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More adventures at "the pictures"; let me tell you, watching this after spending the morning at the Met was a pretty ideal experience...

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Absolutely off the cuff/ "first thought, best thought", but I couldn't resist...

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Perfume Genius at Brooklyn Paramount, 06.10.25

I've been a fan of Mike Hadreas ever since I saw the video for "Queen" about ten years ago (!!)-- it felt, and still feels, refreshingly provocative and exciting. I knew I wanted to see him live at some point, but somehow things never aligned in the right way; I saw that he was playing here in June but put it in the back of my mind (in fairness, I've had... a lot going on, but who doesn't). Lo and behold, an acquaintance of mine posted that they were going, Tuesday afternoon, and, navigating the vagaries of the Ticketmaster app with gritted teeth, I snagged a ticket and immediately began planning my outfit. The nice part is, the Brooklyn Paramount is extremely easy to get to from my apartment, so I knew I'd have plenty of time to get ready.

Over the years, I've been lucky enough to see some pretty major acts in concert-- my whole family went to see Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in 2013, and afterward, my mom and I were discussing the phenomenon of *seeing* Tom on stage, of being in the same room with him. "The real guy! And he's so small!" -- and yet, how powerful he was, captivating all of us. (One of my earliest memories is watching my mom passionately sing along with "Refugee" in the car; she would have been a little younger than I am now.) But it's also something I've thought about in my years following a certain cohort of the Brooklyn DIY scene: how a band, or a person, can control the room, and what a difference it makes. Often it's a matter of timing-- if you've got the first slot, a lot of the time your audience is still filing in, still greeting their friends, etc. (I will never, ever forgive the crowd of absolute elbows talking over Blind Boy Paxton at Bowery Ballroom in 2013...) But there is also some ineffable thing-- call it power, charisma, or just "it" if you like-- when the whole crowd is drawn together under this net of sound and light, no matter how late it is, or how tired we all are, or whatever-- watching the performer lead us up and out of ourselves for a little while.

And that's what it was like to watch Hadreas and his absolutely killer band take us through the new tracks from Glory-- the silver wire of "It's a Mirror" being a particular highlight-- and older standbys like "Wreath" and "Slip Away". It's ironic, in a way, that I used such ethereal language above, when the physicality of his music is such an important element. First, watching him cavort around the stage, angling and twisting, sometimes rolling around on a big exercise ball, but also the fact that so much of his whole project is about the body. There's the joyous, earthbound sensuality of "On the Floor", but also the unnerving, almost grotesque tension of "Die 4 You" (which was not on the setlist, but goes to my point), and that's before we even get to "Queen"-- a song that bares its teeth. (I also deeply appreciated the cover of Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You"...)

Without veering into a whole separate vein of discussion, I would feel a little remiss not to add one more layer of context. I'm a bisexual woman, and although I've been lucky enough not to face a lot of negativity around that in my day-to-day life, the ambient climate is... you know... pretty bad. Like, on the one hand, I don't spend a lot of time talking about it because it's Not a Big Deal, really-- but, also, it is. It matters that there are people who want to erase the freedoms we have fought so hard for, and gained so recently. Hell, the way things are going, they'll be after no-fault divorce next. And so, without getting precious, let me just say that watching someone whose art is so candid and so much about what it means to be queer and human and vulnerable in this world felt like a power boost. Walking home, looking at the coppery full moon through the sleeping brownstones, feeling the warm night breeze... I'm going to be riding that for a while.

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On very special nights the disco balls can hatch

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YAO as Bo Chow SINNERS (2025) dir. Ryan Coogler

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Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light - Episode 6 (Finale) Thoughts

A few years ago, I made the following observation: "So, to sum up, The Mirror and the Light is basically the phrase, 'You've made your bed, now you have to sleep in it' applied to various characters with increasingly tragic results." Let's dive in below, shall we?

-Oh Rafe. Our darling Master Sadler. The thing is, obviously, I knew these scenes were going to happen, but basically every time he was on screen in this episode I just burst into tears. You do wonder how much he knew, or guessed, but I can totally see Riche and Call-Me freezing him out (much easier to do since he was mostly with the king, rather than with Cromwell). It's a double irony-- they wouldn't have trusted him not to warn off Cromwell, precisely because, out of all of them, he's about the only one with an actual moral center.

-Speaking of the Gruesome Twosome (a favorite trope of mine, by the way: The Two Scheming Guys. Like those two weirdos in Diamonds Are Forever. Anyway.)-- Harry Melling entirely endeared himself to me with his performance. Call-Me is kind of the Fredo Corleone in this scenario: he's so desperate to be liked, to be heard and listened to and found useful. Which, of course, is why Cromwell liked him-- because he was clever and ambitious and unscrupulous. But he's also a little coward. Melling's sick, miserable facial expressions during the 'trial' sequences are just perfect; he does in fact look like he's being roasted alive.

-As for Riche; ultimately, he knew which side his bread was getting buttered on. I haven't said much about Tom Mothersdale's performance, but he's great here-- he's not happy about this, but he's got a career to think about. (Fun fact: the real Riche had fifteen children. Fifteen! Not all of them lived to adulthood, but holy hell that's a lot to provide for, even for someone as well set up as he was.)

-In general, honestly, I was so thrilled that we got a fucking chamber drama for most of the episode. This is my Wolf Hall! Several Thomases in one room, all mad at each other for various reasons! I loved Rylance's work here-- like, he knows he's doomed, so might as well have a little fun. On Chapuys: "Oh dear, he'll have to find somewhere else to eat his dinner."

-I thought we were going to escape Horror-Movie Dorothea this episode, but alas. I'm sorry, I just thought this bit was so cheesy! The original scene hits like a goddamn truck in the book, but the fact that they kept banging us over the head with it lessened the impact. Plus I hated the 'whispery choir' motif. The main plucked-lute theme is so pretty!

-Pleased that we got the scene of Henry with Rafe. "Read it again." Henry, you jerk.

-And a rare flash of insight from Norfolk, in the speech about all of them (yes, all) being only instruments to Henry. "What do you do with a dog at the end of the hunting season?"

-Oh, god, poor Mary having to watch Katherine Howard get all trussed up. I mean, obviously, I have immense sympathy for Katherine Howard, a teenage girl who made the kind of choices teenage girls make, but that little scene was just great. After all, the way it's presented here, Cromwell did in fact save her life; of course she'd be sorry to lose him.

-Completely irrelevant, but the actor who plays Richard Cromwell, Joss Porter, looks so much like a former roommate of mine that it kinda takes me out.

-Ultimately, as you've all seen, I had my difficulties with this season, but I still enjoyed it. I've been thinking about when the first series came out, and I read the first two books in the summer afterward. I was working part-time then, getting out at 2 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and I used to go and sit in Madison Square Park after I got done. Something about that early summer air, listening to the city around me as I sat and read... it was a very happy time for me. (It's been so gray and chilly this year; it's only in the last few weeks that we've had more than two or three consecutive days of sunshine.)

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...but seriously, why did they cut out Wyatt? Argghh!! And they more or less dropped the Pole family intrigue. And no Joan Boughton and no eel boy... (kicks a pinecone and walks off, muttering)...

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The second time through Riddley Walker (Russell Hoban, © 1980), the following two sentences just stopped me in my tracks:

"I never did get to do any of that tho." (p. 25) - This is just after Riddley's father's funeral, when he's thinking about making a cape from the pelt of the old dog that offered itself to him. Already, things have started to change in his life-- he's recognized as an adult/member of the community, and now has to take on his father's position and responsibilities. And this is what's so great about his characterization-- we have no doubt that he's perfectly capable of doing all of that; he's tough and wise and has some standing in the group... but he's fucking twelve. And Hoban finds all kinds of ways to remind us of that. Here he is, imagining a costume for himself-- on the one hand, yes, it'll be practical and warm, but then there's his little idea of using the dog's teeth as decoration. And then, we get a taste of the future, laced with retrospective bitterness. I was going to do this, but that's not the way it turned out...

"He said, 'Becaws you wont all ways have me wil you.'" (p. 98) - Here's a tip: don't try to be friends with the Archbishop of Canterbury. It didn't work out for Henry II, and it doesn't work out for Riddley either. But before we get there, the sequence of Riddley and the Ardship/Lissener traveling together is just so great. Riddley has no idea who this weird little freak is, but he can't just leave him behind. (The Huck Finn comparison is very apt-- Riddley's moral compass is set true. It runs up against the distortion and corruption of the world/society around him, and it wavers, but he never really loses it. Unfortunately, the Ardship has never lived a free life; he has no sense of what that means.)

I've been thinking about doing a piece comparing Penda's Fen (1974) and Enys Men (2022), and now I think I might be able to weave this one in with them. Something about digging for things that might be better left buried, something about England's essential paganism, something about the Green Man...

(I'm still burnt up that we didn't get the whole business with Becket's bones in the Mirror and the Light adaptation. I've got to finish that too... Hmph.)

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"Ridiculous Self-Indulgence? On My Blog? It's More Likely Than You'd Think."

--or--

Oh no, she's making YouTube playlists again... (look, I don't have Spotify, ok?)

I came up with a new Guy recently and have started putting him in various situations; like most of my protagonists, music is quite important to him, so, more as a character exercise than anything else, I came up with a bunch of songs that I think he'd find essential.

Henry's Tunes:

Harvey Danger, "Flagpole Sitta"

Camper Van Beethoven, "Take the Skinheads Bowling"

The Clash, "City of the Dead"

Buzzcocks, "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)"

James Bay, "Pink Lemonade"

The Replacements, "I'll Be You"

Uncle Tupelo, "That Year"

The Jam, "That's Entertainment"

The Walkmen, "The Blue Route"

Shilpa Ray, "After Hours"

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Every year into my 30s is another year further away from my 20s... (I was never on board with the whole "Waahh, adulting!!" thing. I love being an adult. My time is mine.)

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Hi friends, please enjoy this goofy music video starring some good pals of mine (and their dastardly alter egos...)!

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not allowed to say Harry Potter, but what was your book series obsession as a teen

mine was definitely Eragon

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You are offered $1000 if you can perfectly sing a random, popular karaoke song - it doesn't matter if you sound good, you just have to get all the words right, but no cheating! lyrics are not provided. spin the wheel and determine your fate...

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I enjoyed this soooo much; it's a great time.

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Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light - Episode 5

"Nice work if you can get it, but if you get it, don't tell me how..."

A bit late on this one, as I had family in town for Easter; we actually all wanted to watch but were late getting back to the hotel after supper. (We watched Dark Winds instead. It's pretty good!) I'm sure all ten of you have been waiting with bated breath, but fear not! My usual natterings below:

Is it just me or has this all felt really rushed? I thought the pacing of the first series was perfect, especially given that Bring Up the Bodies is essentially 300 pages of "Oh, shit, what do we do now?" But I feel like this round could have used at least eight episodes. No Becket's bones? No Richard jousting? No awkward promenade with Mary and Anne of Cleves? (Love that actress' look; she's perfect.) No Bess Darrell?????

But onto the good-- Mary agreeing to meet with Philip while giving Crumb as much brush-off as she dares; the delivery of "I don't let anyone tell me anything." And the little tete-a-tete in the garden-- that probably was the closest Mary had ever been to a man her own age at that point.

Really felt like Melling came into his own with Call-Me this episode-- his little tempy tantrum at the table; his obvious desperation to be the man on the spot. (I am glad we at least had news from Wyatt; I was worried they'd show him once and then not bring him up again. Also holy shit Gregory saying, "A kind word, father." *Ouchie.*

OK more complaining: the whole "nightmare Dorothea" bit with the zooming camera... I'm sorry, it's just kind of silly.

What was not silly was Crumb's monologue after being made Earl of Essex, talking to the empty corner. Rylance just seems so tired. And with that, the mixed euphoria and fear between Call-Me and Sadler-- like, all three of them know it's too good to be true.

Loved the scene where he almost stabs Norfolk; that was perfectly done.

This is a new thought, but it's weird how in this run, the stakes feel smaller, in a way? In the first series, with the whole conflict between him and More, you really had that sense of a new era taking shape-- in a way, this time even with the uprising in the north and Lambert's trial, I feel as though the focus of the show itself, i.e. the script, got narrower. And I suppose some of it's a budgetary thing, which I get. But man, I dunno. Somehow we didn't get enough about the players on the board-- the Poles, Wyatt, Chapuys, etc. He says that thing to Sadler about "re-shaping the map" which yes, putting Henry in alliance with the German princes absolutely would have done, but it doesn't feel as momentous as it should. (And no Christina of Milan!)

But that last, or nearly last, scene between Rylance and Lewis. Spectacular. Perfect. Henry's upset that he has to do this; it's not one of his 'caprices'.

Can't believe there's only one more to go.