"Silent Night"

"I Dreamed a Dream"

"Someone Like You"

"My Man"

"Theme from Valley of the Dolls"

" My Favorite Things"

"Memories Are Made Of This"

"Always In My Heart"

"What a Wonderful World"

"I Have But One Heart"

"You'll Never Walk Alone"

"What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?"

"I'm Not In Love"

"Always"

"If"

"La Vie en rose"

"Hard Candy Christmas"

"It's Been A Long, Long Time"

"Marble Halls"

"Meglio Stasera"

"Beauty and The Beast"

"Something Good"

"(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons"

"A Little Bitty Tear"

"Feed the Birds"

"Sloop John B"

"Nature Boy"

"Something Wonderful"

"Memory'

"Magic"

"This Nearly Was Mine"

"Your Love"

"The End of The World"

"Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone"

How's The Rain On The Rhubarb: A Lifetime Love Affair With Horror And How It Began

William Castle knew how to turn a fright-show buck. This king of the b movie gimmick thrilled theater goers with his hokey yet effective over the top cinematic antics. As the wackiness of his films played on screen the slyness of his carnival hucksters mind came to life in the audience. The show goers involvement was crucial during a Castle screening and examples of these ruses accompanied such films as 1959's 'The Tingler' with  it's electrified theater seats that literally shocked movie viewers, or The Fright Break from 1961's 'Homicidal' which provided horrified patrons the opportunity to flee the theater, of course the catch to this charade was the humiliation of being handed a Coward’s Certificate on your way out the door. The mind of William Castle was truly unique but it was his involvement in 1968's 'Rosemary's Baby' that will forever endear him to me. 'Rosemary's Baby' is horror at it's best. A 136 minute ode to trusting innocence betrayed, mixed with good old fashioned good vs evil sensibility, that works its way into your psyche to make you think this could be true. In the lexicon of horror greatness this film will always be one of the reasons to love the genre.
 Another pusher of the low-budget realm of fear is Roger Corman. This cinematic legend found a place in my heart when I was a mere toddler. It was his 1960 farce of a masterpiece 'The Little Shop of Horrors' that opened my minds eye to the macabre forever. This film has been colorized, bastardized, and turned into one wonderful musical both on stage and screen, but to me it will always be the original Corman production featuring whimpering man-child Seymore Krelboyne played to perfection by Jonathan Haze, sleazy skid row business man Gravis Mushnick embodied by the wonderful Mel Welles, and a Carnivorous Styrofoam Plant voiced by screenwriter Charles B. Griffith screaming feed me that left me forever wanting more thrills and hopefully terror if only of the pretend variety.
Simulated fear is the ultimate release whether it be achieved by diving into the deepest end of the ocean or dropping helplessly through the air toward the unforgiving ground below it still pushes the same thrill buttons in the human subconscious. Luckily my vicarious love of all things fear was given flight at the hands of imagination and some well crafted celluloid lunacy. Your feet stay dry and grounded but your heart pounds just the same.

"The Fool on The Hill"

"I'll Be Seeing You"

"Dust in The Wind"

"I'm Through With Love"

"Sweet Dreams"

"Crazy"

"I Fall To Pieces"

"Small World"

"Somewhere Over The Rainbow"

Update...

First off, I want to Thank You All for taking the time to listen to me sing. Secondly, I want to let everyone know how much stronger it has made me to be able to share these little tunes. And lastly, there will be so much more to come. I am incredibly blessed in so many glorious ways that I would never laugh in the face of all my benefit...so I will keep singing despite any fear or negativity that comes my way. Huge love to everyone and a heaping round of positivity on me :-)

"Hallelujah"

"Losing My Mind"

"One Hand One Heart"

"More"

"If I Loved You"

"There Are Worse Things I Could do"

"Se"

"Once Upon A Time"

"It's A Sin To Tell A Lie"

"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows"

"Bill"

"The Winner Takes It All"

"Wedding Bell Blues"

"My Funny Valentine"

"People"

"Happy Days Are Here Again"

"Fix You"

"With You I'm Born Again"

"Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix"

"Because You Love Me"

"Diamonds and Rust"

Enough really is enough. One sided relationships take to much and render you broken and alone. It was fun but now it is killing me.

"Pure Imagination"

I was awoken this early morning to a tumultuous day. Friends in trouble and uneasy, the growing pains of age in full force, and a lingering guilt that my decisions as of late have been insidiously incorrect. To put it mildly I feel emotionally drained. I need someone to give back to me...I need to be mothered. Sadly, I can not bring myself to ask for what I need. So I sing. Here is a tune from 1971's "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory". It always reminds me of better times.

"Young at Heart"

I made this song and pictures tribute to my high school friend Elaine Daniels. It helped celebrate her 51st Birthday. Please take a listen and enjoy...

"Send in The Clowns"

 I have, as of late, set about what to the average onlooker must seem like a slow decent into madness. Insanity is a literal part of my DNA. Which, of course, means that I didn't have far to go. You see I had a very screwed up youth. It was beautiful up to a point and unbearably bad after that. I was both blessed and lucky enough to find at the age of 16 both a savior and a spectacular safe port in my emotional and pragmatic storm, in the name of Bill Gibron. He is my one true proof that there is a God. Without him there is no telling where I would be today. He helped me piece together the rhymes and reasons of a broken, tragic past. He is truthfully my life.
  Sadly, Bill wasn't the key to every lock that held my sad emotional turmoil. So in my late forties I set about on a tumultuous journey to find that key. And quite frankly I think I have gone a bit mad.

"The Rainbow Conection"

Happy Saturday Morning Everybody!!!
 Remember how it felt when we were children...Saturday mornings gave us the best television ever, even the commercials were all about us. There we sat pj's still on, glued to the TV, cereal bowl in hand filled with the sweetest mix of grain as confection that our parents would allow us to enjoy. We loved it.
  I hope this song from the original 1979 film "The Muppet Movie" can help relax you into a nostalgic sense of remembering a wonderfully carefree time when we were young and believed we could have it all and live forever. 

"If you could read my mind"

 In 1974 I was 12 years old. I loved the early seventies. My life was wonderfully secure and hopeful. It was filled with fun and happiness. I fell hopelessly in love when I was twelve.
 He was a boy I had known all my life. He had always been something special to me. I was an only child and so was he. His mother and my father worked together and our families were close in many ways. I chased my little blond haired love from the time I could walk. He hated it and I didn't care...he was my Christodor.
 Years pasted and I drove this light eyed boy mad. I took his toys and knocked him down. I even sang to him as he ran from me. He was a proud young man who embarrassed easily at the hands of this dark haired chubby girl. If we were in the same place at the same time he was doomed. For the first 11 years of my life I drove him crazy, but in my 12th year on this planet it was he that began to torment my brain.
    

"Smile"

When I recently decided to record some songs, I had some hesitation. Like I said in my first blog post, I've sung all my life. I love to sing, I do it everyday. But it had been many, many years since I had performed publicly, so I was afraid. This is the first one. Please be kind.

"Somewhere"

Simply one beautiful song. The score from the musical "West Side Story" is splendid. Sprung from the talents of musical giants Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim, this glorious ballad is melodic emotion and truly a joy both to hear and to perform. First released upon us in 1957, it has been covered by some of the greats. I can only hope that I have done it some justice. I invite you listen, sing a long, and enjoy :-)

"Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered"

I always loved this song. Originally from the musical "Pal Joey" it was first made famous by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra in 1941. I'm sure I had heard this song many times before I truly fell in love with it, but it was Linda Ronstadt's 1986 version that sealed my deal where this tune is concerned. 
 Anyone who knows me knows that this song could be about me and the men I love. Yes, 'I've done pretty well I think'...although men as a whole have pretty much undone me. I guess I'm destined to die a sad romantic.

"Songs My Mother Taught Me"

I started studying voice at the age of 11. This is one of the first songs I was taught to sing. 'Songs My Mother Taught Me' by Antonín  Dvořák is a song for voice and piano written in 1880, the seventh in a cycle of Gypsy songs. I'm sure I have sung it better, but this is a version I recorded on my i phone several months ago just shortly after the death of my Mother, Angelina Ochipinti Romeo. She enjoyed hearing me sing it very much...perhaps you will as well.

"What I Did For Love"

It seemed like a good idea. The perfect plan. Sweet emotions warming. Fast belief, future cool. Nope, not true. Belief does not sustain. Lightning strikes not often. Accuracy seldom. The believer done. The rest vindicated. Alone to hold in responsible hands. It seemed like a good idea. No, not perfect. Not so.

"Both Sides Now"

 It's a funny thing this life we live. Coincidental circumstance leaves us dumbfounded and shaken to the core when really we should be grateful for the second chance it renders. In recent years I have been such a victim of karmic intervention.
  I was a very lucky girl in my youth. I met and held dear a wonderful group of friends. I loved them all dearly and counted each and every one of them as family. Sadly though, due to my own confused young adult life I ran from them, and what a mistake that was. I missed them all so much, but my steadfast pride kept me from going 'home'.
  I have the internet and more specifically that little social network that could, Facebook, to thank for the reunion I could never on my own have 'manned' up to. Long story short, and an infinite number of logged  phone hours later, all the kindred spirits are back where they should be. Like I said I am one lucky girl.