Recently met up with high school friends and one of them invited us to watch Rent or Cats. Now I’m not particularly fond of musicals, always finding the theatricals really awkward and the intermittent blaring into songs quite jarring. The closest thing to a musical that I like are the 90’s 2D Disney features, with The Lion King on top of the list. Back then my brother and I would rent a betamax copy of The Lion King from a video renting store called Sierra Papa, and we would watch it repeatedly, paying special attention to and doing multiple pauses on the infamous SEX subliminal message. SEX subliminal message—probably why I’m such a depraved, pervy adult now.

Which just suddenly reminds me—I sort of find The Sound of Music corny, although I did enjoy much the cartoon series The Von Trapp Family Singers or something, the one being shown on Channel 2 at 10 am on weekdays back then. We used to have a high school teacher whom we perceived to be a mega-fan of The Sound of Music. While he was assigned to teach Grammar we were surprised one day when he came in with a guitar. We wondered what the guitar was for, we thought maybe he came from some choir practice or something, until he went: “Today I have a special treat for you.” He started strumming. “This is from The Sound of Music. Raindrops and roses and kittens and mittens… these are a few of MY FAVORITE THINGS!!!!! When the dog bites! When the bee stings! When I’m feeling sad! I simply remember… MY FAVORITE THINGS!!!!!!”

We were stuffing our mouths with spitballs to prevent ourselves from laughing, but the dude could sing. A few weeks later he again brandished his guitar and made a birit rendition of Basil Valdez’s You. Yes, even back then we already had our very own Mr. Will Schuster.

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