Sunshine, Shine on Through

Song of the Day: 'Look Away', Hootie and the Blowfish

I think I sometimes surprise people.

Not all the time or anything - no one's THAT spontaneous - but just enough.

I feel like people sometimes think that it's strange how I can go from making a poop or fart joke one moment to praising the quality artwork of Jack Vettriano in the next. Things like those, which aren't related at all, shouldn't come out of my mouth with only seconds and carbon-dioxide to separate them.

But what people don't realize about me - or about anyone, really - is that I'm all of these things at once. I think and feel these things simultaneously. I can laugh myself silly from a good 'that's what she said' and still have pretentiously deep conversations about poetry.

My body isn't a very good medium for Me with a capital 'M'. The being, identity, soul that can appreciate Kurt Halsey, celtic reels, the smell of fresh baked cookies and an inside joke all within the same thought, the same breath. It's hard to encapsulate and try to keep it restrained at all, but when your only outlet is this primitive, rudimentary body, it can be heartbreakingly debilitating.

I think that's why I like tumblr so much. I follow all of these random-ass blogs that are all beautiful or funny or just fantastic to me and reblog things one after the other, a Quirky Turkey after a Star Wars comic after a pretty picture of trees after a favorited tattoo. I like all of these things pretty consistently, regardless of my current mood.

Though the other side of it is people change, too. Sure, I'll probably always have an emotional attachment to Harry Potter and always laugh at Calvin & Hobbes and always cry at particular A.A. Milne poems. But enough goes on and begins and ends in the world to allow a little leeway for people. We're allowed to change within because so much changes outside and beyond us. I guess all we can hope for is that we're consistent where it counts. Being consistently inconstant, perhaps. 

I think if you find yourself spending time with people who no longer surprise you, you're in for a dull life. I don't mean by being spontaneous or random or batshit crazy - though that's certainly fun. I mean when someone can startle you into laughing even when making a joke you've heard and made yourself a thousand times. When a song you absolutely love comes on and you still love it as much as you ever did and maybe even hear or find something in it that you hadn't before. Even the bad stuff, to an extent. When someone can piss you off enough to cause you to make a change in your life, or at least try. When you lose someone who was so close to you that the memories stay on your surface for a while and make you think or feel about things differently, even if only for a little bit.

I've said it once, I'll say it again - people are multifaceted. The idea is true no matter how you word it, but I think I use the word 'multifaceted' because it's just so aesthetically pleasing. The most I've heard it used is in relation to diamonds or jewels in general, which in itself is a nice image. But also because of the 'multi' and 'face' and 'i' and the '-ed' suffix. It's plural, it's individual, it's personal and relatable. Just a good word all around to describe people. 

'Hold on - hold on

wait! Maybe the answer's

looking for you!' - 'Hold On', Yes

Oh, What a Night!

Song of the Day: Jersey Boys Soundtrack. Just, at all.

So after I see a show, particularly on Broadway, I spend a LOT of time just in a stupor-after-the-fact. If it's a musical - like the most recent show I've seen - I'll put the soundtrack on repeat for a long while. I'll relive scenes, mayhaps even dream up a few starring yours truly, sing all the songs obnoxiously, creep on the actors, and just generally only talk about the show for a long, long time.

Last night I saw 'Jersey Boys' for the first time. So all of the above has been going on for all of today.

It's just so easy to get connected to the characters, especially when there's fantastic music. I mean, it's a musical about a music group that reached a helluva lot of success. How can it NOT be good?

Plus, ya know, attractive men with amazing voices. Yes, please.

All of the songs are singable, catchy, well-put together, and within my range. So of course I'm currently in the mindset of 'man, if I had stage presence, talent, and drive, *this* is the kinda stuff I would sing.'

Which I of course won't. Cuz of the lack of stage presence, talent, and drive.

But I'd certainly be okay being able to see shows on Broadway easily and often.

Katie and I spent the day in the city before we saw the show, walking up through and around Central Park, spent some time at the Met, walked back down through the Park before grabbing some dinner, and then saw the show. It was pretty damn awesome.

I mean, how great would it be to go for a jaunt in the Park, grab a hot dog, and head to work in the theatre capital of the country, possibly the world? Living in the city, man... I dunno. It just sounds kinda awesome. Would that it could end up that way.

Though it's hard not to feel like my idea of the city has been overly romanticized by the numerous television shows and movies I've seen sent in New York. I feel like reality would backhand me across the face and I'd end up on my ass and/or running away to home.

Right now, it's hard not to get caught up in the blechness of all the shit I have to do and put up withtobyforabout. Sometimes even hanging out with my friends can be trying. Which is understandable, because we spend a lot of our together time in an academic context. But the only time lately I'm constantly happy, actually feel good and productive and content, is during 55, when we're building the set for 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. I wonder if that's because I'm the only own out of my group of friends working on it. I mean, Lee designed it, so she's present for question answering and the like. But I'm the only one out of the six of us actually on the crew an actively building the set. I'm also master carpenter, which has turned out to be somewhat of an authority figure - and I kinda like that.

It's been really hard to just live in now, especially since so much of my now is spent preparing for something further down line. The bloody 'future', the inevitable - it's so annoying. The damn thing keeps turning into the present, and we don't even realize it.

'Think! What a big man he'll be
Think! Of the places you'll see
now think what a future would be with a poor boy like me.' - 'Dawn (Go Away)', The Four Seasons (Jersey Boys Soundtrack)