I'm fairly certain I've blogged extensively in the past about how music tends to affect my muse in strange ways, but I just had probably the best example ever of this phenomenon while working on Boys Don't Cry today (Don't worry, I'm still working on Robin too :-) She'll be back soon).

I have, for as long as I can remember, had a love affair with the language of music. In seventh grade (That's about age 12-13) my friends used to joke that when I played "A Whole New World" from Aladdin on my trumpet, it was like I went into a trance.

I never learned to read sheet music because of my vision problems. I actually found it MUCH easier to just learn to listen to what the guy next to me was playing and just copy him. I got so good at it that I could pick up a new part of a piece after an hour of practice listening to someone else sight-read it.

Normally I don't do this, but I felt so moved that I just had to pass this along. I don't know how familiar you all are with the hit Disney movie, "Mulan", but it's been one of my favorites ever since it first released.

It's based on the legend of Hua Mulan, and tells the story of a girl who cross-dresses as a man to join the Imperial Chinese army to keep her father safe. Prior to this incident in the animation adaptation, she has a disastrous run-in with "The Matchmaker".