Once back in the village, I was assured by a few locals that driving home would be no problem - and that I should stay and soak in the thermal pools that Hanmer Springs is known for. In the distance, ominous clouds slowly rolled in over the tops of the mountain peaks. As I passed the time up here listening to some new music and reading, I looked out to see a storm heading in. Once at the top, I was rewarded with a spectacular view of the village and the surrounding mountains. I was shaded from the sun and wind by large pines on the way up. After a short, yet beautiful drive, I parked the car and headed up Conical Hill. Yesterday I hiked in a more large-scale garden, found at Hanmer Springs in the alpine forest. I found my way to a stone structure in an alcove and nestled in to read and pray. I'll admit, I had no idea there were so many different kinds of this flower - way beyond white, red, yellow. Anyone with the slightest hint of a green thumb has several varieties spilling forth from their yards. Since Christchurch is a quaint city and as close to an English town as you can get without being in England, there are roses everywhere. I found my way to the rose garden.holy cow, this was impressive! My love for roses has grown over the past couple months. Even with the sun covered in clouds, the colors of the flowers and shrubs shone with glory. The magnificent trees swished and swayed in a way that commanded attention. The kind of wind that fills you, gives you energy. I spent Monday learning the history of NZ in the Canterbury Museum, then I strolled through the Christchurch Botanic Gardens - my favorite by far! It was an overcast chilly day in late afternoon, and the wind was making its presence known, not in a frustrating makes-you-want-to-bundle-up-tighter kind of way but in a brace-yourself-and-put-your-face-into-it kind of way. In some way I think being in nature - the mountains, the beach, the plains, anywhere that modern technology is far gone - this is where there is peace, life, and for me, the ability to connect with God. And He arose in a garden." I think this is why I like gardens so much. God created the garden for man and placed him in it. “It’s such an amazing experience of something coming full circle.I read a book the other day that said, "Everything important had happened in a garden. Though the most exciting moment, he says, was seeing the song filmed. “‘Galavant’ was the first song we wrote, and getting the reaction from Dan was like a handshake,” says Menken. Over the course of nearly a dozen drafts the two landed on the perfect theme for the show’s hero. This is the kind of musical that you love.” “I think it’s important to tell the audience that this is not the kind of musical that you don’t like. “Letting the audience know that this is not a show for kids, that this was not going to be polite, and that this was not old-fashioned.” His lines for the song include “tough, plus every other manly value, mess with him he’ll disembowel you,” and “epic, wild, a real butt-clencher.” “It was just (about) trying to establish tone quickly,” Slater says. To pen the lyrics, which had to cover a page of backstory supplied by Fogelman, Slater wanted something fresh that didn’t conform to traditional expectations when auds hear “Galavant” is a musical from Disney. And the lyric content, very sophisticated and theatrical because we’re telling all these stories and hopefully weaving them as economically as possible into this song.” “It’s obviously irreverent and it’s obviously swashbuckling in its basic tone but at the same time a rock arrangement underneath it. “I remember picturing (Galavant) on horseback,” Menken says, recalling how he “let the music spill” and the initial creative impulse that produced the musical arrangement of the song. “Galavant” had to introduce the audience to the show’s universe, establish backstory and the series’ smart-alecky tone, and as Menken says, had to do it all right off the bat in the show’s opening seconds. When it came to writing the “Galavant” theme in spring 2013, it was clear that the song had a particularly unique job to do. “And that changes the way you hear the songs and the way the songs function,” he says. Added all together, the six-episode series is just slightly longer than your standard Broadway show, but rather than watching it all at once, audiences saw the story in 23-minute pieces. “It was a big learning curve,” says Slater.
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