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  1. Model Behavior By Rhonda Hansome

    Thursday, August 27, 2015

    It's been years since I regularly watched 
    America's Next Top Model, so I'm late to Chantelle Winnie.

    A.K.A
    Winnie Harlow 

    I saw Winnie on my (@rhondafull) Instagram feed & was moved.

    Something beyond beauty & curiosity captivated me & I was catapulted to a much earlier time in my life.

    I never heard I was beautiful, pretty or a good looking child. In family gatherings, I embraced a (perceived or was it self-defined?) position as the smart one; ironically as I envied the "good hair", caramel or brighter skin & light eyes of my relatives.

    There were few self-esteem building opportunities for me, enrolled (starting from kindergarten) in majority white educational institutions; wherein (forget feeling pretty) semester by semester even my "smart one" self-identification eroded to zero.

    Seeing Winnie produced so many reactions in me I had to pause.


    My initial startled response ignited an "aha" (or "duh"?) reminder,
     NATURE IS NATURALLY BEAUTIFUL!




    What a great opportunity to remember and affirm my unique reality and the limitless uncommon beauty that surrounds me daily.  

    I am an actress, director, teaching artist & coach. 
    BTW
    & get half off the cover.



  2. Beware of What You Think You Want

    Tuesday, August 25, 2015


     
     
     
     
    I was running a little late due to my train going local when I went to a comedy open mic that was for females only.  Well, it actually said “ladies only” but these were women, not ladies.  I could hear the laughter from a distance.  And though I was late and willing to just watch, I was put on the list and made to feel welcome.  However, as I sat there listening, I wondered why I still didn’t feel like I found my peeps.  I liked different individuals, and I loved the loud laughter in the room.  People didn’t hold back like at other mics.  The room was roaring when people were funny. 

    I just felt so disconnected from all the wanting-a-date material.  I feel kind of victorious for how long I’ve managed to keep my romantic distance from men. 

    When I had met the man I eventually married (after getting pregnant by him and needing health coverage), I knew I wasn’t done with my own development enough yet to enter a life-long relationship with a partner.  Yet I couldn’t manage to get out of it.  I believed if I had allowed myself the time to continue healing and growing, I’d have gotten involved with a more suitable person for me.  I was in my twenties and part of a writing group when he and I met.  At first, he was so intrigued how four women kept a writing group going for years and produced so much writing.  He claimed a group of male artists he was in couldn’t do it.  He said it always became a yelling session. 
    He seemed truly in awe of us being able to inspire and support each other.  Fast forward a year or two, and you can count on every other Sunday (when our group met) he being very depressed and somewhat suicidal.  I’d still go to the writing group, but it would change the entire experience.  I was right back in my childhood.  All us kids outside playing tag or hide and seek, cheeks all rosy, lots of laughter and sweating, everyone seeming to be having so much fun, and I always worried if someone was getting hurt in my house.  Would my aunt kill my grandma that day?  Was my mother being terrorized?  “Tag, you’re it!”

    I heard so many women at this mic seem to think they needed a boyfriend when I wanted to congratulate them for not being in a relationship and instead allowing themselves the air to breathe and space to grow.

    Our ages are different and our hormone levels are likely different too.  These are healthy women born with a libido and wanting to have sex.  As some pointed out, that becomes difficult when you have standards.  I guess in my younger years, there was no shortage of men wanting to have sex with me.  What I feel gypped of is spending my time and energy and love on me and my passions. 

    If you’d like to come, laugh, and support…

    The other night, I was in the Village after attending a wonderful Great Weather for Media reading at KGB Bar on East 4th.  I decided to walk to the West Village, and as I did, I caught a glimpse of someone who has become a part of comedy herstory.  (Too bad I couldn’t take a decent shot.)




    (3 blurred shots of Sarah Silverman)

  3. Filbanserin Fallacy By Rhonda Hansome

    Thursday, August 20, 2015

    I refuse to be bamboozled by Big Pharma marketing. 



    I don't think women in general need 


    The incorrectly labeled "female viagra".

    Many women MAY need, multiple, sources of stress and anxiety reduced in their lives. 

    But, IMHO, for a more satisfying sexual experience
    Women Need Better Lovers!

    Not a pill that may
    1) demonstrate only 0.5 more satisfaction than a placebo

    2) give 1 in 5 women side efects that include:
    drowsiness
    dizziness
    fainting
    extreme low blood pressure

    3) pose a harmful interactions with alcohol and contraceptives



    Rhonda Hansome is an actress, writer, director, coach and stand-up comic. Laugh at her here.

  4. Creative Gift Giving & other stuff

    Tuesday, August 18, 2015


     
     
     
     
     
     
    Good Tuesday morning.  I put aside for the moment all the aggravating, infuriating, and disappointing shit going on, and I will share with you these opportunities for laughter!

     Hire Divorced Divas of Comedy for a divorce celebration! What a great time for the gift of laughter. 
    Contact me at mindyinthebronx@gmail.com & we can take it from there.
    And please take a moment to visit and like the page:


     On Thursday, August 27, 2015, I will be part of Anthony Cinelli’s free comedy show in L.I.C., 8-10pm at Alewife, 5-14 51 Avenue.  What a fun almost-the-weekend thing to do!  Nice place.    https://www.facebook.com/AlewifeNYCBeerHall     

     
    For those of you who plan ahead, call 212 252-4260 to get your discounted cover charge for this September 26th show.


    Last Friday night, our Thursday “She” and I were part of a fun and experimental show at the Starving Artist Café on City Island in the Bronx. 



  5. Water Where Art Thou?

    Thursday, August 13, 2015

    I remember the lingering segregated public water fountains that startled me in the midst of southern vacations as a youth.


    Growing up and living in NYC, I've enjoyed free water from fountains in every park and most public buildings forever. That is, until when (what seemed) overnight, bottled "designer" water became a ubiquitous, de rigueur accessory; challenging the in-hand prominence of over-priced coffee and expensive cell phones.


    I've never been to Colorado. Now with it's Animas River in the news, 
    I'll never drink the water of southern Colorado.

    According to the NYT, the Environmental Protection Agency breached a store of toxic chemical-laced water, from an abandonded Colorado mine. Arsenic, lead and "other" heavy metals are spilling into the Animas River, at a rate of 500-700 gallons A MINUTE!!!

    That's a lot of crap flowing fom Colorado into New Mexico and Utah!

    The  original EPA agenda was to plug a minor leak. Or was it a boondoggle in the making? At least one person, in his letter to the editor of the Silverton Standard and Miner, predicted the massive spillage and the hundreds of millions, from tax payers' pockets, for the treatment plant necessary to clean up the impending mess.

    It's an incident like this that brings out the vulture capitalist conspiacy theorist in me. But no, until all the reports are in, I'll just plunk down $ for H20, probably from some free flowing unlicensed tap, marketed to the tune of three to five dollars a bottle; because that's the American way.


    Rhonda Hansome is an actor, director, coach and stand-up comedian. Go laugh at her HERE!

    I'm #NotYourGrandmasComic but #YourCrazyAuntLovesMe


  6. "Lord, Help These Basic Bitches"

    Tuesday, August 11, 2015


     
     
     
     
     
     
    I was at the copier at one of my jobs when I noticed that a woman (who had come in for information) and her young child were leaving.  It’s a relatively quiet time at work, and I saw a basket of Bronx flags we have that I had made for a special event.  The extra flags were lying around and I had put a sign on the basket telling folks to take a flag and wave it proudly.  So I walked over to them as they were about to leave, gave the girl a flag, and told her it was the Bronx flag.  The mom smiled and thanked me as the girl took the flag.  As I turned around to get back to making copies, I was being glared at by two women who work there. 


    I was stunned for a moment because one might think I gave away their lunch from the look on their faces.  But then I had to remind myself that these are bitches.  When I use the word, someone has earned it.  I do not use it as a synonym for women.
    What could be bad about giving a 4 or 5-year-old a little paper Bronx flag that we had left over?  Staff already were welcomed to take extras for their children.  Add to that that we are an educational program.  How can this be a bad thing to do in anyone’s mind?

    The longer I live, I feel I’m understanding more and more what my mother endured in her life.  She was so special; there were those who adored her of which I was one, and there were those who couldn’t stand her which I couldn’t understand.  How could one not like genuine and nice? But I’m learning.
    I am learning.

    A former student (my students are adults) once told me that she saw how some looked at me in the office.  She went on to say that I had the gift and to just keep doing what I do.  She added that at every job, there will be those who will resent me for it. 
    She ain’t kidding.  It’s just the way it is.  I think they just can’t help it.  When we were not given to or were mistreated as children, we all react in our own way.  Some think it should’ve been better and try to make it better for others.  Some cannot think their parents did anything less than perfect.  So no one should have it better.  Better would mean their parents were not perfect.

    Sometimes, I’m able to sit back and enjoy the show.  At the best times, it’s comedy material.  At this moment, they are just bitches.