We were the self-identified band geeks, the freaks, the outsiders. The folks who stopped and watched a drum circle interrupting boardwalk traffic in Kitchener, Ont., or marveled at stumbling on a salsa party in the streets of Harlem years later, itching to jump in. Wouldn’t it fun to dance on the tables like in “La Vie Boheme” (which as an introvert, also terrifies me)?
Perhaps that’s why Jonathan Larson’s musical “Rent” resonated with this group of teenaged Catholic school girls, who played the soundtrack until it skipped; who assigned each other characters and memorized their parts, which they sang between band rehearsals; who texted “December 24th, 9 p.m., Eastern Standard Time” to each other on Christmas Eve; who still think back fondly of “Rent” for the friends it gave them.
“Rent” gave us a language “to express, to communicate …. to being an us for once, instead of a them” in our formative years. It was a place where everyone was accepted no matter how weird or different they might be.
I’ve been thinking about “Rent” recently. Because as Danielle Campoamor writes, “nostalgia serves as a kind of emotional pacifier.” Because it’s the musical’s 25th anniversary. And because it’s nearing “525,600 minutes” since the world as we knew it shut down (Lyrics like “Will I lose my dignity?” “Without You” and “Find the one song before the virus takes hold” hit differently when you’ve been reading about the 525,000 and counting deaths in the U.S. alone this year).
In a way, it feels like we’ve come full circle.
Last March, I was thinking of COVID-19 while was reading Rebecca Makkai’s “The Great Believers,” which delves into a group of friends, lovers and acquaintances living and dying from the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.
This March, I’m thinking of COVID while listening to the soundtrack of “Rent,” a musical about a group of friends, lovers and acquaintances living and dying from HIV/AIDS.
It’s as if the past and the future collided and no time has passed at all.
“How do you measure, measure a year?”
What I cooked:
Cabbage and mushrooms (amended from this non-vegan Chinese recipe)
Birria ramen (the secret to a vegan beefy soup flavor: hibiscus flowers)
What I loved this week:
Watching this mesmerizing video of Velveeta the snail watching Mini Brands go down a conveyor belt
“BedKitchenDesk” — this meditative whisper-chant of submerged daily (yes, I hear you, “The Daily" theme) “good morning” routines of the pandemic year
This lovely essay about a four-year-old kid who loves to take things apart
This recipe I want to try
These words on grief
This roving essay about love, commitment, marriage and grief that travels from “Seinfeld” and “Fleabag” to Seoul, Hong Kong, Texas and New York
This interactive that submerges you into a cold blob 800 feet below sea level
What the most interesting people are reading
This ugly immigrant blanket that literally saved lives (Full disclosure: Parents saved money by never cranking up the heat, but would haul these floral blankets out of storage every winter to make our beds with. Didn’t fully appreciate these — and how they apparently don’t exist on the Internet — until I read this article, which described them “like a warm hug from an angel.”)
This tip from Ann Patchett: “writing must be separate from editing, and if you try to do both at the same time nothing will get done.”
Morskjule, uendelig smerte, nullbutikk, friluftsliv nei and hundafvise.