The Musical that Isn't

 Stuck for ideas today (again!) I turned to 5-minute daiy writing prompts and picked this:

"Brainstorm ideas for a quirky musical that, as far as you know, has not been written."

I love musicals. I grew up listening to the soundtracks of many musicals because my Dad also loved musicals. We had the songs from Carousel, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, South Pacific, and more that I don't remember at the moment on LPs. 

Most musicals, at least the old ones from my youth, came from books. I looked up lists of recent popular novels. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett has been made into an opera. We saw it at Lyric Opera of Chicago and liked it. 

But, a QUIRKY musical -- I want to take the character Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and put him in a story with Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and Sherlock Holmes. Data would be delighted to be paired up with Holmes since he has already played that part in the Enterprise's Holodeck. But Elizabeth Bennet? What would he make of her? 

The plot would need to be a mystery to solve. 

Imagine my surprise when I googled "mystery ideas with Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Bennet and Data" and found that there is already a series (two books as of now) of mysteries with Holmes and Miss Elizabeth! I only need to add Data. And this has morphed into a novel, no longer a musical.

Time travel has happened in the Star Trek universe, so Data will travel back in time to the Regency Era and meet Miss Elizabeth. At a ball? That he accidentally finds himself at? Data will understand much about this time period, but not how to act so as not to draw attention to himself. Sherlock Holmes needs a logical reason to be in this story so he can investigate this strange being. Elizabeth will be her normal witty and observant self -- but what will she make of Data? 

This sounds like a lot of fun.

One Little Word 2025

 I was reminded by some of the blog posts last week that I hadn't found a OLW yet. Starting to work on ideas, I tried out some ideas.

How do I feel about 2025? 

Apprehensive. That's a terrible choice for an OLW.

So I'm thinking about the things that are important to me. Family. Community. Connection.

Family. It's just me and my husband at our home now. Our son lives nearby with his wife and our grandson. Our daughter lives in Houston where she plays in the Houston Ballet Orchestra and teaches many many young French horn players. My brother lives in Omaha and my sister in Columbus, Ohio. I have a nephew in NYC and a niece in Minneapolis, as well as a niece in Chicago. My husband's family - brother, sister-in-law, and children - all live in the Chicago area. 

It is so much easier to stay connected now. My siblings and me plus spouses have semi-regular Zoom get-togethers. I am very fortunate that we all get along, in spite of significant differences. My brother-in-law is a retired Lutheran minister, while my branch of the family is Jewish. We have wonderful chats on Zoom.

My niece (my brother's daughter) is getting married this summer in the middle of nowhere north of Minneapolis. That will be lovely and a chance to see everyone in person. 

So thinking about what I just wrote, I think my word for 2025 is FAMILY. Keeping those connections strong. 

A childhood memory?

I was trying to think what to write about today. I consulted 642 Things to Write About and decided on this one: "Late one night, you discover an abandoned UFO in the middle of a field outside an abandoned farmhouse."

When I was almost 12, my family moved from a small town in Wisconsin to Cos Cob, Connecticut. It was suburban, being on the train line to New York City, where my father went to work each weekday. But it was also very country-like. Our neighborhood was heavily wooded, no curbs on the streets, and everyone had septic tanks -- no sewers. Also no street lights. It was a friendly neighborhood where most people knew each other. Our house was the last one on one side of the road and was next to a small woods. 

One night we somehow got the news that there was something mysterious happening at the end of the street that ran perpendicular to ours. It dead-ended in another wooded area. Reports were confusing - had something crashed? What?

My dad and sister and I walked around the corner and down to the end of that street. A small group of our neighbors were there. Something had happened. And I still don't know what it was. We all stood around for a while but nothing conclusive happened -- unless the adults were keeping it from us. I don't  think anyone called the police. (Though we had a policeman living next door to us.)

Guesses? Someone hanging out in the woods? Teenagers? A stalled car? A "traveler" bedding down in the woods? 

Memory is a tricky thing. The experts say that every time you "take a memory out to look at," you alter it. And when adults don't explain to you what is happening, that compounds the memory issue. And none of those adults are around anymore to ask, if they would even remember this. 

Maybe the best thing to do with this memory? Use it in a story. 

A bitterweet Christmas memory

 This past Sunday Heidi Stevens, a columnist with the Chicago Tribune, wrote about her memories of Christmas trees as a divorced mother and how holidays don’t always look the way you think they should. It inspired me to think back on a particular Christmas about 10 or 12 years ago.

While in college, our daughter was dating a delightful young man whose family lived in a Chicago suburb about 45 minutes away from us. On this particular December, his mother had passed away fairly recently and his father and brother were both out of town. So he ended up staying mostly with us. I will call him J in this post.

Well, we don’t celebrate Christmas. Our family is Jewish. (Full disclosure, I was raised Lutheran but converted. This background turned out to be a plus in this situation.) J was obviously sad, and none of us blamed him for feeling that way. We knew there was no way we could create a Christmas like the one he was missing. But we wanted to do something. I bought a tiny tree, about 3 feet tall. J brought back a couple boxes of tree decorations from his house, and he and our daughter decorated the tree. We had presents, because, Chanukah, so they went sort of under the tiny tree. 

J sat by that tree for hours. My heart hurt for him. We welcomed him and treated him like family, but that doesn’t replace one’s family of origin. 

Christmas ended and the kids went back to college. Life continued.

Update: J and our daughter ultimately broke up. We don’t have contact with him because it was too painful for him to see us after the break up. He seems to be doing well, now living in a different state, across the country from us. 

You can find Heidi Stevens’ Balancing Act on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/254414918544059/) and also on X (@heidistevens13)

Musicians in December

 It's the holiday season! And one of the things that means for musicians is concerts. I am a community musician, meaning someone who loves to play, and generally doesn't get paid to play.

I am a member of three musical groups - a community orchestra, a community band, and a (French) horn ensemble. The band used to give a holiday-themed concert, but voted to give it up years ago. My horn group gives two concerts a year, one being in December. The community orchestra I'm a member of also gives a December concert. And this year I'm helping out another community orchestra with their holiday concert. So, concerts on December 7, 8, and 15.

On December 7, I am playing Handel's The Messiah with the Waukegan Symphony. The most famous part of the Messiah is the Hallelujah Chorus, which will end our concert. The first part of the Messiah is about Christmas. The second part, which we are not doing, is about Easter. I did not know that Mozart had adapted Handel's original piece. Mozart re-orchestrated, adding horns, clarinet, oboes, bassoons, and flutes to the Messiah. If not for Mozart, I would not be playing the Messiah this month. We are also playing a Christmas carol medley and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy for piano, choir and orchestra. Whew.

The day before that concert, I will playing a concert with the Cor Corp, a (French) horn choir. We always give a December concert, not necessarily holiday-themed, but we usually include at least one seasonal piece. This year it's a very cute arrangement of Jingle Bells and also Carol of the Bells. We're also playing the Star Trek theme in honor of a departed member of the group. And "Band of Brothers" - what beautiful theme music! 

The next Sunday I will be playing a concert with the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest, not holiday themed, but we are playing music from the Nutcracker. Not so exciting for the horn section as we mostly get to play the upbeats in the waltzes.

I hope everyone will have the chance to hear some holiday music, no matter what holiday you celebrate.

Childhood Memory: building things

I was stuck today for what to write, so I got this prompt from 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts (a book): Write about your childhood experience with experimenting or building. Did you play with LEGO blocks, mix crazy concoctions in your kitchen, make bottle rockets, grow crystals from a kit, or build elaborate forts?

Well, there were no LEGOs when I was a kid. I did have science kits, which I enjoyed. I don't think I actually learned anything from doing the experiments. My sister and I would sometimes mix various liquids, all safe to drink but tasting horrible mixed together. But building things...

One year I made a castle for my little brother, out of cardboard boxes and oatmeal containers, the round ones. It had a drawbridge and the round towers. I don't remember much else about it except my brother loved it. We must have played with it quite a lot. Years later when our mother was doing triage (which she did regularly) she wanted to throw the old castle out. My brother protested and kept it. 

I don't know how long that castle lasted. Certainly when my parents sold the house in Connecticut and moved into a condo in Minnesota, the castle did not move with them. 

I asked my brother if he remembers the castle. If he responds, I'll add on to this post. 

What my daughter did to celebrate her birthday

 My daughter Jamie turned 34 last Saturday and she decided to celebrate by giving cake to homeless people. She told us this and we were naturally concerned about her safety. But, she assured us that she was taking three friends with her, including two young men, and that they would stay safe. [Spoiler: they were fine.]

She called us after the weekend to tell us about it. The four of them drove to places that they were pretty sure homeless people would be. The first place was deserted, but the second place, a park, had quite a few people. 

She said she walked over to people saying, "Would you like a piece of cake? It's my birthday." Nearly everyone said yes and some asked if they could have a second piece. She was happy to give them more. Her girl friend had decided to bring socks to give to the people they met and gave those out. 

The one man who turned down the cake told them that he has terminal cancer and no access to healthcare. He asked them to pray for him. From what Jamie told us, he seemed to be at peace with his life and future.

The four of them were so pleased with how successful the venture was that they decided to repeat on Sunday. So Jamie baked another cake, and they all went out again.

I know giving cake to a group of homeless people will not change the world, but maybe it cheered a few people for a little while. It makes my heart happy that she thinks to do things like this.