Friday, October 05, 2001

Either I refuse to rest on my laurels or I don't know when to leave well enough alone. You be the judge.

Three-quarters of the way through the well-received run of The Fantasticks I've been part of at the McLean Theatre Alliance, I began rehearsals for Potomac Theatre Company's production of the same show this week.

It may turn out that my biggest challenge in this new production is remembering how to act like a nineteen-year-old. This time I play Matt (The Boy), returning to a roll I first did twelve years ago. I've almost always had to play my own age or older, as is often the case in community theater. Now I'll have to go back to a time when getting into college and figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up were the foremost subjects on my mind.

Hmm... now that I think of it, I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. Maybe I won't have half as much trouble relating to this kid as I thought.

---

A little over six weeks ago (or, as it feels in post-attack time, back in the mid-eighties), my buddy OtherTim posted a list of favorite current singles. Normally, I look at such things with only passing interest. My CD purchases nowadays are usually old stalwarts, a certain Northern Virginia-based band that deserves much more attention, and musicals. On the radio, I gravitate toward news and talk.

So while it'd been a long time since I'd really listened to anything resembling a chart-topper, for some reason I got a wild hair and decided to give young Tim's list a listen. Over the next couple of days, I sought out all the songs he'd recommended and gave them a try.

Much to my surprise, I liked seven of the ten songs on his list. I've still got five of them in heavy rotation, a rather long shelf-life for me.

I'm forced to concede that the noise those kids listen to today isn't so bad after all. Guess I've still got a few years left until I can really become a curmudgeon.

---

My friend Elise passes along this excellent article by the author Barbara Kingsolver. In just a few hundred words, Kingsolver adroitly illustrates why, in this time of national crisis, it is more important than ever that our flag be the symbol of unity and inclusion it was always meant to be.

Posted @ 9:37 AM

---

---