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Love Is Most High

By |2020-04-30T16:16:59-04:00December 24th, 2013|Prose & Poetry, Writing|

Love is most high More high than sky More salty than the tear From my Beloved's eye And sweeter than a drop of dew Born in a strand of morning's new For love is tall More tall than all More patient than the ancient earth Awaiting autumn's fall And restless as a song of spring Unthroated and untiring For love [...]

On Being a Towering Figure

By |2020-04-30T16:30:13-04:00December 6th, 2013|Blog Post, Life Arts, Self Mastery|

The towering figure called Nelson Mandela has died. This is the poem that got him through prison: Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of [...]

Don’t show us, let us find it

By |2020-04-30T16:30:25-04:00November 24th, 2013|Acting, Blog Post, Public Speaking, Singing, Stagecraft|

I attended a screening of the new film, Nebraska, with my Canadian actor and pal Jean Brassard. What a truthful bit of film-making it is and what amazing casting! In the live chat with Bruce Dern that followed, he shared some of his wisdom: 1. Don't push. Don't perform. Don't show us anything. Let us find it. 2. Always [...]

Still Body, Animated Mind

By |2020-04-30T16:28:50-04:00November 9th, 2013|Acting, Public Speaking, Singing, Stagecraft|

What is it that's so powerful about the performers who can command the stage in stillness? I've felt their confidence and comfort in their bodies. I've felt the force of their imagination. In striving for this stage stillness and power in myself, I've watched them. And I've watched the video footage of my own concerts (yikes! - there is no more [...]

Karen and the Brits

By |2023-12-03T13:33:23-05:00July 9th, 2013|Key Dates, News & Events|

In the summer of 2013, following a concert at the German-Heritage Museum in Los Angeles to mark the 50th Anniversary of JFK's historic visit to Berlin, Karen took her longest running (since 1995) cabaret act Das Kabarett: European Cabaret and American Pop and headed to London for a run at the Crazy Coqs Cabaret in Piccadilly Circus. Leigh Thompson accompanied. [...]

On Waking Up and Walling Up

By |2020-04-30T16:43:51-04:00April 16th, 2013|Blog Post, Life Arts, Self Mastery|

My life happens first and my art imitates it. That's the usual way. What I experience becomes my authority in what I bring across on stage, in a scene, a song, a mood, emotion, sentiment, argument. I admit I'm an adventurer, happier on the edge than in the center. Yet anchored in the center with at least one foot, [...]

A Mistake Midstream

By |2020-04-30T17:23:29-04:00March 16th, 2013|Blog Post, Life Arts, Stagecraft|

I witnessed something beautiful the other night in an intimate room here in Manhattan...an error so seamlessly handled as to go almost unnoticed. The singer was turned slightly away from her audience, looking off stage left and sharing a duet with her bassist at the opening of a tune. Their dialogue was sparse and sensual and then, nearly a [...]

Drawing Blanks, Forgetting Lines

By |2020-04-30T17:31:27-04:00February 21st, 2013|Acting, Public Speaking, Singing, Stagecraft|

The other night I was on stage with my singing partner, leaning back on a chair as her next song began. Only it didn't begin. The pianist played the intro, but when it was time for her to sing, no words came out. This is the nightmare! The singer's, actor's, speaker's nightmare: Forgetting. Drawing Blanks. It happens to all [...]

Emptiness and Origin

By |2020-04-30T17:38:21-04:00February 8th, 2013|Blog Post, Life Arts, Self Mastery|

Emptiness is the void. Silence is the void. The place of origin from which all comes and to which all returns. Silence is key. Without it there is no music. Claude Debussy said, “Music is the silence between the notes." Think about that. Music is the silence between the notes. Silence is space, space is physical – the earth, [...]

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