Articles
Are Democrats Really Clueless About Impending Election Doom,? Common Dreams, June 29, 2022.
Why Are Democrats So Clueless About Impending Election Doom,? LA Progressive, June 30, 2022
When News Drives Creativity, Theater Art Life, March 15, 2019
One Catholic Remembers the Verbal Abuse He Took From A Priest, Metrosource, February 21, 2019
Sicilian Meatball Soup, Times of Sicily, February 19, 2019
Two Delectable Holiday Confections, Times of Sicily, December 17, 2018
Sicilian Classics from Nonni’s Kitchen, Times of Sicily, November 2, 2018
A Journey to a Sicilian Opera, Times of Sicily, March 13, 2017
Time to Reset Our Moral Compass, Common Dreams,
July 30, 2011[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”Personal History” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:40px|text_align:left|color:%23dd0000″ google_fonts=”font_family:Belleza%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_column_text css=””]I was born in the wrong town (Rockford, Illinois), the wrong era, and with the wrong name, Ignatius Norman Cancelose, a nightmare that was finally legally changed in 2013.
So what was I to do? With one severely arched eyebrow, my mini-adult self took stock of my uninviting surroundings and imagined a more glamorous future for myself. Though a life in the theatre beckoned, I lacked the self-assurance and discipline to put forth a plan of action. Instead, I floundered. Psychological abuse by a priest left me traumatized and led to absurdly hilarious, yet totally ineffective psychotherapy. A nearly disastrous episode at age twenty engendered a resolve to pull myself together.
Wannabe journalists spend years attaining advanced degrees in hopes of becoming the next Dorothy Parker or Carl Bernstein. I, on the other hand, stumbled unwillingly into the field because as a college dropout I was simply unqualified to do anything else. Ballet classes begun at a late age eventually propelled me into a career as a dancer on Broadway and films, where I worked with Barbra Streisand, Gene Kelly, Dorothy Lamour and Michael Bennett. An untimely injury forced me into a new career path as a pianist and piano teacher, once I earned my master’s degree. A seemingly ridiculous suggestion by my life’s partner to try my hand at composing set me on a whole new adventure. What followed was a career as a composer of serious concert music, opera, and musical theatre, as well as that of a librettist and playwright.
Having once considered a career as a professional chef, I instead turned my love of good food into my avocation. Though I never trained professionally, I’ve worked myself through some of the major cookbooks of my time and experimented with developing recipes all my life. Also, I come from a family of good cooks, my paternal grandmother and grandfather once were restaurant chefs and earned a side living cooking for Italian weddings.
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