Liars and Saints

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnZQL5XIouo An "I Am" song just expresses a feeling; in a musical, the speaker can simply address the audience. In "Chicago," when Amos whines about being "cellophane," he whines directly to all of us in our seats. "Feeling Good" (which also comes from a musical) is a song that does *not* address the audience. It's a song that addresses the natural world. Birds flying high-- You know how I feel. Sun in the sky-- You know how I feel. Breeze drifting on by-- You know how I feel It's a new dawn-- It's a new day-- It's a new life for me. And I'm feeling good. The speaker is celebrating because--now--she can "sleep in peace when day is done." What is so interesting is that the formerly oppressive force is never named. Why couldn't the speaker sleep in peace yesterday--or the day before? In Nina Simone's rendition, the song seems to be about race; "I have shrugged off the self-...

 I am so tired of thinking and hearing about Joe Biden. I am so angry that--through his self-absorption and intransigence--he is steering the country toward another Trump presidency. It seems insane to me that the country is where it is. I'm annoyed about Jill Biden--and her "Vote" dress--as well. So it was helpful to spend two hours in a theater, watching a film about death. Sam is a young woman struggling with cancer. She lives in a facility upstate, and she attends group therapy. In another life, she was a poet--and her nurse forces her to "share" her most recent lyrical draft. This place is shit. The food tastes like shit. The music is shit. Ben smells like shit.... Rather surprisingly, Sam agrees to attend a field trip to NYC; the reason is that she desires a Patsy's slice, a kind of "Last Supper." It's only after the lengthy, smelly bus ride that she discovers she is living through an alien apocalypse. And the question becomes, what will ...