Blue

Sometimes, with my overwhelming lack of natural hormones, I have really low days. Conversely, I have really high days. Having “off” hormones is a bit of a bipolar, out-of-body experience. Often I have one single quote going through my head. It is from the brilliant Broadway show The Drowsy Chaperone by Lisa Lambert, Greg Morrison, Bob Martin, and Don McKellar. Man in Chair starts the show including  this gem: “Hello. How are we today? A little quiet? I’m feeling a little blue myself. You know, a little anxious for no particular reason, a little sad that I should feel anxious at this age, you know, a little self-conscious anxiety resulting in non-specific sadness: a state that I call “blue”. Anyway, whenever I’m feeling this way, blue, I like to listen to my music. So I was going through my box of records this morning – yes, records – and I was about to put on the 1962 sound track recording of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man – I had a craving for a young Ronny Howard. But then I said “no! Let’s have a treat! Let’s disappear for a while into the decedent world of the 1920’s. When the champagne flowed while the caviar chilled and all the world was a party” – for the wealthy anyway. So, I dug about and what did I find – but one of my favorite shows Gable and Stein’s “The Drowsy Chaperone;” Remember? Music by Julie Gable, lyrics by Sidney Stein. It’s a two record set, re-mastered from the original recoding made in 1928. It’s the full show with the original cast including Beatrice Stockwell as the Chaperone. Isn’t she elegant? This is a full 15 years before she became Dame Beatrice Stockwell. Can you believe it? Let me read to you what it says on the back – it says “Mix-ups, mayhem and a gay wedding!” Of course the phrase gay wedding has a different meaning now, but back then it just meant fun. And that’s just what the show is – fun. So. Would you … indulge me? Let me play the record for you. Please.” Isn’t it amazing how music can match ones mood? It can either lift my spirit, encourage the tears, or enhance the particular mood I am in.