sarah HANNAH gómez
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I leave tomorrow morning for New York. Wednesday I fly out to Israel. I’m still not really packed, and I have to clean my house. Tomorrow morning is going to be a blast.
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Every time I watch “The Sound of Music” again, I insist that I’m just a sappy dork who loves it, and it’s not actually a good movie. But nope. Wrong. It’s totally fabulous.
I am calling shenanigans on some parts of it, though. I always used to fast forward through “Something Good,” when Maria and the Captain finally get together, because love scenes were gross and made me feel uncomfortable (a scene in “Beethoven’s 2nd” also always had to be fast forwarded). My roommate and I are watching now, and it is reassuring–but also terrifying–to see that even old people still get awkward when talking to whomever it is they like. The Captain says, “You know when I first started loving you? The moment you sat on that ridiculous pine cone.” And Maria says, “I knew the second you blew that silly whistle.” Bull! There’s no way.
But in just about every other way, “The Sound of Music” most definitely deserved its five Oscars. As it happens with most films I’ve seen a million times since childhood, I notice something new each time I see it. I pick up on things that Elsa picks up on all along, and things that she kind of mentions when she and the Captain break off their engagement. I guess it’s easier to notice that sort of thing in a movie when you reach the point of your life that you can hear it in real life. You see every time the Captain does glance at Maria instead of Elsa. It makes you realize how hard acting really is. And how sad and complicated sex and love are.
I’ll admit it: not only do I kind of like Christmas music, but I have an entire Christmas music playlist on my iPod. And entire Christmas albums by some artists, namely Mariah Carey and Destiny’s Child. I have just come to the realization that it is now mid-December (ish) and it is at least somewhat acceptable to be listening to Christmas music.
This is where Christian music doesn’t suck, I think. Because, having done a variety of music in choir over the past two and a half years, I can tell you that a lot of Protestant music, when it’s not of the Southern Baptist persuasion, is just not very pretty. Sorry. But it all sounds the same, and it gets boring and ugly to sing. I’m all about Catholic masses or a good spiritual, but wishy washy gospel is pretty uninteresting.
Christmas music, too, when sung by common people, reminds me of “The Star-Spangled Banner”–meaning that it can suck. A lot. Without even trying. And there’s plenty of crappy Christmas music, just as there is plenty of crappy music in just about every genre. I just finished a paper on Sephardic ballads from medieval Spain, and some of them are pretty unattractive, too. So I’m not being biased. There is always good music out there, and there is always ugly music out there as well. But people who are trained to be singers, especially those who also have some extra talent in writing and arranging, can do pretty fabulous version of good Christmas carols. And, because I am a desert girl who never gets to experience white Christmases for herself, it’s all I can do to secretly listen to carols on my earbuds.
American Christmas is a secular holiday anyway. Consumerism, pretending that Hanukkah is an important holiday, drinking eggnog AND eating potato latkes, and buying presents for everyone just because it’s fun. Finals are almost here, but at least classes are done, so I’m not going to stress. Hello, December.
the belzhar
february reading in review
what else i’m up to, and where
the walls around us
i accidentally secretly watched the entire twilight saga
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