Thursday, December 25, 2008

Bad News comes in twos?

Critically acclaimed entertainer and political activist, Eartha Kitt, has died...

I once had the thrill of accompanying Eartha Kitt on the piano
one evening when she slinked into the club where I was performing. She obviously had perfect pitch, began singing
"I Can't Give You Anything But Love" in the key of C (the "people's key") which any self respecting piano player should be able to follow. I met the challenge and we connected on a profound level for a few unforgettable(at least for me) moments.
Afterwards she waited by her limo while I went to get my dog
"Ella Fitzgerald Feingold" to meet her two poodles.
She got down on the ground and hugged my dog
- that's when I really fell in love.
Many years later I sometimes saw her in Pound Ridge, NY where I lived at the time, walking her
most recent pair of poodles while I walked my most recent golden. I never bothered her but always remembered the warmth of our connection once upon a time.

–and Harold Pinter, praised as the most influential British playwright of his generation and a longtime voice of political protest, has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.