“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”— Jane Austen
(words of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice)
Well, I do that all the time but this one is a different kind. I woke up at 7 am this morning; I opened my TV and waited for the screening of Wimbledon Official film for 2005 in a cable sports channel. After the telecast, I fell asleep on the sofa bed outside my room and I don’t know if it’s a dream or if my super blurry, sleepy eyes are to be blamed, but there was a moment when I opened my eyes for a minute or so and I thought I was seeing black smoke (like something’s burning) coming out from the kitchen cabinet. The odd thing is, I didn’t get up to check. I think I must be dreaming. Or maybe I need to get an insurance quote for my apartment soon.
This Monday, all roads will lead to SW19, that southwest London address that houses the hallowed turf of the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, for a tournament known worldwide as The Wimbledon Championships – the most important and prestigious tennis major. If you are new to this site, then I’m making my advanced proclamation that Roger Federer will get back his title, his 6th. Color me sad in three weeks if he doesn’t.
Star Sports Asia has been showing the Official Wimbledon films of the past couple of decades and I was fortunate enough to have seen most of them. I still get chills – good chills - whenever I see that Steffi Graf win over Jana Novotna in 1993 (final) or Roger Federer’s historic win over Pete Sampras in 2001 (4th round). Watching those clips makes me realize how much I have grown to love tennis as a sport, even just as a remote spectator. Andre Agassi once said that tennis has taught him how to deal with life. I, for one, believe that statement. If only I can play the sport regularly, that would be better than taking the best diet pills out there, for sure.
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. ”
-C.S. Lewis
Isn’t it a wonder how some things are “unnecessary” and yet can be so profoundly elemental?
Update: Onyxx’s comment below is worth mentioning because it’s actually along the lines of what I was thinking of when I quoted that. It all comes down to how you look at things, in this case how you regard friendships. But then, again, maybe it is relative to the people you regard as friends. There’s no grand debate here, though. Friendlessness is not a social security disability.
The hit musical Spring Awakening will be staged in Manila starting on September. Details are not yet available as of post time.
I’ve already set a “date” with a couple of friends and have been trying to convince others to join us. I realized, however, that besides trying to convince a few non-theater-inclined people that this one deserves a viewing, I was also compelled to justify the theme of the play. More on that later.
I cannot decide if I love the upbeat score (by Duncan Shiek) or the profound lyrics (by Steven Sater) more. The music is heavily infused with alternative/folk rock variations and I just love the string and percussion work in the original cast recording. The lyrics, on the other hand, is something I am particularly fond of.
Some examples of lines from the play:
Flip on a switch and everything’s fine
No more lips, no more tongue, no more ears, no more eyes
The naked blue angel, who peers through the blinds
Disappears in the gloom of the mirror-blue night [Mirror Blue Night]
So maybe
I should be some kind of laundry line.
Hang their things on me
And I will swing ‘em dry.
You’re just wavin’ the sun
Through the afternoon
And then see
They come to set you free
Beneath the rising moon [Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind]
Let me teach you how to handle
All the sadness in your soul
Oh, we’ll work that silver magic
Then we’ll aim it at the wall”
She said: “Love may make you blind kid-
But I wouldn’t mind at all.” [The Bitch of Living]
Now about the theme: In an interview with lyricist Steven Sater, he said that “There was grave concern it would push the mainstream audience out of their seats.” Simply put, the play is about the discovery of teenage sexuality. Conservative viewers may be offended (or, at the very least, shocked) by some scenes/songs, but I say don’t see it for the shock factor. I’m not sure about the age restrictions that will be imposed but I would guess that this is something older audiences will appreciate more just because it will bring them back to that time in their lives when rage (yes, raging hormones, too), impulsiveness, confusion, and self-loathing are rampant. Watch it for the raw emotions translated into songs. Watch it for the art, no matter how cliche that last pitch sounds.
Tags: Duncan Shiek, Spring Awakening, Steven Sater
My new ISP at home is blocking this site and I don’t know why. I’ll have to figure out a way to bypass the restriction but I’m just more than a little bit lazy right now. That’s reason enough to write this down, yes.
Here’s something I’m very excited about. One of my most favorite authors (for his epic and lyrical storytelling) will release this new book on August/September 2009.
Publisher’s description:
[514 pages. Published by Doubleday]
An unlikely group of Charlestonian teens forms a friendship in 1969, just as the certainties and verities of southern society are quaked by the social and political forces unleashed earlier in the decade. They come from all walks of life, from the privileged homes of the aristocracy, from an orphanage, from a broken home where an alcoholic mother and her twins live in fear of a murderous father, from the home of public high school’s first black football coach, and from the home of the same school’s principal. The group’s fulcrum, Leopold Bloom King, second son of an ex-nun Joyce scholar, who is also the school’s principal, and a science-teacher father, is just climbing out of childhood mental illness after having discovered his handsome, popular, athletic, scholarly older brother dead from suicide. Over the next two decades, these friends find success in journalism, the bar, law enforcement, music, and Hollywood. Echoing some themes from his earlier novels, Conroy fleshes out the almost impossibly dramatic details of each of the friends’ lives in this vast, intricate story, and he reveals truths about love, lust, classism, racism, religion, and what it means to be shaped by a particular place, be it Charleston, South Carolina [the nearby Outer Banks], or anywhere else in the U.S.
Tags: books, Carolina, Pat Conroy, South, South of Broad
It took me some time to update this site again because I was busy with a lot of other things. Convenient excuse, huh?!
Well, I joined a badminton tournament last weekend and although I did enjoy the experience, I mean just being a part of the event, I didn’t enjoy my actual games all that much. So days before that, I was busy trying to have as many days of play as I can get in preparation. And then there was the matter of moving out of my current apartment to a new one. I’m pretty excited about moving out/moving in – new place, new surroundings, new neighbors, new undermount sink, new bathroom, new everything – but the actual process of packing stuff, especially the large ones, is just too exhausting.
Anyway, we’re back on here. I hope.
Somebody hacked into this site and meddled with the admin rights. Even created a post and deleted some links. Wow. What good would that do? I mean for anyone who’s not me? This blog feels important now, he he. I’m letting it be extra self-involved for a while.
I’ll create a new post later. Will approach my tv stand and go watch some shows for now. I’m really hoping it will not happen again. Pretty, please…
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