#1
Posted: 12/1/04 at 12:38am
Well, I have to throw my two cents in, and just offer another opinion because yes more than one opinion in the world is a good thing...
Living in New York I have noticed that the people I have met who have been the most successful and lead brilliant creative lives - where they are paid all day to make art and express themselves - go to shows and sit back and let what ever happens on the stage light their eyes up. They go to feel and to dream and not to direct in their heads which is ironic considering they are the very people with the know-how to do just that. To the young people that love these boards (I was a Bette Midler board FREAK as a kid) I hope that your childhoods/young adulthoods are filled with the thrill of ripping open a new album and discovering it and spending hours alone learning to copy a dance or sing a song. I used to skip school to belt "Rose's Turn" on a four hour loop in the living room and eventually one day the neighbors called the cops who arrived mid-performance. I remember learning to play some of Bette Midler's most regrettable songs on the piano (which took hours, I am terrible) and hearing doors slam shut throughout my house as I played atonal chords and belted lyrics like "Watching under Havana lights/dis dee words with transpire!! Only in Mi-a-mi" (or something like that.) I recall having a SENSE that maybe all the songs by the people I worshipped weren't BRILLIANT, Rogers and Hart, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Judy Collins, etc. etc. have all had their moments, but to me it was always art and always a joy. I do not think anything is gained by ripping a performance to shreds or watching and listening to something with laserbeam eyes just looking for some crumbling element to attack because a well read and smart person will always find possibilities. I am not looking to hault discussion or debate over shows, to each his own and I do theoretically believe the dialogue is a good thing (though it differs from my own beliefs) but just offering another opinion to consider. That's all. Keep having ideas and watching shows. And maybe once and a while ponder the fact that if you walk up and introduce yourself to the average Broadway legend after a performance of any kind, they will list what they liked.
Living in New York I have noticed that the people I have met who have been the most successful and lead brilliant creative lives - where they are paid all day to make art and express themselves - go to shows and sit back and let what ever happens on the stage light their eyes up. They go to feel and to dream and not to direct in their heads which is ironic considering they are the very people with the know-how to do just that. To the young people that love these boards (I was a Bette Midler board FREAK as a kid) I hope that your childhoods/young adulthoods are filled with the thrill of ripping open a new album and discovering it and spending hours alone learning to copy a dance or sing a song. I used to skip school to belt "Rose's Turn" on a four hour loop in the living room and eventually one day the neighbors called the cops who arrived mid-performance. I remember learning to play some of Bette Midler's most regrettable songs on the piano (which took hours, I am terrible) and hearing doors slam shut throughout my house as I played atonal chords and belted lyrics like "Watching under Havana lights/dis dee words with transpire!! Only in Mi-a-mi" (or something like that.) I recall having a SENSE that maybe all the songs by the people I worshipped weren't BRILLIANT, Rogers and Hart, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Judy Collins, etc. etc. have all had their moments, but to me it was always art and always a joy. I do not think anything is gained by ripping a performance to shreds or watching and listening to something with laserbeam eyes just looking for some crumbling element to attack because a well read and smart person will always find possibilities. I am not looking to hault discussion or debate over shows, to each his own and I do theoretically believe the dialogue is a good thing (though it differs from my own beliefs) but just offering another opinion to consider. That's all. Keep having ideas and watching shows. And maybe once and a while ponder the fact that if you walk up and introduce yourself to the average Broadway legend after a performance of any kind, they will list what they liked.
