Castle on a Cloud

My grandmother used to tell me of a reoccurring dream where she was floating happily up in the clouds observing the earth below. In that dream she would look down to see me terrified, running, afraid of something, but she knew not of what. She would call my name and in a frightened state I got to her somehow, the way you can in dreams, and was so overjoyed to see her that I fell on her hugging, laughing, and forgetting whatever was so scary. She found this dream very silly and amusing because it made us giggle, but also happy that it symbolized our comfort in one another. 

She passed away today as I was looking out of my airplane window at the bright sun drenched clouds you can only see from flying above them.   I had a strong feeling it was happening as I looked at them and I kept thinking of her dream. 

When I got to my hotel I had a strong urge to fall into the bed and not come out for quite some time, when before I even hit the pillow my eye caught the most amazing scene out the window. I was blown away by the spectacular cloud sunset that I swear hit me so hard and spoke so clearly...

Nana, your Baba is here.

Baba, I will love you till the day I die, and when that day comes I will meet you above the clouds.

My spirits have been lifted by a little girl who loves musical theater already as much as I do and sings of the "castle on a cloud" that Baba was dreaming of.  Her performance has made me come up with a variation on Baba's favorite quote.

"Life is short...so sing out Louise."

Signs of Spring...???

I hate complaining about the weather but....

WHERE IS SPRING??? 

Ok got that out of my system.

Jason and I had a date day today so we braved the freezing cold to eat at Hummus Place (so, so yummy) and walked through the West Village to look for signs of spring.

Here's what we found:

That poor little daffodil looks like it has had warmer days.

Then JC and I went back to DTJC, NJ to meet up with these amazing people. JC, JCT, JC, and a Momo. I just heart them all so much. They are truly my BFFs because they make me LOL. (That's 4U Mo ;))

This little starlet is having her Metropolitan Opera House audition in April. She's already on the Met roster, but they just can't get enough of hearing her glorious voice!

My Broadway Debut

ish.

I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of myself and my cousin Daniel with whom I have bonded with something fierce this week. I think I have have some competition in my musical theater nerd partner in crime. We had quite the New York City adventure from winning tickets to Book of Mormon to debuting at Broadway jazz clubs. Yes, I made my Broadway debut at Iridium Jazz Club as I was literally dragged on to the stage to sing the ever popular "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret. But it's true, what good is sitting alone in your room??? Come hear the music play! Life is a Cabaret ol chum, COME TO THE CABARET!!

The Book of Mormon

My cousin and I won tickets for this show the other night and I have many many thoughts about it. I will be back shortly with my review. Bad blogger.

I'm baaaaaack!

Alright. I was not going to talk religion or politics on the blog, but here we go. I'm slightly worried, but if nothing else this musical has inspired me to be bold.

I had almost as much desire to see The Book of Mormon as Bill Maher's Religulous. Zero to none. I have very dear Mormon friends who I respect very much and quite frankly I am tired of the "believer" bashing. It is quite the trend right now to be "religulous" and I am tired of the media specifically making Christians out to be gay haters, polygamists, or pedophiles. I have always thought South Park was kinda gross and thought it was a contributor to the downward spiral of class in our society. If you don't believe this is happening, check out the Oscar award winning song "It's hard out there for a pimp".

On the other hand I am a theater chick who likes "contemporary art".  I love to see when Broadway shows push boundaries and I'm no prude. (I loved Avenue Q)  I had heard that they made this out to be a classic musical and with Jon Stewart's quote "the way you actually make us laugh at while simultaneously celebrating religion is brilliant" I thought, why not. It's the talk of the town. We WON $32 box seats when you can't get anything under $100 and the show is selling over capacity at %101 percent so again, why not?

Well I have to say I haven't laughed so hard at a musical since Avenue Q. The performers as usual were brilliant.  As far a social commentary goes, it was jaw droppingly shocking and at many times if not all times spot on. I definitely didn't think anyone came out of the musical thinking any worse of the groups being depicted. Here is a good review straight from Salt Lake City. I definitely enjoyed my 2.5 hours. BUT right after the show we met up with another Broadway performer who shall remain nameless so I will describe him as a prominent Broadway performer, and African American Christian who is open to the gay community. He asked us how we liked the show and we nodded and asked him the same. He hated it. When we asked why he said he thought it was disgusting to see Black Africans with AIDS and Christians being mocked by two middle class white atheists from Colorado. OK, he had a point. BUT, when you see any kind of "roast" which is what I think Matt Stone and Trey Parker do for a living you have to keep in mind that everyone is being ridiculed. I mean "Blame Canada" came from these guys and we all love Canadians right? But he definitely got me thinking.

Is this the best way to point out the scruples of humanity? Would these same people make a musical about Muslims? Or would they be afraid to get death threats? I mean Mormons are a pretty safe group and are so nice they probably would buy the CD and tee shirt. And as far as a classic musical this is absolutely not that. Here are some Cole Porter lyrics from Anything Goes:

You're the top! you're the Collosseum,
You're the top! you're the Louvre Museum,
You're the melody from a symphony by Strauss,
You're a Bendel bonnet,
A Shakespeare Sonnet,
You're Mickey Mouse!

You're the Nile! You're the Tow'r of Pisa,
You're the smile, of  the Mona Lisa!
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop!
But if baby I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

I couldn't find the lyrics from Book of Mormon yet online but there was a song that was titled "#$&@ You God" and they sang about everything from @#$%ing babies to female circumcision. This is not a classical musical. But I did think the vehicle of singing and laughing at the absurdity of life and our journey trying to figure it all out was very entertaining.  Does that make me part of the downward spiral?

I think the problem I see with Christianity is that we exclude people. I DO NOT think Jesus would have turned away ANYONE from his church. ANYONE.
I was and am close to Mormonism and it is not what the media makes it out to be. It is really quite beautiful and the people are wonderful.  At times it feels like a private club and maybe that feeling of exclusion is the reason it is so misunderstood. And that applies to any religion. The media is having a field day with Christians because some of us are excluding the gay community, priests are having sex with boys and there are fundamentalist polygamist "Mormons".  Christianity needs to fix itself as many things in this world need to fix themselves. The government, Libya, and Capitalism all quickly come to mind.  Ok I feel like I am about to go on a tangent so I will stop now. I'm also going to stop because I feel like I am in the middle of many groups here and I don't want to start a riot.

Go see live theater.  It makes you think. That's my real point.

New Church

I found a great new church TWO blocks from my apartment! 

This little cartoon picture from their webpage actually gives a good idea of what it is like there.  The structure is a beautiful old stone church founded in 1847, making it the oldest surviving Episcopal Church in Jersey City. Inside there are little folding chairs instead of pews and the people who sit in those chairs are every color of the ethnic rainbow. Just like in the drawing. The pastor is inspirational because even though he has a "King's Speech" stutter, he delivers a great sermon, plays guitar and everyone there loves him. You can feel a huge sense of community at Grace and I am excited to take part in my new ultra diverse community praying, singing, and feeding the homeless. Could this be my cause? Simple yet close to home. My new home. I feel another New Years resolution coming on.