Runs With Brushes: "On a balcony in N.Y. It's just started to snow."

Saturday, October 23, 2010

"On a balcony in N.Y. It's just started to snow."

When I lived in N.Y., that lyric felt sentimental, even as I lived it. The ability to place a moment so encapsulating...as if my experience had been read from far away, lifted, and transposed into word and music. Made me feel less alone even as the alone-ness was thriving for me. And then she sings, "...hey there Michael, do you really love me." Yes Kate, I do.
By peculiar chance, The Red Shoes had been musicalized into a Broadway show, the same winter the Red Shoes cd was released. My friend Wade was an assistant costumer on the show, and I saw quite a few incarnations of it during previews as a result. The ballet was so spectacular, for me it would have been enough to cover the price of admission. "These moments given are a gift from time." Because you will never have the opportunity to see that piece again, with those costumes, sets, or performers. She runs to the top of the building on the set and leaped with all that was within herself and blackout. Perfect theatrical combination of elements. You didn't need to see her jump conclude with a fall. You knew she did, and fell to her death. I remember 4 very specific things about that show; how fast she danced the adagio when asked to do it double time in "rehearsal", the beautiful blond hair Jonathan Sharp had, the ballet of the title, and the red robe that George de la Pena wore in Act 1. Funny, huh? But these are the things I took away, and Moments of Happiness are derived of these things. Fleeting pleasure sentimentalized and captured in our hearts' eye. Looped over when lost in thought, reminding us how time passes. Marching on. Paul Thek was right, the face of God is a clock. And time rolls on...