16 Thoughts - Mar
Happy St. Patty’s Day! Here are some thoughts…
I went to a gathering held by the resistance singers this month in NYC. The chapter in MN has accomplished a lot over the last few months so I was excited to learn the songs and meet some people. If anyone is interested their next event is at Riverside Church - on Thursday March 19. I dk if I can go but I’d like to if I’m available. The one I went to was at Foley square and we marched around the plaza to the front of the Javits Federal Building. We had a good amount of people there too, Brad Lander showed up and led a song, and all the organizers were very nice and welcoming to me. There was one point, where the front of the march turned the corner, and the caboose was still on the previous block. The front started rushing (as us fronts do - heyooo aries season coming hot), and the back was lagging creating an incredible, naturally occurring round. Our voices carried through the streets with the buildings creating this cathedral effect. The harmonies bounced off the walls and the tall structures on either side kept the echoes contained. It was both dizzying and beautiful. There was a point where we were walking past an NYPD officer and as I sang I thought maybe I could catch his eye, but he kept them fixed past me. The look on his face I’ve seen thousands of times while I’ve sung before - the face of someone truly moved by sound and emotional message but not allowing their tears run.
2. I love that we got two Friday the 13ths in a row - thank you February for being short. But, also, dang February is short and I had to get a-thinking and most importantly, a-writing. I keep notes on my phone to help me organize these thoughts but really what I lack is the boredom time that I need in order to think. Boredom is severely underrated, even within myself. It is an absolute luxury and privilege to be bored. And unfortunately I’ve been a little too busy to be bored. Hence the thoughts trickling out on the 17th….
3. The winter olympics looked like a showing of the most spectacular ways to die quickly. Am I just getting older or does all of it look incredibly terrifying? Anyway, I hope Lindsey Vonn’s new leg fits well and her partnership with Satvaa comes in handy as she learns to walk again. Truly, I hope they’re all okay because, wow, I don’t know that I am after watching some of those crashes.
4. Detours don’t matter when you know where you’re going. That was the slogan on the poster for my senior year softball poster and I remember it feeling very motivating at the time. The previous year was the first time we didn’t make nationals and that year, my SENIOR YEAR, we were hosting nationals on our home field. I felt like, we took a detour the year before and then we’re definitely going back to nationals. Turns out it wasn’t prophetic at all - We finished the year .500 and didn’t make regionals. BUT that slogan has still stuck with me. Especially this month as I canceled and rescheduled concerts because of crazy weather or sickness or…
5. Head Lice. This is the month that I - almost 40 year old Rebecca Kidnie - got head lice. I have no idea where they came from, I have no idea how long I’ve had them, but I found out on average you have them for 4-6 weeks before you notice an infestation. I have been walking around doing all this life with bugs in my hair. Thankfully, I hired a wonderful woman to come clean out my hair and I got to practice my spanish. “No Preoccupado” she gently said to me as I cried and claimed I believed there was no stigma to being a great lice host.
6. Alright, head lice out of the way, now - Timothee Chalamet. So, he said he was glad he wasn’t in opera or ballet because he would feel too much pressure to keep it alive when no one cares about it anymore - while he’s simultaneously saying we have to keep cinema alive so his artform can have a place in the future. An ignorant thing that he regretted with a “no offense” and nervous laugh. A lot of opera companies are up in arms about the comment, and also using it as opportunity to capitalize. Anytime opera is a part of the zeitgeist is great for all of us. So, when I went to a voice recital recently and the host made a joke about inviting Timothe Chalomet I let myself think about this thought. His true insensitivity was to poke fun of something because he’s created hierarchy in his mind over art - which is a terrible stifle of creativity and something all of us can try to dismantle. My mind wandered and snapped back when the host made a joke at the expense of karaoke to uplift opera… and I thought - did you just Chalomet me?
7. I’ve been trying to take people in as they come by me throughout the day. I like to observe and try to perceive them without judgement and let me tell you - there are a lot of dopplegängers out there. Especially in NYC when you pass a gajillion people everyday. And again, it’s astonishing to me, when I look up from my phone, to notice how most peoples’ focus is compromised by headphones or screens.
8. Woo USA Hockey - I grew up in MN, went to the same high school as Herb Brook’s - his brother even built my parents house but I never played, oh - no thank you. But that’s the beauty of the olympics! It’s so nice having a moment of pride when the USA Women’s hockey team won gold that morning, and then the boys following suit… until. UNTIL. Until the damn patriarchy had to take the fun away and turn it sucky with Kash Patel chugging a beer on my dime while the world is on fire. Are we still mad about this? Were we ever mad enough?
9. Speaking of womens sports - Who knows if the WNBA is going to have a season! As of right now they have blown past their March 16th deadline (Ha! Me too!) and have not reached a deal. The players are asking for some actual bare minimum things - like free subscription to the streaming app so they can watch other games while they’re on the road. Lizzy K has a great breakdown on Linkedin which has a blog, of course! Love to see it.
10. Hitting two birds with one stone would have to be an incredible throw. Is that the best way to catch a bird? No, probably not. But think about how important a good pitcher is on a ball team - now imagine that kid can consistently hit two birds with one stone, enough that everyone starts talking about it and now it’s common lexicon. What an arm.
11. Lune d’avril from Poulenc’s Courte Paille lined up very nicely with Le voyage de la lune at Resounding Silents’ After Dark performance on 3/1 (not 2/22). Here’s a snip:
12. Wow, this time in 2020 was absolute chaos - can we take a minute to appreciate that? What do we really know about the lasting effects of not only long covid but also the isolation, the intense restructuring of time, and the paths that abruptly became dead ends never to be walked down again? I can see how my life has transformed but as a society can we ever really have the perspective? It kind of feels like everything is just as it’s always been, yet not.
13. I have been in big preparation mode. Rita is being edited and the puppets prepared, I’m lifting and working out so I stay strong enough to perform the whole fucking ring cycle (insanity), and I am eating my vitamins and trying to take care of myself all so I don’t get cancer in my 40-60s… or preferably ever. It’s hard to prepare for the future, especially for a kid who screamed NO DAY BUT TODAAAAAY for a decade straight.
14. This fertilizer situation has been very interesting to me. It first came to my attention because my kitchen smelled like a diaper. I thought perhaps the lice lady had shit herself but actually, my liquid fertilizer spilled in my cupboard. So after spending a morning getting bugs combed out of my hair, I spent an afternoon cleaning manure water under my sink. I was in a particularly hostile mood (sorry deb) and I started looking up replacing my fertilizer because as I said, aries season is right around the corner and my plants are all staring at me with hungry-for-new-dirt eyes. But can someone explain to me why so much fertilizer is dependent on Iran? I get oil but don’t we have enough cow shit in this country? Forgive me if I’m being horribly ignorant on global shit commerce but this is just a story that I keep seeing. Humans must look so stupid to any higher power as we literally shovel shit and kill each other over oil.
15. Okay, last women’s sport thought for the month - I was waiting for food at a restaurant near me and I was listening to the folks next to me because I’ve been taking people in (thought #7). The young woman was telling her two male companions that she had the best time with her girlfriends going to a womens college basketball game and that it made her feel so happy. “I just really enjoyed watching a day of womens basketball!” she said and the guy immediately said, “They’ll never pull in money like the nba” and I watched how the light and joy behind her eyes wilted. He changed the subject and missed a great opportunity to listen to a woman speak about women. Something men need to do a fuck ton more without dismissing them for not being men.
16. Let us not forget about the thousands of survivors and the brave fighters against the entire Epstein/Trump sexual predator situation. It’s crazy that they think starting WW3 will get Trump off the hook because it only adds to my rage. A global antiwar movement is beginning and funnily enough, all of this has been so good for my gym game. I listen to podcasts that fire me up and I’m lifting practically trucks over my head imagining protecting children from villains. I can’t wait for trials… when are they coming? Now? Yesterday? Not soon enough.
Woooooo See you next month on the 16th — it’ll be my bday so send me a card <3 Reb
