#dracula - a musical I watch for the plot

[lady-dulcinea]

Mina & Jonathan's moments during Whitby Bay

from the Korean production of Dracula, The Musical [정선아] Jeong Sun Ah as Mina Murray [조강현] Jo Kang Hyun as Jonathan Harker

[margridarnauds]

Jeon Dong Seok and Jeung Sun Ah in Dracula - The Musical

[mintsturniolo]

let's get out of here (m.s)

matt sturniolo x f!reader

a/n: happy halloween 🎃 this was meant to be more Halloween related but ya'll it's 2am and i have work at 8 so you know. unedited since i literally wrote this in the span of 1 hour

this plot was given to me by @sturniolo04

summary: when you and matt end up on your own during a halloween party, leading you to end up going on a late drive and watching a movie

You wouldn't say you were having the time of your life on the dance floor, but being with your best friend was helping you to have a good time. The music blasted in the background as the two of you danced to your favorite song. You took a sip of the liquor in the red cup you were holding. You noticed a young man across the room watching you. He was with a small group of friends but seemed to be distracted from the conversation they were having. You smiled and gave him a friendly wave. He looked familiar, but you couldn’t figure out how you knew him. “I told you that you’d have fun,” your friend said, interrupting your thoughts.

“What Rebecca?” You asked. “Oh yeah. I am.”

“Ugh,” Rebecca sighed as the two of you made your way to a table in the living room. “I need another drink.”

You lifted up a bottle of tequila. “Shots or no?” you asked curiously.

Rebecca was about to reply when she spotted someone across the room. “Is that Chris?” she asked, drawing your attention to the young man wearing a bomber jacket with a baseball bat resting on his shoulders.

That’s why you recognized the other guy. He was one of the triplets that was always at these parties. You had talked to Matt once or twice, but he was the quiet one, and not much for small talk. “Yeah, that’s him,” you sighed. “Can we not deal with him tonight.”

You couldn’t stand watching Rebecca talk to Chris, knowing how toxic their relationship was. Rebecca glared at you before fixing her hair. “I promise. This won’t take long,” she said. “I just need to ask him something.”

“No. Please don’t leave me here. I didn’t want to come here anyway. Don’t make me be alone,” you pleaded.

“You’ll be fine,” Rebecca told you before walking over to the younger triplet.

You rolled your eyes as you looked around. “Great,” you muttered to yourself.

Parties weren’t your scene, but you enjoyed it as long as you weren’t left on your own. You made your way to the porch to see what everyone was up to. After greeting a few of your classmates, you decided to head back inside and get another drink. You paused when you noticed one of the triplets sitting quietly on the couch looking at his phone. You walked over and smiled. “Hello cowboy,” you said with a small grin. “Matt, right?”

The young man looked up and nodded. “Yeah…” he muttered. “Do I know you from somewhere?” he asked, taking a sip from the red cup in his hand.

You introduced yourself and sat down beside Matt. It was quiet for a moment before Matt looked at you, taking in the costume you were wearing. “Are you a pirates of the carribean fan?” he asked.

You were about to ask how he guessed, when you remembered what your costume was. You nodded. “My favorite series,” you replied. “What inspired the cowboy costume?”

Matt shrugged, looking down at his own costume. “Honestly, this is all I could come up with,” he replied.

“Well you look good,” You complimented.

Matt blushed slightly, looking at the ground. “My costume last year was better though.”

“Really?” You asked.

You had met him here last year, but you couldn’t remember what he’d been dressed as. Matt nodded. “Count Dracula,” he told you with a smile.

The two of you sat quietly for a couple more minutes as you took in the party scene before you. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. You would have been too if Rebecca hadn’t left you on your own, but you now were more interested in getting to know Matt better. You turned to Matt, noticing he still looked a little uncomfortable. “You want to get out of here?” You asked.

“Where would we go?” Matt asked, clearly eager for a reason to leave the party.

You thought for a moment before shrugging. “A drive around LA sounds nice. Not many people on the roads right now. Maybe something to eat.”

Matt stood up, offering his hand out to you. You accepted and smiled as he led you through the house, to the front door. You spotted Rebecca and Chris on the couch making out and rolled your eyes. You and Matt exchanged glances before making your way to his car.

*time skip *

“So what were your plans tonight?” Matt asked, taking a bite out of his burger. “If you hadn’t come to the party.”

“Watch scary movies and have some popcorn,” you replied. “Pretty lame I guess.”

Matt shook his head as he watched you for a moment. “Those were my plans too,” he said.

You smiled up at him. “What’s your favorite scary movie?” you asked, using your best ghostface impression.

“I know a lot of people don’t like it, but The Nun is one of my favorites,” Matt laughed. “I take it by the way you asked that question that the Scream franchise is one of your favorites?”

You nodded, as you looked out the window. “Not the entire franchise of course. I don’t know what the point of the fourth one was,” you told Matt. “Worst one in my opinion.”

“That was the one with the girl’s cousin or niece right?” Matt asked.

“Yeah,” You replied.

“Definitely the worst in the franchise then,” Matt agreed. “It’s the only one I haven’t rewatched,” Matt explained.

Matt rested against the headrest, staring out at the city in front of them. The view from this parking lot had always been his favorite. You looked up at him and noticed that he was glancing at you. “What are you thinking?” You asked.

“A movie doesn’t sound too bad,” he muttered. “We could go back to my place. Make some popcorn and watch some good halloween movies. I don’t know.”

You took his statement into consideration before agreeing. Neither of you wanted to go back to the party, and you clearly had the same taste in movies.

*time skip*

You were surprised when you saw the size of the house Matt shared with his brothers. You didn’t know what you expected, but it wasn’t this. Matt lead you up the stairs of the entryway, and into the living room. The two of you made your way into the kitchen, still debating what the best movie to watch would be as Matt looked for where they kept the popcorn. He held up two boxes as he turned to you. “What are we thinking? Caramel or salted?”

“Caramel of course,” you replied, earning a smile from him.

“I was hoping you would say that,” he said as he opened the box.

When the two of you had finished up in the kitchen, you got settled on the couch, turning on the tv. “I haven’t watched the newest Conjuring movie,” you blurted out, earning a raised eyebrow from Matt.

“Seriously? You have to watch it, if only to see how bad it is compared to the rest of the movies,” Matt insisted. “Only if you want to of course.”

“Well now I have to watch it so I can know what it is we don’t like about it,” You said with a smile. “Party doesn’t end for a couple of hours anyway, so they won’t be back for a while.”

A grin spread across Matt’s face as he clicked on the movie.

Taglist

@dirtylittleheart333 @sturniolo04 @yourenogoodforme @flouvela @mattyblover07 @sturnioloveniamh @slutforsturniolos @ivysturnss

[the-lincyclopedia]

This post is part plug, part nostalgic celebration. See, back in 2014, I was a senior in high school, and I was completely unaware of web series adaptations of classic literature (like the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Emma Approved, the March Family Letters, etc.). My first year of college, my roommates introduced me to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which I fell in love with (if you're logged into AO3, you can see my LBD fics), and I deeply enjoyed multiple other Pemberley Digital productions and loved the 2022-2023 experience of watching the Look Back Diaries as the star of LBD reminisced and spilled a LOT of tea.

But I didn't really look for classic lit web series outside of Pemberley Digital, which meant I didn't watch Nothing Much to Do. Until now.

See, @thecandlewasters (the folks who made Nothing Much to Do, the web series adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing) are serializing all of the videos and transmedia content from Nothing Much to Do via email this year for the ten-year anniversary. It's like Dracula Daily meets the Look Back Diaries (no commentary from the actors, crew, or creators, but an email with a link to each part of the Nothing Much to Do experience on the ten-year anniversary of each video, tweet, Instagram/Tumblr post dropping).

And y'all. Okay, Much Ado about Nothing is my favorite Shakespeare play and I love it a possibly unreasonable amount, so I'm biased, but this adaptation is so good. I was worried it would be, like, loosely "inspired" by the Shakespeare original, but it is SPOT ON, both in terms of the plot and even in terms of a surprising amount of the smaller stuff. Like, when Ben is explaining that Claudio thinks Pedro was trying to get with Hero himself instead of wingmanning like he'd promised, Ben uses that clumsy little bird nest analogy that Benedick uses in the play. It's such a faithful adaptation! I'm so interested to see where they're going to go with this, particularly the Claudio/Hero of it all (please no spoilers; I want to be surprised!).

And also, you know how I said I was a senior in high school in 2014? Well, Nothing Much to Do is about high schoolers (made by teenagers and very young adults), and it's set in 2014. It is EXACTLY my era. Beatrice watches Sherlock. Hero reads John Green. A lot of the boys listen to Mumford and Sons. Like, these are my people. I would have fit right into this frenemy group. And it's just so incredibly nostalgic to see teenagers dressing in 2014 teen fashion and listening to 2014 music and reading 2014 YA books and watching 2014 shows and having 2014 discussions about social issues and using social media in 2014 kinds of ways. Stuff has changed in the intervening years--some for better, some for worse--but I hadn't realized how much love was stored in 2014 nerdy teenage pop culture, for me in particular.

If you want to join me in following Nothing Much to Daily, you can subscribe here: https://thecandlewasters.substack.com/about. (This is not a paid plug or anything; I'm just a really excited fan!)

[c-schroed]

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) Or Why The Probably Most Accurate Movie Adaptation Of Dracula Still Is Not Accurate Enough

I mentioned some time ago - while salivating over the marvellous razor scene of Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula adaptation - that there is quite some stuff to unpack here. And now I found some time to unpack. So let's begin. I'll start with the good stuff, firstly the good stuff that's not in the book (i.e., the Flourishes), than the good stuff that's true to the book (the Well-Conserved). Thirdly, I'll make note of things that were, unnervingly, changed (by which I mean They Came Back Wrong), and then I'll deal with what is unfortunately left out from the book (the Missing). And finally, finally I'll rant over that two bad things that never were in the book in the first place (a section I'll call JUST WHY?).

So. A tragedy in five acts. Here we go.

Act I - The Flourishes

The razor scene. I think I dealt with this enough by now. It's perfection and I'll die on that hill.

The music. Obviously, Bram Stoker's gothic lil masterpiece is lacking some gorgeous score. But mourn no longer, because Wojciech Kilar cooked up some dashing, pushing tune for us, fitting perfectly to this dark tale of spreading darkness and deepening madness.

Some basic knowledge about blood groups. Yeah, Stoker can't be blamed for this, but still. It's a nice addition to remind us that we do indeed live in a world where blood groups exist.

The Westenra Estate. As much as I pity that the lovely town of Whitby did not make it into the movie, I do love Lucy Westenra's house. Because I'm a sucker for hedge mazes. Simple as that.

Those glasses. Those. Fucking. Nice. Glasses.

Act II - The Well-Conserved

The plot in general. Yes, there are a lot of maddening differences, as we will see soon. But still, this movie at least makes the impression that most of the people working on it had indeed read the darn novel. Which is something that I can't say about many other Dracula adaptations I have seen.

The costumes, the sets, the atmosphere. Well done, everyone!

The Actors. The good thing about being not native in a language is that one is not very prone to dialects that seem off. And as I happen to not be a native speaker of English, I have little problems with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder adding some US touch to what should be very, very, v e r y British characters. I even find Reeves perfectly fitting for the oh so darn young Jonathan Harker. And the rest of the cast is marvellous, too (with the exception of Winona Ryder, see below for details). Especially Tom Waits, who is hard-wired to the name of Renfield in my brain ever since I first saw this movie. And Gary Oldman as Dracula… Well. I think I already made clear what opinion I have about that sexy bastard.

Some lucky few of lovely quotes made it over to the film. Dracula's welcome. The Fowl Bauble of Human Vanity, of course. And Qunincey almost making me faint when saying "Little girl" when I least expected it.

Act III - They Came Back Wrong

The dates. Goshdarnit, the dates! It's an epistolary novel, so why make the effort of making up completely new dates for events that already had a precise date in the novel? I just don't get it. And it unnerves me. Every. Fucking. Time.

Time in general. Watching the movie after Dracula Daily makes it feel so very, very hasty. Jonathan travels to Castle Dracula like it's no thing at all. And the first few days in Castle Dracula are condensed into one weird evening.

Dracula meeting Mina before Jonathan is back. I really, really loved the book for avoiding the most terrible tropes. And then comes this movie, and struts right into this terrible pitfall.

Mina. I'm sorry, usually I love the work of Winona Ryder, but here she was way too bland. Maybe it was because her character had quite a revamp (ha. ha.) and no one cared to tell her what new approach she should take. But whatever reason, the clever, adorable train fiend of the original did not deserve this!

Act IV - The Missing

The Voyage of the Demeter is way too short. Where is "But I am captain, and I must not leave my ship"? Where is the poor sea captain tying himself to the wheel? And where is his funeral? Oh, I really missed all that. And, I mean, I don't mind hearing Anthony Hopkins read the lines, but would it have been such an expense to at least hire an additional actor to voice the correspondent or the sea captain?

Jonathan Holding Mina By the Arm. That's really not an objectively big issue. That's just me who fell in love with JonMina after reading this chapter. And almost no one does it properly. They deserve justice!

(Thanks a ton to @smieska for capturing my mood just perfectly!)

Act V - JUST WHY?

Elisabeta. Don't get me wrong here: All of the oh so tragic Drac backstory they invented for this movie is terribly unnecessary. But in this sea of uselessness, the tragically deceased wife of Vlad Țepeș that just so happens to perfectly resemble Mina Murray is an audience-insulting island of unoriginality. I mean, yeah, I guess someone wanted to add some romance to the story of Vlad the Fucking Impaler. Because, well, nineties or so. But Mina, of all women? Why not invent some new character that can be bothered with such stuff? Why ruin an all-nice JonMina ship? I don't get the whole new backstory, and I especially don't get this aspect.

Dracula raping Lucy in his shitty werewolf form. Everything about this is wrong. And it has no relevance for the plot. Just. Blergh.

Epilogue

It's cruel to watch Francis Ford Coppola's take on Dracula right after finishing @re-dracula. I know that now. Everything is still too fresh. It's a good movie, after all, but especially because it's quite good it is frustrating to be so terribly aware of all its shortcomings. In a few weeks or so, I would recommend it, again, I guess. As long as it's still Dracula off-season. 7 out of 10 points.

P. S. Wanna know what I think of a recent remake of a cheap Dracula-rip-off that turned into a masterpiece of film history? Then feel free to visit my review of Robert Eggers' Nosferatu.

[can-of-w0rmz]

Have you seen the Dracula musical?

Not really, but I read a plot synopsis and listened to the soundtrack a while ago. The only song I really liked was The Master’s Song, W for giving my guy Renfield some screen time, but apart from that, I mean yeah. Just another shitty adaptation pissing itself to push the Mina x her rapist plotline, because a consensual and loving marriage can’t be romantic! She’s a Victorian woman! She has to be oppressed by her husband! And sexually repressed! Despite… having a son? Because we all know history is completely streamlined and not complicated whatsoever and all women born before the 2000s were miserable and had no personalities or opinions. It’s feminist to make her a one dimensional plot device swooning over the eldritch monster who assaulted her.

What’s that? A well-rounded and assertive protagonist in a healthy and stable relationship? And she’s in a piece of classic literature? That takes more than two brain cells to comprehend, sorry! Time to butcher your favourite vampire hunter archivist. But go watch the Barbie movie, Hollywood is sooooo progressive. Just don’t look at that sweet sweet profit or think about it too hard for more than five seconds.

That’s a total rant, my bad, and this is more about Dracula adaptations in general than the musical specifically, but when most 80s action sci-fi movies have more multifaceted and interesting female characters than modern shit that actively markets itself as “feminist”, you know words don’t mean shit anymore and postmodernism and capitalist hellscapes have retracted in on themselves like an AI eating itself alive until the final product is meaningless and unrecognisable, and still profiting off of the ignorant who’ve been conditioned by the system not to think.

Also, I have a love hate relationship with Frank Wildhorn. Occasionally he cooks w/ some absolute bangers but a lot of his stuff feels kinda uninspired. No hate to him personally ofc, I don’t know enough about him to say anything remotely about that.

But anyway, tl:dr, no, I haven’t watched it the whole way through, but I know the general beats and needless to say I’m skeptical of adaptations of that book in general, and just pissed off with the state of that specific kind of “feminist retelling” shit that gets churned out, stuffed into an interesting looking costume and called “artistic”.

[imaginewarehouse]

Jacob Stone x Reader || Oneshot

Plot: You're sick and tired of constant jobs. I mean- you'll go, of course you will. There are people who need your help. But god--

All you want to do is still stay at home and make out with your hot artistic cowboy boyfriend on a Saturday. Is that s o much to ask??

Warnings: Sexual references maybe. Tiny ones.

🔆🔆🔆

The blinds are drawn shut, the room dark except for the shock of white daytime light slipping inside through the crack in the curtains; bars of white painting the middle of the bed and a strip of Jake's back a brighter colour. Music is playing softly in the background, something mellow and non-distracting that Jake picked since its his place- his stereo- his tunes.

You're laid out on the bed all-comfy, a pillow under the arch of your back and your legs wrapped around a beer-barrel waist and Jakes on top of you; holding himself up so he doesn't crush you, but ehhhh still crushing you a little. You love it.

A gentle, relaxed moan slips out of you when he parts from your lips for a second to take a tiny breath and switch sides, before pressing his soft mouth back to yours and slipping his talented tongue back between your lips; kissing you slowly, like the passionate poet he is.

-then suddenly a loud, obnoxious ringtone sounds and you're so surprised; you jump! You knock your forehead into Jake's and nip his bottom lip! "Ah! Shit- " Well, a little more then a nip. You actually bit him!-

"I'm sorry!" You exclaim, shocked and guilty as you both sit up and you watch him wide, worried eyes as he touches where you bit him. When he finds no blood, he just shrugs; flashing you a grin. An amused grin. Amused, at your panic (Like you're so fricken cute). "I'm so so sorry- "

"Don't worry about it. Now," His gaze wonders over to his phone on the dresser, and your heart falls; remembering the ringtone. Your hopes for a quiet, slow morning are crushed. "What was that?" As Jake reaches past you for the phone and presses answer, pressing it to his ear and straightening up again, you give a sigh.

"One guess." You pout, wrapping your arms around your knees and hugging them to your chest, a bored and annoyed look on your face as you watch him.

His eyebrows lift up hearing what's said through the phone that you cant hear, and he nods; Going into business mode. Damn. You were right- Without needing to know what exactly is being said, you let your legs hang over the side of the bed, touch the ground, and get up. You begin your search for your pants, still with that frustrated look on your face. Where did they end up last night??... We watched Dracula, I kicked off my shoes, then we went to sleep and I wiggled outta my jeans... ha! Over there- "Really?... Huh. Okay, yeah, Y/N'll meet ya at the library in 10- "

Jake stops talking, and you're not sure why, til you turn around and catch him looking at you. You raise your brows, like what?

"What's that look on your face?" He hisses (Well, mutters so whoever's on the other end of the phone cant hear him- but in his voice it sounds like a low, husky hiss), his eyebrows knitting together. He's already dressed, having been up writing on his laptop beside you when you finally ended your (Much deserved) sleep-in; and you kind of resent him for it. He's all put-together, he doesn't need a break- he's happy to go on another life-or-death mission right away! At the drop of a hat! As he should be! But you?? You feel like Grumpy the dwarf after a cut-short hibernation. All you want is to stay in bed with your cowboy and make out. Or sleep. Or watch more old movies. It doesn't really matter what you do, so long as its in bed.

You feel like you've been on missions non-stop lately; risking your life in a million different ways. It feels like you're fighting to survive so much that you're forgetting why.

"Nothing," You shrug, turning away again and grabbing your pants. After all, you cant complain. You're helping people! People need you, and Eve, and Jake and the other librarians. That fact is not lost on you, and honestly most of the time you love doing what you do--

But sometimes you're just... tired. Like today.

Eh, you'll get over it you guess.

"Nah. Nah nah nah- its not nothin'." You feel Jake's hand wrap around your wrist and pull you to him where he's moved to sit at the end of the bed. To the phone, he gives a quick 'call you back cass', before chucking it backwards on the bed and drawing you in closer; not once taking his intense eyes off of you. Usually you love those eyes, and honestly you do now too, but they are so full of smarts that you do sometimes you feel overwhelmed. Like you don't even have to talk- he already knows what's going on. And sometimes, like now, you just don't want him to know everything! "Tell me."

"Its really nothin- "

"Don't say that again," he shakes his head; a flicker of annoyance. "Go on, tell me."

You give him a look. "... no, I'm awful."

"First of all, you're the opposite." He brushes over that self deprecation quickly, nipping it in the bud before you can even truly feel it. "What? What- You don't wanna go to the library??"

"I- " How do you explain without sounding silly? Huffing out a sigh, you slip your wrists out of Jake's grip and run your hands through your hair. "I'm just tired, I guess. I know! Thats not an excuse to not save the world from monsters, or gods, or whatever the hell else wants to take over today- I know that. But I'm just- so- ughhh."

Slipping out from between his knees, you slump down on the edge of the bed beside him instead; dropping your face in your hands and your elbows onto your thighs. You don't doubt Jake's focused art-critic's eyes on the whole time. Analysing you like some old Rembrandt. Seeing your shame. "My bones feel heavy." You say, quietly.

A moment passes before you feel one of his hands on your back, rubbing up and down; working out the tight stress-filled knots in there. Then you hear his voice, but he's not talking to you??

"Hi again Cass- yeah, uh, on second thoughts we're actually gonna sit this one out. You guys got this, right?" Immediately you sit up stock-straight, turning to Jake with wide eyes. What?? You mouth, horrified.

He gives you a mystified look back. Mouths 'what?' back at you.

Your jaw drops.

"No no no- we can go! We can go! We can definitely- Thats not what I was saying." What is he doing?!? They need you two! They need him, for definite! Just because you're tired, doesn't mean you can just chuck a sickie!- "We have to go, Jake, don't- " When you reach for the phone to tell Cassandra that he's joking and you'll be there, Jake catches your hand and leans away from you, finishing up the call and preventing you from stopping him.

"Yeah yeah yeah, great. Thanks, Cass! Goodluck! Call me if you need us- yeah- bye!"

Then he hangs up and chucks the phone behind the bed, between the wall under the window and the mattress, where you cant get it.

You're half considering diving after it, but Jake starts rubbing comforting circles into your knuckles and you turn your gaze back to him; shocked and confused.

"... but- " Before you can argue with this decision, Jake leans over and kisses you. Its warm and slow and almost as good as before, making your head all fuzzy and quiet. He pulls back, and you struggle to open up your eyes again. ... still- "But-"

"Come on." Jake gives a comforting grin, a devastatingly handsome cowboy grin that makes your insides turn into mush and your shoulders relax. And he's still rubbing your back, so you're feeling so so sleepy and slow. "You're tired- I get it. We've been on mission after mission for weeks. Almost 2 months. And you've been so damn good with it, savin' our asses at least 10 times. They'll be fine without us this time, you know that." He assures you, which makes sense now that you're calm enough to hear it- they will be fine without the two of you. You all take individual jobs all the time, and besides- they have Flynn this time. Your perfect, sweet boyfriend gives a shrug of those broad shoulders of his. "'nd you deserve a break."

... taking hold of his hands, you lean in and press your forehead to his. "So do you." You say earnestly, gaze flickering over the bags under his beautiful eyes.

"Yeah. So lets do that, huh? Together. C'mon," When Jake gets up abruptly, letting go of one of your hands but keeping the other to tug you up with, rubbing those comforting circles back into your skin, you look up with curious eyes at him. "Lets getcha a cup a tea, or somethin'. Whadaya want? I'll order."

"Mmm... " You close your eyes and think, a tiny grin twitching onto your lips. "Um... pancakes." Pancakes sound like absolute heaven right now. Fluffy, and drenched in syrup, with some strawberries??

"Aw yeah, that sounds freaken good, actually."

When you open your eyes again and see him smiling, you nod and wrap your arms around his neck. You're thinking about pancakes, and restful bones, but also how good Jacob smells. And his weight on top of you. And the romantic timeless way he kisses. "Uhuh." He wraps his own around your waist, pulling you in against him. "... but first,"

"Hm?" He grunts, your noses brushing against eachother and him suddenly becoming quite distracted; being so close to your lips. "Wha?"

"... 20 more minutes in bed."

Immediately he nods, guiding you back onto the mattress and crawling over on top of you, adjusting your hips back over the pillow so you're comfortable. "Forty, at least."

[gwaaaaar]

YET another MazM update.

SO @clawtistic sent this article in an archive server. I google translated everything to get a few key points.

A. MazM is gonna continue this minimalist no gameplay style for their next few titles. We have names such as dracula, little women, hamlet etc lined up.

B. Black Cat is slated for release at the end of november or so.

Guys. I have a bad feeling about this. I know like half their employees left after the great hns/tc apocalypse but jesus christ. They said theyre prioritizing characters/story + they felt in the past they fucked up by making it too gamelike but it didnt fit so thats why theyre ditching the gamplay. BUT JEEEEEEESUSSSS CHRIIIIIST!!! What's even the point of playing anymore if we can just read the books? I know the gameplay was minimal in the past but the yellow bricks/heartless gameplay was like. Way better.

I honestly think this is just an excuse to cover for the fact they're losing employees. Longform projects like thy creature or pechka have the downside of needing to give their employees a steady income while theyre in production so at least with shorter ones the balance of budget and time is easier to handle. But i honestly, HONESTLY. Don't think this is good. This feels like a decline in quality that I hate to see. A longform novel like dracula deserves the care that thy creature got. Dracula id argue is the one novel that should have gameplay elements similar to rpgmaker horror or point and click because the story in if itself is a gameish plot (they have multiple objectives and a final boss). But if they snipe that... and make it into a flat visual novel... idk man.

Thy creature had a very trouble production. What with the writing being kinda bad and the employees being rushed to finish a deadline. (Source is from Crack and Mahas twitter. They left the company due to overwork). Its clear they didnt recieve as much revenue as the money they spent on it in the first place which sucks! The art, music, and gameplay are all pretty good all things considered, and the early access version was on the brink of being something super good. I think they mustve felt an obligation to hurry up because they kept pushing their deadlines, but it shouldn't have been at the expense of their employees. I personally wouldve waited years just so they could get a product they could be happy with.

We have to speak with our wallets and our tongues. PLEASE if you can, tell your friends to play their games, increase conversation. Shill like youve never shilled before! If youre in the server, make suggestions about how you want the games to be like, what satisfys you or not. We may be small but our interlaced community is what gives us power. They already make their games free for us regardless of if we have to watch ads or not. This is the least we can do for them.

[peddlestox-shinyrocks]

Reading Preferences - Peddlestox Shinyrocks

as tagged by @mimble-sparklepudding

BOLD genres your character reads. Italicize genres your character occasionally peruses. Strikethrough if they absolutely won’t touch it. Bold, italicized and strikethrough they won't go 10 fulms feet of it.

art | biography | business | chick lit | children’s | classics | comics | contemporary | cookbooks | crime | fantasy | fiction | gay and lesbian | graphic novels | historical fiction | history | horror | humor and comedy | memoir | music | mystery | nonfiction | paranormal | philosophy | poetry | psychology | religion | romance | science | science fiction | self help | suspense | spirituality | sports | thriller | travel | young adult | warfare

ty mimble for the ask! i... do not know who hasn't done this

@starrysnowdrop for her two blorbos? @houserosaire? uhh @draculas-husband @laladventures perhaps? sends one @cadrenebula too

So a little bit about Kwaszits:

The bolds:

She doesn't believe anyone can be too old for a children's story. And she prefers the simpler words.

Comics and Graphic Novels? They have pictures. Even if she can't understand the words she can certainly look at the pictures.

Fantasy and Fiction? She likes hearing about the tales of adventurers and a lot of them seem fairly far fetched from a non-adventurer's perspective.

Kwas loves romance novels. She loves the pining, the slow burns, the love at first sights, Romeo and Juliet type stuff.

The italics:

These are underneath a bunch of assumptions.

Chick lits I don't think are things Kwas would often look at now, but maybe once or twice when she was a teen.

Art depends on what constitute as "art". Are we including making forms of art like say jewelry making, knitting, quilting, embroidery, etc or just plain drawing/sketch/painting books to learn from or just plain picture books of art? If its the broad strokes, it'd probably be a bold instead. If its the latter two, again, once or twice but not often.

Cookbooks are only when she wants to make something and nothing else.

Historical fiction will depend on the plot.

Humor/comedy I think she would be interested in, but I've also never read either of those kinds of books (because they don't really appeal to me, I'd rather watch a comedy/satire) so maybe.

Nonfiction and science are probably where her instruction manuals and DIYs are put in, but they're also other things in there so italics.

Science fiction is not as good as Fantasy/Fiction but I think she'd read a handful.

Travel books only for the newest place she's heading to and never again.

The normals:

The only one I wanna talk about here is the gay/lesbian one because... well if its under romance she'll probably read it, but she's not going to go out of her way to find them.

The strikethroughs:

Just plain disinterest in the topic.

The bold/italic/strikes:

Oh dear god does she hate these.

Poetry only for the sin of having problems understanding them. I think she'd find them pretty cute/interesting if she sat down and gave them a chance.

Warfare is obvious. She's a lovegobbie. Not a fighter.

Paranormal? Kwas is a coward. She HATES ghosts. (cocoa ghost only exception and only cause he's been nice and giving her cocoa) She wants nothing to do with any of it - demons, cryptids, ghosts, all of that gives her nightmares and if I didn't know any better I'd say they could induce her into a panic.

Horror is pretty much the same thing. She doesn't like the idea of something going bump in the night, anything to do with the likes of things like slasher fics or murder mysteries or anything that could make her think not twice but four times over being alone with a chocobo on the road going to the next town. Her gobbieheart can't take it.

[thenightling]

My review of Asylum's Monster Mash: How Asylum managed to do what Univeral Studios Dark Universe could not

Last night I watched the new Asylum mockbuster, Monster Mash. What is Asylum? And What is a Mockbuster? A Mockbuster is a low budget knock-off movie of a film that is either already a blcokbuster hit or anticipated to be a hit. When Pacific Rim came out Asylum released a Mockbuster called Atlantic Rim. When Dracula 2000 came out, Dracula 3000 aired on The Scifi Channel. When Morbius came out, Asylum made Dracula: The Original Living Vampire. Sometimes the connection to the blockbuster they were "inspired by" is very slim. Asylum was founded twenty-five-years-ago to make mockbusters of high budget, blockbuster, and mainstream scifi and horror films. A lot of Asylum's creations have been released on Syfy (Formerly the Scifi Channel) as Syfy original movies. Most Asylum movies are either made-for-TV or direct to DVD / Blu Ray / Streaming. One season of the Netflix incarnation of Mystery Science Theatre were all Asylum mockbusters. This year there was a highly anticipated vampire movie called Abigail. The plot was about the daughter of a crime boss (heavily implied to be Dracula all along). The daughter gets kidnapped and it turns out her kidnappers are actually her intended victims. So Asylum released their own Mockbuster called Monster Mash and managed to release it two weeks before Abigail came out.

And what a treat this Monster Mash was! It was so delightfully corny! So wonderfully bad. I actually loved it. This was a so-bad-it's-good movie. There are other films called Monster Mash, including a semi-Juke Box musical. This is the only one from 2024. I think I liked Asylum's Monster Mash more than the 2012 Dario Argento's Dracula, which until now, was my favorite campy, bad Dracula movie. My nickname for Dario Argento's Dracula is Mantis Drac because Dracula transforms into a giant female preying Mantis at one point with very low quality CG effects. In Monster Mash, Dracula's daughter is kidnapped by Boris (A rather simple minded but sweet hearted Frankenstein monster) serving the evil Dr. Frankenstein, who wants to use Dracula's daughter as bait to lure out Dracula. Dr. Frankenstein is dying and wants to transfer his consciousness to a new monster, an utterly indestructible monster- supposedly. Dr. Frankenstein wants to use the parts of all the classic monsters including blood from Dracula, skin from The invisible Man, the heart of Rameses The Mummy, and the limbs of an immortal werewolf. Werewolves in traditional folklore, and the original Universal monster movies actually were immortal except when it came to silver.

The movie has minimum gore and suspense (except perhaps where Dracula almost kills his daughter's slave girl). It's tame enough where I think it could work for a child's first introduction to the classic monsters in a horror setting. (You know, outside of cartoons like Hotel Transylvania). I liked it a lot. For an Asylum film there was limited low-quality CG except once Dr. Frankenstein's creation came to life. That's when Asylum brought it its trademark low quality SFX.

The movie was not just a mockbuster of Abigail. It also felt like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but with the classic monsters. There were aspects that reminded me of House of Frankenstein. Dracula's daughter even had wanted a cure for her vampiric condition, like in the Universal monster movie, Dracula's daughter. There are a lot of nice, subtle, homages to classic monster movies. You realize pretty fast that the classic monsters are the heroes of the story (even though Dracula does occasionally snack on a hapless damsel). And I found myself delighted through the corny cheese. THIS is what Universal studios should have give us with their promised Dark Universe. THIS was a classic monsters version of Avengers and with the campy cheese of an asylum mockbuster it was actually fun. It was charming. I usually have difficulty sitting through an Asylum mockbister, let alone want to watch it again. This one I would happily watch again. It was fun. It was cheesy, good, fun. I liked it. I liked it a lot. Honestly, the actor who played Dracula was so much fun in this, Asylum doesn't deserve him. He deserves to be in something better but man, he made the movie. It was the sort of corny movie you might imagine Peter Vincent from the 1985 Fright Night starring in. Much like a classic Hammer Horror movie you can't quite tell what country it's set in or even what time period. There's almost a fairytale-like quality to it. An agelessness that is nostalgic and also refreshing.

This is, hands down, my favorite Asylum Mockbuster. Honestly, I loved it. If I had kids I'd have probably used it as their first horror film exposure to the classic movie monsters, not too scary, yet also well paced and the characters are likable. It was cheesy, corny, fun. I want to see more monster movies like this. THIS is the sort of film Universal Studios Dark Universe should have produced for us. Somehow Asylum managed to give us what Universal should have. It's rare that I say something like this but Universal Studios take note. The low budget mockbuster did what you wanted to but could not. I liked this so much I want Asylum to make a whole franchise out of it or even a TV series. I'd watch the Hell out of Dracula and his team of monsters trying to be the heroes. This was some damn good brain candy. My harshest complaints are that I prefer articulate and intelligent Frankenstein monsters like in Mary Shelley's novel but as this creature was named Boris he's obviously a homage to the zeitgeist Universal Studios tropey idea of the Frankenstein Monster. Also there's an odd moment where Dracula's daughter (named Elisabeta as a nod to the Bram Stoker's Dracula movie) comments about how she can read minds (with the aid of psychometry) but Dracula cannot read minds. I find this particularly odd since psychic abilities are some of his more common powers, even in films where they forget his ability to turn into Bat, wolf, and mist. Other than these petty details I loved this movie. It was very bad but very fun, a deliciously cheesy monster movie.

[grifff17]

Audiodrama Sunday 6/2/2024

Happy Pride Month! Audiodramas are overwhelmingly queer anyways, almost everything I listened to this week, by total coincidence, had queer characters in it. Unrelated, I've decided to start doing new show alerts, and putting them at the top of these posts, to try to spread the word about new shows I check out.

NEW SHOW ALERT Hamuel Burger and the American Dream was created by @asbestos4president for the @podcast-bookclub Podcast Jam. The show, which currently only has 1 episode, has the insane premise of an alien twitch streamer who has come to earth to kill the president. This show was so funny. I laughed out loud multiple times. I really want a full season of this show.

NEW SHOW ALERT The pilot episode of Bitcherton, an improvised Jane Austin parody podcast, came out this week. I love the cast for this show, it already looks like its going to be really fun. The occasional modern day references ("I think he was just a misogynist") had me rolling. Their Kickstarter for a full season starts June 13th, check out the pilot episode before then!

I listened to parts 1 and 2 of the Last Breath miniseries of Skyjacks Couriers Call. The description of the whole town, and the Leviathan refinery in particular, was insane. Excited to listen to the last part when I have time.

I caught partially up with @breakerwhiskey. Holy shit, an actual other person who is alive and doesn't want to kill Whiskey. I sure hope nothing bad happens to them! Things do seem to be looking up for Whiskey, I expect something to go wrong soon.

@midnightburgr released part 2 of Welcome to the Horizon! I love Verge so much, they're such a great character. I desperately wanted to hear that conversation between Verge, Frank and June that was implied to happen right after the episode ended. Hopefully its in the next one. I bet this miniseries will lead to Verge going off to find the diner to reunite with Leif, and I can't wait for that.

@midstpodcast had a hell of an action scene in the first half of this week's episode. I loved the nature corner. This show keeps doing this thing where I'm already blown away by the episode then look at the runtime and there's still 20 minutes left.

Mission Rejected this week has me wondering how many episodes until Chet Philips is the president of the United States of America. The Speaker of the House is 3rd in line for the presidency, he's not far off. As far as the actual plot of the episode, I have fond memories of watching Murder She Wrote with my grandparents so I loved this episode. Of course she figured out they were spies. Also I love how this show changes the bumper music for themed episode to match the theme.

@re-dracula Jonathan had a good idea to try to send letters through intermediaries, but it wasn't clever enough. Dracula is actually starting to be intimidating to me, rather than charmingly weird as he was in the earlier episodes. Dracula also knows that Jonathan uses shorthand code now, which can't be good.

Dear Liisphyra this week had a really funny intro bit. Also, the idea of a Genie who is just really annoyed with the people who find his lamp is great. He's not going to curse them or anything, he just wants them to go away so he can go back inside. I keep thinking I should write a letter in to this show, they have an email address in the description, but I need an idea first.

In Spout Lore this week Vyng's dice really told a story. I feel like Vyng is usually so competent in combat, and consistently rolling badly vs the pigs was so different. Speaking of the pigs, I love the aesthetic of "post-apocalyptic farmingpunk". I've never seen anything like this before, and I don't know how else to describe it. It's a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but its of halfling farmers, so they have scarecrow disguises and beets carved into skulls.

I started a new job this week, which theoretically means I have less podcast time, but I still listened to so much this week. I'm ready for getting through more of my backlog next week!

[rigelmejo]

Little notes:

I tend to do whatever is easiest for me, if there's other options available. If there is a way to look something up, but it is Work, then I'll choose not to look something up. I'm lazy.

So I found this audio drama today, no idea what the title is and still trying to figure out. It's normal for some audio dramas on bilibili to avoid using the actual audio drama title, so they don't get taken down as fast (i imagine), so I usually recognize it if it's something I KNOW (like a priest audio drama) by the author name or character names in the title or description. Today I'm listening to this.

It's interesting. I love the theme song that plays at the end of episodes. Now I really want to know the NAME, so I can try to look up the end song on youtube, since youtube often has audiodrama theme songs on it. And on youtube i could add it to my music playlist. I am forced to finally read rhe title and description, which I had not bothered doing until just now at 2 hours into it. 丁昭 and 程诺文 are the main characters. Still have no idea what the audio drama title is, have any of you heard of it? Edit: I have found the title from the names! 金刚不坏

HAHA I FOUND IT

This is the song I like

This is the other song I like from it, in english:

(This song is on repeat rn because I'm so into the old radio hits vibe of it)

My point is that I would have not read the description, if I hadnt really wanted to save that song to my youtube playlist lol.

So, weibo lets you browse without an account. So I browse, lately looking up 光渊 stuff. Weibo has a click translate feature, so I use it. Because im lazy. I read the first half of a sentence of a post, the second it feels hard, i click to translate instead. I might look at the chinese afterward, and compare it with the translation. But i probably translate a LOT that i could have just... read. I only read the art manhua people share, because i MUST read them. Theres no translate button lol.

So given all this, do I listen to show audio? Not really, if theres subtitles in any language. I rely on the stuff i can read, reading's easier for me. I have to make myself listen to the chinese, and compare it to the subtitles, if i see subtitles.

So I've been watching Guangyuan, obviously. I love MoDu. Ive been watching it with japanese subs. Thankfully, i can barely read japanese (except some kanji since they look like hanzi). So I have HAD to listen to the chinese dialogue. No other choice.

Yesterday I found the modaozushi japanese stage play on bilibili, and of course its only in japanese audio. I have not found anyone make chinese subtitles yet. So i was trying to watch it last night. Baffled I managed to follow what i did.

It reminded me of a couple years ago, I watched the whole Japanese dracula musical with no subtitles because i REALLY WANTED TO SEE IT and thats the only way i could. (Id love to buy the dvd they released once, if anyone ever sees it for sale). My japanese was even worse then. Yet somehow I watched it and followed along.

Me really wanting to do something is a huge motivator, and me having NO OTHER OPTION but to do it in the language.

When RGG Ishin was only available in japanese, no english version was released yet, I got it and played the start. I dont know how I managed to follow enough to follow the main plot but i did. I looked up a translation and explanation video later on the game, and realized i was making guesses on Dialects (and historical forms of words) I had no prior knowledge of when I was playing. If I had known that in advance of playing in japanese, I probably would have felt it was "too hard to try." But I didn't know. And it worked out.

Its funny to me when I go to japanese study for a while, after all this Chinese study I do. Because like... my Chinese and French are probably at similar levels, maybe Chinese is B1 in reading? French is B2? Listening in Chinese is better than my french listening, theyre both intermediate though. Ive learned enough I dont forget how to read what I can read, I dont forget how to understand what I can listen to.

Japanese is like... definitely A2/upper beginner. Its beginner. Or very low intermediate. Its at that point where outside of graded readers, some stuff is SLIGHTLY doable to understand. But it takes intense effort, focus, feels draining to try and understand, and understanding is vague and broad (few details if any). Its like Chinese was 3 years ago for me. It feels wild to feel the drop in comprehension from 80%+ of most things (knowing what the main idea is and some details), to 50% (knowing what some of the main ideas are - if i'm lucky, no details). I am like wow I cant believe I pushed through this phase in French and Chinese, its a draining frustrating phase!

I tried rewatching a couple cdramas I've seen in chinese like 3-4 years ago, and because I notice so many details now it Feels equally hard - but i notice so much more now. And i can realize how general and vague my initial understanding had been. Its like... watching some movie for adults thats complicated at age 10, following the main idea (maybe they save the day!), but then rewatching at age 20 and realizing how many themes the movie has, what its commenting about society, the subversions its doing, the nuanced mystery plot that you didnt even notice being foreshadowed and revealed at age 10.

[margridarnauds]

What is your favorite production of Dracula the Musical?

Hi Anon! Sorry it took me...well. Close to two months to get to this (I'm doing some spring cleaning on my inbox so there will be more.) I was in the hospital at the time and not really able to effectively type at the time, but I really appreciated receiving this at the time because it gave me something to take my mind off of the mind-numbing pain.

ANYWAY.

It is hands-down the Korean production for me. I feel like the story is at its most developed and streamlined, the vocal talent is consistently top notch (Jeon Dong Seok and Shin Sung Rok's Draculas in particular are REVELATIONS in the role), the production values are at their highest. Four words: ROTATING ZU ENDE SET.

Beyond that, I feel like it does the best job of making the characters consistent, I enjoy poking at it a lot more because it gives me enough to work with while still being sloppily Dracula the Musical in other places. I think it adds a few twists that make it distinct from other Draculas (finally giving closure on Van Helsing's backstory, Dracula and Mina's connection with one another, and even adding a twist on Renfield) while also not betraying the classic gothic atmosphere and vibes, emphasizing and maxing them. (I actually don't HATE modern settings for it, especially when my second or third favorite production is probably the St. Gallen, but I also do think the musical tends to perform at its best when it chooses to have a lavish Victorian setting.) Wildhorn's work tends to be at its best when it goes into excess, otherwise it has the tendency of getting drowned out by the music and plot. Some creators thrive on minimalism and nuance, Wildhorn is not one of them.

(Frank Wildhorn talking about the production, including a very cursed comparison to Twilight. Frankhorn is probably one of my favorite composers to watch interviews of, because a lot of musical theatre composers are trying very hard to be dignified and almost academic while Frankhorn is like your slightly insane uncle taking you outside to show you fireworks he's set off in his backyard in the middle of a summer drought. How did he get the fireworks? Who knows! Isn't that dangerous? Who cares! Look at them go!)

This production added two songs, one of which, Last Man Standing, replaces Roseanne from the Graz production and....look. I don't think it's unreasonably unfair to say that Roseanne just was not a strong song. It was made for Uwe Kröger to look sadly into the distance while wearing Indiana Jones cosplay for 3-4 minutes while the audience members who weren't able to go to the bathroom during the intermission could make a quick run to the toilet. I don't think I've ever heard someone say "You know what my favorite Dracula song was? ROSEANNE!"

(On the record: I don't actually hate it, I wouldn't be surprised or disappointed if I went to Germany to see a production and it was there. It's just....in a musical with Life After Life and Whitby Bay, I expect a little bit more, especially when we get...no follow up to this. Like, if you're going to introduce a Tragic Fridged Wife to Van Helsing, I expect at LEAST a bit more than "yeah she was such a good dancer too".)

For comparison, Kang Tae Eul singing "Last Man Standing", where Van Helsing swears to track down and kill Dracula following his interrogation of Renfield in "The Master's Song."

Like, I don't know how else to put it, but there's an intensity and depth to this production that's unmatched anywhere else. I can watch a hundred casts of it and not get bored picking it apart and putting it back together. The character dynamics are crackling -- Dracula and Mina, Mina and Van Helsing (actually my only real ship from the musical), Dracula and Van Helsing in the two scenes they have together, Renfield and the rest of the cast, and...alright, I'll be honest, I still think Jonathan isn't really compelling, especially since Van Helsing kind of moves into his role in the second act, so if Jonathan will make or break your enjoyment of it, yeah, probably not the best production for you, but in all fairness, it isn't like he's doing that much in Act 2 for the others. (I've said I ENJOY this musical, I've never said it's a faithful depiction of the novel's characters or relationship dynamics because I would be lying through my teeth.)

I'm still going to steal Jonathan's blue velvet coat, though.

Dracula is in my top 3 favorite musicals of all time, it's one that has a very special place in my heart. I don't think there's a production of Dracula that I truly dislike (even the Pforzheim which is on thin ice at times); I don't know if it's POSSIBLE for me to truly, deeply hate a production of it. I love the Broadway (one of my most cherished possessions is probably the signed poster of the Broadway production that hangs in my bedroom), I love the composer's demos, I love the Douglas Sills and Guy LeMonnier demos, I love the--okay, I don't actually love the concept album because it has J@mes Barbour on it but, before it became unlistenable to me, I did adore it. I love the earnest low budget community theatre versions that people post to Youtube. I love the German productions, the Japanese production, even the Chinese demos I've listened to. It is just one of those musicals that I totally and whole-heartedly love, even in defiance of what is generally considered to be good taste. "Life After Life" isn't just my favorite Wildhorn number of all time, it's probably my favorite musical theatre number of all time, bar none. BUT. But. The Korean production remains my definitive Dracula. I highly, highly recommend checking out the other videos if you haven't already; it's a great time to get into it because the 10th anniversary cast album has just been released and is amazing, we keep hoping there will be a proshot released in the next couple of years.

[chemicallywrit]

Happy Audio Drama Sunday! What a delightful and spooky Halloween week. As usual, this list is not comprehensive, but this is what stood out to me this week. Some spoilers ahead, in the shape of vibes~

🩸Hemophobia did NOT disappoint. My word. The strange disconnected way the story was told; the fact that the sermons were more coherent and clear than the action; the Extremely Teenage Teens. Man. I cannot wait to listen to this next episode.

🦀 THE SILT VERSES. Every day I think about Faulkner. The person he is. The apostle and the fool. Jeez louise. I can’t tell if he’ll save the faith or obliterate it and take everyone down with him. @thesiltverses

🌊 Modes of Thought In Anterran Literature - is that Felix Trench??? On the one hand, hearing a familiar voice does break the immersion a little, like the most unnerving part of this show is how real it feels; on the other hand, Felix did such a good job, the immersion break didn’t last long. This new character sucks, i love him.

👻 Palimpsest!!!! New palimpsest!!!! Easily one of my favorite single-narrator shows, and this one is set in the 1920s, which is one of my favorite historical periods. They’re also very good at a horrible subtle twist, so I can’t wait to hear more about this ghost.

😈 Kakos Industries is literally always good, but I really feel for Corin being like “PLEASE leave me alone on Halloween.” Man, this show is funny. Why isn’t it more popular. Please listen to Kakos Industries. They’re on hiatus, there’s no better time to catch up. @kakosindustries

🍔 Mayfair Watcher’s Society always knows how to get to me. It’s like, the absolute corruption of the Normal into something horrific and wretched is the point of the show, especially when it’s something you always suspected was messed up. Like a fast food job. I shudder.

🌲HALLOWOODS JEEZ. Mx Wellman did in fact try to kill me. I survived. I WISH SOME OTHER FOLKS HAD. @hellofromthehallowoods

❄️ Red Valley. Man alive. One of the things I love about this show is how there are no real heroes, but this season from the POV of the villains—the architects of the apocalypse, in a lot of ways. Creeps. It’s delicious. Today’s episode, watching Clive finally reaping what he sowed, was absolutely glorious. @redvalleypod

🦷 Welcome to Night Vale - HOBOY. Idk if the return of Kevin is going to be a plot point, but it’s the perfect idea for a Halloween ep. Chilling work as always, Kev! It’s also fun to listen to him seethe about his loss of power.

🅿️ Podcube is always a delightful treat, but this week had a fantastic little bit of sound design, which I’m told is this sound designer’s first attempt at such a thing. He did a great job! I love this show, everyone listen to PodCube. @podcube

👑 Malevolent: We’re Back To The Horrors. I’m honestly relieved. Arthur having friends and family is so scary, I keep waiting for something horrible to happen to them. And now something has! Which is not to say more terrible things won’t happen, but i feel like the other shoe has dropped. This is not a criticism at all, Harlan is so good at this.

🌞 I finished Fall of the House of Sunshine this week and…it made me cry? This goof goof show made me CRY? It really is just You Make Your Own Meaning The Musical, isn’t it? If this show had to have a moral, then “even if all you can do is something small, it matters” is a pretty good one. The fact that there was a moral at all is pretty miraculous. I’m going to go listen to the soundtrack a million times now.

🧛🏻‍♂️ Re: Dracula is coming to an end in just a few days and here is a secret: i haven’t heard these last few eps yet. Tal and Stephen finished working on them while I was in the thrall of New Job, so I get to hear their excellent sound work new with you. I am so excited for the final showdown, let’s GO. @re-dracula

🧟‍♀️ The Dead premiered this week! Go subscribe to it, it’s about to get REAL WEIRD. We did some table reads for the next story this weekend (and we have one more today!) and if you think zombies on a plane are scary…

Go check it out!

Now that all is well on the job front, I hope to get back to recording Inn Between soon, because I Want It To Exist. If you want to help us out or you just like what I got up to today, please drop by my ko-fi!

[whenwolfsbaneblooms]

Thoughts on Nosferatu

Semi-rambling, not well connected, spoiler-filled thoughts under the cut. Talking about both Murnau and Eggers' take on it. BTW, if somehow you haven't seen Murnau's original version THIS is probably the best version I've found on YT. Yes, it's a silent movie, but it's worth the 90s minutes of your time it'll take to watch.

So overall I really did like the movie, it wasn't super horrory like I feared it would be from the trailers, but it also definitely wasn't the Gothic Expresionist movie of the 1920s. It was fun to hear some of the lines from the original ("Why did you kill the flowers?" (though a bit out of step w/ the original's intention) "You are late...", etc.), also I'm 98% sure Eggers' went and picked colors from Murnau's film and used them as color tones in some scenes; I nearly said 'holy shit' out loud in the theater bc that first scene in Orlok's main hall had the orange-yellow I associate w/ daytime in the og Nosferatu. And yes, Nosferatu is a colored film, any black and white versions you might see are wrong. If I'm honest though I think I might prefer Murnau's a tiny bit more still. There's just something about it that makes me think fondly of it in all it's 1920s sensibilities and views. I do find it funny though that in trying to add more to the plot, Eggers brought, either accidentally or on purpose, more Dracula back into the story, completing the circle, after a fashion. I see you Seivers and Franz. However I could've done w/ out the addition of the Roma (and their slur), it didn't really add much to the film imo, other than 'we're not in Germany anymore.'

I'm not sure how I feel about the 'cure' for Orlok being changed from 'a woman without sin' to 'a maiden fair.' One is perhaps more open than the other, but I think sticking with 'a woman without sin' could've led to some interesting character conversations and what does 'being without sin' really mean, etc. I think I would've settled for 'a woman pure of heart' bc that could also spur some interesting discussions and perhaps a realization from Ellen that 'a pure heart' doesn't mean one has to be utterly good.

I think that of the two, while both are terrifying, I still prefer Murnau's Orlok to Eggers' version. Eggers' is too...human in my eyes. That vampire sounded one wheeze away from death, which I get was the point, but it felt like it was leaning too much into the 'carrier of plague' angle, rather than it being a byproduct of the deal Orlok might have made. I feel they're both products of their time, and thus lean into the tropes and ideas of their times, but there's just something about how Murnau made Orlok (even if he's now memes and jokes to most people) that feels more...idk vampire-like. I'm not sure how I can really explain it beyond vibes, but that's how I feel.

Also while the soundtrack is great, it too feels more modern than I'd want it to be. It would've been fun to hear music more in line with the era, but in a horror bent. The likes of Beethoven, Schubert, etc would've only been 20ish years before the setting of the movie, it's the beginning of the Romantic period, play with that some!

[voyaging-too]

2024 December Media

Recs bolded.

Books:

Sheri S. Tepper: Grass. Gorgeous sci-fi about Catholicism, plague, monks, weird creatures, complex space aristocracy social dynamics slightly reminiscent of Barrayar but worse, and a lot of horses. The protagonist is a middle-aged Olympic equestrian lady.

Cornelia Funke: Herr der Diebe (The Thief Lord). I'm practicing my German! This is a great middle grade book about orphan kids running around Venice, the atmosphere of the city is so vivid it covers up the occasional plot hole.

Robert Musil: The Man Without Qualities (vol. I). This book is somehow both boring and terrifying. It's set just before WW1, but the protagonists don't know that, and so they keep having long-winded conversations about how nothing ever happens.

Han Kang: Human Acts. A short, visceral, painful book about the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, and the people, (civilians (children)) who were killed in it. Fiction, heavily based on non-fiction historical research.

Mercedes Lackey: Magic's Price (Last Herald Mage III). The previous two books in this fantasy trilogy weren't good either, but they were at least fun. This one wasn't.

Vivian Shaw: Bitter Waters (Greta Helsing 3.5). Sweet, beautifully written, ultimately plotless addition to the series.

vol 1. of that weird Stalin-era world literature anthology I impulse bought at the second-hand bookstore and am occasionally reading on the toilet to stop myself from doomscrolling.

Films:

Louis Theroux: Tell Them You Love Me. A masterful, disturbing documentary of the Anna Stubblefield case. Trigger warning for... everything, but especially rape, ableism, and horrible people genuinely believing they're in the right.

John Palfreman: Frontline. Prisoners of Silence. After watching the documentary above, I got obsessed with the failure of facilitated communication, and had to watch this one-hour documentary on it. It's thirty years old, so expect some not-so-great language on autism, but the overall points stand.

Kenji Kamiyama: The War of the Rohirrim. Anime vaguely based on Rohan lore in the LOTR appendix. Weak writing, meh plot, middling animation, transparently desperate attempts to recapture the glory of the original trilogy, the only saving grave was Olwyn and her capacity to pass the Bechdel test.

Starkid: Working Boys. Fun short film about Prof Hidgens trying to stage a musical, set in the Hatchetfield universe. Multiverse? Idk anymore.

Podcasts:

Jo Walton, Ada Palmer: Ex Urbe Ad Astra. Two brilliant writers talk about history and fiction, sometimes with guests. They never talk down to the audience and that feels amazing, even when I don't get what they mean at all.

Friends at the Table: Live at the Table. The FaaT gang plays a whole bunch of one-offs and short campaigns. They try a dozen different TTRPGs in a dozen different settings, not all of them work equally well, but sometimes you can listen to them create the best wordbuilding out of thin air.

Gabriel Urbina: Wolf 359 (season 2). Captain Lovelace arrives, space comedy is now officially a space dramedy. Still works well on relisten.

Shelved by Genre: Last Herald Mage unit. These guys are a great read-along book podcast, even when they are reading a book I hate, because they dissect it in really interesting ways.

Gabriel Urbina: Dracula. The Danse Macabre. I'm conflicted, this adaptation of Dracula has tons of great ideas, but they don't gel. The condensed plot isn't really intelligible unless you've read the original novel and know it pretty well, but if you know the novel that well, the arbitrary changes are far more likely to annoy you.

Theatre

Starkids: VHS Christmas Carols. (online ticket) An eighties-style musical adaptation of The Gift of the Magi, The Little Match Girl and The Christmas Carol. Takes itself surprisingly seriously for how funny it is. May be the second best adaptation of Christmas Carol out there.

Sándor Zsótér: Bertolt Brecht: Round Heads and Pointed Heads. A gorgeous studio production of one of Brecht's lesser-known plays. There's no point in me recommending this, because there's no way you guys can come here and watch it, but it was legitimately one of the funniest, most moving, most upsetting things I've seen this decade.