upon meeting marius courfeyrac calls dibs on him in front of all les amis and everyone is like… courfeyrac NOBODY but you wants him

The impact the les mis fandom had on my psyche at age fourteen cannot be understated

Real!! Except I was 21 and only showed up to the fandom years after it was huge. And even then Les Mis and the fandom have fundamentally changed me as a person I cannot imagine the profound impact it would have had at 14

the reason they tell you to keep your writing concise is because if you make a sentence with too many clauses, victo hugo comes back from the dead reanimated by pure carnal desire for you

somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see? | store

if Javert were a supernatural creature

This is just for fun

can't believe my silly little les mis obsession brought so much love and beauty into my life

Here’s my impression of what book Grantaire would sound like in the modern day, as he posts incoherent “media analysis/philosophy/traumadumping” video content on his YouTube channel:

"Aren't memes a form of modern dadaism? 'I can haz cheesburger" edits are relics of history, as is the work of Duchamp. Duchamp made that famous urinal. Perhaps memes are but the urinal of the human race. All of art is but humanity’s sewage, our waste. But can sewage be fertilizer? There was a waste treatment scandal in the early 1980s, when a sewage company did not properly clean the water, and people became sick. Many of our rivers are unclean because of corporations polluting them. Chicago has creeks that are still bubbling with the remnants of the old slaughterhouses. Carl Sandburg wrote a poem where he is achingly horny for the city of Chicago, and its hog-butchers: "Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning." That poet’s love for his anthropomorphic city was never requited; he was disdained by his deity, which could not love him, being mostly smog and steel. But his poem is now a meme for its homoeroticism. Thus all art is coarse pollution, sewage, wastewater, memes!"

I saw Les Mis live for the first time the other weekend, and the surprising standout performance for me was Kyle Adams as Grantaire. He is a performer who has obviously read the Brick, and uses all of his stagetime to convey as many aspects of Brick Grantaire as possible; he also reads Grantaire’s love for Enjolras as explicitly gay and romantic (there’s a moment I’ll talk about later where he blows him a kiss.) I was actually surprised by how much he managed to convey in so little time!

Some highlights:

When Enjolras is asking for a “report on the strength of the foe,” Grantaire enthusiastically raises his hand, posturing and gesturing wildly at himself to volunteer. Enjolras casts him a disdainful look like “anyone elSE?” And that’s when Javert jumps in with his “I can find out the truth.” It’s like a small silent version of the Barrier du Maine scene; Grantaire was really giving that “je suis farouche.”

In general, there was this repeated Thing where Grantaire obnoxiously acts out in order to get Enjolras’s attention, and then flails around uselessly whenever he actually has it. Very in character.

Grantaire often goes on uproariously and jokingly about love; then, whenever he’s approached by Enjolras, he doesn’t seem to understand what to do about it.

Whenever Enjolras is singing dramatically about revolution— during Red and Black, Do You Hear the People Sing, and One Day More— Grantaire gazes at up at him with a amazed, awed, and overwhelmed look on his face, sometimes with his hand on his heart.

During Red and Black, there’s a moment where Grantaire “jokingly” caresses Enjolras’s face. Then during Do You Hear the People Sing, Enjolras passes Grantaire by and casually caresses his face; Grantaire acts a bit stunned, as if surprised Enjolras would deign to touch him. Finally, there’s a dramatic “reassuring face-caress” during the gay verse of Drink with Me.

There’s a repeated thing where Grantaire keeps offering Enjolras a bottle of wine, half-jokingly, only for Enjolras to reject it. In the last verse of Drink with Me, after Grantaire finishes his verse and walks away, Enjolras finally accepts a bottle of wine (though another character gives it to him.)

Iirc Grantaire doesn’t join in the fighting initially; he just stares at Enjolras in awe, and then mainly stands by Javert to “guard” him. I mainly mention this because I think Javert and Grantaire are a very funny duo, just as a concept. I think “being forced to listen to Grantaire monologues” is an excellent punishment for Javert.

During Marius’s verse of Drink with Me, Enjolras climbs to the top of the barricade, standing in the light. Grantaire is at the bottom in the shadows, attempting to sleep. As Marius sings about his love for Cosette, Grantaire raises his bottle to Enjolras, and then blows him a kiss. It’s very “let me sleep here until I die here.”

Finally, Grantaire has his "book death." After he spends the entire musical on the fringes being skeptical, he joins Enjolras in the final battle. He climbs up the barricade and says (I was close enough to hear) "Long live the Republic! I am one of them."

I'm genuinely impressed by how much of the Brick characterization he managed to convey with so little time-- some ad-libbing and lots of silent acting moments! It really gave me a greater appreciation of what a strong performer in a musical can do, and how they infuse even 'smaller' parts with lots of nuance and personality.

Also got a few--both just from stock fonts, but I still very much enjoy them and glad I have them. "Sois sérieux/je suis farouche" are 7.5 years old, "Tomorrow comes" is 6 years old.

(Would not recommend ankles as placement for delicate text like this tho, too much movement)

weird request? maybe? i don’t know i haven’t interacted with others on this hellsite in years.

anyone have les mis tattoos they wouldn’t mind sharing? i’m getting a tattoo with my friend soon (not matching) and i think i want “i am wild”. but there are so few simple les mis tattoos out there so i want to see what others have!

The Grantaire cross stitch is finished!! It is 7.6"x9.3" , 13780 stitches, 100 colours. It took 128 hours and 12 minutes over the course of 47 days (full breakdown of timing it below the cut). Also his hair was the single most complex thing I have ever stitched. Colour with the most stitches was B5200 at 2650 stitches (most of the background) and the least was 3779 with 6 stitches (a very pale pink used in the bridge of the nose).

Unsurprisingly the next project will be a portrait of Enjolras, however I won't be starting that until late May as sadly I have uni exams to focus on.

This is probably the most inconsistent I've ever been when working on a project, the week off around Christmas and also in February when I went to visit a friend aren't that odd, but the weeks where I only did a few days? That is very unusual for me - with the big les mis piece I only took a few days off from start to finish, this time I've just been really bogged down with uni work and life in general.

The average daily hours is around the same as always but the average weekly total is definitely lower than usual. Longest day was 7 hours and 10 minutes and longest weekly total was 27 hours and 47 minutes. All in all not terrible and it definitely took less time than my initial guess of 150 hours.

I don't normally time every piece I make (because it's weirdly stressful at times), usually just one at each size/complexity level to give me a sense of how long they take for future reference. That being said, I will be timing the Enjolras portrait too even though it's exactly the same dimensions as this one.

just seen aaron tveit in les mis on the big screen and all i have to say is how your world may be changed in just one burst of light or whatever

one thing about me is that i always assume that everyone knows the plot of les mis even though theoretically that's probably not true....

Every time I see that damn sweater I think of Courferyac

A collection of Les Amis centered, chapter illustrations from Easton Press’ copy of Les Misérables

Hello, I finished my les mis cross stitch project and it only took me 90 days! (I actually finished it like 10 days ago but then didn't post it anywhere because reasons)

Yes, it is being weighted down by 4 burned-down candles and a copy of the dvd, and I still need to sort out the warping in one corner before I can frame it, also the quality of this photo is dog. But I'm so damn proud of this one.