News

In NIXON IN CHINA, Nixon's first lines are:

News has a kind of mystery.

When I shook hand with Chou En-Lai

Just now on this fair field outside Peking

The whole world was listening.

And though we spoke quietly

the eyes and ears of history

caught every gesture and every word.

Transforming us as we transfixed.

Made History.

No recent current event illustrated the meaning of these lyrics more than the royal wedding. OF COURSE I woke up to watch it - I love England. I love royalty. I love current events. I love things that sparkle and involved pomp and pagentry. I love HUMONGOUS theatrical productions. I love history. I love pretty classical music. I love fairytales. And apparently so do 3 billion other people.

Every bride (I hear) goes a little crazy wanting her wedding to be perfect, but it is really an intimate bond between two people. And - well - that's what it was for Wils and Kate. But as they went about their "intimate" little party - news stations LITERALLY hired lip readers to translate what the newly weds were saying to each other that the microphones couldn't pick up! One of these RIVETING conversations went something like: W: Do you like balloons? K: Yes. W: They are about to release a bunch. This has got to be one of the most inane conversations of all time - and yet - lip readers were hired to "translate" it - and THEN royal "experts" were brought in to "analyze" it - and 3 billion people (pathetically myself included) CARED! To quote Nixon in China again: ITS PRIME TIME IN THE USA!!!!!!!!

News is CRAZY. It TELLS us what we need to think is important. It tells us who "experts" are - whose "opinions" we should listen to. It cuts, it splices, it analyzes, it interprets, bends, molds, highlights, and accentuates according to its own agenda. And truthfully - a great deal of the news we put on our front pages - are as simple as an every day - unmemorable handshake between two guys meeting eachother at a bar. Only the world press is present - to make it "important" and to make us care.

Honestly, do I feel like I was taken away to a MAGICAL place by the royal wedding? Absolutely not. In truth - after watching THE LITTLE MERMAID on Broadway 6 times - this wedding was a downright let down. (They had a FABULOUS wedding at the end of MERMAID - completely with all the magical sea creatures sprouting legs and humans being able to breathe underwater - and all the mermaids and men danced and sang together in front of a MARVELOUS glittery backdrop whilst a PART OF YOUR WORLD reprise was sung by my beloved Sierra and Fabrizio. This had kinda boring music and a total lack of glitter - and what it resulted in was me being RIDICULOUSLY exhausted and sleep deprived for everything I ACTUALLY had to accomplish today. (COME ON MET! HIRE ME AS AN ACTOR!)But I got swept away by NEWS - and it's MYSTERY!