Sundays are stressful for me--all that "getting to a prescribed place at a prescribed time" stuff, followed by a hefty helping of "being nice to other people." Afternoons, I often find a comfortable chair or couch, close my eyes, and meditate on the beauty of being alone.
Yesterday, however, Roy turned on the TV to discover an hour-long retrospective about Expo 67--"The hundredth anniversary of confederation," as the song says. History in lyrics, the forerunner of Schoolhouse Rock. Again, invented by Canadians and popularized by Americans.
But I digress. The point is this: what's stuck in my head?
See for yourself below. Do watch long enough to see the shot of the trumpet bell around 1:30.
The pied piper tour guide is Bobby Gimby, Canada's answer to Doc Severinsen.
The TV show also mentioned the movie about Ontario, introduced at Expo with split-screen technology. It won an Oscar, by the way. If the above isn't enough to keep you humming for hours, this should do it.
With hopes as high as the tallest tree, in my land of lakes and snow...Ontari-ari-ari-oooooooo.
Amended to add what I meant to say before I got sidetracked playing with YouTube. First of all, a quiz to see if you've been paying attention. What was the population of Canada in 1967? Answer: about 20 million. It's in the first video.
Second, my serious point (and of COURSE I have one, being "too serious") is that you can learn a lot about a country by their musical theatre.
In a life long ago and far away, I played in the pit orchestra of a production of "Oklahoma!" For a lot of reasons, participating in that show ranks as one of my all-time favo(u)rite experiences.
The music makes sense, for one thing. Yes, it's familiar--a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. I've seen the movie a billion times. We had an LP of it when I was a kid. But beyond familiarity, the music makes sense. The harmonies make sense. If you have a bunch of measures of rest and lose count, it doesn't matter--you still know when to come in because it just sounds right.
So it was a pleasure to play. But beyond that, it's a show that can tell someone a lot about America and Americans. Not that "Oklahoma!" the show in any way resembles Oklahoma the state--but it's what Americans want to believe about themselves. Here's a quick list.
- In Kansas City, like other big cities, they've gone about as fur as they can go. We-uns prefer the simple life, where we don't get took by city slickers.
- The farmer and the cowman should be friends. We should all be friends because that way we get their women.
- It's OK to pretend to have a surrey you don't actually have if it gets you the girl, even temporarily. She's really in love with you even if she acts stupid. And shucks, that's true of boys acting stupid, too.
- The bad guys are not only dirty, they're bad because they live like hogs and thus want to be bad.
- If you're too stupid to live and thus don't understand your own life, fall asleep and you'll experience a frightening dream ballet, choreographed by Martha Graham (or someone like her), which will put all the pieces together for you.
- Not being able to say "no" is all fun and games till your father finds his shotgun. Then you have to marry whoever he says.
- Good guys may kill the bad guys, but only accidentally, when the bad guy falls on his own knife.
- We know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand. Or maybe vice versa.
- And while nobody wants to break the law, it's just fine to bend it a little.
Oh, and by the way: there are good guys and bad guys. Even the peddler, who trades with anyone, has to decide become a good guy by the end of the show. At the end of a shotgun barrel, but still.
So my serious point was going to be this: Even though the above "Ca-na-da!" and "Place to Stand" clips aren't musical theatre, exactly, it's still interesting to see Canada's own stories about itself from 40 years ago. Here are some of the things I see.
- We're an optimistic people, with cheerful, obedient kids and clean cities.
- We're not ashamed to use "thee" in a song. And we speak a little French, too. But not enough to be intimidating. Heck, you probably know it, too--sing along!
- We're still building Ontario, even though Europeans have been living there as long as they have south of 49.
There's more, of course. But that's a start. Note: no good guys. No bad guys. The Soviet Union had a pavilion at Expo 67, as did Cuba. So did the U.S. See? We can all get along!
