Rainbow

Rainbow

Saturday, December 26, 2015

P52 Week 49 -- Details in the Overlooked

I surf with the remote’s guide button looking for TV shows to record – especially during the holiday season. I love Christmas programs and this year, I have delighted in the high quality of the CMA and Michael Bublé Christmas specials. Surfing, surfing, I come across Anchors Aweigh on the Turner Classic Movies station. Wow!

I first saw that venerable 1945 film in the sixties. I was a starry-eyed fifteen year old growing up in Australia and I was enchanted! With the experience of a few years of ballet lessons under my belt, I judged Gene Kelly’s dancing to be phenomenal. Kathryn Grayson sang an adaptation of a piece that I had played on the violin: Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings.” Her coloratura soprano voice sparkled. Jose Iturbi’s musicality was brilliant as his fingers flew over the piano keys in a resounding rendition of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto – only to be interrupted by a charmingly unpolished character, played by Frank Sinatra, who crooned along to the tune and argued with Iturbi that the composer was “Freddy Martin.”

My favorite musical scene in the movie is the extravaganza where Iturbi plunks out Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 with a bunch of kids, each at a grand piano placed in a magnificent array on the Hollywood Bowl stage. The spectacle captured the strings of my Hungarian heart.

In the sixties, in the days before videos, VCRs, On Demand, and YouTube, it took planning to capture favored moments. When I noted in the TV Times that Anchors Aweigh was to be aired again, my younger brother and I mobilized and set up our family’s reel to reel tape recorder – yep, that was the bulky box you set up on edge with yards of delicate brown ribbon cellophane tape threaded through the magnetizer/recorder and spinning onto two huge wheels. We were poised to record the musical numbers, microphone propped up by the television set. We were careful to remain silent, stifling our giggles, so we didn’t pick up any extraneous sounds.

Tom and I were proud of our recording and listened to that foggy, crackly tape over and over again.

So, as I watched Anchors Aweigh this week, I remembered that recording effort so many years ago, and I smiled. But then I took in the movie with fresh eyes. The music and dancing were still just as brilliant, the plot maybe a little hokey, but heck, I am a romantic at heart and I’m still looking for a (mature) knight in shining armor, so why not fantasize and revel in romantic pablum.

What wasn’t pablum was the timeless, outstanding quality of the movie’s music, choreography, the actors’ talent and artistry, not to mention the first ever, innovative introduction of animated figures into the dance sequence with Gene Kelly. I learned new details from TCM host Robert Osborne: in a rare Disney gaff, Walt declined the offer to use the Mickey and Donald characters and so Tom and Jerry were cast instead. As a naïve teenager, I had overlooked many details, so focused had I been on the task of recording – and trying to keep from giggling into the microphone. Another detail previous overlooked: the definition of “Aweigh.” I had always assumed the title was “Anchors Away.”


Now as a sage sexagenarian I am happily picking up and feasting on these details, previously overlooked.





Sunday, December 13, 2015

P52 Week 48 -- Gratitude

One aspect of the definition of gratitude is “pleasing to the mind or senses; agreeable or welcome; refreshing.” It has been that aspect that has inspired me to create the following list.

-       A mellow mug of coffee.
-       A dive into cool waters on a hot day.
-       A smile from a stranger that softens my face.
-       A belly laugh from well-written dialogue on Castle or The Mentalist.
-       An out-of-the-blue hug and “I love you” from a grandchild.
-       The intoxicating scent of a rose.
-       The hum of centeredness that resonates in every cell of the body.
-       The pleasure of finding the answer to a query on the web.
-       The “atta girl” self talk after a sweaty workout.
-       The resonance at the sight of the crystal clear mystic mountain of Tahoma.
-       The glow of recalling a sweet memory from childhood.
-       The satisfaction of getting a sentence or a phrase just right and seeing that it expresses exactly what was meant for it to express.
-       The joy that bubbles up and overflows during the entirety of a Messiah performance.
-       The realization that a tough time was redemptive, and that its tempering pain has furthered transformation.
-       The hope with witnessing a step forward in humanity’s consciousness.
-       Love – that which binds everything. Love is the answer. Love is all.


What would you add to the list of gratitude?





Wednesday, December 2, 2015

P52 Week 47 -- The Selfless Selfie

It’s inevitable: the selfie has permeated the world of artistic photography! The prompt for this week’s Project 52 directs photographers to take a selfless selfie – a shot about themselves that doesn’t include them or their children.

A selfie without myself – now that’s intriguing! Well, I am made of the stuff of the universe, so I could write about anything, and it would be about me, right? We – yes, you too – are no different from rocks or the sea or buildings or elephants. The whole universe is made up of atoms, elements such as carbon, calcium, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and iron. What differentiates me from a mouse or a mountain is how my atoms are structured. Many of the atoms are the same. It’s only their configuration and proportions that differ.

Ah, you might say: we humans are infused with spirit and that differentiates us from all else, for humans have a soul.

But does that mean that only humans have a soul? Many believe that their pet cats and dogs have souls. And what about other animals – tigers, dolphins, eagles?

What about plants? Do sequoias, dogwoods, roses, parsley, and carrots have souls?

Do other entities, non-organic entities, have souls? Do mountains, volcanoes, deserts, streams, waterfalls and oceans have souls?

And what about man made edifices – skyscrapers, factories, split-level houses, the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel, Hondas, laptops?

Much is made of collective consciousness in psychological circles. A term used is that of a “collective soul.” Do countries – The United States of America, France, India, Australia – have a collective soul? Do organizations – Microsoft, McDonalds, Doctors Without Borders – have a collective soul?

We are all made of the same stuff, the stuff of the universe. Are we also infused with the same spirit? Does it permeate every living thing and every non-living thing? Is spirit exclusive – infusing just certain atoms and molecules – human ones – or is it inclusive, encompassing everything in existence?

It seems to me that I am the world and the world is in me. My boundaries don’t end with my skin.

Is that what the mystics mean when they say that “we are all one?”


Is the span of a selfless selfie the universe?





Friday, November 27, 2015

P52 Week 46 -- Happy

I am happy when I sing or listen to songs. For a while I sang in choirs, but now, I mostly sing along to hits on the car radio, like Pink’s “Just Give Me a Reason,” Maroon Five’s “Sugar,” or Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance.” I’m especially happy, supercharged happy, when I ride with my daughter and we sing together.

Alternately, I warble in the shower. There, I turn back the clock: my playlist is mostly oldies, songs that I learned decades ago. Kermit’s “Rainbow Connection” is one of my all time favorites. I just love those whimsical lyrics and the melody seems to settle well in my voice range.

Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows?
And what's on the other side
Rainbows have visions
And only illusions
Rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told
And some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong wait and see
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

Other tunes I croon are Abba’s “I Have a Dream” – yes, I do believe in angels – and “I’ll Be Seeing You” which I sang when in the Cascadian Chorale. Janet Hansard, the talented choir director, wrote a beautiful arrangement for this 1930s classic.

Under the noise camouflage of the shower spray or the hair dryer, I haltingly hack at the haunting arias of Handel’s Messiah – “Come Unto Him” and “How Beautiful are the Feet” – pieces I learned when I took private voice lessons in my thirties. I have to ratchet the key way down – I can no longer reach anywhere close to the soprano register.

At times, when I feel especially sappy happy, I indulge in treacly love songs: “Love me Tender,” and “Some Enchanted Evening.” And why not go all-out mushy! I confess to warbling Shania’s “From This Moment” and Elvis’ “Hawaiian Wedding Song.”

I am also happy that I can Youtube any song I want, and can listen to it over and over to my heart’s content. What a joy to have such technological advances at my fingertips! I won’t regale you with all the songs I’ve searched for – that would take too long – but I do want to share that some of my most poignantly happy finds have been of some Aussie performers from when I grew up in Sydney in the 50s and 60s: Johnny O’Keefe’s “She’s My Baby,” Patsy Ann Noble’s “Good Lookin’ Boy,” and Col Joye’s “Oh Yeah, Ah Hah.” Happy reminiscences!

So, bring it on, Pharrell, because I’m happy!


♪ ♫ ♫ ♪




Friday, November 20, 2015

P52 Week 45 -- Perspective (a.k.a. Point of View)

This might be the hardest prompt I’ve dealt with, mainly because I don’t want to get into the media swirl of point of view, opinions, or beliefs.

There’s so much being front-lined in the news about political candidates, terrorism, racism, violence, gun control, undocumented immigrants, global warming – you name it. Everyone has a point of view. It’s hard not to get into the media foray and not have a concrete opinion. I can’t seem to get past the “breaking” and “latest” reports and articles. It’s all so over-examined. The viewpoints have been out there for so long and they are hardly “new.” They have become like fruit left out: they are rotten and they reek. Even my perspectives of world events seem a rehash of someone else’s. Really, do I even have a new idea “bone” in my body? Or am I just a reflection of my past, my environment, my biases and beliefs?

Our media is caught up in perspectives: I have a point of view; you have a point of view; never the twain shall meet. Maybe the problem is with the “point” in point of view. It is sharp and piercing. It wounds. It is narrow. It seems adversarial and restrictive. And yes, the opposite perspective, of course, is that it “points to.” The media would say that it zeros in on issues that need attention. But are they focusing on what will really transform society?

Of course it’s important to report on major events: the Paris attacks, disturbing environmental trends, racism, graft. A free press is critical.

Yet, I think that we as humans are missing something in our media communications. We are missing something huge.

What might it look like for the media to think outside its current, mostly turbulent box?