The Sprituality of Stories (And being slightly starstruck too)

Where does one go to eat after seeing Ira Glass speak at the Barclay Theater at UCI?
-Veggie Grill.

Where does Ira Glass go to get his take out after he speaks at the Barclay Theater at UCI??

You guessed it- a man after my own heart.

The show was amazing. He is such a normal guy, and yet the things that he says are both witty and really touching.

He started the show off in complete darkness, and talked about the fact that when listening to the radio all you hear is someones voice and how the lack of visual stimuli makes it a completely different medium. He said that he suggested doing the whole show in the pitch dark, but then the audience might not think that they were really there in the theater with him.

He went on a slight tangent about the television series the OC and knew a little bit too much about he show to not be embarrassed. He played the sound clip where they mentioned TAL on the OC and he said that he had to go back several times on the TiVo because he thought he must be imagining it.

I wish that the house lights had been up so that I could have written down many of the things that he said. He talked about the story of the Arabian Nights (I am not very familiar with the story, but there is a good synopsis on Wikipedia.) He talks about how the kings newest wife tells the king stories for 1,001 nights in order to keep him from killing her in the morning (as he did to all his other wives.) He spoke about how the king never killed her because her story telling and narrative made him not want to let her go, because he always wanted to see where the stories were going. He spoke about how after 1,001 nights the king has heard so many stories and has empathized with the characters so much that the hardness in his heart melted away and he no longer had the bitterness that has caused him to kill so many wives. The story made a very powerful statement for narrative and how we can learn to heal, and empathize, and to just been on the same wave length as other people by listening to their stories. And that is really what TAL is all about.

It was very touching, and kind of went along with the very spiritual morning I had in meeting- where people were relating to each other through their personal stories and seeing God in each person and their story. The essence of god in others. The essence of god in other's stories. The essence of a god exiting completely and wholly in the way that people relate to each other.

It is truly beautiful and more intricate than I can convey. And for today, for me, it is peace.

Verdi's Macbeth

This morning I saw my first opera ever. (On the big screen)

In case you haven't heard, the New York Metropolitan Opera- in a attempt to make it more accessible to people from different walks of life has starting a series of life broadcasts Operas that can be viewed for just over $20 in several movie theaters across the nation. In order to give even more people an opportunity to see these operas they have allowed several public schools to broadcast them for free, and the CNN broadcast they showed at intermission had some pretty decent (and also very funny) reviews given my some pre-teens that had just viewed Romeo and Juliet. I believe you can look at a schedule here.

When D first suggested the idea of seeing the opera on screen I was hesitant. I mean, it's like over three hours and in Italian and could have potentially been very boring. But I was pleasantly surprised. From the behind he scenes footage to the up close performances that could be seen by the camera- I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and although I am thinking seriously about purchasing a cheap seat to the L.A. Opera in the neat future, the fact that you don't need to dress up and that you can sneak your own snacks in and lean back in the chairs in the theater made this a really unitimdating first experience Opera that I will no doubt partake in again. Of the ones coming up I am especially interested in seeing Tristan and Iseoult and La Boheme. If anyone else is game let me know. The tickets actually sell out relatively early, and next time we will know to make it to the theater a tad bit earlier, but all in all I give if 5 stars.