So, my life hasn’t been this busy since I was in college. I remember 20 credit hour semesters, performing,  jobs, trying and failing miserably to have a life outside of those three things. Now, I have the job that feels like a 20 credit hour semester, but I get to come home to my amazing family and have a rich life without even having to strive for it. I’m definitely blessed. I would definitely give everything for them.

The performing, including this project, has taken a back seat. So, learning new rep, and getting back in shape, and will have some new stuff soon–including an upcoming appearance with Mr. Larry Loeber. For now, enjoy this duet: I’d Give It All For You, by Jason Robert Brown, for his musical Songs for a New World.

This recital was the first time Jihyun and I formally teamed up. I never knew she wanted to be my accompanist–silly girl–I just didn’t want to mix business with pleasure, who knew you could have both?! The outstanding soprano voice you hear is the talented Angela Brower. She is a professional singer in Germany now as a permanent member of the Bavarian State Opera.

First, there are spoilers in this post so consider yourself warned. Everybody knows that the movie has some unbelievable effects, but no matter how fun the ride, or how stunning the imagery I’m a sucker for a great story–especially one that stirs up good conversations!

After the movie Ji and I were able to sit down for a luxurious 45 minutes, enjoy a cup of coffe (iced–it is Arizona in the summertime) and discuss.

Two things in particular hit me the hardest:

The first is that ideas really are dangerous. What we see, hear and dream, even the tiniest idea floating around in passing can grow and replicate and completely alter the way we interact with the world around us. Likewise, what we choose to say and do can have an incredible impact on the lives around us.

The second–life is short. It doesn’t matter if you can live 50 years in a single dream, then wake up and live 50 more, and 50 more, in the vastness of eternity the sum total doesn’t take up much space-time. To me that doesn’t make life insignificant, it makes it priceless and precious because we have such an incredibly limited amount of it…

Put those two ideas together; the infinitely short time we have together in this reality, and the fact that the words and actions we release can have a profound effect on the people around us, and all of the excuses I have for being unkind to people around me seem pretty lame. One of the best quotes from the move: ”I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time.”

So…what about that ending? It’s literally driving people around the world crazy–did he wake up? Was he still in a dream? Did that top stop spinning or did it just keep going…ugh! Who cares? At least he was happy.

Also, a geeky cool thing: Marion Cotillard, who played Cobb’s wife, also played Edith Piaf in the movie La Vie En Rose. The french song (click to listen), Non, je ne regrette rien, that you hear through Inception is Edith Piaf’s real voice incorporated by Hans Zimmer. Here’s to living a life without regrets, and here are the lyrics:

Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien // No, I Regret Nothing

Non, Rien de rien
No, nothing of nothing

Non, Je ne regrette rien
No, I don’t feel sorry about anything

Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
Not the good things people have done to me

Ni le mal tout ça m’est bien égal
Not the bad things, it’s all the same to me

Non, Rien de rien
No, nothing of nothing

Non, Je ne regrette rien
No, I don’t feel sorry about anything

C’est payé, balayé, oublié
It’s paid for, removed, forgotten

Je me fous du passé
I’m happy about the past

Avec mes souvenirs
With my memories

J’ai allumé le feu
I lit up the fire

Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
My troubles, my pleasures

Je n’ai plus besoin d’eux
I don’t need them anymore

Balayées les amours
Broomed away, my love stories

Et tous leurs trémolos
And all their tremble

Balayés pour toujours
Broomed away for always

Je repars à zéro
I start again from zero

Non, Rien de rien
No, nothing of nothing

Non, Je ne regrette rien
No, I don’t feel sorry about anything

Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
Not the good things people have done to me

Ni le mal tout ça m’est bien égal
Not the bad things, it’s all the same to me

Non, Rien de rien
No, nothing of nothing

Non, Je ne regrette rien
No, I don’t feel sorry about anything

Car ma vie, car mes joies
Because my life, my joys

Aujourd’hui, ça commence avec toi
Today, they begin with you

So, our story begins with me. A musician trapped in a corporate employee’s body. In my free-wheeling, hippie artist days I had the brief and joyful opportunity to travel the land singing with amazing musicians–many of whom are also some of my close friends. However, every time I tried a new style of music I never quite felt like it totally fit me. I’m not loud enough to be an opera singer (ask my family that when I’m singing in the shower in the morning and you may get a different answer), I’m not cool enough to be the next Frank Sinatra, and I’m definitely not Country…but I do like to sing. So, I decided to try other things, and discovered that I really enjoy business and networking, and all of those corporate left-brained things that don’t relate so easily to the stage. Now, I’m a singing recruiter. By day, I am a professional matchmaker–helping companies find good people, and good people find good companies–and on the weekends we have this project.

My recital.

My family has always been after to me to record a CD, but for me that’s a little too formal, and if I do make a proper record I want to have my own material and an organized voice. This is just a lot more fun, and it’s still a way to sing for people and not drag them all out to an overheated performance hall on a Sunday afternoon during naptime. The plan is to simply record songs that I like to sing, and I will post some of them here like a virtual recital you are always welcome to attend.

This first post, The Way You Look Tonight, was the first song Jihyun and I danced to at our wedding. We performed it together at my senior degree recital at ASU.