Musicals and Illness

Today's Workout

Time: 20:00
Distance: 1.70 miles
Top Speed: 6 mph
Calories: 175
Weight: 165.2 lbs

At lazarusrat's request, I won't be putting stats behind a cut tag. If folks have a problem with it, let me know and I'll just create a filter.

Couldn't manage the whole 30 minutes today. I was wearing boxers instead of boxer briefs, so there was...bad stuff happening, and my calves are burning like mad. I still think it's not enough water, but it might be fatigue as well, so I'll take Sunday off, rest up a little bit and hit it like mad on Monday.

This first week has been pretty surprising. I didn't think I'd be able to run as far as regularly as I have been, so that's definitely a plus. Though the fact that I've somehow *gained* 3 pounds over the week makes me cast a rather suspicious eye on my diet. Am I not eating right? Not eating enough? What the hay is going on here?? I've dropped almost all fast food (literally, the last time I had any was about a week ago, when Tube and I went to Taco Bell), and the food I've been eating at home hasn't been really terrible. I'm kinda scratching my head over that one. Maybe the weight will come down once I start working, and doing a lot more moving around.

Tube and I tried to watch Evita last night, only I started nodding off about 40 minutes in, during one of the best parts. I'm sure this frustrated the otta to no end. ;) The music was actually very good, with just enough Latino flare to spice up the traditional musical arrangements, and the visuals were quite nice as well. The more musicals I watch, the more I'm able to pin down why they don't grab me in a particular way. I think it's just...too much music for me to really connect with. For me, music is...a sort of climax in a movie. You use it sparingly when something major or very exciting is about to happen. When a musical goes from one song to the next to the next, it strikes me as...kind of bombastic. It's all loud, and there's lots of noise and dancing and many other words, it just tires me out pretty quick, I guess. I keep trying to think why something like Moulin Rouge worked for me and most others don't (including, say, Rent), and I think it's just...the value of the spoken word. The characters in Luhrmann's movie lived in a world that was undoubtedly chaotic, but they gave a go at speaking and when they simply *couldn't* express things in any other way, they resorted to song. It gave the music a certain purity, like...these stratospheric emotions I'm having can't simply be *said*. They must be *sung*.

Then there are the...I guess we'll call them modern-day operas. Every piece of dialogue is sung. You have to rely on the lyrics for characterization, plot advancement, context...everything. You also have to keep up with the visual tone, the instrumentation, the arrangement. In most cases, it's just too much. I appreciate...variation, an alternating between word and song. This might make me look slow or uncultured, but that's fine. :) I think I'd like the cast recordings of musicals a lot better than sitting through one, perhaps. It's much easier to focus on the lyrics, which I'd prefer to do anyway.

That being said, I do like Evita, and I plan on watching it. But maybe with breaks every half-hour or so. :)

I had a dream last night about the Bookshop. I was wearing brown short shorts, and late for work. I went to this restaurant on Dickson St. that only exists in my dreams; they make Old World Pizza from scratch, in brick ovens, and the list of toppings reads like an encyclopedia of vegetables and herbs. I was ordering a personal pizza for breakfast, and some root beer for the folks at the shop. For some reason, the cashier just could not get my order right, and this made me even more late. When I finally got there, I was kind of depressed for some reason, and then started feeling really ill by the time I started shelving books. If I were into dream interpretation, I'd say this might be a sign that trying to get another job in used books might not be the best thing right now. But what does my subconscious know?

Now, on to breakfast. Which will probably be two grapes and a cup of yogurt. ;)