I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Tag: ellen de generes

  • hello, gorgeous – the memories, the music, the magic of Streisand


    When Ellen DeGeneres introduced Barbra Streisand on her show a week before Christmas, I was a member of her mesmerized TV viewing audience… but felt something was slightly off kilter from the moment Barbra made her entrance. What was wrong, I thought, as Barbra walked over from my right to greet Ellen in the center of the screen with the typical hug, smile and air kiss. Then Barbra sat down in Ellen’s chair while Ellen sat down across from her. I was gobsmacked – never in all my 15 years of watching Ellen’s show had anyone dared to sit in Ellen’s chair.

    I mean, this was like a cosmic shift. I felt my universe begin to rotate counterclockwise.

    But the interview confirmed Barbra has a preferred side to be filmed and unfortunately, it was the same side Ellen liked for herself. However, in the interest of fair play (and obtaining the exclusive interview), Ellen gave up her chair for the Streisand visit – and who wouldn’t? Good move, I agreed.

    The rare television appearance on the Ellen show was to promote Barbra’s new Netflix concert; and sisters and brothers, I was happy to answer her altar call for the holy church of Streisand music during the holiday season.

    Pretty made the mistake of sleeping in later on Christmas morning when I got up to see if Santa Claus had left me anything under the tree and lo and behold, he had. I started a fire in the den fireplace and turned on Netflix to find some Christmas music. The first image I saw was Barbra’s concert she had been talking about on the Ellen show, and I knew I must have been a very good girl to get this surprise from Santa.

    who needs chestnuts roasting on an open fire

    Pretty got up in time to see Jamie Foxx and Barbra sing Climb Every Mountain together after the intermission, and she was hooked, too. They made some majestic music together.

    I have to admit I’ve skipped quite a few football bowl games this year that I normally would never miss – in favor of listening several times to the Streisand concert on Netflix. But when a concert begins with The Way We Were, hang on to your misty water-colored memories and settle in for the musical magic that the incomparable Barbra Streisand has brought to us for six decades…that would be 60 years, but who’s counting.

    Thanks, Santa.

    Stay warm – and stay tuned.

     

     

  • Somebody STOP Me!


    My apologies to my followers in 61 countries around the world (but especially to my top five followers for 2013: Wayside Artist, Bob Lamb the novelist, coyotero2112, peacelovegreatcountrymusic and currentdescendent) who have come to expect a certain quality of thoughtful essays on topics of general interest to my readers.  Thank you for your comments and encouragement as we make our way together through the confusion we recognize as our particular slice of life.

    I felt the “thoughtful commentary” slipping a bit in my last post about the movies, but I moved gaily forward anyway and concluded my ramblings with the underlying themes of the films as a rationale for the previous post.  I have to say the response has been underwhelming which ought to make a blogger return to dance with the one who brung her.  Not so fast, my friend.

    Today I sink to a new low, and I admit it before you read another word.  I have to blame my digression from thoughtful commentary on something so I will simply say it’s my time of the year.  The endless annual parade of entertainment Award Shows, Super Bowl, Westminster Dog  Show, the Australian Open Tennis Tournament and the extra overload of the Sochi Winter Olympics this year have combined to conspire against me.  Woe is me.  I have become a Best of the Best junkie.

    Hello, my name is Sheila, and I am a BOTB junkie.  I admit it, and I will rise above it in future thoughtful commentary so forgive me this trespass today as I forgive others who trespass against me.  And you know who you are.

    Earlier this week Meryl Streep was a guest on Ellen.  That’s right.  Meryl Streep who I have loved through almost four decades of filmgoing – from as far back as Kramer vs Kramer and The French Lieutenant’s Woman ( was that really thirty-five years ago?) to August: Osage County as recently as two weeks ago.  Meryl was on the same small screen with my new BFF Ellen de Generes and they were hotter than a two-dollar pistol together.

    Meryl had vacationed in South Africa in 2013 and entertained Ellen with stories from her trip.

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    The conversation took a few turns from the African adventure and wound up in Osage County, Oklahoma.

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    The final segment of the show was typical of Ellen’s poking fun at her guests, and Meryl wasn’t spared.  Ellen asked Meryl to read ordinary cooking recipes as different characters, and the results were hilarious!

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    Oh, how I love women.  Regardless of color, race, sexual orientation, economic circumstances,  spiritual leanings,  religious or political preferences.  Okay – now I have gone too far and tipped the scales into hyperbole on the last two.  I reserve the right of first refusal there.

    As for my personal preferences for women, however, give me funny and liberal thinkers any day of the week over humorless and narrow-mindedness.  This week I was lucky enough to see two of my favorite women interacting in a somewhat unstructured albeit artificial setting, and all I had to do was sit back and enjoy.

    Thoughtful commentary be damned.  Full speed ahead.

  • My New BFF Ellen


    I have a new relationship with a younger lesbian who shares my core values and is wicked smart and witty, too – a huge plus in my list of desirable qualities for long-term hooking up.  We get together every afternoon at 3 o’clock and laugh at silly jokes she makes and dance to the music played by her favorite DJ for the day.  This girl puts me to shame on the dance floor, but she never makes fun of my moves.

    We only meet for an hour, but that hour is jam-packed with top entertainers from all over the world who are thrilled to visit with my BFF.  Of course, you know who my new girlfriend is because she’s probably one of your BFFs too.  Ellen.  As in De Generes.

    Oh yeah.  Ellen and I go WAY back, but we’ve had a kind of off-again / on again relationship since we first discovered each other in the mid 1990s.  I let her do her TV shows and helped her find Nemo back in the day and we saw each other briefly backstage at the Oscars and Emmys she hosted.  But I have to admit I put her on the back burner when she started her own talk show eleven seasons ago.

    I mean I didn’t TOTALLY forget her, but I was in a relatively new relationship with another woman who required my full attention and also involved in one of those high-pressure careers that kept me in an office during my usual Ellen liaisons.  So we languished…

    Until this year.  The unlikely year of 2013.  Why unlikely, you ask?  Well first of all, it’s an odd-numbered year and if you’ve been with me for a long time, you know I never think anything good takes place in an odd-numbered year.  Unless there’s an exceptional turn around in the last two months, I have to say my instincts of foreboding have been spot on.

    That’s what I love about my getting back together again with Ellen.  I swear the girl lifts me up.  As Reba McEntire would sing,

         You lift me up, up, up, up to heaven…

              Yes, you make my world go round.

    Ellen is a rare commodity in the world these days.  She’s an optimist who wants to spread the spirit of love and hope to a people who need to look at life with renewed faith in the kindness of each other.  Her generosity touches the hearts of the hardened and encourages them to try again.  Give each other a chance.

    So for the naysayers who shake their heads and mutter Oh well, anybody can be nice for an hour, I say shame on you.  My BFF Ellen rocks and you’ll agree if you take the time to get to know her – which is kind of like what we should be doing with everybody else we meet.  For an hour or even longer.