Rip Doesn't Live There Anymore

Today I finally saw the Tony Award winning musical Avenue Q, and I don't know who was having more fun - the audience or the performers.   As good a time as I had at the show, the thing I liked the best about Avenue Q is that I don't live there anymore.  

I vaguely remember those days.  Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away I too was a recent college graduate with a degree in Sociology, trying to find my way in life.  I wouldn't go back there for all the money in the world.

First of all, it really doesn't suck to be me anymore.  I'm a  very lucky and happy lady who fully recognizes and appreciates all my blessings.  It's actually pretty great to be me.

I no longer wonder if that seemingly nice guy I kind of like likes me back.  Mr. Rip, who is a very nice guy, loves me just as much as I love him.  There's nothing better, because unrequited love really is a bore.

It's been years since a gay friend realized he or she was gay, or came out of the closet or confessed his homosexuality to me.  My gay friends know they're gay, and so do I. In my circle of friends it's so okay to be gay that we don't even have to talk about it.

As for those Bad Idea Bears, they never write, they never call, and they never visit anymore.  I sure don't miss those little scamps even though I have to admit that they were deceptively cute and cuddly.  Believe it or not life can be even more fulfilling, exciting and fun when you make good choices.

I moved out of my last rental property in1988. I made a few stops along the way but found my place in the world when Mr. Rip and I bought our condo in the suburbs, using our mini-van to haul our stuff there.

The moral of Avenue Q was that maybe you're not so special and not all lives have purpose, but it's okay and besides all the bad stuff going on won't last forever.  That's actually a pretty good philosophy in getting on with your life after college but there's more to it than that.   

All kinds of crazy adventures happen in life: some good, some bad, some planned, and some a total surprise.   You learn a few things along the way, like you need to keep an open mind because you never know what you are going to find in some totally unexpected places.  As a bonus, you find out that you are never going to be too old to explore new possibilities.  

Sometimes you will want to fire the writers who wrote the script for the soap opera that your life's become, and other times you will want to drop to your knees to thank them as things have turned out so much better than anything you could have planned or imagined.  In the end it all turns out the way it's supposed to, if you let it, and it can pretty great to be you, too.

"The View" It Is A-Changing

It was all so sudden.  One day Elizabeth Hasselbeck was on The View; the next day she was gone.  Just like that.  We heard the rumors, but a little notice might have been nice.  Sadly, our local ABC affiliate preempted the portion of the show where the announcement was made for severe weather coverage.  It was like Pittsburgh itself was weeping uncontrollably at the news, causing flash floods and closed roads throughout our area.   For me, this means after 10 years together, it was like she never even said goodbye.  The next day the show went on with Hasselbeck's photo still in the opening montage.  

Then, faster than you could say "token conservative panelist," the announcement was made that Jenny McCarthy would be joining The View.  Oh, I was afraid something like this might happen.  Jenny had been guest co-hosting a lot lately.

I think the producers are rushing into things.  What ever happened to trying out a lot of different co-hosts before making an announcement?  What about all the (admittedly unsubstantiated) reports I'd been reading that the show wanted to get rid of Joy and Elizabeth because they were "polarizing?"  Don't they know anything about Jenny at all?  I suspect that Jenny may make Joy and Elizabeth look positively mainstream once she's a regular on the show.

Being opinionated is one thing; presenting questionable or blatantly incorrect health-related information as fact is another.  Jenny is guilty of the latter in her crusade against childhood vaccinations because of her unwavering stance that vaccinations caused her son's autism, despite no medical evidence to support such claims.  I am not the only person who is concerned that giving her such a widespread platform for such an erroneous and potentially dangerous position is not a good idea.

Let me digress for just a moment to make a public service announcement to the young impressionable mothers out there in America who watch daytime television. You cannot trust everything you hear from a TV talk show host.  I learned this the hard way when I chose to buy a novel because Oprah recommended it in her Book Club.  I don't remember the name of the book because I tend to block out traumatic life events, but suffice it to say it was full of desperate, despondent people struggling to make it through everyday life who made for one of the unhappiest reading experiences of my life.  After that, I used Oprah's Book Club to determine what books to avoid.

What books to read or clothes to wear are one thing, but, if you never listen to another thing I say, please listen to this:  do not under any circumstances make potentially life-and-death decisions about your family's health and well-being based upon what Jenny McCarthy tells you.  Jenny is a college dropout who rose to fame by posing nude for Playboy.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does not qualify her to dispense medical advice.

You might think I'm just bitter because The View never answered my open letter about giving me a chance as a guest host, but I'm more of a Joy Behar type, so it's not too late.  Of course, I'd have to sit on the same panel as Jenny McCarthy, but that would give the show some of those spirited debates they like so much.  

The Music in My Head

A couple of days ago Facebook asked me what was on my mind, and I immediately typed my reply into my status:

If you hit the dust 

Let me raise you up

If your bubble busts

Let me raise you up

If your glitter rusts

Let me raise you up

And up!

Yes, right now the shiny new original Broadway cast recording of Kinky Boots is in my head, and I couldn't be happier to have it there.  

To remind you, in an example of sublime serendipity, Mr. Rip and I saw Kinky Boots in previews on Broadway this past March.  Well, we were smitten with it right away, and I predicted then that it was going to be a smash hit.

We preordered the original cast recording so that it would arrive at our home just the minute it was available.  Now I am happily singing the songs and the praises of composer-lyricist Cyndi Lauper, who won the Tony for her achievement.  I love every single song in the show, with a particular soft spot for The History of Wrong Guys which could have been the anthem of my youth.  Even when I am not listening to the CD, which I often am, I am hearing the songs in my head.  

It does not always work out so well, though.  Not all the good songs are catchy and not all the catchy songs are good. My mind is like Pandora on shuffle, but I don't get to pick the artists.

For instance, Kopit and Yeston's Phantom is a good musical full of very beautiful songs that serve the story and the characters particularly well.  A couple of them moved me to tears.   

So, why is it that I had no memory of those songs literally the millisecond I left the theater?  Did I just dream that I saw Phantom at the Pittsburgh CLO?  Because that's what happens when I dream.  No matter how vivid, or good or bad a dream of mine might be, moments after waking I couldn't begin to tell you what it was about.

Mind you, not all the catchy songs that stay in my head are welcome there.  

The day after I saw Phantom  I watched the documentary ANNIE: It's the Hard Knock Life - from Stage to Screen on PBS.  Now, let me assure you that I admire the musical Annie very much. Why else would I watch this documentary?  Yes it is as cute as can be and a true crowd pleaser just chock full of adorable precious songs that will drone on in my head for hours - sometimes even days or weeks.  Sometimes in desperation I change the words to amuse myself (I'll stop hearing this song...TOMORROW...).

So now It's a Hard Knock Life (no one cares for you a smidge, when you're in an orphanage) was stuck in my head.  Oh, how I yearned for any one of those beautiful but obviously forgettable Phantom songs to replace it!

Now if I could just get the 15th movement of Rachmaninoff's Vespers to stick in my head.  No one goes around humming a high quality classical tune like that.

The (Scenic) Road Less Traveled

As much as Mr. Rip and I like our routines, we are never afraid to change it up.  Sometimes we are veritable trendsetters, blazing our own trail fearlessly.  Ask anyone  who attended our wedding.

Sometimes it's more random.  We don't exactly think outside the box so much as fall out of the box accidentally.

For instance, when we went to New Jersey over the Fourth of July to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday, we took one day to go into New York City to see a show. This is typical.  We almost always do this.

However, when I asked Mr. Rip what show would be his first choice at the TKTS booth that day, he boldly replied that he might like to see The Nance  with Nathan Lane.

The Nance?  I was shocked.

Mr. Rip went on to explain that it sounded like a really interesting story, the show and Nathan Lane got good reviews and Tony Award nominations, he had never seen Nathan Lane live and the show was only running until August.

Of course I understood all that and totally agreed with him.  Everything he said about The Nance was true, but no matter what else you want to say about it, it is NOT a musical.  You see, we usually see musicals on Broadway.  No, that is not true either.  We ALWAYS see musicals on Broadway.  I was thinking that it might be fun to see that new version of Pippin.

It didn't take me long to wrap my head around the idea of The Nance.  I was game to see a play on Broadway.  No one can accuse me of not being adventurous.

Well, Mr. Rip made an excellent choice.  The Nance had a little of everything - humor, drama, pathos, an incredible and unique scenic design, a bravura performance by Nathan Lane, and even some music in the burlesque show-within-the-show.  There was no way that any other production of this show would quite match what we saw on Broadway.   There's a reason I trust Mr. Rip with my life.

Now, we always take the same route to and from New Jersey - that is to say, the Turnpike.  We go straight to the Turnpike by the most direct route.  However, we went a little farther north than we should have yesterday on our way home.  Luckily, we are not the kind of people who let a wrong turn or a missed exit ruin our day, especially now that we now four devices between us with GPS capabilities.

I grabbed my Tablet and asked Mr. Rip what destination I should enter into the GPS app.

"How about our home address?" he replied.  "Let's see how it would take us home." That seemed logical, so I did.  

I don't know if  you know this, but there are roads other than the Turnpike that lead from New Jersey into Pennsylvania. We ended up taking a lovely scenic route back to the Turnpike which we picked up in Harrisburg.  We traveled some new roads, and at one point weren't sure what state we were in.  

We sampled a new taste treat at  a Burger King  in a Travel Station in New Jersey.  It was a cookie where crushed up Oreo cookies took the place of the chips in chocolate chip cookie dough.  I thought they should have called it the Best-of-Both-Cookies.

We ate lunch in a little family-owned diner in rural Eastern Pennsylvania that hadn't updated its decor in the 63 years of its existence, but served us some of our favorite comfort foods (turkey and stuffing for Mr. Rip and a lightly toasted BLT on white for me) just the way we like them.

Eventually we got back on Turnpike, and took our more familiar route the rest of the way home.   So the new adventures continue, but always in the same excellent company. 

Shut Up and Write

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.                                                                                                                                              - Voltaire

Last week during a trial about a lawsuit brought against her brother and her by a former employee alleging discrimination, celebrity chef Paula Deen was asked under oath if she had ever used the "N" word when referring to African Americans. She answered truthfully that she had.

Things went downhill from there for Deen, who went on to reveal some other questionable attitudes, with crazy talk of her penchant for things like plantation weddings. This all led to networks lining up to cancel her shows, stores dropping her products, and her publisher dropping production of her upcoming book.

Mr. Rip and I recently watched “Shut Up and Sing,” a documentary about the now infamous incident in March of 2003 when Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines said she was “ashamed that the President of the United States was from Texas,” (her home state) from the stage at a concert In London.

Things went downhill from there for the Dixie Chicks, one of the most popular country bands in America at the time. Country stations stopped carrying their songs, they had to cancel concerts, Toby Keith decided to take it upon himself to denigrate them in his concerts, and they received death threats.

I don’t know that much about Paula Deen. I don’t watch her shows, or buy her books. I didn’t know that much about the Dixie Chicks. I’m not really a country music fan.

Personally, I think that language can be powerful, dangerous, and polarizing, and we should all take care in the language we use especially when that language is aimed at people. To use clearly offensive language when referring any group of people is never okay.

However, I do believe in freedom of speech which is not for nothing a protected right in the U.S. Constitution.   In general, you should be able to say anything you want, as long as you don't act in such a way that is unlawful or discriminatory.   Also, in America we have the right to disagree with our leaders openly and vehemently.

Freedom of speech has always had some limits. You cannot slander someone else, and you cannot incite others to commit a crime, for example. Therefore, criticizing the president is okay; making death threats against the president or those who criticize him or her is not.

I will let the courts decide if Paula Deen was guilty of discrimination in running her business, but I cannot agree with taking away her livelihood because of something she said.   As far as I know, the Dixie Chicks just expressed an opinion; no one accused them of doing anything that was unlawful. 

It is a dangerous place to go when we start censoring words, ideas and opinions. If a consumer decides not to patronize a particular celebrity or artist because of their politics or opinions, then that is his or her choice. But they should make this choice; the choice should not be made for them.

In honor of Independence Day which we celebrate this week, let’s let Freedom of Speech ring throughout the land.