A passing fancy

Has somewhat seized me to direct an opera. An opera opera opera. In a furrin' lingwidge. I've been working on "Deh Vieni Non Tardar" from Act IV of The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart and have become reintrigued by the difficulty of conveying "gibberish" as story to American audiences. Particularly to non-opera-going American audiences.

The thing is, I'd really like to explode any opera I do from its constraints that serve the technique at the expense of the story. I'm not saying that I want arias belted a la modern rock operas - but I do think more true emotion and greater action and less artifice might be used in operas to make them exciting again to ye olde merrie audiences.

Something between the first and second links below. No dullness for the sake of prettiness, no weirdness for the sake of weirdness - but somewhere true and gripping and relevant inbetween. Just a passing thunk, but there one is....





Mood: Pas mal, merci
Music: La Boheme highlights! Yeah, baby, yeah!
Thought: Writing is fun. Even if I do second guess myself on scenes.
Thought encore: Oh, and this gem from Barbara Nicolosi is brilliant
Thought redux: What does it say, when this is the best (on YouTube) acted? Mrmph. This oughtn't be merely sap. She's teasing her husband! Oy!

It's really rather delightful

When one discovers a character who simply pops out of nowhere and starts babbling and becomes very real, very definitive, very quickly in one's mind. Thus is Zanistrov Kletz from The Sable Valentine (wrote almost 2000 today thus far! Woot!). An exerpt below of his introduction:

In the time I spent wondering at the door without, Maundy and Aloysius had checked and readied their pistols, speaking to one another in those significant, steely glances that men about some important business are wont to use. They breathed some sort of count, whereupon Aloysius pushed open the door, pistol at the ready, finger on the trigger, and murder in his eye.

“I do hope you are unacquainted with the mechanism in your hand,” a cheerful voice called out. “It would be most inconvenient just now to ruin this coat.”

Tee hee hee! And now to wait it out for Lost. Huzzah!

Mood: Mieux, merci
Music: Typity-type-type
Thought: WRITING! Huzzah! Finally, I can start suffering and write that symphony!

Help! I've fallen into...

...a space-time continuum and can't get out!

An interesting theory on Lost over on Doc Jensen's blog by guest blogger J. Wood sparked an idea in my own brain (riddled not as much with Hegel as with Augustine), which explains God, Heaven and why among all relativity, I love only Einstein's.

"For some time, Brookhaven National Labs has been doing some experiments to prove the idea that there are more dimensions to space than we know, and those experiments require massive amounts of electromagnetic energy. The short version is that it has to do with Minkowski space — that's the three-dimensional Euclidian space we know + time as a fourth dimension. A physicist named Minkowski realized that by considering time as a component of space, Einstein's special theory of relativity worked out just fine (and Einstein explained his theory through the twin paradox). The Brookhaven experiments may be confirming that there are multiple dimensions that we're existing within...

''If time is part of space, our conception of time is way off; time doesn't move so much like an arrow, rather all time is occurring at once. We just don't experience it like that, just like we don't experience all space at once, but only experience our immediate space. Besides, if we experienced all time at once, that'd really twist our heads."

The difficulty has been this:

We know God is "outside of space and time," i.e., He created them and therefore is not moved by them except by will (i.e., His incarnation, etc.)

We know that Heaven, being God's abode, is also somehow "outside of space and time" (at least as we experience it now).

If we are truly going to live [sic] "outside" of space and time, that seems to imply, by our current experience of space and time...no movement

No movement certainly accounts for why we would not abuse our free will if in Heaven against God (there would be "no time" in which to do so)

However, this would also mean that we could possibly be "frozen" forever, which doesn't sound so Heavenly.

BUT, God has promised that Heaven is perfect bliss

So, either, we'll be happily Han Soloed or...we don't understand God and Heaven and how it'll all work.

My bet's on the latter.

But, if instead we will, like God, experience time and space in Augustine's ever-present now (see above explanation) then we do not lose movement or variety but in fact are capable of experiencing every temporal and spacial happiness.

Which means, possibly, that when we fell we sort of shattered time? Hence aging? Hence the need to be "born"? Certainly the need to die. I'm still working on this part, but our understanding of time certainly helps our understanding of our preternatural state and our ultimate purpose.

Right, enough thunking for me today! Hip hip hurrah for space-time continuums!

Mood: Curieux
Music: It was Putrid and Disgusting by the Crimson Pirates
Thought: Old journals are really interesting

Oh happy day

With joyous glee! We will away and married be!

Nothing like a little mental Gilbert and Sullivan, coupled with editing, Mom's new mac & cheese, the full compliment of Snyders at home, and confession followed by adoration to raise the spirits.

And in the spirit of blissful giddiness and unlooked for joy, the chase scene from "The Matchmaker." (Nearly done with Act IV! I should have it soon and very soon! And, rewatching it...it's really...quite pretty. The play, I mean, or our version of it - not ness. the following silly scene.)



Mood: Tres tres mieux, tout grace et adoration a notre Pere! Amen!
Music: Rambling bits of mental fluff
Thought: SO have the coolest "Romeo and Julietish" idea for the graveyard scene for "Much Ado" that ought to reconcile the lovers in the public heart! Huzzah!

Finally! A philosophical blog

First, PERFECT JOY! (Yay for Saint Francis! Okay, okay, dude - you're slowly wooing me. I get it. I'm yours. I even have the sandals to prove it. ;P)

Mea culpe, mea culpe, mea maxima culpe all both of you who check this blog out - for the randominity, the vloggery, and the I-trust-I-make-myself-obscurity. So, herewithal, in the spirit of Big Thunks One Has Been Having Lately, a bit more philosophically blog.

Waaay back in Sophomore year of High School (round about 1993), I took Mr. Sam Ciervo's Seniors Mythology course (because I'm a learning geek like that, and Mr. Ciervo is cool like that). Somewhere in the course of that semester, I remember he posed to us the question:

"Is it better to be loved or respected?"

I don't recall what I answered at that time (I'd love to go back in time and find out, but alas that'll have to wait for judgement, too), but off-and-on over the years I've thought about that question. But lately, and increasingly, I've been realizing there is only, can be only one answer to that question.

"It is better to be loved."

Pourquoi, my dear knight? Elementary, my dear Andrew Aguecheek. To be loved includes respect. To be loved is to exceed respect. And to love another is to include and to exceed respect. Respect is finite: it completes an obligation, nothing more. Love is infinite because her source is the Infinite.

The elders of the temple, together with the whole Sanhedrin and the Chief Priests came before Jesus, just after He entered Jerusalem and was hailed with "Hosannas" (reserved for God), and they asked Him, "By what authority do you do these things?"

And Jesus answered them, "I will tell you, if you answer me one thing: Where did John (the Baptist's) authority come from? Was it of Heavenly or human origin?"

They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say of Heavenly origin, then He will ask us, why we do not believe Him. But if we say of human origin, we fear the crowd, for they all regarded John as a prophet." So they said to Him, "We do not know."

Jesus answered them, "Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

He did not need to tell them - He could not make them understand - that His authority was God, because He is God, and God is Love. He could not make them understand, because they could not comprehend Love.

And Love is patient, Love is kind,
Love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud.
Love is not rude, does not seek its own interests, is not quick-tempered -
Love does not brood over injury.
Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
LOVE NEVER FAILS.

Mood: Getting there.
Music: "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol - ooooooooh SO GOOD!
Thought: Wow...it was good to see Hamlet again, last night. It's so very true. It's always amazing to go back and understand what God put in, through a piece, waiting patiently until an older me can understand what He was saying all along.
Quote: You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you--
But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
Truth: God alone is good. Be satisfied in this.

Wednesday, 10:30 a.m.

Five, no - three prayers.

Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from the Side of Christ, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Your Wounds, hide me
Separated from You, let me never be
From the evil one, protect me
At the hour of my death, call me
And close to You, bid me
That with Your saints I may be
Praising You forever and ever -
AMEN!

Memorarae (Also known as the 9-minute novena!)

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
That never was it known
That anyone who fled to thy protection,
Implored thy help, or sought thine intercession
Was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence,
I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins,
My mother.
To thee do I come, before thee do I stand,
Sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
Despise not my petitions,
But in thy mercy, hear and answer me.
Amen.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit,
Fill the hearts of Thy faithful
And enkindle in them the fire of Thy LOVE
Send for Thy Spirit,
And they shall be created
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray
O God, who did instruct the hearts of the faithful
By the Light of the Holy Spirit,
Grant that in that same Spirit
We may be made truly WISE
And ever REJOICE in His Consolation,
Through the same Christ, our Lord -
AMEN!

Mood: Phew. Good.
Music: Appropriately the instrumental version of "Nothing Else Matters"
Or to paraphrase Benedick: Love me, serve God and all shall be well.

Oh the joys

You Are 74% American

Most times you are proud to be an American. Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe Still, you know there's no place better suited to be your home. You love your freedom and no one's going to take it away from you!

How American Are You?

Mood: Silliness and sleep
Music: White noise - meh
Thought: Watching Supernatural this late? Gonna have weird dreams.
Much better thought: Mass is so good. Alleluia for readings and the True Presence. Amen!

Continued Vloggery

I much prefer Evanescence's acoustic versions for some of their over-heavy rock songs. It's wonderful to hear the melody and not the base line. And the second one is just superamazing-seminarian-joy a la the Curt Jester





Mood: No comment
Music: Various, but this morning it was the opening leitmotif for the Phantom
Thought: ...but for Wales?

Because this is beautiful



Medicinal stuff - when in doubt revert to one's first love!

Mood: "Do the next thyng"
Music: See above! (Think lovely thoughts....)
Thought: In summation. Oh, and Jules' polar bear is love.

I have succumbed

And purchased the sheet music for Rufus Wainwright's "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk." Such an amazing song - esp. the middle counterpoint section and the free-fall at the end. Le sigh. Who else would go so easily from oversimplistic major to dark and moody and surprisingly intricate minor?



Talent show on Friday. Good golly. Ten and counting.

Mood: Ten and counting, silly
Music: Mental "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" natch
Thought: None besides the above two

In such a creative mood!

Actually, to be specific, in a Bearskin rewriting mood! Happy day!





Had rehearsal tonight - sooooooooo good. Theatre junkie? Naw. But improvs are very good. Talent show should be good.

Mood: Heureux
Music: American Idol
Thought: Bee-gees? BEE-GEES?!??! What the...?!??!?!

Just for kicks and giggles

Not your typical quiz - the questions are actually good! Huzzah! (13 T-Days and counting....)

A stern yet benevolent organizer who often knows best, your wits are keenly fixed on aiding efforts you deem worthy.

"Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril to Mordor."

Mood: Restless
Music: Randominity on the oerworm (or however one spells it)
Thought: So about that perseverence to the end...?

This reminds me of that Woody Allen routine

Where, had it not been for the bullet he carried around in his pocket, the Bible thrown from the window would have killed him.

Very interesting story about iPods being the new Kevlar.

Peter's confirmation today! Hudson High's Cabaret last night (for which I had to play for two of my girls who did very well - my nervous, shaking fingers notwithstanding). Music lessons Friday. Prom, prom reception, Peter's concert and fun with the tedium of the law on Thursday...followed by Spiderman 3 that night (which was great fun). And next week, HCH's Cabaret, followed by a week from Monday Freshman retreat, and very soon coming up Graduation (with all attendant practices and Pirates).

May? A busy month? Naw.

Mood: Woot Pete!
Music: Cranial "What a Wonderful World" a la Supernatural
Thought: To do or not to do...mind is blown by casual intermissions and harried runs to music centers...I trust I make myself obscure.