Mea Culpa

I hate upsetting and offending people. I have this huge sensitivity button that gets set off at the slightest tap, and the fact that I said something or did something without thinking or without proofreading rolls endlessly around in my head until I've made myself half-sick. This was something I really thought about when I first began writing about my life and career on line, and I think it's a topic that continues to come up. How do you explain what it is to be in this world, this life in the arts, if you never say anything that someone might take the wrong way or take issue with. The fact is . . . you can't.

And so all I can do is try. After my first few postings I made it a practice to always talk about difficult situations in the general way - not naming names and pulling away from specifics that might make someone's role easily recognizeable. There are a lot of things that I him and haw over then choose not to write about at all. Names are only mentioned when I am writing a full-out rave or praising someone for their amazing abilities. I am self-deprecating enough to still have the ability to talk about the difficult times and lament about the trials of my life as an artist without meaningless gossip.

All of this is being said because, no matter how many precautions you take, people can still sometimes be upset by what you've written or how you've portrayed them and theirs. I just want to state for the record that nothing I say is ever meant to offend anyone at any time (unless you are a member of the government . . .and then watch out!). My email is linked to my profile, and if anyone ever sees something about themselves that they would rather not see, they only need to email me and I will take it off immediately.

This career is a tough one - glorious when you're in the midst, but sometimes gruesome enough to leave you crying yourself to sleep. I have the upmost respect for other artists doing their thing and hope that this blog may let other people in on how we operate in this life. I am not out to expose the soiled underbelly of the world of opera and dance (though I cannot deny that it most certainly exists), I want, instead, to give people insight into why we all drag ourselves endlessly through the tough, gristly moments to get to the juicy center and feast.

Thanks for reading. Keep it up: I've tons more to say.

Cheers!