My Book of Longing

October 7, 2007 in Uncategorized

It may seem a far piece, that long walk from waiting for the next Tiger Beat poster of Bobby Sherman— those double-paged ones with the staples right about his collar bones–to longing to see Philip Glass in concert again, but there you have it: two ends of a continuum.

And I was going to suggest that any of you near Stanford go this Tuesday so I could live vicariously through you as you attend the West Coast premiere of a new work by Philip Glass, his "Book of Longing," a musical spoken-word collaboration with folk musician and poet Leonard Cohen, complete with dinner with Philip (let’s use the familiar, shall we?) beforehand.

But no, it’s sold out. As is the conversation with Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen the evening before. So if anyone reading this is lucky enough to have tickets, tuck me into your pocket, hopefully one in which there is not too much bending or body weight, and take me with you. I love Philip Glass’ work, tremendously: his Einstein on the Beach opera, the music for one of my favorite operas, Woyzeck, all that incredible music for film, his collaborations with Robert Wilson like "The Civil warS" – oh, my. Music I want to navigate deep into. And, my lord, could there be anything more right than a high school marching band playing a Philip Glass piece?

Geniosity, I think it’s called.

Happy birthday in 2007, by the way, Philip. 70 sounds good on you.

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

1 comment to " My Book of Longing "


Sally

October 8, 2007 AT 8:40AM

Once again, connection…. Not so much with Philip Glass (he’s more my husband’s taste), but Bobby Sherman! His was the first album I ever bought….

Another funny coincidence: I was reading The Three Questions to Meg (my four-year-old) the other night, and thought, I should tell Patti about this book; she’d probably like to read it to Tess….