#today i got half price for venus and mars

[yourhostforthisevening]

fleamarkets are the best places to get your records from because you know, you get them second-hand so you're being (more) green, you can find some hidden gems, whatever..

BUT THE FACT THAT CREEPY OLD MAN ALWAYS GIVE YOU A DISCOUNT

bro they have the best items for sale and all you have to do is be friendly, like fuck you for being a creep, you are disgusting sir I'M GONNA RIP YOU OFF NOW THANK YOUU <3

[travelingtheusa]

ALABAMA

2024 June 14 (Fri) – Noah graduated from Space Camp today.  We went to the operations center at 8 AM.  Travis drove in from South Carolina and met us there.  We walked in, checked in, and went into the auditorium.  We were an hour ahead of graduation time.  At 9 AM, they started the ceremony.  There were over 600 students graduating today.  They had us clap for each team, then clap only once for each graduate.  That sure speeded things up!  Noah did not see us sitting right up in front.  Dr. Jan Davis, a former astronaut, was there and greeted each student as they came up and got their certificate.  After the ceremony, I collected Noah.  We walked out to meet Paul and Travis.  Noah didn’t know his dad was there.  When he saw him, he flew into his arms and started to cry.  It was very emotional for him.

      After collecting and putting away all of Noah’s luggage and things, we all walked over to the museum for free admission.  There was lunch at the cafeteria (typical cafeteria fare), and the every present gift shop to get souvenirs.

       We all returned to the camper then went out to the City Café Diner for dinner.  Travis spent the night with us as it was a six hour drive.  He left home at 2 AM this morning.  It would not be safe for him to try to drive back tonight.  At any rate, I think Noah enjoyed the time with Travis.

2024 June 13 (Thu) – We spent the day still trying to lock in campgrounds.  No one wants to commit before the end of the season.  That is too late for us.  We have to advertise this caravan soon and need a price to put out there.

      At 5 PM, we went to the US Space & Rocket Center for the Rocket to the Tropics.  It was a tropical themed food and music event in the Saturn V Rocket Building.  What a hoot!  Sitting under a giant rocket, eating jerk chicken and empanadas and listening to a 7-piece band play Jimmy Buffet songs.

      Noah gave us a quick call at 8:45 PM.  He had just been stung by a wasp on his neck and was not happy.  Sorry that his last day at Space Camp is marred by such an awful event. 

2024 June 12 (Wed) – In between emails and phone calls, we went to the Hound & Harvest for lunch.  It was a very eclectic menu.  I had a meringue with whipped topping.  It was weird.  It was a hardened egg white with some whip cream on the side.  No call from Noah yesterday or today.  Guess they keep him really busy and whatever time he gets to make phone calls, he uses to call his Mom and Dad.  Thanks OK.

2024 June 11 (Tue) – We didn’t go anywhere today.  Worked hard on the caravan.  Paul has been working on developing a logo for our Louisiana caravan with Johnny & Linda. 

2024 June 10 (Mon) – Work began in earnest on our caravan.  I made a number of phone calls to campgrounds and venues to lock in our itinerary.  I sent out a bunch of emails.  It is hard to find campgrounds in Michigan in the summer.

      We went out to lunch to Rosie’s Cantina.  It was a Mexican restaurant.  Very well decorated.  Food was excellent.  Afterward, we stopped at the Vitamin Shoppe so I could refill my supply.  Then back to the campground.  Noah called for a quick minute before lights out.  He has been appointed the flight commander/engineer.  He seems to be having a ball.  He is certainly in his milieu.

2024 June 9 (Sun) – Today is the day!  Noah went to Space Camp today.  We brought him to the Space Operations Center for check in at 2:30 p.m.  What a line!  We waited over half an hour to get into the place to the check in desk.  They gave Noah a wrist band and directed him to 5 other stations.  We checked in, then took Noah to his dormitory where he picked out his bunk and proceeded to make friends with other kids.  There’s no worry about him getting along with everyone.  He is very extroverted.  His parents say he will be the mayor of the dorm within a day.  Lol.

      After finding his bunk, we got a sticker giving us free access to the museum until orientation time.  We walked around one part.  It was filled with all the new stuff going on in the space industry today.  It was exciting to read.  We were puzzled as to where all the historical stuff was, then found a map and realized we were in a very small part of the entire museum.  We will come back after Noah graduates.

      Once we dropped him off, we drove to City Café Diner and had dinner.  Then we returned to the campground and breathed a sigh of release.  Kids are a lot of work!

2024 June 8 (Sat) – We packed up and left Acworth, GA, at 9:30 a.m.  Had to stop at the very inconvenient dump station to empty the tanks then hit the road for a 3-1/2 hour drive to Huntsville where we will be dropping Noah off at Space Camp tomorrow.  He is so excited.  I think we all are.  He will have such a great adventure.  He’s been looking forward to this for 2 years.  Hope it won’t turn out to be anticlimactic for him.  Sometimes you build things up in your mind so much that when it finally happens, it is less than what you expected.

      We are camped at Redstone Arsenal MWR RV Park.  There are rows of campers with a gravel roadway between each row.  The laundry is nice but there is no table to fold clothes.  Eight washers and eight dryers were in the laundry room.   We did the laundry so Noah could start off with clean clothes.

      When we set up, the surge protector kept giving us an error message.  We took the surge protector off and the electric stanchion still buzzed.  I called the camp host and he came over with 2 other guys and tightened up the connections.  But the surge protector still gave an error message of inadequate power.  We just left the protector off and everything seemed fine.  We will have to contact the surge protector manufacturer for a replacement.  It has a full year warranty and we just got it at the RV show in Tampa. 

      Once done with the laundry, we drove to the Commissary to get Pepto Bismal for Noah, then stopped by the Xpress to pick up libations.  Then we drove over to the Space Center to get Noah a hat.  He picked out one that says Space Camp.  Supposedly, they will give him 2 shirts for camp.   

      Noah had diarrhea and vomited today.  The second time, he didn’t make it to the toilet and I had to clean the walls, the shower stall, the toilet bowl, the floor and the hanging towels.  I nearly got sick myself.  Ugh.  He’s been sneezing every since we picked him up.  Since there have been no further symptoms and no fever, we assumed it is an allergy.  Today proved to be something else.  Hope he doesn't get turned away at the door.

[kitto-toberu-sa]

Sailor Moon The Super Live Report - September 7th (first performance, musical note team)

Place: Aiia Theatre Placement: Row 8, Seat 32 (first row, second block, roughly middle)

Show part Not gonna lie, the only reason why I went a third time was because of Chiyuu. Kasai Tomomi, former member of AKB48, is Sailor Moon this time. I’m not even that big of a fan of hers, tbh, she’s done some stuff I really don’t agree with in the past, but she’s besties with one of my fave singers and her last album was LIT. So hopefully this is her new STAR-T.  

This performance turned out to be my favourite of the three. The seats were the best, the high touch was the best (partly because I went to the previous high touch), vocals were on point, Chiyuu was great and so many other things.

To start with, they open the doors an hour before show time. You then need to wait in the lobby for half an hour before they let you into the seating area. So there I was, chilling in the lobby, when two older ladies come up and talk to a staff member after being introduced by another staff member. Jaws dropped. It was the original voice actresses for Jupiter and Venus!

They were standing less than a meter from me! It was honestly so surreal?? They were dressed casual and just chatted normally before going off to the side to wait like everyone else. Rica (Venus) had a ridiculous amount of Venus merch on her, which was honestly adorable. She also responded to me on twitter later <3 (Speaking of which, I commented on Kunzite’s insta twice and got responses both time. She seems lovely, so please support her too!)

As a quick cast comparison, personally I like this group’s vocals. I haven’t checked but they probably are more musically trained. Chiyuu was an idol for six years or so, and is still continuing her solo career, so it’d kinda make sense if the note team was made of those with a musical background. I did think the vocals were a bit more towards “we’re senshi” side; the heart team was more “we’re teenagers who moonlight as senshi” type vocals (lighter? I guess? Higher pitched?). However, all of the vocals were a lot more stable in this team, with none of the mic issues etc of heart team.

I still prefer Sena as Venus. She was a lot more bubbly, while also being able to do the senshi side well. This Venus had very little reaction to Kunzite’s death. Though I did notice this time that the rest of the senshi appear to get their memories back at this time too. Jupiter really stood out this time around. You could see she was putting her absolute all into it and I can really respect that. This Mercury was also really great. Her voice was just sweet enough, but had the power heart team’s Mercury lacked. As a whole, this cast seemed less nervous and more confident, and smiled a lot more often.

Kasai as Moon was AMAZING! The other Moon stuck to the script, but Kasai kept adding in natural sound? I guess? She made the dialogue flow more, by adding a few extra words or cried more or whatever. It made it seem less like a play, and more real. She definitely got the dreamy side of Usagi down, and she held the confidence of Moon against Beryl, which I adored. She was honestly the perfect Usagi and I’m so glad she was able to have this opportunity. If this is released on dvd (note, no camera at shonichi or tonight, but there was a camera for the last show of heart team), I hope they release a version with her team <3

There were pretty much no mistakes from this cast. They seem to have improved on everyone else’s mistakes. This isn’t just the cast – the crew has done this as well. For example, where the classmates are zombified, they’ve had more glow in the dark components to their costumes. There were no mic issues. There was no issue with the sheet/Beryl’s dark energy.

The only mistake came from Tuxedo Mask. He couldn’t get the veil into Usagi’s hair. In the end he was like ‘well who cares lmao’ and put it on one of the horses lmaoooo Oops, sorry, another lie. Moon accidentally turned the moon rod on for a brief second. I still think the rod should have been painted so it wasn’t as ugly and it should have been kept on tbh. Overall, it was a flawless performance.

As for the differences in the performance, apart from Usagi being more vocal in the best way’s possible, it was essentially the same show. There was still no dialogue from the leaving students, though Haruna stamped her feet, in what I’m assuming is a “Usgai get your butt out of this classroom NOW” type thing. Shame, because that bit of ‘see you’ ‘oh we have homework’ type thing did the same as Usagi – make it more human and natural.

I’m going to be biased and say my favourite part was when Usagi runs through the audience at the start yelling that she’s late. I currently have blue hair, so I stick out, and I was right where she runs past. When she’s running, she talks to a few audience members. Standing out, she pointed at my necklace.

“Wow! That necklace is cute! How much was it?” Me: -doing my best goldfish impression because Kasai Tomomi si ridiculously cute in person and talking to me?????- “WOW! A million dollars?! EXPENSIVE!”

She then ran off, remembering she was late. (All of this was in Japanese.)

So considering she was the reason I came, I more than feel like I got my money’s worth from this show XD

Song part Same same. But different.

This cast definitely had a much more powerful La Soldier, but I liked heart team’s Otome no Policy better. Their voices were softer and a lot better for the more emotional songs imo.

For Moonlight Densetsu, when they were walking around the audience, I managed to get high fives from all of them bar Moon and Mask~

Mercury came by first briefly, followed by Venus iirc, then Jupiter (she’s got such a nice smile!~) and then Mars. Mars kinda dragged her hand so it was a long high touch haha

At the end of the show, they release a bunch of streamers? I’ve honestly never seen the point of grabbing them because what do you do with them?? But I grabbed one that night. Lucky I was so quick because a staff member came up straight away to snatch them away lol

(But what do I do with it..?)

The crowd was really interesting. A lot of the crowd was male, and there for Tomomi (a lot of female fans were too). However, a lot of the dudes had no idea what Sailor Moon was meant to be about (beside magical girl) so while waiting before the show (which started 15 minutes late? Everyone was getting low key annoyed) and after, waiting for the high touch, a lot of girls were trying to explain to these middle aged business men what the show was about. So shout out to the Sailor Moon community for being cool with new people coming into the fandom, even if it is for just a moment.

High Touch The line up was Jupiter, Mercury, Mask, Moon, Mars, Venus.

I barely had any time with Jupiter, but she has a pretty smile so who cares. I told her today was great and she was happy with that. Mercury commented that we had the same colour hair so I stan her for life now. She’s so cute! Mask remembered me from the other day~ (I mean, how many blue haired foreigners have come to see the show?? ;;;) There was a little bit of a hold up, so I was able to hold her hand~ I told her today was amazing and I’d continue to support her, and the returning smile I got killed me.

Tomomi also remembered me! “Oh! It’s you from earlier!” Again, told her it was great and I’d support her. She looks so good as Moon? Like, really natural. I forgot how short she was tho ;; She’s a good 12cm shorter than me lol

Mars was so cool and kind too. Same for Venus, but as much as I liked her, Sena is the only Venus for me. Sorry!

Tonight I got Mars as my bookmark thing, so I’m super happy! Overall, this experience was fun! Tonight was an amazing night, and Chiyuu did such a great job as Moon, so I’m sure by closing night she had it seriously nailed. The whole three times were great fun, and I had debated getting a forth ticket. Not only is that slight overkill, but the rest of the shows were only giving goods away, so not worth it. But a great night was had and I’d highly recommend the show. Go see them in France if you can!

Summary Enjoyable: 5/5 Worth the ticket price: 5/5 Re-watchable: 4/5 If this was sold on dvd, would I buy it: 4/5

[kitto-toberu-sa]

Sailor Moon The Super Live Report - September 3rd  (last performance, heart team)

Place: Aiia Theatre Placement: Row 2, Seat 5 (Front, far left)

Performance I bought another ticket after the first show… And lost it.

After a lot of debating, I decided to buy one at the door. I got a side seat, so I was worried about my view, but it was row 2, seat 5. A lot smoother than the last show. I felt like they had nailed everything and were able to bring more of themselves into the character, and build upon what they’d started. For example, Sena was a lot more idol-y and winked a lot more, while Jupiter had a more confident aura around her. The only one who I didn’t really feel it from was Mercury, who seemed to struggle with keeping the right amount of spacing around her.

I’m not sure if this was a mic issue, but it looks like it was just cut. In the school scene, when the fight is over, a few characters said goodbye to Usagi, but it seems like it was just replaced with waving. I really don’t like that. It robs the class of personality, Usagi of friends and honestly costs nothing to add? If you hadn’t seen it with the dialogue, it probably isn’t a big deal, but I personally think the scene lost a human touch, and did look more like a production because of it.

In the Harajuku scene (just after it), there’s a bit where Usagi paints the screens. However, tonight the crew turned on the paint too early. It was for a brief second, but turning it on, then off and then on a moment later kind of took me out of the play. I know how hard stage work is from my own experience, so I don’t judge them, but as a consumer you also want a perfect product.

We start to see Kunzite/Venus happening in the fight scene. I’m honestly not a major fan of this ship, (and that whole subplot in all honesty), but it was done subtly so I didn’t mind it.

Being so much closer to the stage was great. I was able to see the details on everyone’s faces so much more clearly. When Beryl dances with Tux, it was nice the first time, but DAMN. This time? Was AMAZING! She was very much a woman in control, who knew she was strong, who had everything she wished for. She knew she was hot, she knew she was practically unstoppable and had taken everything from her enemies and got everything she wanted. Girl can MOVE. She was having a great time and the whole dance was a great show off of her as a character and was just fantastic! She was honestly just sexy. Her confidence and aura was amazing!

During the fight scene against Mask, I was able to see a lot more details. For example, Mercury using her items to assess the enemy properly. It’s definitely worth seeing shows a second time and from a different seat if possible, especially ones that have so much movement and so many characters everywhere like this one.

Venus’ looks towards Kunzite were also amazing. At one point he held her and it was wonderful. Also the strong expressions on Jupiter’s face~

One big problem was the final scene where Usagi fights Beryl. She goes under the stage as she’s enveloped by Beryl’s darkness (a giant sheet). However, whoever was pulling it back didn’t pull it back properly, so she couldn’t get out. It… didn’t look professional. Her mic might have also been on and a few words were caught before it was turned off or they realised and stopped talking.

This isn’t something to get mad about, but it is bad design. In the first show I saw, there wasn’t a problem but at points the sheet was on stage, instead of being dragged in enough, so it just kinda looked ugly. It’s understandable – this show needs to be easy to perform and easy enough to understand, but also easy enough to travel overseas on a relatively small budget.  

Song Everyone had improved a lot. Mics seemed to be in better positions and everyone seemed more confident.

When Beryl and Kunzite sang, it sounded a lot better than it did the other night. I think this was partly due to mic position and timing, but also confidence and practice. They sounded soooo good.

Interestingly, the cast didn’t seem to be into high fives as much tonight? I guess with a high touch event straight after I can see why. I made a lot of eye contact with the cast this time around, since I was so close to the stage. I stick out a lot too, which helps in situations like these lol. Beryl and Kunzite were both very cool and responded in character. Honestly fam, Beryl can step on me any day of the week (and yes, I said that for the live action Beryl too).

(I think that says a lot more about me than I care to admit ;;;)

Mercury didn’t seem to make as much eye contact with people (though looking into it, she seems to be just making her way into the world of entertainment, so this is possibly her first time in such a big show), while Venus was trying to impress as much of the audience as she could. She had a LOT of fans tonight. The crowd as a whole was much more into it than opening night. (It seems the diamond team came to support them, so it could have been them making all the noise lol)

It’s really nice when the fans get into it. I never want to get too into it unless other people are, because being foreign, you stick out. But I feel like someone needs to start it too…. But tonight’s crowd was cheering like mad, so I’m glad~

After Venus came in through the crowd back onto the stage, she ran up to Kunzite and he hugged her. It looked completely unplanned, but it was gorgeous. As I said, I don’t ship them, but half the audience, myself included, squealed. This whole performance felt a lot more polished, and you could see how each actress brought her character to life a lot more clearly.

I noticed at Moonlight Densetsu, when the streamers were released, there were smaller ones in the mix, as well as bubbles maybe?

High Touch This session came with a high touch (high five) session after the show! You basically line up, high five and leave. Some people left beforehand, which I find weird. Why not get the most bang for your buck?

The line up was: Jupiter, Mercury, Tuxedo, Moon, Mars, Venus.

Out of the five scouts, I feel Jupiter improved the most from the other day. She was very smiley and just had a nice amount of confidence around her, both on and off the stage. She’s very pretty too~

But, my fave interaction was with Tuxedo Mask~ As I said, I’m pretty much here for Sena, despite being a Mars fans. But I saw last year’s musical in Nagoya. So seeing someone on a big stage and in a bigger production compared to a small stage and small production was interesting. She made a really good Tuxedo Mask, and if they continue to make musicals (I say if, since we don’t have full information on next year’s project yet and there’s no promise it won’t be cancelled), I hope they keep her on as a cast member!

My hair is currently bright blue, and she said it was wonderful~ I’m not going to lie, getting a compliment alone was worth the ticket price haha!

I also told Sena that I like her a lot and thanked her for her work, which she responded well to. But… Tuxedo Mask stole the show, sorry Sena~ It’s always nice when the cast call out to you instead of reacting to what you said. I’ll treasure this moment forever~ <3

Today the gift I received was Venus! So I’m super happy~

And…. I have a confession….

I brought another ticket for Friday’s show…

It’s also a high touch session. It’s the blue note team, which has Kasai Tomomi as Sailor Moon. I used to be a big AKB48 fan, and while I’m not as much of a fan anymore, and wasn’t a fan of her when she was in the group, I’ve started liking her since she released her last album. I’m curious to see how her team goes! But I swear, that will be my last ticket haha!

Summary Enjoyable: 5/5 Worth the ticket price: 5/5 Re-watchable: 4/5 If this was sold on dvd, would I buy it: 4/5