Saturday, August 1, 2009

You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Song

Yesterday at the grocery store where I work, a customer came up to the register wearing a t-shirt with "beau brummel" written over its left breast. Sparks went off in my head, and I immediately burst into song: "Your clothes may be Beau Brummelly, they'll stand out a mile but brother you're never fully dressed without a smile." Ah, what a charming cashier.

He didn't know what I was talking about.

I'd just made the connection myself, between "Bo bro-mely" and the name on the customer's shirt, which was obviously a clothing designer and fit the context of the song. So I asked him about his shirt and he told me it was a "store in New York," and I explained about the song in the musical, "Annie." We traded references. I was pretty psyched.

Every once in a while, I run into the real-life version of something in the lyrics of a musical, and it is thrilling. "Bustelo, Marlboro, bananas by the bunch..." in the musical, "Rent," came alive with the Café Bustelo I discovered when I started drinking cheap coffee. It is delicious, and goes well with bananas (and peanut butter), though I don't know about the Marlboro.

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