#vera clarendon

[danceclubcrickets]

Alright, well, I’ma get 2018 going by running with this moment of confidence and stupidity I am in right now, and posting a story of mine here. 

This is just a quick little excerpt with two of my characters, Reid and Cori. I just thought I’d like to prove that I do in fact have characters that I write stories about, and I don’t just sit around making up names and saying that these characters, like, TOTALLY EXIST, y’all, and I have SO many stories for them, but idk I left them all in Canada or smth

I don’t really like my own writing style, tbh. When I read it back to myself, it just sounds like “this character did this. this character felt that.” and I don’t really know how to improve it that much, so hey, advice-givers, give it if you got it. I’ve been trying to read well-written stuff, and learn from it without copying it, but idk how well I managed to pull it off, lol.

(Just as an aside, the fact that New Year is mentioned is purely coincidental. It’s just canon that at this point in the story, Reid doesn’t speak to Cori for a long time and then they reunite sometime in the dead of winter basically)

So here it is, a short bit about a guy and his skeleton friendo, and a pretty good summary of what most of my writing is like (i.e. poorly-written angst and h/c). Enjoy—I’ll be off to the side, steeping my bones in regret. XD

The Last Person Expected

“Cori, can you stop clicking, please?”

Cori mumbled an apology for her nervous habit and stuffed her hands in her pockets, the sound of her finger joints muffled by the fabric of her winter coat. She had four layers of clothing on underneath, as well as a face mask pulled up to her nasal bone—her usual cold-weather attire. During the Winter, she often got asked if skeletons get cold, and she had to repeatedly explain that yes, they do, but not as much as people with skin, and she mostly just wears layers so she looks slightly less skeletal.

Today, it was to cut down on the number of Grim-Reaper-related remarks, because these were not the remarks she wanted to hear while out on a mission of charitable goodwill. (“Ghost of Christmas Future” also seemed to be a favorite, even though the holiday had come and gone, and while she understood the comparison, she hated that she was perceived as terrifying and gloomy.)

The Clarendon family had the tradition of heading into the more run-down parts of Chamber City–the parts that the Clarendon parents tended to serve in volunteer medical clinics—and handing out “Basics Bags,” containing things like razors, combs, toothbrushes, first aid, and other essential items. They did it whenever they could, but they always made sure to at least do so after the holidays were over, after the cold weather had truly set in, but most of the other well-wishers and do-gooders had vanished.

This was the first time that Cori had participated since she became a skeleton. Her mom, Vera, hummed thoughtfully and set the radio to scan for a station. “I thought you enjoyed doing this every year,” she said to Cori.

“Yeah, that was before I looked like this!” Cori gestured to her face, and even though it was half-hidden by fabric, her point was clear. “Now I terrify small children.”

“Well, fortunately, Corsiva, it’s not about what you look like,” Vera replied. “It’s difficult to be too terrified in the face of a person giving you a gift, right?”

Cori leaned her skull against the car window, fogging it ever-so-slightly when she exhaled. “You underestimate the superstitious public.” She figured her mom was just trying to cheer her up with that question, but the attempt fell flat.

Sure enough, when they got to their first street, a mother and a child both cringed away from her as she handed them a bag. She smiled, then realized half her face was covered—so she simply struck as non-threatening a pose as possible, laid the bag on the ground, wished them a nice day, and walked back to her mom’s car.

“See, told ya,” she muttered.

“It’s okay,” Vera said with a hand-wave. “You’re still starting off the new year by doing a good deed, no matter what you look like.”

And so they went, parking on the numbered streets and walking down the named ones to hand out Basics Bags. Cori got mixed reactions as the days went on—some people were thankful, some were rude, some cracked jokes, and some didn’t say much of anything at all.

Cori saw a lot of people her own age, and while they tended to just be grateful and say “thank you,” it still surprised her just how much of her generation seemed to not have a roof over their heads. She used to think that handing out these bags was making a significant difference in the world, and it was probably making a significant-ish difference to those people specifically, but now it made her wonder.

Toward the end of their second-to-last road, she spotted a young man sitting in front of a pile of black trash bags. His head was down and his legs were crossed, hands laying limply in his lap. He didn’t stir as she approached, and didn’t wake until she addressed him directly.

“Excuse me, sir,” she said as quietly as possible, and his eyes sprung open immediately. He leaned back and looked around a little before his eyes settled on her. She held a bag out, leaning forward and doing her best to look friendly. “My family and I make these bags every year and give them out. Would you like one?”

His eyes widened in shock, or perhaps disbelief. Oh good, Cori thought, I’ve scared another one. Great. Wonderful. “It’s okay, I’m not as scary as I look,” Cori sighed, trying and failing to keep the resignation out of her tone. “Can I just leave this here with you?”

He didn’t say anything, but his eyes narrowed a little, like he was trying to figure her out—an expression she was not unaccustomed to seeing. “It’s a Basics Bag,” she explained, and her face mask slipped off her nasal bone as she looked down. She didn’t bother fixing it. “It has a lot of useful stuff in here—first aid, shaving cream and a razor, a spare toothbrush, a roll of quarters for laundromats and—”

“Cori?”

“Huh?” She hardly heard him, because she was talking and his voice was very soft, but she was certain she’d just heard him say her name. She stopped talking and lowered the bag to her side.

“Cori,” he murmured again, even quieter this time.

“Um… yeah.” Cori’s metaphorical stomach dropped. She hadn’t expected to encounter anyone who knew her. “Do I know y—“

Before she could even finish the word, she realized who she was talking to. Her jaw fell open, and she dropped the bag she was holding. Even though his clothes were tattered, he was covered in dirt and grime, and he had lost a lot of weight, his face was unmistakable, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t recognized him sooner. She felt like she’d been struck by lightning.

“Reid?”

She sank to her knees, putting herself at eye-level with him. The sidewalk was damp, and murky pavement-water soaked right through her pants and onto her kneecaps. It didn’t matter. The only thing currently mattering was the fact that Reid Blackburn, who she hadn’t heard a peep from in nearly a year, was sitting in front of her, in a state she never would have expected to see him in.

Reid cast his eyes downward. He seemed… afraid? Perhaps just hesitant. Maybe embarrassed? Cori reached out to try and hold one of his hands in an attempt to comfort him, momentarily forgetting his fear of touch—he yanked his arms away and gave a soft whimper, refusing to look her in the eyes, seemingly bracing himself. Cori’s head swam with shock, confusion, fear… mostly confusion.

“Reid,” she asked gently, trying to hide her growing panic. “What are you doing here?”

He said nothing.

“How long have you been out here?”

Still nothing. His brow furrowed and he bit down on the inside of his lip.

Cori tilted her head to the side. “Are you okay?”

And with that, whatever energy was keeping him upright seemed to vanish, and he caved in on himself, quietly sobbing.

Cori leaned back on her leg, feeling slightly frantic. “Okay, um… I think we should… hm. My mom is just up the street… she’s waiting for me to come back. How about you and I go talk to her?”

Reid shook his head, shrinking further and folding his arms across his chest.

“Well, I can’t let you stay out here.” Cori planted her palms on the ground and looked up into Reid’s face. “You can at least come have dinner with us, right?”

Reid kept his head down, but he did at least meet Cori’s gaze, and tentative relief swept across her face. “Right?” she repeated.

Finally, he spoke. “I don’t want to intrude.”

“Oh my g- …Reid, it’s not an intrusion. I am not about to just leave my best friend alone in a pile of garbage,” she said, a slight tremor in her voice, as she reached out and took Reid gently by the wrist. “You are coming with me, and I am not taking no for an answer.”

The fact that Cori called Reid her “best friend” took him off-guard, and his eyes welled up anew. He flinched when Cori touched him, but didn’t pull away, and Cori sprang up and helped him to his feet.

“Come on,” she said, motioning to an SUV in the distance. “That’s my mom’s car, just there. Let’s go talk to her.”

Reid sniffled and scrubbed at his eyes, still not speaking, allowing himself to be dragged along by the arm as the two walked back to the car together. Cori could feel him quivering in her grip, and her jawbone was clicking from the force of holding back all her questions. How did this happen? What even happened, for Reid to get to this point? Why didn’t he ask her for help earlier, like he did the last time they saw each other?

Where are his brother and sisters?

Click, click, click. Questions for another time, perhaps.

When they got to the SUV, Cori raised a gloved hand and tapped on the window.

“Ran out of bags?” Vera asked as the glass lowered.

“Actually, uh, it’s… not that.” Cori gave Reid’s arm a light tug, bringing him within view of her mother. “Do you think Reid can stay for dinner tonight?”

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, comedian and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades. She was known for her lighthearted, bawdy double entendres and breezy sexual independence, and often used a husky contralto voice. She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry.

West was one of the most controversial movie stars of her day; she encountered many problems, especially censorship. She once quipped, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it." She bucked the system by making comedy out of conventional mores, and the Depression-era audience admired her for it. When her film career ended, she wrote books and plays, and continued to perform in Las Vegas and the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock 'n roll albums. In 1999, the American Film Institute posthumously voted West the 15th greatest female screen legend of classic American cinema.

Mary Jane West was born on August 17, 1893, in Brooklyn (either Greenpoint or Bushwick, before New York City was consolidated in 1898). She was delivered at home by an aunt who was a midwife. She was the eldest surviving child of John Patrick West and Mathilde "Tillie" (later Matilda) Delker (originally Doelger; later Americanized to "Delker" or "Dilker"). Tillie and her five siblings emigrated with their parents, Jakob (1835–1902) and Christiana (1838–1901; née Brüning) Doelger from Bavaria in 1886. West's parents married on January 18, 1889, in Brooklyn, to the pleasure of the groom's parents and the displeasure of the bride's parents and raised their children as Protestants, although John West was of mixed Catholic–Protestant descent.

West's father was a prizefighter known as "Battlin' Jack West" who later worked as a "special policeman" and later had his own private investigations agency. Her mother was a former corset and fashion model. Her paternal grandmother, Mary Jane (née Copley), for whom she was named, was of Irish Catholic descent and West's paternal grandfather, John Edwin West, was of English–Scots descent and a ship's rigger.

Her eldest sibling, Katie, died in infancy. Her other siblings were Mildred Katherine West, later known as Beverly (December 8, 1898 – March 12, 1982), and John Edwin West II (sometimes inaccurately called "John Edwin West, Jr."; February 11, 1900 – October 12, 1964). During her childhood, West's family moved to various parts of Woodhaven, as well as the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of Brooklyn. In Woodhaven, at Neir's Social Hall (which opened in 1829 and is still extant), West supposedly first performed professionally.

West was five when she first entertained a crowd at a church social, and she started appearing in amateur shows at the age of seven. She often won prizes at local talent contests. She began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Clarendon Stock Company in 1907 at the age of 14. West first performed under the stage name "Baby Mae", and tried various personas, including a male impersonator.

She used the alias "Jane Mast" early in her career. Her trademark walk was said to have been inspired or influenced by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge, who were famous during the Pansy Craze. Her first appearance in a Broadway show was in a 1911 revue A La Broadway put on by her former dancing teacher, Ned Wayburn. The show folded after eight performances, but at age 18, West was singled out and discovered by The New York Times. The Times reviewer wrote that a "girl named Mae West, hitherto unknown, pleased by her grotesquerie and snappy way of singing and dancing". West next appeared in a show called Vera Violetta, whose cast featured Al Jolson. In 1912, she appeared in the opening performance of A Winsome Widow as a "baby vamp" named La Petite Daffy.

She was encouraged as a performer by her mother, who, according to West, always thought that anything Mae did was fantastic. Other family members were less encouraging, including an aunt and her paternal grandmother. They are all reported as having disapproved of her career and her choices. In 1918, after exiting several high-profile revues, West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, opposite Ed Wynn. Her character Mayme danced the shimmy and her photograph appeared on an edition of the sheet music for the popular number "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now".

Eventually, she began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. Her first starring role on Broadway was in a 1926 play she entitled Sex, which she wrote, produced, and directed. Although conservative critics panned the show, ticket sales were strong. The production did not go over well with city officials, who had received complaints from some religious groups, and the theater was raided, with West arrested along with the cast. She was taken to the Jefferson Market Court House, (now Jefferson Market Library), where she was prosecuted on morals charges, and on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to 10 days for "corrupting the morals of youth". Though West could have paid a fine and been let off, she chose the jail sentence for the publicity it would garner. While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife; she told reporters that she had worn her silk panties while serving time, in lieu of the "burlap" the other girls had to wear. West got great mileage from this jail stint. She served eight days with two days off for "good behavior". Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong".

Her next play, The Drag, dealt with homosexuality, and was what West called one of her "comedy-dramas of life". After a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, West announced she would open the play in New York. However, The Drag never opened on Broadway due to efforts by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice to ban any attempt by West to stage it. West explained, "The city fathers begged me not to bring the show to New York because they were not equipped to handle the commotion it would cause." West was an early supporter of the women's liberation movement, but said she was not a "burn your bra" type feminist. Since the 1920s, she was also an early supporter of gay rights, and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. She adopted a then "modern" psychological explanation that gay men were women's souls in men's bodies, and hitting a gay man was akin to hitting a woman. In her 1959 autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, West strongly objected to hypocrisy while, for surprising and unexplained reasons, also disparaging homosexuality: "In many ways homosexuality is a danger to the entire social system of Western civilization. Certainly a nation should be made aware of its presence — without moral mottoes — and its effects on children recruited to it in their innocence. I had no objection to it as a cult of jaded inverts... involved only with themselves. It was its secret, anti-social aspects I wanted to bring into the sun. As a private pressure group it could, and has, infected whole nations." This perspective, never elaborated upon by Mae West in other books or interviews seems inconsistent with the Mae West persona. In her 1975 book Sex, Health, and ESP, Mae West writes on page 43, "I believe that the world owes male and female homosexuals more understanding than we've given them. Live and let live is my philosophy on the subject, and I believe everybody has the right to do his or her own thing or somebody else's -- as long as they do it all in private!"

West continued to write plays, including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man and The Constant Sinner. Her productions aroused controversy, which ensured that she stayed in the news, which also often resulted in packed houses at her performances. Her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. This show had an enduring popularity and West successfully revived it many times throughout the course of her career. With Diamond Lil being a hit show, Hollywood naturally came courting.

In 1932, West was offered a contract by Paramount Pictures despite being close to 40. This was an unusually late age to begin a film career, especially for women, but she was not playing an ingénue. She nonetheless managed to keep her age ambiguous for some time. She made her film debut in Night After Night (1932) starring George Raft, who suggested West for the role. At first she did not like her small role in Night After Night, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes.[45] In West's first scene, a hat-check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds", and West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is said to have remarked, "She stole everything but the cameras."

She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed "Lady Lou", to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film was one of Cary Grant's first major roles, which boosted his career. West claimed she spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead. She claimed to have told a Paramount director, "If he can talk, I'll take him!". The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The success of the film saved Paramount from bankruptcy, grossing over $2 million, the equivalent of $140 million today. Paramount recognizes that debt of gratitude today, with a building on the lot named after West.

Her next release, I'm No Angel (1933), teamed her with Grant again. I'm No Angel was also a box office hit and was the most successful of her entire film career. In the months that followed the release of this film, reference to West could be found almost anywhere, from the song lyrics of Cole Porter, to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural of San Francisco's newly built Coit Tower, to She Done Him Right, a Betty Boop cartoon, to "My Dress Hangs There", a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, paid his own tribute: "West is the most wonderful machine for living I have ever known – unfortunately on the screen only." To F. Scott Fitzgerald, West was especially unique: "The only Hollywood actress with both an ironic edge and a comic spark." As Variety put it, "Mae West's films have made her the biggest conversation-provoker, free-space grabber, and all-around box office bet in the country. She's as hot an issue as Hitler."

By 1933, West was one of the largest box office draws in the United States and, by 1935, West was also the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst). Hearst invited West to San Simeon, California. "I could'a married him", West explained, "but I got no time for parties. I don't like those big crowds." On July 1, 1934, the censorship of the film Production Code began to be seriously and meticulously enforced, and West's scripts were heavily edited. She would intentionally place extremely risqué lines in her scripts, knowing they would be cut by the censors. She hoped they would then not object as much to her other less suggestive lines. Her next film was Belle of the Nineties (1934). The original title, It Ain't No Sin, was changed due to the censors' objections. Despite Paramount's early objections regarding costs, West insisted the studio to hire Duke Ellington and his orchestra to accompany her in the film's musical numbers. Their collaboration was a success; the classic "My Old Flame" (recorded by Duke Ellington) was introduced in this film. Her next film, Goin' to Town (1935), received mixed reviews, as censorship continued to take its toll in eroding West's best lines.

Her following effort, Klondike Annie (1936) dealt, as best it could given the heavy censorship, with religion and hypocrisy. Some critics called the film her magnum opus, but not everyone felt the same way. Press baron and film mogul William Randolph Hearst, ostensibly offended by an off-handed remark West made about his mistress, Marion Davies, sent a private memo to all his editors stating, "That Mae West picture Klondike Annie is a filthy picture... We should have editorials roasting that picture, Mae West, and Paramount... DO NOT ACCEPT ANY ADVERTISING OF THIS PICTURE." At one point, Hearst asked aloud, "Isn't it time Congress did something about the Mae West menace?" Paramount executives felt they had to tone down the West characterization or face further recrimination. This may be surprising by today's standards, as West's films contained no nudity, no profanity, and very little violence. Though raised in an era when women held second-place roles in society, West portrayed confident women who were not afraid to use their sexual wiles to get what they wanted. "I was the first liberated woman, you know. No guy was going to get the best of me. That's what I wrote all my scripts about."

Around the same time, West played opposite Randolph Scott in Go West, Young Man (1936). In this film, she adapted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance into a screenplay. Directed by Henry Hathaway, Go West, Young Man is considered one of West's weaker films of the era, due to the censor's cuts.

West next starred in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount before their association came to an end. Again, due to censor cuts, the film performed below its goal. Censorship had made West's sexually suggestive brand of humor impossible for the studios to distribute. West, along with other stellar performers, was put on a list of actors called "Box Office Poison" by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners Association. Others on the list were Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Río, Katharine Hepburn and Kay Francis. The attack was published as a paid advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter, and was taken seriously by the fearful studio executives. The association argued that these stars' high salaries and extreme public popularity did not affect their ticket sales, thus hurt the exhibitors. This did not stop producer David O. Selznick, who next offered West the role of the sage madam, Belle Watling, the only woman ever to truly understand Rhett Butler, in Gone with the Wind, after Tallulah Bankhead turned him down. West also turned down the part, claiming that as it was, it was too small for an established star, and that she would need to rewrite her lines to suit her own persona. The role eventually went to Ona Munson.

In 1939, Universal Studios approached West to star in a film opposite W. C. Fields. The studio was eager to duplicate the success of Destry Rides Again starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart, with a comic vehicle starring West and Fields. Having left Paramount 18 months earlier and looking for a new film, West accepted the role of Flower Belle Lee in the film My Little Chickadee (1940). Despite the stars' intense mutual dislike, Fields's very real drinking problems and fights over the screenplay, My Little Chickadee was a box office hit, outgrossing Fields's previous film, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) and the later The Bank Dick (1940). Despite this, religious leaders condemned West as a negative role model, taking offense at lines such as "Between two evils, I like to pick the one I haven't tried before" and "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

West's next film was Columbia's The Heat's On (1943). She initially did not want to do the film, but after actor, director and friend Gregory Ratoff (producer Max Fabian in All About Eve) pleaded with her and claimed he would go bankrupt if she could not help, West relented as a personal favor. Censors by now, though, had curtailed the sexual burlesque of the West characterization. The studio had orders to raise the neck lines and clean up the double entendres. This was the only film for which West was virtually not allowed to write her own dialogue and, as a result, the film suffered.

Perhaps the most critical challenge facing West in her career was censorship of her dialogue. As on Broadway a decade before, by the mid-1930s, her risqué and ribald dialogue could no longer be allowed to pass. The Heat's On opened to poor reviews and weak performance at the box office. West was so distraught after the experience and by her years of struggling with the strict Hays censorship office, that she would not attempt another film role for the next quarter-century. Instead, West pursued a successful and record-breaking career in top nightclubs, Las Vegas, nationally in theater and on Broadway, where she was allowed, even welcomed, to be herself.

After appearing in The Heat's On in 1943, West returned to a very active career on stage and in swank clubs. Among her popular new stage performances was the title role in Catherine Was Great (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an "imperial guard" of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd (Around The World in 80 Days) and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour.

When Mae West revived her 1928 play Diamond Lil, bringing it back to Broadway in 1949, The New York Times labeled her an "American Institution – as beloved and indestructible as Donald Duck. Like Chinatown, and Grant's Tomb, Mae West should be seen at least once." In the 1950s, West starred in her own Las Vegas stage show at the newly opened Sahara Hotel, singing while surrounded by bodybuilders. The show stood Las Vegas on its head. "Men come to see me, but I also give the women something to see: wall to wall men!" West explained. Jayne Mansfield met and later married one of West's muscle men, a former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay.

When casting about for the role of Norma Desmond for the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder offered West the role. Still smarting from the censorship debacle of The Heat's On, and the constraints placed on her characterization, she declined. The theme of the Wilder film, she noted, was pure pathos, while her brand of comedy was always "about uplifting the audience". Mae West had a unique comic character that was timeless, in the same way Charlie Chaplin did. After Mary Pickford also declined the role, Gloria Swanson was cast.

In subsequent years, West was offered the role of Vera Simpson, opposite Marlon Brando, in the 1957 film adaptation of Pal Joey, which she turned down, with the role going to Rita Hayworth. In 1964, West was offered a leading role in Roustabout, starring Elvis Presley. She turned the role down, and Barbara Stanwyck was cast in her place. West was also approached for roles in Frederico Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits and Satyricon, but rejected both offers.

In 1958, West appeared at the live televised Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson, which brought a standing ovation. In 1959, she released an autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, which became a best seller and was reprinted with a new chapter in 1970. West guest-starred on television, including The Dean Martin Show in 1959 and The Red Skelton Show in 1960, to promote her autobiography, and a lengthy interview on Person to Person with Charles Collingwood, which was censored by CBS in 1959, and never aired. CBS executives felt members of the television audience were not ready to see a nude marble statue of West, which rested on her piano. In 1964, she made a guest appearance on the sitcom Mister Ed. Much later, in 1976, she was interviewed by Dick Cavett and sang two songs on his "Back Lot U.S.A." special on CBS.

West's recording career started in the early 1930s with releases of her film songs on shellac 78 rpm records. Most of her film songs were released as 78s, as well as sheet music. In 1955, she recorded her first album, The Fabulous Mae West. In 1965, she recorded two songs, "Am I Too Young" and "He's Good For Me", for a 45 rpm record released by Plaza Records. She recorded several tongue-in-cheek songs, including "Santa, Come Up to See Me", on the album Wild Christmas, which was released in 1966 and reissued as Mae in December in 1980. Demonstrating her willingness to keep in touch with the contemporary scene, in 1966 she recorded Way Out West, the first of her two rock-and-roll albums. The second, released in 1972 on MGM Records and titled Great Balls of Fire, covered songs by The Doors, among others, and had songs written for West by English songwriter-producer Ian Whitcomb.

After a 27-year absence from motion pictures, West appeared as Leticia Van Allen in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge (1970) with Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck in a small part. The movie was intended to be deliberately campy sex change comedy, but had serious production problems, resulting in a botched film that was both a box-office and critical failure. Author Vidal, at great odds with inexperienced and self-styled "art film" director Michael Sarne, later called the film "an awful joke". Though Mae West was given star billing to attract ticket buyers, her scenes were truncated by the inexperienced film editor, and her songs were filmed as though they were merely side acts. Mae West's counterculture appeal (she was dubbed "the queen of camp"), included the young and hip, and by 1971, the student body of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) voted Mae West "Woman of the Century" in honor of her relevance as a pioneering advocate of sexual frankness and courageous crusader against censorship.

In 1975, West released her book Sex, Health, and ESP (William Allen & Sons, publisher), and Pleasure Man (Dell publishers) based on her 1928 play of the same name. Her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, was also updated and republished in the 1970s.

Mae West was a shrewd investor, produced her own stage acts, and invested her money in large tracts of land in Van Nuys, a thriving suburb of Los Angeles. With her considerable fortune, she could afford to do as she liked. In 1976, she appeared on Back Lot U.S.A. on CBS, where she was interviewed by Dick Cavett and sang "Frankie and Johnny" along with "After You've Gone." That same year, she began work on her final film, Sextette (1978). Adapted from a 1959 script written by West, the film's daily revisions and production disagreements hampered production from the beginning. Due to the near-endless last-minute script changes and tiring production schedule, West agreed to have her lines signaled to her through a speaker concealed in her hair piece. Despite the daily problems, West was, according to Sextette director Ken Hughes, determined to see the film through. At 84, her now-failing eyesight made navigating around the set difficult, but she made it through the filming, a tribute to her self-confidence, remarkable endurance, and stature as a self-created star 67 years after her Broadway debut in 1911 at the age of 18. Time magazine wrote an article on the indomitable star entitled "At 84, Mae West Is Still Mae West".

Upon its release, Sextette was not a critical or commercial success, but has a diverse cast. The cast included some of West's first co-stars such as George Raft (Night After Night, 1932), silver screen stars such as Walter Pidgeon and Tony Curtis, and more contemporary pop stars such as The Beatles' Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper, and television favorites such as Dom DeLuise and gossip queen Rona Barrett. It also included cameos of some of her musclemen from her 1950s Las Vegas show, such as the still remarkably fit Reg Lewis. Sextette also reunited Mae West with Edith Head, her costume designer from 1933 in She Done Him Wrong.

West was married on April 11, 1911 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Frank Szatkus (1892–1966), whose stage name was Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she met in 1909. She was 17. She kept the marriage a secret, but a filing clerk discovered the marriage certificate in 1935 and alerted the press. The clerk also uncovered an affidavit in which she had declared herself married, made during the Sex trial in 1927.

In August 1913, she met Guido Deiro (1886–1950), an Italian-born vaudeville headliner and star of the piano-accordion. Her affair, and possible 1914 marriage to him, as alleged by Diero's son Guido Roberto Deiro in his 2019 book Mae West and The Count, went "very deep, hittin' on all the emotions". West later said, "Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready for an institution yet."

In 1916, when she was a vaudeville actress, West had a relationship with James Timony (1884–1954), an attorney nine years her senior. Timony was also her manager. By the time that she was an established movie actress in the mid-1930s, they were no longer a couple. West and Timony remained extremely close, living in the same building, working together, and providing support for each other until Timony's death in 1954.

West remained close to her family throughout her life and was devastated by her mother's death in 1930. In 1930, she moved to Hollywood and into the penthouse at The Ravenswood apartment building where she lived until her death in 1980. Her sister, brother, and father followed her to Hollywood where she provided them with nearby homes, jobs, and sometimes financial support. Among her boyfriends was boxing champion William Jones, nicknamed Gorilla Jones (1906–1982). The management at her Ravenswood apartment building barred the African American boxer from entering the premises; West solved the problem by buying the building and lifting the ban.

She became romantically involved at age 61 with Chester Rybinski (1923–1999), one of the muscle men in her Las Vegas stage show – a wrestler, former Mr. California, and former merchant sailor. He was 30 years younger than she, and later changed his name to Paul Novak. He moved in with her, and their romance continued until her death in 1980 at age 87. Novak once commented, "I believe I was put on this Earth to take care of Mae West." West was a Presbyterian.

In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall she was unable to speak and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, where tests revealed that she had suffered a stroke. She died on November 22, 1980, at the age of 87.

A private service was held at the church in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on November 25, 1980; (the church is a replica of Boston's Old North Church.) Bishop Andre Penachio, a friend, officiated at the entombment in the family mausoleum at Cypress Hills Abbey, Brooklyn, purchased in 1930 when her mother died. Her father and brother were also entombed there before her, and her younger sister, Beverly, was laid to rest in the last of the five crypts less than 18 months after West's death.

For her contribution to the film industry, Mae West has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood. For her contributions as a stage actor in the theater world, she has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Mae West among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

[freenewstoday]

New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2021/03/18/briones-red-zone-rules-are-stacked-against-ottawa-restaurants/

Briones: Red-zone rules are stacked against Ottawa restaurants

Breadcrumb Trail Links

News

Local News

Local Business

Columnists

Retail capacity limits are 75 per cent for supermarkets and other stores that primarily sell groceries; and 50 per cent for other retail. Meanwhile, restaurants can seat only 10 people maximum, regardless of the size of the space.

Author of the article:

Karla Briones

Publishing date:

Mar 18, 2021  •  59 minutes ago  •  3 minute read  •  Join the conversation

Ottawa restaurants will be allowed to keep their patios running, but inside capacity will be severely restricted under the new COVID-19 red-zone restrictions. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Article content

Imagine spending thousands of dollars on groceries to prepare for a gathering happening in two days. You’ve hired and paid for a cleaning company and extra help for the event. Then you get a last-minute call the day before ordering you to cancel, with no opportunity to negotiate, reason or plea.

Now you must go through the painful process of letting your guests know, canceling the extra help and figuring out what to do with the food inside your overstuffed fridge.

Annoying, right? Now imagine your livelihood depends on this.

Ottawa Public Health’s official announcement that the province is moving us back into the more restrictive “red zone” gave local business owners very little time to prepare. This is devastating, creating upheaval and anger amongst restaurant owners, one of the most affected industries. The ambiguity earlier this week about when the change might happen left this industry in the dark as to how to plan for the weekend. Dr. Vera Etches’s admission on Thursday that she knows this is  “difficult” isn’t much comfort.

Article content

Moving to the red zone means all restaurants must go from a two-metre-distance seating arrangement to an arbitrary 10-person indoor capacity, regardless of the size of the restaurant. Although outdoor dining, takeout, drive-through and delivery are still permitted, the one-size-fits-all approach for indoor dining does not work.

The capacity limits are not only arbitrary but unfair. Retail capacity limits in the red zone are 75 per cent for supermarkets and other stores that primarily sell groceries, such as convenience stores and pharmacies;  and are 50 per cent for all other retail, including discount and big-box retailers, liquor stores, cannabis stores, hardware stores and garden centres.

Why is this approach not followed for businesses such as restaurants?

Dave Godsoe, executive chef of Restaurant e18hteen, Social and The Clarendon, expressed his frustration over this. “You can’t tell me that a Costco can have 500+ people in it, but my 10,000+ sq.-ft. restaurants can only have 10. This needs to end.”

Restaurants are now dealing with full bookings that need to be cancelled, thousands of dollars worth of food purchased that now needs to be donated, and thousands of dollars in lost revenue as a result.

Jessy Brethour, co-owner of Meatheads Grill in Orléans, said in many cases sales are less than half or normal, but bills stay the same or higher. In fact, according to a recent Statistics Canada report, food and beverage business owners have increased expenditures on personal protective equipment and on implementing measures to keep customers and employees safe. Almost all have increased expenditures on sanitization and cleaning and almost 90 per cent have increased expenditures on personal protective equipment and supplies.

The food and beverage industry is playing by the rules but the rules seem to be against the industry. This colour system feels more like a high stakes green-light-red-light schoolyard game where, if you lose, you lose your livelihood.

Going from orange to red, with an arbitrary 10-person seating capacity — and no top-up to the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy at the same time, since this is not a full lockdown — combined with ambiguity over the duration of the red-zone limitations, will have devastating effects in the industry.

It is time to level the playing field and apply the same capacity limits to restaurants and retail  businesses alike. Otherwise, we risk losing the vibrancy that makes our neighbourhoods unique.

Karla Briones is a local immigrant entrepreneur and owner of Global Pet Foods Kanata & Hintonburg; Freshii Westboro; founder of the Immigrants Developing Entrepreneurs Academy; and an independent business consultant. The opinions here are her own. Her column appears every two weeks.

Source

[pleaseanotherbook]

Dita come farfalle di Rebecca Quasi

Se fossero stati in guerra, l'avrebbe voluta come alleato, se fosse stata un uomo l'avrebbe scelta come amico.

“Dita come farfalle” è il primo romanzo Regency di Rebecca Quasi edito dalla Dri Edizioni. L’incontro con la Quasi è stato tanto fortuito quanto fortunato. Una ragazza me l’ha proposta su Goodreads, io ho preso l’occasione al volo e… il resto è storia. Me ne sono innamorata a prima vista, come succede solo con i libri speciali e le autrici capaci. E la maratona di lettura continua spedita.

Londra. 1818. Per Lady Caroline Webster, figlia del duca di Clarendon, è naturale sposare per convenienza James Cavendish, duca di Rothsay. E non trova nulla di anormale nemmeno nell'essere del tutto ignorata da lui dopo le nozze. Del resto, unico scopo della loro unione è il mantenimento del casato e il concepimento di un erede, obiettivo che richiede sporadica e taciturna applicazione.Il tranquillo menage precipita quando, in seguito a un aborto spontaneo, Caroline scopre che suo marito non è l'uomo freddo e posato che si è sforzato di apparire.

Ultimamente sono piuttosto scoraggiata dalle romance che ci sono in circolazione, a parte alcuni casi ben precisi, le mie confort zone in cui torno sempre quando ho bisogno di essere consolata, è raro trovare qualche storia che si discosti da dinamiche nocive. Ma mai perdere le speranze perché nel mare magnum dei romanzi d’amore pure c’è chi ancora ci crede, chi riesce a regalare ai suoi lettori una storia costellata di sentimenti sani, di principi onorevoli, di amore. Rebecca Quasi è una che ci crede tantissimo alle storie d’amore ben riuscite, soprattutto in quelle in cui sembra non credere più nessuno. E forse è per questo che in due settimane sono riuscita a leggere tutta la sua produzione (dieci romanzi) che racchiudono l’intero spettro dei sentimenti, amori che narrano di semplicità, verità, fiducia, affetto. Ogni libro è un viaggio e una scoperta, un mondo felice e realizzato in cui il bene vince sempre anche quando sembra impossibile. Una delle cose che più amo di questa scrittrice è il senso di pace e di speranza che ti regala ad ogni lettura. Ogni storia è un concentrato di dolcezza, ma anche di passione e non si resta quasi mai delusi. E anche “Dita come farfalle” riesce nell’intento di incantare il lettore e raccontare di una donna forte che non si lascia mettere i piedi in testa da nessuno, tanto meno dal duca di Rothsay anche se la società inglese del tempo pretenderebbe di vederla relegata in un ruolo minore, abbandonata in un angolo. Lady Caroline Webster è una stratega, ma prima di tutto è una donna empatica che crede nella necessità di non lasciare indietro nessuno. Nonostante il dolore che sconvolge la sua vita, Lady Caroline sa bene qual è la cosa giusta da fare e non intende lasciarsi fermare dal ton della nobiltà di Londra che guarda con raccapriccio e rimprovero il suo manage familiare. Ma il Duca di Rothsay riconosce il valore di sua moglie, e non riesce a rimanerne lontano neanche in preda alla rabbia e alla stizza. Riconoscersi, conoscersi, avvicinarsi, diventare complici diventa un esercizio di pazienza e sacrificio, ricompensato dalla tranquilla intimità che ne deriva. Ma soprattutto i due protagonisti fanno i conti con loro stessi, riconoscono la loro vera natura e non esitano ad agire quando è il momento giusto. È un’altra delle cose che appresso di Rebecca Quasi, lo scavo interiore, la crescita emotiva dei personaggi che invita sempre a lasciare indietro le apparenze e a vivere appieno la propria vita. Abituata ad atmosfere contemporanee seppur sempre diverse, il salto della Quasi nel Regency è un vero successo e ne sono rimasta affascinata. Londra con la sua opulenza e i suoi pregiudizi è solo uno sfondo per una storia familiare che si svolge perlopiù nel calore delle mura domestiche. Lady Caroline e Lord James lottano fino a raggiungere un compromesso, perché l’amore ha mille volti e non tutti felici.

 Il particolare da non dimenticare? Uno scoglio…

 Un matrimonio di convivenza, il viaggio di due cuori solitari che scoprono la magia dell’amore, una storia capace di sciogliere il lettore e regalare sospiri e pace. Rebecca Quasi ha la capacità di cristallizzare in poche pagine eventi e azioni, in storie apparentemente comuni ma decisamente speciali.

Buona lettura guys!

[lucids]

Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China

Harlem (USA), Jamaica, Toronto (Canada), China

Information, book and documentary about Paula Williams Madison, an African-American woman who is mixed with Chinese and her journey to find her Chinese roots.  She was born in Harlem, raised by her half Chinese mother and black father, both her parents were Jamaicans.  Details and links of her book, documentary, the trailer, her information, an article and clip from the South China Morning Post, and a bit of information about her roots, who are the Hakka people and where is Guangdong in China are all below.  I put all information in one post, with pictures, and wrote just a bit of how this woman also represents who I am, for I am a Jamaican Chinese...my Mom is black mixed with many races, and my Dad is Chinese.

Blessings to all.  We are one world and one people.

Pamelita

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"Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China"

Book and Documentary

by Paula Willaims madison

Official site: http://findingsamuellowe.com

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This woman's story also represents me - Jamaican born, half Chinese and half Black...Hakka roots. Love this. Blessings.

Blessed to have many motherlands: Jamaica, China, Africa.

#JamiacanChinese #FamilyRoots #GuangdongRoots #HakkaRoots #Ancestry #OneWorld

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If you are on Facebook (FB) there is a video clip from the South China Morning Post FB page: https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/10155800196534820

Documentary: Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China (2014) www.imdb.com/title/tt4848326

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn4eWGoynOM

Three successful black siblings from Harlem discover their heritage while searching for clues about their long-lost grandfather, Samuel Lowe. Their emotional journey spans from Toronto to Jamaica to China, reuniting them with hundreds of Chinese relatives they never imagined existed.

An Afro-Chinese-Jamaican Harlem family seeks their Chinese grandfather who was forever separated from their mother - his 3-year-old half-Chinese, half-Jamaican daughter - in 1920. Samuel Lowe returned to China in 1933 with a Chinese wife and 6 children. After a 91-year separation, his Black Chinese grandchildren journey to China where they find Samuel Lowe's 300 Chinese descendants and the entire clan is reunited. The film takes viewers to Harlem, Toronto, Martha's Vineyard, three cities in Jamaica and two cities in China to see these families of different races become One. http://findingsamuellowe.com/trailer

Director: Jeanette Kong

Jeanette Kong is a director and producer, known for Half: The Story of a Chinese Jamaican Son (2013), The Chiney Shop (2012) and Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China (2014).

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Paula Williams Madison - Bio

Paula Williams Madison is the epitome of success: Vassar College grad, award-winning journalist, former TV executive, entrepreneur, community activist.

Paula Williams Madison is an American journalist, writer, businessperson, and executive. She is a former NBCUniversal executive is now CEO of a family investment group based in Chicago. In May 20, 2011 she retired from NBC after more than 35 years in the news media.

Madison grew up in Harlem with her brothers Elrick and Howard. Their mother, Nell Vera Lowe, was a Jamaican immigrant and single parent. Madison and her brothers founded Williams Holdings, a real estate investment firm, and later bought a majority share of The Africa Channel. The company also bought the Los Angeles Sparks , which they sold in 2014 to Magic Johnson.

Madison was named one of the “75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise Magazine in 2005 and in 2014 as one of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business. She is of African and Hakka descent. In 2015 she wrote the book Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem about her grandfather's life and travels and her own visit to Guangdong. She began research for the book shortly after retiring from NBC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Williams_Madison

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More details about the book and documentary:

http://findingsamuellowe.com/story

Three successful black siblings from Harlem discover their heritage by searching for clues about their long-lost Chinese grandfather, Samuel Lowe.

Retired NBC Universal executive Paula Williams Madison and her brothers, Elrick and Howard Williams, were raised in Harlem by their Chinese Jamaican mother, Nell Vera Lowe. Nell encouraged them to realize the rags-to-riches American dream, resulting in their growth from welfare recipients to wealthy entrepreneurs. In order to fulfill a promise to their mother to connect to her estranged father's people, they embark on a journey to uncover their ancestral roots.

The three travel to the Toronto Hakka Chinese Conference where they connect to members of the Chinese Jamaican community. As the mystery of their grandfather's life unfolds, the trio travels to Jamaica, learning that their grandfather had a life there similar to their own, starting with humble beginnings in Mocho, Clarendon Parish, and ending with successful business ownership in the affluent St. Ann's Bay. But in 1933, he left Jamaica, returning to China for good.

Taking family tree research to an epic proportion, the siblings and 16 of their family members travel to two Chinese cities, ShenZhen and GuangZhou. Together, they visit their family's ancestral village, finding documented lineage that dates their family back 3,000 years to 1006 BC. The trip culminates in an emotional and unforgettable family reunion with 300 of their grandfather's Chinese descendants.

At its heart, this is a story about familial love and devotion that transcends race, space and time.

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#HakkaRoots

The Hakka, sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese people who speak Hakka Chinese and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China. Though the majority of the Hakka live in Guangdong, they have a distinct identity from the Cantonese people.

As the most diasporic among the Chinese community groups, the worldwide population of Hakkas is about 80 million.

The Hakka people have had significant influence on the course of ancient and modern Chinese, overseas Chinese & world history.

Most Chinese Jamaicans are Hakka; they have a long history in Jamaica. Between 1845 and 1884, nearly 5000 Hakkas arrived in Jamaica in three major voyages. The Hakkas seized the opportunity to venture into a new land, embracing the local language, customs and culture. During the 1960s and 1970s, substantial migration of Jamaican Hakkas to the USA and Canada have occurred. The Hakkas in Jamaica came mainly from Dongguan, Huiyang and Bao'an counties of Guangdong Province.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_Chinese

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#GuangdongRoots

Guangdong is a province in South China, located on the South China Sea coast.

Traditionally romanised as Canton or Kwangtung, Guangdong surpassed Henan and Sichuan to become the most populous province in China in January 2005, registering 79.1 million permanent residents and 31 million migrants who lived in the province for at least six months of the year; the total population was 104,303,132 in the 2010 census, accounting for 7.79 percent of Mainland China's population. The provincial capital Guangzhou and economic hub Shenzhen are among the most populous and important cities in China. The population increase since the census has been modest, the province at 2015 had 108,500,000 people.

Since 1989, Guangdong has topped the total GDP rankings among all provincial-level divisions, with Jiangsu and Shandong second and third in rank. According to state statistics, Guangdong's GDP in 2014 reached RMB 6,779 billion, or US$1.104 trillion, making its economy roughly the same size as Mexico. Since 2011, Guangdong has had the highest GDP among all provinces of Mainland China. The province contributes approximately 12% of the PRC's national economic output, and is home to the production facilities and offices of a wide-ranging set of Chinese and foreign corporations. Guangdong also hosts the largest import and export fair in China, the Canton Fair, hosted in the provincial capital of Guangzhou.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangdong

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The Canton Fair is a trade fair held in the spring and autumn seasons each year since the spring of 1957 in Canton (Guangzhou), China.

Its full name since 2007 has been China Import and Export Fair, renamed from Chinese Export Commodities Fair, also known as The Canton Fair.

The Canton Fair is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of China and People's Government of the Guangdong Province, and organized by China Foreign Trade Centre.

The Canton Fair is the largest trade fair in China. Among China's largest trade fairs, it has the largest assortment of products, the largest attendance, and the largest number of business deals made at the fair. Like many trade fairs it has several traditions and functions as a comprehensive event of international importance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Fair

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Article from South China Morning Post

Shenzhen village plays host to Hakka descendants – including Jamaican/African Americans

After years of wondering about their roots, visitors from around the world descend on a Shenzhen village to celebrate the 200th anniversary of their ancestral home – and meet relatives for the first time.

Firecrackers start the festivities to mark the 200th anniversary of the completion of Luo Shui He, a walled village in Shenzhen’s Longgang district, in southern China.

A lion dance then welcomes visitors from the United States, Canada, Britain, Malaysia, Singapore and other parts of China, all of whom can trace their bloodline to Luo Ruifeng, who lived 2,000 years ago.

The celebrations, at what is today China’s largest Hakka museum, also called Crane Lake Hakka Village, were initiated by a woman who doesn’t even look Chinese. “My mother looked Chinese and I looked black,” says Paula Williams Madison, who was raised in New York’s Harlem district. “My father was African-Jamaican, and so my mother was very out of place in our neighbourhood.”

From Harlem to China: how an African-American tracked down her Chinese grandfather

Madison’s grandfather, Samuel Lowe (or Luo Dingchao), was from Luo Shui He and left China to work in Jamaica from 1905 to 1933. There, he had three children with two local women.

After retiring in 2010, at the age of 58, Madison, a former NBC journalist and executive, set out to learn more about her grandfather, travelling to Toronto, Jamaica, and finally Shenzhen in 2012, to meet the Chinese relatives she had traced. Her journey, with her two older brothers, was chronicled in a book and documentary called Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China, and while she promoted them, people contacted her in person and through social media. Some were relatives, and several were among the 50 or so people who attended the celebrations in Luo Shui He last month.

First-time China visitors at the Lowe family reunion in Shenzhen learned some Hakka history.

They paid their respects to their ancestors, in front of the village altar, then watched a music and dance performance in the courtyard, before tucking into a banquet of Hakka dishes.

Madison visits Luo Shui He regularly to connect with the grandfather she never knew, and to keep up with what’s happening in the village.

This time she was thrilled to see photos of herself and her brother Elrick Jnr on a wall along with their Chinese names and short biographies. Next to them is a picture of Luo Qifang, or Arthur George Lowe, who was an architect in Jamaica, and who died last year in the US. Daughter Liana Lowe proudly posed next to the photo for some smartphone snaps.

The 24-year-old, Miami-based graduate in hospital administration says she was overwhelmed to be at Luo Shui He – her first time in China – and to learn more about her father’s Chinese roots.

“My dad asked me to go to China with him when I was about 12 years old, but I didn’t … I had pre-teen angst,” she says, with some regret. “I wish it had happened a long time ago, but I will keep coming.”

She found out about Madison and her documentary through a cousin who had seen it. Madison encouraged her to join the trip.

Lowe’s three older siblings had visited China with their father but didn’t join her this time, and she now wants to learn more about her Chinese heritage.

Another relative of Madison’s who returned to Luo Shui He is Patrick Lowe, an ethnic Chinese man born in Jamaica who grew up in Toronto, before settling in Singapore with his wife and 13-year-old son.

Patrick Lowe, 52, says his father was born in Jamaica but spent his early years in China before going back in his late teens or early 20s. He had always felt China was his real home. “Samuel Lowe, Paula’s grandfather, accompanied my father and my uncle Winston back to China when he was really young and needed an adult to accompany him,” he says.

Patrick Lowe contacted Madison about four years ago, after reading her book. “When I read the book, it was about more than the village. Paula talks about growing up, and in a strange way I could relate to that,” he says.

“I was an outsider too, growing up in Jamaica, where in my class 90 or 95 per cent of the kids were black. The only other non-black was my cousin. We just grew up in that environment because that’s all we knew.”

Patrick Lowe first visited Luo Shui He in 1992, and this is his son’s second trip to the ancestral village, which he hopes has sparked some interest. “He’s been taking pictures and seems proud that his ancestors can be traced back to 1006BC. It is something to be proud of,” he says.

Paula Williams Madison's great niece Imara Jones at the Lowe family reunion in Shenzhen.

Meanwhile, Madison’s great niece Imara Jones, her brother Howard’s granddaughter, has visited Shenzhen three times – her first trip in 2012 was with the extended family who met their Chinese relatives for the first time.

The 23-year-old is proud of her identity. “I knew I was Chinese, but I didn’t necessarily know what it meant to be Chinese until I actually came here.  Previously, I grew up in the US thinking of myself as a black woman, and now, learning more about myself as a part Chinese woman has helped me gain insight into what it’s like to be part of two worlds,” she says.

Jones is motivated to learn more Chinese – Cantonese and Mandarin – beyond the few words she has picked up to deepen her understanding. As the oldest of her generation, Jones is also keen to maintain the links between East and West.

Watching people in the crowd meeting new relatives for the first time or catching up with others, Madison is pleased, but also feels an obligation.

“Because I’ve shot this documentary and written this book, almost all of them [relatives] know who I am, even if I don’t necessarily know who they are. I feel almost embarrassed because that’s not the personality that I have. But I have to have this personality because it’s important to me, not that it’s a Luo family gathering, but … that Hakka people continue what our ancestors started, which is families migrating, travelling the world and always coming back together.”

Although finding her Chinese grandfather was Madison’s primary goal, coming to Luo Shui He connects her with relatives from around the world.

“What my mother experienced was, if you get too far away, you don’t know how to get back. My mother didn’t grow up as part of the Lowe family; my grandfather looked for her for the entire 15 years he was in Jamaica until he returned to China, but he couldn’t find her. I think it’s important that all our family members have the opportunity to come back every once in a while. Come back and know that you’re connected, you’re grounded, you’re not floating alone in the world. You’re not lost.”

She says China cannot ignore this growing multi-ethnic diaspora, which challenges the definition of being Chinese. “You cannot tell me that I am not Chinese and you cannot tell me that I’m not Hakka, because I am,” she says.

“So what do you do, China?” she asks. “You need to welcome us. Welcome us as we come home because we are also products of Chinese culture, civilisation, principles, and we have an allegiance to our Chinese ancestry, our heritage. That’s why I want people to come here, to Luo Shui He.”

‘Do you know this man?’ – tracking a father with old black and white photos

British-born Chinese Isabel Lo came to Shenzhen with an iPad of scanned black-and-white photos from her father’s albums. Before he died, four years ago, her father had hoped Lo, 41, would visit his ancestral village, Luo Shui He.

He didn’t give her much information on its whereabouts, however. In his limited English, he explained that it was a “castle” – possibly a reference to it being a walled village.

With her husband and two boys in tow, she was in Luo Shui He meeting people and showing them her pictures to see if they recognised anyone.

“When my dad passed away, I didn’t know who to contact [because he was an only child],” Lo says. “I only recalled meeting Lo family members on two occasions, and one of them was in 2007, when my dad’s cousin Lo Ki-shing invited us to his daughter Sabina’s wedding in London. I only knew the bride’s name and managed to find her on social media. Since then she has been tagging me with anything to do with Chinese culture she thinks will interest me, and she tagged me on the Finding Samuel Lowe: from Harlem to China documentary.

“When I saw it I was really excited and I commented I would really love to visit there. I’ve always wanted to go there. It was my dad’s dying wish for me to go there. And then Paula [Madison] said, ‘you must be my cousin’.”

“It’s very exciting to find out the people in these pictures are my grandparents. Before, I had no idea what they looked like. When I was young, I heard rumours that my grandmother was blind, and now I’ve got confirmation, and that she might have gone blind after giving birth to my dad. I also got to see where my dad was probably born and grew up until he was 23,” says Lo, from Northampton, in the English Midlands.

At the anniversary festivities, Lo reunited with Lo Ki-shing, her father’s cousin, who had some distressing news.

“It’s also been upsetting for me because he told me my grandfather was a heavy drinker and smoker,” says. “There was so much sadness in him [my paternal grandfather].”

The place that Lo was shown had been destroyed by fire as the result of a Japanese attack, and subsequently rebuilt.

In an email, Lo wrote that she intends to keep in touch with the Lo/Luo/Lowe family members, and document as much as she knows for the next generation. “In particular, I would like my children to grow up being proud and knowledgeable of their Chinese heritage.”

Source: https://sc.mp/2hRXRGz

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2118971/shenzhen-village-plays-host-hakka-descendents-including-jamaican/african

[nutricoach-es]

So hot here... 38.5°C so be careful and hydrate your body continously... Try to eat vegetables and cold soups, to maintain body temperature low! I use Áloe Vera concentrate from @Herbalife #tips #healthylife #Fit #hot #caloret #summer #hydrate #ilovemyjob #instadaily #dailypic #like4like #follow4follow #nutricoach_es #clarendon (en Cardea Wellness Coach)