I think, perhaps, that Life is what happens when we, physical, human representations come into contact with the spiritual, the super-natural, the divine.
Like, if we are the trumpets, violins, and cellos and the Divine is the notion, the creativity, the spirit that put the notes in their rightful spots. When these forces meet, something new happens: something called music.
If I knew how to dance, like a nice two-person number that Mario Lopez would Dance With The Stars, I might compare it to that. It makes a lot of sense, the whole "two working together to make a singularly beautiful action" thing...
But I don't know anything about dancing.
But music... yes, music makes sense to me. The notes are there, on the page, sure, but they actually don't exists in or on the page -- they're actually somewhere else. They're nowhere, really, until some kind of musical instrument plays them.
But when that happens, and when notes are played well, and when they are in tune, and on pitch, and played with a beautiful timbre...
Well, I really don't think there's anything better.
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*ESPECIALLY FOR MUSICAL THEATER / POP CULTURE JUNKIES*
I just watched "Rent" the other night on DVD. I very much enjoyed the film, but something about the opening scene and thematic elements seemed eerily familiar to me...
And then it hit me. It's "Friends."
Seriously, think about it -- you've got a number of friends all living/congregating in NYC lofts, dealing with complex inter-relationships with each other, and even an initial character whose girlfriend/wife left him for another woman...!?
Coincidence???
Who knows -- I can't find anything online about this theory, but I thought it was pretty interesting.
I originally speculated that the creators of "Friends" borrowed some of the concepts from the musical, but the first episode of "Friends" was aired on September 22, 1994 whereas Rent's first dress rehearsal wasn't until January 24, 1996, so maybe it's the other way around...?
Maybe Jonathan Larson was a big fan of the TV show and wanted to bring in some of that Greenwich Village feel to his production... or maybe it's really just coincidence.
Just seems a bit strange...
If you know anything about this, please leave a comment below!
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Why does travel sound so good?
Behold Alison Krauss & Union Station, in "Gravity":
And the people who love me still ask me When are you coming back to town And I answer quite frankly When they stop building roads And all God needs is gravity to hold me downAhh, that sounds pretty nice... It's quite nearly time for me to visit some other lands, see some new things. Here's hoping I'm able to do it soon. //
Maybe it was because it feels like spring (about 60 degrees and sunny here in Colorado) or maybe it was because I just got my last shift covered at the…
Every once in a great while I have these random moments of clarity; like suddenly everything makes sense and I have this peaceful, beautiful perspective of all that's in existence. They're always brief -- like a flash of lightening that burns a shadow on my mind's retina, leaving an imprint, a sense, much more lingering than the moment itself. They come and then they go, usually at strange times, and I'm left trying to stay in that moment -- or, rather, go back to it, because it was over almost before I realized it was happening. All I know is that somewhere inside that Presence is the way I want to live.
Well, maybe you know what I'm talking about and maybe you don't, but I had one of those moments today when I was taking out the trash at Starbucks -- a fairly hideous job (particularly on a wet, snowy, cold day like today), just below cleaning the bathrooms and just above cleaning the floor drains -- and as I was was dragging the heavy cart with two huge garbage cans filled to the brim with empty cups, leftover coffee, used napkins, and assorted pastry shards a strange thought entered my ever-brooding head: "Don't forget."
"Don't forget," it said again.
And I said, "Huh?"
And then it made sense.
"When you move on to a new job where you don't have to get dirty or serve coffee to bratty customers or drag two hundred pounds of waste a hundred yards to a stinky dumpster, don't forget what it was like when you did."
"Don't forget that there are people that still do this. And when you someday stand in line as a customer at the Green Empire with no employee discount, don't forget that some of the people behind the counter have Master's degrees. That some of them have kids and families. And that for one reason or another, they are all here because they need to be."
"So be kind to them. Appreciate them when they do a good job. When they give you coffee and make you smile, love them back because they are going out of their way to make your day a bit more special, in spite of the fact that nobody is paying them much of anything to do it."
I won't forget.
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