#but you're in love with Chicago

[screechingcollectivechorus]

Philly is gayer and closer to more other cool places

I need to live in a city with good transit access, Walkable neighborhoods, and a city that's affordable. Which leaves me with literally just 2 options for cities to move to the future:

Chicago and Philadelphia

[marionsinspirations]

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm still thinking about it, so---if you're a local, I highly encourage Rough House Theater's "House of the Exquisite Corpse". It's lovely, arresting, from the performances down to the smallest touches. I still can't get over the ripped umbrellas hanging upside down in dreamlike suspension from the ceiling; the way each "station" is wrapped in plywood and decorated in its own meaningful pattern and design.

But first, let me step back. "House of the Exquisite Corpse" takes its name from the old Surrealist parlor game, at the heart of which is the idea that you can collect a disparate group, then smash their ideas together and create something from the smithereens. This is something like what Rough House has done, which is pick a theme ("Superstition") and then let the artistic groups loose to create short scenes built around that theme.

(I want to call them tableaux, because watching the performances I was struck by how it felt like something out of time---as though we were 17th century courtiers in Paris ushered into a candlelit ballroom, or early 20th century farmers in Minnesota, paying our penny to see what the circus brought to town.)

The set-up itself does a wonderful job ushering you into a time-outside-of-time---you step into a space divided from the rest of the space by black sheets, chunky headsets dangling from wooden ladders suspended just over your head. The emcee is carrying a clipboard and speaks into an old-school broadcasting mic---which you can only hear if you're wearing the headsets.

It is, you'll discover, the central conceit of the performance. From there, you're directed from station to station by silent ushers, carrying flashlights so they can point you forward. Unless you are wearing the headphones at each station, you can only listen to the absent, ambient music echoing around the room.

Not only are the stations set up to wrap you in a specific soundscape, but they play with your vision too---most stations have you peer through holes or cracks in the wall, though one station had us line up in front of mirrors and watch the reflection of the performance, while another station placed shards of glass at every peephole, so you watched the scene and the character's experience of the scene in a strange double-vision. A couple of the stations used tricks of the light---strobe effects that made the puppets' movements seem even more uncanny or imply violence; a haze of smoke or fabric to disguise the human "prowling" in the puppet-shape of a tiger.

(I always like when I can tell an artist is reacting to something I've seen before, and the Rousseau "The Dream" vibes in that scene were exquisite.)

I will say that “A White Bird in the House is an Omen of Death�� was my favorite, not in the least because it featured a whole choreographed song (feat. a lovely articulated owl puppet, plus some very effective shadowplay work). However, “Through the Looking Glass” was beautifully up my alley, from the unique staging---this was the station where you watched the performance in a mirror---to the creative puppetry, and a meditation on loveliness that had some bite to it. “Broken Mirror” was more traditional in its puppet work, but it also had the most elaborate staging, a fully-realized world in miniature.

I keep going back to how enormously creative so many of these artists were, in ways I simply can't ignore. “Step on a Crack” didn't necessarily work for me, but I can't stop thinking about it---its trippy setup, the inhuman knit masks the creator used; the spines dangling, neon-colored, from the nearest tree as the protagonist recited lines about loving his mother with increasing, feverish and horrible energy. The glimpses I got during “An ill fate befalls those who pluck from fruit in their dreams” of the puppeteer's face---how she shut her eyes and turned away, as though she too was affected by the puppet's horror.

[rickeajacksons]

[ellies-enrichment]

emails i can't send - sabrina carpenter

[isntthiswherewecamein]

[kazer-time]

My last #19 moments.

Hawks vs. Flyers, 4.13.23.

[too-young-to-fall-in-love]

Into You - Ariana Grande

[hungerpunch]

.

[foreverfeelslike]

Do I love tour season? Yes. Do things feel very concerningly like 1989 era Taylor’s life? Also yes. Overexposure on the media. Constant paparazzi photos. Taylor working nonstop going into the studio and filming music videos and god know what other projects she’s doing rn IN BETWEEN her already insane tour schedule. And some relationship choices that seem very out of character for her. Meanwhile she’s beaming in every photo and ensuring us she’s the happiest she’s ever been. Idk pals, I just don’t know. 

[its-captain-sir]

This is a free pass to tell me any fun facts about your tmnt iteration bc I love em already but I also need to know something extremely important. What are their thoughts on The Bean 🎤

opens up the lore doc. there is SO much I could say here but I'll keep it to the basics about them for now!

Raph - 17 when the story starts and the oldest of the group! He's actually the leader at first (and is pretty good at it!) but he's still very much a "I do my own thing" kinda person and is pretty impulsive. He likes to street race on lower lower wacker (if you haven't heard of the three levels of wacker drive in chicago, look it up cause it's wild hskdhskdhs), and he's got a pet, Chompy, who was actually an old dinosaur stuffed animal of his from when he was a kid that became sentient thanks to some mystic magic <3

Leo - 16 at the start and is the older twin between him and Donnie! The best way to describe him is too smart for his own good hakdbskdns he's a little bit of an asshole, definitely a smooth talker, and probably the most anxious out of all of them. He avoids responsibility like the plague and wants so badly to just be able to look up to his older brother forever but. well. things happen :') Also he 100% is such a geek about everything ever, he knows all the lore for all the shows they watch

Donnie - 16 also and the younger twin! He's super talented with all kinds of science stuff with maybe a slight lean towards natural science as a favorite? not sure about that yet, that might just be me projecting hakdhskdj but he also becomes very adept with magic and mystics! Cause really, what is magic but science with a different set of rules <3 He was definitely a dinosaur kid (Chompy both infuriates and delights him) and he probably sneaks into all the museums in chicago on a regular basis

Mikey - 14 at the start and the youngest! He's a little bit more behind his brothers in some respects cause of the age difference, but he is actually the jack of all trades of the group. If there's a random weird skill set they need for something, chance is Mikey can do it. He picks up hobbies like they're buy one get seven free: art, music, gardening, magic tricks, lock picking, cooking, gymnastics, soap carving, you name it. He's the kind of guy who sees you're feeling sad and immediately starts whipping up a balloon animal, 100% completely sincere about it

As for the bean.... it's actually a gateway to the mystic world in this HAKDHAKDHSK they don't get to use it often cause it's always so busy but it's definitely their favorite doorway purely because of the vibes <3

[leslieseveride]

SHE'S HERE AND SHE'S SO BEUATIFUL. 🥹💖💖

[fancycolours]

Happy Birthday Terry Kath! 🎸✨💙🎂🎉

(January 31, 1946 – January 23, 1978 ∞)

[thebleedingeffect]

Kissing you smack on the forehead. Then biting your shoulder hard and running away

HEY- you do that acting there won't be consequences- consequences being me tackling you just to tickle you and bite your sides. You are not safe from me, though the kiss was indeed very nice.. still tackling you though

[firkant-fugl]

Station 19 is breaking my heart in all the right ways 😭

[kim-ruzek]

i love the forehead kiss but i wish we got hand kiss too after he puts on ring!

Forehead kisses are Burzek's Thing it was perfect. Him putting on the ring was perfect.