PERSONAL NEWS #102
On Thursday evening, July 27th, I attended a Jonathan Tasini fundraiser at the home of Bob Ginsberg in Manhattan. The invitation was sent to me, via email, by two fellow NYC Kucitizens … Mary G and Stephanie L. Both of these ladies are terrific, inspiring and involved with so many projects in activism. I don’t have much regard for Mr. Ginsberg. His conduct, at times, during the Kucinich Presidential campaign in 2003/2004 here in NYC was very questionable. I told Stephanie in an email, who feels same as I do regarding Bob, that I’ll put my best foot forward for the Tasini event. [Believe me, I was gracious and charming the whole evening, and worthy of an Oscar.] Must say that Mr. Ginsberg’s apartment was nicely situated, spacious and a lovely view of the Hudson River. Good turnout at the fundraiser, delicious refreshments and was delighted in seeing some folk I hadn’t seen in awhile. Engaged in some lengthy conversations while drinking wine and nibbling on tasty snacks. After awhile Jonathan Tasini gave a terrific, thoughtful, passionate speech. This was followed by a fascinating Q&A segment. It was during this part that a tipsy Ginsberg made references to Israel/Lebanon conflict. Most of what he said was misinformation from the corporate mainstream media. The usual propaganda and lies from the likes of Fox News et al. Tasini answered his questions with intelligence, truth and clarity. Bravo Tasini!

On Saturday morning, July 29th, my friend and fellow goddess [Cielito] helped me out in picking up the two drawer file cabinet I had purchased the evening before at Office Depot. Thank you so much fellow goddess in helping me out with your car. We caught up on news and gossip. The rest of the afternoon was spent organizing my paperwork and filing into the cabinet. I’ve been meaning to do this for years and it felt good to finally accomplish this task. Later that evening I went to an event hosted by Share International http://www.share-international.org/ to hear Benjamin Crème speak on Maitreya and other topics. My friends Cielito, Linda and Max are members of Share International and were there helping out. When the evening started with a blessing and meditation the auditorium was 65% full. Some noisy, rude people left early. Then Mr. Crème gave a 1 ½ hour lecture, during which a few more people left. Guess they didn’t like hearing some of what Mr. Crème had to say and are not “open minded” individuals. The lecture touched on such topics as humanity, war, poverty, spirituality, injustice and the coming of Maitreya. During the intermission I got to hang out with Linda and catch up on news. Also helped her sell some Share International t-shirts and engage in conversation with others.

A blessing from Maitreya goes something like this. . . . .

I am the Stranger at the Gate
I am the One Who Knocks
I am the One Who will not go away
I am your Friend
I am your Hope
I am your Shield
I am your Love
I am All in All

The ELF Convention on Sunday, July 30th, wasn't that bad. [Duchess posing with poster from convention.] I remember going to much better conventions back in the 1980s. I was abit disappointed with the limited vendors and merchandise. Carole and Kaleena were there from our NYC group, plus Kathy whom I met at the “Tolkien Reading Event” in March. Carole told me that the vendors and merchandise were so much better at the “gathering” in Toronto. She said this was more geared toward “creation.com” [Carole, thank you sooo much for the Boromir sketch/print from Toronto Gathering. I love it!] Despite that I picked up some items. Purchased a few items for Jackie, who couldn’t make it due to illness. [Get well soon Lady Greenleaf.] Sadly, I wasn’t really impressed with the limited elf items, so refrained from making purchases. Colleen Doran had a lovely drawing/print of Orlando Bloom as Legolas. It’s called “Gimli’s Gift”. I also purchased a long sleeved LOTRs black shirt with a map of Middle Earth on the back, plus several TOPPS cards. Four of which has pix of my dear Boromir [ie: Sean Bean] on them. Also engaged in interesting conversations with a few vendors.

I arrived that morning by bus shortly around 11:10am and made the short walk to the hotel in Secaucus. Came across Kaleena while getting a Starbuck frap. We hung out for awhile and she showed me where the venders were. While there Carole showed up. Most of the afternoon I hung out with Carole, plus Kaleena. We sat in to listen to Michael Drout and Colleen Doran give lectures. [Michael Drout is a Professor of English at Wheaton College in MA. And is very knowledgeable on JRR Tolkien and his website is http://michaeldrout.com/ ] Though both speakers were separate features their talks were enjoyable. Tim and Daniel came dressed as Aragorn and Frodo. [photo below] Great costumes!

Watching and listening to Billy Boyd was worth it. He is so adorable, funny and charming. Love his Scottish accent. Was one of the last people to get his autograph after an auction of LOTR items. I asked him what it was like to work with Sean Bean and the “death scene” in FOTR. He said it was great working with such a talented, terrific actor like Sean and he was a hard kisser. He’s a tough man. [All this was said with a charming smile.] I was like, ah, excuse me. Must be an inside joke amongst LOTRs cast members. Two of the Creation folk also said Sean’s a great soldier in Sharpe. [BTW, Billy signed my LOTRs Official Movie Guide book.] To which I agreed with them, as I am also a big Sharpe fan and we chatted about that topic for awhile. Then I noticed, what I thought were fans like me, taking close-up pix of Billy. So I did likewise, while charming him with my banter, and then one of them posed with Billy for a shot. I asked Kathy, with Creation, if I could have my pix taken with Billy and she said sure. Later I learned from Kathy that I was the only fan still behind the curtain at that point and she made it seem like I was staff. Whoa! That’s how I got my pix taken with Billy and at no extra cost to me. Hum, it pays to be near the end of the line at times. At this point Carole and Kathy had already left, so I went back on the bus to Manhattan with Kaleena and Maddy, plus two other gals whose names I cannot remember. Oops, must be having a senior moment.

CONNECTICUT'S LESSONS - Senator Lieberman's loss has implications for Senator Hillary Clintons Primary
NY Times Union
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=507196
[Duchess Note ... Thank you David H in sharing this article.]

ROVE OFFERS TO HELP LIBERMAN (seriously)
William Pitt, Truthout
http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2006/8/9/13328/00296
[Duchess Note ... Blair has been referred to as Bush Regimes poodle. Well, here in the US its Lieberman. They just love Mr Republican Lite. Thank you for sharing the link Judith.]