A video from Saturday afternoon. You can see only our mouths for half of it, but you get the point.
No. <-- Click this.
J.P.
Cease DST.
The alarm clock on the nightstand started playing a classical selection in HD radio high-fidelity. Since the actual clock part of the clock radio is obscured because modern technology demands that clocks use bright displays instead of the older LED displays, I squint to look at the older clock on the other side of the room. It’s 5:30 a.m. Time to get up.
I hop out of bed, do my business in the master bath, put on my bathroom and look out the window. The moon is shining brightly and I can see quite a few stars in the sky. It looks cold. The neighbor’s kitchen window is lighting up the side lawn. There is no sign of any sort of sunrise.
It’s 5:30 a.m. This is a traditional time for farmers to get up and get moving. It’s when the garbage men come by on their truck, it’s when the tractor trailer drivers start moving their goods from point A to point B along the interstate. 5:30 a.m. The start of the day for many. And because of the newish yet obscenely outdated Daylight Saving Time law, the start of the day takes place in the darkness of night.
Yesterday I mentioned in one of my blog entries that I love the magic this time of the year brings. Part of that magic is stepping out into the darkened world after a long workday and a nice supper with the family and listening to the wind rustle the trees. It is a time for peace, for meditation and for reflection on the day’s events.
But we are trying to do everything backwards.
I often hear that we have Daylight Saving Time because the farmers love it. This is a crock of manure. The farmers don’t like getting up in the dark anymore than us office dwellers do. The cows are still sleeping, the chickens are still sleeping and we should still be sleeping. I believe humans are wired to arise with the sunrise, for the most part, and getting out of bed before the sun has made an appearance for the day starts us off on the wrong foot. For many folks, myself included, this includes an unnecessarily early start to the normally-reserved-for-winter Seasonal Affectation Disorder, we start to get depressed.
All so that Americans can think that they’re enjoying a longer day.
We don’t really save energy with Daylight Saving Time anymore. We burn just as much light trying to see where we are going no matter what time of day it is and because we are trying to stay active in the after work hours, we burn more fossil fuels than if we just stayed home and enjoyed an evening with the family.
My existence in Daylight Saving Time is like living in a constant state of jet-lag, especially at this time of year when it has been extended an extra week or two. I know that my mood and disposition will be brighter once our clocks are in relative sync with the sun.
Until then, I’ll just talk about my discomfort a lot.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Differences.
A friend of ours just forwarded a link on his Facebook account. The link includes a photo and a title, much like most links do on Facebook. I didn’t follow the link because the associated photo includes a picture of a bible and the link title said, “The bible is bullshit.”
This kind of bothers me.
I haven’t really talked about overtly spiritual stuff on the blog lately. If you dig deep into the archives, you’ll probably stumble across some entries where I struggle with organised religion versus spirituality, finding your own path versus following something prescribed by others, etc. I still question these things on a daily basis and the one thing that I can say for certain is that I am not an atheist. To think that the human being is the greatest thing this universe can come up with strikes me as arrogant in some ways. I feel too much “something” occupying this vessel we call the body to think that they’re one in the same. When I die I know that “the me” will depart the vessel and move on to the next adventure. That’s one of the reasons that I struggle with funerals and memorial services. They’ve moved on and we should too. Some find that to be harsh.
I think the thing that bothers me about the aforementioned link is the harsh words used to describe their feelings on the Bible. I find it disrespectful. Just as I don’t ever want someone more religious than me to try to change me, preach to me or bang me over the head with their beliefs, I don’t believe that we should give others the right to explore their spiritual or religious beliefs as they see fit, and they should be given the same respect that we expect. If you find spiritual fulfillment in planting a tree, I’ll help you plant the tree as long as we’re not trying to change anyone or harm anyone. If you find that your path is fulfilled by standing on the stove and hoisting a box of Stove Top at the air, then I’ll make sure you don’t fall down. Give me respect and I’ll give you respect. It’s as simple as that.
I think some visitors to our home are surprised if/when they join us for a meal because our little family (Earl and me, Scott and Jamie) join hands and we say a prayer. We are thankful for whatever force got us to that moment and we are thankful for that. It’s acknowledgment of love and positive energy. Our recent wedding ceremony was comprised of many of the same themes. It’s what works for us on our path.
I was taught that religion and spiritual beliefs are a private matter between you and the higher power you have found on your path. I find atheists that tell me how wrong I am to “believe in magical voodoo” to be just as offensive as the folks that told my sister and me (back in elementary school) that we were going to hell because we were “sprinkled instead of dunked” when we were baptized.
Do I believe and subscribe to ever word the Bible contains? No. My own thought processes and subsequent determinations prevail on that. But for those that do, I hope you find the strength in the words that you hold dear and I will give you the respect to do just that.
Harsh words just bring on more harsh words. I think folks forget that from time to time.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Commercialisation.
Here we are bordering on 3/4 of the way through October which can only mean one thing. It’s just a little over two months until Christmas. How do I know this? The natural way of course, by the ample display of Christmas trees, wreaths and hearty ho-ho-hos coming from the various big box stores that have been puked up all over this otherwise beautiful part of the state.
I think I might sound a little bit bitter.
Recently there was a photograph of a sign that was hanging at a Nordstroms Department Store. I’m too lazy to find the sign, but the gist of the sign was that Nordstroms would be ‘decking the halls’ for the holiday season on Friday, November 27, after Thanksgiving. They believe that we should celebrate each holiday for what it is instead of cashing in on the holiday ‘frivolity’ early.
If we had a Nordstroms nearby, I’d kiss the nearest cashier, male or female doesn’t matter and give them a hearty “thank you”. Since I don’t know where the nearest Nordstroms is, I’m going to instead browse their online shopping site and see what I can do about buying my holiday gifts from them.
The irony of my desire to hold off decking the halls until a more appropriate time is that I’m actually in the mood to do a little bit of holiday shopping. I know that every year I crow about how much Earl and I enjoy going to a distant mall in a faraway land and getting all the shopping done in one swoop, but the reality is that I would be much happier if I could point and click my way to a few token trinkets to let me loved one knows how much I care. I’m not really in the mood to make someone breathless with the scope, weight and hefty dent in the bank account from picking out some crazy gift, rather, I’m trying to find things that actually mean something and this might take a little bit of practice.
I really should be thinking about the upcoming Halloween holiday and how I might have the opportunity to eat my weight in Peppermint Patties or something.
I love this time of year, especially as the autumn chill grows a little more pronounced, the winds sing a little louder as they blow through the leaves that are heading to the ground and the air feels a bit more crisp with each passing night. It’s that magic that I want to box up and put a new bow on so I can share it with my family and friends as a holiday gift. I sometimes fear that a gift will be opened and there’ll be a wide-eyed look of excitement replaced by a look of inquisitiveness and the comment, “Oh look… wind!”, as they start fiddling with the bow.
So I am avoiding the retail establishments that are urging us to deck the halls early and start thinking about slinging holiday lights all over the house. I want to savor this season, these holidays, right now and figure out how to share my love for them in a gift later down the road.
Call me when Nordstroms puts up their decorations. Until then, enjoy the moment.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Rainbowed Geek.
I had to show off the classic Apple sticker that found it’s way to the Jeep. I couldn’t go with the white stickers that come with just about every iDevice, no, I had to stand out from the crowd.
It’s what I do.
Grind.
I have always said that one should never work at a job that they don’t enjoy. That doesn’t mean that no one should do menial labor, because I know a lot of people who enjoy doing what others consider “grunt work”. I know that one of my most enjoyable jobs was working as a cashier for a large department store chain back in my early 20s, because you got to talk to a lot of people, it required a bit of skill “back in my day” (no scanning where I worked) and my curiosity was satisfied in two ways: the cash register was fun to try to crash once in a while and I got to see what people were buying.
I’m so strange.
After having such a magical long weekend, what with a wedding kicking it off and then the whole honeymoon thing in the fine City of New York, I wasn’t particularly excited about getting up at 5:30 this morning and driving the darkened roads for an hour to sit in a beige cubicle for eight hours, only to drive home another hour along a commute that is populated by slow moving vehicles, mainly horse drawn wagons that are getting crops from point A to point B. In fact, I had a little bit of a feeling of dread getting up this morning but I did my best to muster up an acceptable attitude and I did what we all have to do on a Monday morning.
So here I am, halfway through my work day and I have been congratulated by many on the legal marriage to my partner and I have told a few that no, I did not change my name, nor did he change his. We are still married though, and we have the paper to prove it. Now we get to play with HR and do the whole married health benefits thing. That’ll be fun.
I have found that the sense of dread was unwarranted. Like many people, I imagined work would be more chaotic than it actually is today and I thought that I would have this sense of being overwhelmed, which I don’t. Before leaving for work this morning, Earl suggested I find a way to meditate. This probably wouldn’t be a good thing to do when driving along the one hour commute amongst the buggies in the dark, so instead I tuned into a non-committal radio station on Sirius/XM (the 40s on 4 for those that are curious) and I just kind of found my way to a good place in my head. It took a little effort but I found it and I’m finding that it’s much more enjoyable than that place I was when I was dreading going to work this morning. I guess the sounds of the 40s music and the effort to make my mood better helped me find my center today.
I know many people that make their work their life. And that is awesome for them. While overall I enjoy what I do very much, I consider myself to be more than just my job and I like to explore all the dimensions of this multi-dimensional. multi-faceted slew of interests and quirks that I have.
Once I find a good balance of work and play, I find that the grind isn’t so bad after all.
Wicked.
Earl and I are currently sitting on Amtrak’s Empire State service on our way home. We left Penn Station about 20 minutes ago and now we are at Croton-On-Hudson. I am using OmmWriter on the iPad to write this entry, as it has musical accompaniment to help block the ambient noise here in business class, including the young girl that has been saying “Chug A chug A Choo Choo” repeatedly since we left Penn Station. I hope her vocalisations lead to an “I think I can attitude” later in life.
Last night Earl and I made our way through the “Occupy Wall Street” protests on Times Square to see the popular musical “Wicked” at the Gershwin. The house was sold out; there were several tourist groups and the like around us in row W. Like movie theatres of modern times, the audience was populated by people that couldn’t stop talking or checking their mobile devices. A family of our four in front of us were more concerned with the scores of the Va. Tech game than what was going on on stage. The two young kids were flanked by why I consider to be the typical well-off Republican couple with the dad showing disinterest in his kids and mom very well manicured but a little harried because the nanny had the night off. They were both obviously there at the show because of the kids as the the young ones were very excited about the show and sang to eqch other before the show started. Both had surprisingly great singing voices and excellent pitch memory, because they were singing the score from the show in the proper key. The mom and dad did little to encourage their enthusiasm for music, I hope the nanny encourages them back at home.
The show was not as engaging as I thought it would be. So many people have exclaimed in squealing tones how much they love the production, but Earl and I just thought it was good. The performers were excellent in their performances but we didn’t feel enthralled. I couldn’t get beyond the fact that the actor playing Elsebah did really, really good at sounding like Idina Menzel. There was nothing in her performance that marked it as her own, kind of like when the new guy from Journey does a really good Steve Perry impersonation in “Seperate Ways”.
By the way, now we are at Croton-On-Hudson. The stop before this was Yonkers.
I did enjoy the way that the story of “Wicked” was woven around “The Wizard of Oz”. That was kind of clever, but aside from “Defying Gravity”, none of the songs really stuck with me 15 minutes after the performance. Perhaps I should listen to the soundtrack again. I guess I recommend the show for good family fare if you’re visiting New York. Just please leave your mobile device off and pay attention to the stage, quietly, during the performance.
Comment.
Earl: “Look at that. He’s whipped. She’s making him carry all those packages. He’s carrying her purse. She’s carrying nothing.
“He needs a bicycle. Or she needs to lend him her broomstick.”
Godspell.
So last night Earl and I went to see “Godspell”. The popular show has found itself back on Broadway, this time at the Circle in the Square Theatre. It started previews on Thursday night, the show officially opens in November.
“Godspell” is my favorite musical, hands down. It is the first musical I was introduced to, way back in junior high. I have seen the show a number of times in various venues including high school auditoriums, the MUNY in St. Louis and on the stage of a few different national touring companies. I have several incarnations of the soundtrack on my iPod and I used “On The Willows” as an audition piece a couple of times in high school and during my first attempt at college. Like a lot of folks, this show is near and dear to my heart. Last night did not disappoint.
“Godspell” is a customizable show in that it can easily be placed in any time period (back in the 80s I saw one high school frame the show in Queen Victoria’s time!) and that’s one of the things I like about the show. One of the national touring companies that passed through Utica a decade or so ago made the show very techno; props included a cross made out of discarded televisions and the music was made very “American Idol”. It wasn’t my favorite take on the show and last night I was worried that this was going to continue the tradition of taking on modern times and lose some of the innocence and sweetness of the story.
They didn’t do that.
I’m not going to get into a lot of detail as far as the production goes because I’m encouraging people to see it when you’re in New York and enjoy the experience of this show, because it is a lot of fun and we found it to be worth every penny. The songs are so familiar to many folks, so I thought I would add my two cents because it’s my blog and I can do what I want here. I’ll try very hard to avoid spoilers.
As the show opens, there’s a lot of “technology” present (think cell phone usage). The folks on stage interact wonderfully during “Tower of Babble” except that I found the arrangement of the song hard to interpret. Granted, “Tower of Babble” is suppose to sound like “babble” and it did, but I think it was sounding like too much babble, because it was a little overwhelming with all the overlapping lyrics going on at the same time. At Circle in the Square, you sit REALLY close to the stage (we were in the front row on one side and the stage was at arm level and only 1/2 an arm’s length away). The actors’ voices were brilliant, this I could tell already during the first song, but the arrangement of the tune was a little distracting.
There was a surprising prop used during “Prepare Ye” that I did not expect to be used on stage. Don’t worry, you’ll make it through the performance unscathed, even in the front row.
Now everyone knows “Day By Day”, that’s probably the most well known song from the show because it spent several weeks on the Top 40 and spiritual folks sing this song all the time. The lyrics are just six lines sung over and over, leaving the emotion to build with the musical construction and arrangement of the song. The first part of the song is written in three-quarters time and this is where it was a little wonky for me. First of all Anna Maria Perez de Tagle sings this beautifully. Her voice has a sweetness to it that compliments the message brilliantly and she is very enjoyable with her performance, but the phrasing is slightly out of whack during the three-quarters time part of the piece. I’m pretty confident it’s part of the arrangement because the band (which is scattered all over the house, by the way) was doing the same thing. It felt like the lyrics were in four-four time when the music was in three-quarter time and as a person very familiar with the track, I found it disconcerting and it was running contrary to my music theory training I’ve had over the years. The vocalizations were brilliant, though and once we moved to the four-four time, everything felt familiar again. I have to admit that I didn’t expect the Electric Slide, though.
I LOVED the interpretation of “Learn Your Lessons Well”. It’s a lot of fun with a lot of oomph in the vocals without going over the top.
Way back in the 90s a London Company recorded a soundtrack CD without actually performing the show on stage, and in the process recorded one of the blandest renditions of “Bless The Lord” I have ever heard. Then that techno National tour came along and “Bless The Lord” went crazy with the techno and melisma (think Christina Aguilera and the National Anthem), so I was terrified that last night’s performance was going to be another yodeling, howling rendition of “Bless The Lord”.
I was terrified for no reason because last night “Bless The Lord” was AMAZING. Absolutely amazing. Lindsay Mendez has a great, strong yet controlled voice and thankfully does NOT engage in ridiculous vocal acrobatics/urban yodeling to share her love for this song. I think this may have been my favorite performance of the night, though the music theory training kicked in and the instrumental arrangement has some weird key change (or wonky chord progressions) going on towards the end of the song. I’d have to hear it again to see if I like it or not (I don’t think I do), but I found it slightly distracting from Lindsay’s wonderful performance. It’s not like Barry Manilow grabbed the song and added six progressive key changes to the score, but it does shift back and forth to a key (or through strange chord progressions that aren’t in the same key) that feels off a little bit. Lindsay is brilliant in it though, and I’m going to be finding more of her work to add to the iPod. Quick aside – coming out of Act 2, a couple members of the cast play around on the piano before Act 2 officially kicks off and Lindsay really camps up some melisma on some of the songs they’re singing, and I appreciated that. Some of her stylings in this bit of fun were identical to that techno touring version… I’m happy it was saved for that and not in the meat of her performances.
“All Good Gifts” is another one of my favorite tunes and Telly Leung does not disappoint at all. I loved the arrangement, I loved the sweetness of his voice and well, it’s Wes from the Warblers on “Glee”, so there were squeals from the young teenaged girls sitting behind us.
“Light of the World” stays pretty true to the familiar and is fun as well. In fact, all of songs in Act 1 felt familiar but still fresh, aside from those few distracting key changes.
During intermission the audience has the opportunity to go up on stage and have some “wine” and interact a little bit with the cast members that have hung around. They did this in DC years ago and I loved it. For some reason I can’t remember it happening at the Muny in St. Louis when we saw it a couple of years ago, but that could just be faulty memory. We had a nice, very brief chat with one of the cast. She seemed to be a genuine person.
Act 2 rolls in with “Turn Back, O Man”, where it was performed by understudy Julia Mattison. She did a Mae West take and was cute with her improvisations. Loved a reference to “Jesus Take The Wheel”. I heard that the original performer was weeping in the lobby after the show the night before so perhaps that’s why Julia was on stage. She was great.
Now lead Hunter Parrish came in with “Alas For You” and something weird just happened with his vocals. The thing is, I can’t decide if it was intentional or if he just lost his way completely, because in a way it sounded like he was intentionally trying to sound “overwrought” with his voice breaking, but on the other hand it came across like Peter Brady singing “When It’s Time To Change”. I’m inclined to blame this on the arrangement because Hunter’s vocals were spot on for all of his other performances, but this was just weird. If they were just a goof, I apologise for bringing them up because heck, I know I’ve lost my way in a song during my little performances back in the day but something tells me it was suppose to be that way. We’ll blame the arrangement. The one thing about Hunter’s “Alas For You” is that it’s not as powerful as previous incarnations I’ve heard. In fact, the performance of “By My Side” has more power in the vocal stylings (which it shouldn’t). “By My Side” is the one song I was somewhat disappointed with in the entire show. The performer seems way too angry for the song. The accompanying vocals from the other performers are beautiful (I loved the harmonisation in this rendition) but the lead’s voice was way too strong for the mood of the song and she looked very angry. She’s one of the cast members I had the opportunity to talk with and she seems very nice in person so I was kind of sad that this song disappointed me.
“We Beseech Thee” brought us back on track and there was more prop use that I didn’t expect but was a lot of fun! Singing while bouncing can be tough but everyone did just fine.
Wow, I’m long winded in this entry. Fast forward to the finale, which is powerful, emotional and well done. One of the best performances of “On The Willows” and the finale I have seen or heard. The arrangement of the finale is cool in that there is harmonisation where I haven’t heard it before and I want to thunk someone upside the head for not doing it before. Brilliant! It compliments the unity of the group during this emotional part of the show wonderfully. I hope high school productions take note.
Overall, the show is a lot of fun and had me laugh out loud a couple of times with the inclusion of modern one-liners and improvisations. The score sounds familiar enough to keep older generations and those familiar with the show happy but fresh enough to sound contemporary. I really hope that we get to see the show once it’s opened officially because this one I would definitely see again. I recommend anyone visiting New York to see this show as it has a wonderful message that is well told through the skills of the performers, both spoken and melodically.
The beauty of last night’s performance was that it felt like the show had opened as opposed to being in previews. There was a standing ovation from the audience and it was well deserved.
