17 July 2004

I must confess that I like Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals. Not all of them, and not all the time, but -- yeah. "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita" and "Phantom of the Opera" and even "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," yeah, I'll take some of that.

Many of the songs that are overplayed from musicals are overplayed because they're catchy and singable and clever. "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," for example, has the line, "All you will see is the girl you once knew, although she's dressed up to the nines, at sixes and sevens with you." And I love that line, the way it plays with the two clichés, the way it feels in the throat when you belt it out. It's been sticking with me for days now. The best musicals are tuneful and story-filled. Weber does that. I wish he and Tim Rice would get back together. Forget Simon and Garfunkel: I want Andrew Lloyd Weber to get back together with Tim Rice, and I want Mel Brooks to get back together with Gene Wilder. That's my idea of a reunion tour.

Gilbert and Sullivan did tuneful and story-filled, too, in a fairly similar way considering the different era conventions, and Mark and I will be off to see "H.M.S. Pinafore" tonight somewhere in Anoka. I know it'll be a much smaller and less elaborate production than the Guthrie's "Pirates of Penzance." On the other hand, it's significantly less expensive, too. "Pinafore" was the first Gilbert and Sullivan I saw, and while "Pirates" has my heart, "Pinafore" is good stuff, too.

I finished Clear and Convincing Proof and Libra yesterday and also made a tiny start on Robert Charles Wilson's Blind Lake. I've read five books by RCW, and they all have a similar feel, and within the first few pages, Blind Lake did, too. I'm going to finish it anyway -- it frustrates me when people vote Hugos based on careers instead of individual books -- but it annoys me when the career is all the same anyway.

Yesterday at Target I bought myself a purple pen. Apparently I am mentally still twelve years old. (Well, I already told you that years ago.) The funny thing is, it was apparently the change my brain was looking for, the purple pen, because I wrote more in my paper journal than I have for days or even weeks. Different stuff, too, not all one thing. I write much less than I used to in my paper journal, but it still goes in fits and starts, and I guess another fit has started with the purple pen. It's generally a good thing when I'm writing in the paper journal, both personally and professionally, but I've learned I can't force it. So.

I've been reading some stuff from the Omaha paper -- as I've probably said before, the folks send or bring up comics and articles and all the editorial pages, so I know what's going in the hometown. It started when I was at college and could get news from CNN.com but couldn't get comics and editorials, and we just never stopped. So. There's this woman called Kathleen Parker who writes for the Orlando Sentinel, and her column is reprinted in the Omaha World-Herald sometimes. And this time she's on about gay marriage and how it will prevent freedom of speech against gay marriage if gay marriage is legal.

Oh, I see! So Catholic bishops, priests, and lay leaders aren't allowed to talk to their congregations about how marriage is a sacrament to them, and how they prefer to marry Catholics to Catholics? Wait, they're allowed to say that still? Priests are allowed to only marry Catholics to other Catholics or people who profess their intent to convert? Their religious freedom and freedom of speech have not been curtailed in this regard by the existence of those who disagree with them and act on that disagreement?

Go figure. So...people can disagree about what constitutes a good and valid marriage, and they can still live peacefully in the same country? What a shock. Who would have guessed.

I'm in a strange mood, half sarcastic/caustic and half wallowing in writing happiness. I'm almost done with "Docile Bodies," and I have all kinds of good things to work on with the book, and I have two letter-game letters to write, and I just reread part of the finished bit of Midnight Sun Rising and got happy about it all over again. So. It may be a very varied day. That's all right, I suppose.