I'm home!

>>Les Miserables! I think in French it means something like the Miserable Ones, but the sensation I felt this afternoon was anything but misery. Five minutes after I walked in the house door, Beth handed me two early Christmas presents from Mom. The piano book AND the CD for Les Miserables! I wasn’t quite rendered speechless, but it was something pretty close.

I’ve been living among French laborers all day with revolutionaries on every side while a priest and two golden candlesticks preside. The clash of swords, the smell of gunpowder, Cosette’s childish voice singing “Castle in the Cloud”, are mixed together in my mind. I see jail bars and love notes side by side. The branded numbers on a grimy arm stand beside a girl’s heart, which she has already given away.

>> What is my favorite song? I scarcely know, but this one catches the contrast of the two worlds.

Red - the blood of angry men!

Black - the dark of ages past!

Red - a world about to dawn!

Black - the night that ends at last!

GRANTAIRE: Red...

MARIUS: I feel my soul on fire!

GRANTAIRE: Black...

MARIUS: My world if she's not there!

ALL: Red...

MARIUS: The color of desire!

ALL: Black...

MARIUS: The color of despair!

>

I know what I'll be playing in Nash auditorium for study breaks next semester.