maybe I'm hypersocialized, or thoroughly egotistical, but I can't quite understand what drives people to black themselves out and put the spotlight elsewhere, on people whom they don't know and with whom they don't interact. Hm, where am I going with this? A critique of social science, television, movies, theater? Probably not. I probably just thoroughly disliked Cabaret. That mainly had to due with the fact that it is a thoroughly bastardized work of art: a revival of a musical that adapted a play that adapted a book--each adapation adding its own semi-disjointed twist, leaving a musical with a cast of undeveloped characters performing weak musical numbers, trying vainly to convey some social commentary through interesting yet elusive symbolic framework. Eh. Because I liked it so little my mind fell to thinking about the audience members, all of whom payed upwards of a hundred dollars to stop their lives for several hours, sit perfectly still and silent, immersed in darkness, effaced. We'll see if I feel better about all of this tonight at La Boheme.