Female Friday

Of course, it being the end of the year I too have been taking stock of my life and my accomplishments, mishaps, setbacks--since I refuse to call them failures--and my sameness. We all have parts of ourselves or our lives we'd like to change. For me the most important and the focus of 2010, 2011 and no surprise 2012 is one single thing--drum roll please--To start my career as a published author. I've sold short stories but I'm going for the novel, the start of a long career I plan to have.


Publishing is a tough game with many growing and expanding even developing sectors. And I have to stand out from the countless others dreaming the same dream. This week, I turned on CW and there was the French designing genius Jean Paul Gaultier interviewing Lady Gaga.

Two of my favorite people. I watched it, waiting to hear what Gaga spoke about and the designs Gaultier would show her. But I learned something that helped. Gaga in her years as she sang in New York bars, she was like countless others playing those gigs. Sure she had the talent but nothing made her memorable. She decided to stick out of the crowd, for the world to take notice and listen then sing and dance along.
She's not forgettable now.


I admire her strength and smarts for changing and shedding normalcy. But she always inspired me. I guess you can say the light hit my disco ball. I too have to stick out of the crowd and make people remember me. Luckily, I have a name that certainly doesn't blend. You might not know how to pronounce it but you know it when you see it. This year at RWA Nationals, I went to get my book autograph from Christina Dodd. She looked at my name tag and said, "I know you. I remember your name from Twitter." If I was a Victorian lady, I would have fainted though my head felt like champagne popped open and fizz shooting foamy bubbles everywhere.


I'm working on the rest of it, adding the sticking out among the crowd to my business plan. And Gaga helped me. I admire her music, talent and...her Gaga-ness, you can say. She had a dream and used more than just her talent. She used her smarts to create a Gaga world.

Female Friday

I first saw Katherine Hepburn in Philadelphia Story decades ago when TV had few channels and aired old black and white movie to fill up the channels. I watched her, in awe of her spunk, her confidence in herself and in the world around her. I thought wow I want to be a woman like that. I watched her movies, Bringing up Baby, African Queen, Lion in the Winter and On Golden Pond. I think I was the only 7 year old who watched that movie.

As I grew up and started figuring out how the world worked, my respect and awe of her grew. She donned pants when women were being escorted off the street even arrested. She had strong beliefs and spoken them never apologizing for her intelligence. And when her career tanked and she was considered box office poison, she turned her career around with the Philadelphia Story. I too wanted to have that strength and needed in my life when the life I knew and loved was shredded with my parents' divorce.

I needed Katherine more than ever. I watched her lined face hanging and liver-spotted, her hair tucked up, heard her scratchy, posh voice and watched her hands shake. She hadn't lost any of her spunk or intelligence. I never met her but she helped me decide on the woman I wanted to be. Katherine didn't follow the beat of her own drum, she created the music. My music sometimes skips or hits a horrid note but Katherine taught me to Write a new song.

Female Friday

For the second Female Friday, I decided to honor actresses. 
After all I love a good movie.

HELEN MIRREN

HELEN MIRREN

This woman has played the Queen twice, won an Oscar, Bafta, and every other  award in the movie-sphere.  She has shocked the world by looking damn great in her red bikini.  As a writer, actors are a great tool, they bring to life words we writers toil over and she's one that always sucks me in whether bringing a character to life or just being herself.  When I grow up, I want to be Helen Mirren.

DAME JUDI DENCH

DAME JUDI DENCH

I love this woman.  The minute I hear her voice, I'm sucked in and must listen to the words that seem to dance from her mouth.  She is perfection.  She too has played Queen Elizabeth and Victoria.  She has played Iris Murdoch and the woman who orders 007 around.  The force of her and her talent always has me in awe.

                                                               BARBRA STANWYCK

BARBARA STANWYCK

This classic Hollywood star played every role from a vixen to a single working gal who writes an article about being a homemaker.  Every role she played she never lost her feminine appeal but still possessed a steel backbone.  The men knew she wasn't giving in and would fight for what she wants.  Growing up and watching these old blacks and whites, I promised myself to be a woman like her and a long ranging career she worked from the 1930s up till mid-1980s.  I would recommend a movie but there are so many good ones that I'll leave that choice to you.


MERYL STREEP

WOW.  That's is all I have to say.  The woman has a range of talent that people rushed out to see Mama Mia. She had to make the cruelest choice in Sophie's Choice, which still thinking about still rips me from the inside out at the thought.  She was a Devil who Wore Prada and made me want to have silver fox gray hair.  I look at her and think give a 100 percent at what you do and you will be the best and the world will know it. 

MERYL STREEP

SANDRA BULLOCK

Sandra is the actress I would love to be friends with.  Some people didn't like ALL ABOUT STEVE.  I loved it.  She brings her charm, grace, humor and her ability to laugh at herself.  And as a viewer, you feel like you're hanging out with a friend.  

SANDRA BULLOCK

SALMA HAYEK

She came from Mexico, where she was a star but she wanted more, which she got.  She became an international Box-office star when Hollywood didn't like her accent.  She produced the film of her heart, Frida and reintroduce the world to a great artist.  Now she's a mother, wife and producer of movies and television and changing the face of Hollywood.

SALMA HAYEK

JOSEPHINE BAKER

She is a star of a lifetime and not because of her talent or the way watching her dance set off a sensation of freedom in the audience.  She wanted a life that racial ignorance prevented her from attaining in the US so she went off to France and created the life she wanted.  That's the greatest lesson of Josephine.  Be the person you want to be and you'll find your place so it was  only natural that she helped the French Resistance during WWII and fought against Civil Rights.  She created her world and invited the rest of us to be a part of it.  

 

MISS JOSEPHINE BAKER

Do you have any actresses you would like to add, please do...

Female Friday

Recently, I sent a request to Jackie Collins--the woman who I would like to be or good friends with--for an autograph which I received.  It currently sits in front of my computer as a boost of confidence and a reminder to plant my butt in the chair.

Anyway, the picture got me thinking about women, women in the world we admired or some of the qualities we want to possess ourselves.  So I decided that Friday is Female Friday the day when we celebrate beautiful, smart, successful, striving woman in any sections of lives.

For me the first woman is my mother.  When I told her I wanted to play baseball, she became the coach and we ended the season as Champs.  When I wanted to be a cheerleader, she helped make pom poms for our sneakers.  When I was in the hospital, she slept on the most uncomfortable chair, prisons in China have better seating that she did.  But every time I opened my eyes she was there.  Of course, she's the top of the list.

COCO CHANEL

Coco Chanel

 The woman built an international stylish legacy from meager beginnings.

MARILYN MONROE

                  Marilyn Monroe
Some people see her as the sexy blonde with nothing else to offer.  But she was the first woman and I believe person to have their own Production company.  Now Hollywood is filled with them.

ROSIE THE RIVETER 

ROSIE THE RIVETER 

During WWII, it was the women that held this country together and made it run.  No different as the hundreds of military wives do now.
On December 30, 2010 Geraldine Doyle,  the lady who's photograph was used, died at 86.  But she still inspires ladies to use the strength we have.

AMY POEHLER

 AMY POEHLER

I've loved her since SNL.  Her laugh is wickedly good fun and her humor is even better.  Just goes to show that women are funny too.

PINK

PINK

She's a hard ass with heart.  Her voice, her songwriting skills and now attacking motherhood.  She shows that You have to fight for your right to party so Raise your glass.

MY NIECE, YAZZY

YAZZY

Since the day she was born, I have been in awe of all she does and has accomplished.  People love her.  She's smart, loves fashion and works more than any other GEN Y-er I know.  The world better watch out, she's coming for it.  As she would say, GO BLUE!







Do you have a few woman you'd like to add?  Who and what inspires you about them?