In brief, Azumanga Daioh is a hilarious and adorable anime series about a group of girls in high school in Japan. It mostly revolves around the normal day to day events of school and the strange things kids talk about, not about giant robots or anything epic. It's "a show about nothing" that takes place in a Japanese school. Years ago I watched it with my anime group, and last monday I randomly picked up the DVDs off my shelf and watched some, and discovered it was so much better than I remembered.
I first discovered Azumanga Daioh through a fanvid (oh look, fan promotion that lead to me buying the product!) I was looking through popular videos at animemusicvideos.org, and watched the highest rated AMV that was listed as having multiple sources I recognized. Here it is, to Blowing for Soup's "1985".
As it turns out, the majority of the footage is from AD with cameo shots from other shows, but I was intrigued by what I saw. I showed the AMV to many of my friends (mostly for the NERVana jokes), and went to youtube to find the show. I watched the first half of the first episode, and then ordered the DVDs. I didn't want to buy them without knowing anything about the show, and I had no legal way to see it. I have really never understood why all shows don't have their first episode online. I'm never going to buy a DVD without seeing at least one episode, and I have no desire to just watch a random episode from the fourth season of a show to decide if I want to watch it. Lots of shows have their most recent 5 episodes on hulu these days, why not the first episode? I can't imagine it possibly decreasing DVD sales. I suppose this is a tangent, but I always think of my experience with Azumanga Daioh as the perfect example of this use case that I think should be totally reasonable from everyone's perspective.
The main character in the AMV is Yukari, the homeroom teacher for the protagonists of AD. Her life bares very little resemblance to the lyrics of the song. She's a single Japanese woman who teaches English and is more immature than some of her students. She's very... enthusiastic, and spazzy in a traditional anime way. In my opinion, the real star is Chiyo-chan, a young prodigy who has skipped middle school and gone straight to high school. She is kind and earnest, but quite naive and susceptible to being lead astray by strange ideas. "Osaka" is the transfer student from the Japanese city of Osaka, who is slow witted and speaks slowly with a strong accent that the subtitles try to portray. In the dubbed version, she speaks with a Southern drawl. We also have the tall, attractive and athletic girl who is considered "cool" and "mysterious" by the other girls, when she is really just shy. She desperately wants to play with animals, but they usually bite her. One of the other girls is desperately in love with her, but of course unable to say anything. There's the smart overachiever and her slacker best friend who she pretends to hate but really loves, there's the athletic girl... the characters can all be fairly easily summarized, and there is nothing particularly deep about the show, but it is rich and delightful.
Each season repeats the same general events, like summer vacation at Osaka's house and the school field day, but each one manages to be funny and charming. There isn't much in the way of continuing plot arcs, just life continuing on. There's no graphic violence, scatological humor, or strong sexual content. I'm not sure at what age kids would start enjoying the show, but it's totally acceptable for all ages in my mind. Well, there's a male teacher who seems to have creepy crushes on students, which I can't imagine ever airing on a similar American show, but that's the creepiest thing.
In conclusion, it's delightful, you should watch it. You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VFM5YM/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000ADKWNM&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0CY50CS320QZ8NYJCVWF
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Top Chef: Just Desserts
Top Chef: Just Desserts is on the air, and I am super excited! The first episode aired last Wednesday, and I think this is a great addition to the Top Chef family. Host Gail Simmons is a long time judge from the main Top Chef, and Head Judge Johnny Iuzzini and his crazy pompadour appeared on this past season of Top Chef. (I have to admit, watching him as head judge is making me imagine super-bald Tom Collichio, Head Judge of Top Chef, with a pompadour. Someone should photoshop that.) When I found out that (DJ) Hubert Keller is one of the recurring judges, I literally got up and did a little dance. I fell in love with Hubert Keller during the first season of Top Chef: Masters, and my love only deepened when I saw pictures of him DJing at a festival in San Francisco, the city I was living in while falling for him.
But enough about the judges! This season starts out with only tweleve contestants, compared to I think seventeen in most seasons of Top Chef. Did Bravo not want to commit to as many episodes? Honestly, I find it hard to keep track of everyone when there are seventeen chefs running around. As with the other shows, they start with a short "Quickfire" challenge, where the loser suffers no peanlty but shame and the winner gets immunity from elimination for the episode (at least in the early episodes). This week's elimination was all about chocolate, and my sweet tooth is begging to be fed now. For me, the biggest downside of cooking competitions is that we the viewers can't actually taste the food, and just need to take the judges' opinions, as opposed to something like fashion or singing shows where the audience has most of the information the judges do. However, I think with pastries, presentation will be much more explicitly part of the challenge, so we viewers will have more information to judge the contestants with.
One of the big issues in the cooking world is gender. For ages women have had a terrible time working their way up the ladder, with men to this day still openly saying that women belong making pastries, which of course drives me crazy. Top Chef season six was particularly annoying in seeming to have selected a lot more talented men than women, so that something like the first six people eliminated were women. Season seven was better in this regard, but I am excited to see the competition in what is traditionally considered the female side of cooking. (There are tons of talented chefs of all genders, races, sexualities, et cetera, and I do hold Bravo responsible for their selections. No, I don't know much about how they select contestants, but when it is obvious to the audience on day one that some people are vastly outclassed, I can't believe that the show runners did not have some idea going in.)
Also, I lost count of how many out gay men there are this season, and of course I do love out people on TV. Season seven didn't have any, and I really loved season six's gay male-Ash and lesbian Ash buddy comedy in the background. (Favorite moment of the reunion show: They ask if there were any romances, profound awkward silence, and the two Ashes said they switched teams for each other. Wonderful stuff.)
I watched the preview for the rest of the season, and it looks like one of the stronger chefs is clearly going to be the "bad guy" for the season, which I am not looking forward to. There also seemed to be straight up sabotage, with someone hiding all the butter from the rest of the chefs? Ugh. I have no interest in those kinds of shenanigans. I do watch Top Chef for the people, and not just the food, but I don't like when people are too horrible. Season six of Top Chef featured a lot of people hating on one contestant to a degree that I found extremely unpleasant and reminiscient of the bullying and cruelty I faced in middle school, and one especially loud mouthed and offensive contestant who drove me up the wall. Right in the first episode he started off with comments about how women shouldn't be at his level (and that particular woman outlasted him and was the final one eliminated before the finale!) and I just hated him all season and cheered when he was eliminated. I also had a lot of affection for one of the season's finalists, and several people who lasted much of the season.
This past season just never caught my attention the way season six did. I think a lot of it was that most of my favorite contestants were eliminated early on, but perhaps the lack of strong conflict actually mattered to me more than I thought? I really don't know. We'll see. The two seasons of Top Chef: Masters have never had any nastiness (well, expect Ludo's... I don't even know what to call it, delusions of something) and I adored those seasons. Top Chef: Masters is like the celebrity Jeopardy of Top Chef, with chefs who are older and well established, usually with multiple restaurants of their own, and their winnings all go to charity. Most of those contestants are just much more secure in themselves and their careers, without the desperation of some of the Top Chef contestants, some of whom have very unsure futures. The prize money for Top Chef is $100,000, which is clearly intented to "further their culinary dreams" or something like that, but the apparent "bad guy" of this season of Just Desserts has a mother with over $100,000 in medical debt, so that puts an entirely different spin on that. (To any European readers: Please enjoy your lack of bankruptcy from health care costs!) Hopefully that won't color the season too much.
I think I've said more than enough for a show I've seen less an hour of, so, Top Chef: Just Desserts! Wednesdays on Bravo, with episodes available on their website! http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-just-desserts
But enough about the judges! This season starts out with only tweleve contestants, compared to I think seventeen in most seasons of Top Chef. Did Bravo not want to commit to as many episodes? Honestly, I find it hard to keep track of everyone when there are seventeen chefs running around. As with the other shows, they start with a short "Quickfire" challenge, where the loser suffers no peanlty but shame and the winner gets immunity from elimination for the episode (at least in the early episodes). This week's elimination was all about chocolate, and my sweet tooth is begging to be fed now. For me, the biggest downside of cooking competitions is that we the viewers can't actually taste the food, and just need to take the judges' opinions, as opposed to something like fashion or singing shows where the audience has most of the information the judges do. However, I think with pastries, presentation will be much more explicitly part of the challenge, so we viewers will have more information to judge the contestants with.
One of the big issues in the cooking world is gender. For ages women have had a terrible time working their way up the ladder, with men to this day still openly saying that women belong making pastries, which of course drives me crazy. Top Chef season six was particularly annoying in seeming to have selected a lot more talented men than women, so that something like the first six people eliminated were women. Season seven was better in this regard, but I am excited to see the competition in what is traditionally considered the female side of cooking. (There are tons of talented chefs of all genders, races, sexualities, et cetera, and I do hold Bravo responsible for their selections. No, I don't know much about how they select contestants, but when it is obvious to the audience on day one that some people are vastly outclassed, I can't believe that the show runners did not have some idea going in.)
Also, I lost count of how many out gay men there are this season, and of course I do love out people on TV. Season seven didn't have any, and I really loved season six's gay male-Ash and lesbian Ash buddy comedy in the background. (Favorite moment of the reunion show: They ask if there were any romances, profound awkward silence, and the two Ashes said they switched teams for each other. Wonderful stuff.)
I watched the preview for the rest of the season, and it looks like one of the stronger chefs is clearly going to be the "bad guy" for the season, which I am not looking forward to. There also seemed to be straight up sabotage, with someone hiding all the butter from the rest of the chefs? Ugh. I have no interest in those kinds of shenanigans. I do watch Top Chef for the people, and not just the food, but I don't like when people are too horrible. Season six of Top Chef featured a lot of people hating on one contestant to a degree that I found extremely unpleasant and reminiscient of the bullying and cruelty I faced in middle school, and one especially loud mouthed and offensive contestant who drove me up the wall. Right in the first episode he started off with comments about how women shouldn't be at his level (and that particular woman outlasted him and was the final one eliminated before the finale!) and I just hated him all season and cheered when he was eliminated. I also had a lot of affection for one of the season's finalists, and several people who lasted much of the season.
This past season just never caught my attention the way season six did. I think a lot of it was that most of my favorite contestants were eliminated early on, but perhaps the lack of strong conflict actually mattered to me more than I thought? I really don't know. We'll see. The two seasons of Top Chef: Masters have never had any nastiness (well, expect Ludo's... I don't even know what to call it, delusions of something) and I adored those seasons. Top Chef: Masters is like the celebrity Jeopardy of Top Chef, with chefs who are older and well established, usually with multiple restaurants of their own, and their winnings all go to charity. Most of those contestants are just much more secure in themselves and their careers, without the desperation of some of the Top Chef contestants, some of whom have very unsure futures. The prize money for Top Chef is $100,000, which is clearly intented to "further their culinary dreams" or something like that, but the apparent "bad guy" of this season of Just Desserts has a mother with over $100,000 in medical debt, so that puts an entirely different spin on that. (To any European readers: Please enjoy your lack of bankruptcy from health care costs!) Hopefully that won't color the season too much.
I think I've said more than enough for a show I've seen less an hour of, so, Top Chef: Just Desserts! Wednesdays on Bravo, with episodes available on their website! http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-just-desserts
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Dragon*Con: Or why I missed posting last week
Last Sunday I ruined my streak of blogging because I was partying in Atlanta at Dragon*Con, "the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe". It runs Friday-Monday every Labor Day Weekend, and will have its 25th anniversary next year. This was my third year going.
Most unfortunately, I was sick during the con. I still had fun, I just had fewer hours of fun than I would have had otherwise. One of my con roommates was getting about four hours sleep each night. The con rule as I know it is 5-2-1, for 5 hours of sleep a day, 2 meals, and one shower, but she swore by 3-2-1. Even if I had been in full health I couldn't have pulled that off, but she's only 23. ;-)
Dragon*Con is really big. It runs basically non-stop all weekend. I don't believe there are any scheduled events between 6 am and 9 am, but otherwise, there are usually at least twenty things going on. I don't know the official attendance numbers, but it is some multiple tens of thousands of people, which just sounds utterly ridiculous. The minimum I usually hear is thirty thousand people... and yet I still managed to randomly run into people who I didn't even know were at the convention. D*C is basically twenty different conventions all happening in the same five hotels over the same weekend. There are some events that are run by the main convention staff, like the costume parade and the masquerade, but most events come from the fan run tracks. Some of them are pretty standard, like the Star Trek, Star Wars, and anime tracks, but some tracks have a larger showing at Dragon*Con than at most normal cons, like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series or Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. I think it's self fulfilling, Pern fans know that Dragon*Con is big for Pern, so they keep coming, and it stays big. (It does help that the author used to come to the con and not to most other American cons.) I like that bottom-up feel to Dragon*Con, even if I don't go to most of the more niche tracks, I am glad they are there and the programming isn't all determined by corporate interests. (*cough* San Diego Comic-Con *cough*) I've been to a *lot* of cons, and I really do love Dragon*Con. One of my other favorite conventions is just a few weeks before D*C every year, and that one is only 140 people, so I really do experience a wide range of conventions. :-)
Dragon*Con is like Burning Man in that you have to resign yourself to the fact that there will always be cool things you are missing, no matter what you do. I actually have compared D*C and BM a lot. They are of roughly similar sizes in terms of attendance, happen at the same time, there are many people who are devoted to going every year, people plan for it all year, people show up in crazy costumes and get very intoxicated and many of them seek out (and find!) casual hookups amongst the other attendees. I've been to both, and I have to say I really do love the air conditioning at Dragon*Con. :-) I'm considering trying to do several days of Burning Man next year then heading straight to Dragon*Con, which my friends all say is ridiculous, but it's the kind of crazy idea I like.
Dragon*Con is full of crazy costumes. Would you like some pictures? This year I was too tired to attend the costume parade, but I did catch a rebroadcast on TV. The police shut down several blocks of downtown Atlanta, and I think something like 2700 people participated this year. It's quite the scene, and you can see my 2008 Parade pictures on flickr.
This one is perhaps not quite worksafe if you look closely, so you'll have to click.
I organized a group of ten people from Boston this year, here are three of them in their Steampunk versions of Team Fortress 2.
Rum cake is a tradition for me at d*c. I might have gone overboard this year?
Most unfortunately, I was sick during the con. I still had fun, I just had fewer hours of fun than I would have had otherwise. One of my con roommates was getting about four hours sleep each night. The con rule as I know it is 5-2-1, for 5 hours of sleep a day, 2 meals, and one shower, but she swore by 3-2-1. Even if I had been in full health I couldn't have pulled that off, but she's only 23. ;-)
Dragon*Con is really big. It runs basically non-stop all weekend. I don't believe there are any scheduled events between 6 am and 9 am, but otherwise, there are usually at least twenty things going on. I don't know the official attendance numbers, but it is some multiple tens of thousands of people, which just sounds utterly ridiculous. The minimum I usually hear is thirty thousand people... and yet I still managed to randomly run into people who I didn't even know were at the convention. D*C is basically twenty different conventions all happening in the same five hotels over the same weekend. There are some events that are run by the main convention staff, like the costume parade and the masquerade, but most events come from the fan run tracks. Some of them are pretty standard, like the Star Trek, Star Wars, and anime tracks, but some tracks have a larger showing at Dragon*Con than at most normal cons, like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series or Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. I think it's self fulfilling, Pern fans know that Dragon*Con is big for Pern, so they keep coming, and it stays big. (It does help that the author used to come to the con and not to most other American cons.) I like that bottom-up feel to Dragon*Con, even if I don't go to most of the more niche tracks, I am glad they are there and the programming isn't all determined by corporate interests. (*cough* San Diego Comic-Con *cough*) I've been to a *lot* of cons, and I really do love Dragon*Con. One of my other favorite conventions is just a few weeks before D*C every year, and that one is only 140 people, so I really do experience a wide range of conventions. :-)
Dragon*Con is like Burning Man in that you have to resign yourself to the fact that there will always be cool things you are missing, no matter what you do. I actually have compared D*C and BM a lot. They are of roughly similar sizes in terms of attendance, happen at the same time, there are many people who are devoted to going every year, people plan for it all year, people show up in crazy costumes and get very intoxicated and many of them seek out (and find!) casual hookups amongst the other attendees. I've been to both, and I have to say I really do love the air conditioning at Dragon*Con. :-) I'm considering trying to do several days of Burning Man next year then heading straight to Dragon*Con, which my friends all say is ridiculous, but it's the kind of crazy idea I like.
Dragon*Con is full of crazy costumes. Would you like some pictures? This year I was too tired to attend the costume parade, but I did catch a rebroadcast on TV. The police shut down several blocks of downtown Atlanta, and I think something like 2700 people participated this year. It's quite the scene, and you can see my 2008 Parade pictures on flickr.
This one is perhaps not quite worksafe if you look closely, so you'll have to click.
I organized a group of ten people from Boston this year, here are three of them in their Steampunk versions of Team Fortress 2.
Rum cake is a tradition for me at d*c. I might have gone overboard this year?
Monday, August 30, 2010
Vividcon 2010 Premieres
Summer really is convention season for me, I went to two in August and I'm currently madly prepping for Dragon*Con which is this coming weekend. I thought I'd be done after this, but I just found out that there's a new con, New England Comic Con, in Boston October 15-17, so I'll probably be at that.
As some of you may recall, I left this year's Vividcon early to be in a wedding party, and I missed the Saturday night Premieres event, "the Oscars of vidding" (though it's premieres and not an awards show, so really sundance or cannes would be a better analogy, I think). This weekend I finally sat down with a friend and watched all of the Premieres vid show in one go. These forty vids were all brand new, finished weeks or months early but not shown or distributed publicly until this event. It's really quite neat to be at the world premiere of anything, in my opinion, and I loved Premieres last year. There's two main ways to watch premieres at Vividcon, you can watch in the utterly silent (except laughter) formal viewing room, where people are only allowed to enter or leave between vids except in an emergency, or you can watch in the overflow room, where talking is allowed. I was right up front in the formal room last year, my first time at Vividcon. I mostly had a great time, but it might be a bit more intense than I want next year, I'm not sure what I'll do. I watched this year's premieres in my living room with a friend, and we were pretty quiet during serious vids that we liked, and laughed heartily during funny vids, and were vocal about our confusion during the strange ones.
So, about those vids! I didn't have my program near me this time, and while I had read through what was listed at the con, I had forgotten most details. Normally when I watch a vid I have to actively seek it out, so I know exactly what I am getting. At the con, I constantly check my program. This time, I just put the DVD in, and sometimes the vid began by telling me what the source was, and sometimes it didn't! It was very different. I think in the future I would like to have the program available for when I am confused and would like to know the source, but I'd also like to make myself stop obsessively checking it, because being surprised can be nice.
Here are some links to some of the vids. Starting with the more humorous ones and moving into more serious vids. Enjoy! If you like the vids, leave a comment! Livejournal takes open id.
There are so many good vids in there, but the hour is late and the laptop power is low, so I shall bid you farewell for now. Watch vids!
As some of you may recall, I left this year's Vividcon early to be in a wedding party, and I missed the Saturday night Premieres event, "the Oscars of vidding" (though it's premieres and not an awards show, so really sundance or cannes would be a better analogy, I think). This weekend I finally sat down with a friend and watched all of the Premieres vid show in one go. These forty vids were all brand new, finished weeks or months early but not shown or distributed publicly until this event. It's really quite neat to be at the world premiere of anything, in my opinion, and I loved Premieres last year. There's two main ways to watch premieres at Vividcon, you can watch in the utterly silent (except laughter) formal viewing room, where people are only allowed to enter or leave between vids except in an emergency, or you can watch in the overflow room, where talking is allowed. I was right up front in the formal room last year, my first time at Vividcon. I mostly had a great time, but it might be a bit more intense than I want next year, I'm not sure what I'll do. I watched this year's premieres in my living room with a friend, and we were pretty quiet during serious vids that we liked, and laughed heartily during funny vids, and were vocal about our confusion during the strange ones.
So, about those vids! I didn't have my program near me this time, and while I had read through what was listed at the con, I had forgotten most details. Normally when I watch a vid I have to actively seek it out, so I know exactly what I am getting. At the con, I constantly check my program. This time, I just put the DVD in, and sometimes the vid began by telling me what the source was, and sometimes it didn't! It was very different. I think in the future I would like to have the program available for when I am confused and would like to know the source, but I'd also like to make myself stop obsessively checking it, because being surprised can be nice.
Here are some links to some of the vids. Starting with the more humorous ones and moving into more serious vids. Enjoy! If you like the vids, leave a comment! Livejournal takes open id.
- "I Just Can't Wait To Be King", Stark Trek
http://lcsbanana.livejournal.com/1990920.html
I've seen a lot of vids to songs from "The Lion King", and this one still made me laugh. Oh, Kirk. :-) - "Because I'm Awesome", Glee
http://anoel.livejournal.com/117488.html
I love Glee, and I love Kurt, and this vid is a quick, fun romp through the life of everyone's favorite gay teenager in Ohio show choir. :-) - "When I'm up I can't get down again", Takin' Over the Asylum
http://deejay.livejournal.com/188291.html
This is the one vid I saw before Vividcon, which made me feel special of course. :-) (Vidders are always allowed and encouraged to get feedback on their vids before they release them). Do you love David Tennant, lately of Doctor Who? Then watch him in his first major role, from all the way back in 1994, as a young bipolar man in a Scottish mental institution. I plan to watch the whole miniseries eventually. - "I like you so much better when you're naked", Smallville
http://sisabet.livejournal.com/400373.html
So, I've never watched any Smallville (outside of vids), though I think the Vividcon DVDs and my friends might be conspiring to change that. (I hear season nine is really good?) I know hardly anything about the show outside of the standard Superman canon, and that Lex and Clark are ridiculously slashy, at least in the early seasons. (And on that topic, one of the vidders of this premiered another vid at Club Vivid, Clark/Lex and "Bad Romance", primarily Smallville but drawing from lots of other Superman properties. It's fabulous, and I am reminded how compelling villians are for me... )This vid is totally fun and had me bouncing, and just seeing the title again put the song back in my head, which hasn't happened with anything else from premieres. And I've only heard the song once, ever! - "CITIHALL*", Futurama
http://bradcpu.livejournal.com/123653.html
Wow. Brad took a long song, that is mostly spoken word, and really complicated, and he made a vid that matched up to that better than I would have thought possible. I am really impressed. (My other favorite vid to a Tenacious D song is here) - "Ada", Inglorious Basterds
http://braver-creature.livejournal.com/15702.html
A lot can, and has, been said about the women that Quentin Tarantino creates, how they interact with violence, and with men, lots of really interesting things. Right now, what I have to say is that Shoshana is awesome and I would have gladly watched her story without all that Brad Pitt stuff. Warning, this does spoil almost the entire movie, but it's beautiful. - "I Can't Hear the Music", Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
http://settiai.livejournal.com/1379002.html
It's been years since I watched DS9, but I loved that show so much. This is a portrait of Kai Winn, her flaws and her desire, her path throughout the whole show. DS9 has had a minor resurgence in my corner of fandom lately, and I really need to rewatch some of it. - "Becoming Brothers", Friday Night Lights
http://kassrachel.livejournal.com/834852.html
Do you watch Friday Night Lights? I will have to write a big post on it some day, because it's just fabulous, and I swear on everything, you don't need to like football for this show, and if it's not the kind of show you normally watch, that's a major reason you should watch. Oh, show of my heart! Here is a lovely vid about this amazing show. Watch it, then let's chat. :-) - "Stay Awake", multiple sources.
http://laurashapiro.livejournal.com/304845.html
This one is creepy and poignant and I love it. It's about women, and fertility and the womb, and... just watch this one, and tell me (and laurashapiro!) what you think! - "Bloodbuzz Ohio", Breaking Bad
http://f1renze.livejournal.com/219264.html
People have been telling me for awhile that I need to see Breaking Bad, and I vaguely intended to do so someday, but this vid just grabbed ahold of me and would not let go. I didn't quite cry, but I am not sure this show will make me cry when I watch it... in the very near future.
There are so many good vids in there, but the hour is late and the laptop power is low, so I shall bid you farewell for now. Watch vids!
Monday, August 23, 2010
More Theatre! "Next to Normal"
I'm not going to bury the lede here, this might be the most emotionally powerful play I have ever seen. It was the first musical to win the pulitzer since "Rent", and something like the 9th in 93 years. I was fairly certain this show would make me cry, given what I knew about the subject matter, but I didn't expect to end the show sobbing and to spend half the show trying not to disturb other audience members with my crying. It's pretty intense.
"Next to Normal" is the story of a suburban family with serious problems. It is about mental illness, how it can control the life of the person with the illness, and how it affects the people around them. It is painful, and poignant. I feel like I could see it three times and still be finding new ways to relate to the story, new ways to identify with the characters, new ways to relive my own experiences through the show. Mental illness has affected my life in so many different ways, and while this is just the story of a handful of people, centered around one person's illness, I feel echoes of so many people in this show. I'm afraid that even a week later, I can't speak very coherently about this show. It was so intensely emotional, I know I didn't catch everything.
I won't talk about the plot in detail, because this is a show that I very strongly recommend going into knowing as little as possible. Trust the story, and let it unfold before you. The music served the plot well enough, but I don't know how much I will listen to the soundtrack. I haven't tried listening to yet, perhaps some of the songs will jump out at me.
I'm told the original lead actress, who left the show last month, was truly amazing, but I was very happy with this cast. The married couple at the heart of the story is played by a real life married couple, (which i read about in the playbill for "A Little Night Music" earlier in the day.) I can hardly imagine what it is like to go through that relationship every day with your spouse, to say all those things and have all that conflict to the person you have a real relationship with. It reminds me how much I would like to play closely with my boyfriend Peter in a Live Action Role-Playing game some day. Recently he played the Judas-analogue to my Jesus-analogue in a game, and the game masters called us during casting to make sure we'd be comfortable in those roles. At the time I laughed and said that of course it would be no problem, but afterwards I did find I really wanted a hug from Peter and promises that he'd never sell me out to the feds. :-)
In conclusion, go see this show. I wasn't the only one crying, when we finally left the theatre one couple was still sitting in their seats, clutching each other and sobbing hysterically. I don't know what pain they've felt in their lives, but I hope the show gives them some catharsis. I really can't speak to what the show is like for people whose lives haven't been touched by mental illness, but I fairly certain the story will still be strong, the pain will be real, the characters will be sharp and touching, even if it doesn't cut into your own heart's pains the way it did mine.
"Next to Normal" is the story of a suburban family with serious problems. It is about mental illness, how it can control the life of the person with the illness, and how it affects the people around them. It is painful, and poignant. I feel like I could see it three times and still be finding new ways to relate to the story, new ways to identify with the characters, new ways to relive my own experiences through the show. Mental illness has affected my life in so many different ways, and while this is just the story of a handful of people, centered around one person's illness, I feel echoes of so many people in this show. I'm afraid that even a week later, I can't speak very coherently about this show. It was so intensely emotional, I know I didn't catch everything.
I won't talk about the plot in detail, because this is a show that I very strongly recommend going into knowing as little as possible. Trust the story, and let it unfold before you. The music served the plot well enough, but I don't know how much I will listen to the soundtrack. I haven't tried listening to yet, perhaps some of the songs will jump out at me.
I'm told the original lead actress, who left the show last month, was truly amazing, but I was very happy with this cast. The married couple at the heart of the story is played by a real life married couple, (which i read about in the playbill for "A Little Night Music" earlier in the day.) I can hardly imagine what it is like to go through that relationship every day with your spouse, to say all those things and have all that conflict to the person you have a real relationship with. It reminds me how much I would like to play closely with my boyfriend Peter in a Live Action Role-Playing game some day. Recently he played the Judas-analogue to my Jesus-analogue in a game, and the game masters called us during casting to make sure we'd be comfortable in those roles. At the time I laughed and said that of course it would be no problem, but afterwards I did find I really wanted a hug from Peter and promises that he'd never sell me out to the feds. :-)
In conclusion, go see this show. I wasn't the only one crying, when we finally left the theatre one couple was still sitting in their seats, clutching each other and sobbing hysterically. I don't know what pain they've felt in their lives, but I hope the show gives them some catharsis. I really can't speak to what the show is like for people whose lives haven't been touched by mental illness, but I fairly certain the story will still be strong, the pain will be real, the characters will be sharp and touching, even if it doesn't cut into your own heart's pains the way it did mine.
Monday, August 16, 2010
"A Little Night Music"
Hello, blog! I am just back from New York City and I am full of culture! Over the course of < 30 hours, I saw three groups perform at Lincoln Center and two Tony award winning Broadway musicals! It was delightfully decadent. And at the same time, I visited my third city (Chicago, Boston, New York) in seven days! I am very lucky.
Today I'll talk about the Saturday matinee. This was my second time seeing "A Little Night Music" and my companion's first. It's a romantic comedy from Stephen Sondheim (my personal god of musical theatre) set among the love affairs of actors, lawyers and Counts in turn of the (20th) century Sweden. At least I think it's a comedy, it is full of comedic moments, but also many tears and much sadness.
We got really quite good seats through the TKTS booth in Times Square, which sells significantly discounted tickets to shows the day of the performance. Sadly, Angela Lansbury is no longer in the production, but it now stars Bernadette Peters, who I'd take over Catherine Zeta-Jones any day. She was just *wonderful*. Sixty two, and she's still completely gorgeous and lively and wonderful.
This production felt much more comedic than the other production I saw, I think in large part thanks to Ms. Peters. Her mannerisms and tone of voice and energy gave real humor to scenes that felt flat in the college production I saw previously. She was an utter delight, and I was honored to be mere feet away from her.
As I told my companion on the way to the show, I was never clear why, of all of Sondheim's wonderful music, "Send in the Clowns" had gotten the most popular attention, when it wasn't even in my top 20 favorite Sondheim songs. When Bernadette Peters sang it on that stage, heartbroken, crying, vulnerable and pained... I didn't sob, but I had chills, and people near me cried.
The rest of the cast was fine, I was just overwhelmed with love for Bernadette Peters. The actress who played Anne in the previous production... her voice was incredibly unpleasant. It was interesting to see that with an Anne where I am not distracted by the actress, I still think of the character in approximately the same way. (At least this time I didn't slip up and say "God she's so *dumb*" outloud in the front row during Act II.)
Elaine Stritch played Madame Armfeldt, and while she was certainly a fine actor, I did keep thinking about how much I wished I could see Angela Lansbury in the role. I don't know if she's a trained singer. Her one song, "Liasons", was not so muc sung as... complained? In the previous production, she was mostly wistful in this song, where as Ms. Stritch seemed to be close to, well, freaking out about it. As I told my companion, she has such special problems.
"The Miller's Son" is a favorite of mine, and I had high hopes for the actor playing Petra, and she did not disappoint. It's a joyful ode to youthful promiscuity, and I think it will now be stuck in my head again thanks to writing this post. :-)
I always forget just how much better professional productions are than physicists at MIT. (Especially the dancing, I do so love dancing.) I don't have a good enough ear to really notice the difference in singing skill most of the time, but with dancing, I am just delighted by professional work. And this is a show with hardly any dancing at all!
Overall, it was a lovely production and I recommend it. I left the theatre in excellent spirits, full of happiness and love for the world, a perhaps strange reaction to a Sondheim play, I know. Of course, by the end of the second play I saw on Saturday, I was sobbing hysterically, but that will be another post. :)
Today I'll talk about the Saturday matinee. This was my second time seeing "A Little Night Music" and my companion's first. It's a romantic comedy from Stephen Sondheim (my personal god of musical theatre) set among the love affairs of actors, lawyers and Counts in turn of the (20th) century Sweden. At least I think it's a comedy, it is full of comedic moments, but also many tears and much sadness.
We got really quite good seats through the TKTS booth in Times Square, which sells significantly discounted tickets to shows the day of the performance. Sadly, Angela Lansbury is no longer in the production, but it now stars Bernadette Peters, who I'd take over Catherine Zeta-Jones any day. She was just *wonderful*. Sixty two, and she's still completely gorgeous and lively and wonderful.
This production felt much more comedic than the other production I saw, I think in large part thanks to Ms. Peters. Her mannerisms and tone of voice and energy gave real humor to scenes that felt flat in the college production I saw previously. She was an utter delight, and I was honored to be mere feet away from her.
As I told my companion on the way to the show, I was never clear why, of all of Sondheim's wonderful music, "Send in the Clowns" had gotten the most popular attention, when it wasn't even in my top 20 favorite Sondheim songs. When Bernadette Peters sang it on that stage, heartbroken, crying, vulnerable and pained... I didn't sob, but I had chills, and people near me cried.
The rest of the cast was fine, I was just overwhelmed with love for Bernadette Peters. The actress who played Anne in the previous production... her voice was incredibly unpleasant. It was interesting to see that with an Anne where I am not distracted by the actress, I still think of the character in approximately the same way. (At least this time I didn't slip up and say "God she's so *dumb*" outloud in the front row during Act II.)
Elaine Stritch played Madame Armfeldt, and while she was certainly a fine actor, I did keep thinking about how much I wished I could see Angela Lansbury in the role. I don't know if she's a trained singer. Her one song, "Liasons", was not so muc sung as... complained? In the previous production, she was mostly wistful in this song, where as Ms. Stritch seemed to be close to, well, freaking out about it. As I told my companion, she has such special problems.
"The Miller's Son" is a favorite of mine, and I had high hopes for the actor playing Petra, and she did not disappoint. It's a joyful ode to youthful promiscuity, and I think it will now be stuck in my head again thanks to writing this post. :-)
I always forget just how much better professional productions are than physicists at MIT. (Especially the dancing, I do so love dancing.) I don't have a good enough ear to really notice the difference in singing skill most of the time, but with dancing, I am just delighted by professional work. And this is a show with hardly any dancing at all!
Overall, it was a lovely production and I recommend it. I left the theatre in excellent spirits, full of happiness and love for the world, a perhaps strange reaction to a Sondheim play, I know. Of course, by the end of the second play I saw on Saturday, I was sobbing hysterically, but that will be another post. :)
Monday, August 9, 2010
A Taste of Club Vivid! (Or, I do crazy things to party with fangirls)
This weekend, I flew to Chicago for a dance party full of 100 drunk fangirls covered in sparkles, stayed up almost all night, slept 90 minutes, then flew back to Boston and went to a wedding rehearsal. This is the kind of the thing my life is full of.
Technically, I wasn't just there for the dance party. The dance party, Club Vivid, is the Friday night event at Vividcon, the fanvidding convention that occurs every August in Chicago. (For explanation of vidding, here's one of my earliest posts to this blog: Festivids Reveal.) The con runs friday-sunday, with many people arriving Thursday and staying till Monday, for extra time with rarely seen friends, or time to visit Chicago. Last year, my first time, I showed up on Wednesday and stayed till Monday. This year, I was scheduled to be Maid of Honor in my friend's wedding on Sunday (today). I was quite miserable over the scheduling, and eventually decided to go anyway, just attending one day of official programming.
I flew to Chicago on Wednesday, and went and visited two old internet friends of mine who live in the area. On Thursday, I visited the Field Museum with 5 other fangirls, one of whom works there (and got us in free!) On Friday, I attended panels, and Club Vivid. During all that, I spent as much time hanging out with my once-a-year friends as I could. It was very bittersweet, knowing I'd be missing two days of programming and the big Premiere event, when dozens of vids made my attendees premiere for the first time ever.
There's a lot to talk about with Vividcon, but in this post I'm just going to talk about Club Vivid.
From what I've gathered, no one ever expected Club Vivid to become what it is. It started as a dance party where attendees danced to fanvids made to dancey music. Now Club Vivid has on the order of thirty vids that are made *for* Club Vivid, and premiere there before being offered online or to anyone else. I think the whole con shows up, there is a pre-paid open bar, people wear complicated costumes and a whole lot of glitter, and it's my favorite dance party in the world. I had a fabulous time this year. A lot of people at Vividcon are anxious, many of them surrounded by people they only know online. Drunken dance parties help with that.
Club Vivid always starts with the Joxer Dance from Xena. Imagine rows and rows of excited fangirls dancing along to this, including the weird hopping and the conga line. It is good times. I found myself in a somewhat grumpy mood before Club Vivid, wondering if it really was smart to come all the way to Chicago for such a short trip that would leave me exhausted for the wedding rehearsal.... and then the Joxer Dance came on and everything was better. :-)
[It is at this point in the writing that the author realizes that many of the vids she's been planning to use in this post are not yet available online. This makes her sad, thought she doesn't fault the vidders at all, because they are still having fun at the con or traveling home. It does however change the rest of the post.]
I don't know of anything like Club Vivid. Vids made for Club Vivid... will get watched by other people, but the intended audience in unique in my knowledge of vidding. (Please enlighten me if you know otherwise!) The audience will be watching many, many vids in a row, but that is not unique, given vidshows at many cons. The audience will generally be very happy, and much of it will be intoxicated. Club Vivid (CVV) vids might have some deep and profound meaning, but most of the audience won't see deep nuances while dancing. They won't be looking at the vid continuously, there may be a significant undulating crowd between them and the screen, and they wlll be *dancing*. Some people will ignore the images completely and just dance to the music! I have no proof, but I feel like CVV have it easy, because the audience is easy to please. Given them good music, and something that looks pretty or contains characters they like, and people will cheer and dance. In the light of day, those vids will be analyzed, they will be watched by sober people who are sitting still and watching ever second intently. They will be critiqued, praised and criticized, but for those few moments at Club Vivid... it's just pure glee. I like to play vids for my friends who aren't regular vid watchers, and I have a hard time trying to explain the context of Club Vivid vids to them... hopefully I have done a better job here.
Unsurprisingly, I would like my first Vividcon vid to be at Club Vivid, and I at this moment I am committed to submitting one next year.
And now, some vids that have shown at Club Vivid. I really wish this year's first premiere was available online... I'll add it when it gets posted. Not all vids at CVV were made specifically for Club Vivid.
First off, an Adam Lambert vid to a Lady Gaga song. :-)
This is one of my favorites CVV vids. It premiered last year at CVV and played again this year, it's a multi-source vid about robot armies. Seven Nation Army
Iron Man vid to "Let it Rock" (made for one of my vividcon roomates!)
Club Vivid makes me dance to things I'd never voluntarily listen to, like Miley Cyrus and Kee$ha. Yes, I know.
From Milly, a "Legend of the Seeker" vid to "Party in the USA".
http://millylicious.livejournal.com/343231.html
From Kuwdora, a Vampire Nikola Tesla (from "Sanctuary") vid to "TiK Tok" by Ke$ha
http://kuwdora.livejournal.com/502230.html
This one might need to be seen to be believed... "The Sound of Music" to a remix/cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". It is a bit weird. :-) (If you want to see a "The Sound of Music" vid that made me cry, go here)
One that was very popular at Festivids, OK Go and "Back to the Future", Here It Goes Back Again (download only, no streaming).
Of course, we had to be on a boat.
This one is so loved that when the song was played at another con's dance party, sans vid, people were shouting about this vid. It's my favorite of Dualbunny's vids about Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica to Pink songs. :-)
There are many more, but I need sleep to recover from my mad 5 days of con and wedding!
Technically, I wasn't just there for the dance party. The dance party, Club Vivid, is the Friday night event at Vividcon, the fanvidding convention that occurs every August in Chicago. (For explanation of vidding, here's one of my earliest posts to this blog: Festivids Reveal.) The con runs friday-sunday, with many people arriving Thursday and staying till Monday, for extra time with rarely seen friends, or time to visit Chicago. Last year, my first time, I showed up on Wednesday and stayed till Monday. This year, I was scheduled to be Maid of Honor in my friend's wedding on Sunday (today). I was quite miserable over the scheduling, and eventually decided to go anyway, just attending one day of official programming.
I flew to Chicago on Wednesday, and went and visited two old internet friends of mine who live in the area. On Thursday, I visited the Field Museum with 5 other fangirls, one of whom works there (and got us in free!) On Friday, I attended panels, and Club Vivid. During all that, I spent as much time hanging out with my once-a-year friends as I could. It was very bittersweet, knowing I'd be missing two days of programming and the big Premiere event, when dozens of vids made my attendees premiere for the first time ever.
There's a lot to talk about with Vividcon, but in this post I'm just going to talk about Club Vivid.
From what I've gathered, no one ever expected Club Vivid to become what it is. It started as a dance party where attendees danced to fanvids made to dancey music. Now Club Vivid has on the order of thirty vids that are made *for* Club Vivid, and premiere there before being offered online or to anyone else. I think the whole con shows up, there is a pre-paid open bar, people wear complicated costumes and a whole lot of glitter, and it's my favorite dance party in the world. I had a fabulous time this year. A lot of people at Vividcon are anxious, many of them surrounded by people they only know online. Drunken dance parties help with that.
Club Vivid always starts with the Joxer Dance from Xena. Imagine rows and rows of excited fangirls dancing along to this, including the weird hopping and the conga line. It is good times. I found myself in a somewhat grumpy mood before Club Vivid, wondering if it really was smart to come all the way to Chicago for such a short trip that would leave me exhausted for the wedding rehearsal.... and then the Joxer Dance came on and everything was better. :-)
[It is at this point in the writing that the author realizes that many of the vids she's been planning to use in this post are not yet available online. This makes her sad, thought she doesn't fault the vidders at all, because they are still having fun at the con or traveling home. It does however change the rest of the post.]
I don't know of anything like Club Vivid. Vids made for Club Vivid... will get watched by other people, but the intended audience in unique in my knowledge of vidding. (Please enlighten me if you know otherwise!) The audience will be watching many, many vids in a row, but that is not unique, given vidshows at many cons. The audience will generally be very happy, and much of it will be intoxicated. Club Vivid (CVV) vids might have some deep and profound meaning, but most of the audience won't see deep nuances while dancing. They won't be looking at the vid continuously, there may be a significant undulating crowd between them and the screen, and they wlll be *dancing*. Some people will ignore the images completely and just dance to the music! I have no proof, but I feel like CVV have it easy, because the audience is easy to please. Given them good music, and something that looks pretty or contains characters they like, and people will cheer and dance. In the light of day, those vids will be analyzed, they will be watched by sober people who are sitting still and watching ever second intently. They will be critiqued, praised and criticized, but for those few moments at Club Vivid... it's just pure glee. I like to play vids for my friends who aren't regular vid watchers, and I have a hard time trying to explain the context of Club Vivid vids to them... hopefully I have done a better job here.
Unsurprisingly, I would like my first Vividcon vid to be at Club Vivid, and I at this moment I am committed to submitting one next year.
And now, some vids that have shown at Club Vivid. I really wish this year's first premiere was available online... I'll add it when it gets posted. Not all vids at CVV were made specifically for Club Vivid.
First off, an Adam Lambert vid to a Lady Gaga song. :-)
This is one of my favorites CVV vids. It premiered last year at CVV and played again this year, it's a multi-source vid about robot armies. Seven Nation Army
Iron Man vid to "Let it Rock" (made for one of my vividcon roomates!)
Club Vivid makes me dance to things I'd never voluntarily listen to, like Miley Cyrus and Kee$ha. Yes, I know.
From Milly, a "Legend of the Seeker" vid to "Party in the USA".
http://millylicious.livejournal.com/343231.html
From Kuwdora, a Vampire Nikola Tesla (from "Sanctuary") vid to "TiK Tok" by Ke$ha
http://kuwdora.livejournal.com/502230.html
This one might need to be seen to be believed... "The Sound of Music" to a remix/cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". It is a bit weird. :-) (If you want to see a "The Sound of Music" vid that made me cry, go here)
One that was very popular at Festivids, OK Go and "Back to the Future", Here It Goes Back Again (download only, no streaming).
Of course, we had to be on a boat.
This one is so loved that when the song was played at another con's dance party, sans vid, people were shouting about this vid. It's my favorite of Dualbunny's vids about Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica to Pink songs. :-)
There are many more, but I need sleep to recover from my mad 5 days of con and wedding!
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