(Totally My Opinion, of Course)
2010 – “Another Opening, Another Show”
A blank calendar, a blank slate – to create, to contribute, to cram full of the good things in life.
btw: “Another Opening, Another Show” is from “Kiss Me Kate”, Cole Porter musical (Broadway 1948, film 1953)
“The Godfather” films by Francis Ford Coppola based on the books by Mario Puzo lives on. Parts 1, (1972) and 2, (1974), re explode every 6, 12 months on some TV channel. If you don’t have 8 hours to devote to this great American story, you could plug in whenever – meal times, in between telephone calls or text messages – and remember dialogue and revisit scenes that have soaked into our collective bones without even knowing it:
“It was never personal Michael, it was just business”
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
“I know it was you Fredo, your broke my heart!”
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
“They shot Sonny on the causeway”
“The Godfather” is #2 with a bullet on the American Film Institute list of 100 best. If not on TV, there is always DVD and it just came out on Blu-Ray.
Mercury goes retrograde in the Earth sign of Capricorn – December 26 until January 15, 2010. (Previous retrogrades for 2009 all involved Air signs – now it will occur in the stable, business focused, ambitious Capricorn.)
This change from Air to Earth can mean a difference in the area of life where the influence of Mercury’s backward movement can be felt, but regardless, with this planet it is all about communications. So by now you know the drill – review, reconsider what you say, and write – until mid January when Mercury goes forward again.
And:
Mars goes retrograde as of 12/20/09 in the Fire sign of Leo. It will go backwards in the same sign until March 10, 2010 and reverse. – (since this planet only goes backwards every 2 years or so, you have to pay attention when it changes direction.)
Watch for any temper and volatility issues as this “you wanna piece of me?” red planet slows down. Once fully in backward motion, you might notice a stall in certain areas of your life (creativity, career/business, etc) – things were jumping and then all of a sudden not.
Fiery, energetic Mars may not be sparking the plugs as it usually does. You might want to look again at the actions you are planning – any fine tuning, re evaluation needed? This is a good time to do it. Life won’t stop. You may need to prod things along, but events will start to bounce again after early March.
“Tosca”, one of Puccini’s most popular operas is scheduled for a PBS station near you this week. (Part of the holiday special programming/fund raising, etc.)
I like Puccini – “La Boheme”, (1896) “Tosca”, (1900), “Madama Butterfly”, (1904), “Turandot”, (1924). Though not really an opera person, I find his work accessible with its universal love themes, high drama and the music is just lovely.
When I was younger, I embraced “La Boheme”: boy meets girl, they sing, girl meets boy’s friends, everybody sings, everybody is cold together, and everybody sings. Girl loses boy, boy loses girl – permanently – everybody sings. Loved it. (If you’ve seen “Rent”, the play or the movie, you‘ll know what I mean. All very moving.)
As I’ve gotten older, I have come to appreciate another popular Puccini work, “Tosca”. This opera is a real “bodice ripper”. Political intrigue, assassination, attacks on female virtue, firing squads and suicide – just too full!
Should the singer, Floria Tosca (our heroine), succumb to the unwanted advances of a powerful man (Scarpia- the evil chief of police) to save her poor artist lover (Mario Cavaradossi), who has been accused of harboring a political dissident? (This was a super serious offense in the time of Napoleon.)
Lots of costumes, passionate thrashing about, great singing and the ending is appropriately tragic.
Tosca, defends herself and then chooses to make the ultimate defiant gesture against authority. (After all, this is opera – pure drama to the very end.)
Catch “Tosca” if you can – very entertaining!
Giacomo Puccini (Dec.1858 – Nov. 1924)