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[the-acting-captain]

-= Attention Gatsby Fans =-

So I am quite a big fan of the Great Gatsby and I wanted to ask the fandom at large if there was any pieces of merchandise avaliable that people would recommend?

Currently I have:

3 copies of the novel The 1974 and 2013 film on DVD A playbill from the broadway musical (my friend is giving it to me) A brochure from the west end transfer (My friend is giving it to me also)

But I would like more well stuff so does anyone have any recommendations?

[the-acting-captain]

-= TMNT: Mutant Mayhem =-

So I know I am about three years late to the hype for this movie but as a life-long turtles fan I finally sat down and watched it, despite my worry for the film it was actually shockingly okay.

Most of my apprehensions came from inital trailers and stuff where they try and make the main four 'Hip' and I understand the angle of leaning more into the 'Teenage' element of the TMNT, however I disliked the use of internet-age slang in the film such as 'Rizz' because three years along a lot of the films humour feels dated, such as Donatello's love of BTS, a band I have heard nothing about since 2020.

Before I get onto the positives I would just like to focus on one more negative quality I feel the film has, and it is the depiction of the humans, now most TMNT media does feature a certain sense of demonisation of the humans from the perspective of splinter and the turtles, but this film seems to amp it up, for really no reason but to have a dramatic switch of opinion near the end which is completely unrealistc given how the movie has depicted humans but I digress.

Moving onto positives, the art, I mean yes some of the designs look a little goofy but overall it is beautiful, from the animation, to the enviroments and the character design it really does have a unique style to it, which is one of my favourite things about TMNT, the fact all media is charactiristcally different.

The cast is also giving it their all, and boy what a cast, Jackie Chan as splinter was incredibly and one of my personal highlights of the film, I think it was a really funny decision to make Splinter a lazy dad rather than his usual holier-than-thou wisdom he is charactirised with. Now admittedly I don't know very much about the people who played the turtles themselves but they are highlights of the film, they are very expressive in their delivery and there is a clear distinction between each turtle and their personality.

The story of the film was unique and surprising, seeing as most media tends to lead towards Shredder as the main villian, which if done well can be good, but most of the time does end up bad (Cough cough Michael Bay cough cough) Superfly and the gang of mutants were interesting and the motive behind their plan was also inventive.

Now I am yet to watch the follow-up animated show but I may check it out in the future. But in conclusion this movie was a strong start to what I think could be a promising franchise.

[the-acting-captain]

-= Out of context lines from The Grinning Man =-

"I think in this case incest is totally acceptable" - Queen Angelica

"All my fortune dissapeared like that, since I put a penny in that motherfuckers hat!" - Lord Dirry-Moir

"Presenting the erotic breakfast dance" - Barkilphedro

"To see you jumping up and down has given me the horn!" - Lord Josiana

"Little bit verbal, little bit musical, mostly psychial!" - Lord Dirry-Moir

"You alone, and these few lucky stangers" - Ursus

"The grinning man has rescued Hubert from his anal snake!" - Osric

"You sound like you shit pearls!" - Osric

"This is no time for liberalism!" - Random Lord

"More ugly and erotic than a visit to the zoo!" - Lord Dirry-Moir

[the-acting-captain]

-= The Grinning Man analysis =- By Osric

TW: There is an image of a fake disfigured face in this post.

In this short analysis I will be looking at one of my favourite scenes from 'The Grinning Man' which is a current favourite musical of mine. I will be looking at the first time Grinpayne becomes unmasked to the audience during the song 'I am the Freakshow'

A basic knowledge of the story is needed so I will give one: The first act of the show follows the early life of Grinpayne, the lead character, he is psychially deformed, his mouth having been cut into a grin by an unknown figure, he is raised by a man called Ursus and falls in love with his kind-of sister Dea (Ew.) He is detirmined to find out about his past and his mother and everything that happened to him, in his own words:

"By the laws of every land, and the shame of my disgrace, I vow to find and kill the man who crucified my face!"

At this point in the story Grinpayne's frustrations come to a head and he sings a song entitled "I am the freakshow" at the very end of this song he finally removes his mask and reveals his true face to the audience. This moment is one of my favourites as this song and scene are in my opinion the best show of his character and his feelings towards himself. His anger builds and builds throughout this song, it starts quite negative towards himself with the lyrics:

"I'm the stuff of your nightmares, was I born of unspeakable monsters?"

Grinpayne is calling himself a monster due to his deformity, which is very fair as he has been peddled as a freakshow attraction most of his life, but after this he begins his journey of realising his deformity may be a power. The line that proceeds the chorus of this song is a powerful cry at the audience:

"Wipe the tears you cry! Your pity I despise!"

A constant motif of this show is the other characters fascination with Grinpayne, after this point in the story all the other characters begin to treat him as a godly figure, even describing themselves as 'Disciples of the Grinning Man' at points. It is made pretty apparant Grinpayne hates the attention and pity he recieves due to his condition, so in his final act of defiance at the very climax of this song he lets out a yell of:

"Watch me smile, Watch me smile, Watch me smile!"

He then bares his face to the audience. Which looks like this for those curious:

Now after this moment a leit-motif from the opening number 'Laughter is the Best Medicine' plays, however much darker than it originally was, the opening number shows how everyone in this universe enjoys greatly laughing at the misfortune of others, so this motif being used in connection with Grinpayne empowering himself against that laughter is such a genius move in my opinion, credit to Tim Phillips and Marc Teitler who wrote the music for this show.

So in conclusion this is one of my favourite scenes in the show as the use of the emotional build throughout the first act and the frustration Grinpayne feels at the world to create a massive moment of empowerment is an amazing way of showing his character.

[the-acting-captain]

-= Introduction Post =-

Hello! My name is Osric and this is my little part of the vast internet to post about whatever I may feel like discussing at anytime, this will be a very wide variety of things so don't expect much rhyme or reason.

Current Interests:

Freakshows

Anime (Spy X Family is my favourite)

Musical Theatre (The Grinning Man, Les Mis, Cabaret, Jekyll and Hyde)

Classical Music (Mozart, Rachmaninoff and Eric Satie)

Opera (Anything by Tchaicovksy)

Classical Novels (War of the Worlds, Moby Dick, The Great Gatsby)

Film (Sunset Bouelvard, Submarine, Shaun of the Dead)

History (Napoleon is my favourite man ever)

Thank you for reading.

[the-acting-captain]

ANATOLE ANATOLE ANATOLE

Some quick donmar Natasha (and Anatole) sketches

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back with another twin peaks redraw this time being a redraw of one of my first every posts and of my favourite detective

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Two Pierre doodles I did a bit ago

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read great gatsby a bit ago and daisy been stuck in my brain ever since

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a quick kiss of the spider women musical redraw

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Since it’s finally spooky season and I’m working on new software I thought it be fun to redraw one of my old favourite drawings

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my very cool friend and there very cool great comet art very nice

Two Natasha doodles I did a while back that I still love