First off, a word about my daughter Riley. (That's her in the middle.) Other people have teenage kids who run all over town causing problems and giving their parents no end of heartache. I have a teenage kid who asks her dad to take her to meet an author. I'll take my kid over one of those kids any day and twice on Sunday. I'm pretty proud to have a daughter who acts right and knows respect. It helps that I like Hamilton too, but I'd be proud anyway.
Oh, did I mention Hamilton? Listen, I know that like elebenty bajillion of you probably already know all about the musical (and don't call it a play in Riley's presence, especially if I'm standing next to you.) but for those of you that don't, it's a play about Alexander Hamilton (yes, the ten dollar bill guy) with a soundtrack dominated by hip hop tracks. I haven't had a chance to actually see the show, but the soundtrack is amazeballs.
Anyway, Jeremy McCarter is the guy in the picture and he literally wrote the book about Hamilton.
*SIGH*
Who died and made you an English teacher? Yes, I mean literally literally. Look at this thing:
Do you see his name listed on the cover? Do you know why? It's BECAUSE HE WROTE THE DAMN BOOK!!!
Yes, I have been interrupted in the past by people telling me I was using the word "literally" when I meant "figuratively" why do you ask?
Come to think of it, why did they ask? Was it their business?
Anyway..
It was a great time. If you get a chance to hear Jeremy speak, go. Seriously. He's smart. He's funny. I think I'm supposed to say "He's gracious" when what I mean is "He's really cool" but he's both so I guess you can take your pick of the two and assume that's what you read. I'm good either way.
Jeremy has a ton of funny stories about the making of Hamilton and he's met all of the original cast, so he's got a lot to talk about. He also had a hand in the making of the musical itself, although he served more as a person who encouraged Lin Manuel Miranda than as a true creator, but it was still fun to hear about.
Seriously, I'm really sad that I'll never get to her Lin singing Helpless. I bet that was a hoot. I mean, it was part of the demo of the music, so it'll never get released but imagine if it did. How awesome would that be?
Anyway, I got to interact with Jeremy just a bit because there was a question and answer session at the end of the presentation and also because he signed my book. See?
I don't think he believed me when I told him I'd been a fan of hip hop since the early 80s, but whatever. I get told that I look younger than I am all the time. (Seriously. I'm Fogey-Two and everybody tells me I look like I was in my twenties. I really did rock out to Run DMC's Raising Hell and had to save my allowance for over a month to get He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, back when they still called him The Fresh Prince.)
I thanked Riley after the program for asking me to take her. It was a good time and something I would have missed if she hadn't told me about it. Oh, and I didn't thank anyone from the Troy (MI) Public Library for scheduling it, or the Troy Community Center for hosting it, but I will so here:
THANKS GUYS!!
Oh and thank you to the Friends of the Troy Library for raising the funds to make it possible. Feel free to visit their Donation Page. Maybe leave a little something while you're there. They can use the help and they've earned it.
Oh, if it seems a bit weird that I dropped a donation page for a group I don't even belong to in the first place just realized that there was no admission charged for this event and I'm sure getting Jeremy in from his home in Chicago was not free. I'm just trying to help them make some of it back.
And of course, thanks to Jeremy McCarter for coming out and giving the talk in the first place.
For my part, I'm just happy that I got to do something like this with my daughter.
She was talking to her friend Malia at dinner (of course we had to eat something before we went) and they were all excited about going. Something about "We've been talking about doing Hamilton stuff for months." I think I may have fudged the quote a little bit actually. As a divorced dad I don't get to see my kids anywhere near as often as I'd like and stuff like this is really cool because I get to share a moment.
I will say this much though:
If this kid tries to keep me from listening to Guns and Ships in my car one more time, she's grounded. I have no idea how I'd make that stick since I don't live with her but I grew up on Bone Thugs 'N' Harmony and I like the fast rapping. Darn it kid!
As for the book itself, I haven't read it yet. I picked up a copy from the talk last night (several copies were brought in for sale by the local Barnes and Noble) and I will say that the pictures of the original cast inside are incredibly awesome. I guess I should have expected that from a production of this magnitude, but I found myself surprised. The last time I saw a book this gorgeous was back when I got a trade paperback about the Annie movie back in the 80s. Really. The work that went into designing these pages really paid off.
Bottom Line:
For the Troy Public Library: 5.0 out of 5 Stars
For the Friends of the Troy Public Library: 5.0 out of 5 Stars
For the Troy Community Center: 5.0 out of 5 Stars
For Jeremy McCarter: 5.0 out of 5 Stars
and
For my daughter Riley: 4.75 out of 5 Stars
(Next time, I bet she lets me play Guns and Ships!)
Hamilton: The Revolution is available for purchase at the following link:
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