Just auditioned for the campus production of “Pippin.” Sang “Moondance” (by Jim Morrison)…
Totally bombed it. Not only did I wear out my voice practicing too much beforehand, but I found out that auditions make me so nervous I forget my lines (and pitches)… dammit.
And I also heard the competition while I was awaiting my turn: geez, I got a long way to go.
I’m 0 for 1. Looking forward to trying again.
Doc Opera 4 years ago: I submitted 2 half-written song ideas (medical parodies of Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson” and Beck’s “Loser”). To my surprise, the director’s loved them and asked me to finish the songs. I tried out as a rapper and didn’t get any part… until someone backed out. I ended up rapping in 2 songs.
Doc Opera’s 2007, 2008: I wrote 3-5 songs each year, rapping 1-2 songs each year.
Doc Opera this year: held at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. Wrote 2 songs (medical parodies of Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher” and the Beach Boys “Good Vibrations”), rapped in a Black Eyed Peas song, sang backup in a Queen parody, and sang a Jem song as part of Docappella. First time I’ve ever done a choreographed dance on stage.
Today: saw ‘Wicked’ at Playhouse Square (at another theater in the same venue where I performed the night before). Blown away by: the story, the songs, the emotion that can be conveyed by musical theater. I had no friggin’ clue. The only other musicals I’ve ever seen before this were “Jersey Boys” and “Lion King.” Wicked dealt with some complex issues (discrimination, racism, envy, etc.) within the retelling of the Wizard of Oz. Wicked also tries to convey how friends or loved ones can influence each other…. with the recent passing of my grandfather, I’ve had to own up to the fact that I am deeply influenced by my friends and family. Let me rephrase that: I’m starting to own up to that fact. I’ve spent the last decade (and then some) trying to emotionally isolate myself everyone else… not sure why… maybe because I was so lonely and insecure when I was younger… it seemed safer to create ideological frameworks for my growth and success that did not depend upon anyone else. Anyway, so as all my defenses are beginning to crumble, the final scenes of ‘Wicked’ - as cheesy as they may be - really tugged on the ol’ heart-strings because I was able to connect with the characters. I was deeply moved.
Now: I want to try my hand at musical theater. I’ve spent so much time writing lyrics (for medical parodies, for my own rap songs), but I’ve gotten frustrated because I’ve recently felt that the ideas I want to convey cannot be fully captured through this medium alone. I want to be able to sing like those folks on the stage. And, after doing a little choreographed dancing this year, I want to see if I can take that to the next level, as well.
Any suggestions?
Discovery - Insane.
Wicked cool. Like experimental d&b mixed with 80s vocal tracks.
summarize my thoughts on diet (sat. fat, PUFAs, grains, meat vs. vegetarian, dental health, exercise). wholehealthsource.blogspot.com got me thinking about everything, but now my head is spinning with loosely connected ideas.
It’s a deal. I’ll put it on my dormant medicine-related blog: http://toughpill.wordpress.com/
Yea, I’m beginning to see that: what’s the use - really - of detaching myself from the way I feel in certain situations? Protecting myself… from some force I’m not even aware of. Refusing to acknowledge how connected I really am to people in my life… until there’s a death in my family, and then I’m overwhelmed by how much I mean to others, overwhelmed by the significance of my life. Awestruck and rattled that I mean something to other people simply because I exist, not because of anything I have done.
None of this jives with the constructs I’ve built over the years of self-reliance, of independence: that I am the one who gives meaning to my life.
*sigh* Defense mechanisms gradually stockpiled to combat years of solitude and loneliness….
“Why not live knowing that letting someone know that you love them is not an obligation, it’s a privilege and a gift. What’s the use of holding feelings and emotions inside to waste away… Who are we to think that all of life is in our hands alone? Shall we grasp so tightly that no one around us can share the joy of living with us.”
In the end, they try and attribute our high rate of osteoporosis to our protein-rich diet. And the author laughably infers a cause-and-effect relationship between the two from a graph. The studies contributing to their 2D graph are based on worldwide data, so simply looking at “protein intake” is a gross oversimplification of what diet really is.
Long story short: day by day, I’m beginning to see the paleolithic point of view. That it’s the (over)consumption of grains that contributes most to the diseases of civilization that plague us out here in the West. Eating too many grains would contribute to acidity, but I don’t think boiling it down to acidity explains everything. It’s not like eating Tums all day is gonna save your life.
However, I don’t think all grains are harmful. I’ll get to that later….
I started reading this NYTimes article that tries to attribute osteoporosis in America to the pH of our diet….
