Many of the facts about the events in Boston this week are still yet to be revealed, and many, we may never learn. But watching it all unfold in the media and on social networks has led me to a profoundly disturbing observation.

I keep seeing people of all ages posting “What is happening to this country?!” or “What is the world coming to?!” To these and others, I have to pose this question: to what country are you referring? Which world are you talking about?

This mythical time and place where evil never reared its head and no one ever committed acts of unfathomable horror never existed. Are you talking about Mumbai in 2008? NYC in 2001? Surely not Oklahoma in 1995? Lockerbie in 1988? And on and on…

The seeds of violent acts are not sown in waves but in drops. Every day, intolerance, neglect, and poverty stoke the flames of anger inside young men and women around the world. Every day, someone in this country doesn’t get the ongoing help they need for a mental illness or can’t afford their medication. Every day, there are thousands of young people whose spirits are broken by their families or their peers or their adopted countries because they are different.

The reason “What is happening to this country?!” disturbs me so much is that it implies that all of this hasn’t been happening all along. It implies that we didn’t KNOW it was happening all along, or that we forgot. Or ignored it.

So how does it all stop? We remain vigilant. We keep our eyes open and look out for one another.

But more importantly, we remain vigilant in times of peace and guard against the apathy that leads to atrocity. We remain vigilant in loving each other and lifting each other up and empowering one another to see love and seek help and find peace. Every day. So that we don’t have to ask “what is this world coming to?”

We will already know because we were paying attention.

The events in Newtown, CT touched the hearts of so many people around the world. This song is a response to the Sandy Hook tragedy and echoes the notion that those we love are never really gone.

“Light My Sky” was written by Raycee & Mills for Allison Wyatt and the other victims in Sandy Hook after the events on December 14, 2012. The songwriters have a prior connection to the Wyatt family and “Light My Sky” was performed at the closing of Allison’s funeral as we all said our final goodbyes.

For a period of time, half of all after tax proceeds from sales of Light My Sky will go to the Wyatt family who plan to split the money between the funds created in Allison Wyatt’s memory. **Please note that purchases of Light My Sky cannot be considered charitable donations**

BUY HERE

DEATH, THE MUSICAL

Photo by RW Imagery

Some great, some awful! Just like people! (Dead and alive.)

HoustonPress

Houston Chronicle #1

Houston Chronicle #2

Cannon Beach

As I write this, I’m sitting at my palatial Ikea desk looking out the window onto Brooklyn Avenue (in Brooklyn…) and it’s pouring. As it has been since about 2 am last night when I was awoken by what amounted to an atomic bomb of a thunder storm that shook the entire building and set off car alarms all over the neighborhood.

Oddly enough, rain makes me feel more at home than anything else. I was discussing this with my friend Caitlin at brunch yesterday (who just moved to the city and is looking for a job, if you happen to have a position that needs filling!). We Pacific Northwesterners seem to find a strange sense of calm in the weather that defines our home turf. Unbearable heat: not for us. Biting cold that cryogenically freezes every bit of exposed skin: whywhywhy.

But torrential rains: easy as marionberry pie. (Which is not that easy, actually.)

That said, a good rainstorm sans gale-force winds or hail seems to be hard to come by in New York. I relish it when it does happen. I even have my favorite walking-in-the-rain music on my iPod. I just seem to become more centered with water pouring from the sky. By the way, this pisses most people NOT from the PacNorWes (I just invented that) off so much that they tend to not speak to you once you tell them how much you love that soggy feeling at the bottom of your jeans.

NYC is strange and daunting. But feels like home, it does. Or rather, it’s starting to. I still miss trees. And clean air. And having a car. And space to move around in. But it’s getting there.

A round-up of the craziness this summer (so far):

-Finished my first year in the BMI Musical Theater Workshop with a 10-minute-musical adaptation of an episode of “Hey, Arnold!” with the wildly talented Drew Gasparini (drewgasparinimusic.com) Stoop Kid’s afraid to leave his stoop! Stoop Kid’s afraid to leave his stoop!

-”Coffin Full of Love,” a song I wrote as a duet for a husband & wife undertaker who are suffering in the economic downturn was picked to be a part of Death, The Musical,  which will premiere in Houston, TX this October. I was also invited to take a stab (har har) at setting some lyrics that had already been written for the show and to write some incidental music for skits. As of this posting, I’m now a writer or co-writer on 6 of the 14 numbers in the show! More information on the show and the pretty amazing production team here: http://www.deathmusical.com/

-The Dirty Gems are well on their way to taking over the universe with our own special brand of sexy jams and oh-so-good live shows. We’re wrapping up mixing on our debut EP this weekend and will have our CD release party at the legendary NYC venue, The Bitter End on September 2nd. We’ve opted to go the homemade album art route, which means all kinds of arts and crafts in the very near future. While you’re quivering in anticipation of the EP release, check out videos & recordings of our live shows here: http://www.reverbnation.com/thedirtygems

-Raycee Jones (formerly Rachel Ulreich), lead songstress for The Dirty Gems and I are in the early planning stages for an album for some of the songs we’ve written together. We also reached over 4k views for this video. Who knew? Since she went and found herself a new name, we decided that perhaps I should have something a little more fly as well. I’m not quite ready to reveal it yet, but let’s just say, it’s good.

As you can see, big things are on the way for this fall. I’m trying to get all my ducks in a row this month so I can hit the ground running come September when all hell breaks loose. Or perhaps, ‘all heaven breaks loose’ would be more accurate. I sometimes feel like I’m running the world’s most successful one-man religious racket. Well, except for L. Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith and Jesus and… ok, maybe not.

I’m going to try to post once a week for a while. Probably on Thursdays. Keep your eyes peeled and your browsers pointed this-a-way.

M

Check out “The Germs Will Murder You” from the new reading of “At The Edge” on Ryan Scott Oliver’s Crazytown Blog riiiiiiight….

HERE.

Performed by Jordan Stanley, Lily Goodman and yours truly.

Happy New Year! As the vivacious Renée Veronica Freeman keeps telling me, “20-11, baby!”

This is the year.

A wee update:

We’re well into rehearsals for the Jan. 31st reading of the newly christened “At the Edge,” (formerly “Tangled”) and so excited to be working with this new fantastic cast and elated to have our wonderful director, McKenna Dabbs, at the helm.

Check out the Events page for the details! We’re also looking forward to April when we are slated for another reading at The Tank in Midtown Manhattan.

Here are just a smattering of the things I’ve been working on recently:

Stay tuned for all sorts of exciting things coming up!

M

Alexandra and I were so proud of all our little minions last week as we brought “Tangled” to our alma mater! We got some great feedback from the (rather small) audience and are hard at work doing revisions in preparation for the next big slew of festival and grant applications coming our way.

(Also, in spite of some factual shenaniganry, I must make hearty thanks to the Chronicle reviewer who wrote, “Sanderlin’s music certainly adds a great deal to the show, allowing the characters to communicate their problems by way of impressive a cappella harmonies.”)

As a little treat… click HERE for some of demos from the show! We’re very excited to announce a reading at The Theater for the New City in January complete with a full cast and a *gasp* director!

Stay tuned!

~*~

In other Mark news, I’m having a blast in the BMI Musical Theater Writing Workshop and meeting all sorts of wonderful creative peoples. I’m also now a few days into the rehearsal process for “The Threepenny Opera” at Hofstra and am really enjoying slogging through the enigma which is the Brecht/Weill collaboration. In homage, check out the original “Mack the Knife” and the wonderful creepiness that was the Alan Cumming/Cyndi Lauper production. Wish I could have seen it…

Mostly the first two, but why let a good alliteration go to waste?

The last couple of weeks have probably been some of the busiest, stressful, wonderful weeks of my life thus far. (Hyperbole, perhaps, but why not?) A run down:

I’m singing the High Holy Days for West End Temple in Neponsit, NY. Still have Yom Kippur left, but Rosh Hashanah and S’lichot went well. Hopefully my voice will hold up for another 8 hour marathon singing session next weekend… I frequently go by the name Benjamin at the temple, as the director’s son used to sing for the choir and is about my build. I just nod, smile and give my most charming l’shana tovah.

We’re off and running in rehearsals for “The Great Unknown,” which is staging at Theater Row Studios this month and performing at Theater at St. Clements in October. Thanks to our brand new MD, I’m approaching a nearly passable OCD in regards to slurring and beaming. Thanks, Wayne!

The working demos of “Tangled” are floating about in the universe now thanks to Jack Goode, Ulises Amaya, Lily Goodman, Alyssa Libonati, Andy Lott and Mitchell McCarthy. Keep checking back here for possible samples from the score! Alex and I are getting really quick at filling out these grant/workshop/reading applications.

Last week I was cast as the male swing for “When Push Comes To Shove,” a new show from Trust Your Gut Productions, which puts on educational theater in schools and community centers all over the Northeast. In 6 very short rehearsals, we put together the entire show and had our first performance Friday night in Hamden, CT. The show was a rousing success, in spite of various headset mic problems and prop shaving cream EVERYWHERE. Looking forward to working with all of these crazies over the course of this school year!

Friday night right before we went on for WPC2S, I happened to check my voicemail and got some news that outshone any glowing reviews from the pre-school critics (though those were much appreciated). The BMI Musical Theater Writing Workshop has graciously allowed me to join their ranks. More info on the Workshop here. I’m unbelievably excited about this great opportunity and I look forward to sharing the new songs that will be coming out of this experience with all of you.

This morning marked my first day at Epiphany NYC. Twas a good morning, even if the G shuttle made me late. I’ll have to remember to leave at least another 15 minutes earlier (I already leave an hour early!). I struggled not to giggle in disbelief when the first sermon I heard today was about John Wesley Powell and his adventures down the Grand Canyon… the subject of “The Great Unknown!” I suppose the universe occasionally beats you over the head in letting you know you’re going in the right direction.

Oh, and to top this all off, I’ve been technically homeless for the last week and a half. My new sublet starts on Tuesday, but since the lovely Rachel Ulreich made her glorious return to NYC, I’ve been living on the couch.

If all of this wasn’t enough, there are a couple other big things in the works that I can’t tell you about right now… You can be sure you’ll see more on here when I can reveal the details!

M

Very excited to find out a couple days ago that I’ll be joining the choir at the Church of the Epiphany on UES as a section leader! The space is a great old building in a cool neighborhood. Here’s a link to Epiphany NYC.

Church of the Epiphany NYC

Last week’s performance of selections from “Tangled” at the Gene Frankel Theatre was quite wonderful. It was great to work on these songs with a group of 8 very talented singers and our pianist, Kevin Lawson. So proud. Here are some videos from the evening, sans the other acts, which included bear traps, sword swallowing and no small amount of burlesque: