A followup to the tie things -- apparently this article was just in the NYT! I've gifted it. You might find it interesting. I was amused by the creative metaphors.

Contrary to the former fashion editor's assertion that there's something deliberate going on with the knot choices, I'd offer that it's more likely that the Windsor is the only knot they know how to tie -- as evidenced by how carelessly they're tying them? Namely that there's no dimple; aside from that it *is* hard to screw up a Windsor knot.

Heck, Trump should probably also be tying a Windsor -- it'd almost certainly look better than what looks like a shitty attempt at a Balthus knot to me. (But admittedly it can be hard to tell: as the article notes, the Duke of Windsor didn't *actually* wear a Windsor knot, but his thicker ties gave the appearance of one.) Trump's ties are also way goddamned too long, and a Balthus knot uses up a lot of fabric -- though it uses less if one's mainly using the thinner end of the tie for the knot as Trump seems to be. I'm confident that with big-and-tall ties and sufficient determination to look like shit -- and that bronzer makeup with negaverse raccoon circles around his eyes do indeed suggest that level of commitment -- one could achieve that length with a Balthus.

Anyway, you might find the article interesting/amusing. Enjoy. 😎

First: if I haven't mentioned it to you, I'm currently in rehearsals for The Rude Mechanicals' latest staging of Much Ado About Nothing! It runs weekends from May 9-17 (with a min $5 pay-what-you-will preview night on May 7) at the Greenbelt Arts Center. Tickets available here!

So last night I came in from rehearsal with an inclination to play with tie knots, since I was casually pondering knots different characters might wear. (Our version of Much Ado is set in a law firm; many of the characters are lawyers or lawyer-adjacent and therefore wear ties.) It's a thing I feel like many productions and media in general overlook -- understandably so; most men really don't put much thought into the knots they tie (if they even know more than one or two knots), so I imagine that knowledge isn't a high priority for costumers -- but I always appreciate when media does take it into account. (Arrow remains the gold standard for this; I also recall the first Ant-Man being noteworthy for the quality if not the diversity of the knots depicted.) (more...)

Welp, I finished watching Wicked Part 1. I hated that movie like few things I watch, though admittedly part of what earns media this degree of hatred is the overwhelming degree of love that everyone else seems to hold for it? (Stop reading now if you haven't seen it yet and care about spoilers -- I don't go into depth but you'll definitely walk away knowing a few reveals.)

I imagine most of the viewers singing this film's praises see themselves as Elphaba and revel in her triumph of self-actualization: whereas my strongest connection in this film was to the increasingly silenced animals.** Therefore, what I saw is a protagonist rejecting self-advancement and taking a stand -- good! -- and then nevertheless spinning that off into a prolonged musical number about her own greatness and strength in defying gravity with nary a mention of the noble cause that animated her, because it wasn't *actually* that cause that moved her. (more...)

This is mostly a test post -- but some very talented folks I know have a play opening today! Here's a trailer:

And here's a link to a 5-star review of the show over at TheatreBloom. (I don't think any show *I've* been in has ever gotten 5 stars! Pout.) Check 'em out, and join us at the Greenbelt Arts Center if you're local!

I have viewed the first of the anime movies I queued up on Tubi! I started with Hells (2008), which actually began quite promisingly before devolving into characters screaming nonsense exposition (major characters were revealed to be Cain and Abel, also the talking cat was God) and optimistic bullshit ("I'll never give up!" "You can do anything if you just believe!") at each other around the 20-minute mark, which they energetically kept up for the remainder of the nearly 2-hour film. It was deeply stupid and kinda exhausting to watch.

BUT I did like many of the character designs... which nagged at me, since I found some of them *incredibly* familiar. Googling confirmed that this anime was based on a 2002-2004 manga that featured character designs also utilized in the 1998-2001 toyline Resurrection of Monstress.

I'd actually picked up one at Otakon in my late teenage years -- the pink/purple repaint of the witch character Noctilca -- and I've got another one from a friend in a random fodder lot. (If I haven't already dismembered her, she may be rescued for the collection.) So as much as I ultimately did not enjoy Hells, I appreciated the unexpected callback to my convention days and figures of yesteryear? Anime conventions were great places to find toys before ticket prices ballooned and shipping fees dropped, and I really did enjoy wandering the dealer's rooms in search of neat new figures from lines I'd never encountered before. Ah well -- nothing good lasts forever. And fortunately, while Hells was decidedly not good, it did not last forever either.

(Plastic endures for a good long while, though. <3)