| Your Life Path Number is 8 |
 Your purpose in life is to help others succeed You are both a natural leader and a natural success. You are also a great judge of character. You have a head for business and finance. You know how to make money. A great visionary, you can see gold where other people see nothing. In love, you are very generous - with gifts, time, and guidance. You love to inspire people, but it can be frustrating when they don't understand your vision. Great success comes easily for you. But so does great failure, as you are very reckless. You are confident, and sometimes this confidence borders on arrogance. |
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Life Path
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Guys, Personas, Yeladim...
So I'm reading this book of feminist essays, appropriately titled 'Bitchfest,' and the last essay I read was about the phrase 'you guys.' Now, I understand her point of view, that she doesn't like to use the phrase and doesn't like it to be used in reference to a group of women...but then she started talking about how English was patriarchial and how English needed a gender-neutral word to discuss a group of people...this is where she lost me.
She lost me mostly because in other languages, such as Spanish and Hebrew (really, the only teo others that I have any experience with), a group always takes on a masculine identity, even if there is only one man. In Spanish, muchachos y muchachas becomes 'muchachos' which can be translated to mean just 'boys' or 'kids.' In Hebrew (please bear with my Hebr-ish here)the word for boy is 'yeled' and the word for girl is 'yeldah' and the suffix 'im' is masculine and the suffix 'ot' is feminine. Children then become 'yeladim.'
Point being, it's not only English that refers to a group of people with a word that has masculine connotation. For myself, when I address a group of women (be it my book club, or friend) I usually say 'Ladies' (some say 'girls' but that annoys me more than 'you guys,' but I think that's a whole other megilah)...I also use 'everyone.'
I understand why these words irritate feminists...and although it's a concern, we might, at this point, have bigger fish to fry...
She lost me mostly because in other languages, such as Spanish and Hebrew (really, the only teo others that I have any experience with), a group always takes on a masculine identity, even if there is only one man. In Spanish, muchachos y muchachas becomes 'muchachos' which can be translated to mean just 'boys' or 'kids.' In Hebrew (please bear with my Hebr-ish here)the word for boy is 'yeled' and the word for girl is 'yeldah' and the suffix 'im' is masculine and the suffix 'ot' is feminine. Children then become 'yeladim.'
Point being, it's not only English that refers to a group of people with a word that has masculine connotation. For myself, when I address a group of women (be it my book club, or friend) I usually say 'Ladies' (some say 'girls' but that annoys me more than 'you guys,' but I think that's a whole other megilah)...I also use 'everyone.'
I understand why these words irritate feminists...and although it's a concern, we might, at this point, have bigger fish to fry...
Friday, December 01, 2006
I'll Keep Him Company...
I've been somewhat remiss in posting lately, but I haven't quite had the right inspiration...
However. Tonight I went to see the first Broadway show I'd seen since the beginning of the year (my third time attending Rent may or may not count)...and I saw Company, which actuall yopened earlier this week. All I really knew about this show beforehand was that Sonheim wrote it and it starred Raul Esparaza, he of the beautiful, emotional voice I've come to love through my tick,tick...BOOM cd. I also knew Being Alive was a song from the show because I had sung it in voice lessons back in the day.
So anyway, I bought a ticket yesterday and my seat was in the very last row in the theatre, but that shouldn't matter- if the show is good, it will reach you. And reach me it did. In the opening scenes, where the cast, which doubles as the band dances with their instruments around a seemingly inert Bobby (Raul). It isn't until we get into the meat of his story (are they flashbacks as he heads to his birthday party which bookends the show?) that we realize the show is not really about Bobby turning 35 and the expectation of marriage...I mean, it is about that but there's more going on.
The title. Company. To Bobby it means a couple things: it means his usual role in his friends lives, ie 'We have company coming over,' as dinner guest and it means something he wants, 'I'd really like some company,' but doesn't have. Wanting something you don't have is also a major theme of the show as observed by his male friends attempts to set them up with women and the light sexual tension that runs through Boby's interaction with the married women.
The role of Boby actually reminds me of tick, tick...BOOM but not only because Jonathan Larson's idol was Stephen Sondheim, but because in that show Jonathan also longs for something he doesn't have. And in this longing, both men have fixated on their coming birthdays as symbols of their failure. Now, Bobby doesn't seem to have fixated anything, other than not having what he thinks he wants, but the milestone is there and punctuated by his friends telling him to make a birthday wish. The role of Jonathan was outwardly a neurotic mess, whereas Bobby does sometimes come off as inert, but also as a man who is so used to the way he lives and wanting to be different that he literally doesn't know how to change things for himself. Jonathan and Bobby have also taken things they don't have, a theatre career and a marriage respectively and glorified them to the extent that they think if they have these things, then their lives will be perfect. Who's to say if they were right or if they were disappointed.
Everyone should get to hear Raul Esparza sing...when the cast stops singing at him and he gets his first sing in the first act to himself, I sat up and took notice...he sat down for most of the piece (staging I didn't quite understand, seeing as he wasn't playing an instrument...though it became clear later on that he had to sit still in his pretty suit only to give way to his later rumpled appearance, declaring that he wanted to Be Alive downstage center) but his voice vibrated with emotions teeming close to the surface which didn't overflow until his last song, where he played the piano and sang as though his life depended on it. We gave Raul a standing ovation at the end and as deserved as it was, he seemed in awe of it...taking a moment to survey the audience before inviting the rest of the cast to join him for another bow.
However. Tonight I went to see the first Broadway show I'd seen since the beginning of the year (my third time attending Rent may or may not count)...and I saw Company, which actuall yopened earlier this week. All I really knew about this show beforehand was that Sonheim wrote it and it starred Raul Esparaza, he of the beautiful, emotional voice I've come to love through my tick,tick...BOOM cd. I also knew Being Alive was a song from the show because I had sung it in voice lessons back in the day.
So anyway, I bought a ticket yesterday and my seat was in the very last row in the theatre, but that shouldn't matter- if the show is good, it will reach you. And reach me it did. In the opening scenes, where the cast, which doubles as the band dances with their instruments around a seemingly inert Bobby (Raul). It isn't until we get into the meat of his story (are they flashbacks as he heads to his birthday party which bookends the show?) that we realize the show is not really about Bobby turning 35 and the expectation of marriage...I mean, it is about that but there's more going on.
The title. Company. To Bobby it means a couple things: it means his usual role in his friends lives, ie 'We have company coming over,' as dinner guest and it means something he wants, 'I'd really like some company,' but doesn't have. Wanting something you don't have is also a major theme of the show as observed by his male friends attempts to set them up with women and the light sexual tension that runs through Boby's interaction with the married women.
The role of Boby actually reminds me of tick, tick...BOOM but not only because Jonathan Larson's idol was Stephen Sondheim, but because in that show Jonathan also longs for something he doesn't have. And in this longing, both men have fixated on their coming birthdays as symbols of their failure. Now, Bobby doesn't seem to have fixated anything, other than not having what he thinks he wants, but the milestone is there and punctuated by his friends telling him to make a birthday wish. The role of Jonathan was outwardly a neurotic mess, whereas Bobby does sometimes come off as inert, but also as a man who is so used to the way he lives and wanting to be different that he literally doesn't know how to change things for himself. Jonathan and Bobby have also taken things they don't have, a theatre career and a marriage respectively and glorified them to the extent that they think if they have these things, then their lives will be perfect. Who's to say if they were right or if they were disappointed.
Everyone should get to hear Raul Esparza sing...when the cast stops singing at him and he gets his first sing in the first act to himself, I sat up and took notice...he sat down for most of the piece (staging I didn't quite understand, seeing as he wasn't playing an instrument...though it became clear later on that he had to sit still in his pretty suit only to give way to his later rumpled appearance, declaring that he wanted to Be Alive downstage center) but his voice vibrated with emotions teeming close to the surface which didn't overflow until his last song, where he played the piano and sang as though his life depended on it. We gave Raul a standing ovation at the end and as deserved as it was, he seemed in awe of it...taking a moment to survey the audience before inviting the rest of the cast to join him for another bow.
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