“Guns? You’re going to shoot guns at me now?”*

We had quite a little New York evening yesterday. It started off with dinner and the theater with Andrew Samuel, Maureen, Ã’scar, and a few select friends. We saw Spring Awakening, which was pretty good for a new musical. I think we need to educate the populace regarding the standing ovation. A standing ovation should not be given at every performance of every show, yet it seems to me that the Standing O has become the norm, rather than the exception. The show was good, but it wasn’t that good. The staging was interesting and a few of the actors had nice voices. The choreography was strange and distracting. Some of the songs were truly original, with lyrics that would read like true poetry. Worth the price of a student rush ticket if you (or some nice person you know) is willing to stand in line to wait for them.

After the show, we made a brief stop in the West Village, where we discovered that a horrible shooting had taken place. There were police everywhere and people standing in crowds on the street outside of every bar and restaurant. I want to point out that this is not a normal sort of crime in any part of New York City, but particularly in the Village, where I work and hang out every day of my life. It was quite a shock.

This morning, speaking with friends and strangers in the neighborhood, no one could believe such a thing would happen in this relatively tranquil area just one block away from my office. What did I learn from this incident? That flashbacks to 9/11 lurk surprising close to the surface of my psyche. Until I found out exactly what had happened (and that it hadn’t affected anyone I knew) I felt the same nauseous dread that I felt watching images of the Twin Towers from my house in Kyoto. That’s certainly not something I ever hoped to feel again.

In other news:

my birthday is on Monday!!!!

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*Name the film and character and win a prize!