Tag: Broadway

Currently listening to: “Louder Than Words” – tick, tick…BOOM!

So, two things.

1. “Louder Than Words” from Jonathan Larson’s very first musical, tick, tick…BOOM! (Revival, please???)

I’ve been listening to this song for the past fifteen minutes. The lyrics have absolutely hooked me in, sucking me in even deeper in this whirlpool of Jonathan Larson-love and sheer lamentation at the state of Broadway today. (Spring Awakening is slated to close, as is Spamalot. What sheer rubbish.)

Jonathan:
Why do we follow leaders who never lead?

Michael:
Why does it take catastrophe to start a revolution?

Michael and Susan
If we’re so free, tell me why?

Jonathan:
Someone tell me why
So many people bleed?

Cages or wings?
Which do you prefer?
Ask the birds.

I pick the wings. Idealistic? Unabashedly so.

—

2. Life is a walkathon.

People walk in and out of our lives; we walk in and out of the lives of others. Sometimes each interaction is brief, all too brief, like momentary “hi”s and “goodbye”s, coffee dates and a “see you later”, a short and superficial conversation on the bus. Sometimes, they can seem like perpetual drudgery we’re trudging through, like walking to work in cloth sneakers when it’s raining on a day you’ve forgotten your umbrella. We pass others on the way. Sometimes we stop and interact. Sometimes we rush right by. Sometimes we don’t even notice them there, we’re going so fast we forget to stop and breathe and be human. Sometimes we dash forward, leaving them in the lurch; sometimes, they dash towards the end, leaving us choking in their wake. And we wonder where they’ve gone, wonder if it was us or them or really neither at all. Sometimes we just never see them pass us at all, and wonder where they’ve gone. We all have some sort of goal we’re walking towards. The way we take to reach that goal varies. But we all want to get to our goal. It takes a long time. It takes all these interactions, long and short, quick bursts of sprinting, slow strolls, stopping to smell the flowers. Sometimes we stray off the path, or they do. Then when we get to the end of the road, we look back: what now?