Tonight I saw Boston University’s production of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette. I wasn’t really sure how to feel about it. I’ve seen 2 recordings of it and both I found a little hard to get through… I not too fond of French opera. Anyways, my biases aside, the two leading singer had fair enough voices, although not as strong as I was hoping. I was in the second row of the orchestra and had trouble hearing them at times and this was by no means a big theater.

The costumes, I will admit, were a disaster. In act one the costumes at the ball were all spectacular! All of them still classic costumes of the original time period assumed from Romeo and Juliet. All of the sudden people start appearing in t-shirts, business suits with ties and hair gelled back like some kind of cheesy mobsters.

Juliette was pretty enough. As for Romeo, all heard about during the intermission was his looks. Not the slimmest of people and with a nice big bald spot on the back of his head, he was not your stereotypical Romeo. I personally don’t judge by looks, because I know you can be the ugliest creature in all of God’s green goodness and still sing like an angel, and this guy did have some very impressive high notes.

Meanwhile I’m watching all of this through a harp as some genius decided to put the harp player on a podium so that the entire harp, the stand, and the harp player, are directly obstructing my view. Excellent!

And now for something completely different…

Earlier I did another 5.0 miles. I’m trying to get into the habit or walking and running right now. I’ve been recently inspired by the Boston Marathon and more importantly Eddie Izzard and his 43 marathon run with, what?, 6 weeks of preparation? If that can be done, damned near anything can. My goal now is to run a half marathon by late July. Perfectly doable with the right motivation. I’m notorious for being an inherently lazy person… not because I’m incapable of motivating myself, but because I honestly don’t care about fitness. Now that I have a desire to run a marathon it is certainly possible.

Using the pessimism of others to fuel the fire is always helpful. Needing the pessimism of others to maintain motivation, however, is just moronic.

Sometimes it is inspiring to be the only one who believes in yourself, though. Then again, realizing you’re the only one who needs to believe in yourself is far more enlightening.

Sore and in dire need of a massage,

-Zengelbert Bingledack