So - we're undergoing another restructuring of our function at work - and it's announced late yesterday that my team is having a last-minute "team meeting" for an announcement this morning - which will last all of 10 minutes.
Naturally, I assume that I will be stripped naked and then fired in front of my colleagues - or it will be announced that our entire team has been sold into the white slavery trade to bolster our stockholders' equity.
So - do I sleep? Not so much.
And...
Sitting in my boss' office - the VP - this morning, surrounded by teammates, it's announced:
I got a promotion.
And a raise.
Oh, Buddha - I about fainted.
Then -ten minutes later - and before I could find my knees, which had liquified with the announcement and run under my boss' desk - I sold a tangible design concept to my senior VP in oless than a half hour on a project I've been working on for nearly a year. With nearly no effort. And no pushback. Even though I had dissenters on the phone.
I was so masterful, they were stunned into silence.
Any gay man of a certain age has either lip-synched, choreographed or blown out his ear drums/car stereo/cassette player with this watershed soundtrack from the 80s. And Jennifer Holliday's show-stopper, "And I am telling you I'm not going," has served as a universal anthem for every heartbreak in between.
Now - after 25 years - Dreamgirls is on the big screen. And it is a lush, drop-dead, jaw-dropping, goose-bumping motion picture.
P and I went to see Dreamgirls in Albany last evening and we could hardly wait to scurry out to his car afterward so we could squeal unashamedly about what a fantastic experience it was.
Now - I will question the fact that Bouncy (Beyonce) is garnering rave reviews and best actress honors - when the real star of the movie was newcomer, Jennifer Hudson. Bouncy comes off beautifully as a Diana Ross-like dress up doll, but Jennifer's portrayal of Effie steals the show. (like the old Paula Poundstone bit where she asked if "we couldn't just have a picture of Darryl Hannah up in the corner of the screen in 'Steel Magnolias" - why does she have to try to walk and act?" - Bouncy was simply window-dressing)
And for those fusty, dusty old queens who hunch protectively over their worn Dreamgirl original cast LPs and protest, "Hudson will never be Jennifer Holliday," I will say - you are right. But she doesn't have to be - she is a star in her own right. She is part Holliday, part Aretha and part Dinah Washington - she can belt you out of your seat with the power of her voice - and break your heart at the same time.
Like 'Chicago,' Dreamgirls is transcendant in its film adaptation. The characters are so well-portrayed that I even enjoyed - gulp - Eddie Murphy in his role.
Now, I just need to get me one of them "glitter canons" for my next dinner party...
