tavie.com

If you cross your fingers and touch them to the tip of your nose, you get the sensory illusion that you have two noses.

I would kill for an MP3 of the Muppets singing "Way Down in Borneo Bay". I keep finding one and then losing the connection before it can start.

I had something to say about secular spirituality, transcension of everyday cares through non-(organized)-religious channels, and the paradox of Godspell invoking the sort of almost religious joy that some of us feel when we discover a beautiful piece of musical theatre, completely unconnected to any of the Christianity in the content of the musical itself. There's an episode of Sports Night where Dana discovers the joys of Broadway musicals. She's gotten tickets to The Lion King, thanks to her boss Isaac (played by Robert "Rafiki" Guillame, ha ha), and, having previously pooh-poohed the idea of musicals--

Dana: Oh, I've tried, I've really tried. But the singing and the dancing and there is oftentimes a hoe-down --

Isaac: There's no hoe-down.

Dana: Don't tell me there's no hoe-down, mister, I've been there.

--she is prepared to hate this experience. But she comes back having been seized by, pardon my phrasing, the spirit. She's become a convert to the Church of Showtunes. (And it's fairly amusing for any "serious" theatre-lover that the show that grabs her is The Liong King, that pre-fab, adapted Disney-by-way-of-Elton-John-approximating-the-genre.) But, nevertheless, it's a touching moment when she tries to convey her joy to her office friends:

Dana: Don't you want to hear what happened to me?

Casey: Not unless you held up a deli during intermission.

Dana: I believe in the power of the theatre.

Casey: Well, that's good. I believe in the power of a roast beef sandwich, so I really don't have time to talk. (starts to walk off)

Dana: Casey. (he turns back) It was really quite something. The music began and I just started to cry. I don't know where it came from. It was like... church. I didn't know we could do that. Did you know we could do that?

Casey: (with a gentle smile) Well, when I forget, something usually reminds me.

Dana: (as he walks away) I didn't know we could do that.

I think it would actually detract from my love of Godspell if I were a Christian. I think I'd find it lacking in its ability to describe what I presume is the sort of ecstatic faith in the power of Christ that Christians are supposed to feel. I would find it puny, or something. But as an agnostic/atheist/secular humanist/don't label me, I find it pulls at all my faith in the, what'd Aaron Sorkin call it, the power of theatre. Hippie clowns singing pretty songs, baby. Jesus on the same playing field as Eva Peron, John Adams, Leo Frank, the Von Trapps, Mongkut and Anna Leonowens. A historical figure with a story interesting enough to put three hours worth of songs to.

That's really all I have right now.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 6:53 PM | shower me with attention