i'll drink to that.

sAvE daRfUr. i think benefits are one of the greatest things ever. you get to help out a cause you believe in while helping yourself to a good time, usually in the form of alcohol. tonight i am going to a benefit show. save darfur gets $10 from me (or whatever portion of my $10 admission northsix hands over to them, maybe not the full 100%, but, really, this is beside the point) and i get to see stars (meaning the band, not celebrities, or celestial bodies for that matter)? and i don't have to feel guilty if i happen to get drunk at this show on a tuesday night because *it's for a good cause*?? i think i might get the better end of the deal here.
on a more serious note, though, i am more than happy to be able to support a human rights campaign this evening, in whatever small way. i have gotten away from that in recent years and i keep meaning to really do something about it and reinvolve myself. when i was younger i was involved in amnesty international - and if you call being the leader of my high school's chapter heavily involved, then, okay, i was heavily involved in amnesty international when i was younger. it got away from me in college, largely because i was too wrapped up in my conservatory training and there just weren't enough hours in the day to wander beyond the walls of 855 commonwealth avenue and seek out other extracurricular activities. and then i was out of college and trying to balance making money to pay rent and pursuing artistic and theatrical endeavors on the side . . . and not reinvolving myself with amnesty international just became a vicious circle of excuses and guilt and laziness. okay, i admit it. i'm lazy. sometimes. it's silly, i should just make time for it. it's not that hard and i might actually do someone somewhere in some small corner of this world some good. yes, the chances are slim that any particular letter you write through one of amnesty's letter writing campaigns is actually going to end a particular human rights abuse, but, put your cynicism aside, those letters do get read, at least from time to time. sometimes they even get direct responses. one morning during my junior year in high school as i sat in homeroom, someone from the main office dropped off a piece of mail which had come in care of the school marked to my attention. it was a letter. from a government official in venezuela. assuring me, 16 year old julia in suburban andover, massachusetts, that they had not violated the human rights of a certain prisoner of conscience as i had accused them in my previous correspondence. it was a surreal and life altering moment. you can make a difference. you can get the attention of someone on another continent. with something as simple as a letter.
what is my problem? i'm done being lazy and selfish. it's time to do more. (than just drink while watching a band i particularly like.)

and on a random note - no matter what context i read, hear, or say the word *stars*, i am immediately and unforgivably bombarded with the memory of a high school chorus trip to disney world in florida, melting under a hideous polyester choral robe in the glaring sun and sweltering humidity, and listening to a rendition of "stars" from les miserables that i would gladly surrender my first born for in order to get out of my memory performed with what can only be described as machine gun like vibrato and an extra special level of showmanship reserved only for the likes of a performance venue as special as disney world. this was done by a young man who, on the same trip, attempted to climb up the water slide at the hotel. to set the scene for you, in other circumstances, this boy would have considered crossing the street moderate to heavy exercise. not surprisingly, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to scale the water slide, fell down, broke his arm, and wailed like a baby. during which he may have hit some of the high notes he missed during his performance of stars.