Drama @ MindSay

I love, love, love So You Think You Can Dance.  I’m ecstatic that there will be a fall season.  Where else on TV can you watch a program with such raw talent, raw emotion and genuine drama?

Last night reconfirmed for the millionth time why I love So You Think You Can Dance.  Where else on TV can you experience the range of emotion that comes from So You Think You Can Dance?  For 2 hours I laughed hysterically at corny Ellen.  For 2 hours I recommitted to my work out schedule after watching those dancers bodies.  For 2 hours I sat stunned at the level of skill displayed by those dancers.  For 2 hours I sat screeching at my TV over the bad song choices displayed last night.  For 2 hours I sat crying over the beauty of the breast cancer piece.  It was exhausting.  I’m drained. 

Where else on TV can you witness genuine displays of unscripted emotion?  Sweet, caring, loving emotion.  Not the screaming, bleepity, bleep, bleeps of most reality tv.  Where else on TV can my family sit together and all be entertained?  Where else on TV can my kids see adult men reacting emotionally and it’s ok?  It covers the entire gambit.  Stellar choreography, stellar dancers, thoughtful, intelligent, charismatic judges, and the ubersweet, without being obnoxious, Cat Deely. 

I cannot say it enough, I love, love, love So You Think You Can Dance.  I can’t wait for tonight’s show. 

FYI, there’s a one hour Jon and Kate Plus Eight episode tomorrow.  A “special announcement” will be made.  I’m on pins and needles wondering what it is.  Maybe Kate has come to her senses and is leaving the show to work on her marriage.  Though my husband said he read somewhere that Jon was seen apartment shopping in NYC.  Hmm.  Can you fit 8 kids into an apartment in NYC?  It doesn’t look promising. 

This story has captivated my family.  We have never been viewers of the show until all the controversy.  I hate to think that we’re ambulance chasers.  We are all transfixed by this story.  My 11 year old daughter watches old episodes constantly.  We’ve had a JK+8 marathon going since school got out.  She reports that she will be very sad if the news comes in that they are splitting up.  She is deeply invested in this show.  I don’t have an explanation for it but she is.  My husband follows the show as well.  He is the bearer of bad news in this scenario.  An avid reporter of the latest gossip and fiascos that embroil this family.  He is invested in the show as well but more in an “I told you so” kind of vibe.  It makes me nervous.  Does he see himself in Jon and therefore relishes in the possibility that Jon may have finally gotten some cahones and is leaving Kate?  Hmm.  I’m transfixed as well.  When everything started to fall apart I was very unsympathetic towards Kate.  Definitely in Jon’s corner.  Probably because I do see a little of myself in Kate.  The worst part of myself.  Now though I’m just sad.  As I think we all are.

This relationship is so symbolic of many of us married with children.  Jon and Kate have lived out publicly a lot of our fantasies.  Fantasy’s of fame.  Fantasy’s of fortune.  And now we get to live vicariously through them and see the pitfalls these fantasies bring.  Now I only feel sadness that this average, ordinary couple is truly that, average and ordinary.  With all the same problems we all have.  Disappointment in our partners.  Disillusionment in our partners.  Boredom with our partners.  Mixed in with good times and good fortune of course but ordinary all the same. 

I really hope this family can manage to work it out.   With the whole country watching them and seeing how this thing is going to play out, wouldn’t it be magnificent if they could get it together and stay together?  Happily?  They have allowed us to be voyeurs in their family and we now have a stake in this family.  If they can make it work, that means all of us average, ordinary couples have a shot at making it too. 

Who has f*ckn seen Oshin? Do you love it? I love Oshin.  It is my favorite Japanese TV show

I want oshin on dvd with English subtiles.  That would be sweet.  It was like the highest rated dorama ever in Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAAjm7shOR8

 

Oshin the japanes drama takes place in Yamagata Prefecture in the early 1900s.

The Mogami River (最上川 ,Mogamigawa?) is a river in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. It is 224 km long and has a watershed of 7,040 km². It is regarded as one of the three most rapid rivers of Japan (along with the Fuji River and the Kuma River).

The river rises from southern Yamagata Prefecture and flows to the north, and turns into the west at Shinjō and falls into the Sea of Japan at Sakata. Water transportation once flourished on the river and carried local products such as safflowers and rice to the Kansai region.

The noted Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō travelled along the river and wrote a famous haiku:

五月雨をあつめて早し最上川
Samidare o atsumete hayashi Mogamigawa
The Mogami River, gathering rain of May and even more rapid
Mogamigawa is also the name of the anthem of Yamagata Prefecture written by Emperor Hirohito. The Japanese Navy had a cruiser named Mogami.

 

I love Oshin

So my friend Tawny is a bit of a drama queen.  Not over the top, dysfunctional.  Just enough to make her fun.   She’s a romantic at heart and thrives on a little drama in her life.  Fortunately or unfortunately she’s married to a man who could care less.  Tim has no ego.  Hard to believe for a man.  He has very little demands in terms of a relationship.  He’s into peace in the home, a little loving every now and then and someone to hang out with.    He’s a good man.  Those are his needs.  He doesn’t ever check up on Tawny.   He doesn’t question Tawny.  He accepts Tawny for who she is.  Period. 

Tawny may be in love with another man.  We’re not sure.  Tawny has a “love of her life”.  It’s not Tim.  Tawny is the type of woman who has a “love of her life”.  Tawny has been pining for the love of her life for 20 years.  She’s been married to Tim for the same.  Jax is not the kind of man that Tawny thinks she needs.  He’s single.  He’s never had children.  He’s expressed his interest in Tawny over the years.  They’ve kept in touch.  Sometimes innocently, sometimes not so innocently.   Tawny has moved on in her life from the time she and Jax were together.  In an attempt to not sound cliché, he’s the small town boy; she’s the big city girl.   They live very different lives.  Lives that Tawny purposely fled.  She doesn’t want that small town life.  She needs more.  She truly appreciates and is grateful for the stability of Tim.  As mentioned, Tim is a good man.  A good father.  A decent provider.  He’s fun.  He’s kind.  He gives her everything she thinks she needs.  But she wonders if he gives her everything she thought she needed.   Does she need passion?  Does she need the drama that Jax provides?  How important is drama and passion in a relationship anyway?  Of course it depends on the individual but if you are a person who needs it, is that need something to overcome or something to indulge?  Is it more mature to deny it or more mature to embrace it?  I’m not sure. 

Does everyone have “one true love”?  Do you stick it out for practicality or do you go for it?  Tawny thinks she could never leave Tim for Jax.  Should she?  I don’t know.  She wouldn’t leave Tim because of practical concerns.  Jax can’t provide as well as Tim.  She couldn’t live in the town he lives in, so where would they live?  Tim and Tawny do have a child together. She couldn’t take her from Tim.  So it’s a moot point.  She does love Tim.  But just not in that “the one” way.   It’s a moot point.  Right?   Our friend Michelle thinks it’s a moot point.  She claims vehemently that it would be selfish to leave.  She would never leave her husband for another man no matter what the circumstances because that would be “selfish”.  She came from a divorced home; she could never do that to her children.  Or her husband.  I argue that it’s the epitome of selfishness to not leave.  Or maybe to not bring the matter up for discussion.  By not offering full disclosure are you not taking away the ability of your partner to perhaps find “their one”?  Taking away their chance at being loved and cherished in a way that you can’t provide?  Because you have determined that keeping it hidden is the “right thing to do”.   You have made the choice and therefore taken away a choice.   Would you want to know if you weren't the one? 

Perhaps it’s simply cruelty and immaturity.  I mean really.  When we’re supposedly “grown ups”, what is the “grown up” way to behave?  Do we come to terms with choices and decisions we have made and live the best life we can under the assumptions and conditions of said choices?  Is Tawny simply being childish?  Get real here.  That was many years ago.  Tawny is an admitted drama queen.  Maybe she simply needs some drama.  Maybe the idea of “the one” being out there and unattainable is enough for her.  Enough to keep her going in her marriage.  Is that the goal?   To make the best of what we’ve got?  Turn lemons into lemonade?  Be happy with what you have?  I can’t think of any more clichés.  Or is the goal to “live your authentic life”.  I’ve never really known exactly what living “authentically” really means.  I don’t think I’m deep enough.  Does Tawny embrace who she is, what she needs and go with it?  Do we follow our one true voice in this one and only life we have?   What hurts more, to be dumped or to live a lie?  And what is the lie?  Hmmm. 

28th March 2009 Saturday

Ek was nice to talk to, we talked about everything I missed at the event the day before (involving Ethan Hawke) though talking to him would mean talking in his accent, everything was cool because E appears to be nice. We walked to our Drama class and carried on talking.

While we entered class, B said hello and we started all exercises. I think I am beginning to imagine B's feelings. How he's sniffling like me, when I had a flu, or is it just a coincidence? How he did not refer to me as boring, during our character play, or maybe he did, just that I didn't notice? I didn't get to talk to B much this very day. It's a sense of weirdness, but also I am coming to realise that there really isn't anything much going on. I truly do not like like B, thank God!

Et referred to me as 'pretty' during our character play. This makes me all worried as to whether he was truly playing within character or speaking in real life context as well. I hate how my head bloats to the size of a floating elephant, because with him making that comment, there I am thinking: So does B think the same way?

29th March 2009 Sunday

J said hello to me. It's more of I initiated the greet first though, but either way, we actually talked. Acting rashly and planning on my fastest way out of this bump-into-each-other, I might have appeared to be ignorant and uncaring, since I allowed the door to close on a fellow choir member. :/

Still, my point is that J said hi!

30th March 2009 Monday

I text Ws to let him know how my band did in the competition. He gave neutral replies, and we started to talk about his band and their possible results. He said "Wanna bet on it?", and so I agreed and ask "Bet on?" He never answered my question. I guess he by now is afraid enough to place a bet on something, and even if I win or he wins, let's say a movie treat, we both would have to go out again, as friends, and the awkwardness start all over again. And moreover, I have the gut feeling that he doesn't like my company any longer.

As much as it hurts to say this, I miss our best buddy times together. I really do.