14. Revue: What was your favourite revue of the year?
I know it might sound like recency bias, since I watched it not 48 hours ago, but… The Fascination. Yeah, I know, local Hanagumi stan adores a very Hanagumi revue, news at 11.
But it’s a very Hanagumi revue in an older way, more similiar to, say, Love SymphonythanBeautiful Garden (a revue I love and adore—it just has a different vibe). That’s obviously quite on purpose, since The Fascination is a celebration of 100 years of Hanagumi. So bring on the white ties and tails, the Gershwin, and a tango number almost too hot to look directly at. (Almost.)
Honestly, I couldn’t stop smiling watching it; that entire “Rhapsody in Blue” number was just magical. And bonus points for transitioning into “Exciter!!” afterwards, a song I adore with an intro that could wake me from a coma. (Wisely synth-less, though!) And the carnivorous flowers number, complete with two musumeyaku flowers “devouring” two musumeyaku butterflies… to be perfectly honest, I could gush about each and every number, especially all of the stunning choreography, and I probably will at some point.
But I think what makes The Fascination such top shelf stuff for me is that it gives so many people and the troupe as a whole time to shine in a way that feels organic. In the cast comments during rehearsals, Hiryuu Tsukasa mentioned a particular number as highlighting the junior students. This made me think that whatever junior showcase was on offer would be something like Fire Fever: a single number where the underclassmen get to shine. But, rather, that’s woven throughout the revue, as is highlighting the taidansha, from the generous distribution of solos and duets to smartly organized ensemble numbers. I mean, the sheer amount of musumeyaku rights on offer in this show!
And it’s fun—my face hurt from smiling after watching it. It feels like both a fitting tribute to the last century of Hanagumi and a celebration of Hanagumi as it stands now going into the next year of Yuzuka Rei’s Top Star run. I lovedit.
Some passages that caught my attention in the May 8 update (yes it’s almost a week later, what of it, my genius needs time to marinate):
“I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place”
“When I found that I was a prisoner a sort of wild feeling came over me … the conviction of my helplessness overpowered all other feelings … I think I must have been mad for the time, for I behaved much as a rat does in a trap.”
“My only plan will be to keep my knowledge and my fears to myself, and my eyes open”
I think Jonathan is more astute and full of resolve than common consensus seems to give him credit for. He clearly lays out his suspicions in the first passage, and the second indicates his instinctual reaction to his realizations. In my opinion, the very fact that he’s able to get ahold of himself and write about his day while not staying in that state of madness he describes is pretty remarkable! But then again he doesn’t have much choice over how to process things, as the third passage shows.
Writing has at this point become a tool of self-preservation for Jonathan. Instead of merely recording the oddities of the townsfolk, his journal is how he tries to gain back some semblance of control over his situation. He doesn’t have power anywhere else because he certainly can’t talk openly to the Count!
And this is where I think his dismay at the loss of his shaving mirror fits in: shaving is one of the few things that he can do for himself, and it’s a way of asserting control over his own body, so when his ability to partake is destroyed, no wonder he latches onto it! It’s one of the few things he can comprehend.
Another aspect of the shaving mirror dilemma is that Dracula went from behaving oddly to destroying Jonathan’s personal belongings. Jonathan may be annoyed/dismayed now, but this could easily escalate to the Count taking and or breaking more of his stuff and harming the man himself
Can someone PLEASE explain to me what is the point of Killing Eve? 4 years, 4 seasons and FOR WHAT? They didn’t defeat the Twelve, there was no confirmation who actually ordered Kenny’s death and the biggest “redemption arc” Villanelle got was to save Eve and then die for no reason. What’s the point of her death? What is the point of anything at this point… what is the POINT of this emotional trauma?!
Ok y'all. So I was rewatching Carmen Sandiego season 3 and honestly, we’re all sleeping on Devineaux’s character development. This man goes from telling Julia her knowledge of history is just “dull facts and boring things” to being excited about something being 500 years old when Julia tells him about it. AND he actually listens to her suggestions and everything in the last few episodes of the season! Like that is peak character development and I love that for him.
Today I witnessed the most endearing thing practically ever hold on I gotta tell you.
Background: my city’s library system has a summer reading program, and I’m one of the volunteers to help run it at my local branch. Today I had a shift that I’d taken to fill the sign-up desk for the last few hours of the day because no one else was covering them, so I show up ready to be alone for the next three hours and…there’s someone already sitting behind the desk, the prior two volunteers very quickly explaining how things work and how to sign people up. I have never seen this person before, and she seems overwhelmed by information and is young, and looks a little nervous when she sees me standing there as the prior two volunteers leave, and I’m immediately overcome with such intense big sister energy like oh man I gotta look out for this kid, so I explain that I’m also a volunteer and join her behind the desk and she looks relieved and warms up and we chat for a moment
Now we’re behind the desk like normal and so her mom walks up, introduces herself and asks the girl if she’s all situated and ready, because this girl wasn’t at the orientation and has just showed up without any of the hour of prep all the other volunteers received.
The girl says yes, so her mom very excitedly goes over to get her little brother, whose like 8, and brings him over, this way she can specifically sign up her little brother and mom as the first people she helps. She explained the program, turning to me for help once to make sure she got it right, and got her family signed up. It was so adorable I can’t even explain it
And then the mom started to walk away to hang out in the library before turning back around to say “wait! I need to get a picture of [name’s] first day!] and pulls out a camera, taking a step back so she could take a picture of the two of us (I gave my permission to be in the photo) for this girl’s first day volunteering at the library
So now she’s behind the desk, has had a practice run, and I’m there to help if she forgets anything and we’re volunteering as normal. One of the things the staff does for us is provide a sketchbook and crayons (idk why crayons) to pass the time if we didn’t bring anything or don’t feel like reading at the moment, so the girl starts to mess around with the sketchbook and I’m reading next to her until I notice out of the corner of my eye, she’s written my name on the page.
My hair is dyed bright red, so when her little brother was trying to guess how many pom poms are in the guessing jar, the mom had asked me how I dyed it (Arctic Fox) and so under my name the girl had made a note of the brand, and I’m like oh cool! that way you can take that page of the sketchbook with you and won’t forget! and then because I happened to be paying a little closer attention, I saw when she turned the page this incomplete drawing of a face
as an artist myself I know it’s uncomfortable to have someone watching you so I tried to focus on other things, but the sketchbook is out on the table so I see it from time to time when I look up, and I notice a few minutes later…that she’s drawing me!She’s got the skin tone and my black mask, and then she starts to add my makeup and earrings and that bright red hair I mentioned before. And I’m just sitting here like oh fuck kid I would die for you. She was so sweet she was complaining about the crayons and how she messed up the ears so she turned them into elf ears and once she knew I’d realized she was drawing me she kept turning to look at me like "hmm let me see” to use my real life face as a reference. Like she’d just met me and thought my hair and makeup was cool so she started drawing me
She was only there for an hour, and I helped her mom get everything sorted out to sign up for volunteering hours because the girl is young enough that the normal system doesn’t really work for her and she wasn’t at the orientation, and her mom was so thankful for me just being there so the girl wasn’t at the table all on her own the very first time with such a quick intro from the previous volunteers. Instead she got to see me sign people up and hear the information repeated over and over and do it herself with someone to fall back on in case she forgot something
and she was so anxious about leaving, because it was just going to be me and she thought she had to wait for someone else to get there so I wouldn’t be alone and I was just there like honey I didn’t even think you were going to be here don’t you worry about it at all, I can take care of the desk on my own and then I watched her take another 15 minutes walking around the library before checking out like 10 books and I had this moment of “I used to be you.” Because that’s what I did at her age in the library.
and I might have to specifically sign up for an hour at the desk where she’s signed up just because she was so sweet and nice to be around and I wanna make sure she’s doing alright at the desk like aurhgu
another notable instance was when this person about my age walked up to the desk and we simultaneously complemented each others hair, like just “I love your hair” at the exactsame time, and then we both complemented each other’s makeup
anyway my point is people are incredible and kind and the world deserves kindness and also everyone should go to the library and pick up a book
