Still dabbing my eyes

I'm shamelessly stealing from Leslee today, who posted a link on her blog to this Youtube video. I think I was the two million and somethingth viewer, and you may have already seen it, but if not, GO THERE NOW.

Okay, I admit: I love Cinderella stories. When this woman walked out on stage and did her little interview, you can see the cynical smirks from the audience, the eye-rolling from Mr. Simon "Botox" Cowell. As if it were totally inconceivable that a woman who looks her age (47) could possibly produce a thing of beauty from within. Look what happened when the music started and she opened her mouth.

Also, I admit: I adore Les Miserables, the musical. Every single song in that show is soul-stirring, although I've definitely heard "On My Own" a few times too many in junior high school talent shows. At exactly midnight on Friday, April 3, I finished all 1260 pages of the book, wiped away tears, and promised myself that I would one day reward myself by revisiting a live performance. 

In all honesty, however, were I Mr. Hugo's editor, I think I would advise him that he could tell the same story with just as much impact in about half the length. If you've read the book, replete with its minute descriptions of various now-extinct neighborhoods of Paris, you may know of what I speak. But forging through those more esoteric parts yielded a story both suspenseful and deeply moving, and well worth the work.