I'm late (as usual) to all that is cool, hip, and trendy.
I mean, I knew what Hamilton was before seeing the traveling Broadway show.
I even own the soundtrack (although I had forgotten that I downloaded it).
I follow Lin-Manuel Miranda on Twitter, for pete's sake.
But I wasn't, like, gone over Hamilton.
I figured I would enjoy it.
I wanted to see it.
And so I did.
It blew my dang mind.
My neighbor (with whom I see the shows) encouraged me to listen to the soundtrack.
While I had listened to some of the most popular songs, I didn't listen to the entire thing for a couple reasons.
1. The school year is not over yet, and I'm still subbing, and DEAR GOD, when will this year end?
2. I have learned in my freelance work that I do a better job paying attention if I go in not knowing a whole lot. I don't do a ton of prep work on the front-end of interviews because I ask better questions if I don't do research and "know everything." I fact-check on the back-end. It seems to work for me. (I make a lot of assumptions otherwise. Also, thank goodness I'm not an investigative journalist because I would suck.)
I don't know that I would have "gotten" anything any better had I pre-listened to the entire show's soundtrack because there are so many performer subtleties (in the form of body position and facial expression, etc) that make the lyrics even better.
And then there was that moving floor, which made the choreography and execution of the choreography mind-blowing.
I just kept thinking about how much practice the performers had to do in order to keep the song lyrics in their heads and keep their feet working in sync and not tripping over the moving floor at the same time.
So, I was gobsmacked, to say the least.
What I left with was a musical that is a love letter to the United States.
That's how I think of Hamilton.
That may sound sappy or sentimental, but I feel like the emotions it left me with, the pride it led me to feel in this country (or at least it's origins since the current state of things is lacking in.....ahem, intellectual rigor and exquisite communicative ability), makes it more profound than any national anthem I've ever been part of or witnessed others half-assedly sing
and any Pledge of Allegience I've said by rote.
Watching Hamilton made me proud to be an American and to believe in the American dream (even though I know the union is flawed and America is not perfect and has sometimes been downright cruel to its own citizens, when it deigned to even consider them citizens and not property and that politics has been nasty and brutish.
Hamilton made me see the ideal for a few hours on Tuesday night.
I mean, I knew what Hamilton was before seeing the traveling Broadway show.
I even own the soundtrack (although I had forgotten that I downloaded it).
I follow Lin-Manuel Miranda on Twitter, for pete's sake.
But I wasn't, like, gone over Hamilton.
I figured I would enjoy it.
I wanted to see it.
And so I did.
It blew my dang mind.
My neighbor (with whom I see the shows) encouraged me to listen to the soundtrack.
While I had listened to some of the most popular songs, I didn't listen to the entire thing for a couple reasons.
1. The school year is not over yet, and I'm still subbing, and DEAR GOD, when will this year end?
2. I have learned in my freelance work that I do a better job paying attention if I go in not knowing a whole lot. I don't do a ton of prep work on the front-end of interviews because I ask better questions if I don't do research and "know everything." I fact-check on the back-end. It seems to work for me. (I make a lot of assumptions otherwise. Also, thank goodness I'm not an investigative journalist because I would suck.)
I don't know that I would have "gotten" anything any better had I pre-listened to the entire show's soundtrack because there are so many performer subtleties (in the form of body position and facial expression, etc) that make the lyrics even better.
And then there was that moving floor, which made the choreography and execution of the choreography mind-blowing.
I just kept thinking about how much practice the performers had to do in order to keep the song lyrics in their heads and keep their feet working in sync and not tripping over the moving floor at the same time.
So, I was gobsmacked, to say the least.
What I left with was a musical that is a love letter to the United States.
That's how I think of Hamilton.
That may sound sappy or sentimental, but I feel like the emotions it left me with, the pride it led me to feel in this country (or at least it's origins since the current state of things is lacking in.....ahem, intellectual rigor and exquisite communicative ability), makes it more profound than any national anthem I've ever been part of or witnessed others half-assedly sing
and any Pledge of Allegience I've said by rote.
Watching Hamilton made me proud to be an American and to believe in the American dream (even though I know the union is flawed and America is not perfect and has sometimes been downright cruel to its own citizens, when it deigned to even consider them citizens and not property and that politics has been nasty and brutish.
Hamilton made me see the ideal for a few hours on Tuesday night.
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