Friday, May 9, 2008

OCD Chronicles: Rent-Seasons Of Love

“You know how I know you’re gay? You saw Rent three times”
-40 Year Old Virgin
I’ve only seen Rent once. Last week. So I’m not gay.
I was vaguely familiar with a few of the songs. “Seasons Of Love” became my first exposure to the musical numbers, mainly because I remember somewhat downloaded it for her ringtone, and every time she received a text message (which was often) I would hear “525, 600 minutes…How do you measure, measure a year?”
So now the wife and I are on the way to Rent and what song, and a completely unrocking one at that, keeps spinning through my head?
“In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee/In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.”
If I recall, the idea behind Rent was to bring musical theatre to the MTV generation. Personally, I find that notion a little pretentious: to bring musical theatre to the MTV generation, bring them a musical worth seeing.
And for that, I do think that Rent succeeded.
It’s about as risqué as Hair and a little more relevant to my generation. The subplot of AIDS is a little dated to some extent, but to be fair, there was a very pervasive uncurrent of risk when it came down to porking.
The perception now seems focused on herpes, and everyone knows that if they look clean, they’re probably safe to fuck bareback.
I’m joking, but there’s no joke that I can’t get this thing out of my head and, at the risk of sounding gay, it’s not that bad of song to have on repeat.

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