#like I wear the hell out of Cameron merch

[imi-ike]

so i saw clueless, the musical (spoilers ahead)

“now in the 90s everything is awesome! fashions are fly, music rocks, the whole world loves america! i mean, even our president’s a baldwin.”

i feel like i came out of the womb with the dialogue memorized so i can’t relate to never having seen the movie  BUT i genuinely don’t think you will find it as enjoyable as you would if you have seen the movie. also because of the format, imo it’s a little disjointed if you don’t already know what is happening. but the man next to me at the stagedoor had never watched the movie because he “wanted dove cameron to be his first cher” and he seemed to have enjoyed it so who knows!

okay SO the entire score is repurposed 90s jams where the lyrics have been changed to suit the plot. YES this is as campy and obnoxious as it sounds. at first i was disappointed by the lack of an original score, but it is genuinely a delight once you accept this ridiculousness into your heart.

all of the iconic lines are there (”it’s a dress” “says who?” “calvin klein” got such a huge audience response) and most of the dialogue is straight from the movie with a few exceptions. there is less focus on mel’s court case and cher’s work for the pismo beach disaster relief is changed to a letter writing campaign to help stop toxic chemicals being put in their water (thus shutting down all of the dry cleaners in los angeles or something). they also took the yellow plaid theme and ran the hell away with it. i think she wears some variation of the yellow plaid outfit for almost the entire first act. the stage itself is one giant piece of yellow plaid ribbon.

i was on the fence about dove cameron when the casting announcement was made. now all i have to say is: we have decided to stan forever. she sounds amazing, she’s super charming and actually really funny. like in the movie, cher is our narrator and she talks to the audience frequently.

we been knew the good sis miss zurin villanueva would nail. next.

they changed tai’s last name from frasier to something else entirely and i’m upset because literally FOR WHY. other than that ephie aardema is fully embodying brittany murphy here. i got emotional.

this is the third show i’ve seen dave thomas brown in, no reason behind it he just happens to be attached to projects i would have seen anyway, but he’s always great. good job dave! the glasses are a good look for you!

i felt kind of weird about the cher/josh relationship until the act 1 finale. just give it time, folks. the torn/what if god was one of us mashup (yes, i said what i said) made it start to happen for me.

highlights include: 

cher’s oral presentation about the haitians (it hits particularly hard considering the political climate)

cher at the valley party saying “whose house is this?”

the scene with cher and heather’s conversation about hamlet (has the same energy as “someone should just teach boys to not do That in the first place”)

the aforementioned torn/what if god was one of us mashup

cher checking her astrology transits

“cher what do you say about elton’s oral?” “umm, not if he was the last man on earth”

an entire song about if christian is gay or not (shoutout to dionne asking if he’s bisexual!!!) set to the tune of nsync’s bye bye bye

“she’s so high high above me she’s so lovely, she’s so high like michelle pfeiffer, courteney cox, and all the spice girls”

music referenced in the show:

it’s a beautiful life - ace of bass

i saw the sign - ace of bass

shoop - salt-n-pepa

little miss can’t be wrong - spin doctors

no scrubs - tlc

you gotta be - des’ree

how am i supposed to live without you - michael bolton

creep - radiohead

u can’t touch this - mc hammer (“stop! amber time!”)

supermodel - jill sobule (“we don’t care what the mean girls say”)

barbie girl - aqua

groove is in the heart - deee-lite

i don’t want to wait - paula cole

torn - natalie imbruglia (half of this song is about how cher ripped her armani coat lmfao)

what if god was one of us - joan osborne

never gonna get it - en vogue

a girl like you - edwyn collins

dammit - blink 182

bye bye bye - nsync (clueless eavesdropping on the mcs conversation about how there should be an nsync musical)

mmm mmm mmm mmm - crash test dummies

what’s up? - 4 non blondes

she’s so high - tal bachman

you get what you give - new radicals

kids in america - kim wilde

can’t wait to go back in january once they’ve had some time to settle in! sadly i didn’t see any merch but hopefully that changes.

edit to add: here’s a spotify playlist of all the music used in the show

[operationoverdrive]

power morphicon diary (2018)

twitter thread with pics and such ✨✨✨

now to recap the greatest weekend of my life:

brennan mejia (tyer, dino charge red)

the first ranger i met, his line was always really long i love my relevant king. i was shaking and speechless pearl had to speak for me, she told him i loved all latinx rangers and he said “good!”. he told us everyone got to keep 8 items from the set and he kept his energem, tyler’s boots, his dad’s bracelet, tyler’s red puffy vest (for me ofc), and other stuff idr because he was so beautiful i was physically unable to breathe. 

later kat was reminiscing and said “i can’t believe azim had a mental breakdown because of us” and we turned the corner and a voice said “azim had a mental breakdown” GUESS WHO IT WAS! we all screamed, kat ran back around the corner but we all did end up in the elevator together and he was very chill even tho we were all wrecks

selwyn ward (tj, turbo red/in space blue)

idr planning to get a pic with selwyn but he has a magnetic forcefield that draws people to him and no one was in his line so he talked to us for a while and asked if we preferred turbo or space and which episode was our fave and he actually remembered the plot of mine (the curve ball). he was tight-lipped when we asked if he was in the anniversary even tho we pointed out a pic of him and chrysti was posted (BY HIM), it was so adorable he was squirming so much. 

later we saw him while waiting for our car and we SCREAMED and he rushed right over and gave us all hugs and told us to make sure to come see him (he corrected himself when he saw pearl and remembered we’d already been)

brandon jay mclaren (jack, spd red)

i asked him to sign a marriage license and he almost died laughing, he was so happy. fyi he has never been proposed to by a fan before so @everyone in the world i need you to step it the fuck up

jorge vargas / adam tuominen (blake and hunter, ninja storm navy and crimson)

my first sighting of them was while we were waiting for our tickets and they were going to check in, as soon as i recognized jorge i screamed my lungs out and he was utterly bewildered but he waved while adam was living for it. everyone around me looked at me like we did NOT just see the actors of our generation and i chastised them all for failing at life. when they came back around jorge had his phone out to film the crowd and i screamed even louder and he waved really big and BLEW A KISS IN MY DIRECTION AND I ASCENDED TO HEAVEN

when i finally was able to meet them to take pics pearl had to drag me over and she immediately let jorge know i was his biggest fan and was the girl who shrieked every time she saw him. he came right around and gave me a big hug!!!! i couldn’t really talk to him for long nor do i remember what we talked about because i mean how do you hold yourself together in front of someone that means so much to you??? YOU DON’T THAT’S HOW!

it was easier to talk to adam bc i could actually remember how to breathe. he told us jorge was the second oldest in the cast even tho he was supposed to be hunter’s baby brother so it was a strange contradiction but he loved playing an older brother. he said he and jorge hung out just the two of them alot to strengthen their bond (i asked if they got drunk together and he laughed and said “well i wasn’t gonna say it but yes”. i told him hunter was a pink ranger and he laughed and said “Yea first male pink ranger!!!”

i saw them again when we were in line for the atm and this time they definitely recognized me and waved really big i love those thunder punks

megaforce panel

this was the only panel i went to bc pr fans don’t know how to act so they’re all boring or frustrating but thankfully the megacast is charming as hell and made every second entertaining and engaging

andrew and christina were late but when christina walked in i guess we screamed really loud because when she asked if we missed her john mark said “yes the christina masterson fan club is right there” and pointed to our group in the crowd

some fan asked them about the vrak is back two parter and the entire cast was like scrambling to remember if that was even an episode of their series, azim started talking about fight scenes and crates and confused vrak with vekar so i decided to yell that its the episode where robo knight dies and cameron was like “that must’ve been an episode my morpher was coincidentally turned off” and i was like “no you dummy you were kidnapped! orion was sleeping beauty!!” and he cracked up. john mark told me to calm down.

i asked christina if she prepared or studied anything about photography since emma is very passionate about it and she said her boyfriend at the time was a photographer and she was a model so she knew some basics and became a photographer herself

tracy lynn cruz (ashley, turbo/in space yellow)

even tho we were second in line we had to wait FOREVER bc some dude kept asking her about monsters. we ended up talking to her son who was helping with her booth and he was really nice! her husband was also there and wearing her merch it was so cute! i told tracy she needed to start a fashion line based on ashley’s wardrobe and when i almost forgot my debit card she told me “oh wait i can use this to start my fashion business”

davi santos (ivan, dino charge gold)

quite possible my favorite interaction of the entire con??? we approached him right as he arrived so we were the first to meet him! pearl and i were basically gushing as soon as we made it to the table and he was so confused bc we kept talking at the same time. i congratulated him on the new show and he said he hopes we all enjoy it. his booth was so cute, he was selling energems but the signs specifically said “zandarian energems” and his sign advertising his social media said “thine twitter, thine instagram, thine facebook” bc he’s a fucking NERD. he let me wear his jacket which was real and from the show, specifically from the episode sync or swim where they made a bunch of replica’s bc of the scene where they have to ruin it. he also kept his glasses on bc i asked him if we could be glasses twins and did ivan’s famed duck mouth selfie with me. then he hugged me and i died

azim rizk (jake, megaforce black/super mega green)

he recognized us as soon as we approached his booth and said he noticed our little “cluster” because we were so loud at the panel dkhgfmdg. he was literally the easiest person to talk to i could’ve spent all day talking about megaforce and how much i love it with just him. he was selling jake pins for FIVE DOLLARS and i told him to raise his prices bc he is hashtag worth it and also to make jake hoodies (he was wearing his one from the show!) and sell them and we would all be his investors. we were holding each other for the pic and he looked right at me and his face was really close so i screamed “omhy god don’t look at me” and he was like “oh sorry” so yea gia moran found dead in a ditch

the second time we saw him pearl recapped here

at one point when we were chilling behind his booth cameron was like ??? and i was like “we’re his security team please don’t look him directly in the eye” and he laughed. azim literally could not stop hugging us he was so cuddly and soft!!!!!!! he also told us he brought his spandex with him and if it would be Too Much if he put them on and were like no bitch that would be the best thing ever why is no one else doing it, but then i called him a nerd when he actually ended up wearing it just bc we told him too and he was like “Yes.”

christina The Main Event masterson (emma, megaforce/super mega pink)

my darling my angel my being of light the sweetest human to ever live, she was so kind and easygoing but the first time i met her i could not speak. the first time my brain turned to slime so i think all i told her was that emma was my favorite ranger of all time and i loved her so much and pearl brought up all the times emma kicked ass and i think i interjected with “the halloween baking episode!” and she said she didn’t like that episode bc emma didn’t get to dress up. pearl asked what emma would’ve been and she said a monarch butterfly we stan an intellectual

i took a second pic with her bc i am That Emma Stan aka i bought a child-sized megaforce pink t-shirt and squeezed into it just for the aesthetic. i was better about speaking this time and told her i loved her syfy movies truth or dare but how dare she make me watch her awful death scene, she told me her dad also hated that scene but we talked about how we loved that her character chose to take her destiny into her own hands. when i brought up zombie shark she cringed a little but i told her i thought it was a fun movie and she said she loved playing a shark. i asked if she got tips from john mark since he’s a shark ranger and she said “as if”, she and ciara had also commandeered all the boys’ helmets for some reason it was adorable. i told her the girls rightfully owned them anyway and she smiled. they were so many babies in line for the girls and they kept calling them by their character names it was the most heartwarming thing ever to hear a small child squeak out “hey gia!” I LVOE POWER RANGERS MEGAFROCE

hector david jr. (mike, samurai green)

first saw him at the valet and kat is the one who pointed him out like “He....” and we all started screaming and as he gains life from such activities he immediately rushed over and gave us all a huge group hug bc he is an angel sent from heaven

he was announced like one hour before the con so they literally just shoved him into najee’s booth it was so funny bc all the merch was blue ranger (i got a kevin t-shirt!) and hector’s one green ranger helmet. i told hector to sell me the shirt off his back and he said he’d think about it since it matched my outfit kdnhnkd. he kept doing flips and jumping over the table bc he’s part grasshopper i guess. when kat took her picture we had to wait while he did a flip and kat asked najee what was up with him and najee was like “thats just hector” lmao. i asked hector why he and brittany were the only rangers that didn’t get an intro scene where their helmets flashed and he said it all just boiled down to the writing but that we haven’t seen the last of mike and he wants to come as a villain so i’m like 👀🔍📝 noted. when we took our pic i l layed my head on his shoulder and he said “my prom date right here” and morphicon became little mix’s love me like you mv as he also agreed to be ben’s prom date i love hector david jr with all my heart. again SO MANY BABIES IN LINE FOR THE SAMURAI RANGERS!!! the kid ahead of us asked if the samurizer that najee had was real or was it a toy CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE

anna hutchison (lily, jungle fury yellow)

while in line for the atm we saw her entering and i screamed “we love you anna!” and she waved and smiled at us she’s so ethereal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! kat and i were the first (paying) people in line, she had lily figurines all over her table i love jungle fury’s number one stan. she is literally the sweetest person ever and so engaging. kat told her it was an absolute power move that she wore red instead of yellow and anna said she did it so she could lead the morph for once, i told her that lily could absolutely lead in yellow just fine and she laughed and agreed. when we were taking our pic kat mentioned how i didn’t like how some of my previous pics had turned out and anna said she’d wait until i signed off on them and we could retake them if i didn’t like them QUEEN OF CHARITY!! her handler was...really bad and the pics came out all shaky as soon as we saw them she and i exchanged looks and anna was like “uh yeah let’s try again” i still didn’t like how they came out but i stayed quiet the second time bc i was grateful enough to be in the presence of a literal heavenly being. she asked what other parts of the convention we were looking forward too and i told her she was the main event because we had been waiting for her all day and she hugged me!!! blonde yellow rangers respect ur leader

andrew gray (troy, megaforce/super mega red)

this man printed out an article that explained why super megaforce was the strongest team in power rangers history and cited it during the panel fuck everyone else i RESPECT HIM. when we came up to his booth i picked up the article and said he should have it on display and he told me i could keep the paper copy because he had A PRESERVED DISPLAY COPY ANDREW LOVES MEGAFORCE MORE THAN ANYONE. he was also the epitome of beauty and has the most intense nature about him so it was hard to think of things to say. i just told him i loved troy and he said “that’s cool man”, a chill legend. when we did our photo op he kept trying to talk to us and asked to see how the pic turned out a few times but my mouth just could not form words around him, years of academy training wasted.

katrina browne / katrina devine (marah and kapri, ninja storm)

literally the most excited and affectionate ladies at the con they were so happy to talk to people i told them that marah and kapri were the greatest villainesses of all time. they were so adorable and didn’t know what i was talking about when i said “let’s do the charlie’s angels pose!” so i had to show them. it was their first con and i asked them to please come back and they said it was so much fun so they really wanted to!

jack guzman (danny, wild force black)

he made a Comment and had me like ..........................give me my money back, but i got a cool danny jacket and i love it and i love danny delgado what’s a jock gizmo

mike ginn / li ming hu (gem and gemma, rpm silver and gold)

APPARENTLY my snake friends told mike ginn about me and how much i loved gem and gemma and how excited i was to meet them but that i was really shy around my faves so when he came over to take the pic and i told him my name he was like “omg you’re shy tabby!” and i immediately died. he kept trying to tell me it was okay and i was just giggling so much and trying to fake run away and li ming told mike to stop embarrassing me it was so cute. he asked for a hug to calm me down and he was so gentle i love him.

later when kat and i walked past mike’s booth he yelled “hey there’s tabby!” I HATE HMI SO MCUH WHY IS HE LIEK THIS

karan ashley (aisha, mmpr yellow)

she was selling so much merch we stan an entrepreneurial queen. i told her that i stan all mexican rangers and she said “yes i love that!”. she hugged me and told me that she loved that i was Ready with my cute pose and i told her it’s bc she emits cuteness energy and i thrived off of it but she said it came from me so i guess you could say we’re dating

other sightings

mike chat (chad, lightspeed blue): was hanging out at the beast morphers unveiling and i saw him and was like....,,,,,.,.,.oh myog do........ITC HAD!!!!!!!! but he had like a ring of handlers around him and the panel was going on and he wasn’t there as an official guest (he trained those auditioning for beast morphers including the 3 cast!!) so i didn’t approach him but he was wearing an all blue suit so thank you for my life

cerina vincent (maya, lost galaxy yellow): saw her as she was walking to the con and she recognized us when she saw me and kat standing in another line she’s literally sunshine personified

kevin kleinberg (trip, time force green): a bunch of people got into the elevator and it got too full for us but i noticed one of the men looked familiar and then it hit me “OH MYGOD YOU’RE KEVIN KLEINBERG ITS KEVIN KLEINBERG!” he smiled real big and waved and told me he liked my shirt (megaforce) as the doors closed, then i reminded everyone it was trip from time force and no one but me is valid 

alycia purrott (syd, spd pink) +2: i talked to her while kat was getting her pic and asked why a full version of syd’s hit single was never released and she said she’d love to get hands on the original recording. i told her that it’d be the perfect SPD reunion if they all shot a music video together and she agreed. kat met all the spd rangers so i also spoke a bit to matt austin (bridge) and chris violette (sky) and matt said chris stole his poster design from greg and i said “that’s such a sky move” and he cracked up. i asked chris if he was having fun at the con and he said of course but i told him he didn’t have to lie and he gave me a look and said “i know right” and laughed, the spd cast is so funny

i also saw will shewfelt eating lunch, he was with his entire family which was adorable that they all came to see him at his power ranger event and his brother looks EXACTLY like him but tiny

anyway i love morphicon and power rangers and the hell clique and all you pr fans need to step it up and ask better questions at panels and be nicer to the actors and also do research and learn all their faces so ur not looking around wondering why i am screaming my head off because some lady passed by (IT WAS KARAN ASHLEY YOU UNGRATEFUL BRATS!!!!!)

can it be 2020 now?

[standuphippy]

Favorite Shows of 2019

Alex Cameron, Troubadour, 12/06/19 This show blew me away. I was half expecting a lounge act with a drum machine. Cameron had a full band, dressed like the Thin White Duke, and shook the audience down from the moment he took the stage. Launched into “Bad for the Boys” followed by “Divorce” which is a great one-two punch of an opener. Great players. There’s a special energy at the Troubadour when a buzz-worthy act goes up and kills it. This was one of those shows.

Helmet, 1720, 11/09/19 Page Hamilton dedicated the middle of the set to performing Helmet’s debut album, Strap It On, in its entirety. Every once in a while I’ll see a show and think, “I don’t know how big the target audience is for this, but it’s definitely for me.” In the case of Helmet it was for me and the guy in the Anthrax ATL t-shirt that knew every word. A few songs later they played “Sam Hell” and I wondered who the fuck could be excited to hear that one, but I optimistically figured someone else was having the same experience that I did during Strap It On.

Kamasi Washington, The Theatre at ACE Hotel, 9/19/19 One of the reasons that I travel to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival every year is to catch acts across different genres in a friendly environment. Kamasi Washington was one of the best acts in 2016, but I wasn’t going to go to the Hollywood Bowl or the Disney Concert Hall to see him. The Theater at ACE hotel, though, seemed doable. There were a dozen people onstage. I don’t know shit about Jazz. This show was incredible.

Bill Callahan, The Lodge Room, 06/15/19 Smog was one of the first shows I saw at Bottom of the Hill when I moved to San Francisco in ’96 (Guv’ner and Cat Power opened). Callahan was touring The Doctor Came at Dawn and the late Cynthia Dall joined him onstage to sing “Lize.” I thought it was a great show. I held on to that memory and then didn’t see Callahan play again for 23 years. He’s still great and more exciting as a live performer than you might expect. Callahan had a full band with him but it’s the guitarist that made the biggest impression, and he was given plenty of room both on the stage and in the songs.

The Building / Heather Woods Broderick, Bootleg Theater, 11/12/19
 I discovered Heather Woods Broderick when she was touring as a backup singer for Sharon Van Etten a few years ago. She released her third record this year and it’s sublime. I found out that she was playing just a few hours before the show and quickly scraped together a plan to get to it. 
The Building were new to me, but Anthony LaMarca’s songs are so direct that the understanding is immediate. I was only able to listen to PETRA once before the show, but I was completely riveted by his performance of it. It’s an honest and vulnerable record. A spare-toned beauty that will speak volumes to anyone who’s ever had their body turn against them.

Bauhaus, Palladium, 11/03/19 I saw Bauhaus in San Francisco in 1998 and it seemed like a remarkable reunion, as they had been gone for so long. Now that show is over 20 years in the past. The good news is that they haven’t lost any of their intensity (at least since 1998). Peter Murphy still sounds great. I spent the encore at a merch table where I watched a guy insist on holding up different sizes of the same shirt, ask if he could try them on (he could not) and then solve the problem by taking the shirt he was wearing off to compare it to the new ones. I hope that shirt fits like a glove and that he wears it every day.

Jesca Hoop, Highland Park Ebell, 11/13/19 I first saw Jesca Hoop open for Martha Wainwright ten years ago. She makes a huge impression and I’ve seen her on tour for each album she’s released since. She’ll focus on the whatever album she’s touring so I might never get a chance to hear those songs again. I greet each new record with enthusiasm: “Let’s see where this goes.” Live she’s incredible because she’ll bring backup singers that can deliver her layered harmonies.

Imperial Teen, Echo, 08/03/19 They released their best record in years with Now We Are Timeless. It’s been 13 years since I last saw them, but all of the familiar elements were there: the instrument switches and laughter and fucking hooks. They are still fun and charming live and the set that they played was perfect. They ended the night with “Water Boy.” What must it be like to know that you can just knock the audience on their ass with that minute-and-a-half masterpiece? To literally shout “Bow down yeah baby baby!” and then walk off the stage.

Ibibio Sound Machine, Moroccan Lounge, 7/30/19 The band members were nearly stacked on top of each other to fit on the Moroccan Lounge stage and still give Eno Williams room to move. A thrilling show, but I miscalculated how the crowd would fall and I was out of my league in terms of fandom. Caught shade for not dancing, but in my defense I was terrified because Williams was holding the mic out to the people on both sides of me and they knew the words (in Ibibio) and I did not.

Laura Stevenson, Bootleg Theater, 05/18/19 
 The Big Freeze is my favorite record of the year and seeing her play it live was special. These songs are the most personal thing she’s recorded but she’s not a precious performer.

Charly Bliss, Casbah, 06/29/19
 Charly Bliss takes 90’s “just-signed-to-a-major-label” pop and perfects it. They dress up for the show, they sell full-color t-shirts… they are an arena band in search of an arena. Until they find one, catch them the club when you can.

Low/ EMA, The Lodge Room, 03/15/19 There are few bands that continue to change their sound and continually challenge themselves and the audience. They can’t precisely recreate Double Negative live and so it becomes something else entirely. I hope they compile a live album from this tour. I finally got to see EMA again and she was excellent. That bass sound in “Breathalyzer” was rattling my teeth for the whole song.

Black Midi, Bootleg Theater, 03/08/19 Building a mystery so precisely. They strode onstage, locked in and didn’t let up for an hour. When the last note struck, the lights went out and they disappeared from the stage. They sold out of an unlabelled 12” single with a line of fans still waiting to buy them.