Posts Tagged 'Marie Osmond'
Move Forward & Stop Looking Back
Posted by Anthony Peoples in Uncategorized.	Tagged: Africa, aging, Asia, Benny The Fisherman, chocolate cake, Claire Underwood, Eiffel Tower, Europe, Fox Mulder, Golden Tour, Happy Birthday, Hillary Clinton, House of Cards, Israel, Jimmy Carter, Kylie Minogue, Las Vegas, life expectancy, Madonna, Marie Osmond, Morocco, mortality, Moulin Rogue, Nancy Kerrigan, Paris, President Jimmy Carter, Quad Cities, Robin Wright, Sacha Baron Cohen, Seine River, Stratosphere, Tel Aviv, The X-Files.	8 comments
Birthdays are interesting annual events. Some people count down to the big day and some would rather it pass unnoticed.
As life goes on, the way we celebrate the natal day changes. As a kid, we're excited for a cake, a party, and gifts.
That's me celebrating my first birthday with a cake that ISN'T chocolate! 😦
In retrospective, I'm grateful I got to celebrate that birthday. When I arrived six weeks early, in the fall of 1964, I weighed about three pounds and I wasn't expected to make it. The survival rate for preemies back then was only 28%!
For many, becoming a teenager is exciting and to others, it's a terrifying time. Then, there's 16, 18, and 21.
After that the pressure settles in as 25 nears and you become frantic at 30 feeling as though your youth is gone. It's time to evaluate where you're at in life and where you're heading.
I survived college, partying, and finding myself in my teens and 20s, starting my career in my 30s, finding love in my 40s, and losing it in my 50s.
There are days of bitterness and anger, but many more are now filled with uncertainty — not only of what lies ahead down this road of life we travel, but mortality!
While the average life expectancy in the U.S. is now 78.7 years, my beautiful mother, Dessie, didn't get anywhere near that.
She died at 47 (in 1990). My father died three years earlier at 55.
I'm optimistic that I have many years left since I'm physically and mentally healthy. I just have to work on becoming emotionally and mentally happy!
My next birthday is right around the corner (October 13).
If you send birthday wishes to me via Facebook, I'll get around to responding to them when I can since I'll be out of the country!
I'm marking another continent off my travel list!
This will be the fourth continent I've visited — following North America, Europe, and Asia!
To help you narrow it down, I don't think I need to visit Antarctica and going to South America isn't high on my travel "bucket list".
Final clues before you see the pictures on Facebook when I have internet: It's north of the Equator (never been south of it), 99% Muslim, and it's ruled by a King.
And, in August, Madonna spent her 60th birthday there. I'm sure that her arrangements were on a grander scale! 🙂
P.S. I share my birthday with Sacha Baron Cohen (47), Nancy Kerrigan (49), Fox Mulder (57), and Marie Osmond (59). Oh, I can't forget my dear friend, Crystal Craddock-Posey!
With that being said, I want to share some of my favorites birthdays of the past with you.
For my 50th birthday, I wanted to visit Tel Aviv, Israel.
When booking the trip, the connecting flight was through Paris, so it was decided to spend three nights in Paris and four in Tel Aviv.
For my birthday, I was treated to a Seine River dinner cruise, a view of Paris from atop the Eiffel Tower, and sitting stage side at the historic Moulin Rogue sipping champagne at midnight as I turned 50!
Days later, in Tel Aviv, I had the best meal ever at Benny The Fisherman, right on the Mediterranean Sea!
The day started with an incredible brunch at the Stratosphere (back when it was good) in Las Vegas and ended with seeing Madonna and the incredible "MDNA Tour".
This would be the last one with my best buddy in the world, my beautiful golden retriever, Miss ABBA. It was a warm fall day in the Quad Cities and we spent it outside playing.
As I head into my 55th year and beyond, I'll live by the words of Kylie Minogue and her life affirming hit "Golden" (which chronicles her turning 50 earlier this year)!
My one goal for 2019 — seeing Kylie's "Golden Tour" here in the U.S.!
Here's to future!
Random Friday Thoughts — October 11, 2013
Posted by Anthony Peoples in Uncategorized.	Tagged: AIDS, Arthur Vanderbilt, binational couples, Britney Spears, Cliff Richard, David W. Ross, Dot-Marie Jones, Example, Glee, Golden Days, Grey's Anatomy, I Do, Immigration Equality, LGBT, Margaret Thatcher, Marie Osmond, marriage equality, Matthew Shepard, National Coming Out Day, Pet Shop Boys, Rhett Akins, T.J. Knight, The Walking Dead, Wise Guys Pizza.	Leave a comment
The weekend is almost here and if you consider birthdays a big deal, then this weekend is a big deal.
48 birthday cakes later( symbolically), this Sunday, I'll enter the last year of my 40s!
While we've been trying to eat healthy and exercise in anticipation for our European trip next Friday to celebrate Ray's 50th birthday, I'm not counting calories this weekend.
I plan on stuffing myself with pizza (mostly dessert pizza) and boneless chicken wings at Wise Guys Pizza in Davenport, Iowa, my favorite pizza place in the Quad Cities. And, Sunday, I think I want crab legs and fried chicken at the casino. However, I won't be playing slots!
Have yourself a great weekend and thank you for checking out my random thoughts this week.
REMEMBERING MATTHEW
Tomorrow marks the 15th anniversary of the death of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, who died five days after being beaten and left for dead tied to wooden fence in Laramie, Wyoming.
Matthew had been robbed, pistol-whipped, tied to the fence for 18 hours, and left to die in 30° Wyoming weather.
When he was found, he had fractures to the back of his head and to the front of his right ear. Matthew had brain stem damage so severe that doctors could not operate. He had a dozen or so cuts on his head, face, and neck. These horrific injuries were inflicted on him because he was gay!
This week and every week, please remember Matt and every person, regardless of their sexuality, gender, race, etc., that are beaten and killed just for who they are.
"NATIONAL COMING OUT" DAY
Today is somewhat a holiday. While the post offices and the banks won't be closed, it's "National Coming Out Day".
This is a civil awareness day observed all over the world for LGBT people. It was first held on October 11, 1988, on the one year anniversary of the "Second March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights", a political rally that brought an estimated 200,000 people to the nation's capital.
Come out, come out wherever you are. While we have a long way to go (hello Russia and Uganda), the world is a more accepting place these days!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIE OSMOND
Prior to this year, I always mentioned that I shared my birthday with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Sadly, the "Iron Lady" passed away this past April at the age of 87.
Now, I'm proud to say that I share my birthday with singer and entertainer Marie Osmond. She turns 54 this year.
While I've always been aware of her singing career and her musical family, I was really proud of Marie earlier this year when she was chosen as ABC World News' "Person of the Week".
She said about her lesbian daughter, Jessica, "I believe in her civil rights, as a mother. I think that my daughter deserves everything that she desires in life. She's a good girl. She's a wonderful child."
These words are coming from an open-minded devout Mormon. As you probably already know, that religion and its church hasn't been a leader in diversity, understanding, and compassion toward the LGBT community. However, they are slowly coming around.
Marie also added, "The God that I believe in is a God of love, not fear" and "I don't think God made one color flower, I think He made many."
Happy Birthday Marie! I hope it's everything you could imagine. Thank you for loving God and your daughter. And, thank you for your support of marriage equality.
As a singer, Marie has scored ten Top 40 hits on the Billboard Country charts with four of them reaching #1. She's has also had three solo Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. With her brother, Donny, she had another six hits on the Hot 100.
Her first release, "Paper Roses", in 1973, hit #1 on the country chart and it was a crossover hit on the pop chart where it peaked at #5.
And, did you know that Marie turned down the role of Sandy in the "Grease" movie that went to Olivia Newton-John?
MORE BIRTHDAY WISHES
In addition to Marie Osmond, I also share my birthday with "Borat" actor Sasha Baron Cohen (42), David Duchovny's character Fox Mulder (52) on "The X-Files", and "The X-Files" creator Chris Carter (56).
Country singer Rhett Akins, who I met back in Lubbock, Texas in 1997, was also born on my birthday. He turns 44.
From 1994-1996, Akins scored six Top 40 hits on the country chart including the #1 song, "Don't Get Me Started", in 1996 and "That Ain't My Truck" that reached #3 in 1995.
Former "Grey's Anatomy" star T.J. Knight, now playing Mercutio in an off-Broadway production of "Romeo & Juliet", married his longtime boyfriend, Patrick, last week "in an intimate ceremony in front of family and friends" in New York City.
Knight's best friend and former "Grey's" co-star Katherine Heigl flew in for the wedding. It's unknown if she bought a new dress for the wedding or if she wore one of her "27 Dresses" that she is well-known for. 🙂
MORE CONGRATULATIONS…
On the same day that T.J. and Patrick were getting married on the East Coast, a "Glee" start got engaged on the West Coast.
Three-time Emmy nominee Dot-Marie Jones proposed to her girlfriend of three years, Bridgett Casteen, at Gay Days Anaheim near Disneyland Resort's Sleeping Beauty Castle.
The 49-year-old actress who plays Coach Shannon Beiste on "Glee" says, "It's the happiest day of my life. I never thought I'd find somebody that is so loving and kind."
Casteen is the mother of two children from a previous marriage.
Congratulations T.J., Patrick, Dot-Marie, and Bridgett!
While we're talking about marriage and engagements, last weekend I saw an incredible movie from writer and out, sexy actor David W. Ross called "I Do".
Jack Edwards (Ross) is an English photographer that has been living in New York City since he was teenager. His brother, Peter, and Peter's fiancée also live there.
When Jack's work visa is denied, the only option he feels he has to stay with his family is to enter into a "green card marriage" with his best friend, Ali, played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler of "The Sopranos".
When the marriage is questioned in a routine investigation from Immigrations and Jack meets Mano, a Spaniard living in New York City, their friendship is tested.
The movie highlights the inequalities that binational gay couples living in the United States face that a married man and woman don't have to deal with because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Now that the Supreme Court of the United States struck down parts of DOMA, things will get better for binational gay couples sooner rather than later.
LGBT families (supposedly) will now be treated the same under immigration law as different-sex immigrant families.
For more on Immigration Equality, check out this website: http://immigrationequality.org/issues/couples-and-families/faqs-for-binational-couples/#sthash.rEMOy3rc.dpuf
Sunday is not just my birthday because there's something bigger going on. The fourth season of one of the most incredible shows on television kicks off!
Yes, it's "The Walking Dead". While ratings are at an all-time high for the apocalyptic thriller, AMC is working on a spinoff for the 2015 television season.
Robert Kirkman, the writer of "The Walking Dead" comic book and the co-creator of the television show says, "After 10 years of writing the comic book series and being so close to the debut of our fourth, and in my opinion, best season of the TV series, I couldn't be more thrilled about getting the chance to create a new corner of 'The Walking Dead' universe. The opportunity to make a show that isn't tethered by the events of the comic book, and is truly a blank page, has set my creativity racing."
Here's to more blood, gore, walkers, and biters!
My pick hit today is one of my favorite songs from one of the best albums of 2013. It's the fourth single from "Electric" from the Pet Shop Boys.
Here's what I wrote about the song when I reviewed the album back in July, ""Thursday" features English rapper Example. This song would have the best chance of mainstream success in America because it has an updated feel of 1980s club beats, very distinguishable Pet Shop vocals and music, and a strong rap, which is pretty much a staple of many songs played on Top 40 radio these days in the U.S."
FINISHED "GOLDEN DAYS"
Last week, I mentioned that I started reading my first book in almost five years, "Golden Days: Memories of a Golden Retriever" by Arthur Vanderbilt.
The book was incredible. It had me tearing up by page five before Vanderbilt shares fun stories of Amy, the golden retriever, and an exciting history of the Cape Cod area.
By the time I got to the final chapter, page 133 of the 143-page book, my heart was breaking and the tears started slowing and I knew I had to be focus since I walking on the treadmill.
Amy reminded me so much of Miss ABBA, my golden that went to "puppy heaven" almost two years ago. I love the stories of Amy and her sticks, her tennis balls, her treats under the table and the frozen paws in the snow.
Here's Miss ABBA from Spirit Lake, Iowa, in the summer of 2010.
Miss ABBA, Amy, and all goldens are the most amazing creatures God ever created!
Check this book out if you've ever loved a dog like it was human and not just a pet!
PEEPS' '80s FRIDAY FLASHBACK
Sir Cliff Richard turns 74-years-old next Monday and he's getting ready to release his 100th album!
While he's music royalty in his native England, he only hit the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 nine times. His first hit reached #30 in 1959 and he last hit the Top 40 in 1981 peaking at #23. Of those nine hits, three reached the Top Ten.
His biggest hit, "Devil Woman" hit #6 in 1976.
However, "We Don't Talk Anymore", which was released in late 1979, became his biggest selling song of all time with five million copies sold. When the song spent two weeks at #7 in January 1980, Richard became the first artist to reach the Top 40 on the Hot 100 with songs in the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s, and the 1980s.
From that video, you can see why this 15-year-old (back in 1980) had the biggest crush on him. That crush only intensified when he sang a duet, "Suddenly" with Olivia Newton-John later that year!
Happy Birthday, Cliff!
Everyone have a great weekend and make the best of it. Thank you for checking out my random thoughts this week.