No longer personal...

100 deg F this afternoon - tears of humid joy roll down my back. I am relaxed. Bliss not on the dot. More like no desire for release, neither taking in nor giving out more than I need. Have what I want in the moment. Pleased.

I see the faces before me, living and dead, people I've known, people I've met, people are people and all have heads, regardless of anything else they've said.

Last night, a musical, serious not farcical. Somehow I feel falsified, like two lovers who've lost their passion, their lovemaking no longer personal (a line stolen from the movie, "Two for the Road"). A suffragette tale in all the 19th Century glory, sung to the tune of [name your favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein singalong], playing up and putting down.

Best voice/vocalization/emotions: Luz Tolentino-Ladrillono, playing the role of Lady Thiang. Second best (though short on the long notes): Marilyn West, playing Tuptim (her actor lover just shy of perfect harmony with her). Best lines: "This is a man you'll forgive and forgive,/And help protect, as long as you live..." Brought tears to my eyes, the singer capturing the moment and flooding my system with unbridled emotion, kitschy in words but not in feeling. The lead singers were good, too, but their roles stifled their talent. The young boys sang well and the young dancer, playing Eliza, pranced well, but the look in Luz's eyes and the sound of her voice will dwell in the house of utterly emotional illusions and batter my heart unexpectedly from now on.

In bed and getting comfortable before sleep brought out our symphonic nasal retorts, my wife and I ached for an updated version of this tale, perhaps a visiting emissary from Thailand providing a consulting role to the presidential mansion, educating the Obama children and giving advice on how to quell the masses on issues like healthcare reform, a satirical riff breaking down the fourth wall, designed for theater in the round, pulling the audience into the performance at key moments of the president's indecision, Rodgers and Hammerstein as spun by the Monty Python troupe and performed by the Capitol Steps.