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cellcousin · 1 year ago

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Bewegtes Land - Datenstrudel (2017)

Time seems to work differently when I am sitting on public transportation. Listening to music, starring out at flashes of reality passing by, I let myself get sucked into an alternate dimension. I often imagine the scene playing in front of my eyes to be part of a movie. Making up stories about the characters or the landscape around me, I fall into a trance-like state. Or I get sucked into my phone, ignoring everything around me. The average person spends about a third of their life asleep, five years waiting in traffic and queues, four years doing housework (more for women), one year looking for lost possessions and only two weeks of their life kissing another person. In their Theatre performance “Bewegtes Land” (2017) Berlin based Artist Duo “Datenstrudel” realises the potential of ‘unused’ time, using art to create random moments of togetherness.

Over the span of one weekend in August 2017, Jörn Hintzer and Jakob Hüfner brought together around 500 residents and volunteers to perform over 40 theatrical pieces. But these pieces were not presented in a regular artistic context, their stage was a 30km long stretch along train tracks between the cities of Naumburg and Jena in rural central Germany. The mini-plays included everything from people disguised as bushes running over a field, a car race between traditionally East German ‘Trabants’ from the GDR and a modern VW, to people along the track dressed in the same outfit pretending to outrun the train. Passing tiny villages, castles, cliffs and forests, playing with expectations of contemporary social etiquette, these performances embodied an interweaving of different worlds; reality and fantasy, the urban and the rural, speed and slowness & the east and the west.

Hintzer and Hüfner, both media professors at Bauhaus University Weimar, explained that they intended flashes of art gifted to passengers to mirror flashes of media, which we soak in every day. The project gave students from the university a chance to engage with live art, brought together small communities, helped integrate an American PhD student researching local life and amused 24 train loads of passengers. I love the idea behind all of this so much because it truly captures an important aspect of what art can achieve. Often it is not only about the final product but just as much about the process. The whimsical randomness of fleeting moments of pure joy and humanity. Posing questions about how we interact with ourselves and one another on a daily basis, I don’t know about you but I’m feeling inspired. Brb gonna go give out free hugs and aggressively smile at strangers now😻😻

#art #theatre #performance art #germany #cellcousin #Youtube

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diaryofnicaraguan · 2 years ago

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surprise, bitch.

it's been many years since i have been on tumblr. in true spirit of who i am, i cannot remember my old account login. she's a lost cause anyway. but it would've been fun to have gone back on the shit show i thought was cute. i'm glad to be back. blogging was an old passion of mine. when i first joined tumblr i was a junior in high school. (i've had a few accounts). a little over 10 years ago. *shocked* i'm now 30 years old. typing with a broken ring finger on my left hand, on the last day of 2022. to be honest i am not sure why i came back yet or what called me to come back. adele is currently playing in the back as i type away. it's therapy tbh. i wish in some way i could go back in time and hug myself. tell myself to not give up on my love for theatre. my love for music. my love for artistic expression. nowadays i'm swimming in regret and yearning to feel liberated. i've felt stuck. nostalgia is hitting me so hard as i maneuver through tumblr. the internet is not the same as it used to be. my thoughts are all over the place. i guess in order to be able to look back i want to point out some pros and cons of 2022.

let's start with cons: hospitalized and had to get surgery february, got shitty news about my health, my employment has been shit, external people came back into my life just to create more chaos, diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and ptsd. my marriage has had more downs than ups. gained too much weight. and i know im not as big as i use to big and im still cute-ish but having proven to myself i can lose weight and gain confidence fucked with me. my sister had a miscarriage that affected my family. my birthday sucked. i was pumped for my 30th birthday, and the whole week of my birthday just didn't feel right. *shrugs* Maybe 31 will be better?

moving on with pros: no lie i have sat here and thought hard. but i found some! even though marriage is rocky, there's been more mutual understanding & better communication. got amazing news about my health. found out i dont need surgery for my fractured finger. i became a certified, licensed technician. passed my exam with decent grades. i let go of friendships that i should never have gone back to. renewed my residency in the united states. now im good until 2032 (if i make it that far). also that shit was expensive. my mom (surprisingly) helped me pay it last time (2012). eventually i want to become a citizen...maybe. unless i go crazy and move to costa rica or puerto rico between now and 2032. the united states of america is anything but united. it's just getting shittier to live here.

overall rating of 2022: 1 out of 10. wouldn't recommend.

im usually not a fan of odd numbers but it seems to follow me. so maybe 2023 will be amazing. i plan on traveling more. chicago is my nearest escape from my hell. i miss being there with my husband. the vibes are always great there. it feels like home there. i have lived in small towns for the majority of my life. after i was accepted to columbia college chicago and shit didn't workout, i gave up that dream and settled for the small city of south bend. i fear i have outgrown my stay here. nothing but bad memories. also no privacy. a lot of people know who i am and who my husband is. im not a social butterfly. i am a couch cocoon.

i just want 2023 to be full of adventures. 2022 came and went and i feel empty. 2021 was such an exciting year. so many chicago trips. like literally at least once a month.

i'm determined to post at least once a day. it would be nice to look back at this on december 31, 2023 and laugh. i highly doubt anyone will read this but if for some odd reason someone does - i hope you all have an amazing 2023. i gotta get ready to go to my husbands bar to ring in the new year.

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tsuzuruchipalace · 4 years ago

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the other day i came up with, what i think is, a funny and great idea for an a3! american community college au fic, but i don’t think i have the mental strength to see it through. the last long fic i cared about was started in 2015 and i haven’t touched it since january 2018.

idk i may just write little ideas and scenes and keep them in a compilation, but i’d really like to flesh out the au more. but honestly, this is basically me vicariously living the toxic lifestyle i’ll never have through this au.

The working title is “vlog2/26” and I plan to make it a tsuzuru-centric tsuzuita fic

for reference, this story takes place during the school year of 2018-2019 in a fake little town I called Byles Ridge, Pennsylvania. I based it heavily off the city I live in. It’s a shitty northeastern suburb near Philly with a community college five minutes away from my house. In this au, most of Mankai are Asian-Americans attending or working at Byles Ridge Community College. In my characterization, they all act like typical American gen z kids or millennials, if not slightly exaggerated. My main inspiration was the fic, now book, 006. I also drew inspiration from Community and my real life

here are some of my favorite lines from my outlining:

(fair warning: there is definitely not pg humor in this. if this is going on ao3, it’ll most likely be rated m)

Excerpt from the synopsis: Tsuzuru is like any other emotionally repressed American teenage boy in the 21st century; his hobbies include being single, jerking off, and pretending not to cry when he watches Toy Story 3.

Tsuzuru: “God is Dorothy from Finding Nemo and I’m that little goldfish she shook to death.”

Tsuzuru: “I’m atheist, but everyday I thank god that I wasn’t born British, ‘cause I don’t know how I would’ve handled having to pretend that Mr. Brightside is a good song.”

Tsuzuru: Being friends with Masumi sucks because it means that he’ll refuse to give anyone the aux. I’ll admit, Masumi can have good music taste. He introduced me to a lot of new artists on his “going to Taco Bell” playlist, but when he’s in a pissy mood, he’ll exclusively play XXXTentacion and now I know all the lyrics to Sad! and that’s not the person I want to be.

Masumi: “Sakuya, what the fuck is The Prince of Denmark. I talked up Miss Tachibana about Romeo and Juliet and said I was a big Shakespeare fan, then she started reciting old English.”

Sakuya: “Tsuzuru, are you okay? You look like you’re having another Michael in the Bathroom moment.”

Excerpt from Chikage’s profile: Does Zumba and weed on the weekends.

the entirety of tenma’s profile i’m so proud of this one

Tenma: is a popular football player who is still living off the high of being the Gerber Baby of Lucky Charms in 2003. He’s a first-year theatre major like Sakuya. Thinks he’s Troy from High School Musical. He uses Axe body spray and TikTok thirst traps to hide his increasingly apparent homosexuality and his middle school obsession with One Direction... There are two wolves inside you. One wolf is homophobic. One wolf finds Zayn Malik hot. You are Tenma Sumeragi.

Tenma: “It’s not gay to watch High School Musical bro. HSM is a cultural phenomenon and belongs in the Library of Congress. If you don’t like it, you’re a traitor to America.”

Yuki: “I have more balls than either of you and I’m wearing a Hello Kitty bath towel right now.”

Misumi: “Of course I do weed. I’m autistic, not a loser.”

Excerpt from Kazu’s profile: Has 100k followers on Tiktok for shaking his ass and being a local nuisance. Cried when Vine shut down.

Kazu: “How many times do I need to dance to Doja Cat before I get my clout?”

Excerpt from Taichi’s profile: Considered opening a cat femboy OnlyFans back when he didn’t have enough money to pay for his growing Bakugan collection. Kissed a boy once for a dare and didn’t like it, but still vibes to Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl cuz that shit slaps.

Banri: *after listening to Troye Sivan for the first time* “I hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me.”

Taichi: “Everyone rise for the national anthem: Sk8ter Boi by Avril Lavigne.”

Azami: “I’m gonna go listen to Pierce the Veil and cry until Gerard Way comes back.”

Tsumugi: “At this rate, I’m going to have to find a man on Christian Mingle.”

Excerpt from Tasuku’s profile: Has repressed the idea that he’s in love with Tsumugi ever since they kissed in Christian summer camp when they were 12. Doesn’t remember that, due to the repression. But Tsumugi does.

Excerpt from Homare’s profile: He either dresses like it’s 1940 or like he’s the hero from the children’s show Lazytown. Will start crying if someone brings up the Library of Alexandria

Azuma: “Do I sleep with strangers? Yes. Do I take money from strangers? Yes. Am I a prostitute? No, because those are two separate occasions.”

Guy: “Can you inform me what a Juul is?”

“That’s a fucking Baja Blast in his hand.” “What the shit.” “Itaru Chigasaki orders fucking Baja Blast from Taco Bell. Unbelievable.” “Who doesn’t. Baja Blast fucks.” “I’m snapping this.” “You’ll put that camera down right now before I snap your neck.” “The public deserves to know.” “A man has a right to privacy, especially when it comes to his eating habits.”

And if you’re interested in this au, here’s my playlist for it, subject to change (feel free to suggest songs). Some songs are what I imagine the main characters would listen to and some just fit the vibe of the au:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIjsgyx8Ea22wwH4eO-QlywAiIVWZNcCx

#a3!#sorry for putting this in the main tag i just think i'm way funnier than i am #mod tsuzu writes #sorta??#vlog2/26 #fic

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waveridden · 4 years ago

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JAMIE have you ever considered a modern AU for blaseball because I would love to hear your thoughts on one

cola... have i told you lately that i love you

i know i’ve talked a little about various modern aus however tonight i am thinking about the marijuana family so i present to you:

HIGH ON LIFE: a marijuana family sitcom (name subject to change) (many thanks to @leonstamatis because some of this comes from conversations with them. mostly the jokes.)

here is the setup for this mini universe that lives in my head

dom (23) is the pseudo parent to randy (19) and lenny (14 but she’s almost 15 guys she’s basically an adult) and the three of them have lived in new york city their entire lives but dom gets a job offer that’s too good to pass up... in denver*. so the entire family has to pack up and move to denver.

( * i would do somewhere in utah, bc hellmouth, but i have to be honest. i’ve known several people from utah and all of them have been just like... horrible to be around. so this is a personal bias thing. colorado’s better anyways.)

so our family is in denver now! denver is a major city ofc but it’s still a MAJOR change from new york so that is our inciting sitcom incident. Uh Oh What Kind Of Wackiness Will Our Protagonists Get Up To!

dom works at a warehouse, he’s a shift lead or something like that, and it’s his first ever full time job (as opposed to stringing together three part-time jobs). it’s supposed to be a great job and he fucking hates it but the pay is better than anything in new york and it’s better for the family if he’s here so, well, he’s here

andrew solis is a local union rep who dom gets in touch with because his job sucks and they have a lot of clandestine meetings about union stuff that turn into non clandestine meetings because they enjoy spending time together that turn into a nice normal committed relationship

andrew gets along really well with randy. he’s a nice kid, if a little much sometimes. it’s fine.

andrew is terrified of lenny

you know that john mulaney bit about how a group of thirteen year olds can sense your insecurities? lenny is an entire group of thirteen year olds on her own. she is mean and powerful and andrew is afraid of that.

obviously a lot of dom’s friends (ie the mills) are back in new york but he calls them CONSTANTLY. like, once a day. they are very loud and they love him and they miss him and are so proud of him for helping his job unionize and shit like that. they can’t visit in person often but every now and again they do.

randy gets a job at a local theatre company, which is the last thing he expected to be doing but it’s kind of... awesome? everyone here is super chill and funny and loud and he gets along with them great.

this is the jazz hands. i know they’re in breckenridge. this is my au. they’re in denver today.

his immediate best friend is layna, who does bit parts in musicals and more importantly writes a lot of weird experimental short plays that the theatre produces. she’s a couple years older than him and is far too cool and pretty for him. she tells him this every day and he agrees. she works at a zoo/botanical garden and lenny is constantly hounding her for free zoo passes and stuff (layna agrees because she adores lenny and also it’s an excuse for randy to visit her)

is the botanical garden an excuse to have the flowers players here? yes. geography is less powerful than I Want Everyone In The Same Place

randy’s OTHER best friends are nagomi (community college student/works in the aquarium part of the zoo) and emmett (computer science student at a four-year). most of the time the three of them just chill out and get high and do dumb 19-year-old shit together they’re just three chill friends

do not leave nagomi and lenny in a room together. don’t do it.

lenny isn’t allowed in costco anymore. this is nagomi’s fault

one time randy leaves both emmett and nagomi to watch lenny because surely emmett will prevent any shenanigans. when he comes back nagomi and lenny have stolen three street signs. emmett allowed this to happen because lenny and nagomi specificall stole a sign that said “emmett drive” and they can’t drive and they think it’s funny. so emmett is ALSO not allowed to watch lenny/nagomi

(emmett’s fine watching lenny on their own, it’s just that nagomi “fuck around and find out” nava is too powerful to be overridden)

occasionally nagomi’s twin sibling margarito also hangs out with her randy and emmett. when margo/randy are together they’re A Force To Be Reckoned With. they’re chaotic and easy to manipulate so nagomi can convince them to do some wild shit together. it rules.

lenny loves margo. xe’s never allowed to know this. but she adores xem.

meanwhile lenny is experiencing the worst thing that a teenager can experience: moving during high school. she is doing her absolute goddamn best to fit into the social scene here but it’s so different from new york and she doesn’t know how to handle it

her first friend is kiki familia because i just think fourteen year old girls should stick together and because i think lenny is not above very loudly very rudely making sure that kiki gets all the accommodations she needs

andrew visits one day and lenny is practicing asl in front of a mirror and he’s like oh do you want a conversation partner? because he knows enough to hold a conversation. this is how lenny and andrew form an actual relationship

(andrew is also fluent in spanish and he helps her with spanish homework but she resents this because she thinks it’s nerdy. at least with asl it’s for a good reason.)

and then a couple months later another new student shows up and she is having the opposite experience from lenny because she lived in wyoming for a really long time which is... not a big city... and denver is comparatively HUGE and she’s just really overwhelmed? and lenny is like. oh i can show you around! for sure! definitely! new students have to stick together!

kiki, suspiciously: you’re not new anymore

lenny, very non-subtly: kiki shut the fuck up

this new student is chorby and she gets along great with both kiki (i’m not sure what the analog for magical girl is in a modern au but like it’s something and they bond over it) and lenny, who immediately has a massive big huge crush on her

kiki knows this. kiki mocks this relentlessly.

lenny makes it super super clear that kiki is never going to be the third wheel and kiki’s like yes i am and that’s fine

dom and randy both absolutely adore chorby. she’s so polite. lenny knows that chorby can curse like a sailor and has very specific opinions about screamo bands but when she meets lenny’s brothers she is a saint and lenny is like... swooning over it

and like lenny/chorby are teenagers which means sometimes they get into fights over dumb things and sometimes they get into fights over serious things but they always work it out in the end

there’s definitely a whole Thing because chorby goes to the sadie hawkins dance with juice collins and lenny is like. what the fuck.

is juice a teen? she is in the jamie cassidy extended blaseball teen universe. at least for today

anyways you might notice that there is not a lot of plot here. that’s because this is a sitcom and it is really just a very long setup for me to think about various ideas happening in (i.e. lenny trying to intimidate andrew for absolutely no reason, randy/nagomi/emmett shenanigans) it’s genuinely just like. a fun little world for me to play in when i need it.

the MOST IMPORTANT PART of this au is the family tho. cannot stress this enough, dom and randy and lenny all have family time constantly. they love each other so much. and that family expands to include andrew, and chorby, and emmett and nagomi and kiki and layna, but at its heart This Is A Sibling Story and i love them. the end

#waveridden.ask #queen-eevee #i need a blaseball tag #i was like 'this'll be an easy quick thing to answer' spoiler alert it... wasn't #under the cut i present to you THIRTEEN HUNDRED WORDS of self indulgent shenanigans #weed family sitcom tag

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enthusiasticmusicalquotes · 5 years ago

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QUESTION OF THE DAY #6: Send me your most unpopular theatre opinion. Something that might make someone want to fight you. Please don’t be offensive (racist, misogynistic, etc.), but other than that…go as hard as you want. Spill all the tea.

MY ANSWERS: 1) The Pretty Woman score fucking slaps idek, 2) Come From Away (or even Bandstand...) should’ve won the 2017 Best Musical Tony, 3) I prefer the West End Heathers cast album to Off Broadway, 4) Shows shouldn’t sweep the Tonys just because they’re Best Musical worthy...shows that aren’t too critically acclaimed but have really impressive elements should get recognition too.

SUMMARY: Out of 37 responses: 5 were about Dear Evan Hansen, 3 were about Hamilton specifically, 2 were about: Rent, ALW, Wicked, In The Heights, Be More Chill, etc. etc....if your favorite musical is one of these and you get easily offended i wouldn’t read these.

NOTE: I agree with some of these, I highly disagree with others. I do not endorse any of the things that were said, I am simply sharing them with you all. These were what was sent to me. I’m going to number them so if you want to complain about or agree with one you can send me an ask with the number you’re referring to.

1. howmuchchildrens said: unpopular opinion: i really liked the 2012 version of les mis. i liked russel crowe as javert.

2. Anonymous said: Unpopular opinion: Bootlegs harm to local theatre communities, though I do not believe anyone intends for that to be the case. While it's possible to bootleg responsibly (and I might even say it's beneficial to do so), those who may not know the intricacies of theatrical copyright law or who haven't heard the horror stories from a theatre that's been hit with legal action DUE to a bootleg may record or watch a show irresponsibly, which can greatly harm other routes of theatre accessibility.

3. Anonymous said: Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals are mostly terrible. He only got and stayed popular because a lot of other musical creators and taste makers died in the AIDS epidemic

4. Anonymous said: Almost all musicals using the songs of one artist are cash grabs with no plot or point.

5. Anonymous said: If your musical only has 1 woman OR the women only get sad/romantic songs you need to do something else with your life.

6. nerdshrimp said: Unpopular opinion: Next To Normal does a better job of portraying the effects of mental illness than Dear Evan Hansen does. N2N also doesn't romanticise mental illness & excuse shitty behavior like DEH tries to

7. Anonymous said: Hadestown is a lesser show on Broadway. I fell in love with the live album, and I was so excited for it to come to Broadway. I was so disappointed to see the changes they made. Orpheus and Eurydice's relationship is less interesting and more generic. The changed lyrics are often sloppy and not as good as the original. They fucking wrecked Epic III. Also, no hate to R/ee/ve, but he's just not a good enough singer to convince me that he could soften the heart of Hades. His high notes are awful.

8. Anonymous said: opinion: we are the tigers deserves a broadway run or at least a proshot

9. bimystique said: e/c is NOT A GOOD FUCKING SHIP. the ENTIRE PLOT OF PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is christine trying to escape erik's abuse. WHAT FUCKING PART OF THAT IS ROMANTIC TO YOU PEOPLE.

10. Anonymous said: unpopular theatre opinion(s): Dear Evan Hansen is Very Bad for its handling of mental illness, Hamilton is overrated and praised too much, and high school/college musical theatre programs can be just as good as Broadway. (also, musical movies would be better if they hired broadway actors, but that's not an unpopular opinion)

11. Anonymous said: I don’t like Lin Manuel Miranda and Hamilton is overrated

12. Anonymous said: I don’t like dear Evan Hansen..... at all. I think it’s kind of boring and really overhyped.

13. Anonymous said: unpopular opinion: in the heights is far better than Hamilton. both are good but ith hits different yknow

14. Anonymous said: The bring it on and legally blonde musicals are BAD! The movies are 100 times better

15. Anonymous said: unpopular opinion? wicked is the epitome of white feminism. it's preached as super great for representation but we literally got the first black glinda in 2019?!?!?!? and before that woc could only play elphaba who's villainized and deemed evil by the whole city

16. Anonymous said: Not so much an opinion as a reaction, but of all Lin's works (ITH, Bring it On, 21 Chump Street, Hamilton), 21 Chump Street gets the biggest emotional reaction of all the cast recordings. The second Justin is like "I don't want your money" (And then later on with the "...what the heck did you.... dooooo", I am a complete goner. Worse than Abuela Claudia and Philip Hamilton's deaths combined

17. Anonymous said: Whenever Je.ssie Mu.eller hits certain notes, she sounds like Tommy Pickles from Rugrats.

18. Anonymous said: aotd6: not everyone knows what im talking about, but the cats 2016 broadway revival choreography was WAYYYY better than the original. the original had a lot of creepy uncomfortable moments and the new one looks way cleaner and up to date

19. Anonymous said: raoul is better than the phantom in every conceivable way

20. Anonymous said: I hate Anastasia so much. it's such a boring show and the music is uninteresting. I wanted to like it so bad but GOD is it boring.

21. Anonymous said: In the Heights.... Overrated.

22. Anonymous said: I do not know if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but here is my opinion: Musicals that are entirely or nearly entirely songs (Hamilton, Hadestown, In The Heights, etc) are the most valid bc I can understand the plot without using wikipedia (I'm looking at you, Jagged Little Pill, I love you but what is your plot????)

23. Anonymous said: I'd rather have a bad film adaptation than no film adaptation

24. Anonymous said: Rent sucks and while it was a stepping stone for more ""controversial"" topics to appear on Broadway it's actually biphobic and features several generally terrible people doing generally terrible things and doesn't actually address the real crisis at all; it's all performative wokeness. The only real good it did was cast a bunch of "nobodies" for the time and make theater somewhat more accessible.

25. stardust-and-seas said: Dear Evan Hansen doesn't properly address mental health despite being about mental health and resolves nobodies character arcs satisfactorily. It's another show that reaches its hands around the throats of marginalized teenagers saying "look I'm relatable!!" The songs taken out of context are significantly more powerful than when placed in the context of the show, which gives us exactly zero evidence of Evan's work to improve and also never resolves Evan's u healthy goals in the first place.

26. stardust-and-seas said: Be More Chill is a raging dumpster fire and the only decent song from it, Michael in the Bathroom, reads as a whiny rich white boy whose potential social anxiety and depression is left ambiguous, which is exactly what it is. When taken out of context it better exemplifies the othering that happens to marginalized groups but lets be real here: bullying/cliques don't happen to "just anyone"; it's the marginalized groups that are othered and abandoned for not being "normal"

27. stardust-and-seas said: There's a difference between shows that don't take themselves seriously because they're meant to be fun and light and shows that pretend not to take themselves too seriously but want to be taken seriously by the audience and the latter always ends up mediocre at best

28. redueka said: i think that dear evan hansen handles every issue it presents badly. i also think that beetlejuice was badly directed

29. Anonymous said: Well I don’t EVER condone cheating, I’m team Jamie in the last five years. He tried so hard to make their relationship and life good, and Cathy gave him nothing in return

30. youcanlolyoucansayohwell said: The answer of the day- I don't get the BMC hype. I'm out of the age bracket it's meant for that might it be. I enjoy it but I don't think it's the greatest thing in the world like some theatre fans do.

31. Anonymous said: i like the rent 2005 recording better than the obcr

32. Anonymous said: unpopular opinion ? : the music of wicked just like isn’t that good. like it’s good but it’s not like, Good, yknow. it’s pretty standard it doesn’t stand out to me. kinda boring

33. Anonymous said: mari.ah r.ose fa.ith is not a good regina george. everything she says sounds monotonous and while i understand she's trying to play off the ""whatever"" teenager (she does this a lot with her teenage characters), 90% of the time she sounds and looks like she doesn't want to be there; her voice is great but most songs feel unnatural and forced and she changes them too much. she's just not selling regina to me as a believable character (this is all from a technical point of view)

34. Anonymous said: Unpopular Opinion: as much as i like musicals based on movies (like waitress), i think not every movie needs to be a musical.

35. Anonymous said: Unpopular opinion (?) the emojiland musical Kinda Slaps

36. Anonymous said: as one of my high school tech theatre teachers once said: "Andrew Lloyd Webber is overrated"

37. Anonymous said: sorry to whoever likes it but Seussical is an absolutely nonsense crackpot plot disguised with okay-to-good music, like I don't even know where to start. I was in the show and didn't even know there was an entire secondary plot line featuring sending children to war until we were halfway through rehearsals

#qotd #not a quote #in some places i put dots in the name so it didn't show up in the tag by accident

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ti-bae-rius · 5 years ago

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Random ramble to skip if you aren’t interested

My ex friend (the one from the abusive friends post) is in the very midst of the theatre community at not just my uni but both the ones in my city. This year, the musical is Legally Blonde. That show is �� and all I want is to audition but...I can’t. Because of her. It’s in the best interest of my recovery and mental health not to audition, but I feel like I’m missing out on what could be something amazing.

I know I need to be sensible and do what’s right for my recovery and everything but it sucks. Plus, a lot of the people I’d be auditioning for and with would be people she’d already turned against me. Fuck.

Rambly post. I really should get a journal.

#lauryn rambles #not tsc #personal

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exoplvnet · 6 years ago

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about me tag

Rules:

Tag the person who tagged you.

Answer the questions.

Tag 10 people.

I was tagged by @theprinceofdaegu, thank you, bby !

How tall are you?

I'm like,,a bit over 5′2

What colour and style is your hair?

my hair is brown and low-key pretty wavy, it’s to a bit past my shoulders now!

What colour are your eyes?

light blue!

Do you wear glasses?

nope ~

Do you wear braces?

no! I used to, though

What’s your fashion sense?

...it varies? I wear a lot of floral prints, oversized sweaters. I kinda always wear either adidas, converse, or doc martens,,,leggings are my go to, high waisted jeans. I always tuck in my t-shirts, I like wearing flannels, denim jackets, things like that? hell if I know. I love makeup, though ! I do a lot of peachy toned looks.

Full name?

liza p. f., I don’t wanna give out my full name ^^

When were you born?

08.20.00

Where are you from and where do you live now?

I’m from new york !! a bit outside the city, maybe 30 min from the city. rn I go to boarding school in the middle of nowhere, connecticut, and I'll be going to college in the heart of boston!

What school do you go to?

again, don’t really feel super comfy telling? but I go to a highly competitive and fairly well known school in ct, and my college is well known for being a very theatre, film, and communications based school...it’s small and super liberal and inclusive ! fuckin’ love my college, wow...I'm majoring in marketing communications.

What kind of student are you?

I procrastinate but I'm a very strong student and am at the top of my class.

Do you like school?

eh? I like my school’s academics, but socially,,,girls here can be complete bitches.

Favourite subject?

spanish or my art history courses

Favourite TV show?

game of thrones, probably? or maybe shameless

Favourite movie?

the favourite or ladybird

Favourite books?

anything by cassandra clare, we are the ants by shaun david hutchinson (highly recommend), the foxhole court

Favourite pastime?

listening to music, digital art, creative writing, running my koc blog,,,crying over hot idols, the usual

Do you have any regrets?

lmao so fucking many

Dream job?

working as the creative director for international ad campaigns, or something like that? I'd love to work for an entertainment agency, honestly -- part of the 18 year old in me is like ‘haha wow imagine working for jyp doing advertising or smth’ but my korean would need to improve a lot, huh? I'm majoring in marketing communications with a focus in advertising for entertainment, and double minoring in digital media & culture and creative writing, so we’ll see where that takes me, yeah? but I'm definitely creative minded and have a super good visual sense!

Would you ever like to be married?

absolutely!!

Would you like to have kids?

...I would love to have kids, but ngl, the concept of actually physically having kids absolutely terrifies me. I'm sure I'll think differently when I’m older? maybe. if not, adoption !

How many?

two, ideally?

Do you like shopping?

yes, but it also stresses me out when I'm broke ahaha

What countries have you visited?

:/ only the usa and canada, rip ,, ive been all over the states, though

Scariest nightmare you ever had?

mmm I don't really ever remember them, but probably anything to do with feeling unheard/helpless,,,also trauma flashback nightmares suck.

Any enemies?

im a petty bitch but I don't really have enemies

Any significant other?

ha, no, not now. couple of friends with benefits but nothing else

Do you believe in miracles?

not religious miracles, but yeah ?

How are you?

great ! just bought a signed nuest album uwu,, im tired though oof

tagging: @j-ngin88, @httpminyoongigenius, @tearsof-regret, @kim-mins3ok, @jongdaeandaflower !

#personal #tagged

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ladysophiebeckett · 6 years ago

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why did you call osha on a theatre once? (if u dont mind telling the story)

@boredzoi

okay so i dont do theater anymore (tho nostalgia says i miss it). this, ‘company’ was looking for a stage manager last minute and an instructor (who is also a chair of this ‘company’ recommended me and got me in touch the director, we’ll call her ‘wendy’.

wendy said she had an sm ready to go but bc of personal reasons the sm had to drop the job. this particular show was supposed to open in 3 weeks. so i would be coming mid rehearsals. i was told i would be getting paid $300, under the table. rehearsals were 3 days a week and then tech week(end) and i was told that the show was one weekend only. 3 days. fri, sat, sun.

i really wanted to do theater again and this was considered community theater but the ‘company’ was also like an afterschool theater educational thing. they offered voice lessons and whatnot. the cast consisted of a lot of either senior’s in high school or first year college students. and community theater actors that were basically doing gigs and this was particular show as a gig to them. (fancy way of saying a couple of these actor were Older).

my version of community theater was basically educational theater where i was taught, what i believe is, the right way of doing things. i worked with organized people.

when i got to this theater—if you work in community theater, anything can be theater so long as u got some chairs and like, a z-rack and one maybe one flat–this was place i get to is a death trap. it’s an old warehouse by the train tracks and the place next door teaches boxing so you’d hear a lot of bags being hit. the bathroom was up a flight of stairs to an unfinished second floor. when i say unfinished i mean like–it’s just wood and then debris. the bathroom faces the freeway and it was a toilet (clean tho) and sink was barely a sink. the floor–completely unfinished\gutted. it looked like when you’re renovating an old house and you have to gut it to its bare bones.

there’s cables everywhere. a hazard. anybody could have tripped at any time. no dressing rooms. one little office for the girls to share. the guys changed anywhere. backstage was also where the props where. so anywhere and everywhere. no designated sitting area. before u hit the flight of stairs to the bathroom, its another unfinished section—fabric everywhere, z-racks with costumes with no actual logical order. everything is a fire hazard. no bathroom for handicapped ppl, unless they could climb that flight of stairs.

did i mention the only way to get to the bathroom was by going through the ‘backstage’?? so youd have audience members using the restroom during the show or at intermission there’d be a line by the stairs as actors are also at intermission or changing or getting ready for their scene.

and this is just the one theater–i was not told that if the show did well they were gonna transfer it for one night only to another city at an actual real theater and that i was going to have to help load the show. i was not told this was going to be some mature bus and truck show. so i had to help load the platforms on to a uhaul on some saturday morning. and my sister drive me the 20 min to another time even tho to get the town A was already 40 min. and unload again once we got to the actual not hazardous theater.

i was not told i would have to do any of this. i was told 3 weeks and one weekend of shows. and im not even getting into how disorganized the actual rehearsal process was and how wendy is would give me an order and not like how i did it, so i was constantly being undermined despite the fact that i had good stage managing experience and had never had a problem with directors when working under educational theater.

but i did as i was told bc i had already committed to this gig and i couldnt make my prior instructor who recommended me for this, look bad. BUT bc i didnt know about all loading and unloading, ect. once the show was over at this actual theater, we had to load again. which i did. but i did go back with the ‘crew’ to unload bc my sister was my ride and she had other things to do, so i helped load up and then excused myself bc of personal reasons.

wendy didn’t like that but also didn’t stop me from leaving. wendy went on fb (there was a fb group. thats another story) and took pics of the unloading and said something like ‘thanks to those who stayed’ insinuating that i should have stayed.

later that week i wrote to wendy and said ‘hey when am i gonna get paid?’ and then she said she would not be paying the promised amount bc i was not ‘seasoned’ enough–that i did not participate in the last unloading, that i was a beginner and that other ppl–my asm who was an idiot and had no prior theater experience and most unhelpful–had to do things to and that the money should be split. she was offering to pay me 215 or whatever. Bc i put myself in this very uncomfortable position of working with someone that was also friends with my instructor, i felt defenseless. My sister tired to write in for me and calculated a different number to negotiate, she sent that in for me and Wendy didn’t like that ect. Listed other ways that I sucked and I didn’t respond, bc of said uncomfortable situation. she messaged days later asking if i received a check, i did not. she never ever sent me anything.

bc i was upset and feeling defenseless about the situation and letting down said instructor and wendy probably most likely talking shit to my ex instructor about me, my sister and i called OSHA about the train track warehouse and all its safety violations. I then had my sister personally message the company that held the rights to the musical bc i firmly believe that Wendy did not buy the rights do that particular show based on she promoted it and bc i looked online and wendy’s ‘company’ was not listed under the companies that were producing this show at that particular time.

edit: i dont know if they faced any consequences. unfortunately.

yes, this experience is what ended my relationship with community theater and why i stopped looking for gigs.

#boredzoi #theater #long post

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lovebunnie · 6 years ago

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Do all the asks coward

1. what does your wallet look like?

-i got it as a present from my uncle for christmas and its really expensive but also so ugly im sorry uncle tom. its like that ‘southern fashion’ bullshit that white MAGA moms wear. but it was better than my old wallet, which looks like this and i got when i was 12:

2. favorite color?

- baby pinnk

3. do you own a pride flag, or more than one?

-heres the thing: my parents basically know im not straight but i havent told them. my brother has thought i was a lesbian since freshman year, i have a small pride pin on my backpack, ive never been on a date, its complicated. but no, i dont have one. maybe one day, hopefully.

4. describe your favorite outfit

-black pants, platform doc martens, hoodie under a jean jacket, one clip on earring, and holding my crushes hand :]

5. when was the last time a girl made your heart flutter, and what’d she do?

-okay so theres this girl in my theatre class who is really cute, and she put her head on my shoulder and shes pagan so she drew a little sigil on my arm that means “safe and homely” so like :)))))))))))))

6. do you use nail polish?

-i do, i mostly do black tho

7. do you keep organized?

-absolutely. i have things online filed accordingly, i pick out my outfits the day before, my binders are neat, i learned how to army fold my shirts, i keep my shit CLEAN

8. ever take naps?

-only accidentally. ill be laying in bed watching youtube and next thing you know my autoplay has me watching a markiplier video even tho i dont like him and its 4 hours later

9. who was your first crush?

-idk if this is a real person or not so ill do both. my first fake person crush was either troy from high school musical or frankie stein from monster high. and my first real crush was on a boy named dominic in elementary school. i told him i liked him at the end of 5th grade because i thought i was switching schools but then i didnt and we never spoke again.

10. what are your crush tendencies? fall hard or often?

-both both both. i am the worst with crushes. i have crushes all the time because im romantic and a fucking fool. i have 3 crushes off the top of my head rn and i like them all for different reasons. thats not to say that i want to date them, but its that i like them a lot and i kinda wanna kiss their cheek or hold their hand idk

11. describe your ideal day

-play overwatch with my best friend (u gonble >:) ) then hang out with my cat, go get a smoothie, buy some cool shoes or something, take a shower and be asleep by 9 :,)

12. describe your ideal date

-i have stated that build a bear is an amazing first date and im NOT BACKING DOWN. ITS CUTE AS FUCK AND ILL ACCEPT NOTHING LESS!!

13. whats your favorite food?

-either sushi or strawberries :3c

14. who do you feel most comfortable around?

-my theatre class, people from camp, and gobble

15. what is your favorite compliment to receive?

-i dont have a favorite, any and all are going to make my face go red so i have to cover it and maybe make me cry

16. did you/do you like highschool?

-the first 3 years fucking sucked but senior year has been amazing so far. mostly because i just kinda stopped giving a fuck but its amazing

17. favorite animal?

-i think its cats now. i really like cats

18. do you like your name?

-eh, its okay. its pretty but also it seems like there are 60 million fucking people named grace and its so annoying. i wish it was something more unique idk

19. what kind of weather is your favorite?

-a light rain. no swinging trees or thunder, just lots of rain. its nice to stay inside and feel secure

20. do you believe in horoscopes?

-absolutely not. but theyre fun if you like them

21. tell us about your music taste

-its horrific. to sum it up, my two favorite musicians are the gorillaz and frank sinatra. take from that what you will

22. have you had your first kiss? if so, what was it like?

-i havent had my first kiss yet. gonna be honest, i felt like i was going to, a few times at camp and recently when classes ended. but yeah, nothing yet

23. did you have a favorite stuffed animal as a kid?

-i went thro cycles of favorites. but one ive had for years is a plush shadow the hedgehog from universal studios i got when i was 6. i used to carry him around, even to a pool once

24. what time do you usually wake up and go to bed?

-if you know me, you know i go to bed ridiculously early. i usually get tried at around 6pm and fall asleep between 7:45 and 8:30. and i always wake up before 6 am. i havent slept past 6 am continuously since the end of junior year. please help me

25. what dream trip would you take with your wife?

-maybe to go explore new york, just the two of us that sounds like fun :]

26. do you have any pets?

-i have 2 dogs and a cat. the family owns the dogs but that cat is mine

27. what pair of underwear is your favorite?

-uhhhhhhhhhhh i have some with rainbows that are cool? i dont have favorites, none of them are cute anyway

28. what makes you smile?

-funny jokes make me smile real hard, and if you compliment me at the right time, i kind of pull my legs up and hide my face? its cute and charming i promise

29. what makes you feel heavy?

-in both the physical and metaphorical sense, eating bread

30. what makes you feel better?

-watching bo burnham always makes me feel better, hes my go to whenever im really depressed

31. how do you show your love?

-i show my love in everything i do. everything i do is for love, i love love so much its sickening

32. when is it time to get a haircut?

-whenever u want to lol?

33. where would you live if you could live anywhere?

-maybe san francisco, its beautiful and i love the city

34. do your friends and family take good care of you?

-as much as i allow them to. sometimes i go days without communicating and i know thats annoying but my friends put up with it (they shouldnt have to, i know) and my family is okay. its cliche to say, but they honestly dont understand what im going thro alot of the times, esp with my anxiety and shit

35. have you always used the labels you use now?

-back in the beginning of highschool, i used they/them pronouns and identified as asexual/aromantic. eventually, it didnt feel right, so i know identify as cis and bisexual and that feels right to me

36. what makes you laugh?

-my friends, when people shit talk gobble and i in overwatch even tho???? we didnt know him?????? and the mcelroys always get me

37. who is your favorite fictional character?

-too many options, see list here

38. who do yo admire?

-my father when hes not threatening to throw my phone into a fucking lake and my friends for putting up with me

39. describe yourself in three words

-i am baby

40. how long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

-usually about 45 min, more or less as each day goes

41. what do you wish you could tell your younger self?

-listen: STOP GIVING A FUCK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE. YOU WILL NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN, BE YOURSELF. STOP HIDING AND BEING SCARED OF YOURSELF, BE GENUINE!!!!

42. what would you do if you win the lottery?

-get my parents settled, see about other family members, and then distribute the money to charities accordingly, starting with flint and getting them water

43. would you call yourself a romantic?

-yes

44. what is your gayest childhood memory?

-my mom had cosmos magazines

45. do you have tattoos or want any?

-i dont have any tattoos but ive been obsessed with them since the 6th grade. id love to get tattoos, i just dont know what or where and also im afraid of pain

46. whats your worst habit?

-either biting my thumbs, starving myself, or ghosting my friends. prob ghosting my friends

47. what are you proud of?

-i guess coming out of my shell finally? idk, i actually have friends now and it feels amazing tbh. im in 5 group chats now. i havent been in a group chat since 6th grade. :))))))

48. did you know that youre actually a gift to the world, for real?

-hi i love you?

49. whats your favorite memory?

-there are so so many. but what comes to mind first is our dance night at camp where we all stood outside and i finally gave ian my tumblr and we all ran inside to dance to mr. brightside then ran outside again and we requested nightcore and rivers was fucking dancing their hearts out and we all sang along and im going to crying just typing this out

50. do you have a sweet tooth?

-i guess so. too much makes me feel like shit but i do really enjoy smarties

51. what do you like most about yourself?

-this is dumb, but my sense of style. since i got a job ive been wearing shit i actually like and its amazing. ill admit i have cool clothes

52. what makes you fall for a girl?

-besides acknowledging me, probably getting to know me and not like, putting me on a pedestal. idk its weird, ive met a lot of people this year who like to place me so high it feels like i cant make a mistake around them without disappointing them. idk, i want someone to call me out on my bullshit instead of assuring me im okay. i want to know what i do wrong so i can fix it

53. make a recommendation

-for what? uhh okay for music, listen to ‘clay pigeons’ by michael cera (yes i know michael cera) and for television, watch bojack horseman and for movies, watch the docuseries called ‘7 days out’ on netflix

54. have you ever had your heart broken?

-yeah, when i broke up with maddy because we werent ready to date. i cared and continue to care about her and i didnt want to hurt her but i knew its what we both needed. its what i needed, atleast. and i cant be a good girlfriend if i feel like im doing badly. but also ive had friends break my heart and family break my heart. but im okay now, this heart is ready to be broken again

55. when do you feel most yourself?

-def when i was at camp, that place is magical in the way it allows you to be yourself. but also when i talk to gobble because hes my best friend and when im at college, we can talk more and its gonna be dope as shit

56. name a gorgeous celeb

-jake gyllenhaal jake gyllenhaal jake gyllenhaal

57. what are some of your favorite songs this week?

-fake happy by paramore, im not okay (i promise) by my chemical romance, tomorrow comes today by gorillaz

58. tell us 2 or your biggest hopes and fears

-biggest hopes: i publish a book someday & i get a job doing something i love

-biggest fears: i end up homeless and broke & something horrific happens in college

59. what flavor chapstick/lipbalm is the best?

-raspberry i guess

60. are you okay?

-i answered a lot more honestly then i shouldve for some of these and i start new classes tomorrow so im feeling really anxious so im doing alright i guess.

gobble you test me but i do love you

#g0bbleb0ners #that took 90 minutes #also i got kinda real here.... :////////#whatever no one reads these things anyway

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artmutt · 6 years ago

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LA Philharmonic Centennial

My chief reason for a frenzied 4-day visit to L.A. this fall was to hear some of the music being performed as part of the 100th anniversary of the L.A. Philharmonic. I became a fan of this orchestra during the tenure of Esa-Pekka Salonen, when concerts were still happening in Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I waited anxiously for the completion of Disney Hall, the Frank Gehry building that now houses the orchestra. And Gustavo Dudamel was giving a series of programs with the Chicago Symphony the week they announced that he would become the next Music Director of the Phil. Call me a fan.

Of course, it’s a little intimidating to try to write about the programs I heard, when Alex Ross has already done so, eloquently, in The New Yorker (November 26, 2018 issue). I’m sorry to have missed the premiere of Andrew Norman’s new work, and I wish I’d been able to hear the new Steve Reich premiere. Oh well...I was able to attend Susanna Mälkki’s performances of Sibelius’s music for The Tempest, and the remarkable realization of John Cage’s Europeras I & II.

Outside Disney Hall, on our way to Mälkki’s concert, we caught a performance of George Brecht’s Drip Music, happening outside the hall. I’m sorry I didn’t get the name of the handsome, nerdy guy who gave what I considered a rather radical version of Brecht’s piece. I mean, some of the crucial components were there (music was poured from a smaller container to a larger one), but the drips and pouring had been amplified, looped, and audio-processed into something much more like “music” in a conventional sense than most of the performances of this work than I have previously experienced (or participated in). This was part of the orchestra’s “Fluxus Festival,” a daring component to this centennial celebration, given that so much Fluxus “music” is, in fact, a critique and deconstruction of the conventions of classical musical performances.

Inside the hall, things were deconstructed, too. For this was not just a performance of Sibelius’s music for The Tempest. This was a full-fledged performance of Shakespeare’s play, with Sibelius music placed in the appropriate spots in the action. The stage of Disney Hall had been transformed with a set, with the orchestra (and chorus) placed behind these objects. A fair number of Hollywood actors were in the audience: we nearly bumped into Mariette Hartley on our way to our seats.

All this seemed fairly brilliant and daring, and The Tempest is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Alas, Disney Concert Hall was not really designed to be especially conducive to the spoken word. Indeed, and large resonant space like this is great for music, adding warmth and natural reverb to instrumental parts, but it swallowed up words the way my cats swallow up tuna. We were in the third row, close enough to practically smell the actors, and even with microphones, vast stretches of Shakespeare’s beautiful words got sucked into the acoustic void and lost. (I’m blaming the acoustics; American actors enunciating Shakespeare were also to blame.)

Sibelius’s music, under the baton of Susanna Mälkki, on the other hand, was dark and profound or delicate and ethereal, as needed by the text. I thought that the music was particularly lovely, and only wish that I could have heard it in the proper context of Shakespeare’s often profound words. Alas, this brave new world did not have a lot of comprehensible speech in it.

Comprehensibility was not the issue the next evening, when John Cage’s Europeras I & II were performed. In response to a commission for an opera, Cage responded by subjecting the components (both vocal and instrumental) of approximately 113 operas to chance operations. The stage was turned into a grid, and subjected to further chance processes in terms of lighting, stage movement, and set components. Musicians watched large clocks, set up behind the audience, to time their contributions to the piece. The result - where singers sometimes performed arias in near darkness, while a space on the other side of the stage was brightly lit with nothing happening, only to have a flat descend in front of the singer mid-aria, with an orchestra playing things completely unrelated to what was being sung - was something you either got into, or took strong opposition to, depending on your point of view. (Audience members began fleeing after about 15 minutes of Europera I, and a fair number did not return after intermission for Europera II.)

I. on the other hand, who knew what to expect and was prepared for an evening of non-sequiturs and discontinuity, was both periodically bored and periodically delighted, much as when I see a conventional opera performance. The production was directed by Yuval Sharon, a much-admired figure in L.A.’s experimental theatre community, who clearly understood and respected Cage’s aesthetic, and supported it, rather than fighting with it. The whole production felt surprisingly affectionate.

This performance did not take place in Disney Hall, but at Sony Pictures Studios, which used to be the old MGM lot out in Culver City. This is where The Wizard of Oz was shot, along with a bunch of the MGM musicals. Sharon was given free access to the Studio’s archive of backdrops, costumes, etc., which worked brilliantly in Los Angeles. Flats that descended while we listened to an aria from Mozart were straight out of some Gene Kelly or Judy Garland movie, while the costumes suggested other famous films. All jumbled together, and competing with each other, much the way they are in our collective, unreliable memories. In calling his work Europeras, Cage noted that he wanted to give back to Europe a work made up of the heritage of European operas. But in Los Angeles, the pun struck home more: these were Your Operas too: and by extension, the musical theater tradition in the U.S., which was enabled by the movies, could embrace its origins in European operas. of the 19th century.

Europera I - at 90 minutes - felt a touch too long for the material. But Europera II, at 45 minutes, was perfect, filled with humor and occasionally pathos, and endless surprise. We laughed, we cried, it became a part of us. Oh, and we loved the work of the six dancers, who helped further confuse and clarify the chaotic mise-en-scene of this delightfully randomized work.

#john cage #LA Philharmonic Centennial #Europeras I & II #yuval sharon

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doomedandstoned · 6 years ago

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To Helltown & Back: Electric Citizen’s Laura Dolan Speaks

~By Jamie LaRose~

Photographs by Sally Townsend

My recent visit with Laura Dolan, the commanding winger of Cincinnati’s Electric Citizen, was both enlightening and welcomed. She is a vegan, a lover of classic cars, and a well-experienced thrift store fashionista. I remember meeting Laura in 2014, when Satyress had the pleasure of playing a show with Electric Citizen and Fu Manchu at Dante’s in Portland, Oregon. I found the band to be a delightful, friendly, and talented bunch. Electric Citizen is currently on tour with Monster Magnet in support of the new album, 'Helltown' (2018 - RidingEasy Records). Their third album is reminiscent of their first, 'Sateen' (2014), with its raw, powerful sound. This is a great Cincinnati Northside-true album, written, recorded, engineered, and inspired by “Hell Town” itself. Get your dose of heavy psychedelic healing at one of the tour dates listed below and get your copy of Helltown while you're at it!

I don’t know if you remember, it’s been a while, but we’ve played a show together. It was the Fu Manchu show in Portland, Oregon in May of 2014.

I thought so! Yes, I remember your band. You were wonderful.

You, too! I remember meeting you and talking with you about essential oils.

I remembered it was Pentagram or Fu Manchu because we played the same venue, it was at Dante’s.

All of us at Doomed & Stoned are excited to get the chance to talk to you at this time of your new release 'Helltown.' I was interested in the meaning behind the name of the album and the band. I read that “Hell Town” is one of the names by which the neighborhood you live in is known. I would like to know a little bit about the relationship between that and the writing process for the band on this album.

Absolutely. I chose that name for several different reasons. I mean the most obvious is the translation of where the album was written and practiced, recorded. It just kind of made sense to pay homage to that. I also like that it can also take on these multiple meanings, which is something I really try to do with songwriting, as well. It can be a futuristic thing, or it could play into current times.

Helltown by Electric Citizen

As far as what our neighborhood means to us is this is where everything happens. The studio where we record is a stone’s throw away from our house, which is also where we practice and write all the music. It’s just this really great little neighborhood which is unique in Cincinnati where there’s a lot of different ethnic groups, and there’s a lot of artists, the LGBTQ community is strong here. All of these different types of people that we are surrounded by are hugely inspiring to me. I just have this very special place in my heart for this neighborhood, and the guys share the same sentiment. "Hell Town" is a nickname that was more commonly used in the 1800s when it was an entertainment district for the factory workers because we are in a very industrial area. So this is where they would go and hang out after they got off work from the factories and it was just known as "Hell Town." There were so many different things about it that are so meaningful that it just makes it the perfect title for this album.

Where do you find or draw inspiration in the process for the band or when writing any music in general?

I like to start by writing a track and feeling out where it’s going from the melody standpoint, and then trying to craft something meaningful into that. The melody is such a hugely important part of the song. There’s so much to draw inspiration from like today’s political state, relationships between people, our current times. I feel fascinated by the idea that we are living in this huge turning point, the dawn of the era of technology and how that’s affecting us as a human race. That’s something I love exploring. Every day is like an episode of Black Mirror. What’s going to happen to us? There are so many things happening right now that we’ve never experienced as the human race.

I can hear that questioning nature of inspiration in the lyrics and music. What type of challenges might you face while working together and making and recording music together?

Well, we’re pretty lucky in that we get along. That’s something I don’t take for granted because we’ve had a few different change-ups in the lineup, and we’re now kind of back to where we were at the beginning of the band. We had a great time with our other bass player, but the dynamic can be very different. Having the energy of the original band, and the relationships we all have with each other is a huge help as far as writing and making the music, as well as enjoying the process the whole way. I think we make it harder on ourselves by choosing to record analog; that’s definitely a much more tedious task than recording digitally. We have a pretty standardized process where Ross writes the basics of the song, and then we all start layering on top of that using a huge amount of editing. I think it’s a really important quality to have to be able to stand back and say, “You know what, I’ve created something and it sucks,” and I’m going to scrap it and try again. I think that self-reflection is really important.

It is the universal nature of some good work to be thorough. Speaking of the process of the mixing and the engineering, can you explain a bit about that process as used in the new album?

Unlike the process of the second album which may have been a bit more polished than we would mean, we knew on the third album that we wanted to try to capture what we had in the first album.

It sounds like everything about 'Helltown' was done in “Hell Town.” From the new tracks, I can see its relationship to the first album in its grittiness and more natural nature. What are the details of the release?

The album official release date is September 28th. It’s being released worldwide through Riding Easy Records. There is distribution all of the world, you can get it at Riding Easy Records in the states and of course we are also starting a tour with Monster Magnet on the same day so you can come get it from us at the merch booth.

What are some of your most successful accomplishments so far as a group?

Beyond what we’ve created, which is really the whole reason we’ve started doing this, I think that some of the bands we’ve gotten to tour with have been a huge accomplishment. There’s been Arthur Brown, a long-time hero he is the godfather of shock rock. He’s inspired so many different artists. We’ve opened for King Diamond, Joan Jett, Fu Manchu and this tour with Monster Magnet is a big deal for us. That’s a band that’s really made a name for themselves. Getting to tour Europe, I personally had never been over there before touring as a band. It’s great to go into a project like this having no expectations, and then having all these things happening. Every single one of them has kind of been mind-blowing for us. That’s one of the things I’ve learned growing older, have no expectations and life will exceed them all.

How have you grown as a singer and artist over the years?

When I was first starting out, singing in bands, I had such a fear for doing what I’m doing. As soon as I was able to release that and have the fearlessness of, “If I fail, I fail. If I don’t, I don’t.”, I would encourage anyone that’s going into any form of art; remember to have that fearlessness. It’s so freeing. I feel like that’s such an important message, especially to young girls that are interested in doing this and following in our footsteps, singing in a band or whatever it is. It’s just, "You have nothing to fear except fear itself!"

What is your message to the universe?

Oh wow, that’s a good one. Hmm, that is such an important question. I think really for me it comes down to… just be kind to each other. Everybody in this world is fighting their own fight, and I think it’s so important to remember to give room for people to behave like they do because you just don’t know what’s going on with their life. I think that ultimately what this world needs more than anything right now is kindness. I guess it would be just as simple as that. Be kind to each other. Maybe to ask everyone to love each other is too much, but if you can’t find that in your heart, just be kind.

Electric Citizen & Monster Magnet on Tour

10/02 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge 10/03 - Minneapolis, MN @ Cabooze 10/05 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater 10/06 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 10/08 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater 10/09 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom 10/10 - Seattle, WA @ El Corazon 10/12 - San Francisco, CA @ Thee Parkside 10/15 - Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory 10/16 - San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick 10/17 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge 10/19 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger 10/20 - Dallas, TX @ Canton Hall 10/21 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall 10/23 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade 10/24 - Nashville, TN @ Basement East 10/26 - Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage 10/27 - New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre 10/28 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair

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#D&S Interviews #Electric Citizen #Cincinnati #Ohio #Hard Rock #Stoner Rock #Doom #Metal #RidingEasy Records #Jamie LaRose #Doomed & Stoned

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whatsupsac · 6 years ago

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What’s Up With Your Weekend, 10/12 - 10/14/18

Friday

Sacramento’s First Indigenous People’s Day: A reclaiming of an antiquated holiday (Columbus Day), Sacramento's 1st Annual Indigenous People's Day seeks to reimagine Columbus Day by changing a celebration of colonialism into an opportunity to reveal historical truths about the genocide and oppression of indigenous peoples in the Americas, to organize against current injustices, and to celebrate indigenous resistance. Speakers from the Navajo Nation, Mayan Hip Hop, Mexica Danzantes, Miwok speakers, blessings to honor the missing and murdered Indigenous women and more will all be a part of the celebration at Southside Park. All ages. 5PM Free.

BENT - Freelancers Anonymous: Rushing to get to her pointless job every morning sucks, and Billie’s not putting up with it anymore. After telling everyone to f*ck off, she, unfortunately, has to break the news to her fiancée. When she meets a ragtag group of women who are also looking for employment, Billie is struck with the idea of cultivating their skills to create an app, by designing a prototype for an investor launch party. Billie takes the risk of her life, lying to her fiancée in order to buy time until her plan for Freelancers Anonymous can come to fruition. When the wedding and the launch party are booked for the same day, it all comes to a head. Part of BENT film festival at The Crest Theatre. 7PM $15.

The Return of Capitol PUNishment: Have you ever sat around with friends and talked some good old fashioned crap to each other? The kind that makes your sides split and tears roll slowly down your cheeks as you attempt to catch your breath? Well. Capitol PUNishment is a competition that takes that premise and brings it to Luna’s Cafe. Featuring a bevy of language slangers, including the return of Daniel Humbarger, this show is guaranteed to be worth the price of admission. 8PM. $10.

Saturday

Into the Black: Fei’s Open Studio: Artist, collaborator and Wide Open Walls muralist Lin Fei is hosting her first open studio, featuring murals, installations, paintings, drawings, and prints, and brand-new prints of her Holy Diver mural from this summer’s Wide Open Walls mural festival.

From the artist: “Black and White are the main colors used in much of my new work and represent both the aggression and submission seen in my art. As this show will be during the lead up to Halloween, we are encouraging anyone who wants to stop by to wear Black or White to get creative and show off your Halloween sprit! “ With guest artists: Sunya Whitelight, Alex Trujillo, David Stone. 12-10 PM Free.

Souls of the City: Skulls and Skeleton Printmaking: This fun and creative workshop introduces participants to the history of printmaking, tools, and techniques of relief printing (block printing), as well as to Mexican culture and the importance of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Participants will make their own prints with the theme of Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) to take home. At Sol Collective. All ages. 11-2. $5-10 sliding scale.

Groundswell Presents: DLRN EP Release Party x Travis Cuellar Showcase: Cultures and traditions from all over the world acknowledge October as a period of heightened sensitivity and spirituality. This time of openness is used to look inward and uncover truths about ourselves and how we see the world Hella Good Company invites you to explore the idea of FATE, the idea that certain events in life are inevitable and fixed by a power greater than ourselves. Groundswell Gallery. All ages. 6-10PM. Free

Sunday

Concerts on the Green: DOCO has teamed up with the Sacramento Philharmonic to create a series of family friendly events that encourage you to come out and enjoy the Sacramento weather, scenery, and cultural scene all in the same space. Enjoy an afternoon concert of rotating ensembles from traditional to experimental classical music. All ages. 3-5PM. Free.

Ambient Modular: A fundraiser to continue the great works of the Library of Musiclandria: The Library of MusicLandria is dedicated to breaking down the barriers to musical exploration, inspiring personal growth and creative innovation through hands-on learning opportunities, and changing the way people access music. The Library of MusicLandria values ,musical exploration as a way to heal, build a strong sense of community togetherness, promote personal growth and increase the quality of the lives of our youth, specifically those in the foster care system. This show will include a hands on demonstration, Q&A, as well as performances by Jerrod Rivera and Chopstick. All ages. 6PM. $5-10 donation. A $5-10 suggested donation is asked.

Nosferatu: The season of the witch is almost upon us. Head to The Red Museum for a once-in-a-lifetime experience to view the legendary horror film that started it all: NOSFERATU (1922, 94min). Featuring "gothic kosmische" duo, Venetian Veil performing a brand new original score LIVE! Plus, special guest DJ Lady Grey spinning sinister sounds before the film. Wear black! 8-11PM. $5.

#sacramento

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sizzites · 7 years ago

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Hello everyone! My name is Sarah and I’ve recently decided to begin dipping my toes into gaming journalism. I’ve always liked writing and LOVED games, so why not combine them? I recently had the honor of attending Square Enix’s reveal event for the newest installment in the Tomb Raider series… Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I was able to attend this event due to winning the “Path of the Stars” contest. It’s one of those moments where you almost don’t believe it’s real… no one ever wins those contest, right? That’s how I felt until suddenly I had a congratulatory email and 7 days to prepare myself for a trip to LA! All in all, things all seemed to come together as the perfect opportunity to start up a blog and get working on things. So here we are! I’m going to walk you through my experience at the reveal event as my first piece.

When we arrived at the event, we were immediately blown away by the venue SE had chosen… the Mayan Theatre. From the outside, it was a beautifully crafted tribute to Mayan artwork. Stone hieroglyphs from the floor to the roof of the building immediately pulled my brain back to all the “Path of the Stars” puzzles which had landed me here in the first place. This was a wonderful little gem hidden away among the city streets of downtown LA. Entering into the building, I felt my excitement levels jump even another level higher as we entered into a dark corridor full of smoke, vines, and amber colored lighting. In front of us was a decorative podium holding up each of the different case designs for the different versions of the game. There were also a few small placards showing some details listed out as well as explaining what would be given to those of us who are able to throw down some cold hard cash for the deluxe collector’s edition of the game.

We pushed past this display and moved onto the doorway into the main theatre. Vines hung down from the ceiling and obscured our view of the next room. As we pushed past the vines, I felt like my jaw would hit the floor. The beauty of the sculpting on the outer walls was nothing in comparison to the magnificence of the decorative walls surrounding the stage. Larger than life sculptures of hieroglyphs and deities were lit ominously from below with bright amber spotlights. The bar was lit with saturated purple and blue light as the bar tenders served up some wonderful themed cocktails. Turning towards the stage, there was an enormous screen with an animated version of the box art for the upcoming game. On either side of this screen were too smaller (but still quite large) screens which ran through each contributor’s logos as well as a small clip from the trailer (which we would be the first to see in just a short while). The floor in front of the stage had a few “standing room only” tables with small candles on the. The floor in that area was awash with fog. It swirled around the feet of those who mingled down in that area. It was somewhat spooky, but totally set the mood for the Mayan/jungle themed event.

The next thing we witnessed was one of the two big reasons I was excited to be present… the previously unreleased trailer for the game. It was absolutely beautiful and the excitement in the room was palpable from all of the press and game community members surrounding us. The footage cut between Lara Croft sprinting through the forest and what appeared to be a human sacrifice. Lara becomes stuck under a rock while moving through an underwater tunnel. The tension heightened as the Mayan priest raised his knife above the sacrifice and Lara got sucked out from under the rock. Just in time, Lara stops the sacrifice and reaches her hand out to the man, painted in blue, whom she had just saved. He stared at her in fear and ran away instead. Lara looked at herself and the dagger she held in her hand before walking forward to look out over the vast Mayan landscape and into the solar eclipse. After the trailer ended, there was a round of applause from everyone in the room.

A few moments later, a man walked out on stage and gave a short presentation. He began by elaborating and emphasizing that this third game in the trilogy was going to be where Lara becomes the tomb raider she was born to be. Multiple times, he said this game would contain her defining moment… although he didn’t let us in on the secret of what that would be. From his description, and also from the game play which I’ll talk about in a bit, I could see that the character of Lara Croft is going to be much more flushed out in this game. She is much more vulnerable and flawed… she is no longer the innocent student from the 2013 reboot… no longer the survivalist from Rise of the Tomb Raider… she is now THE tomb raider and is taking actions that will has consequences that she must face. Her decisions will no longer be black and white or good versus bad. There is now a gray area which makes Lara feel much more human, but she’s still just as much of the heroine we have loved for so many years.

He ended his presentation which meant that the secretive area for playing the demo was now available for press groups to begin coming in. We weren’t able to play right away, but that only had me chomping at the bit even more by the time it became our turn. We entered into the room to see rows of mid-sized televisions and Xbox Dev Kits. I slid on the oversized headphones and grabbed the controller anxiously. I fired up the demo and held my breath as an introductory cut scene played. From there, Lara was tasked with tailing a man through a beautiful Day of the Dead celebration. The candles scattered all around the scene gave off a warm orange light in the outdoor marketplace. Lara wore a large poncho as a disguise and a skeletal mask. The people all around her felt alive. They played music and games and you were able to interact with a few of them. The colors of this game struck me right away, ranging from deep, saturated colors, dark alley ways, to the bright lights of parties.

I won’t give away much more about the actual story, but I will say I was able to do some tomb exploring as well as a tiny bit of fighting. In terms of controlling Lara, everything feels very familiar. The methods of traversing through the environment are all pretty much the same. There are some new stealth elements were felt brilliant, including the ability to hide amongst vines and bushes lining walls. It made Lara feel much more dangerous now that she is adept at using her surroundings. The game play felt classic, but still fresh. And, of course, how can I even begin to talk about the tomb? It was always the one element that I felt was somewhat missing from the previous two games. Although challenge tombs were present (and fully wonderful) in Rise of the Tomb Raider, they still weren’t enough for me. I grew up on Lara Croft’s adventures and have always been very fond of those times when Lara spent an entire game running around in old Egyptian tombs and other similar locales. In the 45 minute demo, we were able to visit one tomb area with no enemies to speak of. It allowed us time to explore and really immerse ourselves in the absolutely fabulous graphics before our eyes. It felt just like the days of Tomb Raider on PS1 (but with a massive visual upgrade) and I loved every second of it. I finished the demo and left the room feeling more excited than I ever thought I could be for September.

All in all, I can say definitively that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is going to be one of the few games I will pre-order and possibly even get one of the “upgraded” versions right away. If I can make a suggestion, it would be that you plan on playing this game. If you haven’t yet played the two previous games, I would also say you should do that before September rolls around. The story arc in this trilogy has been brilliant up to this point and Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have given me no reason to think they will do anything less than deliver an amazing third chapter with this new game. I’ve been playing Tomb Raider for as long as I have been playing games (and happily watching my Dad play it long before I was able to figure out the controls myself), so I’m admittedly a bit of a fan girl for Lara Croft. That being said, even speaking as objectively as possible, this is going to be a monumental release and I think you’d have to be crazy to miss it!

XOXOXO Sarah

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yr-bed · 4 years ago

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Lauren Oyler is my favourite living critic, and I’m excited to read her debut novel Fake Accounts. I’ve been reading a lot of the press around it, including this interview with The Atlantic where she answers the question “ To what extent do conspiracy theories and fiction relate to each other?” thusly

To great extent! You could say conspiracy theories are like bad fiction, which attempts to tie everything up and explain it all. Neither leave room for randomness or pointlessness or meaninglessness. But life is full of all these, and our desire to eliminate them leads us down narrower and narrower paths.

There’s also a tendency to read symbols and metaphors in life the way we read them in fiction, which creates all sorts of problems. When you read symbols and metaphors in fiction, you know where they came from: the author. If you find a symbol or metaphor in life, you might start freaking out about where it came from and what it really means. The specifics of the stories conspiracists tell tend to camouflage the more interesting elements about them, which to me are all about (1) motivation—why am [I] being told this?—and (2) their unstable relationship to the real: Some aspect of this could actually be true, or come from something real. Both are essential elements of fiction as well.

Which, first of all, is a characteristically incisive read on the proliferation of conspiracy theories within modern western political discourse. It also resurfaced in my mind today, a couple of weeks after I first read it, whilst scrolling through the Genius entries for songs from Black Country, New Road’s hot-off-the-press debut album, For the first time.

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I really really like For the first time. Opening your debut album with an instrumental called “Instrumental” and ending with a song called “Opus” are a sandwich of baller moves. “Track X” is what a love song written by Steve Reich might sound like. I’m not the only one to notice that considerable changes had been made to the lyrics and arrangements of pre-album singles “Athen’s, France” and “Sunglasses,” the latter of which was one of my most-listened songs in 2019 and 2020, if Spotify’s records are to be believed. Not being smart enough to figure out the changes for myself, and heeding Jarvis’s First Law, I went over to the often-ironically-named Genius with the expectation that the site’s membership may well have crowd-sourced annotations which would do the heavy analytical lifting for me.

[Adam Curtis voice] And then, something strange happened. Well, maybe not strange, but sort of interesting. The problem with Genius has been well documented by more intelligent documenters than I, as are the potential pitfalls of crowdsourcing knowledge in general. In this particular instance, the phenomena I happened upon wasn’t the proliferation of white boys clumsily trying to pick apart the internal rhymes and culturally-specific reference points of trap songs, but a form of context collapse typical of a lot of so-called cultural critiques you get on the Internet of 2021.

Talking to everyone and talking to no-one has lead to a curious reading of Black Country, New Road’s lyrics (part of a verbose, hyper-referential scene that primarily exists in my head, alongside Squid). Rather than drawing on the specific socioeconomic and cultural context the band exist in, and which they often directly call out in their music, there’s a grasping to read symbols and metaphors in an almost wilfully literal and dull fashion. And imho it sucks!

Above is a representative example from the Genius page for the single version of “Sunglasses.” It’s a song which wields the cultural signifiers of comfortable middle class existence in modern Britain with equal parts disgust and familiarity. Amongst The Guardian-friendly reference points are Nutribullets, single malt whiskey, complaining about mediocre theatre and, in the killer of an opening line, multi-part Danish crime dramas of the sort that air on BBC Four. All of these work in concert to produce, in the words of frontman Isaac Wood, a portrait of a family of “wealth or affluence.” Crucially, however, not one “written from a critical or even external position,” which is one of the more interesting aspects of the song (and the band in general), occupying as they do a self-reflexively privileged position not dissimilar to the Metropolitan Liberal Elite’s satirical voice of choice, Stewart Lee. It makes things slipperier, harder to gain purchase on. The mix of the specific and abstract in the song is intentional: you’re never going to uncover a “true meaning,” but you can at least get a sense of what they’re trying to communicate.

What the ironically-named Genius annotators choose to focus on, however, is not this fairly obvious deployment of cultural symbols amidst an otherwise allusive and elusive set of lyrics, but unpicking precisely which six-part Danish crime drama is being referenced. I will charitably admit that yes, perhaps there is a specific show Wood is referencing in his lyrics here, but: who gives a shit? That’s besides the point! “Knowing” that he’s singing about something called The Jack of Hearts doesn’t add anything to the song (it also belies a further cultural ignorance in that the phrase is clearly used here, paired with The Fonz, as a somewhat-ironic iconic “Cool Guy”). Susie Sonts would be spinning in her grave if she got anywhere near this shit.

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In “Against Interpretation”, one of the foundational texts which informed my way of thinking about art and criticism and I would argue is crucial in navigating the anaemic and non-confrontational symbol-chasers of today, Susan Sontag rails against the “contemporary zeal for the project of interpretation [...] often prompted by an open aggressiveness [...] The old style of interpretation was insistent, but respectful; it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys.”

This is the dominant interpretative style of now. From politics to indie rock, there is a harried, prescriptive and literal approach to making sense of things, of settling on rote and superficial readings. A symbol has a literal meaning; A means A; references are not poetic allusions, but puzzle boxes to be cracked open and, once they have, mastered and then returned, inert and unusable, to the shelf. There are fewer attempts to approach texts in good faith, or to acknowledge the broader context in which people act and create, a bastardised deployment of Barthes which makes the word significantly less interesting, as opposed to the other way around. Do you think the couplet “Trips to B&Q with your other half / This is how the other half lives” in Squid’s “Houseplants” is part of a similarly vicious-yet-complicit takedown of middle class life, or calling out Jacob Riis’s 1890 work of photojournalism “documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums”?

There is a disengagement with context and, in its place, an analytical approach which -- in this instance -- appears to me to also shirk engagement with the “randomness or pointlessness or meaninglessness” of some of the cascading cavalcade of references, veiled and otherwise, culturally and personally specific, which is one of the most entertaining aspects of Black Country, New Road’s music. Instead it’s about finding a definitive meaning, often through the filter of other reference points which are not actually appropriate or relevant, as a sort of attempt to assert dominance over a text. As the conspiracy theorist incorrectly applies close reading to chaotic reality in order to create a kind of order, so the Genius annotator manages to lack the ability to apply close reading to a chaotic text. To further co-opt Oyler’s words, the paths ought to be sprawling off in all directions, rather than narrow and meticulously signposted.

Anyway. Back soon to actually talk about the changes made between the single and album versions of “Sunglasses” and “Athen’s, France,” with reference to Evangelion and Car Seat Headrest’s Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror)/ (Face to Face)!

#black country new road #lauren oyler #susan sontag #criticism #context collapse #music journalism #genius

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