~ Rainer Maria Rilke
Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Weekend Zen, December 29-30
~ Thomas Szasz
Friday, December 28, 2012
Daily Zen - Friday, December 28
~ Lao Tzu
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Daily Zen - Thursday, December 27
~ G.K. Chesterton
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Daily Zen - Wednesday, December 26
~ Jonathan Larson
Monday, December 24, 2012
Daily Zen (Light Week) - Monday, December 24
~ Stephen Chbosky
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Weekend Zen (Light Week), December 22-23
~ Maya Angelou
Friday, December 21, 2012
Daily Zen - Friday, December 21
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Daily Zen (Light Week) -Thursday, December 20
~ J.K. Rowling
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Daily Zen (Light Week) - Wednesday, Dec 19
~ St. Francis of Assisi
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Daily Zen (Light Week) - Tuesday, December 18
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
A kind comment from my friend Andrea Lueken, the upcoming Christmas holiday, and the bittersweet celebrations of the lives of twenty first-graders in Newtown, CT this week have all inspired me.
Each day from now until Christmas, we'll feature quotes about light: the light we have inside us, the light that shows the way, the unbearable lightness of being.
Thanks for reading.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Daily Zen - Friday, December 14
~ George W. Bush
Thoughts and condolences to the community of Newtown, CT.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Daily Zen - Thursday, December 13
~ Kahlil Gibran
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Turn It Up - Ravi Shankar and the Magic of Norwegian Wood
Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar died today in San Diego at the age of 92. Shankar, a celebrated figure in world music for decades, was best known for influencing The Beatles.
Shankar integrated the sound of classical Indian music into western pop throughout the 1960s and 1970s. My favorite example of Shankar in pop music is The Beatles' Norwegian Wood. It's a simple folk ballad that Shankar's sitar turns into something elegant and mystical. RIP Ravi.
Shankar integrated the sound of classical Indian music into western pop throughout the 1960s and 1970s. My favorite example of Shankar in pop music is The Beatles' Norwegian Wood. It's a simple folk ballad that Shankar's sitar turns into something elegant and mystical. RIP Ravi.
Daily Zen - Wednesday, December 12
~ Ravi Shankar
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Daily Zen - Tuesday, December 11
~ Twyla Tharp
Monday, December 10, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Weekend Zen, December 8-9
Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.
~ Jim Morrison
Friday, December 7, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Daily Zen - December 6 (Dave Brubeck Edition)
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Daily Zen - Tuesday, December 4
~ Phillip Pullman
Monday, December 3, 2012
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Hunter Parrish's Stunning Performance of Beautiful City
Actor - Hunter Parrish |
On my writing retreat in Arcata last month, I had no WiFi or cable TV. After long days of editing and writing, I rested my brain each night by escaping into an assortment of movies and television shows on DVD. There were several I enjoyed, but none more than the Showtime original series Weeds.
Weeds is a half-hour comedy-drama that stars Mary Louise Parker as an unlikely pot-dealing soccer mom, whose shady "business" deals and questionable parenting decisions constantly put her family at risk.
But this post is not about Weeds, or for that matter, about my time in Arcata. This post is about Jesus. Kind of.
Weeds co-stars a young actor named Hunter Parrish. In the series, the twenty-five year-old Parrish plays Silas Botwin, the oldest son of Mary Louis Parker who joins the family marijuana business.
Silas is not a character with great depth, and he's seldom given the best lines of dialogue in the show. His character is not especially bright nor does he possess any particularly interesting talents, with the notable exception of having a pot grower's green thumb. Oh, and a well-built torso that the producers wisely find ways to showcase every few episodes.
I don't mean to imply that Hunter Parrish lacks talent or that he turns in an inadequate acting performance. Weeds is well-written and Parrish makes the most of the material he's given as he brings Silas to life. But truthfully, after watching four seasons of the show, I assumed he was mostly cast as Silas because his blonde hair and buff physique were a good match for a shallow SoCal pot-growing college drop-out.
All of this is to say - I was shocked when I recently discovered through Twitter that Hunter Parrish also played the role of Jesus in the 2011 Broadway revival of Godspell. Based on his portrayal of Silas, I would not have guessed that Parrish was mature enough for Godspell or Broadway, and I certainly had no idea he could sing.
Just before I drifted off to sleep last night, as I lay in bed taking a last gander at Twitter for the day, I stumbled on a few references to Parrish's Broadway work. Those tweets ultimately linked me to a YouTube video of his performance of the song Beautiful City from Godspell.
Hunter's performance was so profoundly moving that I wept as I listened to him sing. I watched the video a second time, and I wept again.
This morning I researched how the song fits into Godspell. After Jesus (Parrish) becomes angry and turns over the tables in the temple, he walks away from his disciples. When he is later reunited with them, Jesus sings Beautiful City to try and restore hope to his followers. I watched the video clip again, and with the added context of the song's meaning, found it even more impacting.
A performance like this is a remarkable unexpected gift from the songwriter and the singer, and I for one, am grateful. I hope you like it too.
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