1. So sorry about your COVID rake-to-the-face. Glad everyone is relatively okay. If it makes you feel ANY better, I think we'll soon be transitioning from pandemic to endemic, ie. just learning to live with a risk of catching 'rona. Maybe you're just a trailblazer in that way!
2. Ugh, just when I thought I was done reading the newsletter, you threw 50,000 words about 9/11 at me. Soooo good, though. The mid-article cameo by Rudy Giuliani from back when people liked him and he wasn't absolutely insane was positively jarring.
COVID rake-to-the-face is right! haha. I've been hearing more people talk that way about it — that sooner or later, we'll all get it. In a way I'm jealous of those who've gotten it and had non-severe reactions since that means they're more protected now. Oh well. And oh yeah, that 9/11 story was incredible. And I had the same reaction about Rudy Giuliani, I seem to recall. It's always so weird to see him in pre-crazy-train contexts. Grant and I are re-watching Seinfeld, and he made a fun little cameo and it reminded me of how much I loved his bit on SNL post-9/11 (bringing it all around full circle). Lorne Michaels asked him, "Can we be funny?" and he was like, "Why start now?" and it was extremely great and I'm pretty sure I cried when I first saw it.
Okay, so I also learned all five parts of Your Fault in high school AND managed to teach them to four other kids in the show choir so we could perform it (I was the Witch, match) as part of a Broadway revue I created called Seasons of Love after the frigid-ass conservative military community I grew up around petitioned to stop me from producing a one-act version of Rent, which I adapted myself and had already begun rehearsals for when they shut us down. So. That being said, I WOULD HAVE DIED OF HAPPINESS AT THAT DINNER TABLE is all I’m saying here.
While bored in class, I used to pretend I was taking notes when what I was really doing was writing out the librettos of musicals long-hand FROM MEMORY. I wrote out Jesus Christ Superstar twice. I think I still have those pages somewhere, neat little packets of lined notebook paper carefully stapled together. I also knew all three and a half hours of the original un-cut version of Les Miserables, as well as Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. I love the sung-through musicals so damn much.
Also, I sleep-scream way more often than once a decade, but it never occurred to me to be embarrassed about it, and now I’m a little embarrassed about my lack of embarrassment. 😅 My sleep-scream-dreams these days are usually about my partner betraying me in some horrible way. When I was a kid, they were about my mother turning into a monster and trying to eat me. And it’s odd, because I feel like I’m not traumatized enough to justify fairly frequent (and highly dramatic) sleep screaming, but apparently, I don’t give myself enough emotional damage credit.
Thank you, as always, for sending out a wonderful, thought-provoking read!
Oh man I love that you used to write out librettos from memory! So awesome AND impressive. Also, I feel validated that I know at least one other person who sleep-screams. The first time it ever happened to me, I thought, well there is occurrence I hope I never have to relive. I'm sorry it happens to you more often, though! but it sounds like you're more okay with it! It is completely involuntary, so admittedly it's silly to feel embarrassed, but for me there is always a hilarious "what are we doing, here?" moment
1. So sorry about your COVID rake-to-the-face. Glad everyone is relatively okay. If it makes you feel ANY better, I think we'll soon be transitioning from pandemic to endemic, ie. just learning to live with a risk of catching 'rona. Maybe you're just a trailblazer in that way!
2. Ugh, just when I thought I was done reading the newsletter, you threw 50,000 words about 9/11 at me. Soooo good, though. The mid-article cameo by Rudy Giuliani from back when people liked him and he wasn't absolutely insane was positively jarring.
COVID rake-to-the-face is right! haha. I've been hearing more people talk that way about it — that sooner or later, we'll all get it. In a way I'm jealous of those who've gotten it and had non-severe reactions since that means they're more protected now. Oh well. And oh yeah, that 9/11 story was incredible. And I had the same reaction about Rudy Giuliani, I seem to recall. It's always so weird to see him in pre-crazy-train contexts. Grant and I are re-watching Seinfeld, and he made a fun little cameo and it reminded me of how much I loved his bit on SNL post-9/11 (bringing it all around full circle). Lorne Michaels asked him, "Can we be funny?" and he was like, "Why start now?" and it was extremely great and I'm pretty sure I cried when I first saw it.
Okay, so I also learned all five parts of Your Fault in high school AND managed to teach them to four other kids in the show choir so we could perform it (I was the Witch, match) as part of a Broadway revue I created called Seasons of Love after the frigid-ass conservative military community I grew up around petitioned to stop me from producing a one-act version of Rent, which I adapted myself and had already begun rehearsals for when they shut us down. So. That being said, I WOULD HAVE DIED OF HAPPINESS AT THAT DINNER TABLE is all I’m saying here.
While bored in class, I used to pretend I was taking notes when what I was really doing was writing out the librettos of musicals long-hand FROM MEMORY. I wrote out Jesus Christ Superstar twice. I think I still have those pages somewhere, neat little packets of lined notebook paper carefully stapled together. I also knew all three and a half hours of the original un-cut version of Les Miserables, as well as Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. I love the sung-through musicals so damn much.
Also, I sleep-scream way more often than once a decade, but it never occurred to me to be embarrassed about it, and now I’m a little embarrassed about my lack of embarrassment. 😅 My sleep-scream-dreams these days are usually about my partner betraying me in some horrible way. When I was a kid, they were about my mother turning into a monster and trying to eat me. And it’s odd, because I feel like I’m not traumatized enough to justify fairly frequent (and highly dramatic) sleep screaming, but apparently, I don’t give myself enough emotional damage credit.
Thank you, as always, for sending out a wonderful, thought-provoking read!
Oh man I love that you used to write out librettos from memory! So awesome AND impressive. Also, I feel validated that I know at least one other person who sleep-screams. The first time it ever happened to me, I thought, well there is occurrence I hope I never have to relive. I'm sorry it happens to you more often, though! but it sounds like you're more okay with it! It is completely involuntary, so admittedly it's silly to feel embarrassed, but for me there is always a hilarious "what are we doing, here?" moment