Blast off!

The reason I was so intriqued was that Holly had been my (Allee’s) protege in real life – as close to one as I ever had in that she loved spontaneity and flying wild as much as I did and our writing and demos reflected it – so it was totally organic to think that my alter-ego, Bubbles the artist, would also have a protégé in Cheesecake. But it wasn’t until Holly said “And let’s do a CD called The Soul Of Bubbles & Cheesecake” that I said YES!!!. That’s it! I had finished co-writing the Broadway version of The Color Purple in Dec. 05. It was now Sept. 06 and I had been looking for a way to be Bubbles again ever since. She (Bubbles) was bored painting. I/we was/were always a multi-media artist and painting alone wasn’t dimensional enough. Just like music alone was never enough for Allee. I had retired Bubbles three years into the five years it took to write The Color Purple. I was her manager and the time it took to develop her career stole too much brain power when I needed every milli-inch of it to become Celie in the deep south from 1909-1949 and write this musical. But I always thought that once it was done Bubbles would turn back to painting and document “The Making Of …” as she was the only other person in the room with me and my collaborators, Brenda Russell, Stephen Bray and Marsha Norman. But when I stayed in NY to begin the process I hated what Bubbles came up with. After 5 days and 12 jars of purple paint I realized it wasn’t working and I decided for the first time in my career to just sit and wait to see what inspiration shook loose and either be Bubbles or not. I didn’t expect it to take 9 months but when Holly said “The SOUL Of Bubbles & Cheesecake” every nerve, bone, capillary in my body tingled. It was SOUL! It was multi-media! It was a chance to combine my music, art, technology, writing, party hostess skills and pick up what I had started 15 years earlier in developing willisville, a new form of entertainment with the internet as the hub. I had no idea what to do or how to start but that day last September (my lucky month and name of my first hit song) we were writing a song called “It’s A Woman Thang” and I looked around the studio at all the Bubbles paintings and all these funny little women were staring back, begging me to put them in the video. I never care much about finished products. I’m waaaaayyyy more interested in process. And THAT’S what I realized B&C was more than anything – an evolving process that allows us, because we’re independent, to FINALLY make the art we want. And that grows as a result of people participating in it. I like to build the ball park and field the balls. My mitt is poised.

October 17th, 2007