"imagine you're a blade of grass"
Jul. 22nd, 2015 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pondhopI've been reading about and watching a fair amount of Roger Rees since learning of his death. With my Gordian knot of a psyche, newly obsessing about an old crush is apparently a means of de-snarling some tangle-patterns in my mental orbit. (As in, it's shaken loose some stuff that will eventually show up in poems with no visible connection to Roger Rees whatsoever.)
It is, of course, also as an excuse for looking at length at a handsome man with a lovely voice and some unforgettable scenes. There's the scene in Nicholas Nickleby where he extends his hand to Smike. There are the stories of his friendship with Judi Dench, which involved copious quantities of sushi. There's Lord John Marbury quoting Revelations and talking about not talking to terrorists. There's Roger as himself, speaking of teachers and then being prodded by his husband to recite Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (at 23:36).
And there's a clip from The Graham Show where he talks about sexuality and culture and then leads (at 2:27) into a lovely pair of anecdotes about the wondrousness of being alive, first quoting his father-in-law and then Judi Dench, who tells her students to imagine themselves as blades of grass (Roger: "Sounds horrible, doesn't it? But it's worth it") and how the sheer insignificance of being one blade of grass among thousands is still an immense gift:
And this:
And, there's the irony of listening to all this in tandem with a recording of the extended round of applause in his honor a week ago, when many of the theater marquees on Broadway dimmed their lights at 7:45 p.m. in his memory.
This entry was originally posted at http://bronze-ribbons.dreamwidth.org/392691.html. I see comments at DW, IJ, and LJ (when notifications are working, anyway), but not on feeds.
It is, of course, also as an excuse for looking at length at a handsome man with a lovely voice and some unforgettable scenes. There's the scene in Nicholas Nickleby where he extends his hand to Smike. There are the stories of his friendship with Judi Dench, which involved copious quantities of sushi. There's Lord John Marbury quoting Revelations and talking about not talking to terrorists. There's Roger as himself, speaking of teachers and then being prodded by his husband to recite Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (at 23:36).
And there's a clip from The Graham Show where he talks about sexuality and culture and then leads (at 2:27) into a lovely pair of anecdotes about the wondrousness of being alive, first quoting his father-in-law and then Judi Dench, who tells her students to imagine themselves as blades of grass (Roger: "Sounds horrible, doesn't it? But it's worth it") and how the sheer insignificance of being one blade of grass among thousands is still an immense gift:
The whole point is, there are so many other blades of grass, what the hell does it matter what you do? You can do anything and you'll still never be on the front of the Times newspaper. Just live your life as fully as you can and do as much as you can to change the world, make it better without hurting other people, and you'll be on the right road.
And this:
The fact that you're a human being and you're awake and you're ready to do something is great.
And, there's the irony of listening to all this in tandem with a recording of the extended round of applause in his honor a week ago, when many of the theater marquees on Broadway dimmed their lights at 7:45 p.m. in his memory.
This entry was originally posted at http://bronze-ribbons.dreamwidth.org/392691.html. I see comments at DW, IJ, and LJ (when notifications are working, anyway), but not on feeds.