#Sheridan Opera House

[godzilla-reads]

My Year of Gothic Reading 2024

Rules: For each month in 2024 you have to pick either a book, poem, or short story to read that carries gothic themes or aesthetic. Here's a list of suggested reading, but feel free to read something else or add others onto this list!

Books

"Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

"The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James

"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

"The Mysteries of Udolpho" by Ann Radcliffe

"The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux

"Dracula" by Bram Stoker

"The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole

"The Monk" by Matthew Lewis

"The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson

"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

"Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Short Stories

"The Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen

"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Hr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson

"The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman

"The Mark of the Beast" by Rudyard Kipling

"The Vampyre" by John William Polidori

"The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier

"The Cats of Ulthar" by H.P. Lovecraft

Poems

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe

"The cold earth slept below" by Percy Bysshe Shelley

"The Lady of Shalott" by Lord Alfred Tennyson

"My own Beloved, who has lifted me" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"What Would I Give?" by Christina Rossetti

"Time to Come" by Walt Whitman

"Love and Death" by Lord Byron

"Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson

"La Belle Dame sans Merci" by John Keats

"The End" by D.H. Lawrence

"Hymn to the Night" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The Possessed" by Charles Baudelaire

[maraschinocheri]

Happy 39th birthday to the London production of Les Misérables (which officially opened on 8 October 1985 at the Barbican Theatre, though previews began at the end of September)! By way of celebrations, scans from the 1985/86 / 1986/87 Royal Shakespeare Company Yearbook, which honoured the success of the Barbican production and its transfer to the Palace Theatre by making Colm Wilkinson and Michael Ball during 'Bring Him Home' its cover stars. The annual RSC Yearbook summarised productions in all of the company's (at the time five) theatres and on tour with production photography and critical commentary from newspapers and other media. Text from the pages above is under the cut below, with bracketed extra information to clarify some references.

Not since Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd back in 1979 has there been a score which soared out of the pit with the blazing theatricality of Les Misérables, and to those of my tabloid colleagues already in print with feeble and fainthearted objections to the show, I have but this to say: remember the demon barber. Sweeney, too, we were once told; was too dark, too savage, too downbeat a theme for a musical. Six years on, that show has won more awards and been acclaimed to more opera houses than any other in the entire history of the American musical. Les Misérables, in a brilliantly intelligent staging by Trevor Nunn and John Caird, will achieve a similar kind of long-term success …

[The Times’/Punch’s Sheridan] Morley went on. ‘… The greatness of Les Misérables is that it starts out, like Sweeney and Peter Grimes, to redefine the limits of music theatre. Like them it is through sung, and like them it tackles universal themes of social and domestic happiness in terms of individual despair.’

[The Financial Times’ Michael] Coveney talked of the allying of ‘Nickleby*-style qualities of ensemble presentation to a piece that really does deserve the label ‘rock opera’, occupying brand new ground somewhere between Verdi and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was not, he thought, a company celebration like Nickleby, ‘but an appreciation of those values along with the musical experience gathered by the team (Trevor Nunn, John Caird and David Hersey) on Cats and Starlight Express.’ To that extent, he went on, the show was an important one, ‘bridging gaps between musical and opera, and subjecting rock musicians to RSC tutelage while last year’s Clarence [in the RSC 1984 production of Richard III], Roger Allam, is unveiled in the role of Javert as an outstanding performer in the musical idiom.’

[*The RSC's landmark 1980 production of an adaption of Charles Dickens’ The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby]

[The Guardian’s Michael] Billington posited that if you fillet any great nineteenth-century novel, ‘you are left with melodrama.’ Les Misérables, he said, jointly produced by the RSC and Cameron Mackintosh at the Barbican, becomes exactly ‘high class melodrama.’ It was staged ‘with breathtaking panache by Trevor Nunn and John Caird. It is impeccably designed by John Napier. It has a lively score by Claude-Michel Schönberg. But it is three-and-a-half hours of fine middlebrow entertainment rather than great art.’ Billington claimed to have ‘conned’ the novel sufficiently ‘to realise that it is a towering masterpiece about social injustice, redemption through love and the power of Providence.’ What the musical offered, he went on, ‘is the hurtling story of Jean Valjean, the paroled prisoner who becomes a provincial mayor, who is relentlessly pursued by the policeman Javert and who achieves heroic feats of self-sacrifice at the 1832 Paris uprising. What you don’t get is the background of moral conflict that makes this more than a classy adventure story.’ In this he thought, Hugo’s novel was infinitely more dramatic than the musical.

[The Times’ Irving] Wardle spoke of the temptation in such circumstances for anyone who has read the novel ‘to quarrel with any adaptation for its omissions and liberties instead of judging the adaptation on its own merits.’ In this instance, he maintained, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg had done a capable gutting job. ‘They present a clear outline of the epic contest between Jean Valjean, the saintly ex-convict, and his implacable pursuer Javert: including Valjean’s defeated attempt to save the wretched Fantine, and his life-long devotion to her daughter, Cosette, only to lose her to a young love, Marius, amid the Paris barricades of 1832.’

The adapters had cut corners with boldness and ingenuity, Wardle believed, and had found fresh situations where Hugo’s are theatrically unworkable. They had also preserved the essential sense that Valjean and Javert are two of a kind, belonging, as Hugo puts it, to the ‘two classes of men whom society keeps at arms length: those who prey on it and those who protect it.’

Coveney maintained that the organization and placement of the continuously revolving stage was ‘beyond praise���, with John Napier’s design doing as much honour to Hugo’s Paris as he lavished on Dickens’s London [in Nickleby]: ‘Two huge trucks rumble on and form a barricaded wall which, just as Hugo describes, seems to contain a city in itself, a fantastic jumble of chairs, barrels, planks and people, a teeming segment of a revolutionary catacomb.’

This alternative society, Coveney said, was presented without sentiment ‘as indeed are its urchin sentinels, the daughter of Thenardier (a devastating waif performance by Frances Ruffelle) and Gavroche … sweetly and surely sung by an admirable child actor and just when you feel the production is slipping by allowing a [writer of Oliver] Lionel Bart-ish point number, he is shot full of bullets and left to sing plaintively on the wrong side of the barricade.’

The music, [The Sunday Times’ John] Peter though, ‘has a fresh, astringent lyricism and a powerful, ballad-like drive: number after number makes robust contributions to character and drama.’ The best performances, in Peter’s opinion, came from Alun Armstrong and Susan Jane Tanner as the ‘horrible Thenardiers', Patti LuPone (Fantine) and Frances Ruffelle (Eponine). But this was, he pointed out, ‘essentially a company musical rather than a star vehicle. If it transfers to the West End where its masterful theatricality would outshine almost anything else on offer, it might show people that success in this genre doesn’t depend solely on expensive star turns.’ The transfer to the Palace, of course, came swiftly after the Barbican opening.

[The Observer’s Michael] Ratcliffe described Schönberg’s score as ‘all tinselly arpeggios, stabbing staccato, pile-driving trumpets and thinly-disguised hymns.’ In polite terms he said, it was ‘electric, trailing a range of references from high-tech Bizet and Massenet to the air-time acceptable, and Celtic Fringe Folk.’

Some scenes, said Coveney, go straight into operatic form, ‘for example the apprehension by Javert of Valjean at Fantine’s deathbed, or a beautiful garden trio for young lovers in Valjean’s garden hideaway.’ There was also a ‘startling thematic echo of Rigoletto as Valjean ponders the son he might have had.’ Colm Wilkinson’s Valjean was in Coveney’s opinion ‘a remarkable study in impassive acquisition of self-knowledge … He [has] particularly fine and lyrical use of his upper register. Above all he transmits palpable goodness without sounding like a prig or a boar [bore?].’ [The Sunday’s Telegraph’s Francis] King thought Wilkinson not only sang the role with eloquence ‘but – far more difficult – brings out the essential goodness of a much-wronged man.’ The outstanding voice of the evening in King’s opinion, was that of Patti LuPone as Fantine.

The band under the stage and the musical direction of Martin Koch include some rumbling brass premonitions of disaster as well as some very fine work on synthesizers, brass and strings. The score also underpins such exciting production movements as the arrival of the barricade, the suicidal leap (done by the bridge flying up as Mr Allam free falls on the spot) and the descent to the sewers with lots of dry ice and naked banks of light not equalled in impact since Mr Hersey did something similar in Evita.

In short, this is an intriguing and most enjoyable musical, fully justifying the mixing of commercial resources with RSC talent and personnel, even if not all that many RSC actors are involved.* Being now acquainted with the demands of the score, I see why that should be so. [Morley]

[* The RSC members who appeared in the Barbican production were Roger Allam, Alun Armstrong, and Susan Jane Tanner. Other RSC members at this time joined Les Mis in later companies, among them David Delve, who would replace Alun Armstrong as Thenardier.]

[bloodsuckingviolet]

🎃Ultimate October Reading List👻

I compiled a list of 20+ of my favorite spooky reads, the creepiest, darkest paranormal stories and novels that are perfect to read when October comes around. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments or reblogs!

-Gwen🦇

The Banshee's Warning by Charlotte Riddell (haunting banshee)

The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe (black cats, supernatural)

The Case of the Leannabh Sidhe by Margery Lawrence (changelings, evil fairies)

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (classic ghost tropes; considered to be the very first gothic novel)

Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu (lesbian vampyres...need I say more?)

A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family by Sheridan le Fanu (haunted, eroding castle, jilted wife)

A Dead Man of Varley Grange by Anonymous (cursed cottage)

The Dead Sexton by Sheridan le Fanu (mysterious corpse thief)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (THEE vampyre, superstitions)

Dobrev (young clairvoyants, succubus, written by yours truly!)

The Family of a Vourdalak by Aleksey Tolstoy (vampyre, recently adapted into a fantastically weird French film)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (creation, horrors of life)

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (supernatural, erotic)

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (paranormal, curses)

Hugues, the Wer-wolf by Sutherland Menzies (OG werewolf story)

In the Closed Room by Frances Hodgson Burnett (ghosts, mysterious closed door)

Laura Silver Bell by Sheridan le Fanu (evil fairies, witchcraft)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (ghosts, autumn vibes)

The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis (cruel and dark, such an insane read!)

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs (supernatural, death)

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (gothic romance, castles, supernatural)

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (ghost, romance)

The Sandman by E.T.A. Hoffmann (dark fairy tale elements, obsession)

The Shadow of a Shade by Tom Hood (haunted portrait)

The Story of Medhans Lea by E. and H. Heron (haunted house, men getting scared, lol)

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (murder, good vs. evil)

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship by Chris Priestley (underrated horror author!)

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth by Christ Priestley (eerie and disturbing short stories)

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe (guilt, murder)

The Tomb of Sarah by Frederick Loring (cursed tomb)

The Trod by Algernon Blackwood (evil fairies)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (ghosts)

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley (first of a great ghostly, gruesome trilogy)

The Vampyre by John Polidori (one of the OG vamp tales; seductive, evil vampyre torments a young man and his sister)

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (even creepier than the movie)

[thatrandomartistjavi]

Actors that were in Alice in Wonderland media and where you might know them better from. Part 2: 1970s-1990s

Part 1 | Part 2(you're here!!) | Part 3

1972-

Michael Crawford as the White Rabbit: The Phantom/Erik from The Phantom of the Opera Cornelius Hackel from Hello Dolly!(movie) Robert Helpmann as the Mad Hatter: Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Michael Hordern as the Mock Turtle: Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol(1971) Davy Kaye as the Mouse: Admiral from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Roy Kinnear as the Cheshire Cat: Henry Salt from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Pipkin from Watership Down

Through the Looking Glass(1973)-

Sarah Sutton as Alice: Nyssa from Doctor Who Geoffrey Bayldon as the White Knight: Dr. Duval from Pink Panther(1976)

Festival of Family Classics(1973)-

Carl Banas as the King of Hearts: Head Elf from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Scorpion from Spider-Man(1967) Sweetums from Tales from Muppetland- The Frog Prince Grandpa Kitty from Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater Bernard Gouran as the Dormouse: Bumble/Spotted Elephant from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Paul Soles as the Cheshire Cat: Hermey from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Spider-Man/Peter Parker from Spider-Man(1967) Stanley Lieber from The Incredible Hulk(2008) Peg Dixon as the Queen of Hearts: May Parker/Mary Jane Watson from Spider-Man(1967)

Alice at the Palace(1982)

Meryl Streep as Alice: Donna Sheridan from Mamma Mia!(movie) Mrs. Fox from Fantastic Mr. Fox The Witch from Into the Woods(movie) Cousin Topsy from Mary Poppins Returns Dee Dee Allen from The Prom(movie) Betty Aberlin as Alice's sister: Herself in Mister Roger's Neighborhood Debbie Allen as the Queen of Hearts: Dr. Catherine Avery Fox from Grey's Anatomy Michael Jeter as the Pig Baby/Dormouse/Bill: Mr. Noodle from Sesame Street Steamer/Smokey from The Polar Express

Great Performances(1983)-

Kate Burton as Alice:

Ellis Grey from Grey’s Anatomy

Austin Pendleton as the White Rabbit:

Max from The Muppet Movie

Gurgle from Finding Nemo

Nathan Lane as the Mouse:

Timon from The Lion King

Hammegg from AstroBoy(2009)

Max Dialystock from The Producers

Gomez Addams from The Addams Family(musical)

Geoffrey Holder as the Cheshire Cat:

Narrator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Ray the Sun from Bear in the Big Blue House

(He was also the original director and costume designer for The Wiz(musical)

Eve Arden as the Queen of Hearts:

Principal McGee from Grease

James Coco as the King of Hearts:

Mr. Skeffington from The Muppets Take Manhattan

Donald O’Connor as the Mock Turtle:

Cosmo Brown from Singin’ in the Rain

André De Shields as Tweedle Dum:

Hermes from Hadestown

The Wiz from The Wiz(musical)

Maureen Stapleton as the White Queen:

Mama Mae Peterson from Bye Bye Birdie

CBS(1985)-

Natalie Gregor as Alice: Jenny Foxworth from Oliver & Company Sherman Hemsley as the Mouse: B.P. Richfield from Dinosaurs Shelley Winters as the Dodo: Lena Gogan from Pete's Dragon Sammy Davis Jr. as the Caterpillar: Josh Howard from Ocean's 11 Robert Axelrod as the Frog Footman: Lord Zedd from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers-The Movie Telly Savales as the Cheshire Cat: El Sleezo Tough from The Muppet Movie Roddy McDowall as the March Hare: Mr. Soil from A Bug's Life Jervis Tetch from Batman the Animated Series Ringo Starr as the Mock Turtle: The Beatles Carol Channing as the White Queen: Dolly Gallagher Levi from Hello Dolly! Harvey Korman as the White King: The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones Sally Struthers as Tiger Lily: Rebecca Cunningham from TaleSpin Pat Morita as the Horse: Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid The Emperor of China from Mulan Jonathan Winters as Humpty Dumpty: Grandpa Smurf from The Smurfs John Stamos as the Messenger: Jesse Katsopolis from Full House Iron Man/Tony Stark from Spidey and His Amazing Friends(put this here cause i thought it was funny)

Anglia TV(1985)-

Joan Sanderson as the Queen of Hearts: Dorcas from The Great Muppet Caper Bernard Cribbins as the Mock Turtle: Wilfred Mott from Doctor Who

BBC(1986)-

Elisabeth Sladen as the Dormouse: Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who Michael Wisher as the Cheshire Cat: Davros and the Daleks in episodes that the character was involved in from Doctor Who Roy Skelton as the Mock Turtle: Daleks for The Evil of the Daleks(and 5 other episodes) from Doctor Who

Carebears in Wonderland(1987)-

Tracey Moore as Alice: Cheer Bear from The Carebears Family Share Bear from Too Many Carebears stuff to list Emma Frost from X-Men(1992) Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon(1995)(Ep. 1-11,15, and 21) Princess Toadstool from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3 Don McManus as the Caterpillar: David Madsen from Life is Strange Elizabeth Hanna as the Queen of Wonderland: Grandma/Mama Kitty from Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater

Through the Looking Glass(1987)-

Janet Waldo as Alice: Judy Jetson from The Jetsons Josie from Josie and the Pussycats Townsend Coleman as Tom Fool: The Tick from The Tick Michaelangelo/Splinter/Krang/Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(1987) Phyllis Diller as the White Queen: Queen from A Bug's Life Hal Smith as the Bandersnatch: Owl from Winnie the Pooh(until 1991)(was also the first replacement for Pooh bear himself) Josiah from Halloween is Grinch Night Gyro Gearloose/Flintheart Glomgold from Ducktales Phillipe from Beauty and the Beast Jonathan Winters as the Tweedles: Papa Smurf from The Smurfs Alan Young as the White Knight: Scrooge McDuck from Ducktales Farmer Smurf from The Smurfs Mr. T as the Jabberwock: Mr. T B.A. Baracus from The A-Team Clive Revill as the Snark/Goat: King Nod from The Thief and the Cobbler(1993,1995) Kickback from The Transformers-The Movie Will Ryan as the Paper Man: Petrie from The Land Before Time Willie the Giant from Mickey's Christmas Carol(and until his death in 2021) Harold the Seahorse from The Little Mermaid Digit/Moe from An American Tail

Burbank(1988)-

Keith Scott as the White Rabbit/March Hare/Dodo: Gordon/Diesel 10 from Thomas and the Magic Railroad Dudley Do-Right/Inspector Fenwick from Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls Popeye/Bluto from Popeye & Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges

Funky Fables(1988)-

Norma MacMillan as the Narrator: Casper from The New Casper Cartoon Show Gumby on The Gumby Show Doug Parker as the Rabbit/Frog/Mouse: Shredder from Ninja Turtles- The Next Mutation Richard Newman as the Caterpillar: General Cryptor/Emperor of Ninjago from Ninjago Professor Slopsink from Johnny Test Cranky Doodle Donkey from My Little Pony- Friendship is Magic Mr. Turtle from Franklin Rhinox from Beast Wars Alvin Sanders as the Cheshire Cat: King Sombra(season 9) from My Little Pony- Friendship is Magic Manten from Inuyasha Philip Hayes as the Hatter/Hare/Rat: Scratch from The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Mike Donovan as the King of Hearts: Yang from Ninjago Spike from Tom and Jerry Tales(2006) Lynda Boyd as Alice's sister: Nora Carpenter from Final Destination 2 Cheryl from She's the Man

Adventures in Wonderland(1992)-

Patrick Richwood as the White Rabbit: Neighbor Mr. Robutsen from The Princess Diaries Harry Waters Jr. as Tweedle Dee: Marvin Berry from Back to the Future John Lovelady as the Dormouse: Crazy Harry from The Muppets(Season 1) Terri Garr as the Duchess: Mary McGinnis from Batman Beyond Ken Page as the Walrus: Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas Old Deuteronomy from Cats the Musical Gilbert Gottfried as Mike McNasty: Iago from Aladdin Kraang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(2012) Mister Mxyzptlk from Lego Batman 3 Marlee Matlin as April Hare: Melody Bledsoe from Switched at Birth

1995-

Mike Donovan as the Narrator: Yang from Ninjago Spike from Tom and Jerry Tales(2006) Doug Parker as the March Hare: Shredder from Ninja Turtles- The Next Mutation Ian James Corlett as the White Rabbit: Mr. Mint from Candy Land- The Great Lollipop Adventure Cheetor from Beast Wars Hugh Test from Johnny Test The Conductor from Dinosaur Train Skales from Ninjago Blinky from Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

Through the Looking Glass(1998)-

Penelope Wilton as the White Queen: Isobel Crawley from Downtown Abbey Ian Holm as the White Knight: Ash from Alien Bilbo Baggins from Lord of the Rings Chef Skinner from Ratatouille Steve Coogan as the Gnat: Octavius from Night at the Musuem Silas Ramsbottom from Despicable Me 2

1999-

Tina Majorino as Alice: Deb from Napoleon Dinamite Dr. Heather Brooks from Grey's Anatomy Miranda Richardson as the Queen of Hearts: Ms. Tweedy from Chicken Run Madame Giry from The Phantom of the Opera(2004) Rita Skeeter from Harry Potter movie franchise Martin Short as the Hatter: Huy from The Prince of Egypt B.E.N. from Treasure Planet Jack Frost from Santa Clause 3- The Escape Clause Stefano from Madagascar 3- Europe's Most Wanted Jester from Legends of Oz- Dorothy's Return Grandpa Frump from The Addams Family(2019) Preminger from Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper The Cat in the Hat from The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Whoopi Goldberg as the Cheshire Cat: Shenzi from The Lion King Gaia from Captain Planet and the Planeteers Queen Constantina from Rodgers and Hammertsein's Cinderella Ursula from Descendants 2 Gene Wilder as the Mock Turtle: Willy Wonka from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Dr. Frederick Frankenstein from Young Frankenstein Robbie Coltrane as Tweedle Dum: Rubues Hagrid from Harry Potter movie franchise Christopher Lloyd as the White Knight: Doc Brown from Back to the Future Profesor Plum from Clue Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit Merlock from Ducktales the Movie- Treasure of the Lost Lamp Uncle Fester from The Addams Family(1981) Rasputin from Anastasia Ben Kingsley as Major Caterpillar: Mandarin from Iron Man 3 Bagheera from The Jungle Book(2016) Peter Ustinov as the Walrus: Prince John from Robin Hood Pete Postlethwaite as the Carpenter: Narrator from James and the Giant Peach Friar Lawrence from Romeo+Juliet Liz Smith as Miss Lory: Grandma Georgina from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Joanna Lumley as Tiger Lily: Aunt Spiker from James and the Giant Peach Lady Maudeline Everglot from Corpse Bride Murray Melvin as the Executioner: Ernest Reyer from The Phantom of the Opera(2004)

[woodsfae]

Babylon 5 s02e17: Knives S02 Table of Contents • previous episode

They have the space for an entire baseball field, but the hydroponics is so starved for space that one single coffee plant is wildly against regulations and is a secret passed from Laurel (my beloved) to Susan (also my beloved)?

Love the scary stories of the Down Below. It's deeply weird, though, how Garibaldi continues to be a voice of reason to Sheridan. Good character work, I guess, and I like Garibaldi a bit better the further into the season I get.

There are so many strange details thrown at us about various characters, and it definitely makes them feel more real Londo and Vir are very into Centauri opera. Of course they are, hah. This Centauri has a funny 'do. Is it shorter because he's more srs? His general look seems to be of a different style than Londo, and is reminiscent of a western casual, gentleman or scholarly look of the later 19th century.

Of course Sheridan went Down Below alone right after Garibaldi said that was a bad idea, and of course he found a corpse-turned-assailant-turned-corpse-again immediately.

Corpse reviving temporarily kills comms! Interesting!

Garibaldi: "Maybe next time you'll listen when I tell you not to do something. Sir."

lmao.

Dead Alien was staying in the Markab Sector, but was found in the Grey Sector, Down Below.

Fingers crossed for a Sheridan Gets Possessed By A Ghost episode.

Cute, Centauri war criminal nicknames.

Cool and creepy eye effect! Invisible Space Dinosaur called a Grylor!! This is great.

Forensics say the murdered alien actually bashed his own skull in and died of suicide. Seems unlikely.

Awww, Londo is still hung up on Adira from season one.

Londo: "The Centauri have bowed to the whims of other races for too long. Now we will show the galaxy our true spirit. Beginning with those, those, thrice-damned Narns."

Translation: "It sucks that we reined in some of our slave-empire colonization due to pressure from races who didn't like the violent, murdering colonizing. It's good to be back at it."

Huh, old war buddy is against the war and didn't want to see the Narns forced into military conflict. And doesn't realize he's talking to the guy who helped orchestrate all of it. Londo was either the best or the worst person to come to for help when your house is about to be disgraced. Idk which way Londo's going to jump or how this is going to land. On the one hand, Londo could chuck his old friend under the bus for his own gain. Or he could really save this guy's political reputation.

Of course Londo has a portrait of himself in his quarters. That's giving him some serious side-eye.

Susan Ivanova!!

Sheridan: "Commander. Everything in order?" Ivanova: "Remarkably so. It's beginning to worry me." Sheridan: "Do you always worry when things are going well?" Ivanova: "I don't have time to when they're not."

Sheridan gets more, fun, hallucinations! This is definitely normal and not something he should report to Dr Franklin. Anna keeps coming up which feeds my theory that she's still alive.

Oh, he did go report it to Franklin! Good move. Smartypants. Franklin is amusingly dismissive of this.

Dr Franklin: "Well, anyone wiling to command Babylon 5 has got to be slightly insane, but I don't think you're ready for the asylum just yet."

LMAO. What's a little hallucination or four compared to how nuts you have to be to take this job voluntarily?

Oh, interesting. The Markab sector is named after a people also called Markab?

Dr Franklin: "I'm also prescribing a mild sedative. I want you to relax and enjoy yourself - that is an order!"

aka, here's some oxys, go nuts?

Extremely cutthroat Centauri politics perfectly punctuated by Vir, here:

"You know, on rare occasions, I am proud to be your attache."

hah! He really is gaining in confidence.

Ahhh the Markab went through sector 14, which has been restricted since B4 disappeared and briefly re-appeared. dun dun dun!

I wonder if JMS realized that Garibaldi was wholly unlikable and shifted the writing for his character intentionally. Every time he's on screen the last few episodes, I find him easier and easier to like. Or maybe his relapse into alcoholism and subsequent recovery really shook some sense into him? He's funny and endearing now, in a way he wasn't for me since the pilot, The Gathering.

Centauri party. Always a good time to cringe out of my skin. Nothing has happened yet, but there's plenty of time left in the episode for it.

Of course the very person Londo went to for help is the one that has been trying to wreck the Laddo house. And of course Londo didn't know. He's so smug in his great political knowledge and power, but he ignored Centauri politics until something piques his interest and then he acts without knowing the details.

Vocator Laddo: "You cannot build an empire based on slaughter and deceit!"

well, actually I think that's the only way to build an empire and collect that much power, but you gotta start somewhere.

Death match!! Can't wait.

More possession and hallucinations for Sheridan!

Vir: "Disgrace is preferable to death!" Londo: "There was a time when I would agree with you! That time has passed." Vir: "Londo, this is insane!" Londo: "Insanity is part of the times! It's time to embrace the madness, let it fire you."

Maybe that really is the key. Or maybe I shouldn't take advice from Londo Mollari.

Sheridan and Garibaldi are heading to the restricted Sector 14!

Urza Laddo is much better at sword fighting than Londo is. But since I'm pretty sure Londo is in this show for the long run, this can't end with him being dead.

Garibaldi snagged Sheridan's ship, but did he get Sheridan's mind? This sector really does have some janky phenomena going on.

Damn, setting yourself up to be killed by one of your oldest friends so your family doesn't get disgraced by your political opponents is a move.

Sheridan's mind did come back with him, but he did leave behind a consciousness which wanted to be taken home. Weirdness abounds on B5!

House Laddo is no more, and its members are now House Mollari and under Londo's direct protection. That's an interesting cultural mechanism to make sure that people don't go into death matches too lightly. If you win, you get a whole fuckload of new dependents! I could also see people doing that to gain power over particular dependents, though.

Londo: "I have made many choices lately, Vir. And for the first time, I am not sure those choices were right." Vir, tired of being the Jiminy Cricket to the worlds' worst Pinocchio: "Then perhaps some good has come out of this tragedy! It's not too late to make some good choices." Londo buying into the Sunk Cost Fallacy: "No, the blood is already on my hands. Right or wrong, I must follow the path to its end."

It's a real bummer that killing one of his oldest and dearest friends isn't enough to make Londo actually change some of what he's up to or to second-guess some aspects of Centauri culture..

next episode

[dannyreviews]

The Age of Innocence (1993)

1993 was the second coming of 1939 when it came to the number of American films that were released. Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" remains one of that year's absolute gems, a departure (no pun intended) from the famed director's usual gritty nature. Replacing gunfire with passing glances and mafia dealings with upper class gossip, "The Age of Innocence" is classic Scorsese and in my opinion, among his best films ever.

Based on the novel by Edith Wharton, "The Age of Innocence" , focuses on the impending union of the two most important families in New York society. Lawyer Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is engaged to be married to the sweet and quiet May Welland (Winona Ryder) and their marriage is the talk of the town. At the same time, May's cousin Ellen (Michelle Pfeiffer) has returned to New York to non-stop gossip pertaining to her impending divorce. Steeped in a world of customs and tradition, Newland is drawn to Ellen's unconventional lifestyle and while handling the matters of her divorce, the two begin an affair. Newland must decide which moral route to take, one that will maintain his place in the hierarchy of the upper crust, or the other sizzling in passion, yet tainted in scandal.

"The Age of Innocence" may be gentile in its appearance, but it's every bit the nail biter as "Raging Bull" or "Goodfellas". The adaptation by Scorsese and Jay Cocks shows dynasties pitted up against one another like mob families, favors that are made to keep up appearances and a family matriarch and high end couple with all the power in the world like mafia dons. At the same time, the art direction by Dante Ferrets and costume design by Gabrielle Pessucci, doesn't merely recreate late 19th century New York, but embraces every facet it possesses, from vast estates filled with art collections, fine china and chandeliers to ornate opera houses where their audience and actors don the most glamorous haute couture. When it comes to matching the authenticity of its period, there is not one false note. Having culminated from decades of prior period pieces, "The Age of Innocence" takes the genre to a whole new level of appearance that has rarely ever been repeated.

Scorsese assembled one of the most diverse casts of recent years. In addition to the 3 main actors, there are Golden Age of Hollywood stars (Norman Lloyd, Alexis Smith), veteran British actors (Michael Gough, Alec McCowen) and the new crop (Richard E. Grant, Robert Sean Leonard) and each brings their own craft to this unique film. Robert De Niro or Joe Pesci would have seemed out of place if they were included in the cast, so it was wise to delve further in the variety of acting styles and backgrounds and have each of them adapt to the lingo of Edith Wharton's New York. Also, to have the calming voice of Joanne Woodward narrate the story transitions the film into Merchant-Ivory territory, which I'm sure Scorsese studied up on prior to filming.

As for the main cast, Daniel Day-Lewis is absolutely terrific in playing the emotionally repressed Newland Archer, who must balance his double life amidst its open secrecy. Winona Ryder also shines in an Oscar nominated turn as May in all of its Golden Age of Hollywood charm. And then there's Michelle Pfeiffer, who is absolutely mesmerizing in portraying Ellen's liberal personality, in a performance that the Academy should have considered. The supporting cast standouts include Stuart Wilson as Ellen's "other man" Julius Beaufort, a lecherous scoundrel, Miriam Margoyles' BAFTA winning performance as Mrs. Mingott, May's grandmother, and Sian Phillips as Newland's mother.

"The Age of Innocence", along with Jane Campion's "The Piano", Jim Sheridan's "In The Name of the Father" (also with Daniel Day-Lewis) and James Ivory's "The Remains of the Day", represent in my opinion, the best of cinema in 1993. Out of those films, "The Age of Innocence" isn't the top one (that honor belongs to "The Piano"), but it represents the most expertly made. The acting, direction, novel adaptation and authentically honored period are all building blocks to the neatly tied packaged result.

9/10

[moetheband]

SKI TOUR IS BACK BABY! ❄️⛷️

3/6-10 Egyptian Theatre - Park City, Utah 3/12 Mesa Theater - Grand Junction, CO 3/14-15 Sheridan Opera House - Telluride, CO 3/16 Vilar Performing Arts Center (VPAC) - Beaver Creek, CO 3/17 Strings Music Pavilion - Steamboat Springs, CO 3/19 Belly Up, Aspen, CO 3/21-22 10 Mile Music Hall Frisco, CO 3/23-24 Washington's FoCo Ft. Collins, CO

Pre-sale kicks off on Wednesday, November 8th @ 10am local [PW: HILO24], and general on-sale begins this Friday, November 10th @ 10am local time.

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Ballerina

Rating: PG

Director: Eric Summer, Éric Warin

Cast: Elle Fanning, Dane DeHaan, Carly Rae Jepsen, Maddie Ziegler, Mel Brooks, Julie Khaner, Terrence Scammell, Joe Sheridan, Tamir Kapelian, Elana Dunkelman, Kate McKinnon, Shoshana Sperling, Jamie Watson, Bronwen Mantel

Release year: 2016

Genres: adventure, comedy, family

Blurb: An orphan girl dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris in 1879, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera House.

[rumoursfromines]

Lately I've felt a certain primal urge to escape somewhere damp, cold, and perfectly secluded from the sweet man-made horror that is society. Unfortunately, I am broke and don't happen to have a victorian countryside manor at my disposal. More importantly, I cannot afford to miss any of my university classes. Fortunately, I can read! Underneath this cut you'll find some of my favourite reads that transport me, mentally, to better places.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Premise: Young protagonist falls in love with and shortly after marries a wealthy English widower. When he brings her home, she can't help but feel like his dead wife's shadow looms just above her.

Personally, I think this novel is the literary equivalent of Honeymoon by Lana del Rey slowly transitioning to Caroline by Taylor Swift (and similar tracks with equally eerie vibes)

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Premise: Aspiring scientist becomes so obsessed with finding out how to create life that he doesn't stop to ask whether he should create it. Proceeds to anger his 8-feet-tall creature and chase it across Europe so it doesn't kill everyone dear to him.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Premise: Orphaned and broke Sue agrees to help a conman seduce a wealthy heiress (in a "gloomy mansion", according to the back of my edition) and cheat her out of all her money. Problem: Sue and the wealthy heiress develop feelings for each other and must get rid of the men who stand in their way

This story is also well-known in its Korean film adaptation "The Handmaiden" directed by Park Chan-wook (which I have a totally normal obsession with).

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Premise: Near a secluded castle in the Austrian woods a carriage crashes and crawling out comes the beautiful and mysterious Carmilla. To Laura, who has so far lived alone with her father, Carmilla is a much needed companion. However, something about Carmilla seems off.

I went to see an opera adaptation of this novel and at least once a week I wish I was in that theatre building again.

Books I personally didn't really enjoy but still have that same vibe so you might like them:

Horrid by Katrina Leno

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

[eug]

Bill Pence, pictured here with Stella Pence in a photo I snapped of the two in Telluride back in 2006 (on the day they announced their departure from their beloved Fest), died earlier this month. On Telluride’s 100+ year old Sheridan Opera House hangs a sign that reads simply, “SHOW.” The sign has been there since before the Pence’s founded the Telluride Film Festival with James Card & Tom Luddy in 1974. As I shared in Indiewire years ago, somehow the word came to represent this festival, having been used on the first fest poster and then etched onto the silver medallion that organizers award honorees each year. “It’s the essence of what we are all about,” Bill Pence told me at the Festival nearly twenty years ago, “We look upon ourselves as ‘The Show’.” Survived by his wife and partner Stella, Bill was a cinema showman dating back to his earliest days. A movie theater usher in Minneapolis, where he was born in 1940, Pence later lead the student-run film society at Carnegie Mellon in the 1950s, opened a movie theater in the 60s, distributed classic movies at Janus Films into the late 70s — in the years before the Criterion Collection — and eventually wove together a network of mountain town movie theaters in the American West, including the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride and the Egyptian in Park City, iconic home of Sundance Film Festival. Success led to the founding the Telluride festival in 1974 and he and Stella later launched the Santa Fe Film Festival, the Taos Talking Pictures Festival, and Pence was instrumental in getting TCM’s festival of classic films in LA off the ground. Quite a legacy. Telluride fest leader Julie Huntsinger praised Bill Pence’s work, in a statement to Indiewire, adding, “But most importantly of all, Bill was a great person. Kind and smart and a wonderful father and husband. We continue to be inspired by his example and vow to continue the important work of film appreciation.” Rest in peace, showman. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmx6yYVO3kn/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 2.24

484 – King Huneric of the Vandals replaces Nicene bishops with Arian ones, and banishes some to Corsica. 1303 – The English are defeated at the Battle of Roslin, in the First War of Scottish Independence. 1386 – King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda. 1525 – A Spanish-Austrian army defeats a French army at the Battle of Pavia. 1527 – Coronation of Ferdinand I as the king of Bohemia in Prague. 1538 – Treaty of Nagyvárad between Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and King John Z��polya of Hungary and Croatia. 1582 – With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar. 1597 – The last battle of the Cudgel War takes place on the Santavuori Hill in Ilmajoki, Ostrobothnia. 1607 – L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as an opera, receives its première performance. 1711 – Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage, is premièred. 1739 – Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nader Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah. 1803 – In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review. 1809 – London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving its owner, Irish writer and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan, destitute. 1821 – Final stage of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain with Plan of Iguala. 1822 – The first Swaminarayan temple in the world, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Ahmedabad, is inaugurated. 1826 – The signing of the Treaty of Yandabo marks the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War. 1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West. 1848 – King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne. 1854 – A Penny Red with perforations becomes the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution. 1863 – Arizona is organized as a United States territory. 1868 – Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate. 1875 – The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries. 1876 – The stage première of Peer Gynt, a play by Henrik Ibsen with incidental music by Edvard Grieg, takes place in Christiania (Oslo), Norway. 1881 – China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty. 1895 – Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban War of Independence; the war ends along with the Spanish–American War in 1898. 1916 – The Governor-General of Korea establishes a clinic called Jahyewon in Sorokdo to segregate Hansen's disease patients. 1917 – World War I: The U.S. ambassador Walter Hines Page to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States. 1918 – Estonian Declaration of Independence. 1920 – Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to speak in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom following her election as a Member of Parliament (MP) three months earlier. 1920 – The Nazi Party (NSDAP) was founded by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall in Munich, Germany 1942 – Seven hundred ninety-one[22] Romanian Jewish refugees and crew members are killed after the MV Struma is torpedoed by the Soviet Navy.[ 1942 – The Battle of Los Angeles: A false alarm led to an anti-aircraft barrage that lasted into the early hours of February 25. 1945 – Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree. 1946 – Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, is elected to his first term as President of Argentina. 1949 – The Armistice Agreements are signed, to formally end the hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. 1967 – Cultural Revolution: Zhang Chunqiao announces the dissolution of the Shanghai People's Commune, replacing its local government with a revolutionary committee. 1968 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnamese forces led by Ngo Quang Truong recapture the citadel of Hué. 1971 – The All India Forward Bloc holds an emergency central committee meeting after its chairman, Hemantha Kumar Bose, is killed three days earlier. P.K. Mookiah Thevar is appointed as the new chairman. 1976 – The 1976 constitution of Cuba is formally proclaimed. 1978 – The Yuba County Five disappear in California. Four of their bodies are found four months later. 1981 – The 6.7 Ms Gulf of Corinth earthquake affected Central Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Twenty-two people were killed, 400 were injured, and damage totaled $812 million. 1983 – A special commission of the United States Congress condemns the Japanese American internment during World War II. 1984 – Tyrone Mitchell perpetrates the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles, killing two children and injuring 12 more. 1989 – United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, rips open during flight, blowing nine passengers out of the business-class section. 1991 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war. 1996 – Two civilian airplanes operated by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue are shot down in international waters by the Cuban Air Force. 1999 – China Southwest Airlines Flight 4509, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft, crashes on approach to Wenzhou Longwan International Airport in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. All 61 people on board are killed. 2004 – The 6.3 Mw Al Hoceima earthquake strikes northern Morocco with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 628 people are killed, 926 are injured, and up to 15,000 are displaced. 2006 – Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup. 2007 – Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea. 2008 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years. He remains as head of the Communist Party for another three years. 2015 – A Metrolink train derails in Oxnard, California following a collision with a truck, leaving more than 30 injured. 2016 – Tara Air Flight 193, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, crashed, with 23 fatalities, in Solighopte, Myagdi District, Dhaulagiri Zone, while en route from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom Airport. 2020 – Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia following an attempt to replace the Pakatan Harapan government, which triggered the 2020-2022 Malaysian political crisis. 2022 – Days after recognising Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states, Russian president Vladimir Putin orders a full scale invasion of Ukraine.

[dankusner]

Way over the top 

Varla Jean Merman drags theatergoers up to her level with the circus-inspired, 'Under a Big Top’ 

By DANIEL KUSNER | March 4, 2005 

The 1964 marriage of Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine is one of the weirdest in Hollywood history. 

It only lasted 38 days. Merman reportedly said the knot began to unravel because Borgnine subjected her to "Dutch ovens” — that's when Borgnine would fart in bed while trapping her under the sheets. 

In Merman's autobiography, she devoted a chapter to the Borgnine marriage: It consisted of one blank page. 

That bitter coupling produced Varla Jean Merman (aka Jeffrey Roberson) — at least that's what Varla Jean tells people. 

"But Varla doesn't like to talk about her parents. In fact, she can't — according to Mr. Borgnine's lawyers," Roberson jokes. "She's actually run into Earnest Borgnine a number of times — strangely, in his home. Now, she's not allowed to go within 100 yards.” 

For a drag artist, Roberson doesn't perform much at in nightclubs. 

Like Dame Edna and Lypsinka, he'd rather capture the audience's imagination for more than just a few minutes. 

Varla Jean keeps Roberson busy. 

Every year, since 1999, he's crafted stage shows around the voluptuous red-haired star. 

Although he just bought a house in New Orleans, the New York-based entertainer mostly works in cabaret, Off-Broadway and tours theaters around the globe. 

In February, he was booked at the Sydney Opera Flouse. 

And this weekend, Roberson headlines WaterTower Theatre's annual Out of the Loop festival with a the circus-themed, "Under a Big Top.” 

Why a circus theme? 

"Well, Varla is traveling around the whole world no matter where she goes, she hears the same thing: Men are always wanting, but they can never find a big top," Roberson explains. 

Known for his precisely timed double-entendres, Roberson says "Big Top" is especially gay. 

When the show drifts into a song about falling in love with a circus bear, the hetero theatergoers seem lost. 

In Pittsburgh, Roberson dropped that bit. 

"Because straight people have absolutely no idea what the bear culture is," he says. "I hope to do it in Dallas — if the audience is particularly gay.” 

Varla also works in jokes about obscenely big hotdogs, a trapeze number and her strange phobia of clowns. 

Whatever them Roberson turns on its ear, it's always the music that steals the show. 

The man can sing — the mezzo-soprano was once trained in opera. 

"Big Top" has been described as a hyperactive song-cycle where Varla mashes the likes of Puccini, Beyonce, Joni Mitchell and throws in "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" along with Bizet's "Flabanera.”  

And it wouldn't be a Varla Jean Merman show without belting out a solo while squirting a continuous string of Cheeze Whiz into her mouth. 

If you saw the 2003 drag comedy "Girls Will Be Girls," you're already familiar with that show-stopper. 

Roberson may look familiar for another reason, too. 

In 2003, he graced national television for about six months on "All My Children.” 

Roberson played the drag role of Rosemary Chicken, an incarcerated prostitute who crossed paths with various citizens of Pine Valley when they were thrown into the clink. 

"I only did like 10 to 12 episodes. The lines were pretty cheesy, so I got to ad lib," he says. 

Did Roberson cross paths with Erica Kane or her lesbian daughter? 

humor — to play long-lost twins. "

"Did you hear about Nicolette Sheridan? Someone recently said she looks like a transvestite. 

She said, 'That's the meanest thing you could ever say to anybody.’  Well, the tranny community is all in a rage with her because of what she said," Roberson continues. "I think it's the highest of compliments.” 

"You weren't allowed to have eye contact with Susan Lucci," he says. "Well, I guess I could have looked at her. But all the interns actually had to sign a contract that said so. I'm not even joking.” 

During our phone interview, I bring up an eerie observation. 

Did Varla Jean (who definitely burst onto the scene first) know that she's the spitting image — lisp and all! — of zaftig, flame-haired actress Sara Rue, star of the ABC sitcom "Less than Perfect”? 

"I've actually thought that I look just like her too, but when you're a big redhead, they say you always look like the more masculine, overweight girls," Roberson says. 

"For years people used to say I look like Wynona Judd. But I think I look exactly like Dame Joan Sutherland." Roberson laughs when told that she should buddy up with Rue — who seems to have a great sense of 

CLOWING AROUND: Ring mistress Varla Jean Merman (Jeffrey Roberson) headlines three shows at WaterTower Theatre's "Out of the Loop" test.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH? Varla Jean, right, and sitcom star Sara Rue could play long-lost twins. 

WaterTower Theatre 15650 Addison Rd. March 4 at 8 p.m. March 5 at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30p.m. $15. General admission. Early tick- et-purchase recommended. 972-450-6220 

[cielsosinfel]

reading log #19348239534867598y7

Last reading log update of the yeaaaaar... I actually read 74 library books to completion this year (counting comics, sewing/mending/needle felt books I read cover to cover, and also recipe books I actually got sucked into) (My library has a system for making lists of books, so it's a list that contains my actual borrowed books and non-library books I read that were still in their system... I did read some more books that weren't so the number is higher than 74)

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, ed. Carmen Maria Machado: I'd never read Carmilla before, though I'd engaged with a lot of media inspired by it or directly remixing it. I was excited because of Machado being the editor! Unfortunately I disliked Carmilla (the book) and Machado's editing was not what I expected. I was hoping for actual information on the historical context of the story, or asides about Le Fanu's life and how it might be relevant to the writing. But Machado's "editing" was actually kind of a story-within-a-story, setting up an alternate reality where Carmilla and Laura and the rest of the characters were real, living people (names changed), and vampires are real, and some other weird stuff. At the same time, there were VERY few of these footnotes expanding on this alternate world/historical timeline... so I didn't see the point.

Carmilla itself is such a dry, sexless novel for how much INCREDIBLY horny work it has inspired. Also, Laura is the first-person narrator POV for the entire book, but the actual dialogue and monologuing must be at least 70% various men (her father, the doctor, the general, the huntsman). Also several racist moments that amount to "dark-skinned foreigners are horrifying". Maybe if I had not read and watched better stories built off it, I would have gotten more out of reading it.

Carmilla by Amy Chu & Soo Lee: This is a comic about a Athena, Chinese-American homeless services social worker, investigating a string of deaths among homeless young queer girls, some of whom are her clients. The deaths are all connected to Carmilla, a hip club built in what used to be a Chinese opera house and a pillar of Chinatown's community. She gets tangled up with one young runaway, Violet, inviting her to crash at her place to keep her safe, and falling deeper into a toxic dynamic that pushes away Athena's own girlfriend (whom she lives with!!!) and drags her deeper into Carmilla's own history.

I would have enjoyed this a lot more if the pacing was not all over the place!! It's just... both the writing itself, the story beats, and the panel sequencing are honestly hard to follow and made the overall story much less enjoyable. It's using a vampire horror story as a foundation to explore the state of stigma against homeless people and also the gentrification of New York's Chinatown and the very mundane but all-consuming horrors therein, which I was into and wish the writing had been easier to follow to get more drawn into it. There's also a twist at the end regarding her family which didn't feel like there was nearly enough build-up to, for it to have any real emotional impact with the reader, and I have no idea if it was meant to set up a sequel that never came to fruition...

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice: An isolated Anishinaabe community in the far north of Canada suddenly finds itself cut off from power and satellite, losing internet, TV, and phone lines, in the middle of winter. Slowly they come to realize that society has collapsed, that the power will never be restored, that the trucks that carry foods and goods to their far-flung community are not coming, and they'll need to figure out bringing their community together to fend for themselves and care for one another. (Spoiler: it does not go well.)

This is a book I would have been into a lot more if not for bouncing off the prose. It's very flat, and it's hard to get emotionally attached to the characters because we never really get anything of substance about their emotions and relationships to one another, besides things that are directly, plainly stated. There is one central narrator for the entire story, in what alternates between close third person POV and distant third person, but the narration also does that thing that bugs me, where for one or two sentences it will jump to a completely different character's internal thoughts, before jumping back to the main narrator.

I did really like how the author painted the cold, snow-buried landscape, and how the story built up to the characters realizing what was happening to the world around them, but never outright SAYING what happened. I also think there could have been more explanation, for why things fall apart so fast in the urban areas. The metaphors used to explain colonialism, ongoing threats of cultural genocide and the metaphorical and literal consumption of First Nations communities and resources by white Canadians was really well done.

There's a sequel coming out in February that I will be reading even though this book left me pretty cold (pun intended.)

[eleventeenthealbum]

Sheridan Crane was best friends with Princess Diana and was fleeing paparazzi also in the Paris Tunnel and crashed and was brought back from her coma by Actual Guardian Angel Princess Diana. Also Theresa's mom has to refinance her house. Soap Operas used to be legal wow

Something evil is happening to me

[fjgcsquad]

OhSnap!Frankie captured a few livestreams from Frankie Grande's Livin La Vida Loca show in Telluride on Feb 26! A M A Z I N G. 💞

[metamorphesque]

books to read while Autumn is reigning

a warm cuppa in your hands, sitting near the window, enjoying the rain

with a sprinkle of amour

The Girl at the Lion d'Or by Sebastian Faulks

The Collector by John Fowles

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

The Broken Wings by Kahlil Gibran

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

with a dash of existential crisis

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Fish in Exile by Vi Khi Nao

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

with a pinch of dark academia

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Maurice by E. M. Forster

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

with a side of je ne sais quoi

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Death with Interruptions by José Saramago

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa

The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura

If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

under the covers, with a flashlight in your hands, in the middle of the night

Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Metamorphosis & Other Stories by Franz Kafka