Beautiful

"Pretty isn't beautiful, Mother.
Pretty is what changes . . .
what the eye arranges
is what is beautiful!"

That's a stanza from Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park with George". Sondheim has a knack for making concise philosophical statements in his lyrics that I can meditate on forever. Pretty isn't beautiful. Pretty is what changes. What the eye arranges is what is beautiful. I don't know how much sense those statements make to everyone else, but I get jitters. On the surface, they appear to be stating that beauty is relative, that true beauty doesn't exist, only "what the eye arranges". But having listened to Sondheim for quite some time, I think he's smarter than that.

After all, his music is an expression of true beauty. He's never written something worthless just to be postmodern. His music may not always be pretty, but there's always purpose behind his methods, and that gives even the clashing and clanging "Epiphany" from Sweeney Todd a beauty of its own. I believe that Sondheim recognizes that true beauty exists, but that it expresses itself in infinite patterns, sometimes hidden ones. "What the eye arranges" is a perspective that brings the hidden beauty in something to light.

I believe that, as God created everything, there is beauty in everything. Pretty isn't beautiful, because pretty changes; it fades or becomes damaged. But even looking at the most unattractive things in the right perspective can reveal what is truly beautiful.

Now speaking of something which is both pretty and beautiful, one of my favorite anime is coming out on DVD in the US, and I am stoked. It's called "Romeo X Juliet", loosely based on the obvious classic. Below is the trailer for the imminent release of the first half of the series. Woot!

Well the music and fonts in that trailer are really bogus as far as I'm concerned, but there you have it. Next is an actual clip from the series. Yes the characters use funky Shakespearean/Modern speak, but it's growing on me.