#starry's rant factory

[cxsmicmyeon]

bought myself a teolaegi as a treat

[guardianspirits13]

As an artist, one thing that consistently bothers me is how creative skills are valued differently in wealthy countries than they are in developing countries.

I work at a craft store, and the number of ornaments and statues that say they were ‘hand painted’ or ‘handmade’ makes me dizzy. Someone had to assemble and/or paint these often intricate decorations only for some white woman to buy them half-off for like $3.

If you were to buy a hand-painted statue from an American creator on Etsy? It’s priced fairly for the time and materials that went into it, and the person that created it is getting at least 60-70% profit after material and site fees (please correct me if that estimate is inaccurate).

All of those cheap shirts and dresses from Shein are handmade, but it’s not valued nearly as much as the artists and creators they often steal from. This is obviously not the fault of either the independent artists or factory workers creating these, but the corporation that cheapens these creations from both a material and creative standpoint. Not only are you buying a piece of clothing made from as cheap of materials possible that is bad for the environment and incentivizing the mistreatment of the workers who made them, but you are also belittling the artistry that goes into creating intricate, quality pieces of clothing by smaller creators.

Many of us do not have the skill to create our own clothing, and we are impressed meeting people who tell us their outfit is in fact handmade with raw fabric and a sewing machine. But still factory workers who cut and sew hundreds of pieces of clothing a day are viewed as (or at the very least treated like) unskilled workers.

And of course this ties into the broader conversation of how many occupations we consider “unskilled” make up the BACKBONE of our society. If the apocalypse began tomorrow, the most valued skills would include farming, construction, and medical treatment (noting how nurses are underpaid and overworked despite how like 80% their schooling is the same as doctors).

I wanna leave this off with a video I saw a while ago that stuck with me and really planted the seed in my mind for this rant. It features a Chinese man who spends his life painting stroke-for-stroke replicas of The Starry Night to be sold overseas. He quite literally paints like one of the most famous artists of all time, and hasn’t even seen a Van Gogh original in person (at the time of filming, but it looks like he has finally made it to Europe in recent years).

It saddens me, but we should all fight to break the cycle of exploitation until everybody is free from oppression, exploitation, and wage slavery.

[weaselbeaselpants]

Why I Hate Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd

Hate is a strong word but, yes, I really don’t like the 2007 Sweeney Todd. I didn’t like it when it came out (and I was already a big Burton fan girl AND my family is made up of theater people. Don’t you dare try to Burton-splain or Theater-splain me). The musical fan in me dislikes it for overshadowing the story which I think is much better on stage, while the Burton fan in me hates it for being the “best thing Burton’s made since the 90s” according to some. More on that later.

Let me dissect the two things that irk me most about this adaptation:

1) Johnny Depp’s Sweeney Todd

Let’s get something straight about stage shows: every actor is gonna play a role a little differently. Every (good) actor brings a new dimension to a character or portrays them in a way that brings something new to the audience, be it people who’ve seen the show hundreds of times or those watching the musical for the first time. This is even more complicated when you have a movie adaptation of the play. The movie is likely gonna be seen more than the stage musical, so you have to get used to that version being the only one people know and thus being an interpretation of character people will like the best. You CAN’T expect Johnny Depp to play Sweeney like Len Cariou or George Hearn. Johnny is not only NOT those actors, his portrayal of the character follows a very different characterization and mannerisms than them. 

Personally - I like my Sweeney being this angry person ready to burst with rage at the drop of the hat, someone who seethes hate everywhere he goes but doesn’t seem to turn heads, yet he still has a sense of humor about a situation, possibly as a way to adjust to his new philosophy. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be sad or solemn though. He’s clearly in pain on the inside, and like a real psychopath is trying his best to feel something again while trying not to return to the pain of loosing his wife and child. I also like Sweeney trying - possibly failing - to put on this air or everything being okay like he’s still just a humble barber and not a nihilistic serial killer. Basically, I like my Sweeney being highly emotional. I like my baritone-bass, Cariou/Hearn type Sweeneys.

Depp and/or Burton is going for a “lost all emotion and joy, never smiles, empty shell, cold and clearly brooding”-type Sweeney. Whatevs. The problem isn’t that you CAN’T play Sweeney that way. Sweeney’s only requirement as a character is that he be a psychotic, revenge-driven, deeply heartbroken man that’s so bent on revenge he ends up destroying the very thing he set out to avenge. You can play up his emotions or lack there of as much as you want.

My problem is that I don’t think Depp plays that well.

I don’t know whether it was his choice, Burton’s choice, or both to have Sweeney sneer more than a 1st grader at a teacher who told him he has to spend recess doing homework- but seriously THAT’S ALL I SEE. Depp looks like he’s trying too hard to look angry and super serious. He’s so edgy looking and his dryness doesn’t come off as engaging to me. His emotionless performance feels lazy. It doesn’t help that he can’t sing either. Like, seriously, Johnny Depp can’t sing. Helena Bonham Carter can sing better than him. I suppose Sweeney Todd isn’t the kind of musical where characters are supposed to sound ‘pretty’, but they could at least sound like they’re hitting a note.

Speaking of Helena-Bonham-Lovett, while I don’t like her performance, I think it’s way more solid than Depp’s. That’s because - again - while this Lovett is very different from the much preferred Landsbury-type, it’s still a version of Mrs. Lovett and gets the most of what her character should be down: desperate, sick and twisted, in-Love with Sweeney and dubious in nature, leaving your to wonder how much worse she is compared to him. Landsbury Lovett is a nasty hag pretending to be a warm grandma; Carter’s Lovett is a worn-out prostitute; whichever way you go you have a desperate, delusional monster cook. It’s not my Mrs. Lovett, but it is a Mrs. Lovett.

Depp’s Todd is sooooooooooo broody you guyz that he doesn’t even feel like Sweeney anymore. He just feels like a generic heartless killer DONUT STEELE GUYS! The character is lost beneath the over-under-acted performance and star power.

2) Tim Burton’s super emo-phase directing

Prepare for the Burton-hipster in me to come out.

I hated Tim Burton’s visual storytelling and mood as a director in the 2000s. For starters, everything has a super dark, shadowy (ugly) filter. It ruined Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it ruined Alice and Wonderland and it ruined this to some extant. IT’S A TIM BURTON FILM. We don’t need a grey, hazy, deluded color scheme to show that it’s gothic. Actually I think Burton benefited a lot in his earlier movies by having lots of scenes shot in sunny environments with good color schemes to better compliment when things got melancholic, gross, weird, or messed up. Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands are the shining examples of this trope. Not every scene looks super deep or grim, so they stand out from the rest of the scenes in the film and establish tone.

Of course, if there’s one story that could benefit from a washed out, dry color scheme I think it IS this film, and I do like the contrast for how bright the blood is. I just wish the lighting wasn’t so overbearing in EVERY scene, no matter what the intended mood. Also it looks kinda bluish. Like it’s an Evanescence music video, probably not helped by the overabundance of CGi. Also, Victorian London is muggy and gross. Burton’s film makes even London at it’s dirtiest feel kinda polished through his lighting and set design. Les Mis did a better job at showing you the grungy side of it’s environment.

More important than visuals is the way in which Burton directed his actors and wrote characters at this time. No matter what the film he was making at the time, every character and every actor looks like they just got punched in the gut and act super dry. The only film that benefited from this ‘charisma’ was Corpse Bride: the story is bleak, melancholic, and at times cynical, it’s characters should emanate that for the sake of the story.

Much like Depp’s Sweeney, everyone whose not Helena Bonham Carter looks emo, angry, emotionless or sad, which by the way doesn’t help Sweeney stand out. Everyone looks like or feels like they’re serial killers. This is a cast of mostly deplorable characters but very few true-blue killers like Sweeney and Lovett. And if they’re supposed to be characters pushed to becoming Sweeney 2.0, like Joanna or Toby, the movie doesn’t do a good job at portraying that. Anthony gets it the worst since he’s the starry-eyed idealist who is too good for this or any world, but instead comes off as a creepo with weird hair. His plans for Joanna are supposed to be alarming, but you’re never supposed to feel like he’d do something bad to her. Movie!Anthony is so much of a crazed stalker that you really don’t want to spend ANYTIME with him or Joanna.

--

I find this adaptation overrated.

In the world of theater, you have to put up with the fact that not everyone can afford to see Broadway shows or take leap of faith and jump at a college or community theater production hoping it’s somewhat decent. Some people are gonna stick to the movie versions and that’s fine (Grease and Chicago are way better movies than they are stage-shows, in my opinion). So if someone prefers the Depp film to the show there’s not much you can do. That’s their opinion and that’s what they were introduced to first.

But then you get these movie critics and film buffs who say things like “this is the best Tim Burton film since (insert pre-1995 Burton film here)” and “it’s so well written, why doesn’t he make stuff like this anymore?”...I kinda wanna scream.

TIM BURTON DIDN’T WRITE SWEENEY TODD. The story is good cause he’s adapting an already existing story to the screen. Frankly, I think his flavor of gothic hinders the story. And the whole “this is the only good new Burton movie”-thing is also really annoying. Big Eyes is great. Heck, if you’re big on Tim Burton’s tropes being used to better affect, Frankenweenie is a better example than this film.

The thing about Tim Burton is, I think he’s better at working with small-scale stories, conflicts and themes than he is at tackling “deep” stuff, which Sweeney Todd is. Burton’s movies are simple in their complexity. That’s why when he tries to write war-based movies or “chosen one” stories like Alice in Wonderland or Planet of the Apes, it falls on it’s face. A Burton movie is more entertaining when he’s obviously just having fun with the stuff he likes and isn’t trying to present himself or his film as some auteur-masterpiece. In fact, if there’s any gothic musical more fit in Tim Burton’s hands than Sweeney Todd, I would say it’s Phantom of the Opera. That musical is ALL melodrama. It feels more at home with Burton than the moral- character driven bloodbath horror of Sweeney Todd. But hey, I guess that’s indicative of people thinking ‘well it’s goffik, so it’s perfect for so-and-so regardless of what their style is and what story we’re trying to tell’.

-

Rant done. Been waiting to get that off my chest since forever.

[cxsmicmyeon]

got all a’s for probably the most difficult semester ever im really proud of myself :DDD

[cxsmicmyeon]

okay NO ONE CARES but i need to let this out rq 

let me in by exo and black star by radiohead are two versions of the same story, let me explain.

so the general thing that happens is that the subject of the song (the singer’s partner) is depressed because of something that happened to them. and here’s where the division happens:

let me in is a positive ending, where the singer(s) actively wants to help his s/o with whatever they’re going through, never giving up on them and wanting them to “let [him] in” . and its because the subject is a comfort to the singer (’you’re my ocean’) he wants them to be better and help them with their struggles. and the song ends with “you’re my ocean” so if i were to write a fic abt this (which i will btw) they get thru it together. 

whereas black star lets the relationship fall apart. i feel like it only happens bc the singer of that has his own shit he’s going thru and as much as he’s trying to be there for his partner, it’s not enough. and the relationship eventually falls apart as indicated by the last verse. he thinks he’s fine but clearly he regrets letting it fall apart (”falling over when i see a face like you” , also the final “this is killing me”)

also the black star symbolizes his depression and he blames it for his actions “blame it on the black star”

so yeah listen to both, hear/read the lyrics and see the story.

and im so writing a choose ur own ending story abt this, unsure if i’ll post it here or not but whatever

[cxsmicmyeon]

had a dream i got cancelled on here bc i didnt like baekhyun even tho there was literally no proof lol

[cxsmicmyeon]

99% of my blorbo posting is just me like this

[cxsmicmyeon]

btw yeah im still around but just not posting here as much

[cxsmicmyeon]

i finally tried starry soda and it was very good

[cxsmicmyeon]

not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but isn’t it strange they dropped chanyeol’s yt channel now of all times

[cxsmicmyeon]

im seeing spiderverse tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cxsmicmyeon]

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS NEW LAYOUT OF DESKTOP TUMBLR...

[cxsmicmyeon]

dna cypher mv is cool and yixing is very hot but why was there someone wearing fucking cornrows...

[cxsmicmyeon]

i wish tumblr had circles like twitter bc i’d tell u by name who hurt me bc some of yall still engage w her

[cxsmicmyeon]

luhan why do u have locs

[cxsmicmyeon]

if any moots like radiohead hit my line