musical "Hair" at the Central Park

I saw the musical "Hair" at the Central Park last night. It was just fabulous!! My friend who I met Brian's radio show's event three years ago asked me to go there together. She went to the park at 7:30 AM to be in a line to get the tickets. She said there were already more than 500 people, 7:30 in the morning! But she found another line for senior citizen over 65, and there were only 8 people in the line! She was there until 1PM when the staff started to give the ticket to the people. We had dinner at her apartment and headed to the Park together. The weather was perfect, not so hot and not so cold, at intermission, we saw the beautiful moon!

Also I was impressed with the beauty of the theater itself, especially the natural lawn on the stage!

In the performance, each singer sang so beautifully and the band played wonderfully. The band's conductor was a woman, a keyboardist! I noticed there was an Asian singer among them, I didn't know her but I felt proud of her as Asians.

I couldn't understand all of the lyrics, but could understand most of the read lines. In the end of it, some of the audience went on to the stage and danced with the performers. It was like a dancing party, not a light-hearted one but a deep-hearted one. Everybody seemed to enjoy it also I felt everybody deeply wish for peace as they were dancing. I was moved as I saw the scene.

I'd never heard of the musical before. Before going there I googled it and learn about it a little bit. My friend told me her sentiment for the Hair. She said this time is the same as the time when the musical had a debut at the Public theater at Lower Manhattan over forty years ago. Now, we still have wars, people are dying everyday. Even military duty is not mandate anymore (I didn't know that!), many people are suffering because sometimes each family member has different idea toward war or military. A son might want to join the military to protect his own country because he thinks that's the best things to do in his life, and the mother might think it's ridiculous. It's happening here. Her words and the musical made me think a lot about what is the meaning of having a military system in your country or what is the meaning of fighting a war now, and so on. Also I thought of why people tempted to use drugs when they became helpless or hopeless, even among intelligent people, among powerful people. Or people in the so called "high-level" might be weaker? I don't know. It's a deep issue.

We don't have a military system in Japan. But several politicians insists we should have one to be independent from the US or for some other reasons. I don't like the idea. But I'm afraid more and more people are getting conservative and patriotic and inclined to this extreme idea...... We won't have peace if we continued to keep guns with us. I don't want to live in such a world where all people keep their guns, even to protect themselves. I don't know how to improve the situation but only to wish for peace.

It might be important for us to just talk with each other, not only between people with same ideas but also people with different ideas, cultures, races, nationalities, to make peace come.


This fall, there will be the presidential election here in the US. Personally, I want to see the first black President in the history. I'm very much interested in the result. It will definitely affect the relationship between my country and the US.