half blind we wrote ... on sheets of salty wood

I just finished reading the play The Seafarer by Conor McPherson and I was blown away. It is brilliantly written and packed with wonderful themes of redemption and belief. I don't want to give anything away, but the end is stunning, and the second act, especially, is thrilling simply because of the dialogue. I imagine that if I saw it performed I would be on the edge of my seat the entire time. Do yourself a favor and read it as soon as you can.

I'm also reading the book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. I'm only a third of the way through with it, but already it's one of the most important and easy to read books on our impact, as humans, on the environment that's been written recently. It's terrifying and humbling, but also strangely comforting. The narrative style in which it's written subtly drives the hard to fathom points Weisman is making, while making it a fairly easy read. It's scholarly in the sense that he did a huge amount of research, but it is not written in a dense "scholarly" way. Again, I reccomend it highly. I'll write more about it when I actually finish reading it.

The play I was acting in ended this past weekend and the past two evenings that I've had to myself have been marvelous. I didn't want to be in the production, but did it as a favor both to the director and her husband, my boss. I had fun, but I didn't feel like I gained anything from it because the director was forced to work on basic acting techniques with the inexperienced actors. I've been thankful to have my evenings to myself again. They've been emmensely productive, to the point that it's actually rather sickening. I love it.

the misguided insects crowned me their grasshopper king with a dance of celebration

Summer is almost over and I don't quite know how I feel about it. It's been nice to be relatively cut off from everyone. I feel like I've settled down into my own comfortable pace and all too soon I'll have to speed up again or get left behind. In an ideal world, my comfortable pace would mean that I do my thing, and when everyone else comes speeding around the track I'll spend a few lovely moments with them.

I am excited to have people back on campus, I just don't want to feel like this summer of sitting back and slowing down has been a waste. I've resolved to not over commit this year. There are a few things that I haven't really been involved in on campus that I'd like to be involved with. I love theatre and being involved in it, but I don't want to get burned out on it. I'll be designing lights for two shows this year: one in the fall and one in the spring. At this point, I don't plan on auditioning for anything, so the extent of my theatre work will be on the lighting crew.

I also want to get involved with the concert crew. I've been encouraged, even asked, to be a part of it, but I've always been too involved in the theatre and haven't been able to. This year I'm going to make an effort to get more bands from the Twin Cities down to campus. Not to sound arrogant, but my tastes in music are eclectic enough that I think I would be a good fit for the committee. In addition to being on the concert committee, I'm planning on having my drums on campus (finally!) and making some music again (finally!). I've missed playing regularly. In high school drumming, especially with others, was therapy and meditation for me, so being cut off from that was hard. Finally, I'm going to have a radio show again. I had two different ones this past year; one each semester. The new one is going to be devoted Minnesota musicians (so, as one of my friends joked, my own version of the Current).

So that's what's been on my mind lately. Gringo and I are thinking of starting a music blog. We had the idea separately, but almost at the same time, which was strange. I'm not sure what it would consist of, but, then again, we haven't actually talked about it yet.

In other news, I've been renewing my love affair with the band mewithoutYou. I absolutely adore their sound and their lyrics. Lovely. Here's the first song I ever heard by them. Incidentally, it was because I saw this very video.

Water Weighted her Wings

There's a storm rolling through right now and I absolutely love it. It's one of those perfect storms when all the lightning is just on the horizon, all of the thunder is distant and, every now and again, wind blows water from the leaves on the trees giving the illusion that the rain has begun to fall harder. I sat outside under an awning and simply watched the patterns of the lighting in the clouds. It almost looks playful, like a game of tag, until you see a particularly sharp edged fork of electricity jump from clouds to some distant object. It's in these moments that one becomes aware of the sheer power of mother nature, and is reminded of their appreciation for the earth.

On top of this, I'm feeling creative, but not manic. I had a great night last night and a productive day today, so this evening is pure contentment. The only way it could be any better is if I could curl up with someone special and watch the water bead up on the window and talk about nights like these.