Perhaps it’s too much trouble, I don’t know . . .
tilling idle weeds—preparing next spring’s garden.
Summer’s production gone—once so proud and industrious
just sweaty chore now, dirt tired, thirst slaking labor.
Gripping callused handles, backbone sore,
I lie down exhausted
somewhere between industry and the impulse to sleep
a tear at the edge of a lash.

Removing the disheveled look of death requires purpose—
I look at this unsightly plot and think
let the weeds grow their indigenous crop
more natural anyway, the look of chaos, wild and effortless.
For what’s the point in digging—planning.
If memory serves correctly, working the ground for sowing
produced small corn, Swiss chard tough and chewy
and peppers . . . well, they decided not to show up at all
though the tomatoes were good (the ones without worm holes)—
better produce on Whole Foods shelves.

Torso like a corpse face up, I lie in Savàsana
to meditate on a drifting cloud. Feeling free, I drift and remember
how close I came to death at birth—how it was I was produced
small and feeble, but so anxious to take life’s initial breath
I moved too much, wrapped the vital cord around my neck
till doctors cut and yanked me out.
They thought the blue baby dead, my mother recalls,
instead, I thrashed and announced my will to live.

But I’m exhausted with nature’s jousting match
fighting persistent drought, incessant weeds, leaf curl blight
all the unseen forces I parry and riposte
that have tried for years but cannot take my garden out
though I know full well, nature and I are not an even match
not a fair fight, not even in the same weight class
(they forced my grandfather to stop digging at eighty-six).
But I’m not him. So let the soil rest, the weeds sprout
get up and drive your ass to the store.
Why drain the precious time you’ve left in chore?”

Not a chance.
Impossible to drop this goddamned shovel
to resist April’s springtime idyll.
And grabbing the handle with the promise of the possible
I begin to turn the soil, imagine
the largest, tastiest tomatoes ever produced, award winning even
the proverbial end to every romantic’s spade and shoveled dig,
knowing full well—
only seeds sown get the chance to live.

This is one of my more positive, hopeful poems about the need to keep going–keep planting every year even when life makes you want to stop, with things like Covid, divorce, death, unhappiness. “Knowing full well / only seeds sown get the chance to live.” Mario

Mario René Padilla’s poetry and stories have appeared in North American Review, The Antioch Review, New Letters, Alligator Juniper, The Ledge, INKWELL Magazine, Americas Review, Tulip Tree Review, Westwind, Atlanta Review, among others. His first collection of poetry, Reaching Back for the Neverendings, was published by Red Dancefloor Press in L.A. His short story collection Scales and Other Stories was a finalist in both the Red Hen Press 2017 Fiction Prize and the Snake Nation Press 2017 Serena McDonald Kennedy Fiction Award and the editors of each press nominated the collection for a 2018 Pushcart Award for “Finalist” manuscripts that were not published. His unpublished collection of verse poetry, Blue Plums and Weeds, was a finalist in the Ohio University Press “Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, the Akron Poetry Prize, Snake Nation Press, and Crab Orchard Review’s for book publication. His unpublished manuscript of prose poems, Postcards from the Invented Road, has been a finalist in five poetry book awards, including the Red Hen Press Benjamin Saltzman Award and Silverfish Review’s “Gerald Cable Book Award.” Most recently, his story “La Chateau Possonierre” won first prize in Tulip Tree Press’s story anthology contest Stories That Need to Be Told 2017. Mr. Padilla is a winner of a Fulbright Award for collecting and translating the early poetry and prose of Jorge Luis Borges for his critical study Jorge Luis Borges: Vanguardista 1919-1925.

Mr. Padilla’s father was born in Mexico in the state of Guanajuato. His mother’s father Albino Macioce was born in Alvito in Abruzzi region of Italy while his maternal grandmother, Consolata Volpi, is from the Campania region in Italy. He was raised in the Italian American community of Columbus, Ohio but has lived his entire adult life steeped in his Latino culture in Los Angeles. Needless to say his work addresses the issues of a multiculturalism.

He received a B.S degree from Ohio State University, an M.A. in English from Loyola Marymount, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing. He teaches Creative Writing, English and Latin American Literature as a tenured professor at Santa Monica College in California.

To learn more about Mario: Padilla_Mario@smc.edu

The post Weeds a poem by Mario Padilla, his thought, “only seeds sown get the chance to live.” appeared first on Good News!.

My entire family, grandma is Princess Feodora of Denmark, aunt the
Queen, my father Prince Waldemar and my mother Princess Antonia
Schaumburg-Lippe works with you! We had Getty cover Princess Antonia
Bday in LA exclusive

The post Prince Mario Max Schaumburg Lippe, Click Here for Video & Podcast… appeared first on Good News!.

VENICE BEACH the musical

A contemporary musical with various styles of music and dance from hip hop
and rock to standard musical theater about American college graduates trying
to survive in the post-graduate world between 2008 and 2012, a time of
economic recession and high unemployment. Jesse, a native Californian, is
trying to convince three of his mid-western fraternity brothers, Bradley,
Michael, and Steven, to move with him to Venice, California, promise land of
sun, surf, hot girls in bikinis, and plenty of jobs. During their graduation
ceremony at Ohio State University, they express their doubts and concerns
about what’s next after college. At the celebration party that night in
their favorite campus bar, The Stadium Pub, they shake off their fears and
agree to go, encouraged by Joe the Barman to get out of Ohio and pursue
their dreams. They drive together to California in Jesse’s car, where they
lease a beach house in Venice. The boys initially try to keep the college
party lifestyle going. They adopt a new favorite bar, the Sidewalk Café,
where Joe the Barman once again presides. Gradually, however, they face all
the challenges of the adult world, no longer cradled in college campus life,
nor funded and cared for by parents. They must make tough choices regarding
starting their careers, pursuing relationships, making rent, paying off
student loans, discovering self-identity, and ultimately, dealing with
disillusionment when their high expectations, and those of their parents,
don’t meet reality as they learn that success and happiness isn’t always
rewarded simply for individual effort.

Jesse, handsome and charismatic, immediately adopts a player life style
and seems to get whatever he wants. He lands a good job at Merril-Lynch, but
quietly struggles with the heartbreaking loss of his failed writer/artist
father from suicide during his junior year. He also finds that his job in
finance holds no interest for him, nor has he any real aptitude for it at
heart, he’s an actor/singer and a writer himself. He is also frustrated with
his mother, Kay, who, though she loves him dearly, is unintentionally
encroaching on his space in Venice, for she herself moves there in her
transition out of grief, as she strives to reclaim the lost years of her
youth because of marrying so young. Bradley finds an entry level job at
Coldwell Banker real estate, and begins guiltily to enjoy his temporary
freedom from Emily, his fiancé who must stay in Ohio to finish her senior
year. From a distance, she expresses her anquish over his absence, for she
has always placed her music and singing aspirations second to Bradley’s
plans for their future. She believes him when he says he will only be gone
for the summer, but when he informs her he wants to stay longer, she is
heartbroken. Michael, a talented architect and former fraternity president,
is hired at Cunningham, a prestigious architecture firm, and begins to
pursue Sarah, his hard-driving, slightly older project manager. He
gradually discovers he doesn’t like his work, nor does he feel comfortable
with Sarah. Ultimately, he meets Kenny, a gay art teacher and yogi, who
helps him to -come out- and re-discover his love for painting. Steven, a
tough, Irish Catholic from the working class farming community of
Youngstown, also majored in architecture, but is unable to get hired, so he
begins waiting tables to pay his portion of the rent. He sees Marika, a
beautiful Eur-Asian yoga instructor with several tattoos, and joins her yoga
class on the beach. They begin to date, and through her influence, he
discovers a deep interest in yoga and a desire to be health conscious, all
the while covering himself in tattoos. Marika has always distrusted men due
to her father’s early abandonment, but her unlikely relationship with Steven
becomes, surprisingly, the most stable one of the group. Things change for
Jesse when he reconnects with an old musical theater friend and high school
prom date, Rose, now an eclectic, Bard educated woman living in Mexico.
Jesse begins to fall in love again, but Rose’s fierce independence and
desire to explore the world causes her to avoid his romantic advances,
though not necessarily his sexual ones. The Boys fun Venice Beach life
begins to unravel during a crazy, alcohol and drug-filled Halloween party,
where Bradley cheats on Emily with Sarah. Michael confronts Bradley over his
disloyalty, and Bradley accidently –outs- him as a defense for his actions.
As winter 2009 arrives, the boys see that the party is over and so they
decide to go their separate ways. Bradley returns to Ohio but Emily refuses
to take him back. She now has plans to go to NY and attend graduate school
for music. In May 2009, as they are all moving out of the Venice Beach
house, Bradley, shattered by losing Emily, as well as his job at Coldwell
Banker, and facing the prospect of moving back in with his parents in Ohio,
attempts to take his own life with pills. Jesse is shaken by his friend’s
act, especially since the experience of his father’s suicide is still so
painful. Jesse has also been let go at Merrill Lynch, which is downsizing.
When Rose leaves for Africa to work for the Peace Corps for two years, it
becomes clear that they will remain -just friends- and nothing more. She
says goodbye to him on Venice Beach, leaving him alone, loveless, jobless,
hopeless, wondering what he’s going to do. At that moment, his father
appears to him (or is it simply Jesse’s subconscious) to talk with him he
gives him the advice and guidance he’s been needing for some time.

One year later, June 2010, Jesse moves to New York to reclaim the acting and
singing aspirations he once had and then temporarily abandoned. Bradley is
back in Ohio, Steven is living with Marika in Venice and Michael with
Kenny in West Hollywood. Having kept in touch with Emily over the years,
Jesse responds to her facebok invitation to go and see her sing a set at The
Bitter End club in N.Y. She has found her voice, and is pursuing her singing
career. At the club, Jesse finds himself attracted to her, and after the
show, they lament about how things were when they were kids, how they were
led to believe by everyone that they were special, that fate had great
things in store for them, but they now know that life is much more
complicated than that. The Bitter End seamlessly transforms into the
Sidewalk Café back in Venice Beach where they join the old gang who have all
come together again. Only now, it is two years later, June 2012, and The
Boys, Kenny, Marika have come together for Jesse and Emily’s wedding to
occur on Venice Beach the following day. Joe the Pastor officiates the
wedding. He urges them to enjoy life and love while they can, but work to
make it last. At the ceremony, The Boys once again express their angst over
what’s next, for they still don’t know for sure what the future holds for
them. But they have come to understand that they must simply continue on
doing the best they can to learn, to live, to love, to work, and to grow.

The post Venice Beach The Musical appeared first on Good News!.

Mario (June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party. He served as the 52nd Governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994, Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1979 to 1982 and Secretary of State of New York from 1975 to 1978.

Cuomo was known for his liberal views and public speeches, particularly his keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention where he criticized Ronald Reagan’s policies. The speech brought him to national attention, and he was widely considered a front-runner for the Democratic nomination for President in both 1988 and 1992, but he declined to seek the nomination in both instances. His legacy as a reluctant standard-bearer for the Democrats in presidential elections led to him being dubbed “Hamlet on the Hudson”.

Cuomo was defeated for a fourth term as Governor by George Pataki in the Republican Revolution of 1994, and he subsequently retired from politics. He was the father of five, including Andrew Cuomo, the current Governor of New York, and journalist Chris Cuomo, currently at CNN.

He died of natural causes due to heart failure in Manhattan, New York City, on New Year’s Day, 2015.

for more info, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Cuomo

The post Mario Cuomo appeared first on Good News!.

I recently had the great pleasure of playing a dream role of mine Billy Bigelow in The St.Jean’s Players production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. There is something really special about a talented group of people coming together not for money or notoriety but for love of musical theater. We may not have had the resources to put on a Broadway caliber show but we did manage to move some people.

Carousel is considered by many to be one of the greatest musicals ever written – Classic musical theater that is far from flawless, but still works and is relevant on so many levels.

Carousel hits all the notes of musical theater grandeur with beautiful music and spectacular dances and a harkening back to a different time. Carousel challenges it’s audience to release any expectations for a perfect leading man and find an understanding empathy for it’s tragically flawed protagonist even as he continues to make mistake after mistake (unforgivable mistakes like hitting his wife). It’s painful at times, but in the end we are all just human beings learning to accept responsibility for the consequences of our existence.

Marcello Padilla is from Santa Monica, CA and is a graduate of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and the Musical Theatre Conservatory at New York Film Academy. He is a certified yoga teacher and has co-written a new musical Venice Beach with the hopes of work shopping it in the near future.

-Marcello Padilla

Breathe Change

The post Carousels Billy Bigelow performed by Marcello Padilla is Good News for the St. Jean’s Players appeared first on Good News!.