Voice Lesson: The voice lesson was good today. I told my teacher about the "Nonesuch" song and commented that I sound terrible when singing it. We worked on techniques for making it sound better, starting off singing it with deeper overtones and at a slower speed than the actual melody goes. By the end of the lesson it did indeed sound better. I missed doing the voice exercises, though. I'm finding I really enjoy those, so I'm practicing them tonight.

TV: I saw some of a new TV show called Shark, starring James Woods. It has been described as 'Gregory House as a lawyer." Au contraire. This fellow is much better than House. For one thing, the character knows how to be a human being, which House doesn't. He knows how to gracefully handle meeting his daughter's boyfriend unexpectedly. I rather like him. I don't know if I'll watch the show much, because legal shows aren't my thing; I prefer the forensics ones. But it's certainly worth watching. What this guy does share with House is his way of filling a room with his presence and being very assertive.

Manners: I think the United States would be quite justified in informing Hugo Chavez that he is never again welcome back into our country. The guy has obviously never heard of the tradition that a guest has certain obligations of courtesy toward his host, because Chavez has sorely abused those obligations. You do not go into a foreign country as a head of state and call your host country's head of state the Devil. The people who gave Chavez a standing ovations at the UN and in Harlem should be ashamed of themselves.