelly Mars and Urvashi Vaid, also sitting in our section, but the opportunity vanished as quickly as it was proffered. We had mused on our way to the concert how we might get to meet with Melissa Etheridge and her wife Tammy Lynn Michaels, not just as fans, but to talk some business for "To Do:" - a script about a young lesbian with breast cancer with a plum role for Tammy in it! We laughed it off as an impossibility, but when the slim chance of success appeared, we both wondered at the coincidence of speaking that which you desire, and it's appearence in the realm of possibility. No more excuses: as Melissa said from the stage last night: "Fear is just a lack of imagination."

I'm a writer; I've got plenty of imagination to go around.