mirror ball 94: gratitude today

something I am grateful for that happened in the last 24 hours:

Phoebe:
I am grateful for the wonderful evening I had with my brother and our dear friend Felicia. We went to the Paris theater to see Carol. Afterwards we walked by Bergdorf's to see the Christmas windows on our way to have Cuban-Chinese for dinner. It was all of my favorite things about New York in one evening.

Valerie S:

Yesterday: Pain. Pain in my nerve-damaged arm, which kept me from only the most essential computing tasks, which distracted and wearied me. 

And then more beets came in the farm box. My husband is not a picky eater, but he simply can't like beets, so they gather in the bottom of the fridge until I get around to them.

I cooked some to eat for lunches, but I can only eat so many cooked beets at a time.

So I made the rest into a lacto-ferment. The attached photo is what happened while I was cutting them to julienne into the jar. Fabulous half-disks rolling from the knife to fall to the board in a celebration of color and texture. I played with beets.

Grateful.

Steve:
Today I met with a client that I see weekly, an older woman who lives in a nursing home. Despite experiencing some dementia, she recognizes me and seems very happy to see me, week after week. We talk sometimes, look at pictures in books, or just sit quietly together. She has told me what a difference I make in her life. 

I also saw several counseling clients in my office yesterday and today, men and women of different ages and backgrounds. They are all working hard on making positive changes in their lives. I am grateful that they trust me to help them. 

Today, not for the first time, I thought of the word "congruent"-- I feel like my work and I belong together. I am grateful to be doing work that is fascinating and feels useful. It is challenging in an energizing rather than exhausting way. I love it.

Tanya:

I am deeply grateful for my ability to be a "maker"; to create with my hands in a variety of ways, offering beauty to the world around me. I am grateful to know that in this way, I co-create with the Creator itself, giving the gifts that I came here to give. Also...I am grateful to be grateful, because in this magnificent field of gratitude my heart opens and life pours itself into me and it feels great!

Kristine:

Wow. There is so much that I am thankful for.

I am especially thankful for the moments I stop and remember to have gratitude in my life.

So at this moment I am thankful for my new job and the people who were willing to take me on at this point in my life. It is all so new to me and a place where I can grow and learn a lot but I am thankful for the trust that they have put in me and the patience given.

I am also thankful to you, Steve, and this project you have taken on. It has been a pleasure to have been a part of it.

Happy Thanksgiving and keep the gratitude flowing.

John S:

This morning I was sitting cross-legged on the floor outside the open bathroom door, talking to my husband while he showered. It's a scene that happens a lot at our house -- our minutes to connect with each other before we go our separate ways for the day. On the way out of the bathroom, he stopped and stood in front of me, looking down at me with the sweetest smile on his face. He asked, "How's my favorite person?" It made me feel so good.

I'm grateful for that moment.

Andy:
In the past 24 hours, something I am grateful for is conversation with members of my family, and with dear friends. Conversation connects me to other people, helps me learn and get outside of myself, and somehow always energizes me.

Holly in SF:
i discovered today that my gym will be open every day this week, despite the thanksgiving holiday.  i've been in extra pain lately, since having had a long drawn-out bout of a nasty cold/flu... being able to swim will likely relieve that significantly, now that i am well enough.

cause to celebrate on this, my birthday weekend.

Dan:
5:53 a.m. 11/25/15: I woke up to the silence of the street and the cool breeze of a frost filled night coming through the open window. I laid on my back and curled up next to me was Steven, naked with the covers to his side. His usual pile of pillows surrounding his star tattooed back and his long hair still tied up in a not put an extra punctuation to the feeling that settled over me. I looked up at the ceiling and gave thanks for the life, I have and the moments I get to share it with this man.

8:04 a.m. 11/25/15: There's gratitude as I read the email from my friend Steve - being a example of creative change and the flux of life. All things must end and begin... the seconds tick by... the day is waiting...

Garris:
It's funny.....as I was walking Puck this morning....the sun was just coming up and the most beautiful pink clouds were floating on a baby blue sky and the full moon was still slightly visible. And I thought, I haven't mirror balled in months! So how fitting that your email was waiting for me when I got back to the house. One thing that I have been grateful for a LOT lately, and certainly the thoughts have crossed my mind in the past 24 hours for sure, is to be living in a community where I have friends of 35 plus years. I love having  history with people....I love being at this age and knowing I am where I am meant to be. I'm grateful for all of the paths I have crossed and those who have crossed mine. And I am grateful for the mystery of that great big full moon that your project has made me more aware of every four weeks. I love you Steve and I am eternally grateful for you.

John M:
So very grateful to have just heard some good health news from my best friend, David, who has metastatic prostate cancer.  He is responding well to treatment and he has no new growth and can go on a new treatment that involves regular pills, no chemo.

Yay!  I love life!

Dave W:
I'm grateful for the kiss I got last night after the second date with an incredible woman.  Fingers crossed the future unfolds smoothly and fine.

mirror ball 93: something I stopped seeing

Maybe it's in the basement; maybe it's in the car. 

Maybe it's right in front of your face.

What have we stopped seeing?

Lori M:
What a great topic - especially since it totally inspired me to clean out our living room shelves - that I stopped seeing! All of our photo albums stacked willy nilly with each year’s school photos shoved on top of one another, but never actually put into the albums. There was a sad arrangement of framed photos - photos are great, the arrangement was not thoughtful. Then of course, my son’s collection of Tintins and other books nearly falling off the shelf. Even though it was past his bedtime, I grabbed him and held up each book - SAVE or DITCH? So satisfying. I think you should post this topic once a year! Thanks, Steve.

Valerie:

The bowl of trinkets/treasures on top of the bookcase became filled with cast-off things we couldn’t bear to throw away, and dust. Lots of dust. Re-assessed. Re-treasured. Put it somewhere I could see the contents.

The mind of my mother-in-law… she is doing so well here with us, fear receding, confusion not so obvious sometimes, that I stopped seeing the decline in quite the same way. Last week she said to my husband, her youngest: “I’m forgetting my other sons.”

The clutter of my studio, made disastrous when we tried to put in the bathroom in the basement. The bathroom met with challenges, the studio stayed on hold while we gave up on getting that work done quickly, and life intervened. The studio is piles of things, stacked temporarily, going on 3 years now.

The encroaching shade over my sunny garden beds. Now I’ve realized that 13 years of forest growth in my native yard  is actually changing the habitat within the cultivated beds, my gardening hopes and dreams are changing with that awareness. Slow growth is hard to spot, and the changes it causes can make all sorts of other things change, too. Even our attitudes and satisfaction with a place or an outcome.

mirror ball 92: fairy tales

Is there a fairy tale that particularly captivated you when you were a child?

Or is there one that you find especially intriguing now, as an adult?

What is it about this tale that spoke or speaks to your imaginative spirit?

John M:

Not a fairy tale exactly, but one of my favorites as a little kid was the book "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel," by Virginia Lee Burton, about Mike and his apparently female steam shovel, Mary Anne, who "could dig as much in a day as 100 men could dig in a week." 

The story is so wonderful.  Mike and Mary Ann have a great business, but the Depression puts them out of work and they are "very sad."until they get a job digging a foundation for a town hall where they dig so fast they forget to leave a way out, and end up living there with Mary Ann becoming the furnace and Mike the care taker in a very cozy scene at the end.  The art is so great, you feel the energy of the dig and then the panic and then the warm, wonderful, happy ending.

I always wanted to be the "Mike" at the end, sitting in my rocking chair with my pipe, reading the paper, with a smiling Mary Ann right there keeping me warm.

Wow!  I feel five years old again.

Thanks!

Steve:
I didn't realize it when I came up with this theme, but I don't actually have one fairy tale that I particularly loved. The more I've thought about it, the more I realize that fairy tales mostly seemed strange and uncaptivating to me as a child, and in a way still do. That is, the stories themselves didn't grab me, and I think it's because I rarely got a sense of how the characters felt about the bizarre situations they were in. In my memory, at least in the versions I read, children or princesses or princes went from situation to situation but I never got a sense of who they really were. Instead, I enjoyed stories like those in the Oz books, or the Wonderland/Looking Glass books, in which the girls were earnest or crabby or funny. 

That said, some of the settings in particular fairy tales were very interesting and evocative to me: the witch's candy house, Baba Yaga's hut on chicken legs, the goat's bridge with an ogre underneath it. I loved, and still do, to imagine a forest with enchanted things and creatures in it. And the notion of a castle with magical and mysterious rooms is still pretty thrilling to me.  

Valerie:

         Fairy Tales

         I read them all, every story that came my way. We had the Children's Bookhouse, a huge collection of stories - 15 volumes - one fairy tales, one nursery rhymes, one animal stories, one heroes - you get the idea. I returned time and time again to the ones no one else commented on much:
         The Little Match Girl
         The Steadfast Tin Soldier
         The Selfish Giant

         Now, I love Modern re-imaginings of some of those tales that still spin in my head:
         Cinder
         Scarlet
         The Goose Girl,

         and odd ones:
         The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
         The Sisters Grimm
         Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

         So many I can't name them now - they are all spun together from hours spent on the living room floor, elbows raw on the carpet as I turned page after page, and

         hours spent bent to choose book after book from my library shelves to share with students seeking just the right
         story.

mirror ball 91: next life

If you could choose what or who to spend your next life as, what would your choice be? Why?

If you would prefer to leave it up to some other power to decide, why?

Tanya:

This one is soooooo...easy!!!

In my next life I want to be a black Diva soul singer. You see, I know I have an inner Aretha; when the music begins I feel her swelling within me just bursting to be set free...my body is gyrating, I am feeling the Spirit with every fibre of my being. The rub is, I open my mouth and there is a profoundly sad disconnect between what I am sure is surging through my body and what I hear emanating from my vocal chords. Something always goes terribly wrong as the sound rises out of my body. If only it sounded the way it feels I would be overcome with joy! So there you have it. Hands down, next life I choose to be a Soul Sister!

Dave W:
I've thought a lot about this topic for the last week and I can't escape the first answer that came to me:  If I could choose who I would be in my next life, I would choose to be myself.  But a higher-evolved rendition of myself.  A person who, as a youth, would not be as fearful of his father, who would stand up for himself to bullies (both for himself and for others), who would not worry about what other people thought, who wouldn't be afraid of being known as "smart", who would understand that applying oneself in athletics is going to cause pain but that the pain is temporary and the benefits long-lasting, who would not be afraid of asking girls out and putting his heart on the line and who would go away to college.  Far, far away.

Jaime:
As I slipped on my threadbare, but favorite jeans today, the ones where the belt loops have almost been completely torn off the pants themselves, I realized, that's it! I want to come back as a well-worn and beloved pair of blue jeans. If you put out of your mind for a moment, the fact that your owner's crotch and behind will rub up against you for hours at a time, and possibly for years on end, I hope I can help you come to understand the unconditional bond that forms between a person and their favorite pair of jeans.  As the perfect pair of denim, I would be loved from the moment I was tried on in the fitting room to the day I would sorrowfully be donated to Goodwill. Only as a pair of jeans would I be loved more and more with each passing day and wash. Each iteration in my life cycle would bring my owner new-found happiness, confidence, and comfort. As my texture and structure change over time, perhaps a tear here or there, or a bit of fading, I could be reincarnated again and again. I would be appreciated for the familiarity I offer, and yet the newness that comes with my ever-changing appearance and fit. When the time comes for us to part, it would be with sadness, but also with the hope that I would offer my next owner the same joy and satisfaction experienced during our time together.

Okay, this may have been a stretch, but it was fun to think about.

Steve:
I like Kristine's approach to this theme, so here's my answer-- in this moment:

I would like to spend an incarnation as a cherry tree. Each year I'd spend a season covered in beautiful blossoms, and then I'd let go of all of the petals in breezy pink flurries. I'd make delicious, juicy cherries for lovers to feed each other and for parents to bake into pies. And then I'd get to just hang out for a while, under the radar, maybe a few birds nesting in my branches now and then. And do it all over again, year after year, until it's time for my next life. 

Kristine:

in this moment this is my answer---

a cloud

ever changing light reflecting

fastly moved hanging still

light and fluffy

dark and menacing 

here then gone

mirror ball 90: eros in art

Is there a work of visual art that for you really captures something true (or touching, or exciting) about the erotic part of being human?

John S:
This statue of the reclining Neptune captures the kind of strength, confidence, masculinity, and sexiness in an older man that I really respond to, and that I aspire to. Unlike the classical statues of Hercules or David or Achilles, he's not in the midst of doing something heroic or preparing to fight. He's just lounging, draped in lots of nice fabric, and from the looks of it he has either just had, or is about to have, a really fun time with someone else (some lucky sailor?) there on the sea bed. The sensuality of his pose, and frankly, his hot body, make me smile.

Bruce:

A work of art –a wonder to behold.

Yes, I know this particular work of art has been reproduced in a gazillion forms… often kitschy, but HER image is so pervasive that, I guess, that’s OK… maybe!!

I am really revved up about “my image” of a work of art: MONA LISA, just having finished reading an enthralling “fictional” (not really, because the book is deeply well-researched by a speaker of Italian) book. I felt as tho I was back in Firenze (my soul city even after 5 years, having been then for the first time, but my energy is still there!!) and living thru this wonderful book the story of Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Raphael, etc. AND reading so many quotes from another book I savor—Vasari’s book THE LIVES, which I encountered when I took a community ed class at PCC (at 50% discount) in Italian Art prior to my trip there… it all comes together… better than a Rick Steves travelogue for me… and I savor and imagine very detail as I luxuriate in the incredible story of Mona Lisa and the myriad real-to-me-people surrounding her amazing life… she had six children!!. WOW.

Next up for me is a story of a cleaning woman at Chartres, and afterwards, I am going to finish an incredible story of Eloise and Abelard… what a great summer of reading. Oh yes, am going to revisit the several books on my shelf that take place in Venice… yikes!!! :O)

Steve:

This photo by Mark Morrisroe is dated September 1983, which is just when I moved to New York City. Morrisroe photographed his friends and lovers in rooms that look exactly like the apartments that I and my friends and lovers lived in. There is a sensory familiarity to his images that stirs deep memories and feelings.

In addition to this shared erotic landscape, I love the multiple "imperfections" of these images, also so familiar and so stirring: dim light, disheveled rooms, skinny bodies, the grimy city summer.

mirror ball 89: strength

How are you strong?

John S:
I guess my best response to this great question is with pictures. I'm proud of myself for having the courage to "invert" in my yoga classes. Slowly but surely I'm finding more stability in my shoulders and core and can even, at times, kick right up to a handstand without needing to touch the wall with my foot. It feels so good.

David W:
I think so much of our physical strength is determined when we are children. If we run around, are encouraged to explore, climb trees, swing from tires, do outdoor chores, we naturally get stronger as our muscles grow. My childhood, on the other hand, consisted of collecting stamps, coins and sports cards, watching various sitcoms and eating copious Hostess products. As a result, I was never very strong as a kid nor as a young adult. I was strong in Brady Bunch and Partridge Family reruns and the faces on 1971 Topps baseball cards. So it was kind of a big deal in the fall of 2013 when I started CrossFit at the ripe old age of 50. I finally decided to get stronger, physically. I had never done a pull-up (still haven't) and my coaches have continually had to modify each exercise (read: make them waaaay easier) just so I could do them. But, as with all things, over time, things changed.  My muscles changed.  I changed. And after a year of CrossFit, I had spread enough strength around my body to rid itself of little aches and pains in my back and my knees. I felt more nimble. More confident in my abilities. And, most of all, I grew more confident in pursuing my ultimate dream: completing an Ironman. So for 9 months, I trained.  In swimming, biking, running and lifting. And on June 28, 2015, I started the Coeur d'Alene Ironman. Alas, I only finished two legs of the race, missing the cutoff for the marathon and not finishing.  It's alright...so I didn't get the medal. Nobody can take my strength away. So now, after a month of disappointment and dessert, I'm ready to re-focus my strength and re-start the workouts in the knowledge that one year from now, I will be even stronger. And then, that Ironman medal will be mine.

Megan:
I know Strength. I make my life's work out of helping others find it.

Strength can be physical or mental. It can be loud or it can be quiet. All forms of strength share one essential element: going toe to toe with your fears, acknowledging them, and making a choice to work through them.

In that choice lies all that strength is. 

This schema manifests itself in the work I do. The loud work of lifting and building physical strength is an outer representation of what happens inside. 

Within my work I am always aware of the inner strength which runs alongside the outer, like a quiet benefactor, supporting humbly, developing quietly, but suddenly, there for you when you need it, sometimes taking you by surprise. 

I take joy in finding my own limits, and even more joy in helping others find theirs. I've had the sincere pleasure of seeing marathons run, knees, feet, hips, hands, and backs recover from surgery, brains recover from stroke, and babies be born.

I've seen people strength train through diabetes, lupus, Sjögren's syndrome, hepatitis C, cancer, and HIV.

Watching the moments where the physical strength and mental strength cross over are where stars shine for me. When I see it, I know it instantly. A spiral of glowing light and euphoria fills me. I feel a sensation I am within the person and can feel what they are feeling. It's a warm feeling which I struggle to fully describe. It's as if I am in a flock of birds who effortlessly move as one giant shape and undulate magically together, without ever hitting each other, but flowing in infinity symbols and spirals. It's magic. 

Tanya:

I have learned through life experiences that I can walk through what some would call the "dark night of the soul" and still be able to hold onto a thread of light to find my way back. I have learned that I can be thrown into the midst of the most heart-wrenching experiences, and have the ability to remain calm and look for the the gift that is inherent there for me. I have learned that I am stronger than I ever think I will be and that the will of God will never lead me where the grace of God has not gone before me to prepare the way.  

My strength grows daily along with my spiritual work. At times when I did not feel so strong, I have learned that I have a spiritual community that will hold me up in a spectacular way in the midst of anything until I find my own footing. I never have to do this alone and that provides enormous strength for the journey.  

mirror ball 88: musicals

My favorite musical(s):

Heather:
my favorite musical is “My Fair Lady”. I love the rags to riches success story that is Eliza Dolittle.  It’s a testament that your past does not define future. Your future is only limited by your self-belief, knowledge, and willingness to succeed. 

John S:
I don't know whether it's my favorite, but as I thought about musicals I realized that the one that had the earliest impact on me was West Side Story. The movie would play on TV every year or so when I was young, and my brothers would scoff at the "tough" gang members doing ballet in their sneakers. The ending really stuck with me: "How many bullets are left in this gun, Chino? Enough for YOU? Or YOU?" ( I hope I got that right). And in grade school a music teacher who was an AVID fan of the musical spent many successive classes describing and diagramming the songs for us, such as the complex time signature in "America." I loved how excited he got about it!

The score is so gorgeous, and now that I'm older I can hear how Bernstein was influenced by Aaron Copland, in his harmonies. The quintet of the Sharks, Jets, Tony, Maria, and Anita is stunning, and the wedding song harmonies are perfect. My favorite snippet of music, though is when Maria and Anita harmonize at the end of "A Boy Like That": "When love comes, so strong, there is no right or wrong, your love is your life!"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4oxfOncYiag

Emily:

I've always had a hard time picking favorites (favorite food, favorite band, favorite song). Instead I come from the school of multiple favorites, all the time. Call it cliche if you will, there's just too much good of every category to trump one thing.  For me when it comes to musicals (you guessed it) there are multiple favorites for a variety of reasons.  

Growing up, I always loved My Fair Lady. I loved the costumes, the Cockney accents (much better than the prim proper "how do you do?" Eliza), Audrey Hepburn, and of course "the street where you live" song. I was always sorry that we never got to see a love story with Freddy and Eliza unfold, because obviously... A love story written in the stars.

My Fair Lady, "On the Street Where You Live"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0udu4KYv1zI

Another musical that is in the favorite ranks is Little Shop of Horrors.  From the  Doo Wop  narrating trio, the incredible cast (hello Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray), the concept of a space alien cannibal plant, oh and the songs (all of them) they are all fantastic. 

Other tops, Annie. I love all of the songs, Bernadette Peters, and Tim Curry. As a kid, I would watch this movie with my older brother and laugh so hard at some of the dance scenes in the orphanage (how could all of the orphans be so good at gymnastics?). 

I love the telephone song from Bye Bye Birdie.  I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair, South Pacific,  is another favorite.  Meet me in St. Louis, is my favorite with Judy Garland. I loved any musical with good tap dance numbers. The list could go on and on. Thanks for letting me cut loose with this one. 

Bye Bye Birdie, "Telephone Hour"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7sPU3ymk2ms

David W:

The first concert or musical of any kind I went to was in 1970 or 1971 when "Jesus Christ Superstar" was at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis.  I was 7 or 8 and I went with my Mom.  Even in that cavernous barn where the acoustics were atrocious, I was transfixed.  But that's not my favorite.  While living in London, my then-girlfriend and I got standing room only tickets for Steven Sondheim's "Company".  Oh...my....GOD.  What an incredible work of art!  Poignant, funny, sad, uplifting, real...it had everything.  Bought the soundtrack immediately and it was a staple in my CD rotation for a good five years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yW66pScmEs

John M:
I was a eunuch in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in high school.  That was my favorite role ever and the one that got me the most laughs.  Thinking about it now, it was quite daring for us to put on a musical that had a substantial subplot involving a brothel and a collection of erotic pottery in 1977 in a rural high school.

Richard S:

My favorite musical?

I am not sure the mirrorball has enough bandwidth.

You say “theatrical", so I will stick to that.

However I must state that THE WIZARD OF OZ, taught me more about life and art than 16 years of schooling ever did.

The power of color.

Always show rather than tell.

Witches might have sisters.

1776

I was taken to see this, when I was 9, by my mother who adored Broadway.

Stunned and enthralled.

It is about seeing a larger picture. Creating a better world. Going beyond oneself.

I still reverberate with the last moments; the bells chiming thunderously as the famous Trumbull painting is recreated.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

Is there any better opening to a musical than “Tradition”?

You understand the story in an instant.

The moment Tevye turns his back to Chava throws the story upside down and inside out.

“It doesn’t change a thing, but even so…."

PACIFIC OVERTURES

The most gorgeously designed and directed show I have ever seen.

Is there a more beautiful song than “There is No Other Way”

"Someone In A Tree” is a mind blowing example of interconnectedness and separation.

INTO THE WOODS

I "second acted" this musical over 15 times.

Children, parents, love, loss and the in betweens of it all.

Ask a wolf’s mother.

You decide what’s right.

TITANTIC

The score and the design.

And that opening number where everyone points out to the audience daring them to imagine and be an active part of the journey.

And then the moment when the cart rolls off the stage in silence.

Dazzled as the dead join the living for the finale.

THE KING AND I

Worlds collide. 

People trying to better themselves and the world.

That unbearably beautiful ballet.

ANGEL LOOKS A LOT LIKE GEORGE.

Only to be followed by the best scene in a musical.  

Ever.

Love, unspoken, but oh so present, speaks.

DARING to say the truth.

It all happens at 2:56

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgVPnWmUqd4

It was….like this. No?

Yes.

EVERYTHING changes in a instant, forever.

I love it.

It seems that all my choices are about CHANGE.

How powerful to step over to something new, something uncharted.

Nothing is permanent.

Nothing.

We only have our heart to guide us.

Steve:
The Music Man is without a doubt my favorite movie musical. I love everything about it (except for the girl who says "ye gods" all the time). Several of the songs make me almost giddily happy every time I hear them. I love the witty lyrics and the corny humor; I love the amazing array of classic character actors; I love the sweet, romantic songs and the barbershop harmony. I love Robert Preston's physicality. It's hard to choose just one scene to post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_Oe-jtgdI&list=PLr_J3suZ0XdTSovE9VGqVWFv_2cZvemkI

Charles:
Fiddler on the Roof.

Not sure if it's my absolute favorite, but it was the first thing I ever saw on Broadway. I must have been 5 years old. And I probably knew right then and there what I wanted. And it has probably defined my life to this day.

https://youtu.be/gRdfX7ut8gw

Phoebe:
Favorite musical? I love musicals! 

My first musical love was Hello Dolly. I saw it on the black and white TV when I was probably 5 years old. I just loved those songs and the outrageous costumes. 

When I was 8 years old I was a newspaper boy in my school’s production of Gypsy. I remember thinking “this what being alive feels like!” I wanted to go spend the rest of my life in rehearsals and on stage. Though after the play wrapped, I didn’t pursue theater again. 

I’ve seen Cabaret on stage in NYC in 2003, and the Liza Minnelli masterpiece I watch every few years. I love both.

I adore Audrey Hepburn, so Funny Face is an all time favorite. The dancing in the cafe scene is spectacular. And Fred Astair’s dance in the courtyard is magnificent. Think Pink!

Pajama Game is a more recently discovered favorite. Bob Fosse’s choreography is really at it’s best here (though is it ever not the best?). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0szHqIXQ2R8

Another musical that I can watch over and over again is Victor / Victoria. It’s perfection. 

And of course there is Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the movie. Those songs play on loop in my head. Really great rock and roll, and fantastic lines. 

Just to name a few…