A Portrait of the Artist in the Archives

[tealin]

Another brilliant day full of primary documents

... and abstract chat

... and teatime treats

... so I've been like this for the last 22 hours or so:



And tonight, thirteen years after being introduced to it, I'm going to see the Snarkiest Musical Ever, so the euphoria will probably continue.

I hope this doesn't mean I'm coming down with another cold.

Comments

[lumiere42]

:D :D :D

[(Anonymous)]

Adorable picture! If I make that face for more than a few seconds, it seizes up >.< Your expression makes me think of a voice over on a medical commercial "If your :D face persists for more than 12 hours, please consult a physician."

And what's 'abstract chat'?

[tealin]

Abstract chat is ... not concrete? For example, chatting about your drive in to work that morning is concrete (a definite drive, a definite route, a definite you); chatting about commute patterns, ways to make public transit more attractive to commuters, experiences in different cities – that's more abstract, more about ideas than things. I can chat abstract all day but tend to go to sleep in a concrete conversation; the latter was pretty much the only thing on offer in California, so every time I get to bounce ideas around with people here I rejoice. On Monday I think we covered the popularity of superhero movies, use of humour in conversation in the US vs the UK, and the unassuming heroism of fishermen in northern Norway vs endurance stuntmen, among other things.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh I hope you enjoyed the musical! i saw it a couple years ago at ACT and would love to see it again. When John Hinckley was released, my first thought was "Wonder if he will see Assassins now?"
--Melissa

[tealin]

It was fabulous! I've known the songs off by heart for years now, which is always a dangerous condition in which to see something, but the staging of what I knew was excellent and it was so so good at last to see all the 'connecty bits' I didn't know. (And Emma Goldman is in it! I had no idea!) I'm more convinced than ever that it gets to the rotten seam in America's heart – watching it, I kept wondering when it was going to be banned. We've switched from presidential assassinations to school shootings now but they come from the same place, and nine years before Columbine, Sondheim still saw the roots of it clearly. I wonder what he makes of the current situation.

If John Hinckley came to see this production, he was pretty sympathetically portrayed, I think!