#we went to see his friend in a production of sweeney todd

[reginaofdoctorwho]

i had a FUCKING DATE WITH BI DUDE! it went great :D

[anditendshowyoudexpect]

never a straight line

“What’s a rupert?” she mutters distractedly.

““Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘rupert’ as an evil, or, in a more generous interpretation, misguided and pathetic, ex-husband,” he quips, not completely sure if the joke is funny, which is something of a novelty for him. It’s hard to worry productively from half a world away. Seeing her face right now might help, but none of their calls ever start with FaceTime, out of some telepathically shared fear of messing up this yet unnamed intricate process.

“Oh,” her laugh is genuine. “I’m sorry, Ted, I don’t know where I went for a moment. No, Rupert did not get into my head again. I haven’t seen him or heard from him in ages. I just have this niggling thought that with all the work on the women’s team I might not have been giving the boys the attention they need and deserve.”

“Hey, hey, none of that.” He’d be lying if he said he isn’t relieved to hear it. “Boys get enough attention as it is. You keep doing what must be done. Not that you need my approval,” he adds hastily. Did he blow it already?

“Yes, I know. It’s all right, Ted,” she says softly like the mind-reader she is. “None of that from you, too, please.” Phew. Not today. Abort panic. Deep breath. No one is testing you, no one is trying to trip you up, reminds Doc’s voice in his head.

“Oh, it’s almost eight there.” A disappointed sigh.

“You know it, Mrs. Lovett.”

“My god, Sweeney Todd.” Tiny fireworks go off in his heart, and it’s suddenly full to the brim, nearly overflowing. “I didn’t want to spend what little precious time we have talking about the club.”

“It doesn’t matter what we talk about, honeybunch—”

“No.”

“Buttercup?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Princess?”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake.”

He flops down on his new bed, the plastic still sheathing the mattress squeaking under his squirming weight. There is a half-assembled bookshelf in the living room waiting for him, he has stubbed his numerous toes on numerous unpacked boxes and a couple of chair legs since last night and he can’t find his toothbrush.

He hasn’t felt happier in months.

“Well, you know I’m gonna get it eventually. You just wait. You just be ready, sugar-plum.”

“Ted.” She sounds exasperated. His apartment is not the only thing that’s new, and sometimes this newness and the distance make it feel like they are back to square one. He's not going to be fooled by any of it, though. In her voice he can hear what he has always heard in there. A barely concealed, cautious but happy giggle of a little girl who wasn’t allowed to play for a long time and who now can’t wait to join an exciting game with an eager friend.

Oh, she is ready.

[si-cucumber]

Mazz's Top 5 Shows (as of 8/23)

So I’ve been debating on letting my inner theater geek out on here for a while, but I also realize that....this is my blog so I can talk about whatever the hell I want to talk about.

If somehow you didn’t know already, I am and always have been a theater kid. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen tons of live theater in my day, whether it’s community, national tours, or in New York. And now that my current touring season is over, and I continue to gush over the amazing shows I’ve seen the past few months, I think it’s time for me to officially update my Top 5 Show list. 

5.) Six (US Tour)

So fun fact, I just saw this for the first time yesterday. I've been a fan of Six since it opened in the West End and waited super patiently for it to tour. It was entirely electric, the crowd was beyond into it, and the vocal talent was so stunning that I instantly bought tickets to see it again. That has never happened to me before. I was incredibly blown away and look forward to seeing it again next weekend lmao

4.) Next To Normal (Broadway, 2010)

This was my very first Broadway show on my first trip to New York. This was baby's first online fandom. Back in the day, my friends and I ruled the n2n category on FFnet. It was my first experience with fanfiction and fandom and it was fantastic. This show was everything angsty, teenage Mazz needed at the time. Being able to see the original cast and it being my first real Broadway show, it will always hold a special place in my heart!

3.) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2023 Revival)

I saw this back in June when I went to New York last! Actually, the whole reason for my trip was just to see this, especially since I missed out on Josh Groban in Great Comet. The most star-studded cast I've ever seen, tons of heavy-hitters. Sweeney Todd was a favorite of teenage Mazz and his theater friends. We'd spend our weekends in my friend's basement performing "A Little Priest" to the best of our ability. Even though I know this show inside and out, I was still on the edge of my seat by the end. Annaleigh Ashford was the stand-out for me. She was robbed of that Tony.

2.) Beetlejuice (National Tour)

I saw this back in January with one of my best friends. I've loved this show since it debuted ages ago, and was probably the best show I saw this touring season! The absolute funniest show I've ever seen. Like, we were laughing so loud and hard I'm pretty sure we were annoying the people around us lmao. But nonetheless, it was an excellent production and I left dying to see it again (no...pun intended).

1.) Some Like It Hot (Broadway 2023)

I will never ever ever stop talking about this show. Hands down, best show I have ever seen. The amount of joy i felt for hours after seeing this was incredible. I was so lucky to see this during pride month, so I have a pride version of the playbill, which is so so special to me. It was so refreshing to see a classic, jazz musical again and the choreography? Insane. Like jaw dropping insane. The final chase sequence blew my mind.

But what struck me the most was seeing a queer actor onstage playing a canonically trans character. A character who was done so well and felt so organic. I saw this at the point in my transition where I really started presenting and dressing masculinely. I was the little awkward trans guy from Ohio, alone in the big city, sat at the front of the mezzanine hearing the crowd cheer for Daphne. After months of feeling dread about the state of this country and the fear of being outwardly trans, this was just...the perfect thing at the perfect time. The amount of gender euphoria I felt was incredible, it was so moving to me. It will always hold a special place in my heart and that is why it's my number one.

So that is my current list! Will it change? Probably at some point lmao. My next season starts in October, and I look forward to seeing what awaits me next.

[into-the-stratosphere]

Sweeney Todd: Revisted

Lol I can’t post this on any of my other socials just yet because the official cast list hasn’t been posted, but my tumblr isn’t linked to my Instagram or Facebook or anything like that, so I felt I could safely post here without getting in trouble. Warning now that this is a LONG post because I overwrite a lot lol

If you’ve been following me a while, you might remember last spring I was supposed to be in a production of Sweeney Todd as a soloist/ensemble member. We got through about a month and a half of rehearsals before everything was shut down by Covid, but the company kept promising we would do the show once everything opened up again, just a little while longer and we’ll do it, we’re pushing for October instead of May, this is going to happen. Honestly, once we hit the school year and no updates had come, I thought this would have to be a show I shelved until an entirely new production came up- until April this year we got an email asking who was still interested in returning.

Somehow we had gotten approval to move forward with the show again after all, and we were being moved to a larger space to accommodate a larger audience to boot! But with the new dates and location, naturally some cast members had to step down from their roles due to conflicts. In fact, pretty much the entire main cast had to step down; our Sweeney had moved in October, our Beggar Woman wasn’t comfortable coming back to live theatre just yet, Mrs Lovett would be on her honeymoon during the new show dates, our main Johanna would be working a new job further away, a lot of our younger cast was going to college out of state, like our Anthony and I believe both Toby’s.

In the initial email we were told that if we were willing to return, we could keep our roles and not have to reaudition, but as roles opened up we were also given the option to audition for the new openings. Our understudy Johanna was returning, so I figured they would bump her up into the main role, and I hoped I could squeeze in and maybe get the understudy spot this year, since last year I hadn’t made the cut for Johanna at all. I picked my music (Soon from A Little Night Music if anyone was wondering) and my monologue (fairly certain they wanted monologues just to hear that we could do accents because the audition listing said they preferred we did our monologue in accent), and set to preparing again to hopefully have a shot at Johanna this year.

A friend I met doing virtual shows was also auditioning, and when she mentioned she heard the new director didn’t want to have any understudies for the main cast, I grew worried, remembering our understudy Johanna said she was returning. Since I didn’t know how the director would go about distributing promised roles regarding understudy positions, I continued to prepare to the best of my ability with the slim hope I might get Johanna, but that hope was fading with the knowledge of the former understudy’s return.

A few days before the audition however, she posted in our private group that she too would have to step down, as she had just gotten accepted into her dream school and would be out of state during the production’s run. Suddenly the grey area barring me from Johanna dissipated, and all I had to worry for now was the new auditioning pool- this was one of the first in person shows to open in our area since the lockdown, so there was bound to be a lot of new faces trying to get back into the game.

I went in on Sunday feeling far more prepared than I did last year (I almost didn’t audition last year because I had only just gotten my voice back from a horrible flu strain), and funnily enough, my friend I had met doing virtual shows had signed up for the same time bracket as me without either of us knowing. Entering the audition room, I immediately felt good; everyone had such a welcoming atmosphere, the director was friendly as could be, but I could also tell he was very professional. I performed the best I could, waited for my friend to finish her audition afterwards, then we went to go talk and catch up while desperately waiting to possibly get a callback.

We chatted for hours about theatre, our virtual theatre group, life, all while keeping a vigilant eye on the time for when that day’s auditions would end and calls would be made. Eventually we both decided to go home, wishing each other the best and hoping to see each other again at callbacks.

I was only halfway home when my phone rang; they loved my audition and wanted me to come in on Tuesday to read for Johanna at callbacks. I was so excited that I started crying behind the wheel, and from the way my phone was blowing up with messages from my friend, I knew she had gotten a callback as well.

Luckily they asked me to prepare Green Finch and Linnet Bird for the callback, because I have known the song for about two years now- I had put it in my audition book about a month before my Sydney trip in 2019, and the hope to perform it in the original production had been the reason I auditioned in 2020 in the first place. I found out there was two other girls they were looking at for Johanna, so I worried day and night that what if they already knew the song too, what if their resumes were better than mine, what if I cracked, what if, what if, what if…

Tuesday came and I could only hope I’d get another burst of energy after a long day at work. I showed up about forty five minutes early (the drive usually took about half an hour, but the traffic had been forgiving), hearing snippets of the Anthony’s and Beggar Woman’s upstairs, and then the first of the other two Johanna’s showed up. She was so nice, and with time the second Johanna showed up. We all chatted as the Sweeney’s, and Beggar Woman’s came down, and soon enough, they were calling the Johanna’s to head upstairs.

The Anthony’s were still upstairs when we got there, certainly so we could read our audition scenes together. The director explained we’d be singing our song first (ALL of Green Finch, since there’s no good natural spot to stop in the song), and then taking turns reading with both Anthony’s. Since I volunteered to go first, the director said he’d let me go a second time after the other two girls, that way I could adjust any slip ups since I was basically test running the sound and space for the other two girls. The speaker was as loud as it could go, but once I started singing I quickly realized that I drowned out the music and couldn’t hear my accompaniment anymore, so I relied on my muscle memory of the flow of the song and my internal meter to get me through to the end. I only messed up on the trill before the final verse, it was so much longer than I anticipated, but I knew I’d be able to fix that after hearing the other two girls. Turns out the other two had only started looking at the song once they got called back, so I had an edge on having it memorized, but once I heard their voices I grew worried because they both had such beautiful tones, trying to react quickly to when they missed something in the music. I went through my second time, correcting my mistake with the trill (which all three of us made the same mistake there) and tweaking a few small things to my blocking, and then we were given a scene to read with the Anthony’s.

We would all get a turn with both Anthony’s to get a sense of chemistry, as well so we could all make adjustments (the director reminded us the context of the scene we were reading after we all finished with the first Anthony, and guided us on a better direction to what Johanna would be feeling in that moment for our second time through). I felt I really connected well with both Anthony’s, familiar with the scene and story so I wouldn’t have to be buried in my lines. It was during our read-throughs that I realized the other two Johanna’s were likely a few years older than me based on how they played her; more mature, more sure of themselves. I finished my second read-through, hopefully keeping to the context of the scene better than my first run-through, and we were all told that we could head home, that we’d be hearing from them in a day or two regarding final casting. Before I hit the door, the director paused me, asking if I still had my original script from the prior production. Heart pounding at the implications his question could be loaded with, I told them I did, and in fact I had it with me. “It felt like good luck to bring it,” I said, and they all laughed with me at lugging around a four hundred page script for luck.

When we got downstairs, the Johanna I was particularly worried about asked me if I studied opera, which I admitted I did have an associates degree for music. We all talked a while longer before they all headed out, and I sought my friend in the lobby to confide in her; I think I’ve got Johanna.

After talking with her a bit about our auditions, explaining how I thought I had an edge, I headed home, hardly able to sleep as I picked my audition apart in my head and awaited some kind of phone call.

The next day at work I jumped every time my phone buzzed, waiting to see if it was a call. When I was upstairs heating up my lunch, my friend asked if I had heard anything yet, mentioning how she and our Judge thought the director would start making calls after work. I assented- it made sense, plus it’s so much better to actually be able to receive the call than to come back to a voicemail about your casting.

As I waited in the hall for someone, my phone started buzzing with a call, and my heart rate shot up. It was still so early in the afternoon, not quite 3:30, and with everything I had knew was good about my audition, I allowed myself a flicker of hope. I knew I had a few minutes, so I quickly answered- and there was our director on the other side.

“Hi, is this Shelby? This is (director), from Sweeney Todd.” I responded back, asking how he was, trying not to lose my nerve. “I’m great, thanks for asking. We’re just starting to call everyone about casting, and we were just so impressed with your auditions, your first and your callback; we were interested if you’d be willing to accept the role of Johanna?”

I was trying not to cry on the phone as I excitedly responded YES, I would LOVE to play Johanna- I had wanted to play Johanna for a year and a half at this point, and here was my moment at last. After a few more logistical questions, he bid me a good day and hung up to call the rest of the main cast. I was just bubbling over with excitement, the first thing I did was message my friend that I’d gotten Johanna- she had found out the night before that she was going to be the Beggar Woman since she stayed late at callbacks to discuss a miscommunication with the director (she was accidentally twenty minutes late because her email had the wrong callback time listed, and when the director was made aware, she asked if she could sing again, and he said “we don’t need you to, we saw all we needed your first time through- you ARE the Beggar Woman”), then I messaged our Judge Turpin, who was one of the other few returning cast members.

My coworkers were all so excited for me, asking me when the show was going to be, that they’d all make a group to go see it together. When I got home, I tricked my parents into thinking I was still nervous about casting, saying “I don’t know, I’m just nervous… I mean, my first kiss is going to be on stage.” And when it clicked that I had gotten the part, my mom screamed and my dad laughed at my mischievousness at tricking both of them, congratulating me.

I’m still waiting on the go-ahead so I can post about this on my main socials, but I’ve just been so excited that I had to find a way to post it secretly somewhere, just so I wouldn’t burst at the seams holding this in. Our first rehearsal is in August, so my rehearsal stories series will be returning once those start (I theorized there’s a gap between auditions and first rehearsals because the cast has to be vaccinated for legal reasons, so the handful that aren’t can have time to get their vaccines).

For now, I get to wonder who my other fellow cast mates are, who my Anthony will be. Until then, if I cannot fly, let me sing 🕊 -Johanna (Shelby)

[mulletcal]

flowers, maybe daisies, might relieve the gloom. - an a.i blurb

a/n: i lowkey blame @sexgodashton​ for starting this whole mini series of boomer!ash things, but i also adore this because boomer!ash is soft as hell.  and also a lil d*ddy but we don’t need to talk about that.  title is from wait by sweeney todd bc i love it.  alternative title was gonna be from L.G. FUAD by motion city soundtrack

word count: 

warnings: ashton irwin being a thirst trapping, lemon stealing whore. i’m kidding it’s just a solo ash fic w no smut but some mild ash thirst trapping.

-----

‘ashtonirwin started a live video.’

Ashton didn’t often go live on Instagram, but this shelter in place order had left him ultimately bored - writing a song every day before noon, sure, but anything after that was a blur.  Occasionally he would have interviews or live-streams with the band, but on days without that he was left alone with his thoughts, and his thoughts weren’t always the safest place to be; so talking to fans it was. 

It was going well so far, simply asking fans how their quarantine was going - bringing some of them into the livestream so he could talk to some face to face.  One girl in particular had caught his attention when they began to discuss hobbies she had picked up during the time she’d spent at home.

“Yeah, I’m learning to garden.  I have a tomato plant that is just starting to sprout actual tomatoes, so that’s kind of exciting,” She had said, a nervous laugh escaping.

“Well, I would hope that your tomato plant is sprouting tomatoes, it would be a little concerning if it was growing something else,” Ashton replied with a chuckle, the girl giving a small shrug but still laughing along with him.

“You should look into it if you’ve got the room at your house, I bet it would feel rather rewarding to be able to cook something with your own fresh vegetables.”

“Would save me quite a bit of money too.  Can I grow yeast? I’d like to learn how to make my own bread but here in L.A. you can’t find yeast anywhere.”

The conversation continued like that for a few minutes more, Ashton taking only a couple more fans into the livestream after that to talk to before he decided he should probably do something else productive with his day.  Something like learning to garden. 

It surprised Ashton the things you were able to order online during this time - soil being the main thing.  He also read that saving coffee grounds would help, and he was excited at the idea of his insane coffee habit wouldn’t be completely useless.  He ended up buying seeds for tomatoes, mint, sunflowers, lemongrass, and zucchini.  The lemongrass and mint was specifically for Calum, realizing he would be able to dry the plants out once he had harvested them so he could make the man his very own tea.

When his package finally arrived, Ashton spread the packages out, sliding them across the table as though he was some card dealer in Las Vegas.  Thinking the fans would find it amusing, he took a picture of the spread and added it to his story with the caption of ‘pick a card, any card…’.  Maybe it would only be funny to him, but it did prompt a fire reaction from Michael.

It seemed as though the reaction from fans were positive though, them taking to Twitter to let him know their excitement about his new endeavour.  That’s where his weekly livestreams began.  He would show everyone the progress he was making with his plants, and just in general him chatting with fans.  Ashton never really thought of how refreshing it could be to just talk to the fans, without the worry of time restrictions or anyone’s personal safety in the way; in fact, it left him rather inspired, loving their fans even more if it were at all possible.

A particularly warm day in L.A. left Ashton wondering if he should go out to the garden that day - but it was the day he would normally livestream, and he was excited to show what he was up to that day.  Ashton wanted to plant another tomato plant, and also the lemons on his infamous tree had enough for him to make some lemonade so he was going to go through that as well.

Clad in some cut off jeans, or as Calum so affectionately called them his jorts, and a white tank top, he pulled up the live option on Instagram and waited for the people to begin to filter in before he started to speak.

“Hey guys! Just gonna wait for more of you to filter in before I actually head outside, but I thought that since you guys love my lemon tree so much, I’d make some lemonade.  Fuck, I sound like a YouTuber.  Is that gonna be my next career, is just YouTube tutorials on how to make shitty lemonade?” Ashton laughed to himself, slicing the lemon so he could juice it, ignoring the comments he saw about murdering his lemon children.

It didn’t take him long to make the lemonade, making mild conversation with the fans while he stirred in a little bit of sugar and some cheat mint he had ordered while waiting for his own to grow.

“Alright, now that I’m waiting for that to cool, probably best we go outside and check on those tomatoes, hm?” 

It had been weird at first, talking to himself; but he quickly realized that he talked to himself anyways, even without the phone in front of him, so it couldn’t have been too weird for anyone who could overhear him.

“So I wanted to plant another tomato plant today, because everyone can use a friend right now, you know?” He looked into the camera, a smile spreading across his face when he saw the flood of cute little emojis that followed.  “M’gonna be like the Bob Ross of gardening. No mistakes, only happy accidents or whatever it was he said.”

Ashton began to work away at his garden, building up a sweat in the process.  It wasn’t until he leaned back, glancing at his phone did he see a text from Michael flash across the top.

‘Mate, Crystal said stop thirst trapping the fans.’

Ashton’s brow furrowed, unsure of what the text was saying, “Okay so I just got a text from Michael - what’s thirst trapping? And am I currently doing it?”

Of all the comments that followed, he noticed one that said ‘I mean… I’m not gonna say either way but take a look at yourself and get back to us’.  Another one told him that it was when someone wears something in order to provoke risque texts, or gain attention from someone.

Ashton pouted, looking down at his appearance.  He was kind of sweaty, but he didn’t think that the fans would mind him being covered in dirt and sweat, it’s not as though they had to smell him.  Though, he would admit that he needed a shower. 

“Well, since my tomato plant has been… planted next to its’ friend, and I’m apparently thirst trapping you all, I should probably go shower and clean up.  Is me mentioning a shower thirst trapping as well?” Ashton rubbed his face over his hands, a small huff leaving his lips, “I don’t know… Fellow youths, tweet me and lemme know.  Also, may hold a poll later on what to name these guys.” He flipped the camera around, struggling for a moment, to show the sunflowers that were starting to sprout, “M’thinking of naming one Denise.  Just seems like a Denise.”

After his small speech was over, he ended the stream, grinning to himself.  He hadn’t meant to show off his body in such a way, but it was funny to know that even with him hardly doing anything but be himself they still lost their shit.

Glancing around at his garden, he felt himself swell with a mild sense of pride.  He was still a ways off from seeing any fruits of his labour (literally), but it made him feel good knowing he did something with his time at home, instead of slipping further into his mind which wasn’t always the kindest to him.

Ashton realized that when he was gardening, it was similar to songwriting in a way where all of his self doubts and fears went away and he could just pour himself into it - the reward being well worth the risk in the end.

Once his shower was done, he sat outside in his backyard, sipping his lemonade and enjoying the sunshine - realizing that having to stay home wasn’t all too bad, if it meant he could reset his mind, and do some small part to help how he could during that time.

tag list:  @haikucal​ @talkfastromance4​ @softbabiestan​ @boyfriend-cal​ @calum-uncrowned​ @wildflowerirwin​ @irwindoll​ @gosh-im-short​  @thesubtweeter​ @heavenisapeach​ @ridingcthood​ @loveroflrh​ @mantlereid​ @inlovehoodx​ @irwinkitten​ @n-ctarinenga​​ @g-l-pierce​ @thecurlsofgod​

[nyxshadowhawk]

Goth Tags

I know this is a YouTube thing, but I wanted to do these two lists, so I’m going to do them.

Ways in Which I’m Stereotypically Goth:

I’ve got the romantigoth aesthetic down. I love spooky, pretty things! I love gargoyles and ravens and black roses and moons and weird occult stuff and dark forests... I’ve got three Joseph Vargo posters in my dorm room, and I’ve run out of space to put resin statues in my bedroom. I wear lots of long, flowy black clothes and the occasional Goth Princess gown. I’ve also got an entire box (made of black wood with pentagrams carved in the top) full of silver and pewter jewelry, and Black Phoenix perfumes.

I really love spooky interior design and architecture. I loved Voltaire’s Gothic Homemaking and I drooled over Haunt Furniture. My dream home would probably be a Victorian-style, Addams-like mansion in the middle of nowhere (for when I become a world-famous writer...). I also REALLY love castles and old buildings, especially with gothic architecture and gargoyles. I really liked seeing old castles and churches in Scotland. Medieval Europe is 10/10 my aesthetic.

I’ve always really liked bats. When I was a kid (around six), my favorite episode of The Magic School Bus (for whatever reason) was “Going Batty.” That set off a bat obsession! Reading Stellaluna in seventh grade just reinforced it. I used to pretend to be one and wrap myself up in my blankets like wings. Bats are cute! I recently got back into them! There’s an adorable little plush one hanging above my bed. “So dark of wing and keen of craft, of all night flyers the master’s a bat.” (Actually, the master of night flyers is totally Prince Astor of Umbragard.)

I like horror stories and gothic literature. Back when creepypasta was big, I’d casually read collections of horror stories on Quotev. Now, I really love Nox Arcana’s “Tales from the Dark Tower,” Poe stories, Grimm’s fairy tales, and the like. I actually have a pretty strong stomach. I also genuinely love gothic lit. The Picture of Dorian Gray is my favorite. I didn’t make it through Frankenstein, though, it was too sad.

I’m introverted and a night owl. I wouldn’t say I have a “stereotypical” Goth personality, because I’ve been trying to be more optimistic and happy, and I’ve attempted to make friends, but one of the reasons I like Raven from Teen Titans is because I tend to be the isolated girl in dark clothes who’d rather be left alone. I’m not exactly stoic-- I’m an emotional wreck, but once you get me talking about a topic I’m interested in, I’m all moonlight and fireflies. I’m also a “tortured artist,” and I come alive at night. I stay up until at least 2 AM most nights. I ate breakfast at one today. 

I have a black cat named Edgar. I did not name him! He was given that name at the shelter. All the kittens in his litter were named after gothic writers, because they were all black! (His brother was “H.P.” after Lovecraft.) I was thrilled when my parents said we were getting him, and equally thrilled when they decided to keep his name. He’s such a sweet cat, and I love him.

I like vampires, but I have a complicated relationship with them. You’d think I’d be the kind of girl who’d be obsessed with vampires in middle school, especially if I loved the Vampire Friz episode of The Magic School Bus! But no. I wasn’t into vampires because they killed people and that was disturbing. (That’s why I independently created psychic vampires.)  However, since getting into Castlevania last Halloween, I’ve started to really warm up to vampires. I dressed as Lestat last Halloween, read Carpe Jugulum, have been consuming more vampire media than before... I’m still not obsessed, but I like them now. Still would hate to be one, though. SHADOWS FOR THE WIN!

I LOVE Halloween! I was devastated the two years it was canceled (freak snowstorm and Hurricane Sandy. Oh, by the way, my reaction to the current hurricane was, “He put his soul in a hurricane, now?!). I really miss trick-or-treating. I convinced my parents to throw an annual Halloween party, which gave me an excuse to get even more decorations for my room, and they pretty much can’t host it without me. Everyone shares my aesthetic during Halloween season!

I’m really into witchy and occult stuff. The more cryptic and spooky, the better. I was Wiccan-ish for a while, I don’t think I am anymore, but I’m still exploring my spirituality (through books like Nocturnal Witchcraft and Shadow Magick Compendium) with guidance from Hecate and Dionysus. 

Whether my music taste is truly “Goth” or not, it is certainly very spooky. Nox Arcana all the way! I really go in for the church organ and glockenspiel and chiming bells and melancholy piano and strings and harpsichords and minor keys. Listening to spooky music makes me happy. I have a whole list of creepy waltzes. Neoclassical is my thing. I also like Adrian von Zeigler, Peter Gundry, Two Steps From Hell, and fantasy music in general. 

Un-Goth Confessions:

I don’t like gothic rock. Some would say this means I’m not Goth, and it felt alienating for a while. Siouxsie and Bauhaus just aren’t really my thing. I don’t really like industrial and darkwave, either. The closest I get to traditional Goth music is Voltaire (I love the songs of his that I listen to, but I only listen to a handful), and a few songs by Dead Can Dance. I’m much more into Nox Arcana.

I don’t look stereotypically Goth. I joke that I look like Aurora and dress like Maleficent, because it’s true. My cheeks are permanently rosy and not easy to cover with white makeup (I don’t wear makeup often, anyway.) I have big blue eyes and wavy, golden hair (that I’m not going to dye). I don’t have any piercings— when my sister went for her second piercing, she encouraged me to get my ears pierced, but I broke down crying because I’m afraid of pain. I’m an adult!

I still like horsies and unicorns and other cutesy things from my childhood. I was really into Gen 3 of My Little Pony. I still have some fairy and ballerina stuff, even if I don’t display it. My bedroom is still lavender (and always will be). I definitely wasn’t spooky in childhood, and I’ve still got a non-spooky side. (It was kind of a big deal when I dressed as a rainbow unicorn fairy when I was seven, and then a dark sorceress when I was eight.)  I danced in my company’s adapted kiddie production of the Nutcracker until I graduated. I’ve got fluffy stuffed unicorns right next to my Spiral Bat Cat.

I HATE DIY. I don’t trust it! I don’t want to ruin my clothes with fabric paint or rip holes in things or in any way risk it turning out poorly. My style is tough to DIY anyway, but yeah.

I’m not really into the macabre. I only got into skeletons because of Undertale, and I don’t like, for lack of a better phrase, “the death aesthetic.” Blood, body horror art, the zombie look... I don’t really like anything morbid or sad. I’m iffy on graveyards and coffins.

I don’t like most horror films. I like spooky movies, like Coraline, but not horror movies. Although I like horror stories, I don’t like horror films, less because of the horror and more because they tend to end badly. I don’t like “everybody dies” stories, especially if it’s one where sympathetic people get killed off one by one, or slasher flicks that rely on jumpscares. Old-school gothic horror could work, though. I also like psychological thrillers like The Sixth Sense and Black Swan. Is Interview With the Vampire a horror movie? (I probably underestimate how strong my stomach is. Aladdin used to scare me. Look at me now!)

I still wear a lot of color. About half my wardrobe is black, which is still a lot, but not as much as most Goths. I’ve still got a lot of purple, and other colors.

I’m not a huge fan of Tim Burton. The only film of his that I really love was Corpse Bride. Beetlejuice wasn’t my style and didn’t contain enough of Lydia, Sweeney Todd was a bit too dark and gory (although I did like that one), Dark Shadows wasn’t as good as I was hoping, Alice in Wonderland was cool aesthetically but not a very good film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a dumpster fire... and The Nightmare Before Christmas doesn’t count because he didn’t direct it (and though I like it, I wasn’t blown away by it, either). My reaction overall? “Meh.”

I still contain a childish exuberance. I squealed and bounced up and down when the new Nox Arcana album was released. I will probably do the same before and/or after watching Season 3 of Castlevania, and when Grimoire of Souls is released. This is how I know that Goth stuff is part of my true personality. 

There’s a lot of Goth clothes that I don’t wear, in addition to not dying my hair, not wearing makeup, and not having piercings. I’d wear black heeled boots like Dracula’s, but not platform shoes. I don’t like fishnets. I hate ripped clothing. Not a fan of hoodies. I also will not wear leather clothing. And spiked collars? No no no. I’m pretty much strictly a Romantigoth. Maybe that doesn’t make me less Goth. But it makes me less stereotypical, especially when so much of the Goth stuff online is geared toward that end of the subculture.

And I don’t know if this makes me more Goth or less Goth, but I have one outfit from Hot Topic. And an epic “House of Belmont” t-shirt.

Okay, that was interesting.

“I’M SO GOTH, I LITERALLY DARKEN A DOORWAY!”

[squarehammered-blog]

Flynn, Flynnius, Flynnigan, The Boy I Love, Mi Amor, Mi Cielo, Mi Corazon

It’s been a year, this I’m sure you can agree on. Today is October Twelfth, The Day™, that it’s been a whole year of highs, lows, and being by each other’s side. Yeah I’m gonna just… Start off by reminiscing a bit about some of my favorite things we’ve done. Not in any chronological order, or order of favorite memories, but just what I can think of.

Generally, how we grew together, just being, y’know ‘a friend of Bucci’s’

How during those days we would sit out by the koi pond, and the dumb little conversations we’d have, like when you introduced me to Ghost, or the bird coffin, or how those gigantic fake koi would eat pretty much anything we threw in there

How, before I even said anything to you, I used to practically speed to school, because my got damn brother would take too got damn long to put his boots on his got damn feet.

And those trips to Lancaster we took as friends, just kind of roaming around and how I’d always nudge Bucci to ask you to come too. Also that time the music did the “Turn right on to 322” and the beat fuckin’ d r o p p e d

And I honestly think my favorite memory before we dated was That day. The one where we went to Lancaster, did all the usual Lancaster stuff, then kinda went back to my house because people were away and watched the Babadook and Sweeney Todd. (Tooooooooby, I have a knife Toby). Because I really did almost confess my feelings that day, I was so close, too. Honestly, and we not have called Bucci to come eat the rest of our sushi, I’d have been writing this letter on the anniversary of that day.

And once things started, It got a little awkward at first, but It was actually really nice?? I mean I remember you used to come back from school and send me photos of your dog and how she cornered you in the middle room thing, or how you ordered those contacts just about a week after we started dating, and you sent a photo of you wearing them out of nowhere.

That first time we did latex, when I was sitting in your main room/dining room table thing, and your mom didn’t know yet. That was the day I really got to know you, I feel like that was when the awkwardness kinda cleared, and we started to learn about one another, I found out how creative and talented you are, how you get an energy to do something, and there’s always an amazing product to follow.

Our first ‘legit date’ when we went to St. Peters, and came up with that bear who steals your shit because “You don’t tell him what to do” And also, I STILL can’t believe he found that rock.

Do you remember the can speaker? I remember the can speaker. And how he’s constantly at low battery

There was also that time you got me my first vinyl, which I literally got a turntable just ot play. I carried that around school all day and showed so many people because dude, I was so happy.

Also the ghost hoodie! My literal favorite sweatshirt that I wear every single day now that it’s cold again

Those whole few months where we saw each other every day at school, we walked the halls, kinda skipped class a little bit, I used to see that stuff you’d do on your hands, because got damn my gay, you’re really fuckin’ creative.

All those days I’d stop by after work just to see you for another few minutes because after a long shift, that honestly made my day, every day

Literally all of Christmas that I could see you, your heated blanket, my cold hands, you had a candle going literally always.

Your birthday soon after, I tried ot do a thing but g o t d a m n it was cold. Also that card I asked Devyn to do I really really hoped you liked it

The little notes we used to write each other on tumblr, or when we’d trade books, I literally still carry one around in my pocket and read it from time to time

Zenkai, that was amazing, spending time with you, being at zenkai, couples cosplay, couples shirts, being able to fall asleep next to you, and wake up to see you in the morning.

The chon concert, driving to New Jersey (the garbage state), the concert in a warehouse for some reason, the tank nxt door that was fake as shit, leaving before dgd’s set to get hot cocoa.

That time school was almost ending and I happened to be in Coldren’s room and guess whose face was on the wall? It u

The Ghost concert. My favorite concert I’ve ever been to, not only for Ghost, papa, and the ghouls, but most importantly for you. I got to go to a concert with you, and you loved it, I loved it, it was an amazing time all around.

Yeah so. Those are the times I’ve been thinking about literally all day, hell, all week honestly. I say it all the time, it’s so repetitive, but you’re the light of my life, seriously. Mi cielo = My sky, Mi corazon = My heart, Mi amor = My love, you are my love. The only one I’ve ever loved, and the only person I’ve ever felt anything for. I love us, I love our dynamic, I love that we built our relationship on such healthy values and also occasionally a satanic pope man. And I think the best way to sum up what our relationship is to me, is to pull an analogy I used in the first letter I ever wrote to you. My life was that without color, I didn’t know what it was like to have someone, I didn’t know what it was to be with you, but now a year later, my life is so much better because of you, because of us, because you’ve given me so much meaning and so much to be happy about. This year has been the best year of my life, and I owe it to us, what we are, and what we will be.

I love you, so so much, more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my entire life. You are the color in my world, Here’s to another year of us <3

@neverdewitt

[notarelationship]

A Crime Against Pizza (co-authored with @mshoneysucklepink)

From this prompt:  "Your pizza keeps getting delivered to my house by mistake and I need to talk to you about your choice of toppings AU" by @ashesinyourhair from the @dailyau. 

Rating: PG (for innuendo) Summary: Some people are very particular about their pizza. Warnings: Pineapple on pizza, orgasmic descriptions of pepperoni, egregiously overused italics, general idiocy. Stoner Brett. ~3100 words 

AO3

First this happened. Then this happened. Super thanks to @snarkyhag for the awesome beta.

--

The only saving grace about exam time, Blaine thought, was that somehow it made pizza taste even better. He wasn’t sure if it was some psychosomatic reaction or the perfect balance of protein, carbs, and fat traveling through his bloodstream straight to his brain - but it set off his reward center like nothing else. Except maybe a good orgasm (ideally brought on by something other than his own hand, thankyouverymuch).

The only problem was his roommate. Sam HATED Blaine’s preferred toppings of pineapple and ham, (“it’s fruit on pizza, Blaine, and fruit is healthy, it totally defeats the point of pizza being junk food! It makes it, I don’t know, less junky!”) Which was why he considered himself lucky that Sam had a nighttime photo shoot. Nothing was stopping him.

He dialed his favorite pizza place, telling himself he’d eat the leftovers for breakfast in the morning before Sam could bitch about it.

--

“Ouch!”

It was the fifth time Kurt had accidentally pricked himself with a pin while working on the partial costume that was barely holding together on the dress form. This was his final project for his Advanced Costume Design class, and it was about to look like a costume for Sweeney Todd instead of Hamilton (hmmm, maybe he could pass it off as from the “Battle of Yorktown?”). His vision was swimming in spite of all the coffee he’d ingested and...oh, he hadn’t eaten. That explained things; his blood sugar must have been off-balance.

He checked the fridge--nothing. He had been so busy with final assignments and living off bagels from the library coffee shop, he hadn’t gone grocery shopping and the fridge was only full of Rachel’s vegan friendly favorites. There were the kale chips she had bought on a whim, some tofu (ergh), and some homegrown kombucha from the farmer’s market that he was certain was becoming sentient. He briefly considered sauteeing up her seitan and vegetables into a stir fry, but he still had so much work to do and just the thought of cleaning up the kitchen afterward was more than he could bear.

He opened the drawer of menus and instantly salivated. He hadn’t had pizza with real cheese on it in months. Tonight not even Rachel Berry could stop him from getting his pineapple and pepperoni fix.

--

There was a reason the guys at Vanelli’s called their new delivery boy “Stoner Brett.”

Blaine was up and at the door before the delivery guy could even finish knocking.

“Uhhh, you order a,” the delivery boy who reeked of pot drawled, squinting at the label on the side, “a large pineapple?”

“Yeah, that’s me. Here you go,” Blaine said, handing over 25 dollars and taking the pizza box. “Keep the change.”

“Dude, cool,” Stoned Delivery Dude smiled and left. Blaine closed the door and went to set the pizza on the coffee table. He grabbed a plate, knife and fork from the kitchen, a handful of napkins (it was New York pizza) along with a soda from the fridge, and sat down to his mid-study reward.

“Mmm, come to papa,” Blaine moaned, as he opened the box.

And was immediately disgusted.

There was pepperoni on his pizza.

Now, Blaine understood that pepperoni was the most popular and stereotypically classic pizza topping. He figured it was an easy mistake to make. But it didn’t stop the queasy feeling they gave him. Little red nitrites, their edges crisped and curled up like the floors of Hell, their centers filled with a light yellow puddle of grease. Spicy little grease pools that dripped everywhere, and anyone who ever had to get grease stains out of polo shirts would empathize, he was sure. And with pineapple? No, just...no. The saltiness of the ham paired so well with sweet pineapple; slightly dry balanced with juicy bursts. But pineapple juice mixed with pepperoni grease?

Blaine would have cried if he weren’t so nauseous. And hungry.

He decided, maybe he could just delicately pick the pepperonis off? He picked up one, and gently attempted to pull it off the cheese...and the grease splashed back onto his shirt.

“GODDAMNIT.” He called Vanelli’s again, to try to get a replacement pie.

--

Kurt stomach growled and he looked up from his sewing and saw the time. It had been almost an hour since he’d ordered his pizza.

“Oh my god,” he mumbled to no one, reaching for his phone. He was just about to dial to find out where his food was when Rachel came noisily into the apartment.

“Kurt! You will never guess who I ran into tonight at yoga - Jesse St. James, from high school. You remember him?”

Kurt scowled. Yes, he remembered Jesse-St.James-from-high-school. He did not approve.

“Yes, but Vanelli’s never delivered my pizza so hang on; let me call them and you can tell me all about -”

The downstairs buzzer rang before Kurt could push the numbers. The caller ID’d himself as the pizza delivery guy so Kurt buzzed him up.

“I hope that’s the Vegan Double, Kurt, I am starving,” Rachel followed him to the door, standing behind him and looking skeptically at the delivery guy. Kurt didn’t recognize him, but he definitely recognized the slightly sour scent of streetcorner weed. He made a face and paid the guy, but he didn’t have the heart to skimp on his tip, even with the tardy delivery.

Kurt set the box on the dining table, “Rachel I didn’t order the vegan one,” Kurt said, opening the box. “You weren’t here so I opted for - not this.” Kurt stared at the pizza. It was almost right. He could have sworn he’d ordered pineapple and pepperoni, but that was definitely ham on the pie. Whatever, he shrugged to himself. Pork is pork.

“Gross.” He had almost forgotten Rachel was standing there. “I don’t know how you can eat that, Kurt. Those poor pigs, and all the milk for that cheese belongs to the baby cows -”

“Calves, Rachel. They’re called calves.” Kurt rolled his eyes.

Rachel sat across the table with her most judgmental look. “They are baby cows, Kurt.”

“Whatever Rachel. I am starving and I am eating this pizza,” he said. But he knew he’d give in, he always did. And usually he didn’t even mind. He liked eating healthier, he felt better, and it was good for his occasionally fluctuating weight (although that had been less of a problem as he’d gotten older). But sometimes he just wanted a real freaking pizza. “Go make yourself something.  I’ll stop at two slices and eat the rest tomorrow after my exam. I still have to finish up the project for my costume design class and then we can watch a movie and have popcorn with that vegan butter you like, okay?”

Rachel grinned. “That sounds like a perfect night Kurt. Thank you!”

--

After the pizza mixup from the other night, Blaine was hesitant about ordering from Vanelli’s again. They had brought him a new pie, with the proper toppings, and he left the other for Sam (who, as expected, picked the pineapple off and threw it in the trash, what kind of monster…). But they had ordered once after that and it turned out fine, though the last delivery person was different (and decidedly not high as a kite), and the order had been correct (however, with Sam home there would be no pineapple). Blaine assumed they had fired the stoner from before.

Blaine sighed with relief when he came in from his last exam. He had sent his final paper in earlier that day, and with that another school year was behind him. He had a couple of weeks until his summer internship started, and for now he felt like celebrating. As far as he was concerned there was no better way to celebrate than with his favorite pizza. With the biggest puppy eyes Blaine could muster, Sam bent to his will and let him pick the toppings (“but I’m totally picking the fruit off!” he said).

“You’re the one best friend that anyone could have,” Blaine sang at Sam, as he went to take a shower, leaving Sam to answer the door.

--

Less than a week after the ham pizza incident Kurt was buried under a History of Design project and two back-to-back finals, one for his Advanced Playwrights class and the other a monologue from The Tempest for his Shakespeare class that Kurt was finding to be a miserable bitch to memorize. The further he got into the monologue the worse he got.

It took him about fifteen more difficult minutes to realize that he hadn’t actually eaten since breakfast, and that was probably why his brain wasn’t putting words together in any proper order, much less the order William Shakespeare demanded.

As good as the ham and pineapple pizza had been, he was still craving his favorite pineapple with pepperoni. Ham was fine, but a ham and pineapple pizza was just so boring. Pepperoni was spicy and chewy, and Vanelli’s had that special way of cooking the pepperoni so that they curled up around the edges and the tasty grease pooled deliciously in the center of each slice, like tiny bowls of processed pork product soup.

“God yes,” Kurt moaned as he thumbed open his phone and called the shop.

--

“Blaine, pizza’s here!” Sam shouted.

Blaine came out of his room, barefoot and wearing a fresh shirt and pair of jeans, pressing the moisture out of his curls. “Great, I’m starving! Wait,” Blaine sniffed the air, then at Sam’s clothes, and got a strange sense of deja vu. “Why does it smell like a Phish concert in here?”

“Probably because the pizza dude was totally stoned out of his gourd,” Sam laughed, as he opened the box.

Blaine didn’t even need to see the pepperonis before he knew they were there. “Damn it. I gotta call them back, get them to send a non-stoner to bring us a new pizza.”

“Um, why don’t you just give it to this Hummel person?” Sam asked.

“What Hummel person?”

“The person whose pizza this is? I looked at the receipt on the side. They only live two floors above us.”

--

Forty-five minutes later there was a knock on his apartment door, which made no sense unless Rachel had forgotten her keys, because they had a buzzer and everyone in the building was careful about not letting in someone without keys. Kurt looked through the peephole in the door. There was a guy on the other side that Kurt thought he recognized as one of the two guys who lived downstairs. The two cute guys. They’d never exchanged more than a polite nod, and neither he nor Rachel had been able to figure out whether they were a couple or not.

Oh well, cute guys don’t randomly knock on my door every day, he thought, as he opened it. It was one of the cute guys - the one who usually used too much gel in his hair (though not tonight and ooh those curls were sexy) - and he was holding a pizza box.

“Hi, can I help you?”

Cute Guy scowled. “I believe this is yours?” He lifted the edge of the box and Kurt could see his perfect pepperoni and pineapple pizza inside.

Kurt grinned. “Oh wow, thank you!” He reached out and took the box. “But how did you -”

“Know it was you? Your apartment number was on the box.”

“Oh, duh, of course! Well, thank you, um…”

Cute Guy extended his hand. “My name’s Blaine....”

“...Kurt.”

Kurt juggled the box to his left so he could shake hands with his right, and when their hands touched there was a spark. Blaine sure did have the prettiest eyes Kurt had seen in a long time. Maybe in ever. He wondered if Blaine might like to share his pizza. Or possibly his bed. “Would you like to come in?”

--

“Um, okay.”

Blaine was all ready to be super judgemental about whoever this Hummel person was, because he was perfectly allowed to judge based on choice of pizza toppings alone. But when the door opened, he wasn’t expecting the hot guy from the mailboxes. Sam was always teasing him that he was having an imaginary affair with the guy he ran into when he was getting the mail (and he wasn’t wrong). He can’t believe he never registered which apartment was his.

“Thanks for bringing up my pizza. I swear they mess this up every time.” Come on Kurt, you can be flirty. “Can I get you a drink, or do you want to share a thank you slice?”

How could someone so gorgeous have such awful taste in pizza toppings? He hoped it didn’t show on his face.

“I just have to ask one thing,” Blaine said.

Kurt turned from setting the pizza box on a table, raising an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Why pepperoni?”

Kurt’s mouth dropped open. “Um, why not pepperoni?”

Blaine cringed internally, because this guy was so cute and wrong about pizza but still cute with such a melodic voice. But he had to know, because pepperoni was gross.

“Excuse me, what’s so gross about it?” Oh damn, he said that out loud. Well, in for a penny...

“It’s just so highly processed, and the way it curls up, and the grease pops out of it and settles into these icky, oily pools -”

“Very delicious grease, I think you mean.”

“- and you can’t pick them off without getting the grease everywhere. They are a crime against pizza! And with pineapple? How can you ruin such a perfect, juicy, succulent fruit, that just bursts with sweetness in your mouth?”

Kurt could think of something he’d like to burst in his mouth, all right. “All true. And don’t forget the occasional flash of tart the pineapple sometimes supplies,” Kurt said. “I suppose you would pair your pineapple with ham?” Kurt’s voice had gotten higher at that, and Blaine thought he might have moved a bit closer. He may even have licked his lips.

“It’s only the best balanced companion to pineapple. The ham has that little bit of smoky dryness and salty tang that pineapple pairs so nicely with.”

“But it’s just ham. It is literally the topping most commonly paired with pineapple. It’s so, so -” don’t say boring Kurt, you’re still trying to impress this guy, “predictable.”  

“Predictable, huh?” Blaine said, and oh, he could watch Kurt’s lips purse around pronouncing words that start with “P” all night (even if one of them was “pepperoni”).

“Pepperoni is spicy, hot, it makes your mouth feel alive, Blaine. It - mmpf”

Blaine’s mouth was definitely alive, and it was living all over Kurt’s.

Kurt let out a squeak, but gripped Blaine’s shoulders, pulling him closer as they both settled into the kiss.

“Oh my god!” Blaine pulled away. “That was - I don’t know what that was. I am -”

“Do not say sorry.” Kurt pulled Blaine’s face with both hands and kissed him again, angling his head so their mouths slotted together, his tongue licking into Blaine’s mouth. Kurt pulled away when he finally needed air, and Blaine took a step backward. “Wow, um. Okay.”

They stood for a moment, evaluating each other.

“Would you like to stay for pizza?” Kurt asked, waving a hand backward toward his probably cold pie.

“No,” Blaine said.

“Oh. Well okay, I guess I read this wrong…”

Blaine panicked and grabbed Kurt by the arms. “No, I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. I mean I won’t stay for that pizza. We can order another.”

“And, um, what should we do while we wait?”

Blaine gave him a sultry gaze. “I have some ideas.”

--

Three months later…

Blaine was sitting on the sofa reading through a magazine when the buzzer from the street went off.

“Hey babe, can you get that?” Kurt shouted from their bedroom. Their bedroom.

“Sure. Are we expecting someone?” Blaine pushed the buzzer. “Hello?”

“Delivery.” came the muddled voice through the tinny speaker.

“It’s a surprise!” Kurt sang from the other room.

They had only been living together for a few days, long enough to have most of Blaine’s things moved in while Kurt moved some of his out-of-season things to Rachel’s old room. It wasn’t like they even had that much stuff, it was just the act of combining their lives that made it seem like so much more.

It had seemed sudden to their friends, when Blaine moved into Kurt’s apartment, but with Rachel cast in a series shooting in Los Angeles and Sam moving back to Kentucky to be with his parents for a while, it had seemed like the obvious choice to both Blaine and Kurt.

“A surprise, huh?”

Blaine opened the door to find...Stoner Brett.

The pizza delivery guy. (They found out his name after another two misdelivered pizzas, and three calls to Vanelli’s. Everyone there called him that. It seemed fitting.)

“Hey, Sto--uh, Brett,” Blaine said.

“Yo, dude.” Brett looked confused a moment.  “Am I in the right place?”

Blaine laughed and fished money out of the jar by the door. “Yeah. I moved.”

“Woah. Cool.” He grinned and put up a fist for Blaine to bump.

Kurt came out of the bedroom as Blaine took the pizza. Brett looked even more confused. “Wow, dude, did you move too?”

“Um, no?” Kurt said, as Blaine put the pizza on the table. Brett stood for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure he was even in the right dimension, but eventually shuffled off without a word. Kurt brushed it off. “So, I thought to welcome you, we could have a compromise pizza!”

“Compromise, huh?”

“Yes,” Kurt said, as he wound his arms around Blaine’s waist. “Pineapple all over, but ham on one side for you, and pepperoni on the other side for me,” he punctuated with a wet kiss to Blaine’s lips.

“Aw, that’s so sweet!” Blaine cooed, as he leaned over and flipped open the box lid and… “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”

They both stared into the box: the pizza had all the pineapple on only one side; the other side had the ham and pepperoni together.

“Well, we can’t blame Stoner Brett this time,” Kurt mused. “He only delivers them, he doesn’t make them.”

“So, what do you want to do?”

“Well, you know how I feel about pork, Blaine. Why settle for just ham and pepperoni when I can have sausage here at home?” He gave Blaine’s ass a squeeze and led them back to the bedroom.

That pie went cold. From then on they started ordering their pizza from Jimmy’s Famous instead.

[kansascityhappenings]

Towering Broadway director and producer Hal Prince has died

NEW YORK — Harold Prince, a Broadway director and producer who pushed the boundaries of musical theater with such groundbreaking shows as “The Phantom of the Opera,” ”Cabaret,” ”Company” and “Sweeney Todd” and won a staggering 21 Tony Awards, has died. Prince was 91.

Prince’s publicist Rick Miramontez said Prince died Wednesday after a brief illness in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was in transit from Europe to New York. Broadway marquees will dim their lights in his honor Wednesday night.

Prince was known for his fluid, cinematic director’s touch and was unpredictable and uncompromising in his choice of stage material. He often picked challenging, offbeat subjects to musicalize, such as a murderous, knife-wielding barber who baked his victims in pies or the 19th-century opening of Japan to the West.

Along the way, he helped create some of Broadway’s most enduring musical hits, first as a producer of such shows as “The Pajama Game,” ”Damn Yankees,” ”West Side Story,” ”A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” He later became a director, overseeing such landmark musicals as “Cabaret,” ”Company,” ”Follies,” ”Sweeney Todd,” ”Evita” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, reached by phone Wednesday, told The Associated Press that it was impossible to overestimate the importance of Prince to the stage. “All of modern musical theater owes practically everything to him.”

Lloyd Webber recalled that, as a young man, he had written the music for the flop “Jeeves” and was feeling low. Prince wrote him a letter urging him not to be discouraged. The two men later met and Lloyd Webber said he was thinking of next doing a musical about Evita Peron. Prince told him to bring it to him first. “That was game-changing for me. Without that, I often wonder where I would be,” Lloyd Webber said.

Tributes also poured in from generations of Broadway figures, including “The Band’s Visit” composer David Yazbek, who called Prince “a real giant,” and the performer Bernadette Peters, who called it a “sad day.” ”Seinfeld” alum Jason Alexander, who was directed by Prince in “Merrily We Roll Along,” said Prince “reshaped American theater and today’s giants stand on his shoulders.”

Composer Jason Robert Brown hailed Prince’s “commitment and an enthusiasm and a work ethic and an endless well of creative passion.” Actress Carolee Carmello said he “lit up a room like no one I’ve ever known and I always felt so lucky when I was in that room.”

In addition to Lloyd Webber, Prince, known by friends as Hal, worked with some of the best-known composers and lyricists in musical theater, including Leonard Bernstein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, John Kander and Fred Ebb, and, most notably, Stephen Sondheim.

“I don’t do a lot of analyzing of why I do something,” Prince once told The Associated Press. “It’s all instinct.”

Only rarely, he said, did he take on an idea just for the money, and they “probably were bad ideas in the first place. Theater is not about that. It is about creating something. The fact that some of my shows have done so well is sheer luck.”

During his more than 50-year career, Prince received a record 21 Tony Awards, including two special Tonys — one in 1972 when “Fiddler” became Broadway’s longest running musical then, and another in 1974 for a revival of “Candide.” He also was a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor.

He earned a reputation as a detail-heavy director. Barbara Cook in her memoir “Then & Now” wrote: “I admire him greatly, but he also did not always make things easy, for one basic reason: he wants to direct every detail of your performance down to the way you crook your pinky finger.”

A musical about Prince called “Prince of Broadway” opened in Japan in 2015 featuring songs from many of the shows that made him famous. It landed on Broadway in 2017.

It was with Sondheim, who was the lyricist for “West Side Story,” that Prince developed his most enduring creative relationship. He produced “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1962), the first Broadway show for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics.

They cemented their partnership in 1970 with “Company.” Prince produced and directed this innovative, revue-like musical that followed the travails of Bobby, a perpetual New York bachelor ever searching for the right woman.

“Company” was followed in quick succession by “Follies” (1971), which Prince co-directed with Michael Bennett; “A Little Night Music” (1973); “Pacific Overtures” (1976); and “Sweeney Todd” (1979).

Their work together stopped in 1981 after the short-lived “Merrily We Roll Along,” which lasted only 16 performances. It wasn’t to resume until 2003 when Prince and Sondheim collaborated on “Bounce,” a musical about the adventure-seeking Mizner brothers that had a troubled birth and finally made it off-Broadway as “Road Show.”

Prince was mentored by two of the theater’s most experienced professionals — director George Abbott and producer Robert E. Griffith.

“I’ve had a unique life in the theater, uniquely lucky,” Prince said in his midlife autobiography, “Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre,” which was published in 1974. “I went to work for George Abbott in 1948, and I was fired on Friday that year from a television job in his office. I was rehired the following Monday, and I’ve never been out of work since.”

Born in New York on Jan. 30, 1928, Prince was the son of affluent parents, for whom Saturday matinees in the theater with their children were a regular occurrence. A production of “Julius Caesar” starring Orson Welles when he was 8 taught him there was something special about theater.

“I’ve had theater ambitions all of my life,” he said in his memoir. “I cannot go back so far that I don’t remember where I wanted to work.”

After a stint in the Army during the Korean War (he kept his dog-tags on his office desk), he returned to Broadway, serving as stage manager on Abbott’s 1953 production of “Wonderful Town,” starring Rosalind Russell.

The following year, he started producing with Griffith. Their first venture, “The Pajama Game,” starring John Raitt and Janis Paige, was a big hit, running 1,063 performances. They followed in 1955 with another musical smash, “Damn Yankees,” featuring Gwen Verdon as the seductive Lola.

In 1957, Prince did “West Side Story,” a modern-day version of “Romeo and Juliet” told against the backdrop of New York gang warfare. Directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and with a score by Bernstein and Sondheim, it, too, was acclaimed.

Yet even its success was dwarfed by “Fiddler on the Roof” (1964), which Prince produced and Robbins directed and choreographed. Set in Czarist Russia, the Bock-Harnick musical starred Zero Mostel as the Jewish milkman forced to confront challenges to his way of life.

Prince had gotten his first opportunity to direct on Broadway in 1962. The musical was “A Family Affair,” a little-remembered show about the travails of a Jewish wedding. Its Broadway run was short — only 65 performances — but “A Family Affair” gave Prince a chance to work with composer John Kander.

Four years later, Kander would provide the music for one of Prince’s biggest successes, “Cabaret,” based on Christopher Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories.”

And it was “Cabaret” that established Prince as a director of first rank. With its use of a sleazy master of ceremonies (portrayed by Joel Grey), the musical juxtaposed its raunchy nightclub numbers with the stories of people living in Berlin as the Nazis rose to power in the 1930s.

“I became a producer because fate took me there, and I was delighted,” Prince recalled in his book. “I used producing to become what I wanted to be, a director. (Ultimately, I hired myself, which is more than anyone else would do.)”

As he became more interested in directing, he withdrew from producing altogether.

Among his more notable achievements: “On the Twentieth Century” (1978) and two of Lloyd Webber’s biggest hits, “Evita” (1979), starring Patti LuPone as the charismatic Argentinian, and “The Phantom of the Opera,” in London (1986), New York (1988) and around the world.

“Phantom” is the longest-running musical on Broadway and hit producer Cameron Mackintosh noted that in a statement mourning Prince’s death: “The Gods of the theater salute you, Hal.”

Prince was a champion of imagination in the theater and tried never to rely on technology to give his shows pop, preferring canvas to LEDs.

“I believe the theater should take advantage of the limitations of scenery and totally unlimited imagination of the person who is sitting in the audience,” he told the AP in 2015. “I like what the imagination does in the theater.”

He explained that in one scene of “Phantom of the Opera” in London, candles come up at different times thanks to stage workers cranking ancient machinery, but on Broadway that function was automated.

“I would sit in the house and I’d see the candles come up. Something told me that was not as exciting as when the candles came up in London,” he said. “So I said, ‘Let’s make this tiniest adjustment so they don’t all come up at exactly the same time.’ Now, no one knows that. No one could care less. But it meant something to me.”

Prince worked for the expansive Canadian impresario Garth Drabinsky, overseeing productions of the Tony-winning “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (1993), a lavish remounting of “Show Boat” (1994) and a short-lived revival of “Candide” (1997).

Yet there were creative misfires, too. Among his more notorious flops was the five-performance “A Doll’s Life,” a musical follow-up to Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House.” It began where the play ends, when Nora walks out on her husband. And Prince directed the American production of Lloyd Webber’s “Whistle Down the Wind” (1997), which didn’t get past its Washington tryout, although the London production, with a different director, had a longer run.

Prince also worked as an opera director, with productions at the Metropolitan Opera House, the Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera and more. And he directed two films, “Something for Everyone” (1970) and a screen version of “A Little Night Music” (1977).

“To be both a genius and a gentleman is rare and extraordinary,” said Thomas Schumacher, chairman of The Broadway League. “Hal Prince’s genius was matched by his generosity of spirit, particularly with those building a career.”

Prince is survived by his wife of 56 years, Judy; his daughter, Daisy; his son, Charles; and his grandchildren, Phoebe, Lucy, and Felix.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/07/31/towering-broadway-director-and-producer-hal-prince-has-died/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/07/31/towering-broadway-director-and-producer-hal-prince-has-died/

[ismael37olson]

The Power of Love Can Make a Zombie Too!

It's hard to believe it's over. It was five years ago that I set out to write The Zombies of Penzance. It seemed so perfect, so deliciously fucked up, and the process of "translating" the story , the changing of Gilbert's pirates into zombies, hardly disturbed the plot at all (though I later made some larger plot changes). I know you want to ask, so yes, I was seriously stoned when I thought of the idea. I immediately loved everything about it. I already deeply loved The Pirates of Penzance. I love zombie movies. I love mashups. Plus, I quickly decided that my approach would include an elaborate, though entirely false, backstory about the creation of The Zombies of Penzance. In fact, that meta-layer became an important part of the humor. We tell the audience Gilbert wrote these zombie lyrics, but then throughout the evening, we keep smacking them with anachronisms, four-letter words, and other morsels that Gilbert would/could never have written -- including every reference to zombies, which hadn't entered the awareness of Western culture yet. I loved all of that. The inherent wrongness of it all. More than anything what I loved most was the fundamental idea of telling a horror story in the language of English light opera, possibly the most "wrong" storytelling form imaginable for this content. That was the appeal for me, more than anything else. I love things, particularly art, that are obviously wrong or fucked-up. That's so interesting, and often, so funny. I also loved the idea that this would be New Line's second zombie musical, since we did the very serious Night of the Living Dead in 2013. And its our seventh horror musical, following our productions of Rocky Horror, Sweeney Todd, Bat Boy, In the Blood, and Lizzie. Should we also count Urinetown...? Throughout the time I've been working on this, I was always mindful of the fact that no matter how funny or meta-ironic my text was, it had no real value on the page. It's only a zombie operetta when it's live (dead?) onstage. I needed lots of people to make it into live theatre. That's true of all our shows, but since this was an awfully odd experiment, it was constantly in my awareness. When I talked to friends about it, at some point I'd always throw in, "...if I ever finish it, and if we produce it..." We held a public reading in January. To my amazement, 150 people showed up, and to my greater amazement they followed the plot easily and fully embraced my multiple layers of meta, my blatant anachronisms, and the four-letter words sprinkled throughout. The audience really loved both the ways in which I had stayed true to Gilbert & Sullivan and their traditions, and also the ways in which I violated that. It's actually a fairly complex piece, and I was delighted that many of the reviewers noticed and appreciated that. Paul Friswold wrote in his Riverfront Times review:

Scott Miller and John Gerdes are the responsible parties, tinkering with Gilbert's lyrics and Sullivan's music to create something more than the sum of the parts. The two St. Louisans have added modern references, profanity and a careful adherence to the spirit of the original operetta. Portraits of George A. Romero and Queen Victoria hang above the old-fashioned stage and its working footlights, hinting at the twin forces at work here. Romero is the godfather of zombies in popular entertainment, and Victoria led the society that simultaneously embraced Gilbert & Sullivan's jaunty work and harbored a morbid fascination with life after death. All of these elements come together on stage, to strange and often comic effect. . . . But it's not all fun and pop-culture riffs. Despite his lethal nature, the Major-General has a most troubled conscience. The second-act song "When the World Went Bad" cracks open the show's candy coating to reveal the darkness within. Stanley sings of his fears about the forces bringing the dead to life, and worries about the coarsening of his soul. Is he less moral than the Zombie King, who spares some people (albeit under false pretenses)? The Major-General kills them all, and then shakes with terror and remorse late at night. Is he worse than what he hunts? It's a question that harkens back to Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend, which was Romero's own inspiration. The book also informs the finale, which is preceded by a delightfully ridiculous brawl between the Stanley daughters, who are in their bloomers and bearing cricket bats and nunchucks, and the zombie horde. Things become very dark indeed. But you know what they say: It's always darkest before the dawn of the dead.

Some people reflexively dismissed the show -- without seeing it of course -- as a stunt, a bastardization, a one-joke show. I'll admit that my new Major-General lyric is a stunt, but so is Gilbert's original. That's what patter songs are. Beyond that, The Zombies of Penzance is an experiment in form and content, it's a big over-arching meta-joke about lost and discarded works, and it's a translation in terms of cultural context and also in terms of themes. As I wrote in another blog post, The Pirates of Penzance is about how absurd and arbitrary class distinctions are. But though I changed the basic story very little, the substitution of monsters (zombies) for "monsters" (pirates) changes more than you'd expect. The Zombies of Penzance is about the Other-ing of those who are different from us, particularly by those who claim the moral high ground.

And also, because I cut the policemen from the story, and gave their songs to the Stanley daughters, who are now trained zombie hunters, it's also a story about women standing up for themselves, fighting back, solving their own problems. I was honestly shocked at how empowering it apparently felt for women in our audience when the daughters marched on in their zombie hunter clothes in mid-Act II, particularly I think for women who know Pirates. The journey's been five years for me, but it's also been two years for John Gerdes, who adapted the music and orchestrated it. He adapted and orchestrated all the music for our reading last January, then he orchestrated Yeast Nation for us, then he came back to Zombies, finished his work and incorporated my rewrites from the reading. And then John and his wife Lea played in the band for the show. So I suspect John will have some zombie withdrawal as well. This amazing cast has been working on this show since last November, when we started rehearsals for the reading. They have worked so hard on this score, both musically and conceptually. I realized early on that we had to apply the lessons of Little Shop, Bat Boy, and Urinetown to The Zombies of Penzance. The more seriously we take it, the funnier it gets; and in parallel to that, the better we sing the music, the more seriously we take that, the funnier the show gets. This isn't Evil Dead. To maintain the crazy meta-story, our audience had to believe this was intended to be performed at the Savoy Theatre in 1879. The more legit the music, the funnier the show.

And likewise, the better the craft -- rhymes, scansion, etc. -- the funnier the show. The Major-General's big patter song, "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Era Zombie Killer," is funny partly because the craft is good. Really, I guess all this is a lesson Gilbert and Sullivan learned long before Little Shop of Horrors. Almost all their shows are inherently ridiculous stories (about inherently ridiculous aspects of Western culture) which they present utterly straight-faced. No matter how wacky Gilbert's text gets, Sullivan's music is always straight-faced. This has been such a wonderful experience for me, bringing two of my greatest loves together, G&S and zombies. To quote my own lyric:

Hail, zombies, thou heav’n-made dead! Forsaken by the God we dread. Great metaphor for all we fear! All hail the end of all that we hold dear!

I was very lucky to find a cast full of really strong, funny, talented, fearless actors to bring my show to life, and almost all of them have stayed with the show since last November. I am very grateful. And then to get such warm, overwhelming responses to it! Look at some of these press quotes:

"Another triumph for New Line. . . a hilariously inspired joke." -- Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch "The funniest show that New Line Theatre has ever mounted." -- Judy Newmark, All The World's a Stage "Both a nightmare and a delight — let's call it a delightmare." -- Paul Friswold, The Riverfront Times "Uproarious." -- Jeff Ritter, Critical Blast "It's amazing. . . so much fun." -- Kevin Brackett, ReviewSTL "A wonderful whirlwind of apocalyptic delight." -- Tanya Seale, BroadwayWorld "Reverently irreverent and witty. . . a delightfully fun, pointedly funny musical." -- Tina Farmer KDHX "Let the wackiness ensue." -- Lynn Venhaus, STL Limelight "In terms of humor and sheer musicality, it’s remarkable." -- Michelle Kenyon, Snoop's Theatre Thoughts

But our show has closed and my zombie journey ends, for now. We've already gotten a couple requests for rights to perform the show, so the Zombie King may live (die?) on. But for all practical purposes, the ride is over. I will miss these characters and this beautiful music, and this extraordinary cast. It was so thrilling every night when they sang the a cappella chorale late in Act I, "Hail Zombies!" -- such a massive, gorgeous sound (due in large part to music director Nic Valdez)! John and I will be cleaning up / correcting the script and score, and then we'll publish them on Amazon, so they'll be available soon. And I won't swear to it, but we also may be releasing a live cast album. And yes, we will license other theatres to produce it.

And don't tell anybody... but I'm already working on another "new" G&S show. No promises, but I may end up writing a G&S horror trilogy before I'm done. I can hear the heads of G&S fans exploding as I type this... Suggestions are welcome for source material for the third in the trilogy. I'll leave you with one of my favorite bits from Zombies. Thank you, St. Louis, for once again, taking a chance on us and totally embracing the insanity we've wrought. We owe you so much!

My zombie hunting habits, though a potent, little metaphor, Are really more subversive than the critics give me credit for. In nineteenth cent’ry operetta, comedy or thriller, I am still the very model of a modern-era zombie killer!

Long Live the Musical! Scott from The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-power-of-love-can-make-zombie-too.html

[rouge-fox-expanded]

NEW YORK CULTURE (or how Mrs Lovett points and laughs at Fingus for their horsemeat scandal)

Yes whilst staying with my best friend @dkalban  we went to see two shows, one on broadway (chicago) and one off broadway (Sweeney Todd). Now I had only seen the Johnny Depp Movie and I can honestly say the play was INFINITELY better, it was immersive theatre meaning we were sitting in the set and the actors were inches from us at times and by god what an experience!! The Dark Humour, the stage directions, the music and the vocals and songs which the movie didn't or couldn't attempt and the gentleman playing Sweeney was a veteran phantom on broadway! Now I knew of Chicago, only knew a few songs all that jazz and cell block tango being two of them but I think this stage production was better than the movie I hadn't seen and not just because Todrick Hall was playing Billy Flynn but because of how organic it all felt. It all flowed nicely with the music, the numbers and the set (this was a proper broadway theatre and we were watching from the balcony and could see EVERYTHING). I won't go into the plot but I will say this: Amish, I feel for you my friend. I wanted to give the dude a hug during his song Celofane because goddamn! 10/10 wanna do it again!!

[blood-gremlin]

musical theatre asks

ayy

1. Favorite musical(s): rent

2. Least favorite musical(s): fucking cats

3. Favorite score(s): rent, les mis and sweeney todd.

4. Favorite composer(s): jonathan larson (duh)

5. Favorite actor(s): i feel like i /have/ to put ben platt here. i’m such a basic bitch. 

6. Favorite actress(es): renée elise goldsberry

7. Favorite musical fandom: i don’t really participate in musicals fandoms so idk... i had a peek in the les mis one, it was pretty nice.

8. Favorite overture: shit. um. i really like the sweeney todd overture, it’s so spooky. but i also love the aladdin one. 

9. Favorite character from any show: uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhh.........elphaba

10. Least favorite character from any show: judge turpin

11. Favorite scene: oh damn. i love the blue wind part in deaf west’s spring awakening. tbh that production is amazing. and the ending omg. i also love the ending of cabaret. i know it’s pretty much always different but it’s always fucking powerful. i love endings.

12. Favorite musical number: i mean defying gravity is a showstopper. friend like me also. 

13. A show you regret not seeing: great comet man. i have a b*tleg but y’know...

14. A showtune you’ve been obsessed with lately: dust and ashes from great comet, dead girl walking from heathers and for forever from dear evan hansen. 

15. A showtune that describes your love life: uh. 

16. A musical you believe is overrated: newsies lol

17. A musical you believe doesn’t get enough love: the hunchback of notre dame. it should have been on broadway.

18. A musical turned movie you liked: les mis is good but i would change some actors lol

19. A musical turned movie you wanted to destroy: nothing comes to my mind.

20. A movie turned musical that you loved: hairspray!!! and sweeney todd are the best i think. oh and chicago (which is better than the original show oops)

21. A movie turned musical that made you cringe: it doesn’t make me cringe, but rent wasn’t that great.

22. A movie, if any, you would like to see turned into a musical: i’ve benn waiting for 5+ years for that freaking wicked movie.

23. A flop you love: i don’t know any flops woops.

24. A flop you disliked: see answer to question 23.

25. A regional production you saw that you enjoyed: just for laugh’s production of hairspray was great!!!

26. A regional production you saw that was less than stellar: hi i live in québec, canada and sometimes we make original musicals and i saw don juan and it was kinda underwhelming? the songs were....quétaines.

27. A show/actor you believe was robbed of a certain Tony (even if the show/person that won deserved it): GREAT COMET. 

28. 3 dream roles of yours: a more realistic one: tracy turnblad. ones that would never happen even if i could sing: hedwig and frank n furter.

29. 3 shows you’d love to be in: i was in a production of rent so i won’t say that one. i would love to be in a production of les mis, phantom and grease. 

30. The first show you saw: hi i live in québec, canada where i rarely get to see musicals because nyc is kinda out of reach most of my days. in 2011 i went to nyc and saw rent and it was amazing and i cried a lot.

31. The first show that made you become interested (or obsessed…) with theatre: rent 

32. A role you’d like to see your favorite actor play: i want ben platt to play mark cohen. i WILL pay money to make that happen. 

33. A production you’d like to return to Broadway: GREAT COMET SO I CAN GO TO NYC AND SEE IT. ALSO DEAF WEST’S SPRING AWAKENING.

34. A song you’d love to hear sung by your favorite actor: out there. pls ben.

35. An actor/actress you have never seen on stage (dead or alive) that you’ve been DYING to see: i don’t want to say ben platt but yeah. oh and i wanna see ramin karimloo?? and renée duh. 

36. If you could cast any show you wanted, what show would it be and who would be your leads?: can we do rent with ben for mark and renée again as mimi pls. i know she’s a little too old but i DONT CARE. 

37. Put your iPod on shuffle, post the first showtune that comes up: the word of your body - spring awakening

38. A character from any show you’d say you are most like (whether it be for personality or physical appearance): tracy turnblad lmao my sistah

39. If you could have dinner with any 3 Broadway people (composer, actor, director, etc.), living or dead, you wanted who would you pick?: jonathan larson, barbra streisand (just because....who would not want to have dinner with her) and alex boniello cause he seems fun to hang out with.

[natasha-tv-blog]

UNIT 8 RESEARCH

Tim burton is one of my favorate directors as he has his own unique style and creates films that are to his liking and are very entertaining. Also he is a very good director since i always hear about how the people involved can rely on his organisation and skill as a director, i hope to use him as a rolemodle for my unit 8 piece as a director using his style as my inspiration for my ghost tale.

""Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton[1] (/ˈbɜːrtən/; born August 25, 1958) is an American film director, producer, artist, writer and animator. He is known for his dark, gothic, eccentric and quirky fantasy films such as Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), the animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), the biographical film Ed Wood (1994), the horror fantasy Sleepy Hollow (1999), and later efforts such as Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Dark Shadows (2012) and Frankenweenie (2012). He is also known for blockbusters such as the adventure comedy Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), the superhero films Batman (1989) and its first sequel Batman Returns (1992), the sci-fi film Planet of the Apes (2001), the fantasy drama Big Fish (2003), the musical adventure film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and the fantasy film Alice in Wonderland (2010), which garnered a worldwide gross of over $1 billion. Burton has worked repeatedly with Johnny Depp, who has become a close friend of Burton since their first film together. He has also worked with musician Danny Elfman, who has composed scores for all but three of the films Burton has directed. Actress Helena Bonham Carter, Burton's former domestic partner, has appeared in many of his films. He also wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, published in 1997 by Faber and Faber, and a compilation of his drawings, sketches and other artwork, entitled The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009. A follow-up to The Art of Tim Burton, entitled The Napkin Art of Tim Burton: Things You Think About in a Bar, containing sketches made by Burton in napkins at bars and restaurants he occasionally visits, was released in 2015. Both compilations were published by Steeles Publishing.""

Our idea is for 4 friends to go talking and laughing about the ghost stories that surround their location and them convincing each other to enter the woods that most of the stories relate to. After a lot of teasing about being scared they enter the woods laughing and jocking about the stories until they see a figure that seemingly dissapears after being spotted. They brush it off as a person messing about and go to investigate about what was going on and what they saw but where they saw the figure there is now a doll, laughing they throw the doll between them and then hear a scream which they also blow off as kids until the second scream is closer as they drop the doll screams are herd and sticks are thrown out of no where at the group. As they panic one of them goes missing and one by one from that point we see there death.

We are hopeing to film in friday woods for this dramatical piece.

After some minor altercations i am doing my own piece instead of the original idea.

I am hopeing to do a music video to a gorillaz track, 'feel good inc.' or 'amarillo'. I have a few dancers that are willing to dance to these tracks and create a music video with me.

A BIT ABOUT THE GORILLAZ 1998-(ONGOING) " Gorillaz are an English virtual band created in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett. The band consists of four animated members: 2-D (lead vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboards) and Russel Hobbs (drums and percussion). These members are fictional and are not personas of any "real life" musicians involved in the project. Their fictional universe is explored through the band's website and music videos, as well as a number of other media, such as short cartoons. In reality, Albarn is the only permanent musical contributor, and the music is often a collaboration between various musicians. Writers and critics have described their music as alternative rock, Britpop, trip hop, hip hop, electronica, indie, dub, reggae and pop.

The band's 2001 debut album Gorillaz sold over seven million copies and earned them an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Successful Virtual Band. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001, but the nomination was later withdrawn at the band's request. Their second studio album Demon Days (2005) went five times platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. The band has won other awards, including one Grammy Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, an NME Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, and have been nominated for nine Brit Awards. The band's third studio album, Plastic Beach, was released in March 2010. Their fourth studio album called The Fall was released in December 2010 as a free download for fan club members, then in April 2011 as a physical release. After a six-year hiatus, Gorillaz announced their fifth studio album Humanz, which was released on 28 April 2017."

THIS IS WHAT I GOT FROM WIKAPEDIA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillaz)

My favorate music videos are from ludacrus, prince and the animated awesomeness that is the gorillaz.

my music video will be of dIsabled dancers in a dance class to be inspirational as well as being a music video. my hidden meaning is for people to see that no matter what you camn still do what you want whever you have physical, mental or peer problems/illnesses.being yourself is hard, but when you feel most comfortable doing the things that people say you cant you just have to go for it i learned this from experience.

i want to put a quote at the end of the video an inspirational quote. The music i used in the end was the script - hall of fame.

EVALUATION

My music video had a lot of inperfections and a lot of mistakes but i still hoped i got the message across.

EVALUATION - CAMERA WORK

My camera skills could have been a lot better as much of my angles were the same or had very shaky hand held footage.I feel i could have done a lot better if i had tried to plan better or even if i had booked a steady camera from the media department. My camera skills were basic and not that of a high quality, though i did have an array of different angles.

EVALUATION - ORGANISATION

My organisation skills were not that great either as i did not try my hardest but i did get dancers and a location in 3 days with consent forms. I was able to book a camera, get a group of dancers and also get consent forms in 3 days and still get everything i wanted to get.

EVALUATION - EDITING

My editing was not very clear cut as it was a little hard as i am not very experienced with the editing software and am not very confident in editing. It was a amature styled attemp at editing but i believe it will surfice.

EVALUATION - OVERALL PRODUCT

My overall project was not as bad as i thought but was still lacking in many areas and is a very amature attempt at a music video considering it was done by a media student i am a little dissapointed in my self for the music video but i still feel i have delivered the message i had hoped for.

EVALUATION - MESSAGE TO SEND

I think the message i was trying to sent was recieved with the music video and i think it was still a powerful message even though the video was a little shabby. My message was the you can do whatever you want to and that phsical and mental disabilitys cant stop you from trying nor can it stop you from living your dream.

[tune-collective]

The Top 10 EGOT Contenders: Who Will Be Next to Win All Four Major Awards?

The Top 10 EGOT Contenders: Who Will Be Next to Win All Four Major Awards?

Whether or not Lin-Manuel Miranda achieves EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award) status at the Oscars Sunday night, it’s safe to say his odds of ultimately completing the trophy set are high. He’s established his ability to write catchy but poignant and thematic original songs and will likely be tapped over and over by the Hollywood powers that be. But his win or non-win does beg the question of… who’s next in the EGOT queue? There’s currently more than 40 living people one award away from EGOT. But the likelihood of eventually achieving all four is slim for most. (There’s a reason this is an exclusive club!). Looking ahead, here’s a roundup of the top 10 next contenders.

KATE WINSLET (EGO-)

Awards refresher: Winslet’s work has made it rain Oscar nominations (seven total), with two of those nods by age 22 and six by 33. Her role as Mildred Pierce in the eponymous miniseries earned the 2011 best actress Emmy, and her narrative contribution to Listen to the Storyteller: A Trio of Musical Tales from Around the World won the 2000 best spoken word album for child Grammy.

Likeliest “T” scenario: She acted onstage in her youth, but in a 2014 interview she said the reason she doesn’t do theater is because she isn’t prepared to miss her children’s bedtimes every night (totally fair). But children grow, and she’s young. Plus, Winslet’s the daughter of two stage actors, and her grandparents founded and managed a local theater — so it’s also hard to imagine she won’t circle back at some point. If she does, the New York theater community would go nuts for her, and Tony voters are historically anglophiles.

Bonus factoid: She keeps her Oscar in the bathroom. Why? So visitors can go ahead and hold it and do an acceptance speech in the mirror without feeling self-conscious. New friend goals.

MAGGE SMITH (E-OT)

Awards refresher: Dame Maggie’s aversion to the Emmy Awards became a recurring joke for last year’s host Jimmy Kimmel throughout the ceremony. She had the last laugh that night, though, with her fourth in-absentia Emmy win. She’s also got two Oscars and a Tony in her awards cache and/or lost and found.

Likeliest “G” scenario: Now that Downton Abbey is off-air, we could see her going on-air to lend her voice to record literally anything. Grammy voters would eat is up, and it’s a best spoken word album waiting to happen. However, it’s doubtful she cares enough about EGOTing for that to be a motivating factor…

Bonus factoid: At the Emmys, Kimmel pointed out that Dame Maggie showed up to accept her awards at the Oscars and the Tonys. She actually didn’t show up for her first Oscar win in 1970 for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Her friend Alice Ghostley accepted on her behalf, sans an explanation. The woman’s busy.

HELEN MIRREN (E-OT)

Awards refresher: Playing Queen Elizabeth I got Dame Helen her first Emmy, and playing Queen Elizabeth II got her the royal Oscar and Tony treatment. If it ain’t broke…

Likeliest “G” scenario: Same as Dame Maggie: best spoken word album. Done.

Bonus factoid: On screen she’s played a queen six times: Caligula (1979), The Madness of King George (1994), The Snow Queen (1995), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Elizabeth I (2005) and The Queen (2006).

STEPHEN SONDHEIM (-GOT)

Awards refresher: The music man has seemingly collected 4,000 Grammys and Tonys between Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Company and more. He added a 1991 best original song Oscar for “Sooner or Later” in Dick Tracy. (Vocals courtesy of Madonna.)

Likeliest “E” scenario: Sondheim is 86 but still at it. He has nothing in the cooker along these lines yet, but any of these Emmy awards seem attainable for him pre-retirement (if he ever does retire): outstanding music composition for a series; outstanding original music and lyrics; or outstanding music direction.

Bonus factoid: His mentor was Oscar Hammerstein II (of that Rogers and Hammerstein).

AUDRA McDONALD (EG-T)

Awards refresher: McDonald is a certified Broadway Living Legend. She’s won six Tonys — the most by a performer, ever. She also scooped up two Grammys in 2009 for her operatic recording work on Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. (She’s a classically trained Juilliard alumna.) Add a 2015 outstanding special class program Emmy with a Live from Lincoln Center episode, and she’s 3 for 4.

Likeliest “O” scenario: McDonald earned Emmy and Screen Actors Guild nominations for her captivating performance as Billie Holiday in last year’s TV movie Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill — a role she originated, and won a Tony for, on Broadway. She’s got loads of past TV appearances, but she’s ramping up her film presence (she’s part of the Beauty and the Beast squad), and the right future role, musical or not, could push her across the EGOT finishing line. Hollywood also loves top tier stage transplants when it comes to awards season…

Bonus factoid: She has won a Tony in all possible performance categories.  

MARTIN SCORSESE (EGO-)

Awards refresher: Everybody breathed a collective sigh of relief when Scorsese finally picked up an Oscar in 2007 for The Departed. He’s scored Emmys with Boardwalk Empire and a TV special on George Harrison, plus a Grammy for his work on a long-form Bob Dylan music video.

Likeliest “T” scenario: Scorsese’s one and only go at theater was directing Liza Minnelli, whom he allegedly had an affair with, in a vexed musical production called The Act in 1977. It was a box office bomb, and Scorsese went back to film. However, the director is also a prolific film, documentary, and TV producer. If he doesn’t want to direct another stage production, but still felt like dipping his toe back into the theater world, he could pull a Scott Rudin and produce. (The EGOT’ed film and theater producer has probably made four separate trips to Ikea to make shelf space for all his Tonys.) Scorsese is also a noted music lover, so there could still be some Broadway allure for him. He’s 74, but one look at his IMDB profile shows he’s only getting busier with age.

Bonus factoid: He’s worked with Robert De Niro on eight films.

CHER (EGO-)

Awards refresher: She’s Cher. But the award highlight reel includes a best dance recording 1999 Grammy for “Believe,” a 2003 outstanding variety special (music or comedy) Emmy for Cher: The Farewell Tour and, of course, a 1988 best actress Oscar for Moonstruck.

Likeliest “T” scenario: Cross all your fingers and toes, then knock on wood and throw salt over your shoulder because, yes, Cher: The Musical is gaining momentum… and the tentative behind-the-scenes team includes some Broadway heavyweights from shows like Hamilton, Avenue Q, Newsies and Jersey Boys. The level of her involvement right now is speculative, but should she participate it’s likely she would at the very least get a producer credit, opening her up to Tony potential. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical got Tony love, so there is precedence.

Bonus factoid: Cher initially turned down her role in Moonstruck and didn’t think she could accurately play a bookkeeper because in reality she’s such an over-the-top spender.

TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE (EG-T)

Awards refresher: The University of Colorado buds turned satirical comedy dream duo have won four Emmys, a Grammy, and two Tonys. Already famous (or infamous) as the unapologetic co-creators of the NSFW animated sitcom South Park, they were catapulted to next-level acclaim as part of the Book of Mormon dream team (along with current EGOTs Scott Rudin and Robert Lopez). Parker has actually already been nominated for an Oscar for his work on the song “Blame Canada” in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut. Robin Williams’ performance of the song at the 2000 Oscars was one for the books.

Likeliest “O” scenario: If the Book of Mormon movie ever gets liftoff, or if they do another original song. it seems like a real possibility. There’s actually a lot of possibilities here.

Bonus factoid: The pair dropped acid before attending the Oscar ceremony. They attended wearing versions of famous (or infamous) Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez gowns.

ALAN MENKEN (It’s Complicated)

Awards refresher: Disney music God (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas…) has won eleven — ELEVEN! — Grammy Awards, eight — EIGHT! — Oscars and one — STILL COOL! — Tony. Technically speaking, he is an EGOT with an honorary 1990 Emmy for outstanding contribution to the success of the Academy’s anti-drug special for children. But the traditional rules are strict, and to be considered a true EGOT, all awards have to have been won in a competitive category.

Likeliest “E” scenario: Menken has showed a relatively new interest in TV work, earning his second Emmy nomination just last year for outstanding original music and lyrics (he was also a producer) on the musical comedy series Galavant. Menken alas lost, and Galavant was canceled, but if Menken keeps up that interest in TV work, rounding out a competitive EGOT membership status is completely attainable.

Bonus factoid: In the original 1991 Beauty and the Beast film there are 25 minutes of song, and only five minutes with no musical underscore at all.

ANNE HATHAWAY (E-O-)

Awards refresher: Hathaway famously took home the 2013 best supporting Oscar statue for her performance in Les Miserables. Less famously, she took home the Emmy for outstanding voice-over performance in 2010 for voicing “Princess Penelope” in an episode of The Simpsons.

Likeliest “G” and “T” scenario: Yes, she is two away from EGOT, but she has a very real chance to shore this up sooner rather than later. Hathaway is an undeniably versatile actress, and she’s only 34. Since 2012, the best spoken word album for children and best musical album for children merged into one award that covers both genres. A best children’s album (the current moniker) is right up Hathaway’s alley, for either musical or spoken word. Her singing chops are well established, but her non-singing voiceover abilities already got her that Emmy. She’s also the voice of Jewel the macaw in the popular animated Rio movie franchise. Plus, pre-Devil Wears Prada, it was roles in Ella Enchanted (in which she became a princess) and The Princess Diaries (in which she found out she was a princess) that made her famous. Those movies continue to be popular with young people, so combined with her Rio kid klout, she has a built in fan-base with Generations Z and Alpha, and the potential nostalgia factor for older generation voters. Regarding the Tonys, it’s not a question of if but when.

Bonus factoid: She has a thing for playing princesses. In 1998 she played one at the Paper Mill Playhouse (a very prestigious New Jersey theater) in Once Upon a Mattress.

Source: Billboard

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