Monthly Archives: March 2011

Vamos all over again

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Tech Rehearsal XI. Same scene, different background and cast. I leave at 6:15, stop at the bakery and pick up four dozen pastries, get to school and hope I don’t trigger the alarm while opening the doors, schlep out the big coffeemaker, and set up the space while sleepy teenagers (and adults) drag in and wait for java. Definitely NOT morning people, haha.

I approach the coming week with a mixture of exhilaration, anxiety, anticipation and dread. Each state has its experiential component. But I guess I have to get through this morning first. :-)

Off to the showers and the school house. Have a good weekend, fiends.

 

Another epiphany

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I never blog from school, but I’m taking five minutes out of my tech period to tell you a story.

We held auditions for a solo in my sixth grade choir this morning (“I Will Remember You” by Sarah McLachlan), and a little girl who had never had the nerve to audition before raised her hand to try.

She stood up, I started playing, and she got through the first two lines, visibly shaking. On the second half of the solo, she stopped and broke down in tears, holding her music up to her face. It broke my heart (and many of the other kids’ as well). I leaned over the piano and hugged her, and all the 12-year-olds in the room applauded for her and shouted encouraging comments (“Good job, Kasey,” “That’s OK, Kasey,” etc.).

It made me realize that I’ve been in this circus so long — singing solo in public since elementary school — I sometimes forget how difficult it can be for others. It would be very much like making me do an algebra problem on the board in front of the class (I’ve been there, and believe me, it made me want to barf). Easy for you, difficult for me.

The lesson here is that I need to make it a habit to look at the world through the eyes of others once in awhile, too. Empathy, ja? We could all use a little more of it. At least I could.

Happy Finkday!

Psh.

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J’ever do something, then wish you hadn’t? Carp.

As you might guess, the tide is threatening to go out with me in it. Rehearsal was a bit stressful last night, as a couple of weak links on the music end kind of peed on the whole evening. That, and a few other things. But hey, tonight is a  new night, and I know we’ll get lots done. We only have 90 minutes to slap this thing in shape before Saturday’s tech rehearsal, so everybody’s gotta be on their best game. ‘Specially me. Oy.

Next day off: Saturday, 2 April. Awesome! :-) I hope all yall’s week is going well. BoomR, going to Manila I see??

Fink, back underground

Conundrum

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Or indictment. Heh.

Last night, I ran across the site I Write Like. Bizarre title for a writing site, but…anyway. It’s supposed to tell you whose style your writing resembles most. So I thought, hey, this sounds like fun; I’m curious, so I’ll give it a go.

I collected ten blog posts from the archives, basically at random (I looked for length, not subject matter). According to the results I received, I’m either quite the eclectic writer, or my every post is a schizophrenic shot in the dark. Think Jackson Pollock with a pen. So who do I “sound like” when I write? The results from their script’s analysis of ten different posts indicate that I Write Like:

  1. Dan Brown
  2. Cory Doctorow
  3. H.P. Lovecraft (twice)
  4. Douglas Adams
  5. David Foster Wallace (twice)
  6. J.D. Salinger
  7. Stephenie Meyer
  8. And on the last try: Stephen King (yay)

But then I got to thinking, I cannot possibly resemble all these famous people — two of whom I’ve never even read. They’re just randomly selecting names. So I tried something different. While glancing around my desk, at Facebook, at a couple of websites I had open in tabs, and about the parlor in general, I simply typed whatever words caught my eye:

Donkey cat whistle black finale charming sugar brother charlie watch eraser earrings

The result? James Joyce.

HahAAhaaa

So much for thinking I’m a writer, ja? Pshh….

Today I wonder

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Is the earth just getting old and creaky? Can a planet exist forever? Stasis is anathema to humans, surely, but what about non-human life forms? What about Earth? How can this latest disaster possibly be a healthy change?

I know that, in order to bring about the new, old things must die away. That “old things” are innocent people by the hundreds, and before this is over, likely thousands, is hard to grasp. I know, it’s happened before and it will again, somewhere else. And while I don’t want to go all Kushner or have a religious/ethical debate (because let’s face it, anyone who thinks he has a definitive answer is delusional), I must say I am at a loss to come up with a reason why babies must be swept away by a 50 MPH ocean wave.

The best we can do in these situations is our small part to help. I urge you to do that today, as I am going to. It is no understatement that life is too short, and that at any moment, everything you love can be gone. I plan to hug everyone a little tighter this weekend.

FO