.SOMETIMES RAW.

“Let’s really look at one another!…It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed… Wait! One more look. Good-bye , Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover’s Corners….Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking….and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths….and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth,you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it–every,every minute? (Emily)”  – Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Hello!

I have written that I am in love with plays, broadway shows, musicals you name it because I love to watch humans act on stage. It is just so much more special for me than watching a movie. A couple of years ago I was fortunate to see “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder in this little tiny off-off broadway theater and it was hands down one of the best plays I have ever seen. Hello Waterworks throughout the play and definitely at the end all three times that I have seen it. It had such a deep impact on me that I of course purchased the book and re-read it once in a while just to feel happy. I have to say that I don’t usually re-read books? Do you? I have a couple of books that I love dearly and maybe read twice but that is it. “Our Town” is different. I just take it out of my bookshelf and browse through it occasionally. Today, I will describe what this magical play is all about and of course the creator behind it – Thornton Wilder. Read on.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was an American novelist and playwright. For “Our Town” he received the Pulitzer Prize – well deserved I think! He has won I believe three Pulitzer Prizes total. You can read more about him and his life here. I want to focus this article more on the play itself.

“Our Town” was first published and produced in 1938 and is a drama of life in a tiny village called Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire. My first impression was that everything was kept very simple. There was just no scenery. The book and the play are narrated by the ‘Stage Manager’ and he puts chairs and tables on the stage while you simply see an empty stage in a dim light. Instantly I thought this is awesome. Thornton focuses on so much more but scenery. The stage manager now explains where everything in this town is located. It is up to your imagination to “see” it or understand that a simple bench is the “Webb house”. I observed where the stage manager put all the chairs and benches and recognized this town. I saw how these people lived and I saw the houses. It was just so strange. The play’s focus is on life, love and death and that each life is special because everybody is unique and has their own little story.

I believe what Wilder tried to do was to make people appreciate the simple, small things in life again. Emily Webb and George Gibbs are the two main characters who guide you through the play. You learn about their childhood, marriage, their families and death. You see and understand through the play how fast time passes. You learn that it is very important to see the little and simple details in your life and to live in the moment. This is all that really matters anyway.  Looking closely, these simple details could mean a lot more than you think. You will get to know Thornton’s language in the dialogues  throughout the play which I thought was very beautiful.

Overall I can say that this book is amazing. Maybe try not to focus too much on the future and definitely not on the past. The past is gone and over and you will never get it back. I reflected on my life after reading the book and seeing the play and realized that while you are on this planet you might as well dance and enjoy a happy life! To live is just this wonderful thing!

Try and find out if this play is showing anywhere and go see it. It is so worth it! There is also a 1940s movie version of Our Town  that I watched and found that it was well done.

Thank you for reading my blog. 

“I stood alone in the kitchen, listening to the dim electric buzz of the clock as it secretly counted the seconds, the minutes, the hours. Briefly, I fantasized about slicing my mother’s finger off with the electric knife that was hanging by its cord from the curtain rod.” – Augusten Burroughs. 

Hello!

Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it. – Jules Renard. I picked up another book by Augusten Burroughs a while ago; actually when I wrote the first review on the book “Dry”. I read Dry and it blew me away. However, when I started Running with Scissors I constantly compared it to the first one. Reading Burrough’s memoir I thought many times how he gets away with things he writes about. How can he write about these people the way he does. It is sometimes really weird and shocking. Or is it indeed all true? In Running with Scissors he writes about his family – his mother who wants to be a famous poet but struggles and does not get published and his father who cannot deal with his wife’s craziness and drank himself out of the marriage.

At some point, Augusten’s mother starts seeing a shrink, initially to fix her marriage. The psychiatrist puts her on pills and she gets addicted. I thought it was very strange when I read that the mother gives Augusten away for adoption to her psychiatrist who lives in some sort of halfway house with his family “The Finches”. I recently heard of a lawsuit against Burroughs from said family (real name Turcotte family) for invasion of privacy and defamation. Burroughs describes in his book that the Finches say it is okay to have sex between adults and children, the psychiatrist’s wife eating dog food on the couch while watching a movie and many other weird things. Burroughs plays spends time with one of the Finche’s kids and plays ‘doctor games’ upstairs while using an electroshock machine that just happened to not work at the moment they attached it to his head. Or the part when he lives with the Finches at age 14 and a pedophile starts hitting on him and they actually have sex. I asked myself many times if these things he mentioned actually really happened. But that the Turcotte family deny certain things Burroughs wrote about is understandable. I mean, wouldn’t you deny things like that? 🙂

The author has very dry dark humor which is sometimes rather disturbing. It seems that he neither made peace with his childhood nor with his adulthood. While keeping diaries throughout his teenager life in Boston, Burroughs has enough material to write many more memoirs I think. Overall, I did not know what to make out of this book. Did Burroughs make up all his stories? Was it true?  You learn that life goes on and that if he made it so far with all he has been through – you can make it too. I actually found an interview on NPR with Burrough’s mother. Listen to it here if you would like.

Whenever you read a book, do you go to the to the end of it to see the picture of the person who wrote it? Or check out the dust jacket?  Sometimes in awe, sometimes in shock, sometimes in love?  While reading Running with Scissors I actually had to look at Augusten’s picture several times and wondered how this man still looks so put-together and normal after all he had been through.

Click here to purchase “Running with Scissors”. I also share the link to the movie if you are interested. An update that I just found out about on Facebook: Augusten Burroughs wrote a new book indeed. “Lust and Wonders” that will be released in March 2016. Pre-oder it here. 

Thank you for reading my blog. 

Hello!

My husband is back, which means my little life is a-okay again! I do appreciate life and the little things a lot these days and I am happy he made it home! Of course we are fine here and do our daily chores and have fun. But when he is back it just feels complete, you know. So this afternoon my son and I drove to the airport nice and early (German thing!) to pick him up and of course see the planes taking off and landing. My son was in paradise; running around all crazy. Whenever we are at the airport we do stop at Starbucks to get a latte for me and a Blueberry Muffin for him. This has become some sort of tradition. While strolling around with my latte,  I met a colleague from work too. How small is this world?

We are at airports a lot. Waiting for someone, picking up or dropping off people, but guess what? It never becomes easier. Especially not at JFK. I like to pick up my husband at the airport. The anticipation, all the people around me, flowers, crying, happiness – and then the doors open and there he is <3

And to spend the waiting period wisely and make it bearable, I observe. Observing and taking notes is something I love and have done for a long time. So while my son ran around with his stroller, I saw this man standing there with the ugliest flowers ever! Carnations you buy at the airport just suck! Period! He wore:  Black vintage cotton pants, a blue button-down shirt 70s style, a red cardigan and black shoes that were polished like there is no tomorrow. He just got a haircut – I could tell by the rashes on his neck. So he stood there, waiting. My first though was “It puts the lotion in the bucket”  and I almost forgot about my husband’s arrival trying to find out who this man is waiting for. I thought about some online affair he probably has and that he will meet this woman for the first time. The doors opened and his 80-year-old parents arrived from Russia. 😀 See, never judge people! For some reason I still think “Silence of the Lambs”, though.

Watching: I finally watched the documentary on Iris Apfel. She is amazing. Watch the trailer  to see her take on life and fashion.  One movie I can watch over and over is “Howl” which is about Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl”. Watch the trailer here if you would like. My husband told me about the movie “Hungry For Change” which I saw as well. I have seen a lot of movies on healthy eating, diet changes, food tips etc. and this movie is just really well done and researched. Watch the trailer here.  My husband will be at a training this weekend but I hope he won’t be too tired to watch “I Smile Back” with me. The movie is on iTunes now to buy or rent!

Reading: Currently, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami which is so so great and the book my husband sent: “Rat Girl” by Kristin Hersh. Yesterday I picked up Margaret Atwood’s “The Heart Goes Last” which I started last night and could not put it down. This is how amazing it is. I haven’t read good fiction like that in a long time. I will most certainly take it on our road trip to Canada tomorrow. Atwood is Canadian and lives in Ottawa, eh! I have not read any literature by Canadian authors yet I have to admit. I would love to hear any suggesting on Canadian authors. Feel free to share in the comment box below and enlighten me.

Traveling: I will be writing mostly from Canada/Ottawa for the next couple of days/weeks because my family and I have some traveling to do, university to check out, land to visit etc. I will try my best to write every day however. Commitment is key here.

Thinking: Of my friend who lost her husband. It is still so weird, unreal and strange that he is gone. Whenever my son and I visit her at her house, I feel he is right there with us. I miss him so much. He was such a good-hearted, great person and so awesome with my son. RIP!

Listening to: These days I fell back in love with Crosby and Nash! I saw  them in concert a long time ago and it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Here is one of my favorite songs I can listen to over and over again. I am not only reading Kristin Hersh, I am listening to her as well. Here is a great song by her with her band “50 FOOT WAVE”. My type of music for sure!

One last one: You gotta love Sharon Redd. The 80s were the best! Check out her song and the video “Love Insurance” here.  Have a great Friday! The weekend is around the corner. I just wanted to publish this post and saw that it is Friday the 13th. You don’t have to be superstitious but you can be a bit stitious 🙂

Thank you for reading my blog .