#richard b moore

[randomrichards]

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG:

Girl raises an ape

Who repeats King Kong problems

Thanks to stupid drunks

[mariocki]

Monster on the Campus (1958)

"Now I hope I've made these two aspects of living organisms clear to you. In the case of the coelacanth, we have a species which became stabilised over two hundred million years ago, in the form you see here. But in the case of man, we have a recent species which is not stabilised at all. Man is not only capable of change but man alone, among all living creatures, can choose the direction in which that change will take place. In other words, man can use his knowledge to destroy all spiritual values and reduce the race to bestiality, or he can use his knowledge to increase his understanding to a point far beyond anything now imaginable."

[politicaldilfs]

New Jersey Governor DILFs

Richard J. Hughes, Robert B. Meyner, Jim McGreevey, Donald DiFrancesco, Brendan Byrne, A. Harry Moore, Richard Codey, Walter Evans Edge, Alfred E. Driscoll, William T. Cahill, Thomas Kean, A. Harry Moore, Jon Corzine, James Florio, Phil Murphy

[ed-recoverry]

List of free audiobooks on YouTube for anyone interested

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Alice in Wonderland

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H P Lovecraft

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Village by Caroline Mitchell

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (fuck JKR)

Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Upside Down by Danielle Steel

The Fiancée by Kate White

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Theif

Accidentally Married by Victoria E. Lieske

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

The Collector (book one) by Nora Roberts

The Lies I Told by Mary Burton

Dead Man’s Mirror by Agatha Christie

The Hobbit

The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey

The Good Neighbour by R J Parker

The Island House by Elana Johnson

Desperation by Stephan King

The Healing Summer by Heather B. Moore

The Last Affair by Margot Hunt

To Be Claimed by Willow Winter

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Inn by James Patterson

Wonder by R J Palacio

Faking It With The Billionaire by Willow Fox

The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum

The Catcher in the Rye

The Lottery Winner by Mary Higgins Clark

Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean

Death of a Nurse by M C Beaton

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Frozen Betrayal by Clive Cussler

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Line of Fire by R J Patterson

Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen

The Remnant by Tim LaHaye

The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

Payment in Kind by J A Jance

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A Marriage of Anything but Convenience by Victorine E. Lieske

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The Kama Sutra by Mallanaga Vatsyayana

The Wisdom of Father Brown by G K Chesterton

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Robin Hood by J Walker McSpadden

The Poor Traveller by Charles Dickens

Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865 by Sarah Raymond Herndon

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Atomic Habits by James Clear

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Man After Man

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Charlotte’s Web

Midsummer Mysteries by Agatha Christie

Out of Silent Planet by C S Lewis

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

The Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harai

Hamlet by Shakespeare

[llovelymoonn]

favourite poems of november

jesse patrick ferguson mama

a.e. stallings momentary

nate klug squirrels

fady joudah tell life

joyelle mcsweeney percussion grenade: "dear fi jae 2 (ms. merongrongrong)"

thomas james letters to a stranger: "mummy of a lady named jumtesonekh"

mukoma wa ngugi logotherapy: "i swear i see skulls coming"

kim hyesoon mama's expansion (tr. don mee choi)

nikki giovanni my house: "mothers"

harmony holiday gazelle lost in watts

calvin forbes mama said

marianne chan all heathens: "momotaro in the philippines"

richard speakes mama loves janis joplin

sara teasdale a november night

tyrone williams adventures of pi: "mama's boy"

reynolds price rescue

mary moore easter mama said...

frank stanford you: "faith, dogma, and heresy"

elinor wylie full moon

melissa johnson cancer voodoo: "mama's hair"

noor hindi breaking [news]

kemi alabi a financial planner asks about my goals, or golden shovel with cardi b's "money"

franny choi perihelion: a history of touch (this is one of my favourites)

james k. baxter selected poems: "wild bees"

kevin prufer black woods

evan kennedy the sissies: "(the) abashed"

jacob polley the house that jack built

primus st. john communion: poems 1976-1998: "after that"

frank stanford you: "freedom, revolt, and love"

monika sok bodhisattvas at the beach in november

kofi

[brian-in-finance]

Instagram

•••••

•••••

WHAT THE STARS ARE SAYING

Check out why so many famed actors use Backstage

Trusted since 1960

Founded in 1960, Backstage has a storied history of serving the entertainment industry. For over 60 years Backstage has served as a casting resource and news source for actors, performers, directors, producers, agents, and casting directors.

Over that time, Backstage Magazine has also appeared on numerous TV shows, such as “Mad Men,” “Entourage,” “Glee,” “Oprah,” NBC's “Today” show, Comedy Central's “@Midnight”, NY1's “On Stage,” and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as multiple mentions on shows like “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” “Girls,” and appearances in films such as “13 Going on 30,” the Farrelly brothers' “Stuck on You” and Spike Lee's “Girl 6,” and even a mention in Woody Allen's short-story collection “Mere Anarchy” and Augusten Burroughs' novel “Sellevision” – and Backstage has received accolades from multiple Academy Award-, Emmy-, and Tony-winning actors and directors. (Plus, the hit musical “The Last Five Years” even includes Backstage in its lyrics: “Here's a headshot guy and a new Backstage / Where you're right for something on every page.”)

CAITRÍONA BALFE

ACTRESS

"I still get Backstage emails 'cause I still subscribe to Backstage. [Backstage is) kind of the Bible in the beginning, which is amazing. Samuel French and Backstage go hand in hand, you know? You go there for your plays when you're in classes, and then you get your Backstage."

Backstage 1

•••••

Brian’s Note: The following story originally appeared in April 2015. Most recent update is December 2020.

The Gorgeous Determination of Caitríona Balfe

Caitríona Balfe is on the move. That's been true most of her adult life— especially the 10 years she was modeling for Victoria's Secret, Dolce & Gabbana, and others—but as she sits on the rooftop patio of a West Hollywood hotel in mid-March, she mentions that she's pulling up stakes from Los Angeles.

"It just feels silly to have an empty place for 10 months until I figure out what I'm doing with my life," the Irish-born actor says. "I've rented the same place for the last four years and now I have to give it up." Her apartment is being razed to put in condos, but her departure from L.A. is extra poignant considering this is the city where Balfe journeyed when she decided to put aside that successful modeling career and focus on the vocation she'd always wanted: acting.

Photo: Luc-Richard Elie

"I've moved so much since I was 18," she says. "I mean, l've lived so many places. New York, I lived in for almost eight years [while modeling], and that's been the longest of anywhere since I left Ireland. But L.A. is where I came and said, 'OK, this is what I wanna do with my life.' "

She refuses to think of her move as a permanent one, though. "I'll be back," she declares, "but it feels really sad. My little apartment, it's got so many memories."

Balfe's sadness is no doubt mitigated by the fact that part of her need to move is due to the precipitous rise in her fortunes. She'll soon be flying to Scotland to shoot the second season of "Outlander," which returns to Starz April 4 to conclude Season 1.

When last we saw Balfe's Claire, the resourceful British nurse who comes home after World War |I only to be inexplicably teleported into the 18th-century Highlands, she was half-naked with a knife to her breast. Don't worry: Claire will get out of that scrape, but more perils await-to say nothing of the emerging multi-era romantic triangle developing between her, the Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), and her 20th-century husband, Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies), who wonders where she's gone.

Based on the much-beloved Diana Gabaldon novels and developed for television by "Battlestar Galactica" rebooter Ronald D. Moore, "Outlander" is an ostensibly lush period-piece-within-a-period-piece drama that's consistently richer and thornier than its romance-novel trappings suggest. And much of the credit goes to Balfe, who had managed small parts in films such as “Super 8” and “Now You See Me” before landing the central role in this adaptation.

In person, Balfe is far less imposing than the steely Claire, who has to weather the dangers of being a woman in sexist, violent Scotland in the 1740s. Cast late in the preproduction of “Outlander”—Moore has mentioned in interviews how hard it was to find the right Claire—she didn’t have time to consider what the role would do to her life. “I’m so bad on social media," she confesses on this warm afternoon, nestled underneath a cabana. "I had set up an account on Twitter maybe a year or so before I got this job and had, I thought, a lot of followers — 250 or something, and most of them are my friends. Within about a month or two, it was thousands of people — and my phone, I didn't know how to turn off the alerts, so it was just going all the time. That was the beginning of the awareness."

Growing up in the small Irish community of Monaghan, Balfe had considered acting from an early age. ("I was devastated that I wasn't a child actor," she says, smiling. But after traveling to Dublin to study theater, she changed course once she received an offer to model. It wasn't a secret passion of hers, but who turns down a trip to Paris? "My parents felt that I should finish college," Balfe recalls, "but l'm slightly headstrong, so l took their advice and I completely ignored it."

Over the next decade, she lived in France, Italy, Germany, and Japan, her modeling inexperience hardly a detriment. "You'd be amazed how little information or training goes into it," she says. "When I first arrived in Paris, I was told to take a bus to the office. I left my suitcase — I barely spoke any French — and someone took me across the street, helped me buy a Carte Orange. They printed out five addresses that I had to go to that day, and then they sent me off." She still remembers at 18 riding the subway alongside 16-year-old aspiring Russian models, who knew no French or English, homesick and sobbing their eyes out. "That was just the way it was," says Balfe. "You become pretty tough. When I went to Japan, it was similar: They would drive you to their castings, but the minute you got a job, it would be like, 'Here's an address, here's a map. Good luck.' They don't have signposts in English in Japan, so the map and the address are not always very helpful."

Hear Balfe recount her early misadventures in modeling and you can't help but think of Claire, who's equally thrown to the wolves once she arrives in the 18th century amid people wary of the English in general and assertive women in particular. "Honestly, l've been in so many situations in my life where you just are completely displaced," Balfe says. “You have to adapt very quickly and figure it out. I definitely think that informs Claire a lot. It helped me understand her."

Did moving to Paris at such a young age teach Balfe that she can cope in any circumstance? "I think I didn't really realize that until many years later," she replies. "I have a great knack of not thinking about things and just going for it. You learn the hard way sometimes that you're able to get through, but sometimes it's quite tough when you're in a situation where you don't know anyone and you're trying to find your way around cities. But if an opportunity presents itself and it seems like a good idea, l'm just like, 'OK, let's do it, then I'll figure it out.'”

The decision to reconnect with her acting ambitions was conducted just as boldly. Ready to quit modeling, she moved to Los Angeles because a writer she was dating lived there. He was the only person she knew, but she had read a Vanity Fair interview with Amy Adams in which she said she trained with Warner Loughlin. "I could walk to that place from my ex-boyfriend's house," she says, "so l was like, 'Well, I'm gonna go there because I can't really drive. I started from scratch. I didn't have any managers, I didn't know any agents, I hadn't acted in almost a decade." But she just kept taking classes, moving from Loughlin to the studios of Sanford Meisner and Judith Weston. "I think when I first got here, I had a nice little air of delusion: 'It's gonna work out,'" she says with a laugh. “You just don't know how."

And then came "Outlander." By email, Moore admits that he didn't know Balfe's work until her audition tape came unsolicited to his office from her agent. Once she was chosen for Claire, he made it clear how demanding the job would be. “I told her in our first meeting that this was going to be an even bigger responsibility and workload than the normal TV lead," he writes. "Because the story was being told from Claire's point of view, Cait was going to be in every scene, every day for months, which is an extraordinary amount of work, far beyond what most actors are ever asked to do."

Moore's warning didn't faze Balfe. Writes Moore, "After she met with the president of Starz... and it was clear that she was going to land the role, I walked her to the elevator and just before the doors closed on her, I said 'Your life is about to change forever,' and she gave me a grin that was both thrilled and slightly nervous. I never saw her hesitate after that."

She's never hesitated before. As Balfe prepares to say goodbye to L.A. (for now, she thinks back to her early days in the city, trying to convince casting directors that she was more than just a model. "I went on many, many, many, many auditions that were Hot Girl No. 2 — you wanna shoot yourself," she says, laughing. "But, you know, I'm very lucky that l was even getting those auditions in the beginning. And it toughens you up. At least for me, to have that fuel to prove people wrong—it definitely spurs me on and makes me wanna work harder." Then she smiles conspiratorially. "And shove it to them."

Backstage 2

Remember… I told her in our first meeting that this was going to be an even bigger responsibility and workload than the normal TV lead. — Ronald D Moore

[rendezvouz-fling]

Celebrities you share placements with Pisces Placements Edition

Pisces rising:

• Whitney Houston

• Michael Jackson

• Gwyneth Paltrow

• Ryan Gosling

• Richard Pryor

• Billie Eilish

• Andrew Garfield

• Ringo Starr

• Tony Hawk

• Kourtney Kardashian

• Ellen DeGeneres

• Zayn Malik

• John Stamos

• Demi Moore

• Antonio Banderas

• Jay-Z

• Brandy Norwood

• Nancy Spungen

• Amanda Bynes

• Phylicia Rashad

Pisces sun:

• Elizabeth Taylor

• Eva Longoria

• Victoria Justice

• Kurt Cobain

• Trever Noah

• Steve Jobs

• Adam Levine

• George Harrison

• Camila Cabello

• Stephen Curry

• Olivia Rodrigo

• Shaq

• Queen Latifah

• Cindy Crawford

• Floyd Mayweather Jr.

• Terrence Howard

• Rebel Wilson

• Dakota Fanning

• Becky G

• Kat Von D

Pisces moon:

• Prince

• Axl Rose

• Lacey Chabert

• Jhene Aiko

• Bad Bunny

• Erykah Badu

• Freddie Prince Sr.

• Shailene Woodley

• Jason Statham

• Dylan O'Brien

• Felicity Jones

• Robert De Niro

• Kidada Jones

• Sarah Michelle Gellar

• Luke Mitchell

• Vanessa Hudgens

• Macaulay Culkin

• Joey King

• Kevin James

• Matt LeBlanc

Pisces mercury:

• Heath Ledger

• Lady Gaga

• Lily Collins

• Reese Witherspoon

• Shay Mitchell

• Ashley Greene

• Jennifer Grey

• Joan Crawford

• Daniel Gillies

• Michael B. Jordan

• Vida Guerra

• Pharrell Williams

• Jenny Slate

• Matthew Lawrence

• Luke Evans

• Vince Neil

• Eddie Murphy

• Jackie Chan

• Jennifer Love Hewitt

• Christina Ricci

Pisces venus:

• Selena Quintanilla

• Brandi Quiñones

• Drew Barrymore

• Orlando Bloom

• Michelle Pfeiffer

• Kristen Stewart

• Barbra Streisand

• John Travolta

• Emma Watson

• Jon Bon Jovi

• Diana Ross

• Iggy Pop

• Alice Cooper

• Victoria Beckham

• Celine Dion

• Justin Bieber

• Michelle Obama

• Samantha Fox

• Dave Grohl

• Dove Cameron

Pisces mars:

• Denzel Washington

• Rowan Atkinson

• Tom Hanks

• Marilyn Monroe

• Shirley Temple

• Tina Turner

• Bob Dylan

• Phil Collins

• Heidi Klum

• Paris Hilton

• Elton John

• Enrique Iglesias

• Eric Clapton

• Ellie Goulding

• Ricky Martin

• Lisa Marie Presley

• Paco Rabanne

• LL Cool J

• Kelly Rowland

• Big Pun

[rosencrantzsguildenstern]

Best Shakespeare Adaptations Tournament

THE BRACKET!

the final round will begin soon!

all tournament related stuff, including the polls, will be under the tag 'tournament'.

"what is 'best'?" that's up to you, but what i'm hoping for is people judging more on individual quality rather than accuracy!

lineup

SIDE A

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Hamlet)

Elsinore (Hamlet)

Hamletmachine (Hamlet)

Lion King 1.5 (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead)

Fat Ham (Hamlet)

To Be or Not To Be (Hamlet)

Haider (Hamlet)

Fortinbras (Hamlet)

My Own Private Idaho (Henry IV & Henry V)

The Prince (Henry IV and Hamlet)

American Moor (Othello)

Enter the Body (King Lear, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet)

Nothing Much to Do (Much Ado About Nothing)

10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew)

Requiem of the Rose King (Richard III & Henry VI Part 3)

Teenage Dick (Richard III)

SIDE B

Gnomeo and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)

All Shook Up (Twelfth Night)

She's the Man (Twelfth Night)

Duodecimal (Twelfth Night)

These Violent Delights (Romeo & Juliet)

West Side Story (Romeo & Juliet)

Teen Beach Movie (West Side Story)

Prince of Cats (Romeo & Juliet)

Ran (King Lear)

A Thousand Acres (King Lear)

The Witch From Mercury (The Tempest)

Return to the Forbidden Planet (The Tempest)

Love's Labors Lost (same— musical adaptation)

Foul is Fair (MacBeth)

ShakespeareRetold MacBeth/MacChef (MacBeth)

Throne of Blood/Kumonosu-jō (MacBeth)

[youremyheaven]

vedic astrology symbols & motifs pt 3

1. Serpent symbolism

Zendaya wearing a Roberto Cavalli dress with twin serpents on the back. She has her saturn & ketu in UBP.

She's also the ambassador for Bvlgari, a brand known for its iconic serpent motif. Fellow ambassador Priyanka Chopra also has serpent yoni (Rohini moon)

Julianne Moore, mrigashira moon wearing a dress featuring cobras

Kendall Jenner, UBP moon wearing a dress with snake imagery

Charlize Theron, ashlesha sun & mercury wearing a serpent pendant.

Cardi B, mrigashira ketu as Medusa

Rohini Mars, uma thurman as medusa in percy jackson

2. Punarvasu girls often play the Trophy Wife or the Dream Girl in media.

Malin Ackerman (punarvasu moon) played the titular Trophy Wife in the sitcom of the same name

Sofia Vergara (punarvasu sun & moon) plays Gloria Pritchett in modern family who is a classic example of a trophy wife.

Kaley Cuoco (punarvasu moon) plays Penny in TBBT. Penny is a quintessential "dream girl" type character.

Punarvasu moon Drew Barrymore plays a version of this role in nearly every romcom she's ever been in.

3. I have a soft spot for Virgo-Cancer couples. Virgo is considered the most masculine sign and Cancer is the most feminine sign. Sexual polarity is what drives a relationship and this could be why these couples are so fun to watch on screen and even irl.

Jay on the show, Modern Family is played by Ed O'Neill who is Purvaphalguni moon (tropical virgo) and Sofia Vergara, who plays his wife, has Punarvasu moon (tropical cancer).

Ed O'Neill was on the show Married With Children, where Katey Sagal played his wife. She has Pushya moon and Punarvasu Ketu. Its interesting how his two most well known characters are both husbands on shows about families with wives played by Cancer girlies👀

Chris Hemsworth is a Purvaphalguni sun and Uttaraphalguni moon and he is married to Elsa Pataky who is Punarvasu sun and Revati moon. Pisces is opposite to Virgo and opposite signs have insane chemistry.

I'll make a separate post about how movies often pair actors with opposite signs to play a couple and how this happens in real life as well (opposites attract 😏)

Priyanka Chopra is a Punarvasu sun and Nick Jonas is a Uttaraphalguni sun and stellium.

in Bridget Jones' Diary, Mark Darcy is played by Purvaphalguni sun Colin Firth and Bridget is played by Ashlesha moon Renee Zellwegger.

The OG romcom pairing. Adam Sandler, Purvaphalguni sun and Drew Barrymore who is Punarvasu moon.

Purvaphalguni sun, Hugh Grant and Pushya rising Julia Roberts in Notting Hill.

another iconic romcom pairing, Purvaphalguni sun Richard Gere with Pushya rising Julia Roberts.

6. I find a connection between Ashlesha and plastic surgery. Ashlesha is the star of restriction and its tightly coiled by nature. These natives often express their severity through their self-presentation. On another note, these tropical Leo natives become sidereal Cancers and while Leos are known for being extremely self conscious and prone to fluctuating self esteem, adding a layer of Cancerian sensitivity makes things worse for them. Their self-image becomes extremely personal and they feel a need to master perfectionism. (in my perspective, switching to sidereal does not cancel out one's tropical signs, it adds another layer or texture to it. Leos are so sensitive and picky, why? because they are sidereal Cancers underneath the surface. some Cancers are very typically girly and domestic whereas others are not? because they're split between the gemini and cancer signs in sidereal)

Now a lot of celebs get work done, especially these days but I think there are some celebrities who are known for their plastic surgery and these are just a few off the top of my head.

Megan Fox, ashlesha moon.

Kylie Jenner, ashlesha sun

Bella Hadid, ashlesha mars

Sridevi, ashlesha sun and stellium.

(she had already had some work done in the first pic) Sridevi is probably one of the first Indian actors to get plastic surgery back in the 70s/80s and was known for it.

[marleneoftheopera]

Holiday Audio/Video Gifts!

For the holiday season, here are some audio gifts from various shows and one Phantom video! The link to them is here and the info is below the cut:

Happy holidays and I hope you are all having time for some rest!

Audios

POTO

Jon Robyns, Paige Blankson, Joe Griffiths-Brown, Kelly Glyptis, Matt Harrop, Adam Linstead, Francesca Ellis, David Kristopher Brown, Maiya Hikasa August 22, 2023; London

Tim Howar, Harriet Jones, Nadim Naaman, Lara Martins, Nicholas Garrett, Arvid Larsen, John Ellis, Valerie Cutko, Kelsi Boyden March 19, 2023; Greece

Josh Piterman, Corinne Cowling (u/s), Danny Whitehead, Katy Hanna (u/s), Ross Dawes, Kris Manuel (u/s), Sophie Caton (u/s), Paul Ettore Tabone, Georgia Ware October 17, 2019; London ​Matinee.

Jeremy Stolle (u/s), Samantha Hill, Greg Mills (u/s), Michele McConnell, Richard Poole (u/s), Tim Jerome, Ellen Harvey, Christian Sebek, Kara Klein, Scott Mikita (u/s) March 9, 2013; Broadway Matinee performance.

John Owen-Jones, Deborah Dutcher, Matthew Cammelle, Bruce Montague, Charles Shirvell, Margaret Mary Kane (u/s), Janet Murphy, Jeremy Secomb, Lucy Middleton January 5, 2002; London

Love Never Dies

Tam Mutu, Celia Graham, David Thaxton, Daniel Dowling August 25, 2011; London Tam Mutu's last performance.

Les Miserables

Christopher Jacobsen (u/s Jean Valjean), Stewart Clarke (Javert), Katie Hall (Fantine), Will Callan (Marius), Lulu-Mae Pears (Cosette), Amena El-Kindy (Eponine), Luke Kempner (Thenardier), Claire Machin (Madame Thenardier), Dejan Van der Flyert (Enjolras), Alex Shaw (Gavroche), Clohe Sullivan (Little Cosette), Tom Hext (Grantaire/Majordomo), Adam Pearce (Bishop/Claquesous), Ellie Ann Lowe (Factory Girl), Jordan Simon Pollard (u/s Foreman/Bujon), Matt Dempsey (Bamatabopis/Lesgles), Annabelle Aquino, Hazel Baldwin, Emily Olive Boyd, Ben Culleton, Matt Hayden, Sam Kipling, Anouk Van Lake, Harry Lake, Ben Oatley, Jonathan Stevens, Phoebe Williams, Ollie Wray September 28, 2023; London 15,000th show in London and the 5th show for the new company.

Sunset Boulevard

Nicole Scherzinger (Norma), Tom Francis (Joe Gillis), David Thaxton (Max von Mayerling), Grace Hodgett Young (Betty Shaefer), Ahmed Hamaad (Artie), Tyler Davis (Sheldrake), Charlotte Jaconelli (Johanna), Jon Tsouras (Cecil B. de Mille) September 28, 2023; London

Rebecca

Laureen Jones (I), Richard Carson (Maxim de Winter), Kara Lane (Mrs Danvers), Sara Harlington (Beatrice), Neil Moor (Giles), Piers Bate (Frank Crewley), David Breeds (Ben), Alex James Ward (Jack Favell), Shrley Jameson (Mrs Van Hopper), Nicholas Lumley (Colonel Julian) September 27, 2023; Off-West End

POTO Video

Ian Jon Bourg, Olivia Safe (u/s), Kyle Gonyea 2001; Hamburg, Germany VOB files. One of the most legendary Phantom's opposite one of the youngest Christine's!

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in February 2024

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

❤️ We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson 🧡 The Paper Boys by D.P. Clarence 💛 Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada 💚 Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine 💙 A Vicious Game by Melissa Blair 💜 Clarion Call by Cayla Fay ❤️ Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories edited by Sandra Proudman 🧡 The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton 💛 Truthfully, Yours by Caden Armstrong 💙 Outsider by Jade du Preez 💜 Cross My Candy Heart by A.C. Thomas 🌈 The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

❤️ An Education in Malice by S. T. Gibson 🧡 The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Ann Older 💛 Never a Bridesmaid by Spencer Greene 💚 The Rewind by Nicole Stiling 💙 Good Christian Girls by Elizabeth Bradshaw 💜 The Fox Maidens by Robin Ha ❤️ The Terrible by Tessa Crowley 🧡 Blood Rage by Ileandra Young 💛 Call of the Sea by Emily B. Rose 💙 Sign Me Up by C.H. Williams 💜 Ways and Means by Daniel Lefferts 🌈 Peaceful in the Dark by A.A. Fairview

❤️ We Are Only Ghosts by Jeffrey L. Richards 🧡 Dead Ringer by Robyn Nyx 💛 Somacultural Liberation by Dr. Roger Kuhn 💚 Stormbringer by Erinn Harper 💙 A Saga of Shields & Shadows by A.J. Shirley 💜 Ghost Town by R.E. Ward ❤️ I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sante 🧡 The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor 💛 Remedial Magic by Melissa Marr 💙 Bloom by N.R. Walker 💜 Entwined by Alex Alberto 🌈 Queer Newark edited by Whitney Strub

❤️ Tristan by Jesse Roman 🧡 How to Live Free in a Dangerous World by Shayla Lawson 💛 Daniel, Deconstructed by James Ramos 💚 Of Socialites & Prizefights by Arden Powell 💙 Lost Harbor by Kimberly Cooper Griffin 💜 Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair by Laura Piper Lee ❤️ Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert 🧡 How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly 💛 Blackmailer’s Delight by David Lawrence 💙 Tile M for Murder by Felicia Carparelli 💜 Impulse Buy by Jae 🌈 Live for You, Die With You by Kalob Dàniel

❤️ Fairest of All by A.D. Ellis 🧡 Goddess of the Sea by Britney Jackson 💛 A Taste of Earth by Nico Silver 💚 The Moorings of Mackerel Sky by M.Z. Emily Zack 💙 How the Boogeyman Became a Poet by Tony Keith 💜 V is for Valentine by Thomas Grant Bruso ❤️ Crushed Ice by Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James 🧡 When Tomorrow Comes by D. Jackson Leigh 💛 Bugsy & Other Stories by Rafael Frumkin 💙 The White and Blue Between Us by Kiyuhiko 💜 Guide Us Home by CF Frizzell & Jesse J. Thoma 🌈 The Friendship Study by Ruby Barrett

❤️ Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender 🧡 Heart2Heart edited by Annabeth Albert 💛 No Time Like Now by Naz Kutub 💚 Bless the Blood by Walela Nehanda 💙 Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter 💜 Who We Are in Real Life by Victoria Koops ❤️ Prove It by Stephanie Hoyt 🧡 Mewing by Chloe Spencer 💛 Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault 💙 Born of Scourge by S. Jean 💜 Disciples of Chaos by M.K. Lobb 🌈 To Cage a God by Elizabeth May

❤️ Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly 🧡 What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher 💛 You Had Me at Merlot by Melissa Brayden 💚 Turning Point by Cathy Dunnell 💙 For the Stolen Fates by Gwendolyn Clare 💜 Season of Eclipse by Terry Wolverton ❤️ These Haunted Hills by Jana Denardo 🧡 Samson & Domingo by Gume Laurel III 💛 Lies that Bind by Rae Knowles & April Yates 💙 We Got the Beat by Jenna Miller 💜 The Diablo's Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa 🌈 Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

❤️ Out There by Iris Eliot 🧡 At Her Service by Amy Spalding 💛 Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

[transmutationisms]

hi!! big fan of your blog. you really changed my succession viewing experience and i can't wait to rewatch after reading the recs you've put up!

that being said, i read megan garber's piece in the atlantic about the animal imagery/darwinian implications in the show and really loved it (as a biologist with an interest in sociology lol). do you have any specific reading material relating to the topics in that piece? i'd just love to read more but not super sure what i'm even asking/looking for, so feel free to ignore!

hi! so, there's quite a large body of literature in history of biology that deals with the politics of evolutionary theory, including darwinism. you can read these in any order, though i would recommend starting with bob young's 'malthus and the evolutionists: the common context of biological and social theory' if you haven't already encountered it. this was a signal essay in historically grounding the argument that darwinian evolutionary theory read victorian industrial capitalism and malthusian population anxiety into the natural world, which was why it appealed to victorian men of science in a way that previous theories of evolution (sometimes referred to as species transformation or transmutationism, or transformisme / transformismo in france / italy) hadn't. bob was a marxist historian at a time when history of biology had been largely written by working scientists and naive positivists, and his methodological influence continues to be felt in the field today. anyway, these are only starting points and are centred on france and britain, and also i excluded p*ter b*wler because i hate his ass:

the politics of evolution: morphology, medicine, and reform in radical london, by adrian desmond

utopia's garden: french natural history from old regime to revolution, by emma spary

the age of lamarck: evolutionary theories in france, 1790–1830, by pietro corsi

l'introduction du darwinisme en france au xixe siècle, by yvette conry (<- i can't remember whether this was translated into english, sorry)

faces of degeneration: a european disorder, 1848–1918, by daniel pick

darwin: the life of a tormented evolutionist, by adrian desmond and james moore

the cuvier-geoffroy debate: french biology in the decades before darwin, by toby appel

evolution before darwin: theories of the transmutation of species in edinburgh, 1804–1834, by bill jenkins

the spirit of system: lamarck and evolutionary biology, by richard burkhardt

the meaning of evolution: the morphological construction and ideological reconstruction of darwin's theory, by robert j richards

the great nation in decline: sex, modernity, and health crises in revolutionary france, c. 1750–1850, by sean quinlan

lamarck, the mythical precursor: a study of the relations between science and ideology, by madeleine barthélemy-madaule

victorian sensation: the extraordinary publication, reception, and secret authorship of vestiges of the natural history of creation, by james secord

[01sentencereviews]

2023

Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (Kelly Fremon Craig)

Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster)

The Curse, "Land of Enchantment" [S01.E01] (Nathan Fielder)

Gush (Fox Maxy) @ New Directors/New Films 2023

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)

I Thought the World of You (Kurt Walker) @ Persistent Visions Program 1: Always and Only Place, MoMI

Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) [+ its teaser trailer]

Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)

May December (Todd Haynes) @ Opening Night, NYFF61

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie) in IMAX

My Own Private Final Destination (Alexandra McVicker & Zach Donovan) @ KGB Red Room (09/13/2023)

Oppenhemier (Christopher Nolan) in IMAX 70MM

Our Home Out West (Drew Tobia)

The Outwaters (Robbie Banfitch) [+ Card Zero & File VL-624 (Robbie Banfitch)]

Passages (Ira Sachs)

Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)

Renaissance World Tour (Beyoncé) @ SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA (09/01/2023)

Saint Omer (Alice Diop)

Stop Making Sense - IMAX (Jonathan Demme)

Succession, “With Open Eyes” (Mark Mylod & Jesse Armstrong)

Sunset Boulevard (Jamie Lloyd), West End Production (10/17/2023)

The Swan (Wes Anderson) [+ Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)]

Vanderpump Rules, “#Scandoval” [S10.E15]

The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

+++

Birth/Rebirth (Laura Moss)

Creed III (Michael B. Jordan)

The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)

the crash sequences in Ferrari (Michael Mann)

The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)

John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)

The Killer (David Fincher)

Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)

Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda)

PARADISE LOST (Richard Hines) @ Daniel Cooney Fine Art

Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)

Reality (Tina Satter)

Rotting in the Sun (Sebastián Silva)

Smoking Causes Coughing (Quentin Dupieux)

SPRING/BREAK Art Show 2023

Suzume (Makoto Shinkai)

Teen Art Salon - A Protospective @ MoMA PS1

Thanksgiving (Eli Roth)

To Catch a Killer (Damián Szifron)

“Very Delta #65 "Are You A Forever Eye-Con Like Me?” (w/ Raja)”

the 3D sequences in A Woman Escapes (Blake Williams, Sofia Bohdanowicz, & Burak Çevik)

-----------------------

Performances, 2023:

Dave Bautista - Knock at the Cabin

Robert De Niro - Killers of the Flower Moon

Cole Escola - Our Home Out West

Mia Goth - Infinity Pool

Elle Graham - Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Sandra Huller - Anatomy of a Fall & The Zone of Interest

Soya Kurokawa - Monster

Guslagie Malanda - Saint Omer

Rachel McAdams - Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Julianne Moore - May December 

Natalie Portman - May December

Addison Rae - Thanksgiving 

Judy Reyes - Birth/Rebirth

Margot Robbie - Barbie 

Franz Rogowski - Passages

Mark Ruffalo - Poor Things

Kamiki Ryunosuke - Godzilla Minus One

Dominic Sessa - The Holdovers

Nicole Scherzinger - Sunset Boulevard 

Cailee Spaeny - Priscilla 

Emma Stone - The Curse

Alyssa Sutherland - Evil Dead Rise

Sigourney Weaver - Master Gardner

Sophie Wilde – Talk to Me

Teo Yoo - Past Lives

[emailsfromanactor]

The final Email from an Actor went out today. But (thanks in large part to my procrastination skills) there's more to come here! I'll be back soon with the rest of the Hamlet-cast-in-musicals posts, and I'll keep posting/reblogging relevant things if they come up. And for now, here are some quotes from an article about The Motive and the Cue that I linked to once before:

I’ve tracked down Sterne, at 81 one of the few cast members left to tell the tale. Far from thinking of Hamlet as a debacle, though, he proclaims it “the thrill of a lifetime”. He recalls the total hysteria that engulfed mid-Manhattan during the first night in New York, attended by a roll-call of illustrious names including Bob Fosse, Lillian Gish, Dudley Moore, Paul Newman and Neil Simon.  “There was the great terror of getting out of the theatre after the performance,” he says. “Thousands of people filled the block of West 46th Street from Broadway to Eighth Avenue, hoping to catch a glimpse of Burton and Taylor.” Police guarded the Lunt-Fontanne and the cast had to wait for “Dickenliz” to leave “to avoid getting trampled”.

...

Sterne, who was in all the rehearsals, witnessed the toll this hoopla took on Burton. “Richard was very friendly, down to earth with everyone, including the stage-door man. But one moment he would be exuberant and happy, the next he would be depressed about what was going on.” Drink was a crutch. Booze lay within easy reach not least because the production was sponsored by J&B Scotch. “They gave us endless bottles,” Sterne marvels. “Richard could down a whole one during a performance.” But if his delivery could be erratic, that was also the way he conceived the role. As Sterne explains: “He would change his movements and readings constantly because he felt that this was part of the ‘rehearsal’ concept.”

...

That sets Burton nominally in the same camp as some of the American malcontents, chief among them Redfield, whom [costume designer Jane] Greenwood remembers as a trouble-maker: “He was a bastard! He wanted everything his way. I think he wanted to play Hamlet.”

On the one hand, how dare Greenwood be mean to our boy Bill. On the other hand, as you may recall from an early Redfield email...

[Gielgud] shook hands cordially, popped a mint into his mouth, and then asked a surprising question: “Now, then—which part would you like to play in Hamlet?” I stopped myself from saying “Hamlet” and said “Laertes.”

And back to the article:

Sterne offers me one small but telling instance of the transatlantic rift: “Fortinbras – Michael Ebert – came onstage and started doing a mime of looking off and getting angry. Gielgud said ‘Michael, what is that you’re doing when you come on?’ Michael said, ‘Well Sir John, I’m trying to establish that I don’t like Claudius. He said, ‘But my dear boy, there isn’t time for any of that. Just say the words and get on with it!’ ”

...

“We were tremendously in awe of Sir John,” Sterne insists. “Everyone would mainly listen to what he had to say, and Richard was grateful for all his suggestions.”

I'm so glad we got to hear a little bit more from Sterne, all these years later.

[guitarlessonsbobbycrispy]

40 Rock Songs, 3 Chords Guitar Lesson: 1) Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley and the Comets 2) Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys 3) Hound Dog - Elvis Presley 4) Surfin' USA - The Beach Boys 5) Kansas City - Fats Domino 6) Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry 7) The Last Time - The Rolling Stones 8) Roll Over Beethoven - Chuck Berry/The Beatles 9) 409 - The Beach Boys 10) Twist and Shout - The Beatles/Phil Medley and Bert Berns 11) Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan/Gun's N Roses 12) Wild Thing - The Troggs 13) Bad Moor Rising - CCR 14) Gloria - Van Morrison 15) Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan 16) Bye Bye Love - The Everly Brothers 17) Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon 18) Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash 19) What I like About You - The Romantics 20) Old Time Rock and Roll - Bob Segar 21) I'm Gonna Be - The Proclaimers 22) Down on the Corner - CCR 23) The Joker - Steve Miller Band 24) All Shook Up - Elvis Presley 25) Midnight Special - CCR 26) La Bamba - Ritchie Valens 27) Blue Suede Shoes - Carl Perkins/Elvis Presley 28) In the Summertime - Mungo Jerry 29) Tutti Frutti - Little Richard 30) Keep Your Hands to Yourself - Georgia Satellites 31) Goin' Up the Country - Canned Heat 32) Sloop John B - The Beach Boys 33) Crossroads - Robert Johnson/Cream 34) Long Tall Sally - Little Richard 35) Cover of a Rolling Stone - Dr. Hook 36) Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis 37) Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash 38) Walking on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves 39) Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum 40) Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin

[brian-in-finance]

‘Outlander’ Season 7 Gets Split in Half, 8-Episode Part 1 Premieres in June

The second half of the time-traveling drama’s penultimate season will premiere in 2024

“Outlander” Season 7 will resume Claire (Caitríona Balfe) and Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) sprawling and globe-trotting love story in June on Starz, the network announced Thursday while also revealing the first images from the new season.

The penultimate season of the time-traveling drama will debut June 16 with the first eight episodes of its extended 16-episode season, with the second half of the two-part season set to premiere in 2024.

After previously announcing the drama would come to a close after Season 8, Starz has already renewed the series for an eighth and final season. “Outlander” fans are in no danger of letting go of the beloved characters, however, as the network has also greenlit a prequel series, titled “Outlander: Blood of My Blood,” which will follow Jamie Fraser’s parents.

Balfe and Heughan reprise their roles as Claire and Jamie, respectively, as Sophie Skelton returns as Brianna MacKenzie alongside Richard Rankin as Roger MacKenzie, John Bell as Young Ian, David Berry as Lord John Grey, Caitlin O’Ryan as Lizzie Beardsley and Paul Gorman as Josiah and Keziah Beardsley.

Previously announced new ensemble members include Charles Vandervaart as William Ransom, Izzy Meikle-Small as Rachel Hunter and Joey Phillips as Denzell Hunter.

In addition to starring in the historical fiction series, Balfe and Heughan executive produce alongside Matthew B. Roberts, Ronald D. Moore, Maril Davis, Toni Graphia, Luke Schelhaas, Andy Harries, Jim Kohlberg. The series is produced by Tall Ship Productions, Left Bank Pictures and Story Mining & Supply Company, in association with Sony Pictures Television.

“Outlander” Season 7 premieres Friday, June 16 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Starz, with the season launching June 16 at 12:00 a.m. ET on the Starz app and all Starz streaming and VOD platforms. New episodes of the series will air weekly on Starz and will be available to stream weekly at midnight on Fridays on the Starz app as well as all Starz streaming and VOD platforms.

Check out the first “Outlander” Season 7 images below.

Starz

The Wrap

Remember… I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too. Thursday, I don't care about you. It's Friday, I'm in love. — The Cure