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Sweeney Todd appreciation post

In the latter parts of my last semester, I signed up for my high school’s annual summer production. I’ve done a good bit of theatre in the past few years of my life, and it’s become a pretty important part of who I am. I’m by no means a good actor or a good singer (although I’d say I’m probably better at singing), but I manage to get pretty good roles most of the time. I’ve gotten attached to some of the roles I’ve had over the past couple years, particularly to George Banks of Mary Poppins. Other times, I’ve gotten attached to shows in general, such as The Secret Garden. From the moment I finished that show, I repeatedly claimed it as my favorite musical. It still is very dear to me, and I think that the music is almost as beautiful now as the first time I heard it. I’ll probably write at some point about why “Lily’s Eyes” and “A Bit of Earth” are some of my favorite songs not only in musicals, but of all time.

To my surprise, this summer, The Secret Garden finally got beaten. I had originally signed up to be a part of Titanic: The Musical. However, after auditions happened, the folks in charge found out that we were short on males. They ended up deciding to change the show to Sweeney Todd, and thank god they did. 

I believe the biggest reason I like The Secret Garden so much can be summed up in one word: melodrama. The powerful brass, the rises and falls in the music, the dreary plot that is almost too real. What kind of person can’t sympathize with a poor orphaned girl and her lonely father figure? Archibald is a truly tragic character: trapped in a mansion with no one but his bitter brother and overbearing servants to grace him from the haunting memories of his dead wife, the one person who ever accepted him regardless of his physical flaws. 

What I find amazing about Sweeney Todd in contrast to The Secret Garden is the way it breaks my heart and fills my soul with beautiful music while still incorporating plenty of humor. There are plenty of musicals that do this, for sure, but I wouldn’t say that Mary Poppins is on the same level simply due to it’s overall silliness. It has deep messages and good music, sure, but it isn’t harsh enough. It doesn’t hit you with that sense of relatability. I’ve never had a magical nanny show up at my window and save my family from its deepest conflicts, but I certainly have heard of orphaned children, wrongfully incriminated people, and poverty. All of these are present in Sweeney, but Steven Sondheim managed to create these somber situations all while incorporating Pirelli as comedic relief that actually makes a little bit of sense.

All in all, I just can’t help but feel that Sweeney Todd is extremely effective at everything it does. It still has the most important piece (to me), though: the copious amounts of drama. Not only do we have an almost Shakespearean tragedy as our plot, but the music itself is powerful throughout. I’m going to write a paragraph about a couple of my favorite songs from the show. My favorites are probably also the most popular, but whatever.

Firstly, let’s talk about “My Friends”. It’s definitely one of the most popular songs in the show, especially given that it leads into the famous “Lift your razor” segment. The song begins when Mrs. Lovett remembers that she hid Benjamin Barker’s razors, rather than selling them when he was deported. Although she humorously tries to justify this by saying that she simply didn’t sell them in case Barker showed up again one day, it’s an obvious clue-in to the fact that Mrs. Lovett is obsessed with Sweeney Todd. I’m not sure whether to call it love per se, but if the audience doesn’t realize that Mrs. Lovett has feelings for Sweeney after this introduction, the song itself will soon make it clear. Sweeney sees the razors, a symbol of his past life, of his happiness, and almost romances them as the music begins to play. He calls the razors his “friends” and caresses them as he sings. Soon, Mrs. Lovett joins in, but she isn’t quite on the same page as him. Throughout the song, Sweeney dominates with his powerful, reminiscent, yet dark and brooding tone, while Mrs. Lovett stands to the side and interjects her feelings of friendship, hopefulness, and beauty. It’s a very stark contrast, especially once the audience figures out that Sweeney is only pondering how his razors will help him to murder the Judge and the Beadle. My personal favorite quotes from this song are “You’ve been locked out of sight all these years. Like me, my friend. Well, I’ve come home.” and, of course, “You shall drip rubies”. The cryptic sound of Sweeney’s voice is truly disturbing. But, it’s cool disturbing, you know? As a side note, there’s a really neat video on Youtube somewhere of Steven Sondheim directing two theatre students (Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett) at performing this song. It’s definitely worth a watch.

“Green Finch and Linnet Bird” is another really cool one. I don’t have nearly as much to say about this one. My main thought is that the comparison between Johanna and the caged birds is very cool. I especially like how Johanna’s vocal style even mimics bird songs. 

“Kiss Me (Part 2)” also piques my interest. No one ever expects the Beadle to come out with a grand falsetto at the end, but it’s somehow not overly comical. The quartet is great, and shows a strong contrast between young and old. The funniest part about this quartet is how the Beadle is unknowingly leading the Judge to his death, and he’s so enthusiastic about it. Good stuff.

“Pretty Women” is the song that comes directly after, and, although I may be biased in liking it so much (I was the Judge), I might argue for it as my favorite song in the show. The song begins with a funny little impersonation of the Beadle’s apologetic advice from the previous song. Turpin sings in a commanding tone, giving him the upper hand. Sweeney is still in shock, surprised that the Judge who he wants to kill more than anything, randomly appeared at his shop. After the Judge’s instructions, Sweeney gets himself together and wittily affirms that the shave will be the closest he ever gave. Turpin, still with the advantage in the mental tug-of-war that the two will have throughout the song, begins to contently “bub dum” a tune. Todd, entering the battle, thinks “I can play your game, Judge”, and whistles alongside him. Todd has gained the upper hand, showing that he can keep up with Turpin. After some back and forth “banter” singing between the two, Todd asks “What more can man require than love sir?” But, it is a rhetorical question. Still with the upper hand, he answers himself and reveals the answer to be “women. pretty women”. The Judge, in agreement and still in the dark about Sweeney’s true identity as the father of the young girl he’s creepily forcing into marriage, continues his song. He gains ground here, but not long after the power is transitioned to Sweeney once more as we hear a short reprise of “My Friends”. However, the Judge interrupts him at the height of his song, telling Sweeney to stop goofing around and start working. Sweeney loses power as he replies “my lord”, and then he finds out that the Judge is planning on marrying his daughter. As if he didn’t already have enough motivation to murder Turpin! Todd, potentially out of spite, almost reveals himself when he asks if Johanna is as “pretty as her mother”. After this, which is really only the introduction to the song, Sweeney once again gains power as he begins shaving the Judge. The audience is supposed to believe that he will slit the Judge’s throat right then and there, but Todd instead decides to toy with Turpin and enjoy his moment of revenge. The remainder of the song is a straightforward yet beautiful duet, wherein Todd and the Judge sing passionately about pretty women. In this case, Todd is probably thinking of his wife, Lucy, while Turpin is singing about Johanna, Todd’s daughter. The music is truly beautiful, and we believe that Todd has gained complete control. Not only is he the only one who fully understands the song, but his razor is at the Judge’s throat, waiting for the perfect moment to exact his revenge. The song reaches it’s height, Sweeney’s razor is raised, and the tension is unimaginable. And then Anthony comes into the shop, giddily singing about his upcoming marriage to Johanna. Sweeney’s moment is ruined, and the Judge furiously storms out.

And those songs, ladies and gentlemen, are only the best from Act 1. Act 2 has plenty of powerful moments, such as the hugely disturbing “God, That’s Good”, the eerie “City on Fire”, the humorous “By the Sea”, and, of course, the heart-wrenching “Not While I’m Around”. 

If I was given the chance to be a part of Sweeney Todd again, I’d like to give Judge Turpin a second try, or perhaps take on the role of the Beadle. I personally couldn’t do Sweeney justice, but I do hope to one day revisit this show. For now, I will continue to praise it as my favorite musical.

[asusirwritesalot-blog]

What I’ve Learned About Painting/ Digital Art From Magic: The Gathering

Disclaimer: I know almost nothing about painting/ digital art, so don’t expect me to use proper art terminology :)

One of my favorite Youtube channels is TheMagicManSam. Sam is a young guy like me who loves Magic: The Gathering, and he wanted to make online content about it, but he wasn’t quite sure what he could do that was unique. He found that very few people talk about the artistic side of Magic: The Gathering, it’s design, history, and visual art, which is it famous for.

My favorite video by TheMagicManSam is “The Magic Art of Terese Nielsen”. You can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAMR65iqD4A

While all of Sam’s videos are amazingly well produced, scripted, and are a treasure to watch, I particularly enjoy his art studies. 

One of the first things most people notice when first seeing Magic: The Gathering cards is their amazing artwork! Each and every card is a little vignette, a little snippet of nerdy goodness with lots to say. A card has an effect in the real game, a beautiful piece of artwork such as this one:

And, often times, a card will have what we call flavor text. We call these little bits of text flavor text because they add flavor to the cards, usually enhancing or explaining the artwork or theme of the card in a sentence or two. An example of great flavor text, in my opinion, is on a card called Canyon Minotaur. 

The text reads: 

We'll scale these cliffs, traverse Brittle Bridge, and then fight our way down the volcanic slopes on the other side." "Isn't the shortest route through the canyon?" "Yes." "So shouldn't we—" "No."

Not all flavor text is humorous like this, but I appreciate the funny ones a lot.

I had always enjoyed these aspects of Magic: The Gathering cards, but I never truly appreciated them until TheMagicManSam made me understand how well crafted each and every card is. And now, I find myself paying much more attention to the art in each card.

Since I began paying attention to this art, I have come to notice two major things:

A) A huge majority of art in Magic depicts one or more characters. I have begun to realize that it is not only important what the character is doing or what they look like, but where they are positioned in the frame. TheMagicManSam references this in his video on Terese Nielsen, citing that Nielsen often frames her characters in a more heroic way.

For example, in this piece for Swords to Plowshares, there is a clear distinction between the cultlike characters in the background and the man in center. The masked figures are like a motif, repeating and only slightly varied. They are also drawn in a way that makes them look more aged and faded. The character in the foreground looks far more realisitic, and we can see light sources shining on him. I believe this difference in style is an example of a way Nielsen makes characters look heroic.

B) Small objects can enhance the beauty of art just as much as the main focal points of a piece. In Terese Nielsen’s artwork, many pieces are lined and dotted with flowers, small jewelry, or tiny specks of fire or water.  

In this piece, Nielsen somehow takes my focus off the character in center by placing remarkably detailed fire and water, of contrasting colors, in the sides of the picture. I find it very interesting that, in this case, the character is the last thing I looked at.

What is your favorite artwork from Magic: The Gathering or other games? Please feel free to critique or agree with me!

[asusirwritesalot-blog]

First post- Why The Witcher 3 is my favorite game.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS FOR THE WITCHER 3. IF YOU HAVEN’T YET PLAYED THIS AMAZING GAME, GO PLAY IT! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

As I rode Roach along the scattered path leading into Velen, the string ensemble in the background immediately created an ominous, uneasy feeling. The murky swamps stared at me from the background of the picture, almost like I was watching a film. The camera was placed at the bottom of the hillside, granting me, the player, a view of my character in his new surroundings. The foreground of the picture contained a huge oak tree with sprawling branches, surrounded by tall, untamed grass. The first thing I noticed was the dark group of bodies that hung from the many branches of the tree. I had only been playing for an hour or two, and already I had my own opinion on the poor souls who hung in the swamp, as well as the men who hung them. The Witcher had somehow taught me how to fight, how to interact with the world, how to explore, how my choices affect the game, and who my character was while still feeding me tidbits of a story that gripped my mind like a classic movie or novel.

That’s something I can’t say for a lot of games.

Many of you may be familiar with film critic Roger Ebert. While his scholarly articles on film are unquestionably a great resource, and the man knows what he is talking about, I won’t lie when I say that much of my respect for him was lost when he claimed that ‘Video games can never be art”.

See: http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art

While I could spend all day disputing Mr. Ebert’s arguments, and why I believe that almost everything is a form of art, I think it is clear that, at the very least, SOME video games are artistic in nature, and therefore, are art. While I personally believe that even the crudest, silliest games are art, I will only argue for The Witcher 3 in this particular case.

I have a background in theater- technical, non-musical, and musical. The thing that first drew me to theater was the way that it combined many other forms of art, such as music, dance, visual art, and acting. Now, I don’t know Mr. Roger Ebert personally, but I would have a hard time believing that he would ever argue against the artistic merit of theater. After all, cinema is a byproduct of drama, which has been around much, much longer. Without thespians, cinema wouldn’t exist.

However, given that theater is most certainly artistic in nature, and given the list of other art forms in it incorporates, we can see that ALL of them are present in The Witcher 3. The game contains an amazing soundtrack by Marcin Przybytowicz and Mikolai Stroinski. The choreography that exists in the game’s combat is more impressive than most dance I have seen. The visuals of the game are, of course, astounding, despite not being over the top in terms of color or design. Simply looking at my blog’s header image will show you how visually pleasing this game is. And, of course, the acting, specifically the 300 hours of voice recording, is top notch. These 300 hours of recordings equates to roughly 450,000 words, or about 4 novels. Far longer than almost any movie script. The main character, Geralt, who was voice acted by Doug Cockle, has almost 70,000 lines of dialogue in the game.

Now, I would never argue that quantity = quality in terms of voice acting, but I think anyone who has played the game would concede that the voice acting is top notch. Of course, my above arguments do not even mention the countless other aspects of the game that are artistic, and amazingly done. I particularly enjoy the facial animation in The Witcher 3. There were many instances of it that were truly hilarious or emotionally moving.

That’s enough on the artistic merit of this game. If I haven’t convinced you yet, you probably won’t be convinced. Now I just want to talk about why it is my FAVORITE game.

I’ve been playing games since I was very young. My accreditation for writing about this topic is up to you, so I will leave it here. I have not played the first two Witcher games, but I certainly plan on it. I have extensive playtime in other popular RPG series, such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Pillars of Eternity, and Final Fantasy. I have also played my fair share of action games including many shooters, the Diablo series (which I will most certainly write about in the future), Path of Exile, Overwatch, several MOBA games, and the Batman series by Rocksteady studios. Of course, the games mentioned here are only a snippet of my gaming experience. My current playtime in The Witcher 3 is 287 hours, which included 2 playthroughs of the main story and 1 of each expansion (which are also top notch in nearly every way).

Without further ado, here is why The Witcher 3 is my favorite game: It is one of the only times in my life that I have admitted I was completely wrong. I am a damn stubborn person. My parents got on me a good bit for it growing up. I always had trouble admitting when I was wrong, and I still do sometimes. I had a friend named Sam in high school, who was just another guy in my group of nerdy stoner friends. Personally, I had often found Sam quite annoying (Sorry if you’re reading this, Sam, I still like you). If there was something that Sam liked, I kind of intrinsically wanted to not like it. I remember that I really enjoyed the song “Clint Eastwood” by the Gorillaz when I first heard it. However, I soon learned that it was one of Sam’s favorite songs and promptly stopped listening to it. Was that douchey of me? Probably, but it is what it is.

Naturally, when The Witcher 3 was released and Sam constantly ranted about how good it was, I refused to believe him. “Is it as good as Skyrim”, “I’ve never even heard of it” and “Graphics don’t make a game good” were a few of the arguments I used against him. It wasn’t until the game had been out for 3 years and I hadn’t seen Sam in a good long while, that I finally ended up buying the game on sale.

Good god, I was so, so wrong. I will preach for this game like it’s the bible and I’m a crazy redneck from Alabama who never quite figured out what they wanted to do with their life. Seriously, just listening to the soundtrack sometimes gives me chills. The creators of this game have said that The Witcher 4 is NOT coming. Why? Because, as they say, they currently don’t think it’s possible to make a successful sequel to The Witcher 3. And I agree.

It is possible to find many errors in the game, or little things that could have been done better. But that is true for everything in life. The reason that The Witcher 3 is so damn good is because it does everything, every little thing, extremely well. The story is engaging, as are the characters. The soundtrack fits in perfectly thematically and is not distracting. The visuals are stunning. The UI is clean, simple, and polished. The game has very few bugs. The amount of content is ridiculous. Your choices in the game actually have meaningful results. The game even includes Gwent, which is a minigame that was so good that many players joke that the actual gameplay was the minigame. I could go on for days and days about why The Witcher 3 is so good, and I’m sure I will return to it several times in future posts.

I hope that I am able to convince at least one person to give this game a try with my short little article. I promise you, it is worth every penny.

Please feel free to share, and comment on my writing, whether it be a stylistic choice you liked or disliked, or something I said that you agree or disagree with. I would love to discuss this topic further.