A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

IT'S TIME NOW TO SING OUT, THOUGH THE STORY NEVER ENDS CAN GET CENSORED BY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS: Remember back in November 2007, when we were all excited about Rent: The High School Edition making its way across America? Surprise! Some high schools are having second thoughts. Still:

“Like it or not, we’re right smack in the middle of an enormous cultural shift right now, and that shift will give way to acceptance of homosexuality and acceptance of gay characters,” said Jeffrey Seller, one of the “Rent” producers, who are also backing a national tour now under way. “But it’s a process, it’s a messy process, and it makes sense to me that we’ll take steps forward and hit a pothole and take a step backward.

“But you know what?” Mr. Seller added. “The kids are going to win. They may not win this month, they may not win this year, but if they want to put on ‘Rent,’ then they are going to have to fight a little bit and stand up to their schools.”

I'm thinking that it's precisely in those hamlets that think they're not ready for Rent in which they need to be performing the show, those places in which folks living with AIDS, drag queens, documentary filmmakers and folks fired from their jobs for working on theories of "actual reality" remain just as much outcasts from society as the tuberculosis sufferers of yesteryear.