Spare Parts

You can’t help it. The holidays bring out the best and the worst in people. Out comes the turmoil of emotions we keep nicely separated into the small squares and organizers of our minds. Out come the lies and sometimes, out come the truths – the really harsh truths – best left unsaid. All the long, unfulfilled year we wait and live and live and wait and do not do much of anything to change it. The stillness of what is familiar versus the movement of what is not. But then, the holidays arrive and the whole neatly organized drawer of emotions is tossed up into the sky. We let our organized lives topple to the ground un-rescued. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Glaring at you more than anything that is present and tangible, is that which is absent and unreachable. The ones we have lost and can’t bring back, no matter the strength or faith of our prayers. The ones we didn’t quite appreciate enough, and believe that if given just another hour, perhaps we could ch...

On Lira Daisy Bloo’s bureau there is a locked magic box. Inside, Lira Daisy keeps all of her family’s most treasured secrets. She has never been permitted to open it. For her 16th birthday, Lira Daisy’s mother has told her that she will be given the key to unlock it. However, Lira Daisy is warned that once she unlocks the magic box, things will never be as they are, or ever were and things will forever be different in her future. Still, Lira Daisy knows the countdown has begun. She will be 16 years old in one more week. On Tuesday morning, at the kitchen stove, Lira Daisy’s mother Lynthia Pearl stirs thick whipped honey over a medium flame. The churned, sweet fondant fills the kitchen with sugary warmth. As it is spun over the increasing heat, it begins to infuse Lynthia Pearl with the ages old powers of her ancestors. Although it is subtle, Lira Daisy can always tell when the “powers” enter her mother. Lynthia Pearl’s skin begins to look like softly brewed tea and she radiates a stre...

Admittedly, I went in to Michael Jackson’s This Is It musical documentary with more than an open mind. I went in as someone who really loved his music, when he was alive. But what I came out of it with was so much more. This is what genius looks like. This is what it means to be a perfectionist for the sake of your fans. This is what people meant when they said “For your entertainment”. This is what comes to life when music, magic and movement merge. This is it! What I’m going to try to do is come as close to explaining it in words as I experienced it on film. I’m writing without giving anything away for anyone who hasn’t, but wants to see it. What I won’t do is revisit any of the ‘ugly’ that came into MJ’s career. I’ll leave that for the critics. What I hope to do is be as strict with myself on paper as MJ was with himself on stage. Okay, maybe not as strict. He was in a class by himself. When the film opens, you get to see some of the fortunate and tale...