Anyone watch the Grammys last night? I didn’t get to watch in real time but my heart thrilled knowing it was happening – our beloved Hamilton was playing the Grammys! #Gram4Ham – We Won!
Then I kicked rocks because their performance reached an even wider audience, thus making it 10,000 times harder to get tickets. And I’m about to do my own plug to make it that much harder for me to get that #Hamiltunes #Ham4Ham love. Because I’m selfless like that.
If you’re a money nerd, this is for you.
If you know the hustle and grind, this is for you.
If you’re an immigrant’s kid relate to the immigrant experience, this is for you.
If you love the spirit of freedom and independence, this is for you.
If you just plain love catchy music, this is absolutely for you.
How does a bastard, orphan son of a whore
And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean
By providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?
The 10 dollar
Founding father without a father
Got a lot farther by working a lot harder,
by being a lot smarter
By being a self-starter
I’ve said it before, I think Hamilton is sensational. It’s not just clever, it’s smart. It’s funny without sacrificing gravitas; it’s culturally present; it’s engaging and, though there is obviously some creative license taken, it’s American history on the stage.
I’ll call Lin-Manuel Miranda the genius that he is in my tone-deaf world where my own baby reacted to lullabies with a “ehhh maybe don’t sing me to sleep momma” face. Let’s just not forget all the craftsmanship that went into bringing Alexander Hamilton to life.
Hamilton was an immigrant (“…bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman…”) with vision, ambition, drive. He served as Washington’s military aide, then became our first Secretary of the Treasury, facing down detractors in Washington’s Cabinet to create a strong centralized banking system, making enemies as fast as he made friends. He fought for the US Mint, and he made the repayment of the national debt his first priority. (That’s for us money nerds.)
Thomas. That was a real nice declaration
Welcome to the present, we’re running a real nation
Would you like to join us, or stay mellow
Doin’ whatever the hell it is you do in Monticello?
If we assume the debts, the union gets
A new line of credit, a financial diuretic
How do you not get it? If we’re aggressive and competitive
The union gets a boost. You’d rather give it a sedative? – Cabinet Battle #1
For the hustlers and the grinders, those who work their butts off, not for fame or glory but to get the job DONE? Hamilton was your guy.
Alexander joins forces with James Madison and John Jay to write a series of essays defending the new United States Constitution, entitled The Federalist Papers. The plan was to write a total of twenty-five essays, the work divided evenly among the three men. In the end, they wrote eighty-five essays, in the span of six months. John Jay got sick after writing five. James Madison wrote twenty-nine. Hamilton wrote the other fifty-one!
Alexander Hamilton was far from perfect and Lin-Manuel’s portrayal is honest, highlighting his flaws alongside his gifts. Arrogant, reckless, idealistic, visionary? He was all those things.
But as much as I adore the music, the lyrics, the beats, the way my kid will stand up to clap, laugh, and dance to it, my heart is most drawn to how this all happened. There’s something magical about how unmagical this was.
Miranda, having written the Tony-winning musical In the Heights, picked up the 600+ page Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow for some light vacation reading. Some 50 pages into the book, he was incredibly excited by the notion that this would make a great musical, set to hip-hop lyrics. Miranda couldn’t believe this wasn’t already a musical! Granted, this was his day job but I think it takes a rare mind to see a musical in a several hundred page biography.
This didn’t happen in a vacuum, mind. Miranda’s been in the business, he’s been part of the comedy/improv rap troupe Freestyle Love Supreme for years, and he worked on this while he was also still working on In the Heights.
I repeat: writing Hamilton was his side hustle while performing in the Tony-winning musical that he wrote.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and persistence
Here’s that tumblr link: http://lemonyandbeatrice.tumblr.com/post/139444582196
He was hooked in 2008 and by 2009, he was testing his audience, rapping out what would become the first song of the whole musical at the White House, no less.
Compare, if you will, the differences between his early draft here, and the eventual final opening number.
The show opened at The Public Theatre in February 2015 and was such a resounding hit that the run was extended, then extended again. By July 2015, it opened in the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway and it’s apparently a nearly impossible ticket to get. That’s only the start.
In 2017, they’ll be playing in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles. There’s already a cast recording, and there’s talk of an original cast movie. (Please make it so!)
Sidebar: I REALLY want to see the original New York cast. I’ve fallen head over heels for them, between their Ham4Ham shows for the Hamilton ticket lottery, their work together as a diverse cast that feels much more like the America I know, and truly dear to my heart, their good work in the community.
Immigrants, we get the job done!
Miranda’s a veteran in the business but his excitement at the success and opportunities are heartwarming for a fellow hard-working immigrant’s kid. I don’t need to know critical acclaim to remember feeling the wonder of success.
I’m smitten and inspiration-struck when the words and the music that he wrote are brought to life by the incredible talent of men and women of the Hamilton cast.
He translated the life and times from Revolutionary War-era America in a way that echoes in everyday life and I am earwormed forever.
I hear the Hamiltons comforting their dying son, Philip, when I soothe my sick child, “I know, I know.”
I hear Angelica Schuyler when confronted with sexism still alive and well today:
“’We hold these truths to be self-evident
That all men are created equal’
And when I meet Thomas Jefferson
I’m ‘a compel him to include women in the sequel! – The Schuyler Sisters”
Dear Theodosia rips my heart out, voicing my worries, fears, and hopes for an infant LB’s future:
You will come of age with our young nation
We’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it right for you
If we lay a strong enough foundation
We’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you
And you’ll blow us all away…
Someday, someday
Yeah, you’ll blow us all away
Someday, someday – Dear Theodosia
And at the end of our days, a reminder we can only do our best to leave a legacy worthy of being remembered.
My words can hardly do it justice, but enjoy the music if you haven’t already and tell me if “Right Hand Man” and “Nonstop” doesn’t get your toes tapping and your blood moving to get out there and conquer your ambitions. Tell me if Eliza’s soaring vocals don’t make your heart sing, whether she’s falling in love, or reeling from betrayal.
If you can get tickets – more importantly, if you can get me tickets 😉 – TELL ME THAT too. In the meantime, you know where to find me! Right here, listening to the soundtrack and writing like I’m running out of time.
We’ve been enjoying Hamilton so much that it’s permeated our every day. The creativity of translating the American civil ha-ha just kidding Revolutionary war, focused on Alexander Hamilton’s life, into a musical is amazing – the breadth of musical references, historical references, literary references (was that a MacBeth reference? It was!), the combination of the early colonial language with hip-hop cadences and slang are perfection.
When’s the last time you were so thoroughly earwormed? It’s not possible to include all my favorites, I’d just end up posting the whole musical.
I’ve a sneaking suspicion that part of the overwhelming charm of the whole thing is how gracefully Lin-Manuel Miranda handles the explosion of love and admiration: taking the time to share more of their music even though they’re already on Broadway. Check out #Ham4Ham, it’s astonishing how much energy he and the cast bring to giving his potential audience a show.
I haven’t yet read the biography that the musical was based on but this makes me want to. The musical doesn’t try to make us love Hamilton by glossing over his mistakes and flaws, they’re showcased alongside his genius and accomplishments. And the flaws of the Founding Fathers (save for George Washington) are right there with Hamilton’s.
All this to say: I am loving the musical and am trying to figure out how we squeeze a trip to New York to see the original cast into our schedule and budget.
Parenting: Hamiltunesing with my baby
Who knew having a baby who’d go along with your musical shenanigans would be so fun?
Encouraging LB to stand on hir own, take a step, or do squats: RISE UP!
With a fantastic aside from George Washington on not taking the easy way out
Giving hir a bottle in hir room
Sing and lure with the bottle:Do you wanna be in the room where it happens, the room where it happens, the room where it happens? Answer: *rapid crawling after me*
Thinking about hir future and the world we live in
Dear Theodosia (naturally)
Bonus: Ze will stand up and clap along to this Ham for Ham:
Careering
Living with ambiguity while others excel and advance
Don’t be Charles Lee
Meaning, don’t: Take a role with responsibilities you won’t shoulder, run away from the disaster, then run around badmouthing your boss. Poor form all around, dude.
Note: Check out George Washington being classy. “History will prove him wrong”, indeed.
What’s more important? Career or Family?
Before LB was born, a father figure and a fellow workaholic tried to find a gentle way to tell me: enjoy this time. Ze will only ever be a baby, and a child, and my cuddly little one once. And it’s so important not to miss it like he did. I’m glad I’d already learned that watching him or I’m sure old workaholic me wouldn’t have understood his good intentions.
Relationships
Oh King George, you’re pretty much like every creepy ex boyfriend who couldn’t deal
This is going to serve as a cautionary song for LB and everyone in hir generation. Kids, if your partner talks like this? GET OUT.
*** I lied, I had to add one more favorite: YORKTOWN ***
So much to love here:
Immigrants, we get the job done!
Hercules Mulligan!
“it’s either than or meet the business end of the bayonet!”
“With my friends all scattered to the winds
Laurens is in South Carolina, redefining brav’ry”
Long before LB came along, I was getting grumpy with how we did weekends.
PiC was accustomed to getting out Saturday mornings and cranking out some miles. I’ve always had my feet up, working on the computer, until 2 pm before rolling out through town running errands. We’re such inherent opposites in energy and finances, it’s a wonder we get along.
I think we were both sort of constantly quietly exasperated that it was so complicated balancing our needs (grocery shopping, cleaning, routine repairs) and our wants (sleep, more sleep, work, getting exercise, having fun) but we failed to do anything about it. Apparently the discomfort was only enough to be a pain and not enough to motivate.
Time feels more precious now, and now that we’re actually surviving day to day in reasonable shape, things seemed to click.
A few weeks ago, we talked on Friday night: What do you want to do Saturday and Sunday? One answer per day.
PiC wanted a 4 hour time slot for his workout. I wanted a late morning lie-in and a couple hours to work. LB was going to want to be fed, fight sleep, eat again, play, avoid a nap, eat, and so on. Obviously, hir schedule was going to stay pretty much the same so we worked out which of our things could happen when, with hir schedule in mind, and made it happen. It was an epiphany. We felt productive and still had the late afternoon and evening to relax and do some shared family things like errands, cooking, and eating. Rinse and repeat.
Verdict: Awesome!
Another weekend, I acquiesced to PiC’s plan that we do a volunteer activity together, even though it meant packing up the whole family, and we fulfilled one of his hobby obligations. That many hours in the sun clean wore me out, though, and so I took the rest of Saturday off. It was Daddy-child and Daddy-dog time all day Saturday with only pinchhitting from me.
I think this is the right groove for us. We need time to do our own things separately as well as together as a family, and these does not simply happen.
Especially with my “who needs to go outside” attitude, if I don’t make a real effort or PiC doesn’t make it happen, I’d never get outside or away from the family to be alone and refresh myself. I’m not lost in my new role as a mom, this is a reversion to a more severe version of my usual niche as a domestic hermit. It conserves precious energy! But that doesn’t mean that I can, or should, hide forever.
It’s going to take deliberate communication and coordination but I think it’s worth the brainpower to look forward to weekends as a time to enjoy, rather than hoping for the best and being frustrated.
Thanks to everyone who participated, this was a lot of (good, cheap) fun for me and I hope for you too!
I’m sharing some of the postcards you sent / received here from those of you who emailed afterward. If you didn’t share and you still want to, feel free to email me images of the postcards you received and I’ll add them here.
Want to go again? Or want in on the next round? Let me know in the comments!
Once in a while, I send out postcards. I might have heard you were having a hard time, or you mentioned something that made me think YOU WOULD LIKE MAIL.
I love getting real mail. I also love sending it. I hear some of you feel the same.
I’d like your opinion on how you’d like to participate. And if you’re ok with it, I’d like to feature at least the front of some of your postcards here. If this goes well, maybe we’ll make this a recurring thing!
So let’s kick this off and say, submit your answers by May 8th.
Quick edits (April 24th): I am willing to send to at least one international address, and I’d like to kick off this round sooner, so I moved the response deadline to May 8th.
I’d never heard of the EMP Museum before our trip to Seattle, but they hosted a great booth showcasing a homebuilt TARDIS and offered a discount on entry when we were there, so of course we had to give it a go!
It was awesome.
I’m not really into music so failed to really appreciate the depth of the Nirvana exhibit but it was very well done, as was the MegaScreen featuring music videos and horror films (above).
My favorites: the Icons of Science Fiction and the Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic exhibits.
The latter was behind a massive wood and iron door, Hobbit-like but for the height and weight of it. It’s a door you can shut, drop an iron bar across, and be safer and more secure behind than any flimsy modern door and bumpable lock. {I want that door.}
Inside the first corrider, some of the great tropes and tools of fantasy were showcased behind glass: Stormbringer, an Invisibility Cloak; beyond these a great dragon lay coiled around a curved “cave”, red eyes glowing, tail chained to the iron bars separating a resting monolith and an admiring public.
Our plan to give it a quick look-see devolved into spending half the afternoon wandering, oohing and aahing, and making up character cards with our faces and attributes on them. As you do.
In the Icons of Science Fiction exhibit, we were giddy over the Star Trek captain’s chair liberally doused with Tribbles; the replica Klingon bat’leth which made this shirt make so much more sense to PiC; the Dalek!
They played a hilarious short movie for the Time Travel category we’d never heard of and now love: Time Freak. You ought to see it, if you can. It was only ten minutes, but it had us in stitches. Great set up for a hilarious payoff.
Definitely worth the visit. I’d become a member if I were a local and they continued to have exhibits of this caliber.
On a beautiful, nearly Southern California-like day, we went to the Star Wars Special Exhibit at the Tech Museum in San Jose! It. Was. Awesome.
There were dozens of exhibits: many of them interactive, all of them beautiful. I sat and learned about Hoth and the filming thereof, there were great video clips from the creators like Irvin Kershner (who I’ve actually met before!) describing how the crew filmed the Hoth scenes in Norway.
A snowstorm had come through before they were meant to film, so they pointed the camera out the back door of the hotel, and made Mark Hamill go stumbling through the snow alone. The rest of the crew sat safe and snug inside. 🙂
There was even a model landspeeder to drive! You betcha we hopped on that for a couple of rounds. There’s something to be said for going to museums during off hours.
Things I learned: I’m taller than a jawa, shorter than Darth Vader. They filmed the ships using huge models, I couldn’t fit the entire model into the frame there! that took 2-4 people to lift and move. We also experimented with MagLev and programmed those little robots to walk around.
And of course, to take us out….
The view from the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon
I hate to admit it but the Millenium Falcon Experience (an extra $5) was actually kind of disappointing and not just because it cost more money.
Tickets were $48 for two, with a AAA discount ($3 off per admission).
Edit: Sorry, forgot to mention this goes away after March 23rd.
