BG3 Villains modern corporate au

Gortash: tech bro/genius entrepreneur. His "rags to riches" story has been covered in dozens of think pieces and business profiles. Probably was on one of those 30 under 30 lists, or something, at some point. He plays the "outsider" card to great effect (terrible haircut, fancy sneakers, no tie,...) and is quite popular, despite the numerous reports on the terrible working conditions in his company and his ideas not being near as profitable as he makes them out to be (or not being entirely his at all). Despite all his wealth, he's still ultimately beholden to his VC investors, Bane Inc. (I don't want to say he's like el*n musk, because i despise that man but... He's exactly like el*n musk except more charismatic and with jason isaacs' voice)

Orin (and Durge): nepobabies. Super rich family, Succession-style, where maybe dad Bhaal was the one to make a fortune and all his kids ride on the coattails of his success, fighting amongst themselves to be the one who gets to succeed him. Durge is the heir apparent, smart, charismatic, and with a true killer instinct, until Orin leaks some scandalous info that gets them cancelled and fired from the company. (Gorion's Ward is the kid that left the family to go and be a social worker or activist)

Ketheric: old school CEO, inherited a small family company, he used to be a good boss and look out for his employees. After a bitter divorce, and a fallout with his daughter after she came out, he buried himself in his work, became obsessed with success to try and win his family back. He sold the company to a large multinational in order to run Aylin's rival company out of business, screwed over his employees (and himself), and has been unsuccessfully trying to reconcile with Isobel ever since.

Auntie Ethel: runs a very successful MLM essential oils scheme

Raphael: bastard son of star lawyer Mephistopheles, tries his best to follow in his father's footsteps, to become a cutthroat lawyer. He even starts screwing his secretary, Harleep (Mephisto's spy, of course), to emulate his father's toxic behaviour. Deep down, he dreams of Broadway (and is part of an amateur musical theatre company)

The Emperor: former activist, now part of a political large lobby, still convinced he's on the right side of things. Tries to get all his activist friends and colleagues to join the lobby, after all the pay is so much better, and is puzzled when they refuse and call him a sell-out.

Vlaakith: career politician. Has been in office for what feels like forever, there's no removing her. There are better, younger politicians in her party who have great potential, but she sabotages them in order to remain in power.

I’m pretty sure there’s nepotism and other shit going on at New York City Ballet, and I’ve stopped following them:

-there’s children and grandchildren of former dancers who got into the company. Roman Mejia is Paul Mejia’s son, Shelby Mann is the granddaughter of Jacques d’Amboise and the daughter of Charlotte d’Amboise and Terrence Mann (Broadway legends!) it makes me suspicious. I mean, Nilas Martins was in the company too, so I’m not surprised nepotism is still going on with the younger dancers.

-apparently there was/is body shaming? even at SAB I’ve heard rumors of kids having eating disorders. Also not surprising considering that the people who worked with Balanchine wanted a look and it was Balanchine himself who started the “skinny ballerina” trend that quickly spread worldwide. Ashley Bouder spoke up about how the higher ups body shamed her on Instagram live like a year ago, and none/few of the company members commented for support. They just posted it on their story. In general, Balanchine companies/schools tend to have a lot of body shaming, especially with how they treated Kathryn Morgan at Miami CB. CPYB (Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet) has a bunch of horror stories on Instagram account called @/cpybstories if anyone wants to read.

-I don’t know if this is really BS, but they still cast roles based on height/size rather than talent. I was hoping for Tiler Peck to do Diamonds but she got Rubies. Same with Midsummer, she didn’t/doesn’t really get Titania because she’s on the shorter side and from what I’ve heard, NYCB likes their Titanias to be tall. (I’m guessing she probably will never get Titania, just because she lacks emotion in her dancing. Saw her in Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker and she barely acts.)

-the company is still predominantly white. Even PNB is more diverse than them. The BIPOC dancers like Nadon, Mejia, Furlan, Chan etc are only popular just because they fit Eurocentric views of POC (they have lighter skin and straighter hair) plus Nadon is only half South Asian, Mejia is half Peruvian, so they aren’t full blooded POC. The only POC in recent years that didn’t fit those ideals was Amar Ramasar. The kids who appear on stage for Nutcracker, Midsummer, Sleeping Beauty etc are more diverse than the actual company members.

-They didn’t handle Alexandra Waterbury’s case well. Ramasar should’ve been fired and in prison before the pandemic and from the West Side Story revival (that didn’t do well regardless). It also makes me mad that Alexa Malone (soloist) is still dating him and the fact that he’s now a stager too…like he might mess around with the underaged apprentices/corps and the cycle will start again

-Don’t get me started on people like John Clifford and how he wrote public, sexist comments on how he hates crotch shots because of platter tutus. He and a bunch of other older trust people still defend these beliefs to the death.

Hello, there's a lot in here!

Regarding nepotism, the company definitely has a history of hiring both siblings and relatives. I would extend this to ballet in general, many successful dancers today are from dance families, such as Chloe Misseldine, Daniil Simkin, Maia Makhatelli, Vadim Muntigirov, Dmitri Smilevsky, Issac Hernandez etc. But I don't think that inherently means that the dancers benefiting from that knowledge base (knowing what to do, where to train, how to structure their day, exta tips and coaching etc) are undeserving of there spots. I don't think you can watch Meija dance and think he doesn't deserve to be where he is.

On body shaming. Yes, none of this is positive and none of it is news either. There has been a history of toxic body shaming culture at nearly every major ballet school worldwide. Balanchine companies have had a nasty history but so have numerous Russian, European, and Asian schools. It's not a problem exclusive to SAB/NYCB.

Yes, NYCB typecasts. I'm honestly quite a fan of it because I don't think it's realistic or responsible to expect every dancer to do everything well and it results in dancers on stage in roles that they're confident in and suit their strengths- which generally leads to better performances. I don't think there's a single dancer at City Ballet who has done all three leading roles in Jewels, Peck is not an exception. I don't believe it's height/size over talent, but a complementary mix of both. Some roles have been designated by the choreographer for X skills and others have been historically dominated by dancers with X skills. And like you mention, there are lots of other factors affecting casting besides just height, acting, vulnerability, partnership, and logistics, which all play a role.

I'm not sure I agree with you that the dancers you mentioned get attention because they are POC who fit Eurocentric standards. Chan and Nadon rightfully got attention for breaking barriers and becoming the first Asian principals at the company. Both have spoken at length aobut how their cultural background and upbringing has both helped and hindered their path. I'd argue Meija gets far more attention from his father than he does from his race and Furlan (if we're considering him popular which I probably wouldn't) for his technical merit. I also think you aren't looking at NYCB's soloist rank fairly, they have Black, Asian, and Hispanic dancers at this rank. Of course, the company certainly could be more diverse but they have the self-imposed limitation of hiring nearly exclusively out of SAB. You yourself noted that the school is more diverse, this is a result of several of their scholarship and outreach programs that have been implemented in the past decade or so. Those programs are long-term investments, they are building a more diverse company now - but these dancers are still in the school. And for what it's worth, PNB is not a low bar, it is by far the most diverse major company in the US and has made hiring decisions accordingly. Approximately 50% of the company is POC which is awesome- but this realistically isn't possible at NYCB because they're not going to be hiring from outside as frequently.

Of course, if not following NYCB would make you happier, then by all means do it. But if these issues are what's causing you distress, I don't think the solution is to simply follow other companies- many of these problems exist across the industy.

Regarding the Waterbury Case, I don't disagree with you but the law is complicated. I remeber reading the case when it came out and I think the main problem is that the case wasn't able to get to discovery because she didn't have enough facutal evidence. If that had happened, I imagine things would have looked a lot different. While I absolutley believe her, she was trying to fight too many battles at once, some of which weren't directly hers, and she didn't have hard concrete proof for most of it. Everything got muddled and I don't think she had the best council either. I don't have any doubt that there's so much more here that exists only in the memories of the individuals involved. But that doesn't count in front of a court - it's about what you can prove not what happened. And NYCB's liability is limited because she was neither an employee nor a student at the time of firing.

However, while I have no comment about his personal life, I agree with you about Ramasar's line of work. It's unfortunate and incredibly disappointing how the dance world regularly absolves men like Ramasar (he's not alone) and basically gifts them back their careers. I could list a whole troupe of men who've been given second chances they don't deserve. Winning in court is an uphill battle, especially when the prosecution is often not coming from a place of strength. I just hope that the slow but steady changes happening in the industry now will prevent history from repeating itself.

And Clifford....I don't have the energy to start with. There's a reason NYCB hasn't hired him back , he's not consistently teaching or running a company, and he's just running his mouth on IG.

I’m seeing Hamilton stuff on my dashboard, and it’s reminding me of a big regret I have. See, back in 2016, I won cheap front row tickets to see Hamilton’s original cast twice. But the second time wasn’t as cut and dry, and involved me denying someone else.

The first time, my now wife and I just won the $10 tickets from the online lottery. We were living in NYC, so we had plenty of opportunities. We actually won the tickets the day they got their Tony nominations! We hadn’t listened to the soundtrack, and by the third song we were looking at each other asking “is this the best musical we’ve ever seen?” Naturally, we got super into it. I looked up all the Hamilton things. I planned a day trip all around the city, going to different important places related to Hamilton (his grave, his house, and the scene of the crime that led to him and Burr sharing a case). I listened to Chernow’s audiobook. I was ENTHUSED.

A few weeks later, I needed to get something looked at by Apple tech support. I went into Manhattan, and it was a Wednesday - they had the live Ham4Ham going on, I figured I’d drop by myself. Nice time, fun stuff! And then they started drawing winners, and an older woman next to me was also alone. She turned to me, and said, “hey, if you win, take me, and if I win, I’ll take you!” Sure, okay, right? I said yeah! Chances are super low, but why not double them? Well, then the woman won! So I was going to see Hamilton a SECOND TIME with the original cast! Front row! Super pumped! So the woman leaned in and asked, “hey, can you give me $100 for this?” I mean. Yeah. Kinda bad to ask after the fact, but at this point, Hamilton was at PEAK popularity and tickets were going upwards of $1000. I’m not sure the lady was even aware of this, but yeah. I’d pay $100 for front row, “I could pet Hercules Mulligan if I reached out just a bit” seats. I told her yes. And then I fucked up.

As we formed the line to grab the tickets, a young woman and her dad walked up to the lady. They looked to me like they were probably tourists. And apparently, she’d made the same deal with them. They were excited. The young woman, clearly also enthusiastic, thought she’d just scored her ticket. And then the woman who had won the tickets gestured to me and said “well, he said he’d pay me.”

What.

Guys, I froze. Fight and flight both completely failed to kick in and I went full deer in the headlights. I’d already had my chance to see the show, this was probably this girl’s one shot, pun not intended when I wrote it but fuck it it’s staying in. But guys. I wanted it bad. And I hesitated at doing the right thing. I didn’t immediately volunteer my ticket. And the young woman and her dad, giving me dirty looks, decided not to get into a bidding war, and quickly departed. The whole interaction probably lasted 30 seconds.

Once we were out of the line, I looked around. Maybe the girl was still around and I could give her my ticket? No, she wasn’t. I was kicking myself pretty hard for not acting when I should have. From there, I had to stick with the woman who had won the tickets until the show, so we had a quick cheap lunch together, where someone commented on how expensive Hamilton tickets were, and her price went up to $200. I said sure. I wasn’t going to say no at this point - but I was feeling awful. When we made our way back to the theater, I kept looking around to try to find the would-be ticket winners. I was very confident I would be able to recognize them - they’ve faded from my memory now, but at that moment, they were just SEARED into my mind. But no such luck. They had fully moved on. And so I got to see Hamilton, on Broadway, with the original cast, in the front row, for the second time. The woman who’d won the tickets was surprised that I knew the songs, which… surprised me?

And it was great! I felt terrible the entire time, but I mean, it’s a great show! I couldn’t, and still can’t, believe I got to see the show twice that way. At the time, I don’t think I even fully appreciated how lucky this was - I knew it was, of course, but the magnitude didn’t really dawn on me until I started getting reactions from people. I’ve heard a lot of incredulous shouts of “TWICE?!” since then. But when I tell my anecdote of unbelievable Broadway luck, I typically leave out the part where I unintentionally swooped in and stole something from someone else.

I know it doesn’t count for much, but I’d love to be able to tell that young woman that I’m sorry. She had no way to know either that this was my SECOND TIME. It’s 8 years on, and no one follows this dead tumblr of mine, but if somehow this reaches your eyes, I think you’ll know who you were. And I should have done better.

The Mysterious Murder of the Beautiful Cigar Girl

The mysterious murder of Mary Rogers, known in the penny press as the “Beautiful Cigar Girl,” in the summer of 1841 remains one of New York City’s most infamous unsolved cases. Even Edgar Allan Poe took a crack at solving it, yet while her ghost is said to have visited the numerous suspects that the press circled after the beautiful young lady’s death, the truth of the grisly crime is still as murky as the Hudson River waters where her corpse was found.

In 1838, John Anderson, who owned a tobacco shop on Broadway in Lower Manhattan, hired Mary Rogers to stand at his counter purely to allure gentleman customers. It worked, and the dark haired beauty who was described as ”ethereal and hypnotically pleasing” made Anderson’s Tobacco Emporium one of the most popular in town. It had a regular clientele of notable figures like Washington Irving and, it’s stated, Poe himself, as well as a cavalcade of journalists, which would help to get her gruesome end its high profile in the press.

One day in October of 1838, Rogers went missing. Two weeks later, she suddenly reappeared, and many thought that Anderson had staged the disappearance for publicity. Rogers’ adoring fans swarmed the shop, and she soon felt overwhelmed and left to work in her mother’s boarding shop. Yet in July of 1841, she went missing again, and this time two men on the shore of New Jersey spotted her floating near Sybil’s Cave.

Built in 1832 to connect to a natural spring, Sybil’s Cave once offered cool water to visitors to the Hoboken shore. The visitors have long vanished, but in 2007 a new gate was built in front of the manmade cave. It’s here that many believe Rogers was murdered, although how is still a matter of speculation. The bruises on her body and ligature on her throat suggested gang violence or a vengeful lover (one of her many suitors, perhaps). From when her swollen remains were pulled from the water, each new clue or suspect was breathlessly reported in the tabloids, and the public loved it, buying the papers in an unprecedented frenzy.

The attention, not surprisingly, took its toll on the people involved, particularly her fiancé Daniel Payne, who had a solid alibi, but was hounded by the press nonetheless. He was discovered near Sybil’s Cave dead from an apparent suicide by poison, with a note reading: “To the World - here I am on the very spot. May God forgive me for my misspent life.”

The rampant press also inspired Edgar Allan Poe, who had his own theories about the case. In his story “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” he not so subtly changed the details to Paris with a murder victim named Marie Rogêt. While his detective C. Auguste Dupin speculated on many suspects, he never settled on one, although Poe studiously kept updating the story with new evidence. It’s considered to be the first work of fiction that used a real murder as its source material.

One suspect, Anderson himself, was speculated to have had his amorous advances rejected by Rogers. Although he’s buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, he died in 1881 in Paris, claiming to his last days that he was being tormented by her ghost. Payne also claimed to have seen the slender Rogers as a specter.

A later theory came from the deathbed of a tavern owner near Sybil’s Cave, who, after accidentally being shot by her son, gasped out that Rogers had actually died from a botched abortion. Some have theorized that this was done by the infamous Madame Restell, an early abortionist who practiced while it was still a felony. Restell would cut her own throat in her bathtub in 1878, and she’s now interred in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

It’s likely the mystery of who killed Mary Rogers that summer night will never be solved, although you can retrace her last steps yourself at the ruins of Sybil’s Cave, and wander to the final resting place of her employer in Green-Wood Cemetery, where he is perhaps resting in fitful peace with the ghost of the girl who once bewitched the city to his shop.

The Mysterious Murder of the Beautiful Cigar Girl

The mysterious murder of Mary Rogers, known in the penny press as the “Beautiful Cigar Girl,” in the summer of 1841 remains one of New York City’s most infamous unsolved cases. Even Edgar Allan Poe took a crack at solving it, yet while her ghost is said to have visited the numerous suspects that the press circled after the beautiful young lady’s death, the truth of the grisly crime is still as murky as the Hudson River waters where her corpse was found.

In 1838, John Anderson, who owned a tobacco shop on Broadway in Lower Manhattan, hired Mary Rogers to stand at his counter purely to allure gentleman customers. It worked, and the dark haired beauty who was described as ”ethereal and hypnotically pleasing” made Anderson’s Tobacco Emporium one of the most popular in town. It had a regular clientele of notable figures like Washington Irving and, it’s stated, Poe himself, as well as a cavalcade of journalists, which would help to get her gruesome end its high profile in the press.

One day in October of 1838, Rogers went missing. Two weeks later, she suddenly reappeared, and many thought that Anderson had staged the disappearance for publicity. Rogers’ adoring fans swarmed the shop, and she soon felt overwhelmed and left to work in her mother’s boarding shop. Yet in July of 1841, she went missing again, and this time two men on the shore of New Jersey spotted her floating near Sybil’s Cave.

Built in 1832 to connect to a natural spring, Sybil’s Cave once offered cool water to visitors to the Hoboken shore. The visitors have long vanished, but in 2007 a new gate was built in front of the manmade cave. It’s here that many believe Rogers was murdered, although how is still a matter of speculation. The bruises on her body and ligature on her throat suggested gang violence or a vengeful lover (one of her many suitors, perhaps). From when her swollen remains were pulled from the water, each new clue or suspect was breathlessly reported in the tabloids, and the public loved it, buying the papers in an unprecedented frenzy.

The attention, not surprisingly, took its toll on the people involved, particularly her fiancé Daniel Payne, who had a solid alibi, but was hounded by the press nonetheless. He was discovered near Sybil’s Cave dead from an apparent suicide by poison, with a note reading: “To the World - here I am on the very spot. May God forgive me for my misspent life.”

The rampant press also inspired Edgar Allan Poe, who had his own theories about the case. In his story “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” he not so subtly changed the details to Paris with a murder victim named Marie Rogêt. While his detective C. Auguste Dupin speculated on many suspects, he never settled on one, although Poe studiously kept updating the story with new evidence. It’s considered to be the first work of fiction that used a real murder as its source material.

One suspect, Anderson himself, was speculated to have had his amorous advances rejected by Rogers. Although he’s buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, he died in 1881 in Paris, claiming to his last days that he was being tormented by her ghost. Payne also claimed to have seen the slender Rogers as a specter.

A later theory came from the deathbed of a tavern owner near Sybil’s Cave, who, after accidentally being shot by her son, gasped out that Rogers had actually died from a botched abortion. Some have theorized that this was done by the infamous Madame Restell, an early abortionist who practiced while it was still a felony. Restell would cut her own throat in her bathtub in 1878, and she’s now interred in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

It’s likely the mystery of who killed Mary Rogers that summer night will never be solved, although you can retrace her last steps yourself at the ruins of Sybil’s Cave, and wander to the final resting place of her employer in Green-Wood Cemetery, where he is perhaps resting in fitful peace with the ghost of the girl who once bewitched the city to his shop.

Thoughts on the Touring Production of Company

I had the extreme pleasure of getting to experience the currently touring gender-swapped (!!!!!!) revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company last night, AND OH MY GOD, I can't get this production out of my head. (I might even be thinking about writing a fic about it, SO THAT'S A THING.)

But I digress... BACK TO MY THOUGHTS This production was truly amazing. And it's definitely my new favorite musical. Some context: I knew absolutely nothing about this musical besides being familiar with the most popular song ("Being Alive"). And that Bobby, the main character, is typically played by a man. The revival swaps the lead role with a woman, Bobbie, played by the gorgeous, extremely talented Britney Coleman (here's an article about the production with a video of her performing "Being Alive", AKA FREAKING WATCH IT). She was also apparently in "A Very Potter Musical"??!!!!! So there's that too. So I have a lot of thoughts and they are going to be all over the place because I only had a few hours of sleep last night AND I am still processing. BUT the feeling that I can't get out of my head as of this morning is how absolutely thrilled I was that the show was gender-swapped. PERSONAL STUFF COMING PREPARE YOURSELF! I don't think I have ever in my life related to a female character in any form of art. Like literally ever. The closest I have ever come is maybeeeeeeeee when Elizabeth Swann became a pirate in The Pirates of the Caribbean series. LMAO. Whether this quirk of mine is a personal fault or what, I don't know (nor do I care, honestly...), BUT this has proven to be a problem when I'm in shows. Obviously, when you're playing a character onstage, you really should be able to relate to said character on some level. This is extremely difficult for me. Growing up, past a certain age (let's be honest: puberty...) I was always cast as the sweet, innocent ingenue. Literally always. And I despised it. I wanted to play the male characters. (In fact, my dream role is Peter Pan, which luckily, is typically played by a woman, so yay me, this could maybe possibly happen someday...) The male characters are more often than not better written (sighhhhhhh), have more interesting songs, have more freaking FUN on the stage, and what have you. I could go on, so I'll stop there. OBVIOUSLY, there are many unfortunate reasons why male characters are more fleshed out than female characters, and I won't get into that because it's extremely nuanced and I'd want to do more research before commenting on it, etc.

I guess what I'm coming to realize is that this show gave me HOPE. Britney as Bobbie was so natural. I never questioned why a woman was cast in this role. And honestly? I feel like that could be the case for SO MANY SHOWS. Give me a female PHANTOM. Give me a female SWEENEY TODD. For god's sake, I would love to play the role of JEAN VALJEAN. Is that really too much to ask?!!! Dear Broadway, let's gender-swap more shows, mmmkay? K THANKS BAI. Ok... I'm done now. Thanks for reading. LMAO.

"Love Is" set to Alannah Myles, a bunch of movie clips that depict different versions of love. And apparently, when I made this ages ago, I was focused on one movie in particular that would surprise most in a video about love, but whatever. I watched it now and was kinda enchanted.

"Eat It" - Weird Al Yankovic. A bunch of Veronica Mars characters eating and interacting with food. Anyone who was ever on screen in the first two seasons is fair game in this vid. Also, this is the vid that Rob Thomas loved and showed the VM cast members.

"Hotel California", set to the Eagles. First two and a half seasons of Veronica Mars. Welcome to the Hotel California, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

"Tale As Old As Time", set to the Australian Cast of the Broadway Musical Beauty and the Beast. Featuring Veronica Mars as Belle, Logan Echolls as the Beast, Duncan Kane as Gaston, Keith as Belle's Father, and many, many more!

"Immune" - Firefly, set to Del Amitri's "Immune to the Whole Affair". I do love me some Jayne/Kaylee.

"The Girl of my Dreams (Is Giving Me Nightmares" - set to Machine Gun Fellatio, Jayne/River. And while I was never a Jayne and River fan, this was a friend request and turned out to be one of my most popular vids. So... idek.

"Fine Bunch of Reubens" - Multi-song, character retrospective that has a song describing each of the eleven characters we know and love from Firely (that's right, I said ELEVEN, and I meant it). This is a long one, but I adore it so. And I still stand by my song choice for each character.

"Disarm" - set to the Smashing Pumpkins, Sam and Jack. Yep, a Skewed Believer from way back (and if you know what I'm talking about, pull up a fandom chair in the Fandom Old Folks' home and we can reminisce). This is my first video ever.

"Try Not to Remember" - set to Sheryl Crow, a Dollhouse general vid. As Echo/Caroline becomes aware. S1.

"Touched" - set to VAST. Simon and River. I... can't believe I almost forget this one.

Other vids that didn't make the poll, but are still there and I adore them:

The VM trilogy, Logan/Veronica/Duncan. Each character has their own video to explore the dynamic beween the three. Logan "She Says", Veronica "You Oughtta Know" and Duncan "White Wedding".

VM "Cry". If you think the men of VM cry a lot, you'd be right. (humour).

VM"Pretty When You Cry", Veronica Mars Vs Villians.

VM "Stupid Girl", Lilly Kane video.

VM "Tell On You (Letter to My Rapist)", a Veronica Mars "A Trip to the Dentist" video.

VM "Tramp", The men of VM are tramps, enough said (humour).

Firefly: "Gimme a Break", Mal Reynolds Vs all the people that shit him to tears.

Firefly: Kaylee. A Kaylee Frye vid set to "Can't Keep A Good Girl Down".

Glee: "Yo Mamma", Puck likes to fuck Moms. It's canon.

Heroes: "Vindicated", a Nikki video.

Once Upon a Time: "Bleeding Out", Swan Queen.

Once Upon a Time: "Temptation Waits", Emma and Jefferson.

BtVS: "Big Shot" , a Warren video.

BtVS: "Hero", an Andrew Video.

BtVS: "Pretty Fly for a White Guy", a Jonathon video.

BtVS: "Under Your Spell", a Tara video.

All BtVS videos were made for a Buffy con and shown at the con. Which is why they were these specific characters.

Mae West, the Queen of New York

If you’ve seen Mae West on the stage in “Diamond Lil,” running eight months now, and tickets on sale for New Year’s Eve, or in “Sex,” which ran eleven months last year, you’ve probably pictured her as a large woman—a bit gross-looking. She’s neither large nor heavy, almost slight, except in personality. At that, she is probably the only woman in America who doesn’t want to look thin. She feels that curves are far more appealing than angles, and won’t accept photographs that do not show her a bit more voluptuous and rounded than the slim silhouette the modern woman has succeeded in making popular.

Mae West, who writes her own plays and then stars in them, is one hundred per cent good showman. Her showmanship is apparent always, natural, inborn. She may have added to it, learned a trick here and there, but her ability to put herself over and her delight in doing it is a trait that could not have been acquired.

Mae knows that a star still in the make-up of the play is far more interesting, even to those who know the theatre, than an overdressed little woman in street clothes. Her admirers come back to see her after the show, and for two hours after the final curtain Mae is in the costume of the bad lady of the nineties, wig and corset and tight-fitting gown. The gown is immensely becoming in spite of its grotesqueries. If the evening is warm she’ll take off a couple of outer garments as she laughs over the foibles of the day, adding comments in her husky, Brooklynese drawl, always the Little Queen.

“People want dirt in plays, so I give ‘em dirt. See? They can be dull at home, but in the theatre they want excitement. They want to feel, not think. Know what I mean?” . . . “Love, say, what I could tell you about that! But I would have to take a couple of days off to do the subject justice. Know what I mean?”

Critics, and writers on the lesser Broadway publications, old actors, and the rather smart crowd that likes to know the newest professional success, drop in for a glass of near-beer from the bar in the old-fashioned saloon right on the stage. They tell her how good she is and Mae is courteous, amused, always optimistic, glad to see everyone, dropping fairly good, though somewhat trite, epigrams, peppered with bad grammar and made important because of her drawl and her insinuations. She ends her sentences with “Know what I mean?” or “See?”—sometimes combining the two.

Mae West has little interest in anything outside the theatre. Her reading is confined usually to Variety or any occasional newspaper. She does not even know the names of important theatrical figures unless she has come into direct contact with them. The other night Ina Claire came to see “Diamond Lil.” When Mae West was told she was out front she said, “All right, bring her in. But who is she?”

Clubs and cards and outdoor activities do not amuse her. The things that interest most people are of the utmost indifference to her. She is a bit interested in the occult and in spiritualism, has attended a séance or two, and is “considering” attending others. Even on days when there are no matinées she goes to her dressing-room around two or three to plan her next play or think about some of the intricacies that are beginning to engulf her, that make life so much less simple than when she did a “strong act” or was a blues singer in vaudeville. She is most professional around the theatre, is very particular about lighting effects and about noises in front that might affect a big scene.

A handsome, middle-aged admirer or two can usually be seen around the theatre, keeping away unwelcome interviewers and making themselves generally useful. Sometimes there are other younger men in attendance. Mae says she’s not in love, and hopes she won’t fall in love for a while—until she has more time for it. Of course she’s always been interested in men, she’ll tell you. “Just infatuations, though. Know what I mean?”

Mae is secretive, almost to the point of mystery, about her family, her past—a curious secretiveness. Her success has made her a little afraid. Old acquaintances wouldn’t look her up if they didn’t want something—if she were a failure, now, would they?

Excepting the dates, however, the main events of Mae’s life are not entirely shrouded in mystery, but since her prosperity she is building up a very pleasant past, much as we all build up pasts when success overtakes us, smoothing out events here and there, adding glamour to those that were not glamorous, deleting where deletion seems necessary. She admits having a father, a mother, a brother, a sister. She is a bit vague about them. Her sister is Beverly Osborne, the girl in “Diamond Lil” who plays the young innocent who gets sent to South America. Beverly is married to a Russian, Count Treshatny. She was in vaudeville in songs and sketches until Mae’s success provided her with an opportunity on the legitimate stage. Mae’s brother has an automobile exchange. Of her father Mae says, “His name is Jack West—J. E. See? He used to be a prizefighter. He’s a doctor now, practicing medicine in Richmond Hill.” The Jewish publications claim Miss West as a member of their faith, but she says that her grandmother was a Copley and claims Harry Thaw as her relative. Her mother is a plain, comfortable, kindly woman. Mae’s age is one of her mysteries. The record at Blackwell’s Island shows that she was born in 1900, but there might be a mistake in the entry, of course.

Mae’s early days, she said, were spent in her rich grandmother’s home in Greenpoint. “In Greenpurnt. See?” Then the family moved to Bushwick Avenue near Linden Street.

Mae had very little formal education. She went to a Brooklyn public school until she was eight or ten. Then, with long blonde curls, she appeared at amateur nights. A darling, I’m sure, with some of the same personality and energy she has today. She did imitations of Eva Tanguay, George Cohan, Eddie Foy, and the others of the period who served best for mimicries.

So good was her act—or so attractive and forceful her personality—that she got all the prizes. This led to an engagement with Hal Clarendon’s Stock Company at the Gotham Theatre in East New York. Here she became a child actress, playing in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as Little Eva, in “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” “For Their Children’s Sake,” “The Three Courtiers,” “The Moonshiner’s Daughter,” and “East Lynne.” And when the bill didn’t call for a child actress she sang songs between the acts, in the olios. She sang “That ’Cello Melody,” “The Robert E. Lee,” “Barber Shop Chord,” “The Piano Man,” and “Oceana Roll.”

From the Clarendon Stock she went into vaudeville, the usual next step. She included weight-lifting in her act and she says she can still carry four men on her shoulders. Even then she was self-centred, a bit greedy for the spotlight, optimistic, eager for success, frank, amusing, calm, cold and warmhearted in turn.

Broadway became Mae-West-conscious when she was a vaudeville headliner. She was on the Keith circuit and played the Colonial, where she was the first to put on the shimmy. She achieved the Palace, too, and always had a good act. She always had her own accompanist—“So-and-So at the Piano.” She picked these accompanists because of their personality—and discovered half a dozen celebrities. Harry Richman, one of her discoveries, was sent to her among twenty pianists, and she picked him out “because of his personality.” His name was Reichman then. She couldn’t pronounce it.

“Do you mind changing your name?” she asked. “You’re not so prominent. Change it to Richman. It will be easier for me—and a better name for you, too.” Vincent Lopez was another whose talents she recognized at a tryout at Charles K. Harris’ office.

Jack Smith, at one time her pianist, was sure he couldn’t sing when she asked him to.

“Just whisper it,” said Mae. “It’ll get over all right.” He did whisper it, and became well known as Whispering Jack Smith. Another of Mae’s discoveries, Barry O’Neal, had had a small part in “The Dark Angel” until Mae made him her leading man.

When the shimmy went out Mae went on to Higher Things. In a Shubert revue, in a number called “Shakespeare’s Garden of Love,” she was elegant as Cleopatra. Earl Carroll wanted to star her.

She read plays, looking for a part she liked. Since she could find no suitable star parts for herself, Mae wrote “Sex.” People thought it vulgar, ridiculous, or funny, or a perfectly terrible play, laughed—and sent their friends to see the show.

When “Sex” had been running eleven months New York became strait-laced over night, and “The Captive,” “The Virgin Man,” and “Sex” were brought to task. The first two plays closed before the trial. Mae, however, stood trial, was sent to Welfare Island for twelve days, got a few hundred thousand dollars’ worth of free publicity, made friends with everyone on the place—and a few months later returned as a guest of honor, with a dozen clubwomen, who were putting on a publicity stunt for the Woman’s National Democratic Club and the Penology and Delinquency Division of the New York Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Then she wrote “Diamond Lil,” which became a hit instantly, one of the smart things to see.

Without Mae West, the play would be a faintly amusing caricature of a rough and interesting phase of American life, Chatham Square of thirty years ago—a rather tawdry melodrama. With Mae West it becomes important, amusing—curiously enough, almost a bit precious. She is slow, rhythmic, insinuating. She moves with almost feline intensity, a curious sort of wiggle, inside her corsets of the nineties. Her voice is low, husky, magnetic, and when she sings “Frankie and Johnnie,” carefully expurgated, it’s a big moment in the theatre.

There has been much pow-wow as to who actually wrote “Diamond Lil.” The program says “By Mae West, suggested by Mark Linder.” The real facts seem to be that Mr. Linder wrote a play concerning Chatham Square. Mae read it, found it had a masculine star rôle, and rewrote the play, using neither the situations nor the lines that Mr. Linder had used. She did use the setting and some of the plot.

When “Diamond Lil” closes, Mae will star in another of her plays, “Men,” which Carl Reed, who sponsored “Pleasure Man,” will produce.

Miss West writes her plays on bits of paper, sometimes between the acts of another play. Now she has taken to using a dictaphone.

“When all my notes are put together and typed I have a play. See? I put in the real stuff at rehearsal. Know what I mean? I let the actors write a lot of their own lines. I pick them out for types, and then let ’em talk. You can’t tell how lines will go over until you try them out on the stage. You have got to hit an audience hard, keep ’em interested every minute. If the action starts to get dull I lift a scene from another act and put it in. See? I sold my new play from the outline. I said, ‘You’ll have to judge this by my other plays. I can’t write the words until the rehearsals start in.’ ”

Mae’s eyes are large and as true a violet color as I’ve ever seen. Her skin is soft and fair. Her nostrils are wide, eager, trusting, her nose small, with a pert turn-up. Her mouth is a bit voluptuous, firm at the corners. She is seemingly frank, with a frankness that tells nothing. She is interested only in things that concern her, sieved through her own personality.

I have no idea how far Mae West will go, whether she will fade out to “that little place on Long Island” all good vaudeville people long for, or will write, year after year, hokum, melodramas, and sex thrillers to shock the worthies of the town, but I don’t think “Diamond Lil” is her last success. She is real, understandable, an interesting and amusing product of this generation—hard, clear-headed, a bit cynical, vulgar where her rôles call for vulgarity. I like her. She is afraid of a thousand little things, of people getting a hold on her, of grafts, of attacks because she has succeeded, and she has real courage.

“After ‘Sex,’ they wanted me to play a nun,” she said. “ ‘Show ’em you can be a good woman!’ they said. I did ‘Diamond Lil,’ just the opposite—gave people what they wanted. Once show people you’re afraid and you’re through. See?”

For a long time, then, Mae West won’t be through. Know what I mean? ♦

Published in the print edition of the November 10, 1928, issue, with the headline “Diamond Mae.”

Putting on Hairs: Post Production - Promotional Posters

Primary Pairing Trio: MariKanaDia Rating: G Words: 636 AU: Theater, Monsters Fandom: Love Live Sunshine Time Frame: Sometime before the main story Event: Promptober 2023 Event Source: Idol Fanfic Heaven channel on Discord Prompt: Roommate

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Author's Note: Primary entry for the 7th

Summary: Mari brings Dia a gift

---------

“Di~a~”

Dia sighed, but stopped walking and turned toward the sound of her name being called.

“Salutations, Mari-san.” She said, bowing politely.

Mari pouted. “Still not dropping the -san?”

“…”

Dia wasn’t sure how to respond to the question, even knowing it was coming. Honestly, she still wasn’t sure how to react to the situation as a whole. Sure, she had relented and accepted Mari’s patronage of the theater; with the sums offered, she and Umi had been able to appreciably accelerate their agenda. But then Mari had moved to Tokyo, with Kanan in tow, wanting to rekindle the fire the trio had back… so far back… in high school. Dia couldn’t deny a flame still lingered, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready to restoke it.

“Anyway, I come bearing gifts!” Mari announced, bouncing back to her usual cheerful self.

“I don’t…”

“For the theater!”

“… Alright…”

“Kanan!”

“Almost there.” Kanan replied, rounding the corner.

“Kanan.” Dia scolded. “You weren’t outside like that, were you?”

“Of course not.” The krakan laughed before setting down several boxes and retracting her squid-like arms. She then pulled a cutter out of her jacket, knelt and opened a box.

“Are these…” Dia knelt beside Kanan “what I think they are?”

“Take a look.” Mari prompted.

Dia popped the end off one of the tubes and gently slid the rolled poster partway out. Her breath caught in her throat. She was looking at what seemed to be an authentic, original promotional poster for Fiddler on the Roof. Not only was it a famous Broadway play, but it had been surprisingly popular here in Japan as well; something about daughters resisting tradition and arranged marriages appealing to younger generations and whatnot. And it was in nigh pristine condition.

She snapped the cap back on and opened another. Phantom of the Opera. Original performance at Her Majesty’s Theater. Another. Les Misérables. Another. South Pacific. Ah, some other older ones in there apparently. I Married an Angel. Dia wasn’t familiar with that one and made a mental note to research it later.

“Mari…” Dia looked up at her friend. “Where did you find all of these?”

“I have my connections.” Mari boasted.

Of course.

“Are they all from Broadway or the West End?” Dia couldn’t help asking.

“Most.” Mari replied. “Their posters were the easiest to come by, after all. But this box is all Japanese productions. And these two are from other theaters around the world. And they’re from all ages, from modern to vintage to antique and everything in between.”

Were there other age distinctions within that range? Dia wondered.

“So, do you like them?” Mari asked, a bit of hesitant hopefulness tinted her tone.

Dia smiled, stood, stepped toward her childhood friend and pulled her into an embrace. “Very much so. They’re wonderful. Thank you, Mari.”

Mari’s sharp breath indicated she had caught the dropped honorific. Silently and slowly, she returned the hug.

“Are you two going to stand there like that all day or are we going to start putting these up?”

Dia looked over Mari’s shoulder to spot Kanan, arms filled with more boxes. “There’s more?”

“Nah, these ones have frames and mounting material.”

“I see.”

“So,” Mari slowly pulled away, “can we put them up… together?”

All of the day’s schedule ran through Dia’s mind, but she immediately dismissed it. There was nothing that couldn’t wait until tomorrow or later. Apparently, more important things needed to be done today.

“Alright.”

Mari smiled. “And I promise I won’t even pester you about moving in with me and Kanan to be roommates.”

Dia closed her eyes and let out a slow breath. It was fine. She would let Mari have that one.

“Alright,” Kanan said, opening a box and pulling out a display box, “let’s get to work.”

---------

Author's Note Continued: My initial idea was to write a followup to last year's entry about Dia and Kanan giving Mari a bomber jacket to celebrate her starting a mercenary guild in my Unstable World AU. But as I thought more about it, somehow I kept coming back to the trio in my monster theater AU instead. So I wrote this.

Mind you, I may yet come back to my original idea if I can find time to write it between now an the next prompt being posted. Or I can forget this prompt for said followup and do it with a different prompt. We'll see. Either way, I doubt this will be the last MariKanaDia entry for this year's Promptober event.

Also, another primary entry with all three prompts. Vintage was from '21 and Jacket was from '22. I'm doing far better at my self challenge than I originally thought. Of course, looking at some later days, and remembering some of the difficulty I had just combining two, who knows how much longer I can keep this streak going.

What’s your opinion on the Broadwaystuck revival?

*I don't follow tags and have been in an "inattentive" phase for a couple months now so I'm not keeping up and idk how much of the following is ACTUALY relevant to this iteration. I do not know annnnything about Broadwaystuck 2023 other than it seems to be another 1:1 casted group. * I've been on record for years as not being a huge fan of the "Broadwaystuck model" where there's an "official cast" where each character is voiced by only one person, other than for a specific project with a deadline such as a musical or planned album. I think that it might result in:

driving away interested parties cause their fave is taken. It's exclusive by design

conflict over casting, which has historically been big drama

lagging collaboration because e.g. everyone wanting a Vriska* number depends on The One Vriska's personal course schedule and workload, not to mention interests and range

similar issues if someone goes inactive without telling anyone, anything regarding that character just comes to a halt and you have to put mod energy into that situation

which is a concern for a project billed as producing things on an *indefinite* basis. there will be turnover, and this model always looks like it struggles with that possibly because of point 1

lots of effort on advertising recasts, auditions, and callbacks, when The One Vriska drops out, *after* you've told all the other Vriska singers that she's taken and they've lost interest

IMO, self-duet like "Past Me, We're Going Down" and the Karkat x Karkat "Loathing" are so much better because there's two voices! I LOVE hearing VAs for the same character together. You don't get that if you've already told all the other VAs for that character to keep walking.

*just picked vriska cuz she's so popular

I have clicked through a lot of dead group blogs where the last dozen posts are repeat attempts to cast and re-cast, and I remember the drama in 2012 about who got to be e.g. Official Broadway Nepeta. And I remember personally applying for Broadway Kanaya in 2012 and then going o well didn't get cast :/ and never trying again. I mean I could have struck out on my own but there's reasons people like to be in a collaborative network for this sort of thing.

I got the sense that it kept being replicated in group after group not because it was functional (original Broadwaystuck lasted like. four? five months? end of 2011 to april? 2012?) but because of how bright it shone, and glittered with (some preexisting) BNFs, while it briefly worked. One of the most common reactions I see in the chat of a listen party I'm hosting is "we should remake Broadwaystuck!". It's undeniable that the project had huge impact. I'm not sure that means that its successor in *impact* will or should operate the same way.

to be fair we apparently did Not At All solve this with whatever we tried with Universe C# after 2019 SAHcon, i think (hope?) in part because Discord is such a clumsy and dark platform for what we were doing. I think it's great that the current project is back on Tumblr, which being on the clearweb (make sure those blogs are search indexed!) is much more accessible to curious passers by than a locked Discord. It's also better than Twitter because Twitter is outright hostile to audio creators. Anyway the ideeeeeea there was that you would record samples for as many characters as you wanted, creating a bank of actors interested in each character as reference for collaboration, plus whatever the hell you wanted to do as an individual, so theoretically you could @tag all the actors for a given character at once for a highly targeted casting call for the specific song you wanted to make!

But this other way of doing things didn't get going. It may be that one of the upsides to the casted model is that there is a sense of a Job To Do that motivates actually producing things more than a casual free for all. I mean, everything I have actually made was because articulatelyComposed needed one more mezzo for a deadline. save for my Candy!Dave "Edges Of The World" that i Do Not Have The Fucking Range For. Chaotic tenors, call me I think the new project has folks with experience on some of those old casted projects so maybe they will iterate on some of the shortcomings. whether my opinion on organization structure is *relevant*? no, i'm not in the group AND folks actually in the group have more direct experience with similar groups than I do. i'm just someone who does data entry as a hobby.

this does all make me want to brush up some of my old WIPs

edit: firsthand feedback on how BS23 works

"part of my job on staff for the project is to set out the base structure of our albums and when songs are released and how in certain cases. we set like… a skeleton of the album we're going to make with a set end point and certain things at certain points (you cant fight the homestuck being track 100 of volume one and thus the album's closing number, track 50 of the current album being beautiful [the song], stuff like that.)

we haven't had any conflict over casting as of yet, least not that I'm aware of. some people dropped out but people drop in too, and people shuffle around based on interest or might volunteer to do a part thats missing from a group number. we've got handling and rules for inactivity and all that. collaborations arent always quick, especially the bigger the group involved, but its not because anybodys got a line or whatever?

this isnt like an official statement but its all technical details so i think its fine."

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Hi! I'm glad you're feeling better. I know I didn't reply..its been kinda tough lately and I would appreciate some support or good vibes lol. Thanks for putting under the cut as I feel kinda weird when my messages are so long. I hope no one reads them haha. I totally get that about your reading goals cuz I'm also trying to read more books I own this year. I think I told you that before but mostly it will be one I wanna read with one I already own per month...at least. Hopefully I reach my goal of 24..cuz it's 2024 lol but maybe more as well. It's not looking good for January so far for me but hopefully that will change. Haha idk why it stuck out to me but I really don't care about the ratings..I just like reading your tags/commentary. I guess I just generally wanna know if a book is good or not. I was also thinking of getting on goodreads/story graph soon so I can track my reading too but I'll have to see. Everything i never told you always interested me I think so tell me if it's worth checking out. Your goal overall makes sense..you shouldn't pressure yourself to read more than you want or something you're not enjoying. I will update you whenever I get back to it.

Well I wanted to see it this weekend if I can or maybe until Tuesday. If not, then I won't have time really. So I will let you know. Usually I see all musicals in theaters and that's the only movies I go to theaters for but it's just a blah time right now and they were all close together. What did your friend think? I'm sure Broadway is better so not expecting much. Things have been pretty mixed overall and I saw you listened to the soundtrack anyway and hated it lol. Those are all good musicals, but I haven't listened to Shucked yet. I've heard independently owned and watched the Tony performance though. I'm not sure I would like it as much as other musicals honestly based on the music.

What are your favorite songs from This is Why? After Laughter is good but has a few skips for me compared to This is Why, but it could be that This is Why is only ten songs. Haha that's funny that your friends guessed that but ya it definitely is a more poppy sound if you like that style. It's also really good and can't choose favorites. I actually saw your post first cuz it was before I checked anything! I always think it's so interesting when other bands cover or reimagine a tribute album. This happened with Switchfoot last year when Top covered a song and I heard the original for the first time then the cover album. So I will probably do the same for this! I'm familiar with Burning down the house of course so I'm excited to see Hayley slay vocals and her take on it. I remember watching the pro shot of American Utopia but barely remember it. Anyway Tegan and Sara also did that with the anniversary of their album The Con and Hayley sang my fav song by them called Nineteen, another age song lol. I love her cover and also the original. I'm not sure if you are familiar with them or not..but they are twin sisters and I've loved them for years. They are also friends with Taylor and sang as a guest on the Red tour. You probably have..they had some popular songs around that time. They also have a memoir and show based on it I've been meaning to read/watch. Apparently they weren't as close as teens..lol. But I totally recommend their music if you haven't..the Con and they had an album in 2022 I enjoyed. So that was a little off topic..sorry, but Paramore also did this with their own album This is Why a few months ago! They asked artists to remix or sing their version of one of their songs. The only one I really enjoy is Remi Wolfs cover of You First honestly but I think it's a cool thing to do. She changed the vibes a bit but I still like the original more. They also had an extra song on there that was basically a vault song from After Laughter called Sanity so I think you would like it and give it a listen. I definitely connect You First and Karma as a pair, which shocked me when I first heard it since it mentioned karma, but one is more happy and one is more angry.

She has worn a few more green outfits since I last replied to you which makes me happy. The snake boots seemed like a hint even if I don't always like reading into her clothing so much but we mostly knew it was next anyway. I definitely know how you feel with Taylor and I have felt a little bit of the same but I'm hoping my mood will change when tour starts again or rep comes out. I still think there will be a documentary for all of that hopefully and it could be similar to the long pond one or just cover several different things, including the tour, rerecordings and this era of her career. I think After Laughter does kinda share the same sound of the 1975 too but that's also cuz they all had albums around the same time in 2014 so it could be the popular sound from that time but it's a cool comparison since I like them all. I'm glad you enjoy my comparisons..I'm wondering if they only make sense to me so I hope it makes sense to you too if you start listening. Another thing is their early albums focus on faith and religion as a theme but it's not necessary to interpret it that way if it bothers you. I also wanted to ask if you've heard any songs by them or are familiar with them at all cuz they were also popular in 2015 lol. I hope you're having a good weekend too and I'll try to reply soon!

hi friend!! please don't feel bad about not replying, or taking care of yourself!! 🤍 i'm sending you all the love and support and good vibes, and am always here if you want to chat or need anything!! giving you a big virtual hug if you like hugs and putting the rest of this under the cut!!

yay for reading books from your physical tbr! i've been trying to do the same — the bulk of my physical tbr is mostly gifted reads that i just ... never got around to, but there's still a fair amount of books /i/ bought and haven't read, so i'm trying to do a few of those every month! you're always welcome to ask me about my thoughts on books, even if i don't post a rating on here!! you should definitely join me over on goodreads/storygraph! i am a lot more active on goodreads than i am storygraph, though! i really, really loved everything i never told you — it's the first book that's made me cry this year and i really think it's going to be a book i'll be thinking about forever. i already want to reread + annotate it (despite how long annotation projects take me). here are the content warnings: death, death by drowning, emotional abuse, sexism, sexual assault (briefly mentioned), hitting & punching, and racism, infidelity.

most of my friends who have seen the mean girls musical movie were like 😵‍💫 ... well ... it wasn't as bad as i expected ... but i did readjust my expectations after listening to the soundtrack. i think the consensus is that the girl who plays cady is simply miscast / the weakest link, like she's just vocally not ... as good ... and i really am just ... not to be a Snob ... but why did they cast her if she can't sing!!!! my entire tiktok FYP right now is criticizing her stupid with love :( i don't have anything against the actress, i just don't think she was right for the role / that they could've gotten someone who can act + sing. i also don't love the new song, but maybe it'll work better in the movie? curious to know your thoughts when you see it (no rush!).

i really liked liar, big man, little dignity, and the news, although i've had this is why stuck in my head today so maybe i have to add that song to my favorites list too! i really am a pop girlie at heart, so i think that's why after laughter is my favorite! i know of teagan and sara, but haven't done a deep dive! i did see the remix and i thought that was cool! if you could pick one of taylor's albums to be ~ remixed ~ and sung by other artists, which album would you pick? and do you have any artists in particular you'd want on it?

she's been wearing a lot of green lately! i wonder if reputation really will be announced in february (going back to the karma MV hint). and yes! i think after laughter and the 1975's stuff both have this like, upbeat music but talks about more serious/heavier topics? which is why i also connected the two! i think a few of my friends listened to twenty one pilots back in the day / sometimes i see them on airbuds, but i don't think i know a single song! but maybe something will jump out at me once i actually listen!!

hope you're taking some time for yourself and doing okay 🤍 sending love!

spotted! if it isn’t (ELIZABETH 'BIRDIE' PARKER) walking through the streets of nyc. people say they looks like (D'ARCY CARDEN), but i really don’t see it. the (36) year old is a recent (CAST MEMBER ON THE POPULAR LATE NIGHT COMEDY SERIES FRIDAY NIGHT LAUGHS) and apparently (MAKING THEIR BROADWAY DEBUT). while they’ve been known to be (PLAYFUL), we’ve all seen their (IMPULSIVE) side get the best of them. too bad for them i know a little secret they’d rather keep hidden. penned by (DEE/30's/SHE&HER)

@shesamirrorball

David Byrne's next Broadway show will be 'Here Lies Love'

NEW YORK

David Byrne's “American Utopia” may have left Broadway but the Talking Heads leader is plotting a return — with disco.

Byrne and Fatboy Slim plan to put their musical “Here Lies Love,” a show that charts the rise and fall of Philippine ex-first lady Imelda Marcos, on a Broadway stage this summer.

It turned out the former beauty queen-turned-dictator's wife apparently loved to dance, converted the roof of one of her Manila palaces into a nightclub and hit discos regularly in the 1970s.

“I thought, ‘There’s the soundtrack,’” Byrne told The Associated Press in 2014.

Byrne’s 90-minute show about Marcos’ rags-to-riches-to-exile journey played off-Broadway in 2013 and in a clutch of cities, including London in 2014 and Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2017.

The project began as a concept album, performed in a handful of live concerts including a 2007 engagement at Carnegie Hall, before it was developed into a full-blown theater piece directed by Alex Timbers with 360-degree staging.

Timbers this time will be charged with turning the 1,763-seat Broadway Theatre into an immersive experience. According to a press release, he and choreographer Annie-B Parson “will transform the venue’s traditional proscenium floor space into a dance club environment, where audiences will stand and move with the actors.”

The energetic, catchy musical begins with Imelda as a poor girl who gains fame as a beauty pageant winner. Following a whirlwind courtship, she marries up-and-coming politician and soon-to-be president, Ferdinand Marcos.

The lyrics are mostly taken from speeches or interviews from all sides during Marcos’ era and the standing-only audience moves around the space with the 15 actors.

The Marcoses ruled the Philippines from 1965 to 1986 — the last 14 years of that under martial law — before being driven into exile in Hawaii during a 1986 popular revolt, leaving the country’s economy faltering under huge debts. Ferdinand Marcos died in 1989 and Imelda, now 93, has returned to her homeland and entered politics. Their son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is now president of the Philippines.

“I wanted you to understand a little bit what’s motivating Imelda, what’s driving her, what her delusions are, but also what her pain is, what she loves, so you understand what makes her do the things that she does,” Byrne said in 2014.

Byrne — an art-rock progressive who famously sang “This ain’t no party/This ain’t no disco” — said he’d never had anything against club music. In fact, his record collection includes Donna Summer, The O’Jays and The Spinners.

Using disco in “Here Lies Love,” he said, allowed him to pay his respects to that sound but also freed him to write songs for other people that he wouldn’t write for himself.

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