I COULD HAVE BEEN A CONTENDER

 

 

A PORTRAIT OF ASGAR AND THE PLIGHT OF KASHMIR

FEATURING THE ELOQUENT LETTERS OF SAYED ASGAR ALI RAZWY

http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2010/06/portrait-of-asgar-and-plight-of-kashmir_9570.html 

 

I brought my manuscript for A PORTRAIT OF ASGAR AND THE PLIGHT OF KASHMIR to Montreal publisher, Alfred Warkenten. He said he would publish it - if I would write a book for him attacking Israel.

 

I brought some of my paintings to a gallery in downtown Montreal. The owner, a survivor of the Holocaust, said my paintings were not particularly interesting - but she could make me rich and famous by hanging my work in her gallery and giving me a lot of publicity - if I would write her biography.

 

I refused both offers. My paintings are not for sale. Money was never interesting to me.

 

I published A PORTRAIT OF ASGAR AND THE PLIGHT OF KASHMIR myself. It was never about having a best seller. It was never about money. But I have letters acknowledging that there are copies of my little book in the great libraries of London, Paris and Hawaii, as well as in the National Library at Parliament in Ottawa.

 

A PORTRAIT OF ASGAR AND THE PLIGHT OF KASHMIR
FEATURING THE ELOQUENT LETTERS OF SAYED ASGAR ALI RAZWY
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2010/06/portrait-of-asgar-and-plight-of-kashmir_9570.html

 

FREE KASHMIR - IT IS LONG OVERDUE
http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2010/06/free-kashmir-it-is-long-overdue.html

 

 

THOUGHTS ON GOOD AND EVIL

 

How do we destroy evil -

Without becoming evil ?

 

The Christian answer is - 

Forgiveness and self-sacrifice:

 

That leaves the world

Deprived of

The best people,

So that evil triumphs.

 

It is time to stop forgiving.

 

 

DEATH COVERS THE BEACHES - DO YOU CARE ENOUGH TO SPEAK OUT ?

 

Oceans of Freedom's photo.

 

Urge the government to stop the Navy from seismic & sonar testing.

 

Please friends sign and share this petition to Congress and send the letters also.

 

If we don't stop this,what you see in this photo will happen again and again.

 

http://www.petition2congress.com/9133/prohibit-military-sonar-seismic-testing-harming-marine-mammals/?src=widget

 

 

I REMEMBER JAN PEERCE - HE GAVE US THE BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS

 

 

 

I had the privilege of meeting Jan Peerce twice - once at Plateau Hall in Montreal when I was a young girl and years later at Place des Arts along with my husband, Cliff Carter.

 

This wonderful tenor was also a fine gentleman, cordial and delightful to chat with, even for a few moments. He was kind, modest and charming - yet who today has even heard of his name?

 

Jan Peerce's recording of the Blue Bird of Happiness is a treasure. I cannot copy the sound here, but even the lyrics are beautiful, and Jan Peerce's sweet tenor voice remains in my memory even when I am not listening to the record.

 

JAN PEERCE AND CLIFF CARTER

 

TED BLACKMAN COLUMN

THE GAZETTE

OCTOBER 23, 1979

 

"No Business Like Show Business ... Two 77 year olds, Myron Cohen and Cliff Carter, reminiscing backstage Saturday night after Cohen and Jan Peerce drew several standing O's (ovations) for their splendid performances at Place des Arts. Carter still playing the Pointe Claire Holiday Inn Saturday nights worked the Chez Paree with Cohen 25 years ago."

 

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19791023&id=fTkyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=l6QFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1912,349156

I was with Cliff that evening in the small dressing room at Place des Arts shared by Jan Peerce and Myron Cohen. On other occasions, I was with Cliff at Place des Arts with Count Basie, The Mills Brothers, Liberace and Victor Borge.

 

See MR. NOSTALGIA, CLIFF CARTER  -  http://cliffcartermrnostalgia.blogspot.com

 

The Jewish American tenor, Jan Peerce (real name, Jacob Pincus Perelmuth), grew up in the New York City streets, and attended De Witt Clinton High School and Columbia University. Like so many others of his generation, he had taken violin lessons, and his first regular money was earned by playing the violin in public. As part of the program he would also sing popular songs, and the discovery came almost accidentally that he had an extraordinary voice.

 

In 1932 an engagement followed as tenor soloist with the Radio City Music Hall company. Its radio broadcasts and stage programs embraced light classical music and great moments of opera, and Jan Peerce soon had a nation-wide following. Concert engagements came, and then a sudden and extraordinary leap to fame. He made his operatic debut in May 1938 Philadelphia as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, and gave his first solo recital in New York in November 1939.

 

Jan Peerce's lyrical voice attracted attention. The great conductor, Arturo Toscanini, heard him and found him to be the tenor he had been looking for to sing the leading roles in his broadcasts and recordings of opera and choral works. The recordings that followed these broadcasts are among the outstanding musical legacies of our time. Soon the "living" operatic stage beckoned in San Francisco and then New York. Jan Peerce made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera Company on November 29, 1941 singing Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata. He sang also the parts of Cavaradossi in Tosca, Rodolfo in La Bohème, and Charles Gounod's Faust. He was hailed by the critics as the "All-American successor to the 'greats' of opera's almost extinct 'Golden Age.'" He has since become a celebrated name in the world's musical centres, and in 1956 made a sensation in Moscow as a musical "cultural exchange" ambassador, being the first American to sing with the famed Bolshoi Theatre opera. He remained on the staff of the Metropolitan until 1966, appearing again in 1966-1967. He was pressed to return not only to sing but also to teach a master class. He continued to make occasional appearances until his retirement in 1982. He was the brother in law of Richard Tucker.

So entranced had Arturo Toscanini been with Jan Peerce's stylistic mastery, depth of feeling and beauty of line in Verdi's and Puccini's music that he claimed Peerce must have had some Italian ancestry. But of course Peerce is equally distinguished in George Frideric Handel, J.S. Bach, German Lieder and French art song. In fact, his first broadcast with Arturo Toscanini was in L.v. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and another famous performance was that of Florestan in L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio. Peerce also prizes his long association with the Bach Aria Group, where as he says, "the artist is only another instrument."

Born: June 3, 1904 - New York City, New York, USA Died: December 15, 1984 - New York City, New York, USA

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Peerce-Jan.htm

 

 

THE BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS

The beggar man and the mighty king

Are only different in name,

For they are treated just the same by Fate.

Today a smile and tomorrow a tear,

We're never sure what's in store

So learn your lesson before it is too late.

So be like I

Hold your head up high

Till you find the bluebird of happiness.

You will find

Greater peace of mind

Knowing there's a bluebird of happiness.

And when she sings to you

Though you're deep in blue

You will see a ray of light creep through.

And so, remember this

Life is no abyss

Somewhere there's a bluebird of happiness.

The poet with his pen,

The peasant with his plow,

It makes no difference who you are,

It's all the same somehow.

The king upon his throne,

The jester at his feet,

The artist, the actress,

The man on the street.

It's a life of smiles,

And a life of tears,

It's a life of hope,

And a life of fears.

A blinding torrent of rain

And a brilliant burst of sun,

A biting, tearing pain

And bubbling, sparkling fun.

And no matter what you have

Don't envy those you meet,

It's all the same, it's in the game

The bitter and the sweet.        

So be like I

Hold your head up high

Till you find the bluebird of happiness.

******************

MR. NOSTALGIA, CLIFF CARTER  -  http://cliffcartermrnostalgia.blogspot.com

 

 

 

MY BATTLE CRY

 

 

JUSTICE,

ONLY JUSTICE

SHALT THOU PURSUE !

 

Deuteronomy 16:20

ORGANIZED RELIGIONS GRAND AND SMALL

 

Men create gods

In their own imagination,

And in their own image.

 

 And sheep follow fools,

 And blame their crimes

 On the gods they have created,

In their own minds.

 

And anyone

Who dares to question,

As I did once,

In an Anglican church,

 In Montreal,

 Presents a threat

To the power of men to control

The minds and the money

Of the weak and those confused.

 

When I questioned someone quoting bible,

I was told that

I was

"Sent by the devil to disrupt the church."

 

Later I found another Anglican Church

Where the minister was wise,

And learned,

And very kind.

 

Organized religion

Is Big Business.

 

Sometimes it has something to do

With God.

 

TEN YEAR OLD GIRL SOLD FOR 50 SHEEP - WILL YOU REMAIN SILENT ?

 

Sabere, now 16, was only 7 years old when her father died in war. Her cousin inherited her, and following a long-practiced tradition in Afghanistan, he sold her when she was 10 years old to Golmohammad, a man in his 50s and a member of the Taliban.

During the next six years she was both a slave and wife of Golmohammad. She became pregnant four times, miscarrying each time. The cause may have been her youth, or the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband. While they were on a trip to Mazar-e sharif, Sabere managed to escape and after much effort, she made her way to a women's shelter.

Meanwhile, Sabere's mother needed to remarry quickly to avoid bringing shame on the family with her widowhood. According to tradition, ownership and betrothal of a widow transfers to the deceased's cousin. So Sabere's mother marries the cousin, and gives birth to a daughter named Farzane (Sabere's half-sister).

The family struggles to make ends meet, so when Farzane is 10 years old, her father sells her to a man in western Afghanistan. Her price: 50 sheep and a piece of dry-farming land. As a kind of installment plan, the buyer pays Farzane's father 10 sheep per year, and will take possession of her when she is 15 and the full amount has been paid.

After six months of searching, the women's shelter tracks down Sabere's mother and her stepfather and invites them to the shelter for a meeting. When they discover the deal to sell Farzane, the shelter's managers realize they not only need to help Sabere but Farzane as well.

Sabere has applied for a divorce with the shelter's assistance, but she knows that her husband will find her and kill her — as he had his two previous wives — if she is not protected well. Golmohammad, who is over sixty, refuses to attend the domestic court proceedings because he refuses to accept the divorce, but also because he is wanted by the police on a charge of kidnapping. The court cannot force him to appear, because he lives in a part of the country controlled by the Taliban. So Sabere, with help from the shelter and police, embarks on a ruse to lure Golmohammad to Mazar-e sharif so he can be arrested.

I Was Worth 50 Sheep is the tale of these two sisters and their struggle for human dignity and freedom in a war-torn country caught between ancient traditions and a modern world.

The Filmmakers

1. Nima SarvestaniDirector
2. Maryam EbrahimiProducer

http://www.itvs.org/films/i-was-worth-50-sheep