Busy Being Free: A Lifelong Romantic is Seduced by Solitude

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So many of you have been so generous during these past 2 years. As we re-emerge from this COVID crisis, it's still tough days for all of us ... including performers. If you'd like to buy us a drink at the bar, GO HERE. photo: Jeff Fasano La Fasano is an excellent interpreter, as much at ease with jazz as with music having cabaret roots... the perfect interpretation of Arlen’s songs with a sophisticated voice ..." Saint Tropez from ShanghaiThere is a palpable tension between love and freedom in the cactus tree. The "love concept" of the 70's play a crucial role in how Joni wrote the lyrics through the eyes of her youth. Freedom was in that period was an ultimate break-off from all 9-5 job, wealth acquisitions, societal behaviors, love of country traditions and conventions. I am surprised that a "man of faith" is not included in one verse cause that would have sum-up the "system". The woman is frankly searching for True love in others and herself. In the late 60's and early 70's the Answer to genuine/true and lasting love came in the form of the Jesus' movement. Conversely, I have seen and met many women in their 40's living up to their freedom in their youth and ending up desperately lonely and looking for True love to fill their empty hearts. The paradox is that True love is ultimately bonding but set us free. We can only assume that the woman found it otherwise the song doesn't offer any solution to her emptiness and search for love and freedom. Karma from NyShe's singing about being free and the guys who want her to settle down with them. She thinks she might love them all but she doesn't want to settle down. She doesn't want to hurt them but hey, would you settle down if you looked like Joni, had her intelligence and talent and was just getting started? I know I wouldn't. But yeah, it must have hurt to have so many wanting a committment from her; kinda selfish on their part in my humble opinion. Nonetheless, I think it made her feel bad...guilty...that they were hurt. She still wanted to see them but she didn't want to see one of them only and be tied down. Good for her. Barbara Fasano's BUSY BEING FREE is sheer perfection. This is a CD from a singer who has thrilledme from the first time I heard her. She is in full command and has established herself as one of the top singers of the day." ~ DavidKenney, WBAI "Everything Old Is New Again"

Busy Being Free by Emma Forrest | Waterstones Busy Being Free by Emma Forrest | Waterstones

Barbara Fasano is the real deal! A natural romantic interpreter... The beauty of the Arlen songs and the breathlessness of Fasano’s beautiful singing comes fully through. Each musical genre has examples of albums that demand repeated listening and appreciation... this is one of them!" During the COVID crisis, Barbara streamed the music from home to social media platforms -- over 70 episodes in all! For her series of #72andsong, GO HERE. Hitting themes of heartbreak, romance, celibacy and self-discovery, it's a testament to the power of putting yourself first. -- Alicia Lansom * REFINERY 29 *

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For someone whose career has started in journalism, I didn’t ask anybody anywhere any of the most basic questions. I asked some interesting abstract ones. I think this made for good interviews and less successful life choices.” The Hungover Games by Sophie Heawood is one of the only books I have allowed myself to re-read in recent years. A hilarious memoir based between London and LA, such is my obsession with it that I will read anything and everything that Heawood subsequently recommends. And so it was that when she recently shared a picture of Busy Being Free by Emma Forrest on its publication day, I soon after bought it, and moved it to the top of my ever-growing pile of books I Want To Finish Before The Year Is Out. We met a variety of men during Busy Being Free – including both her worst sexual experiences, and then, later, some of her best – and despite their frequent appearance, Emma does a wonderful job of making the memoir about so much more than men. It was well written and funny at times, and I liked the introductory chapters, but quite a bit of it seemed like empty good writing, sort of beautiful, and it felt like she was trying to make it profound, but ultimately meaningless.

Busy Being Free: A Lifelong Romantic is Seduced by Solitude

Dance-in-the-living-room romantic... She can sigh a song without making it flimsy, declare sentiment without weighing it down. Jaunty numbers like her now-familiar jazz rendition of 'The Surrey With The Fringe On Top' (performed with a smile in the vocal) are also included. 'Hurry On Down' adds Warren Vache's cheeky cornet to superb effect." ~ Alix Cohen, Broadway World A look at what it is to be a woman, and what it is to define oneself outside of the framework so often ascribed to women – Busy Being Free is an absorbing account of being alone, and one you’ll want to read in a single, insatiable, sitting. Busy Being Free Summary I will start by saying that this memoir is witty and raw and for the most part feels honestly and beautifully written. I loved Emma’s feature on Vogue: Getting Divorced Made Me Reassess My Entire Wardrobe, and why not find out which eight books Emma Forrest would take with her to a desert island? Emma Forrest Author Bio A heart-rending and acerbic memoir of appetite and abstinence -- Polly Samson, author of A Theatre for DreamersBusy Being Free is a perfect combination of sharp, moving and funny. A story about marriage and its life beyond divorce, but also about how we define ourselves through our relationships and the physical and emotional transformation that comes with maturity and middle age. This is a brave book as it explores love, lust and female desire to the bone, but does it with such airy effortlessness that it becomes a gift we can all learn from -- Lily Dunn, author of Sins of My Father We’re so enamored with multitasking that we think we’re getting more done, even though our brains aren’t physically capable of this,” Bradberry wrote. “Regardless of what we might think, we are most productive when we manage our schedules enough to ensure that we can focus effectively on the task at hand.” It made me laugh when she highly recommended being creative without having to worry about paying the bills. I wish. She moaned about not being able to afford to buy a place in London with a garden. Most people can’t even afford to live there period. But I tried to stay with her frame of reference and could see that coming from a huge Californian house would be a huge adjustment and I accepted her invite into her assimilation and transformation, warts and all. When you find yourself not lonely, but elated - elated to be alone with yourself, who you genuinely thought you might never get to see again?

Busy Being Free by Emma Forrest, review: Frenzied and Busy Being Free by Emma Forrest, review: Frenzied and

David Meyer from the University of Michigan published a study recently that showed that switching what you’re doing mid-task increases the time it takes you to finish both tasks by 25%,” Bradberry wrote. A new piece of magic from a mind who changed mine. Like reading the best friend you don't have but always needed, that grows you right up while keeping you young -- Lena Dunham In the words of revered jazz critic Ira Gitler, she “has it all, and then some … artistic, swinging, and superbly entertaining.”Especially for women. Especially as we are deemed, with each passing decade, to be of diminishing value. Because someone who is that crazy, someone who takes beyond their fair share with their broken energy, cannot be the one to tell you you no longer exist.” I'm grateful for these supportive words about my work ... "Barbara Fasano sings with such deeply felt belief in her material that the art she practices is closer to pure expression than interpretation. Her take on 'Photographs', in which she brings at least three levels to the song at the same time, is worth the price of the CD." In the words of revered jazz critic Ira Gitler, she “has it all, and then some … artistic, swinging, and superbly entertaining.” Awards Forrest, now 45, had a hugely successful adolescence. A teenage columnist for The Sunday Times, she became a music journalist and published her first novel, Namedropper, aged 22. She went on to write more novels before leaving journalism to work as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Her 2011 memoir Your Voice in My Head detailed her experience with mental illness, suicide attempts and the death of her psychiatrist, and in part examined her relationship with the actor Colin Farrell. I've really never read about sex and been so sharply reminded about how much it is tied up with the fundamentals of being a woman. This deep part of ourselves that somehow gets side-lined and subordinated by everything else. This ecstatic voice we so often manage to ignore. I can hear Emma's voice though, and it's woken me up -- Minnie Driver, author of Managing Expectations