Ben Miller

I don't want to let another minute get by They're slipping through our fingers, but we're ready to fly The night'll be our cover and we'll huddle below We got the music in our bodies and the radio   -Jim Steinman, "Faster Than the Speed of Night" On November 21st 2015, I experienced a fantastic performance of Jim Steinman songs entitled Paradise Found: The Lost Songs of Jim Steinman directed by Pat Cerasaro at 54 Below in New York City. I had previously been to the same venue for Total Eclipse: The Music of Jim Steinman , also directed by Pat in May; you can read my blog about that show here . I arrived in New York around 5:00 that evening and met up with my parents. We took a side trip to the World Trade Center observatory. Being 100 floors up is quite a thrilling feeling, to be up so high that even skyscrapers like the Empire State Building look small. Photo credit: Ben Miller Photo credit: Ben Miller After returning to the ground, ...

On May 5th 2015, I had the great fortune to attend a show at 54 Below in New York City called Total Eclipse: The Music of Jim Steinman , directed by Pat Cerasaro, with a setlist picked out by Jim himself. A few days before the show, Pat asked me to "PLEASE consider doing a blog" about it. Well... I'm happy to oblige! Before the show started I had the opportunity to interact with many Steinmaniacs including Jim's college friend and Dream Engine co-star Barry Keating, Jim's webmaster Jacqueline Dillon, and Jim's long-time co-producer Steven Rinkoff -- all of whom I'd previously met at Jim's commencement speech at Amherst College in 2013 . Barry signed my copy of the program from his musical Starmites and informed me that he and Pat would be putting on a new Starmites show at 54 Below in July. Jacqueline told me how much she loved the photo I'd recently dug up of Jim as a student in college. I was also excited to meet Kim Friedman. You may know...

"It became a very mythic, important thing to me to never forget that every song you write, every record you make, ultimately is for that kid in Wisconsin. Or that weirdo in Alabama, or the banker in Kansas, the young couple starting out in California, the kid in the ghetto in Oakland, it doesn't matter. It just always ends up being some kid under the covers with headphones on. And I honestly don't know of any other business where you can so majestically reach so many people on such a vast scale, but also so intimately, urgently, and passionately get into the bloodstream of their lives. And I have to say that all this award means, ultimately, is that it's for the kid in Wisconsin. And he's the one I'm always working for. So, kid, this award is for you. And I really have to say, without being sentimental, that it's a great honor to be a part of the soundtrack of your life every time I write a song and every time you get a chance to hear it."  ( excerpt ...

So I wrote these words, and I hope they last For the years have come, and the years have passed Think of all they gave, think of all the debt But can't find a way, to repay them yet For the days still come, and the debts still mount And do words unsaid, ever really count But sometimes still, in the dead of night I can see them there, in the pale moonlight I am trying And I don't know how And I don't know when But I'll have to tell them someday ("Someday", lyrics by Paul O'Neill) Going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been somewhat of an annual Christmas tradition for me. I saw them in Raleigh in 2008, 2009, and 2010; and in Atlanta in 2011. Each of these shows revolved around TSO's first album Christmas Eve and Other Stories . In 2012, however, TSO decided to change up their live show and focus on a different album, The Lost Christmas Eve . I was psyched because that is my favorite album in their Christmas trilo...