Music Monday: Portals By Alan Silvestri

Over the weekend I watched ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame.’ The tone and mood of the movies matched what’s going on in my life. Last week, my campus had a study break to enable staff, and students, to prepare for online learning. I scrambled to brush on WebEx, a meeting software provided by the college. I began the first of many weekly staff meetings, had one small meeting to show a LibGuide, and chatted through Microsoft Teams, one for work-related information and the other dubbed ‘the watercooler’ where I got see lots of dog photos.

I stepped away from my laptop and into my kitchen before my first, online staff meeting, hearing my most played track of 2019 in my earphones. I played the track on repeat everywhere, before I did a plank at the gym, while on the treadmill, to psyche myself up for a task. Before staff ‘assembled’ for the meeting, by sheer coincidence, Alan Silvestri’s rousing score played and I can still see the battle scene in my head. No dialogue beyond Sam Wilson saying ‘On your left’ in Captain America’s earpiece, Dr. Strange wondering if that was everyone, while an exasperated Wong wondered who else could possibly still arrive. Every snapped hero arrived, every snapped sorcerer opening a portal, and even snapped Asgardians, and Wakandans. Everyone arrived to make the last stand.

Everyone assembled.

Call me a cornball but I needed to see this moment again over the weekend; I needed to hear that score over my earphones. Nobody asked for this moment and here we are, holed up in our homes, physically distancing, and assembling online.