Stuff

It's funny how relative our lives are. High school...adolescence...freedom and yet ennui...it all seems to take so long. I was talking to my dad about college, and how it's only two years away. And I was thinking, "Man, two long years..." and then I suddenly realized, "Oh my god, ONLY TWO YEARS?"

Everything happens slow and fast, slow and fast. It's hugely disorienting sometimes. Like, I want to smush my head against the wall one second, I want to skip around and hug the world the next. You'd think I'd get whiplash, but nooooo. I'm not that lucky.

These two little twins I babysit--and that I babysat tonight--sort of brought that concept home to me. I've known them since they were born, and I've been babysitting them since they were three. Now they're eight, and they have, like...thoughts and emotions and ideas and shit like that. It's thrilling and frightening at the same time. I mean, I love these two girls to the end of the earth and back, and they basically feel a bit like younger cousins or something. But sooner than I might think, they won't need me anymore. We won't be sitting on their smooshy red couch, with them cuddled up next to me while we watch RENT (gah feelings HELP) on their dad's computer. I won't sing them "A, Alligators All Around" and various RENT songs for bedtime anymore, and I won't be able to carry one twin on my shoulders to Pemberton Market and the other on my shoulders on the way home while they chatter about elves and vampires and such. Their innocence and simplicity, which is so endearing right now, will be replaced with depth as they mature and grow into themselves. And I can't wait to see the wonderful young women they become...but I'll always have those memories of when they were young enough to need me and that was all.

Coincidentally, these two little girls are rocking the Cambridge boat. They've been cast in a movie as the daughter of Ben Barnes (the guy who played Prince Caspian; I know, right?). And not so recently, one of them has dumped her boyfriend for a girl. They're also obsessed with RENT, just like me. Great, aren't they?

Also, on the topic of movie musicals: I HAVE FIGURED OUT WHY "RENT" DID NOT DO WELL. Or rather, I have figured out how to make a successful movie musical. See, what many mainstream movie audiences don't identify with is people randomly bursting out into song in the middle of real life. Successful movie musicals, like "Chicago" and "Dreamgirls" and "Cabaret", all incorporated the musical numbers into the story as either 1) performances by the characters, such as The Dreams or Sally Bowles at the club or 2) out-of-body-and/or-storyline experiences, such as the "Chicago" thing of having all the characters, like, perform the songs in a surreal theater setting. RENT is sort of inseparable from its songs, like "Light My Candle" and "I Should Tell You" and so on. It's also set in a time period that hasn't yet been romanticized; a lot of adults today experienced the 90's and the shit that came with them, and they're not ready yet to accept a musical about it all. All of the "people, stop whining about your rent and grow up" complainers don't seem to be able to sympathize with the emotional parts of the show, which is where its real appeal is. But whatever, Ilove RENT and anyone who doesn't...is dumb.

G'night!