#17 - In the Heights Ranking

Top 15 is coming closer.

Ironically, at this point, things have gotten a bit easier; but let's wait for top 5 to see if I still feel the same.
So, number 17 on this list is "No Me Diga". Yeah, your favorite salon ladies have some chisme.

As it happens in almost every musical, but surely in every single Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, this song is the comedy relief, despite the fact that Nina reveals to Daniela (not "Daniella", oh my God), Carla and Vanessa that she has dropped out of college. These news aren't as impactful for us as they are for the women.

If you've ever been to a Latinx owned salon anywhere in the world, you'll know that this song is an incredibly accurate portrayal. The salon ladies always know EVERYTHING. Everything, I tell you.

But let's get at the analysis then.

DANIELA:

Gorgeous!

CARLA:

¡Linda!

CARLA/DANIELA:

Tell me something I don’t know!

VANESSA:

¡Vieja!

DANIELA:

¡Sucia!

CARLA:

¡Cabrona!

CARLA/VANESSA/DANIELA:

Tell me something I don’t know!

The first two lines are about Nina; the next three are one for each of the salón ladies.

(Protip: Don't call anyone "vieja", "sucia" or "cabrona" if you're not at that level of friendship yet.)

DANIELA:

Bueno

You didn’t hear it from me!

But some little birdie told me

Usnavi had sex with Yolanda!

NINA/CARLA:

¡No me diga!

VANESSA:

Ay, no! He’d never go out with a skank like that!

Please tell me you’re joking!

DANIELA:

Okay!

Just wanted to see what you’d say!

"You didn't hear it from me"? Sure, Dani. Everyone would know it was you the one who said it, come on. Also, the "some little birdie told me" it's obviously to quote a reliable source, which is what every woman with a chisme would probably say. 

Here, Yolanda is mentioned for the first time,and the second time being in "The Club". This is the thing: Vanessa knows Yolanda and is already jealous of her. So at the club, when Usnavi is dancing with her, she has a reason to get extra jealous at the woman who's supposed to be not the type for him. 

As if we needed another hint about the fact that Vanessa likes Usnavi. She likes him because he's dorky and kind, unlike the rest of the men in the neighbourhood; but if he "had sex with Yolanda", then maybe he wasn't what Vanessa thought he was. 

DANIELA:

So, Nina, I hear you been talking to Benny.

NINA:

And what do you hear?

DANIELA:

I hear plenty!

They say he’s got quite a big… taxi!

This right here is the reason why I actually decided to rank this song a bit higher than I had intended at first. You don't get a joke like this all the time, and it does give the show a shakesperean tone.

Remember I said that the salon ladies know everything?

NINA:

Okay! I don’t wanna know where you heard all that!

CARLA:

I don’t think I know what you mean…

DANIELA:

Carla! He’s packing a stretch limousine!

Despite Carla being around Daniela all the time, she still doesn't get everything. 

And involutarily, she contributes to the joke. 

CARLA:

Long as he keeps it clean!

NINA/VANESSA/DANIELA:

¡Ay, Dios mio!

I quote a genius.com annotation: "Carla, bless her, accidentally continues the double entendre. She’s thinking about a clean car, while the rest of us are stuck thinking about STIs." 

Go figure.

DANIELA:

Nina, seriously, we knew you’d be the one to make it out!

VANESSA:

I bet you impressed them all out west;

You were always the best, no doubt!

CARLA:

We want front row seats to your graduation—

DANIELA:

They’ll call your name—

DANIELA/CARLA/VANESSA:

And we’ll scream and shout!

NINA, spoken:

You guys, I dropped out.​

DANIELA/CARLA/VANESSA, spoken:

¡No me diga!

NINA, spoken:

I should go.​

Nina has gone off to the salón to see the ladies, and of course they would bring the subject up. Everyone is proud of Nina's success, even though she sees that pride as a source of stress for her, which adds even more to the disappointment she already felt. 

DANIELA, spoken:

That’s a shitty piece of news.​

CARLA, spoken:

That girl never quit anything.​

VANESSA, spoken:

What the hell happened?

DANIELA:

I don’t know…

DANIELA/CARLA:

I don’t know

DANIELA:

I don’t know...

CARLA/VANESSA:

Tell me something I don’t know!

ALL:

¿Qué sé yo?

The ladies are confused, although they're not disappointed. They just wanna know what happened, and then just give up.

It's unexpected; everyone already had a plan made for Nina and she couldn't make it. 

NOTE: "Shitty"? "Cheery"? "Chiddy"? Discuss.

-A.

#18 - In the Heights Ranking

We've been through "Atención", "The Club", "Benny's Dispatch", "Hundreds of Stories" and "Alabanza".  It took me a while to figure everything out but I finally finished putting everything in order.
Number 18 is "Champagne".

Here, the rhymes are not the most important thing, but the message. In fact, "Champagne" is more of a musicalized dialogue rather than a song.

VANESSA:

So I got you a present

I went downtown to get it

Doing anything tonight?

USNAVI:

Cleaning.

VANESSA:

Done for the day

USNAVI:

No way

VANESSA:

‘Cuz we got a date

USNAVI:

Okay—

VANESSA:

Before you board that plane

I owe you a bottle of cold champagne.

This song mirrors two of the interactions between Usnavi and Vanessa during the show. Here we can see elements from "In the Heights" and "UIt Won't be Long Now". Now is Vanessa the one who asks if he is doing "anything tonight" and pays the bet she had with him, which is brought up in the first number of the show. Also, the "no way" is said in a similar way as Vanessa says "okay" during "In the Heights".

USNAVI:

I don’t know if we have coffee cups

Or plastic cups, I think Sonny has the cups—

VANESSA:

Tonight we’re drinking straight from the bottle. 

From what we know, Vanessa was usually oblivious to the fact that Usnavi was trying to flirt with her. Now he's the one who doesn't realize it or is trying to dismiss it; most likely the first one. 

This "we're drinking straight from the bottle" means two things here. They literally are going to have to drink straight from the bottle because the cups are gone. But it's also a metaphor for seizing life while they can. 

Drinking champagne is a celebration, and the act of not even waiting to pour some in a cup means that you're eager to do it. Vanessa knows they don't have much time left together, so she wants to enjoy it as much as possible. 

VANESSA:

Before we both leave town!

Before the corner changes and the signs are taken down

Let’s walk around the neighborhood and say our goodbyes

Usnavi, are you alright?

USNAVI:

I’m fine, I’m tryn’a open this champagne

See the twisty thing is broken

But I’m gonna open this damn champagne!

Usnavi always gets overly talkative and nervous whenever Vanessa is around, but right now he's quiet, and focusing his attention on the damn champagne instead of focusing on her. The girl of his dreams is asking him on a date and this guy is entitled to open the bottle. 

This could be him trying to change the subject and avoid talking about how he's about to leave. 

USNAVI:

I mean you went to all this trouble to get us a little bubbly—

VANESSA:

And it’s gonna be okay

USNAVI:

I’m sorry, it’s been a long day

VANESSA:

You oughta stay

USNAVI:

What?

VANESSA:

You can use that money to fix this place

USNAVI:

Ha ha, very funny

VANESSA:

And it’s not like Sonny’s got role models—

USNAVI:

Role models?

VANESSA:

Stepping up to the plate—

USNAVI:

Yo, what are you talking about?

VANESSA:

I’m just saying, I think your vacation can wait—

USNAVI:

Vacation? Vanessa, you’re leaving too—

VANESSA:

I’m going down to West Fourth Street; you can take the A—

USNAVI:

What are you trying to say?

VANESSA:

You’re leaving the country, and we’re never gonna see you again—

USNAVI:

What are you trying to say?

VANESSA:

You get everyone addicted to your coffee then off you go

USNAVI:

Vanessa, I don’t know why you’re mad at me

VANESSA:

I wish I was mad—

I’m just too late.

This bit is an argument, as it is. However, Vanessa never says "I'm going to miss you". She mentions Sonny, and the rest of the neighbourhood who are going to miss Usnavi, but it's never her. Here's where the subtext lies. Because in "96,000" Vanessa dreams of leaving and she even says "you'll never see me again", but now she has an issue. During "96,000", everyone was being hypothetical, just saying what they would do if they won the lotto. But now Usnavi has some of the lotto money and it's not so hypothetical anymore. 

Also, she doesn't say "I'm never gonna see you again", she says "we're". She's been dropping hints and Usnavi doesn't get it until she kisses him. 

She wishes she was mad because it would probably be easier for her to accept his departure instead of trying to make him stay. 

All throughout the show, Vanessa has been either ignoring or hiding her feelings for Usnavi and now she knows it's too late. (Sad.)

-A.

#19 - In the Heights Ranking

I know I said it last time, but this is honestly getting harder and harder with each song, so it took me a few days to figure all of this out. But I finally got it, so I'm not stopping.
That's how entitled I am.

Get your tissues ready, because my pick for number 19 is "Alabanza".

Usnavi begins the song, and he's not rapping now; yes, it's that sad.
Not only this song is placed right after "Carnaval del Barrio", which makes this piece of news fall even heavier on us. It's an interesting choice, since Abuela's death was as unexpected for them as it was for us. Or was it?
We've seen some pieces of foreshadowing in previous songs, but they're rather hard to catch. It's not until this happens that we realize what they all meant. So it's not just about sadness, it's about despair and lack of acceptance, perhaps even guilt. Because we knew, so there was definitely something to be done, that didn't happen, and it led to this.
Usnavi sure feels like it.

USNAVI:

[...]They said

A combination of the stress and the heat…

Why she never took her medicine, I’ll never understand[...]

These lines show Usnavi's conmotion about this. He doesn't even finish his first sentence, and he goes through this moment of asking himself "why?" 

USNAVI:

Abuela Claudia had simple pleasures,

She sang the praises of things we ignore:

Glass Coke bottles, bread crumbs, a sky full of stars[...]

From "Paciencia y Fe" we know that Abuela Claudia would buy a loaf of bread everyday to feed the birds, and that was one of her biggest hobbies, if you will. But it also brought her a lot of joy, and I might be making a bold statement here, but she was probably the only one who was completely happy in the neigbourhood. 

About the glass Coke bottles, here's a bit of history: Coke was sold in glass bottles before moving to plastic and aluminium cans. There was a Coke blottling plant in Cuba, which opened in 1906. According to the show, Abuela Claudia emigrated to the US with her mother in 1943, so she definitely grew up drinking from those kind of Coke bottles. 

USNAVI:

She cherished these things, she’d say: “Alabanza.”

Alabanza means to raise this

Thing to God’s face

And to sing, quite literally: “Praise to this.”

It would have been easy to just say: "She cherished these things, she’d say: 'Alabanza'", and then just add "which means 'Praise to this'" , and add some rhyme. But here we see that the word in Spanish and the word in English fit exactly at the beginning and the end of this stanza, which gives the feeling of enclosure. It's a cycle ending. 

USNAVI:

When she was here, the path was clear,

And she was just here, she was just here…

Which path? The path Abuela and Usnavi were supposed to go through just to get to Dominican Republic and fulfill his dream. Now that Abuela is gone, the plan doesn't sound that appealing anymore. 

And then he just can't handle it and he can't even finish the sentence. 

NINA:

Alabanza.

Alabanza a doña Claudia, señor,

Alabanza, alabanza.

Alabanza.

Alabanza a doña Claudia, señor,

Alabanza, alabanza.

From what we see in the show, the second closest person to Abuela Claudia was Nina. So she takes the eulogy from where Usnavi left it and continues with a song of praise. 

Now, we can't ignore how much influence RENT had on In the Heights. They both are musicals about the struggles of minority groups living in specific areas in New York. 

In RENT, the "heart of the group" (Angel) dies, and everyone comes together to mourn. The same thing happens here, and everyone joins into the song as they leave candles outside Abuela's house. 

USNAVI:

Alabanza.

Now listen; I might be reading too much into it when I say that this song shows the progression of life. Stay with me.

When Nina comes in with the first "Alabanza", it starts siently. Then, more people start to join in, and even the music gets more complex. And out of a sudden, everything ends and Usnavi finished with a quiet voice, which feels kind of out of place. See where I'm going with this?

The birth is when Nina starts, and then life goes on, reaches its peak point, and then there's a pause out of nowhere, which is death. 

Yeah, it's sad as fuck. 

But hey, this is what you signed for. 

What? Did you think it was a lighthearted musical about Latino people? 

Well, yeah, kind of. But there's also a lot of sadness and pain hidden underneath. So you pretty much signed up for this too. Face the consequences.

-A.

#20 - In the Heights Ranking

So, we've been through "Atención", "The Club" and "Benny's Dispatch". Three songs in and this is getting harder and harder every time.

I decided to pick "Hundreds of Stories" for number 20. Let's analyze.

USNAVI:

So we survived the night;

What happens today?

If this is not one the major pieces of foreshadowing in the show, I honestly don't know what is.

Yeah, Usnavi and Abuela survived the night, but what happens that day? Yeah. Abuela dies. That's what happens. But this line is what really made me rate this song in a higher place; it's so subtle and quite smart.

ABUELA CLAUDIA:

Now you can sell your store!

Open a bar by the shore!

I’ve told you hundreds of stories

About home; make some more.

There's a simple rhyme scheme here: store/shore/more, and it's interesting that the name of the song doesn't rhyme with the rest of the lines.

Also, here comes another subject that's really important for the show, which is home and the stories related to it. Abuela Claudia talks about her already having fulfilled her dream of having a nice life in New York, and she has found her own home now. But, as selfless as she is, she wants to help Usnavi fulfill his own dream of finding home.

 USNAVI:

Yo! I know just where to go!

There’s a little beach named Playa Rincón

With no road, you need a rowboat or motorbike

To reach this beach, it’s just a stone’s throw

From home

My folks’ home

Before I was born

Before they passed on

And left me on my own, in New York, with the grocery store

They would talk about home, I listened closely for

The way they whispered to each other

‘Bout the warmer winter weather

Inseparable, they even got sick together

They never got better… passed away that December

And left me with these memories like dyin’ embers

From a dream I can’t remember…

We have consonance again, in reach/beach, and an alliteration in warmer winter weather. It's basically the repitition of a consonant at the beginning of a word. 

And there's also a possible Edgar Allan Poe reference here, in "[...] passed away that December / And left me with these memories like dyin' embers." You can find a quite similar line in "The Raven": 

"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor."

It might be a stretch though, but rhyming "December" with "dying ember" is something popular, along with the "remember" at the end. 

USNAVI:

Ever since then it’s like

Another day deeper in debt with different dilemmas

The bodega’s a mess, I’ll be seeing less of Vanessa

Abuela I don’t know how I can keep it together!

Usnavi wants to leave everything behind and go to Dominican Republic, including his problems. The reason why he doesn't think of New York as home is because everything he's been through there is bad. Or at least all of what made a bigger impact on him. His parents died, he's in debt, and now there's a blackout and the bodega was pretty much destroyed. Besides that, he messed it up with Vanessa. So there isn't much good for him in New York, and now that Abuela has won the lottery, he has the chance to flee. 

ABUELA CLAUDIA:

Remember the story of your name...

It was engraved on a passing ship on the day your family came

Your father said “Usnavi,​

That’s what we’ll name the baby.”

Usnavi is stressed beyond belief and Abuela tries to calm him down with a story about his family. That's the power of our abuelas, y'all. Also, Usnavi is named after a U.S. Navy boat. 

USNAVI:

It really said “U.S. Navy,” but hey…

I worked with what they gave me okay…

Abuela's positivity is contagious. If life gives you lemons... 

ABUELA CLAUDIA:

We’ll find your island—

USNAVI:

I’ll find my island sky

ABUELA CLAUDIA:

Ay, find your island—

USNAVI:

But whatever we do it’s—

USNAVI/ABUELA CLAUDIA:

You and I!

This line really shows the union that exists between these two. It was already stated in the first song, and in "The Club", but here it's when we realize how close they really are. They're gonna be leaving together only because Abuela wants to share her prize with Usnavi and Sonny. 

This song may not have an amazing writing technique, but it always gets my heart like this:

And for a good reason.

-A.

#21 - In the Heights Ranking

I decided to start this because of my English major, and, ironically, my major stopped me from posting this yesterday. Oh, well. I'm back.

My pick for the 21st position on this list is "Benny's Dispatch". Yeah, sorry for rating it so low; don't get me wrong, I love this song, but this is getting tough. Let's just get at it.

Okay, we got traffic on the west side

Get off at 79th, and take the left side

Of Riverside Drive, and ya might slide

West End’s ya best friend if you catch the lights

And don’t take the Deegan;

Manny Ramirez is in town this weekend

Sorry Dominicans, take Route Eighty-seven

You ain’t getting back in again

Hold up a minute.

No fancy words for you today just yet. In the second verse of the song we have a simple rhyme scheme with side/side/slide. Not a big deal. 

NINA

Benny, hey—

BENNY

Nina, you’re home today!

NINA

Any sign—

BENNY

...Of your folks, they’re on their way!

NINA

Anyway—

BENNY

It’s good to see your face—

NINA

Anytime—

Nina and Benny haven't seen each other in a year, and one of the first things  Benny does is to finish her sentences. This works in a way in which it foreshadows the fact that at some point they're going to end up together. It's a really cliché idea that two characters in a musical are "meant to be", but here it's portrayed in a really smart way. 

Benny and Nina have communication issues, which they work out in a metaphorical sense in "Sunrise". But here, they're shown to be in the same page.

BENNY

Hold up a minute, wait!

You used to run this dispatch, right?

NINA

Once or twice—

BENNY

Well check the technique! Yo!

There’s a traffic accident I have to mention

At the intersection of 10th Ave and the Jacob Javitz Convention Center

And check it, don’t get stuck in the rubber-neckin’

On a Hundred-Ninety-Second, there’s a double-decker bus wreck!

Now listen up, we got a special guest!

Of course Nina used to run the dispatch, Benny. Her parents are the owners. 

Anyway.

We have a kind of unsual rhyme pattern here, but it makes sense. It goes: mention/intersection/Convention, but "intersection" is placed almost at the beginning of the line.

This is where another poetic device comes in place, which is stress. It's basically the parts in the line in which the accent falls. So how does this affect the rhyme scheme? It works like this.

The line "There's a traffic accident I have to mention" has six stresses. "Intersection" falls on the third stress of the line, and we start counting again at "of 10th Ave and the Jacob Javitz Convention Center", in which "Convention" is placed at the sixth stress, giving us a 6/3/6 stress scheme. So, it's a whole line, half a line, and a whole line again.

Then, we have some consonance once more, with "check/stuck/neckin'/Second/decker/wreck". Not too complicated.

And the song finishes like this:

BENNY

Anytime. Anytime, Nina.

Wait here with me

It’s getting hot outside, turn up the A.C

Stay here with me.

These "Anytime. Anytime" placed here serve the purpose of completing the pattern of Nina's words, which were "Any sign.../Anyway.../Any time." 

And the last three lines of the song are being said in a more quiet, intimate way. The whole song we've seen Benny talking in the microphone, being noisy and making the other drivers honk their horns. This change of tone is another sign that these two are something else other than just friends. At least for Benny, anyway.

Also, this is entirely out of my lane, but it's something I noticed.

The riffs at the end of this song match the ones used in "When You're Home", right before Benny begins to talk to Nina about what they used to do when they were younger, and ultimately revealing he's got a crush on her.

Interesting, right?

They're forshadowing everything; I told you so.

-A.

#22 - In the Heights Ranking

I spent my entire Greek and Latin class thinking about this, so you better appreciate it.

My pick for #23 was "Atención", but today, for number 23, I picked "The Club".
Yeah, I know. I know, salsa is great, and I agree with you, but we're talking about technique here.

This song fits just right in its place before the ending of the first act, and really embodies the way Latino people celebrate pretty much anything: with dance, drinks and music.
Now, let's get to the analysis:

Damn, this is nice,

I really like what they’ve done with the lights.

So, the hot club in Washington Heights;

You might be right, this music’s tight.

Yo, did I mention that you look great tonight?

Because you do you really—

The rhyme scheme lights/Heights is mentioned in the opening number, although there it's presented in a more creative way. (Yeah, sorry.) Then again, I'm not saying this is bad, this is just way more conventional and we're all used to this kind of rhymes at the end of the line, which also happens with tight/tonight. This is a really popular style in writing, known as AABB rhyme scheme. 

And here comes your second fancy word of this series, which is consonance. We can find it in might/right,where the similar-sounding words are close to each other to accentuate the metre.

You thought "consonance" was the only fancy word of the day? You thought wrong. Because we also have something called aposiopesis, in the last line. It's basically the interruption of a line to give an emotional effect. In this case, Usnavi's ramble is interrupted by Vanessa, trying to call him down, but failing. 

We also find a little bit of a flashback to "It Won't be Long Now", where Vanessa talks about how she doesn't go out with any of the guys in the barrio because none of them has "nothing to say." But even though Usnavi seems to have a lot to say, he really can't find peace while being around Vanessa, since when he speaks again we have something similar as his first verse. 

Now, here comes something interesting, with Benny's help:

BENNY:

Here’s to getting fired!

USNAVI:

To killing the mood!

BOTH:

Salud!

BENNY:

Without so much as a “thank you!”

USNAVI:

After five long years.

BOTH:

Cheers!

BENNY:

To finally getting Vanessa!

Man, fix your collar...

USNAVI:

Holler!

BENNY:

To doing shots on a weekend!

USNAVI:

As long as you buy ‘em, l’chaim!

Here, Usnavi shifts from Spanish, to English, to Yiddish, showing his own culture, along with an assimilation of others. 

(You're paying for the shots, Usnavi. Benny just got fired.)

After a particularly dramatic encounter between Benny and Nina, and after Usnavi let Vanessa dance with José (yes, that José), now every single man in the club has decided to go try to dance with her, since despite Usnavi being there, it doesn't even feel like they went together.

Vanessa, let me get the next one!

Vanessa, let me interject some!

The way you sweat, the way you flex on the floor

It makes me want you more!

We know it's Vanessa they're refering to, from the first line, and from what's happening on stage. 

But this anaphora (reminder here) might be also serving another purpose. 

These men really want to dance with Vanessa, enough to try to call her attention by calling her name not once, but twice per verse, this last one being repeated three times. 

At this point, Usnavi is not having it. But as awkward as he is, he tries to hit on another girl, who just so happened to be Yolanda (yes, that Yolanda).

USNAVI:

Bartender!

Let me get an amaretto sour for this ghetto flower!

How are you so pretty?

You complete me

You had me at "hello," you know you need me

Truly, madly, deeply, let’s get freaky.

Oh I get it, you’re the strong and silent type

Well, I’m the Caribbean island type

And I can drive you wild all night!

But I digress!

Say something so I don’t stress

YOLANDA:

No hablo inglés

USNAVI:

Yes!

And the last fancy word of the day is assonance, which we can find in the sounds of sour/flower.

It's basically the use of vowels to create a good metre. 

He also says "me" three times. The repetition of a same word at the end of a rhyme symbolizes the poetic voice (Usnavi, in this case) feeling or getting stuck, according to the Man Himself. 

He then breaks out of it with an incredibly awkward line. 

Another consonance can be found with strong/silent/island.  

And at the end, a really nice rhyming work, with digress/stress/inglés/yes, which, I dare say, is the finest rhyme in this song. 

(At the end, he can be actually relieved she doesn't speak English. That way, she didn't get a word of what he said, so they're not gonna have an awkward moment after his discourse. Thank God.)

This was longer than yesterday's, and as the ranking goes up, I'm sure this posts won't do anything else than getting bigger. Because that's how it works, people, I don't make the rules.

Blame Oxford and Hirsch. (No, not that Hirsch.)

-A.

#23 - In the Heights Ranking

My pick for number 23 on this list is "Atención".
Yeah, I think it was pretty obvious. 
DISCLAIMER: Spoilers ahead.

I'm not saying it's a boring song, because it really isn't. (It is pretty heartbreaking, in fact.)
Although this 54-seconds piece is set after a particularly cheerful song ("Carnaval del Barrio") and it serves its purpose quite well, at a technical level is no less than just a transition device.
Let's give it a quick analysis.

Atención, atención

Roll down your windows

Turn up your radios

Un momento, por favor

Atención, atención

Please drive slow

Let everybody know

Abuela Claudia passed away

At noon today

Here comes the first fancy word of this series:

･ﾟ✧Anaphora･ﾟ✧; which is the repetition of a word or a set of words in a literary composition. Here, the word "atención" is used four times, in Spanish. It's a really important choice, just so we don't forget one of the main points in the show: the use of a mixture between English and Spanish words, especially for Kevin. 

This song is way more calm compared to the previous one ("Carnaval del Barrio"), so it feels like a kick on the face. Mostly because of the fact that Abuela's death is forshadowed throughout the show, and when "Carnaval del Barrio" happens, it makes you feel like nothing can go wrong, if you read pretty well between the lines and you're already worried about Abuela Claudia. But then the music dies, and Nina appears on stage, grabs Usnavi and takes him to Abuela's apartment. 

Then, this happens, with the rest of the barrio still celebrating. 

This song is just a transition between a previous moment of happiness and a posterior instant of mourning. 

At first you don't know what has happened, but you know it must be bad, because the rhythm is so slow; you can almost feel your stomach sinking from the uncertainty this song gives. The news are revealed at the very ending of it, to relief said uncertainty with sadness. 

Despite being no longer than a minute, it serves its purpose quite well, and opens the door for a second wave of heartbreak, which is "Alabanza". But we'll get to discuss that some other time.

-A.

Maybe I'm just bored... Which means "new series!"

It's been approximately three months since I became an English major and I already feel like I have enough knowledge to start doing this. So much for humbleness.

As you probably know by now, I'm a huge Broadway fan. Musicals are my to-go music with every situation in my life, and I don't think I can ever go back to my old ways. And even though anyone can tell you there are some better musicals than others, I'm going to do it with style. This means that I'm going to rub some knowledge on your face. Because you can also learn about English writing through musicals, otherwise, what's the point?

So what this is going to be about, then? Well, it's going to be a parade of fancy words to name the artistic things some lyricists use in ther song-writing process. Something like a Literature-meets-Broadway-extravaganza. 

I've decided, for no particular reason, to start with In the Heights.

And this is how it's going to be done, so pay attention.

There are 23 songs in the show, and I'm going to rate them from 23 to number 1, based upon the level of wit and the use of poetic devices to deliver the message intended, being 23 the least and 1 the most, of course. This won't be measured based upon whether I hate or love the song, I'll only take in account the technical aspects of each one of them. 

Here's a list of the song included in the show, just so you can go and listen to them if you haven't yet. (If that's the case: Why did it take you so long?)

1.- "In the Heights"

2.- "Breathe"

3.- "Benny's Dispatch"

4.- "It Won't be Long Now"

5.- "Inútil"

6.- "No me Diga"

7.- "96,000"

8.- "Paciencia y Fe"

9.- "When You're Home"

10.- "Piragua"

11.- "The Club"

12.- "Blackout"

13.- "Sunrise"

14.- "Hundreds of Stories"

15.- "Enough"

16.- "Carnaval del Barrio"

17.- "Atención"

18.- "Alabanza"

19.- "Everything I Know"

20.- "Piragua" (Reprise)

21.- "Champagne"

22.- "When the Sun Goes Down"

23.- "Finale"

That should be it. This starts tomorrow, be prepared.

-A.

DISCLAIMER: The fact that I decided to spend most of my evenings with this does not mean under any circumstances that I, as an English major, just happen to have a lot of spare time. I do not, in fact.

I just procrastinate a lot. 

I bet my classmates are doing something way more productive like this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

About the 13th Doctor

I jumped into the Doctor Who wagon a little bit too late, because right when I decided it would be a good idea to start watching it, Netflix decided to take it down. So, there's that. Either way, I'm still familiar with news related to the show, but this one in particular is the one that stood out for me.
Screw Wimbledon, geeks don't care about sports when the new Doctor is going to be announced that same day. People recording their reactions and posting them online; mostly positive reactions, which were the ones I came across first, and they were really gratifying to watch. But then again, and just as I was expecting, some negative opinions came along.
Lately we've had a lot of female representation in the media, and I dare say that the one that started this wave of pissed off fanboys was the 2016 Ghostbusters remake. Not just sexist remarks were made, also racist slur was used and some other things that I'm pretty sure we all remember. Then, a less known event happened when some art from the Ducktales remake was shown, and everyone freaked out about the inclusion of a "new character", which was a girl. (Even though that character already existed in the previous version, but okay.) Then we had Rey in Star Wars, and the latest one, Wonder Woman and that mindblowing scene featuring Diana in No Man's Land. And along with all of this, came a lot of angry men claiming that this "political-corectness bullshit" should end. Little did they know that yet another show would be RUINED by the Feminist Agenda™, with Jodie Whittaker's help.
Heck, even The Sun published a compilation of photos from past works in which Jodie appears naked. Oddly enough, they didn't make any comments about male actors who also appeared naked on screen. Huh. But no, The Sun wasn't done yet. Adam Postans gave us this jewel:

It is frankly nauseating that the [BBC] should now get on their sci-fi high horse and gallop into Right-Onsville to plonk a woman sheriff in town.

This shows that women are continously being turned into objects; allow me to explain. Shaming a woman for her nudity is one thing, and one that we're more used to see. But it also happens whenever someone tries to be "nice" and say "I don't mind that she's a woman, but that they picked her for progressism/rating/political correctness" and "as long as the script is good". It turns women getting cast in the media as a bussiness object.(It also happens with POC and LGBTQ+ characters).
It was a nice surprise for me to find out that the next reincarnation of the Doctor will be played by a woman, but what wasn't neither nice nor a surprise was the tears shed by fanboys filled with fake nostalgia and blatant sexism.
Although this decision had already crossed peoples' minds, it's not just satisfactory to see it actually taking place, but it also brings light to an issue that has been haunting the entertainment industry for a long time. All it takes is to look at some TV Statistics to realize that the fight for women to be portrayed in the media is not a trend, but a serious subject matter.
There's a long way to go, and Doctor Who could be a great success, and open the door to more gender swap happening in movies and TV shows. Doctor Who comes to show that a gender swap makes sense, even more in this case, not just for being a character that has been interpreted by so many people, but because of the fact that the show has been adventurous enough to play with gender roles and sexual orientation, which really makes you think if the people who are upset because of the decision taken about having a woman playing the main character are actually understanding what happens in the show. We're talking about a show that showed us a lesbian marriage between a human and a lizard woman, and establishing the Doctor's image as a non-binary one, that can change appeareance with every regeneration as much as it can change its sex and gender. The Doctor is an alien entity that regenerates every once in a while, and it really took its time to make it in female form. Besides, the show added a few more points to its diversity with the portrayal or a gay character as a companion.
Doctor Who is a cult show by now, and the fact that they decided to upgrade themselves with a woman playing the Doctor it's not because of political correctness, it's evolution. The world moves forward, and those who can't put up with it could end up running late.
A female Doctor was, after all, only a matter of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey-stuff.

"Why are musicals so gay?"

I think we all have heard that question before. And yes, many Broadway actors are gay, most of its male fans are gay, and even if you're not, if you like musicals, you're gay. Where does this stereotype come from?  Let's begin with this idea, and I'm gonna take three of the early Broadways composers and lyricists: Cole Porter, Nöel Coward and Lorenz Hart. 

Have you ever listened to a Cole Porter song? Like actually listen to it? Because he's often credited as one of the first lyricists to feature innuendos in his creations. Let me show you two examples here:

-"Anything Goes"- Anyting Goes

"In olden days, a glimpse of stocking

was looked on as something shocking,

but now, God knows,

anything goes."

-"Tom, Dick, Harry"- Kiss Me Kate

"I'm a maid mad to marry

and will take double-quick,

any Tom, Dick or Harry,

any Tom, Harry or Dick,

a-dicka-dick,

a-dicka-dick

a-dicka-dick

a-dicka-dick

a-dicka-dick

a-dicka-dick

a-dicka-dick."

Cole Porter was a not-so-secretly gay writer in the early 1900's who slipped these queer lyrics into his plays, which was as much as you could get in the 1940's, when Kiss me, Kate came out. Even though those lyrics are -obviously- open to interpretation, through the eyes of a gay audience, those lyrics are more than they appear to be. In a time when being homosexual was still unnacceptable, the only way out for a gay public was to enjoy entertainment made by and for them, disguised, of course, in a plot of heterosexual love and relationships.

Moving on to Nöel Coward, he was a bit more explicit with his lyrics; here's an example.

-"Green Carnation"- Bitter Sweet

"Faded boys, jaded boys,

come what may, 

art is our inspiration.

And as for we are the reason

for the nineties being gay,

we all wear a green carnation."

It's worth to mention that this song was written long before the word "gay" meant what it means today, but the "green carnation" seals the lyric's intention, since that specific kind of flower in the early 1900's was a symbol of idolizing Oscar Wilde, a gay icon by himself. 

The rumors of homosexuality surrounding Wilde's figure were still a big deal by the time Bitter Sweet came out. 

And finally, we have Lorenz Hart, who still had a little bit more coding into his lyrics, as showed here.

-"I'd Like to Hide It"- Dearest Enemy

"I'd like to hide it,

I'd like to hide it,

I'd like to smother down

the flame inside."

This song is sung by a female character, which proves the fact that any kind of gay subtext must remain hidden underneath a heterosexual plotline.

It's important to mention that being "out" back then was nothing like being "out" today. So the only way to meet more people in the community was creating and consuming musicals with that sort of implicit homosexual mention. 

Both queer actors and composers were performing as heterosexuals, wearing costumes and communicating their authentic personas through some kind of coded language (showtunes), all inside the theatre.

Of course not every single musical from the early 1900's has gay subtext, because, as usual, there are more straight than gay stories. But that meant something for the LGBTQ+ community back then, it meant that they had to read between the lines to find themselves represented.

All of this changed after the second half of the 20th century, when musical theatre started to grow stronger, and set the beginning of an era of worshipping divas. Ethel Merman, Barbra Streisand, Angela Lansbury, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, Chita Rivera, Elaine Stritch, Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone and many others became and icon among the community.
There weren't many gay characters in early musicals, and the ones that existed were either evil or tragic. So why would the gay audience look up to these kind of representation when they could look up to a diva figure? There's Dolly (Hello, Dolly!), Fanny (Funny Girl), Mame (Mame), Velma and Roxie (Chicago), Joanne (Company), even the young Dorothy Gail features as a gay icon, since Judy Garland was and still is considered as a diva for LGBTQ+ people.
Many of the songs they performed embodied the struggle queer people go through, talking about their power and embracing it. As en example of that, we have Ethel Merman, whose fierce performances showed her as a different kind of girl that no one was used to see in a musical: the woman who's not there to get the guy, but to get what she wants.
This was also a huge step to fight gender norms, which would happen later with Elaine, Chita and Bette, who used their feminity as a way to empower themselves and appear like fearless, daring and strong women who didn't need anything but their own selves to succeed. In a world were gay men were attacked for being "feminine", these figures were just perfect for them to look up to.
Based on this, there's the 1964 Tony winner Jerry Herman, who dedicated his creativity to the Broadway diva industry, with shows such as Hello, Dolly! and, of course, Mame, using exaggerated feminity in order to represent an increible power too, when being a female became a symbol of strenght.
Even if there weren't many explicit gay characters in musicals, they weren't needed as much as they would be if divas didn't exist, becoming role models and reaching an icon status for a gay audience.
That was until Herman hit the musical theatre industry with a groundbreaking show: La Cage aux Folles, which featured a drag queen in the role of a diva, having an openly and explicitly gay character as protagonist. Also, giving the first showtune that worked as an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community, "I am What I am".
As time went by, Broadway culture became gay culture as well, since every character would face issues and struggles, solving them with a showtune, showing happiness in the face of unbearable despair. And in the last few years, musicals have been featuring more and more queer characters: Avenue Q, Falsettos, Fun Home, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Kinky Boots, Rent, Rocky Horror Show, Spring Awakening, The Book of Mormon etc., to mention a few, helping musical theatre to stop telling the story of closeted gay men speaking in riddles to now be one of the pillars of queer culture.

-A

Musicals

I watched my first -proper- Broadway musical when I was 13 years old, it was Sweeney Todd. I fell in love with it, and since then my life started going straight into a hole filled with amazing lyrics, wonderful actors and incredible stories.  But also lots of tears, emotional pain and some not-so-good shows here and there. Just like everything in life.
Today, five years later I can say that at least half of my brain is filled with Broadway knowledge, since now that's all I can think of are songs from musicals and actor's faces. Not that I'm complaining, but sometimes it could be exhausting, especially when you don't have someone to share your taste with.
I actually convinced one of my friends to listen to most of the musicals I like; Hamilton, Les Miserábles, Sweeney Todd, The Book of Mormon, Heathers, In the Heights, The Phantom of the Opera, etc. I'm not entirely sure if she liked all of them, but if she didn't, she hasn't said a word about it yet. I know she likes Hamilton and In the Heights, for sure. We literally listen to them every single day, and if she doesn't complain, neither do I. Though, it's weird sometimes when we become aware of it, but the real question here is "do we care?", and the answer is "no." We don't care. Because we keep singing along to it as if it was our job to do it, and in a way, I guess it is.
On the other hand, I have this friend who doesn't like musicals whatsoever. He's like "oh, but they're boring". Ehm, I'm sorry???? THEY'RE NOT, thank you very much. I admit there are a few musicals out there that made me fall asleep (Cats, I'm looking at you), but for the most part, I really don't understand how can you say they're boring. I assume you like music, right? And you like cool stories, yeah? If you put them together, shouldn't that make it better, somehow? At least a bit? Well, apparently my friend doesn't fit this theory I created in my head. To be fair though, he pisses me off a bit sometimes in general, so I think it makes sense.
My obssession with musicals only grows as I keep discovering more amazingly written plays that just get me and drag me deeper into this bottomless pit, but I don't mind it. And come on, you can't lie to me on this one, belting out showtunes is the funniest thing to do when you're home alone. Even if that means having your neighbours knocking on your door to ask you to shut up, or clapping when you're done. That hasn't happened to me. Not at all.
Listening and singing out to showtunes has improved my life. Or at least I like to think that's what happened, because even though I cry a lot while singing them, it makes me feel revitalized afterwards. It's weird, it's like a drug. (I've never done drugs, but maybe that's how it feels? I don't know.)
Probably this last paragraph was just to justify myself and keep singing a one-man rendition of "Hasa Diga Eebowai" from The Book of Mormon at full volume. Yes, including the "f*ck you, God" part.

-A