Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
Imagine real life magic. In a flute. Or rather, in an opera about a magical flute! Seems a little confusing, I know. But in the spirit of trying new things from time to time around here - we share with you the experience of taking in an opera.
“The Magic Flute” is one of the world’s most beloved—and oldest—operas. The production opened with a flourish on a fantastic Friday evening in Vienna on September 30, 1791. It’s a timeless tale of love, purity and discipline triumphing over greed and vengefulness.
The melodies are familiar and the story has stood the test of time. Over 200 years later, we’re still experiencing the magic. Last Saturday night, thanks to the Minnesota Opera, I got to take in “The Magic Flute” via a charming production that evoked from the silent film era.
Throughout the performance, the main characters find strength and guidance in a magical flute. But while experiencing the Minnesota Opera’s rendition, I realized that there much more magic to be found in the tale than in just a fantastical woodwind instrument.
The traveling tour of the show may be making a stop near you, but for now, we share our specific experience here in Minnesota. The Minnesota Opera let audiences find magic in mixing the digital with the timeless. The entire production was accompanied by highly stylized and synchronized hand-drawn animation, which took nearly three years to create. The characters seamlessly (and with impeccable timing) interacted with their digital co-stars. The result was a whimsically visual fairytale setting.
It’s also striking and important to note that this animated wunderscape makes the whole experience much less traditional for people who haven’t considered an opera in the past. If you love a visual delight full of flourish and surprise, this may be the very reason you choose this opera over any other for your first time.
But by far the most magical element of the performance is Mozart’s dazzling score. All of the character, magic and drama from the opera comes from the music. From folk-like tunes to soaring arias in the most dramatic fashion, Mozart’s music has the ability to sweep audiences into a tale so fantastical and wild, it will surely be in performance for the next 200 years, and then some.
To everyone who thought opera was stodgy, antiquated or dull, take a chance and attend a performance. We have a hunch that you’ll find more magic than you may think.
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Photo credit: Dan Norman.
Post by Emma Bauer. Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
In the early part of 2015, armed with a new FitBit, I made a promise to myself to hike 100 miles. Not walk. But hike. Up steep, steep mountains, cliffs and volcanoes. This was a physical and tangible task. But it was also a distinctly metaphorical journey. If I could get to the top, I could do anything.
I hit mile 100 in Cinque Terre while visiting Italy last month. And as I approached Monterosso Al Mare the last song on this playlist, Panic at the Disco’s Hallelujah, streamed through my ears. I was relieved. Happy. Sad. Excited. Exhausted. And tearful.
A lot of people will go on and on explaining how music has metaphysical powers to heal us. I bet those people are right. But I won’t even attempt to articulate that, because they can do it far better than me. Instead, I’ll tell you this: beautiful art often comes out of terrible pain. I know this because it has proven to be true for me. (And Florence. And Cheryl. And Nora. And Lena. And Elizabeth.) I don’t know what these artists were going through when they scribed these tunes, but I do know that they hit me in the mushy, feely bits of my soul. So now, I share them with you. For your next hike. For your next lonely evening. Your next plane ride. Or bus stop wait. Or your afternoon at work. Whatever it is, I hope it helps you the way it helped me.
The Top of 100 Miles of Steep Incline Playlist:
Alt-J’s Hunger of the Pine
Sia’s Big Girls Cry
Mumford and Son’s Tompkins Square Park
Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone
James Bay’s Move Together
Benjamin Booker’s The Future is Slow Coming
Ben Howard’s We Forget Where We Were
The Civil Wars Poison and Wine
Death Cab for Cutie’s The New Year
JohnnySwim’s Over
Foo Fighter’s Everlong
Florence and the Machine’s Queen of Peace
Death Cab for Cutie’s Little Wanderer
Of Monsters and Men’s Human
Alt-J’s Pusher
Motion City Soundtrack’s Hold Me Down
Sia’s Elastic Heart
Green Day’s When I Come Around
Haim’s Forever
Panic! At the Disco’s Hallelujah
When I was in the 6th grade, I organized a group of girls to sing Aretha Franklin’s RESPECT at a school pep rally. We wore matching shirts and danced around with feather boas while belting out R - E - S - P - E - C - T. I’m not sure anyone in my school particularly cared, but it’s a distinct memory for me as an adult. Maybe it was because a pep rally is an odd place for this kind of show. Maybe it’s because I clearly had underlying feminist motives as a pre-teen girl. Maybe it was the boas.
Sixth grade was a pivotal time for me. On top of this musical performance, I dressed as a female CEO for Halloween. I decided to embrace my bookishness and intentionally sat in the front row of the class. I stole my mom’s suits and wore them on any given Tuesday.
And it was the year I figured out I wasn’t “beautiful,” by conventional standards.
One day while waiting in line for lunch, a classmate said to me: “you have Elvis mouth and it’s weird.” At 12, I was not only being told I looked like a dude, but that I was weird. There’s nothing worse at this tender pre-teen age than being told you are not normal. Being compared to the opposite sex in the looks department is devastating enough, but when it’s said as a tool to point out a negative differentiator between you and other girls, it’s particularly heartbreaking.
I can remember exactly how it felt to hear someone say that to me. The meanness and the contempt practically spraying itself from the words onto my face. For what it’s worth, the girl was somewhat accurate in choosing that description. When I start talking really fast or get super excited, I do have the tendency to speak out of the right side of my mouth. Think of how Margaraey Tyrell AKA Natalie Dormer does her little side grin in Game of Thrones. It’s kind of like that. As a result, I’m getting more wrinkles on the right side of my face now that I’m older, but that’s irrelevant.
What is relevant is that after I heard that, I truly NEVER believed I was an attractive woman.
I was a smart woman.
I was a brave woman.
I was an eloquent woman.
I was an ambitious woman.
I was a funny woman.
But I was, without any shred of doubt in my mind, NOT a beautiful woman.
Beautiful women are symmetrical. Beautiful women have big beautiful lips and even complexions. Beautiful women don’t become less beautiful when they open their mouths. Beautiful women don’t get compared to Elvis.
Somewhere in high school, I forgot about being compared to the gyrating King. I dated and even had a few boyfriends. I did as teenage girls do, I enjoyed their company and their kisses - in the backs of cars, against trees, behind the school and on my mattress which I had thrown on the floor in the corner of my room as some kind of protest against furniture. Not one ever pointed out that my mouth got a little asymmetrical from time to time. Not one mentioned if my oral peculiarity impacted my make-out abilities. Not one seemed to care. But somehow, despite all this, I still felt fundamentally un-pretty. I thought they liked the smart, brave, eloquent, ambitious, funny me. I couldn’t even see myself as anything else.
More than a decade of dating later, I was on a date when a dude mentioned that he liked how my mouth was a little off center. It charmed him. It added to my personality. He didn’t call it beautiful though. And immediately, the words from the girl standing in front me in line in the 6th grade hit my chest. I absorbed the negative memory before allowing the compliment he was offering me to take hold.
This feeling is bullshit. And I hate that it’s an emotional tether that I’ve allowed to impact how I felt about myself for years. The even bigger tragedy is that nearly every single woman I know has a story similar to mine. There are countless beautiful, bold, brilliant babes who were the recipient of an unflattering comment that still wander around this earth carrying that criticism like a calling card.
Are you one of them?
Aretha’s iconic song is about a couple navigating the strangeness of the intersection of love and mutual respect. It’s about creating a culture of equality in all elements of cohabitation between partners. But when I sang that song as a 12 year old girl, I was asking for a different kind of respect. I wanted to respect myself enough to be able to get up on stage and demand it. Today, I’m closer to middle age than I am to my primary education, and I wonder how a fundamental lack of respect for my own beauty has changed the course of my life. I don’t want to live like that anymore. And we shouldn’t be allowing ourselves or the little girls growing up today to experience that same weight.
I’m asking you to throw that comment away. The one that you’ve been carrying around since 4th grade or 8th grade or last damn week. I’m asking you to respect yourself enough to know that you are MORE than an ugly observation about what *actually* makes you beautiful.
Beauty is not perfection, but rather the quirky qualities that mark our individuality and transcend our very human existence.
Yeah, my mouth is a little wacky. But, dammit, I’m still beautiful.
A few years ago, my brother and I realized something truly awesome: The Harry Potter soundtrack is basically perfect Christmas music. This year, I thought I’d add in some new tunes to give you a Perfectly Nerdy Christmas Soundtrack:
So what would make your perfectly nerdy Christmas list? If you want to listen to our original Harry Potter only version, A Very Harry Christmas, you can find that on Spotify here.
It’s been a long while since we’ve given something away around here. And with the holidays upon us, it only makes sense that we would offer up something or another. How about portable tunes?
To enter, we want to do something kind of fun and collectively inspiring. Remember our post last week about the reasons we are thankful to be geeks? Well, we want to hear why you’re thankful!
Enter By Thursday, December 18th, 2014 By:
- Sending us an email at beinggeekchic(at)gmail.com with your reasons to be thankful for being a geek in 2014
OR
- Leave a comment on this post with your reasons to be thankful for being a geek in 2014
Super easy! Another reason we’re thankful? YOU! You rock!
*The fine print: Giveaway only open to US readers. All prizing is provided by Kinivo and Being Geek Chic. The total value of the prize is $20 plus shipping and handling. The giveaway also includes the cost of shipping to one address in the continental United States. Please follow the rules and be kind to one another.
