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Y'all in the Parks and Rec fandom don't apprieciate my mans Chris Traeger as much as you should and it makes me sad

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Mendel is like an ok therapist for adults, but he is a GREAT therapist (and stepdad) to jason and I adore it

tru tru tru

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The Wirey Psychaitrist Mendel Weisenbachfeld and Why He's Not As Awful As You Think: A Novel

Hi I'm squipipip and I'm here to explain to you why Mendel isn't as bad of a psychiatrist as everyone thinks.

And I'm not saying he's great, either.

He does some things well, and some thing horribly. That's what makes him interesting.

So first off: let's explore Act One.

When we first see Mendel outside of the opening number, he's helping Marvin with some self discovery and relationship issues. Marvin doesn't understand his and Whizzer's relationship, and he's unsure of it and of himself. In part one of "Marvin at The Psychaiatrist" Mendel asks him sort-of scaffolding yes-or-no questions that explore his relationship with Whizzer. These types of questions are easy to understand and to answer, and help to organize thoughts and events to make things less chaotic. This is actually a really good way to help people figure out complicated things in their lives that they don't understand so Good Job Mendel

Yeah we all know everything he does in Part Two of Marvin at The Psychiatrist us just really bad and inconsiderate of him and I'm aware of that. That just makes him terribly unorthodox, which does make him a not-really-that-good psychaiatrist, but it doesn't reflect on his capability of helping people.

In "Jason's Therapy", though some of the stuff he says seems like some weird Zen junk that doesn't make any sense, if you think about it a little, it starts to make sense. "If you count, it's alright, you can figure out the world, you can add and subtract at will, you can cover up the past, you can kill the pain very easily" is actually some solid advice. He's telling Jason to look at his life, and count up the good things, separate the good and the bad. He's telling him to emphasize the good, which is something a lot of neurotic people tend to not do, they more often emphasize the bad. Mendel is doing something similar to what he did with Marvin, attempting to help Jason out things into perspective. Putting Jason in the mindset to look at his life in third person. Once he does that, he can "add" the good and "divide" the bad and "subtract" what doesn't matter, which will help him again, to emphasize the good and look at life with more optimism.

Now, let's have a looksie at Act Two:

In "A Day In Falsettoland" Mendel and Trina sing together their mantra for pretty much all of Act Two. "Everything will be alright." Which, is actually a good coping skill, especially for people like Trina who are often very disoriented and scattered, and sometimes just complete wrecks. It's a healthy compulsive behavior. Something one can repeat until they calm down and eventually believe that everything will be alright. So here, Mendel is helping to give her a coping skill. (side note for this song: yes, he ended that lady's session once she asked something sensitive or serious, that's one of Mendel's many flaws as a psychiatrist, he's "frightened of questions"- but that's why I didn't say he was good, I just don't think he's awful)

In "Everyone Hates His Parents" Mendel connects with Jason and forms a deeper bond between them, all the while comforting him and making him not feel guilty for the things he's feeling (the anger towards his parents). Although this song is very comedic, he's helping Jason to not feel like he's alone and telling him that this is something many people deal with, even biblical figures from back in biblical times. He is letting Jason know he understands him. Also, he tells him "This too shall pass" which is some solid advice, he is letting Jason know that this fighting and this back and forth nonsense isn't going to last forever.

In "Cancelling The Bar Mitzvah", Mendel says some serious truths about life and it's one of those moments I don't really need to get into, just listen to the song if you don't remember it's pretty straightforward.

If you have any love and support for Mendel and his career, please make sure you add it we all love Mendel Weisenbachfeld.

In conclusion:

Mendel is a horribly unorthodox and wirey, neurotic psychiatrist who is very very flawed, but nonetheless, can still help people in his life with his skills and gets better at this over the course of the show.

Flawed characters are good characters

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itCARa’a

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My dash is lacking in content these days so please like and/or reblog if you post any of the following and I’ll follow you!

The Phantom of the Opera (books, musical, all movies)

Les Mis

Heathers (movie and/or musical)

Mean Girls (movie and/or musical)

Natsha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

really just all musicals

The Shadowhunter Chronicles (not the show pls)

Tom Holland/Spider-man

Marvel

Six of Crows

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I'm not Arab, but good God I love you all and I'm glad TBV exists with some proper Arab representation

I’m back to broadway baby

I left the broadway fandom because I just wasn’t liking all these broadway musicals. Then I saw this post of the song “Omar Sharif” from TBV and me being arab recognized this name. So I did my research and found the story and have been listening to the soundtrack. This story shows how people transcend their cultural barriers (Arabs/Israelis if you don’t know what I’m talking about look it up) and just be good people. Then I saw that Tony Shalhoub is in it and I’m Lebanese Maronite just like he was raised. I listen to Umm Kulthum and Fairuz. I watched Tony Shalhoub and Ari’el Stachel receive their Tonys and I cried at their speeches because I related to both of them. I barely understand Levantine Arabic but itgara’a is so beautiful I don’t even need to know what he’s saying. It was so amazing to see not only middle eastern actors but such a wide variety. In the western world you don’t see variety of Arabs but that cast contained Arab religious minorities (Jews and Christians) who are often overlooked in media. Representation is amazing and I am so grateful for these amazing actors showing me that I wasn’t alone in hiding my hummus and baba ghanoush and falafel and shawarma or when bullies said I was a lesbian instead of Lebanese. We aren’t towelheads or camel jockeys or terrorists. We are artists and we are Arabs.

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Help please

Where can one sell two Book of Mormon Pride Playbills

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“hi

i am…khhhhhhhhhALed.

i am…. musician

do you like 

CHET BAKER?”

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Saw The Book Of Mormon yesterday

Stephen Ashfield did the thing.

The thing.

The thing that is really only ever done in West end productions, because we never see it in boots.

This thing.

Literally made my night.

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So like every theatre kid, I watched the Tonys

I watched it mainly for OOTI, but I had made myself familiar with Mean Girls and Spongebob.

There was one show I was not familiar with, was the Band's Visit. I was only slightly aware of it because I love Tony Shalhoub (literally watching Monk right now) (also my main man won a tony)

We all know what happened. The Band's Visit SWEPT.

And rightly so.

After the Tonys I listened to the Band's Visit and by God you guys it's amazing

Not only is it fantastic for portraying growing relationships between just a small group of Israeli and Egyptian people, it's awesome that it's all middle-eastern casted! Proper resprentation!!!

The band PLAYS THEIR OWN MUSIC. Like, the actors on stage. That's cool as hell. And it's this really awesome intricate Arab-style music that has some really intense percussion that I LOVE.

Characters?? Yes!! Love em. Dina is so sassy and chill and funny, love her. Tewfiq is a beautifully written emotional role, love him. Papi? What a cutie. Love him. Haled? A true good friend. Love him.

Omar Sharif is a gorgeous song. Papi hears the Ocean is a banger. Welcome to Nowhere? Sign me up. Answer me? Love it. Haleds song about love is 👌👌👌Haj-Butrus is ART.

Please stop trashing/sleeping on The Band's Visit. It's a wonderful musical. And remember when Hamilton swept the Tonys, no one complained. So don't complain about this. It's a lovely musical, and y'all should give it a chance.

Please don't hate on something just because you don't know it.

Please don't hate on something because it beat out your favorites.

The Band's Visit deserved every single award it got.

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Better Watch Out

Incoming love and support for The Band's Visit coming up

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y'all were sleeping on The Band’s Visit before but now!!!! you better appreciate her!!!!

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PSA TO PEOPLE WHO VISIT STAGEDOORS

Ok, everyone, quick story time.

I’m currently in New York for college tours, but I managed to go to the “Mean Girls” stagedoor yesterday to try to meet anyone who would come out. Everything was fine at first, a little chaotic, but nothing terrible. After a while, Stephanie Lynn Bissonnette, an ensemble member of the show, came out to sign Playbills and meet everyone. The girl standing next to me saw her when she came down and asked, “Can I ask you a question?”, and Stephanie, of course, said yes. I could tell she was excited to talk and not just sign things. However, the girl said “When is Barrett coming out?” and “Do you know when Barrett is coming out?” and “I just want to meet Barrett!”, and I froze. Stephanie just said she didn’t know and kept walking, saying hi to everyone.

Now, guys. I cannot begin to explain how incredibly rude it is to ask a cast member for someone else WHILE THEY ARE TAKING TIME TO SIGN AN AUTOGRAPH, POSE FOR PICTURES, AND SAY HI JUST FOR YOU. Just think, if you were in a hit Broadway musical, you wouldn’t want people asking for someone else when you’re kind enough to come out to begin with.

Please do not be this person. Respect and appreciate each actor for the work they’ve done and everything they put out on that stage. It’s ok to be a fan. It’s ok to want to see Barrett (or any other cast member) and be excited about it!! It’s ok to hope that and want your favorite cast member to say hi to you. But please, please, please be respectful. Don’t ask other actors, crew members, or people who work on the show for other people. Many of the girls around me did also want to meet Barrett, and when she didn’t come out they were disappointed, but they were completely understanding. Actors are not obligated in any way to come out to the stagedoor. Some were annoyed, saying things like, “We pay their bills. The least they can do is take a picture”. When you see a show, you are paying to see the show, and if an actor comes out, that’s great!! But no one is obligated to come out, and you should be grateful for the ones who do. The performers need to protect themselves, their voices, and their bodies. You are never paying for a meet-and-greet with the people. I KNOW how much it can hurt when your favorite person doesn’t come out; trust me I KNOW how much it hurts, but getting mad isn’t going to make anything better. Meeting people at the stagedoor is a privilege.

So moral of the story is please don’t ask actors in a show for other actors, and please don’t blame the actors for not stagedooring every night. Remember that you got to see a Broadway show!! Thousands of people only dream of an opportunity like that.

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Shoplifting

Tumblr: Sometimes homeless people shoplift to make ends meet. If you see a homeless person taking something from a grocery store, it may be more moral to look the other way so they can eat.

Me: That doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Tumblr: I had to steal all this makeup from Sephora to resist capitalism! We live in an unjust system that forces me to pay for things other people had to make! Stop harassing me, I’m a minor!

Me:

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Statements that shouldn't be controversial but are because tumblr is fucked up:

“Pedophillia is bad”

“Skin color largely doesn’t determine how someone is as a person”

“Violence against people for political reasons is messed up”

“Terrorism, in any form, is never justified”

“Shoplifting is bad”

“Men and women deserve to be treated equally under the law”

“Abuse, no matter who the perpetrator is or who the victim is, is never justified”

“Racism is bad, no matter what race it’s against”

“You can be friends with someone of differing political views”

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I work at Walmart. This week we had to let three associates go because over the course of our last two quarters our losses due to theft more than doubled, and we need to cut costs in the departments these associates worked in. All three of these associates have children; two of them are single parents. If you make a habit of shoplifting from stores because “the company makes billions every year so they can handle a few hundred dollars in losses,” think about that, and think about the lives you’re ruining. We lose our jobs when you do what you do. Don’t pretend it doesn’t affect us.